Returning from Kamar-Taj, Artoria did not rush to convert her newly acquired occult knowledge into some immediate power, nor did she immediately dive into new research projects.
Instead, she intentionally allowed herself to settle, like letting a cup of water mixed with fine sand stand still, waiting for those complex thoughts and insights to slowly clarify, layer, and settle into a part of her understanding.
The first month of the new year quietly slipped away in this gentle and profound rhythm.
The sea breeze in Long Island still carried the chill of late winter, but the sunlight had begun to grow warmer and brighter day by day.
Artoria's daily routine seemed to have returned to its previous pattern: studying, reading, taking walks with Minerva, tending to the cabin, and handling non-urgent matters.
But her internal perspective had quietly shifted.
When reading S.H.I.E.L.D.'s extraordinary files or the quantum physics papers provided by Tony, she would subconsciously associate them with those ancient scrolls she saw in Kamar-Taj that described energy flow and dimensional mapping;
When practicing the subtle manipulation of "magic," she would try to "observe" and "guide" that golden, gentle power from the perspective of how the mages analyzed the "Vishanti energy flow";
Even just sitting by the window watching the tides, she would vaguely perceive the energy pulse of the Planet itself and the macroscopic "order" behind the tides—this perhaps had some distant resonance with the blessing of the "Earth's pan-consciousness" and the grand vision of "protecting the dimension" that the Ancient One spoke of.
She shared the gains and insights from her trip to Kamar-Taj intermittently with Minerva.
Minerva always listened quietly, the blue light in her optical sensor steady, occasionally posing one or two questions based on logic and existing databases regarding energy conversion efficiency or the consistency of theoretical models, helping Artoria organize her thoughts from different angles.
Sometimes they would write and draw on the whiteboard in the study, with Artoria sketching rune links and energy field models with occult implications on one side, and Minerva supplementing them with formulas and deductions based on existing physical laws on the other.
These two seemingly unrelated systems, in their focused discussions, would occasionally spark unexpected ideas, giving Artoria a deeper understanding of the "harmony" and "adaptability" of the essence of her own power.
On Tony's side, the commotion regarding the "Avengers Initiative" seemed to have temporarily subsided, or shifted to a more covert level.
He didn't mention it again, turning instead to enthusiastically invite Artoria to Stark Tower to experience the prototypes of the "Infinite Screen" and "Smart Bell."
Artoria went as promised.
In the laboratory, Tony proudly showed her several glass tablets of varying sizes, thicknesses, and curvatures, as well as several models of "mobile phones" with simple and sleek designs.
They had no logos, no unnecessary ports, and the entire body exuded the aesthetic of future technology.
"Look, this is the future!" Tony picked up a tablet, his fingers sliding casually across the pitch-black screen, which instantly lit up with astonishing response speed, presenting a simple and elegant operating interface, completely different from Jarvis's style.
"Capacitive multi-touch, we improved the glass coating and sensor algorithms; it can even be operated with wet hands or while wearing thin gloves.
The processor is custom-made, power consumption is reduced by 40%, and graphics processing capability is three times that of existing top-tier graphics cards.
The operating system is rewritten, tentatively named 'Stark OS', with the core being a streamlined and optimized version of Jarvis, but the interaction logic is completely different.
Look at this," he swiped his finger, and several app icons scattered and aggregated as if they had life, "Dynamic wallpapers can change according to time, weather, or even your heart rate.
The app store framework is already set up, and the first batch of developer kits will be released next week."
He picked up a "Smart Bell" phone, smaller but equally exquisite.
"The communication module integrates our latest satellite link technology; theoretically, there is a signal even at the North and South Poles.
The camera is custom-made, and the low-light shooting effect... well, it could put professional paparazzi out of business.
It shares the ecosystem with the 'Infinite Screen', and data is seamlessly synchronized. How about it?"
Artoria tried them out with great interest.
Although there was still a gap in application richness and ecosystem maturity compared to the smart devices she was used to in her previous life, the basic experience was already far beyond any similar product of this era: smooth, intuitive, and full of aesthetic appeal.
She could see the effort Tony's team had poured into industrial design, hardware stacking, and system optimization.
"Great, Tony." She exclaimed genuinely, "The interaction logic is very natural, and the hardware is impeccable. This will change the way many people live."
"Of course!" Tony snapped his fingers, his eyes shining, "This is not just a phone or a tablet; this is a personal computing center, the key to the future information World.
Pepper is already preparing for the global launch, expected next quarter.
By then, the market left by Hammer, and the shares of those old communication giants... haha."
He seemed to have already seen victory.
"However," Artoria put down the prototype and reminded him, "Ecosystem construction is key.
Attract enough developers to create apps for this platform to form a virtuous cycle.
And privacy and security issues must be highly valued from the very beginning."
"Don't worry, Jarvis is watching.
App listings have strict reviews.
We will write the privacy policy more rigorously than the constitution—although not many people will read it carefully."
Tony shrugged, "By the way, your 'alien inspiration' profit-sharing agreement is ready, it's with Pepper, you can sign it anytime.
After the first batch of products hits the market, just wait for the numbers in your account to dance."
Returning from Stark Tower, Artoria had a more intuitive understanding of Tony's "change the World" plan.
This was not just business competition, but a prelude to a social lifestyle transformation driven by technology.
And she, participating as an "inspiration provider," felt quite strange.
"Star Sea Phantom Light" Entertainment Holding Company's integration, under the efforts of Pepper's team, was also nearing its end.
Artoria signed the final legal documents, officially becoming the sole actual controller of this entertainment company, which already had an astonishing valuation, owned multiple potential game projects, and held shares in multiple small creative studios globally.
Pepper served as CEO, responsible for daily operations.
The company's first public move was to announce the resource integration and brand unification of its several major game projects, and released an ambitious long-term vision white paper on "Building an Immersive Virtual Entertainment World," which incorporated many of the advanced concepts provided by Artoria regarding game social interaction, virtual economy, and player creation, sparking considerable attention in the industry and among player groups.
Artoria's life seemed increasingly "prosperous" and "regular."
Mornings were usually for study and research, afternoons for handling some emails and briefings, evenings for walks with Minerva or some low-intensity physical training, and nights were mostly for reading or leisure.
She would video chat with Tony and Pepper once or twice a week to talk about recent events.
Her email correspondence with Dr. Banner was also maintained, with topics gradually expanding from pure academics to some discussions about "self-control" and "calmness."
Coulson would occasionally send briefings, Natasha had no more news, but when Artoria occasionally passed by that flower shop in Brooklyn, she would go in and buy a bouquet of flowers, which counted as a silent response.
Beneath the calm, the World did not stop running.
little ai continued to monitor the global information network, and the number of "abnormal" events marked was slowly but steadily increasing.
Some were unconfirmed sighting reports of supernatural phenomena, some were small-scale, unexplained energy bursts in remote areas, and some were unusual movements by certain multinational corporations or research institutions in sensitive fields like biotechnology and energy weapons.
These pieces of information were classified and archived, and after risk level assessment, some worth noting were synchronized with Tony and S.H.I.E.L.D., but most were just stored as background intelligence.
Artoria knew this was just the scattered raindrops before the storm.
This World was accelerating toward a more complex and dangerous "super-powered era."
And she and Minerva needed to continue to accumulate strength, deepen their understanding of this World, and consolidate existing connections during this short period of calm.
One afternoon, Artoria tried to inject a trace of extremely subtle "magic" into a piece of white paper in the study, attempting to construct the simplest micro-blessing rune for "cleansing the air" in the way described in an introductory book from Kamar-Taj.
This was not an attack or defense technique, but more like an exercise in the precise manipulation of energy.
Golden filaments of light seeped from her fingertips, like a living paintbrush, winding and sketching on the white paper.
The first few times she failed; either the energy dissipated halfway, or the configuration was distorted, unable to form a stable circuit.
Artoria was not discouraged; she slowed her breathing, immersing her mind completely in the perception and guidance of that wisp of "magic," recalling the descriptions in ancient books about "synchronization of will and energy" and "runes being the manifestation of energy channels."
Minerva sat quietly on the side, not disturbing, but her optical sensor recorded every subtle change in energy flow throughout, and performed high-speed modeling and analysis internally.
Finally, after the umpteenth attempt, those golden filaments of light successfully connected end-to-end, forming a simple and beautiful geometric pattern, stabilizing on the paper, emitting an extremely faint but real, warm aura that made the mind calm.
Success! A most basic blessing mark, not even worthy of being called "magic," which could only slightly purify a small patch of air around it.
Artoria let out a gentle sigh, light sweat visible on her forehead, but her eyes shone with joy.
This was not just the success of a rune, but an important breakthrough in her "localized" understanding and application of her own power and "otherworldly" knowledge.
"Energy circuit construction complete, stability reached the expected threshold of 87.4%." Minerva reported in a timely manner, "There is still a large space for improvement in energy utilization efficiency, but as a first successful construction, the completion is excellent."
Artoria picked up the paper emitting a faint warm luster, feeling the weak power of order within it, smiled, and carefully tucked it into a thick book.
"Take it slow. At least it proves that the path... is passable."
Just then, little ai's voice rang out calmly through the hidden speakers in the house: "Sister Artoria, Sister Minerva.
Monitored an encrypted message, the sender is Phil Coulson, marked as 'non-urgent but valuable intelligence'.
Content summary: S.H.I.E.L.D.'s research outpost located in Puente Antiguo, New Mexico, detected a short but abnormally strong suspected high-energy physics impact or meteorite fall event forty-eight hours ago.
There were no conventional explosions or impact craters at the scene, but continuous, low-frequency unknown energy radiation was detected, with characteristics not matching any known database.
An investigation team has already headed there, and the preliminary report states that a... 'immovable Hammer' was found at the center of the impact point.
Energy readings at the scene are abnormal, but there are no signs of diffusion for now.
The intelligence has been synchronized to Mr. Tony Stark.
Agent Coulson asks if you are interested in this."
New Mexico? A Hammer? Immovable?
Artoria's heart stirred.
This description... could it be?
"little ai, retrieve public satellite images of that area, as well as the limited data shared by S.H.I.E.L.D., and perform a preliminary analysis." She ordered, while looking at Minerva.
Minerva's optical sensor blue light circulated: "Information received. Analyzing.
The combination of 'immovable Hammer' and abnormal energy field has no direct match in the known records of Earth's extraordinary events.
But based on fuzzy matching of energy characteristics, there is a 0.3% weak correlation with relics related to the Norse mythology system or Asgardian technological creations.
The correlation is extremely low, for reference only."
Asgard? Mjolnir?
Artoria could almost confirm what this was.
Thor being exiled, Mjolnir falling to Earth, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s intervention... this marked that the story line of this World was steadily pushing toward a grander stage—the intervention of cosmic forces, myths walking into reality.
"Reply to Agent Coulson," Artoria said after thinking for a moment, "Thank you for sharing the intelligence.
I will pay attention to this matter.
If the situation at the scene changes, or if that 'Hammer' shows signs of threat, please inform me in time.
Also... suggest that the investigators maintain the highest level of caution and do not easily attempt to move or study that item with conventional means to avoid triggering unpredictable consequences."
"Message sent." little ai responded.
Artoria walked to the window, looking at the place where the sea and sky met in the distance.
In the desert of New Mexico, a Hammer from the Divine Realm had quietly descended.
This seemingly distant event was like a clear signal, telling her that the calm daily life would eventually be broken.
The waves from outside Earth had already begun to lap at the shores of this World.
But this time, she was no longer the bewildered traveler she was when she first arrived in this World.
She had power, knowledge, friends, and a foundation of her own.
She watched the distance calmly, without fear in her heart, only a kind of serenity witnessing history slowly unfolding, and a trace of determination to be prepared and welcome the challenges.
"Minerva," she said softly, "It seems our 'daily life' will soon add some new... waves."
Minerva walked to her side, standing shoulder to shoulder with her, her gaze also cast toward the endless sea level.
"Whatever the waves may be," her voice was steady and clear, "I will be by your side, Artoria."
The setting sun stretched their shadows long, intertwining them, imprinted on the warm floor.
Beneath the ripples of daily life was an increasingly deep and vast ocean, and the coming storms between the stars.
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