"Harry, do you have time? I'd like us to have dinner together tonight."
"Sorry, I have some things to handle tonight."
Although it was only his first day of school, Harry had clearly become the focus of the entire school; in a single day, no fewer than twenty blonde, blue-eyed women had asked him out.
Back when he had first transmigrated, he would have been quite interested and hopeful about this, but now he was thinking about other things.
"Harry, over here. Dr. Otto is already waiting for you."
His father, Norman Osborn, had already been waiting at the door for a long time. After the energy monopoly task was issued, Harry thought carefully and realized that it was impossible to achieve nationwide or even global coverage just by promoting hydropower grids.
So, he thought of the famous Doctor Octopus—in the setting, he was a genius on the same level as Iron Man Tony Stark, and in the movies, he had even nearly created truly Controlled Nuclear Fusion.
"Dr. Otto, this is my son, Harry Osborn. Harry, this is Dr. Otto."
The two shook hands amicably.
"I heard you're interested in Controlled Nuclear Fusion. In fact, I've recently started researching related topics." Dr. Otto took the initiative to explain his research findings.
Since awakening the system, Harry felt he had become much smarter. According to the Marvel Universe's stats, he was at about a level 4-5. While he might not be able to develop nuclear fusion on his own, with the answer right in front of him, he could still understand quite a bit.
"Strengthening the atomic resonance frequency to enhance the fusion effect for energy output... it looks like your calculations are finished."
"Exactly! Actually, what's needed now is an experiment. If you hadn't come to me, I would have approached the Osborn Group sooner or later."
Harry smiled. He was determined to obtain this technology, but before that, he had to help Dr. Otto clear some potential pitfalls.
"Dr. Otto, based on your data, I believe your experimental design seems to be lacking in terms of safety."
"Oh?" Otto was stunned.
"How do you plan to handle the strong magnetic field and gravitational effects generated by this 'miniature Sun' once the fusion reaction is successful?"
"That, I've also considered."
Dr. Otto stood up and walked over to something covered with a gray cloth, then suddenly pulled it off.
Unsurprisingly, it was Doctor Octopus's arms, though they seemed to still be in an unfinished state.
"This is my assistant, a mechanical arm with advanced artificial intelligence. I will control them directly through my brain to suppress the magnetic fields generated by fusion, as well as phenomena like solar flares."
"Direct neural control? How is that safe? If they really possess such high intelligence, how can you guarantee you won't be influenced by them?"
"I've considered that issue as well. To that end, I developed an Inhibitor Chip, right here. ♦♦ ♦♦"
Otto took out a glittering little gadget, and Harry smiled.
"So you plan to rely on this? No offense, Dr. Otto, but I hope you can take this experiment more seriously. This external chip is neither heat-resistant nor resistant to strong magnetism. If even a minor accident occurs during the experiment, it'll be gone."
"And once the mechanical arms lose control... In fact, even if the mechanical arms perform as intended, the gravity and strong magnetic fields produced by the fusion plasma will strongly affect the surroundings. I believe your safety measures are failing." Harry continued his assessment, holding the data in one hand while calculating on the blackboard with the other.
"But..." Dr. Otto wanted to say something, but Harry interrupted him.
"However, I'm still glad that you at least acknowledged the risk of being controlled by these mechanical hands."
The laboratory fell silent. Seeing the atmosphere wasn't right, Norman spoke up to ease the tension: "It seems our opinions aren't quite aligned for a first meeting. Why don't we go back and think about it?"
Dr. Otto wanted to say something upon hearing this, but he also knew that, upon careful reflection, the safety of the Inhibitor Chip was indeed questionable.
"No, Father. I'm not offering so many opinions to negate Dr. Otto's ideas." Harry put down the data in his hands and walked over to Dr. Otto.
"I believe your idea has an extremely high success rate. I'm raising these issues purely from the perspective of a partner, hoping you'll pay more attention to safety concerns."
"P-Partner?" The expression on Otto's face was one of surprise. "But, the issues you just mentioned..."
"Those are just minor details. I think you might be a bit too eager for success. Since you have the confidence to create truly Controlled Nuclear Fusion, I believe you can solve these problems as well."
Harry cleared his throat and extended his hand to Otto.
"On behalf of the Osborn Group, I'm proposing a partnership. In fact, the company still has a stockpile of Tritium, which was originally intended for this purpose."
Dr. Otto excitedly grasped Harry's hand with both of his.
"Thank you for your generosity. Your company certainly won't be disappointed by this decision!"
"So, shall we call it a day?" Norman smiled, seeing the two reach an agreement.
"One more thing," Harry said. "Actually, I previously started a private research project on Neural Implants and Mechanical Prosthetics."
In reality, this wasn't his own research but technology generated by the system.
"Can it be applied to my mechanical arms?" Otto asked tentatively.
"No, no, no... what I mean is, your mechanical arms gave me inspiration. I believe this technology has great potential for further exploration. I plan to start a separate related project, and the issues with the mechanical arms will be resolved within that project."
"But my own project already keeps me busy enough. If you want me to be in charge of another project..."
"No, of course it's impossible for you to handle two projects. I plan to have Dr. Connors take charge."
Hearing this name, both Otto and Norman were stunned.
Connors was once a military doctor. After losing an arm on the battlefield, he retired and became a Professor of molecular biology at Empire University. He has been dedicated to studying reptilian genes, obsessed with their regenerative abilities. He is also a close friend of Otto and a beneficiary of the Osborn Group.
That is, the famous Dr. Lizard from the original story.
"But Connors is obsessed with the regenerative abilities of those reptiles. If he could accept prosthetics, he would have given up that research long ago," Otto said.
"Yeah, I wish he'd give up that research too. If you hadn't insisted that the sponsorship shouldn't stop, son, I probably would have abandoned that project long ago," Norman added with a shrug.
"That's because the prosthetic technology currently on the market is too poor. Anyway, I'll go convince him." Harry already had a plan in mind. In the original story, the related experiments only succeeded on Spider-Man; others all had more or less serious flaws.
Previously, Harry was afraid that Connors would suddenly pop up one day due to a lack of funding, so he kept funding him. Now that there were other options, this experiment had to be stopped.
Even if you're rich, you can't just burn money like this.