On the day the Stark Industries Expo was held, it was a bright day in New York and traffic streamed through the streets of Midtown. East Street of Central Station was gridlocked.
Work vehicles had opened their trunks, TV station staff lugging down reflector boards and camera tripods. Near the front of the cars, the chief editor was instructing a microphone-holding reporter on what to do.
On the side of the road, many luxury car drivers honked impatiently at the influencers and bloggers who were taking up filming space. Even the nearby coffee and hot dog stands benefitted from the situation, swarming with trendy urbanites grabbing food and drinks while chatting in small groups.
Before long, the glass doors of Stark Tower opened wide; everyone reacted like soldiers responding to a rallying call. The reporters reacted quickest, rushing forwards with their big guns. The luxury car owners, noble in demeanor, slowly opened their car doors. Leaning against their cars with coffee cups in their hands, they observed the spectacle before them.
Young couples who came to join the excitement pushed in. Peter, protecting Gwen with his arm, followed the crowd into Stark Tower. Gwen whispered to Peter, "You seem to know your way around. You must have worked really hard during your internship."
Looking around left and right, Peter replied, "Coincidentally, I brought my work card today. We can take the staff access route."
With that, he led Gwen away from the crowd towards another direction. Gwen expressed her worries, "But we don't even know the exact location. Where exactly is this 90th floor mentioned on the invitation?"
"I don't know either. But let's get to the 89th floor first. That's bound to be right."
The rest of the crowd entering the tower weren't as proactive as Peter. After entering the lobby of Stark Tower, they found out that not even a single guide was available. Many were complaining about Stark's negligence. However, driven by a 'since we are already here' spirit, most followed the crowd and squeezed into the elevator.
The carrying capacity of Stark Tower was impressive - it transported the sudden influx of people orderly to the top floor.
The 79th to 89th floors of Stark Tower were Stark's personal laboratories, generally not open to the public. Almost nobody had ever stepped foot on the 89th floor. When the crowd exited the elevator, everyone was dumbstruck.
The tech of the early 21st century was quite developed, but never to the extent exhibited in Stark Tower - like technology from a terrestrial star. The moment they exited the elevator, the corridor lit up and an electronic synthetic voice rang out, "Welcome, I am JARVIS, the butler of Stark Headquarters Building. Please follow the light guide and proceed to the appointed location to participate in the Expo…"
At this moment, the lights turned on, and a holographic arrow appeared in the middle of the corridor.
The crowd followed the guide through the high-tech corridor to a hall on the side of the 89th floor. Three of the walls and half of the ceiling in this hall were all glass curtain walls.
The curtain walls were covered with honeycomb-like structures. As the crowd flowed in, the metal panels flipped open like fish scales, allowing the bright but not piercing sunlight to pour in.
Peter, having taken the staff route directly to the hall with Gwen, was already used to such sights. Gwen, however, expressed her amazement, "Can such a large expanse of glass curtain wall really support the construction?"
Peter explained to Gwen, "This is Stark Group's new technology. There isn't an official name yet, but I call it harmonic glass. The larger the surface area, the stronger it is…"
The crowd rushed into the hall, only to find out Stark was not there. As they wondered where the host of the expo might be, they heard a low buzzing sound from above.
Soon after, intense armor friction noises like a machine gun firing rang out. Shadows appeared overhead, and everybody looked up, mouths agape.
Accompanied by gusty winds, hundreds of mechanical frames flew in from an opening near the corner of the glass curtain wall. Sunlight shone onto the metallic exoskeletons, filling the entire hall with dazzling brilliance, akin to a diamond rainstorm.
Then a louder jet blast was heard. A huge aerial platform descended from the center of the hall. The moment it touched the ground, smoke mushroomed around the platform. All exoskeletons landed and formed a circle around the platform. In a suit, Stark emerged from the platform.
The tightly packed crowd was still for a moment, visibly shocked by the unimaginable arrival. But after, Stark, spreading his arms, said, "You think this is it?"
Shaking his head, he slowly looked up. Everyone followed his gaze, looking up as well. In an instant, the exoskeleton covered Stark. He took off from the ground, flew out through the ceiling's glass curtain wall opening, and then everyone heard him say, "Get ready to unfold!"
As Stark's words fell, shadows started to gather above them; the other half of the ceiling was now covered in metal. Then, countless metal constructions swept over like a tsunami.
Supporting pillars rose, walls grew like living organisms. Armor spread, gears meshed, and structures overlapped. In a matter of moments, a mechanical city akin to a floating island appeared above them.
With their eyes popping out, they watched as Stark, hanging mid-air, released an enormous mechanical city above the 89th floor of Stark Tower.
Soon, they saw the giant mechanical island starting to descend slowly. The exoskeletons in the hall flew toward various directions, stopping below the island, as if they were trying to catch it.
When such a gigantic structure began to overturn, everyone's faces showed fear. The process of large-scale collapse gave a feeling of oppressive suffocation.
In the middle of the hall, Stark descended in a beam of light. As he touched the ground, his face guard opened, and his voice echoed in the hall:
"Welcome to the Stark Industries Exposition!"
As the words fell, a mecha flew out, supported under the Sky Island, swiftly transforming into a pillar, with the hum of machinery and the sound of jets, the Mechanical Sky Island steadily hovered above the Stark Building.
No one knew who let out the first cheer, but within a few seconds, tumultuous shouts echoed throughout the entire hall.
The crowd completely erupted, regardless of their reasons for being there, without a doubt, they had witnessed a miracle of human technology.
At that moment, Shiller's satisfied voice echoed in Stark's ear: "At last, it hasn't been in vain that I've been wracking my brain."
Stark replied through his headset, "Apparently, the least important thing here was your idea brainstorm."
In the control room of Stark Building, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Steve glanced at the surprised expressions of Peter and Gwen on the surveillance footage, he said, "Peter might be disappointed if he knew we didn't invite him."
"He said he was waiting for his girlfriend and couldn't come in advance." Shiller put down his coffee cup and said, "Let's go, we've done our job. It's time to browse the exhibition."
"You guys go ahead.", Rhodes said from behind them, "Stark told me that someone might cause a scene. I will go and check exit routes to prevent ordinary people from getting involved."
Natasha fixed her hair and asked Shiller, "Stark knows someone's going to cause trouble, and he still made such a grand entrance?"
"What you should be worrying about now is not Stark's safety, but the safety of the troublemakers."
Walking into the hall, Shiller said while walking, "The entire security system of the Stark Building has been fully upgraded. I'm very skeptical that those people can... "
After Peter led Gwen onto the Sky Island, they both became relentless machines of awe. Except for the exclamations of "wow", they couldn't utter any other sound.
The entire Mechanical Sky Island was not just for show. After boarding the Sky Island, various new technologies and machinery developed by Stark Group were beautifully displayed. The array of mechanical creations that should not have appeared in this era was dizzying.
Generally speaking, industrial expositions should be of a comprehensive nature. Even though Stark is the host, he should invite other industrial groups to participate in the exhibition. The host provides the venue and then allocates spaces for other exhibitors. Previous Stark Industrial Expositions have also followed this format,
However, this Stark Industries Exposition, hosted by Stark himself has no room for anyone else. It's a pure "Stark Industries" exposition.
This dates back to the moment when Stark used the Magic Reactor to ascend to a higher dimension. He not only had a high-dimensional sensory experience but also derived much inspiration from the way the Steel Demon Mechanical Army fought.
Although Stark was not an extreme tech conservative, he disliked uncontrollable factors due to a lack of security.
However, the emotional upgrades experienced by Jarvis led him to take the first step. The subsequent vampire wars made him realize the importance of quantity and functionality. Furthermore, the perspective of the Iron Demon God made him realize, what's considered as a risk and uncontrollable is merely inadequate technological sophistication. As long as he could reach the stage of "I am the machine swarm", there would be no risk of a robot crisis.
Stark, who had experienced such feelings, began to break through his internal barriers. He stopped clinging to the one-way research of single soldier mechas. Obviously, he felt that it was more practical to control the machines and the flow of steel than to become a flawless mechanical individual.
Having worked through this, Stark has had an explosion of inspiration recently. In the past, he only had a single line of skills. When he encountered a technical bottleneck, the research progress would be put on hold. But now, Stark has developed a dense skill tree based on that single line. When a particular research hits a bottleneck, he shifts his focus to another branch, thus greatly accelerating his research.
The biggest difference between Stark and other geniuses lie in his rich imagination. After upgrading his path into a skill tree, the products displayed at the Stark Industries Exposition were plentiful. There was no need for any partnership. Stark's inventions alone filled the entire large-scale industry expo.
Even if Shiller hadn't gotten fed up with his ideation, and the Mechanical Sky Island hadn't been downsized by one-third, there would still have been room for more of Stark's things.
Even the most critical reviewer had to admit that this was an unprecedented exposition. Not only because of its impressive opening, rich products, and advanced technology level, but most importantly, this was an exposition independently completed by the Stark Group, fully demonstrating the shockingly impressive financial power of Stark Industries and the amazing creativity of Stark himself.
"How about it? I told you it would be a surprise." Stark, who had squeezed out from the reporters, said to Shiller, who had just boarded the Sky Island, "Can you imagine? So many reporters, yet not one of them asked me about any rumors. They're all amazed by how I managed to... "
"More than this..." Shiller looked around and said, "Don't you think something is missing from this show?"
"Missing something?" Stark was taken aback, "All of my exhibits are here. What else is missing?"
"Where are your adversaries?" Shiller said helplessly to Stark.
Stark opened his mouth, "Oh, I forgot all about them. Yeah, where are Hammer Arms Industry and that guy Ivan Vanko? Weren't they supposed to show up and make a scene at my exposition?"