Early the next morning, Bant got changed and took a car to Manhattan.
"Xiao Ban, over here!"
The moment he got out, he spotted Felicia in a white dress waving at him from not far away.
She had a slim figure, and the wind swept her blonde hair to one side.
"You're here so early?" Bant asked, a little surprised.
Looking closely, he could even see faint dark circles beneath Felicia's light makeup.
Felicia stuck out her tongue and just smiled without answering.
Of course she had her own little scheme.
If she came out early, then once Bant finished his business, they'd have time to do something else.
"But why do you suddenly want to buy scientific equipment?" Felicia asked.
She didn't understand this stuff at all, but to help Bant, she'd gone home yesterday and sought out a scientist funded by the Hardy Foundation: Otto Gunther Octavius.
The future Doctor Octopus.
In this universe, Doctor Octopus was still doing research with Hardy Foundation funding.
Otto had grown up poor, so when it came to saving money, he was even better at it than Connors.
When Felicia found him, Otto generously told her a few ways to buy good equipment, along with the lowest price ranges for certain instruments.
She studied it for ages, practically pulling an all-nighter.
"Honestly, the most cost-effective way is to buy directly from Oscorp," Felicia said.
"This monster incident hit Osborn hard. Their stock price has crashed, too. To fill the gap, I'm sure they'll dump their remaining lab equipment at a low price."
Oscorp's stock plunging should've been a perfect time to buy the dip, but nobody was doing that now.
Because no one believed Oscorp could make a comeback.
"Not a bad idea." Bant nodded.
He had no concern for Norman.
Even if Bant didn't buy, Oscorp's shareholders would sell the equipment to someone else to recover losses anyway. If that was the case, he might as well be the one who benefited.
Besides, once Oscorp started selling off its own instruments, its valuation would drop even further.
That would actually make it easier for Norman to buy back and regain control.
So Bant wasn't just going to buy, he was going to buy loudly.
He wanted everyone holding Oscorp stock to see it clearly: the former giant was already selling off its assets, one step away from bankruptcy.
Fall.
Keep falling.
So Bant and Felicia went together to meet one of Oscorp's shareholders.
The man naturally recognized the Hardy Foundation's young lady, and he reflexively assumed Felicia represented the Foundation in an acquisition of Oscorp.
He welcomed it with open arms.
These past few days, Oscorp stock was basically impossible to dump. Watching his assets shrink by the second, he was getting desperate.
"Don't worry, Mr. Storm. We're not here to buy Oscorp stock," Felicia said.
Felicia's demeanor surprised Bant.
Facing Mendel Storm, a man who'd made his fortune long ago, she didn't look timid at all. If anything, she carried real presence.
Thanks to her father's teaching, Felicia wasn't some delicate sheltered girl. She was tough inside.
And she knew exactly who held the advantage right now.
"We just want to purchase some equipment from Oscorp."
Storm looked a bit disappointed.
But then he thought it over. If he could sell those expensive scientific instruments, he could at least claw back some cash.
In the past, Mendel Storm himself had once been a renowned doctor.
He'd built Oscorp together with Norman, but now he'd long forgotten the original intent.
"How much are you offering?" Storm asked quickly.
"Look at you, you're rushing again." Bant smiled.
Storm's expression turned ugly.
How could he not be anxious?
He was too eager to "improve."
No, he was too eager to get his money in hand.
With Oscorp in this state, every second that passed meant losses he couldn't even calculate.
And that was exactly what Bant and Felicia could use to squeeze him.
By the time they left, several hours had passed.
"Thank you, Felicia," Bant said sincerely.
With her help, he'd bought a large batch of instruments at a price several levels below market.
Some equipment had even been damaged during the battle back then. Bant still didn't let those go. Storm basically tossed them in as freebies.
In Mendel Storm's eyes, those machines were just junk. Who would've thought Bant had the ability to repair all of it?
"It's nothing." Felicia shook her head.
She glanced at the sky. It was still afternoon, and the heat was intense.
"But are you really planning to start a company?" she asked.
"Do you have enough money?"
Felicia obviously knew Bant's family situation.
They weren't well-off. You could even say they were kind of poor.
She didn't doubt Bant's ability, she was just worried.
Even with the price crushed down, all that equipment together still cost hundreds of millions.
"Don't worry. I'm actually working with Harry Osborn," Bant said.
"Harry Osborn?" Felicia hadn't expected Bant to know the Osborn family's young master.
"Using Osborn's money to buy Osborn's equipment from Osborn…"
Her expression turned strange, but she didn't think too deeply. Instead, she felt a little jealous.
"You didn't need to go to Harry Osborn. I could've helped you too!" Felicia said seriously.
She looked at Bant, puffing out her cheeks with a pout like a tiny frog.
"I can't take out that much money, but I could persuade my mom to sponsor you."
Bant immediately refused.
"Thank you, Felicia, but not for now."
He'd gone to Harry in the first place because he didn't want Felicia's mother interfering with Primus, so there was no way he'd let the Hardy Foundation get involved now.
Still, Felicia's sincerity did move him a little.
He reached out and patted Felicia's head.
Her hair was soft, and it felt like stroking a long-haired plush doll.
"Ah!" Felicia jolted, shrinking back slightly, her face turning red.
But she didn't dodge. Instead, still blushing, she said,
"I helped you that much today. How are you going to thank me?"
"How do you want to be thanked?" Bant asked.
Felicia raised a finger to her lips, thought for a moment, then said, "Buy me ice cream."
"That's it?" Bant asked in surprise.
Today, Felicia had saved him at least tens of millions of dollars. At first, Storm had wanted to sell the instruments at a high price.
"For now, that's it."
Felicia hopped out of his palm like a lively cat, already spotting an ice cream stand.
"Hurry, over here!"
A few minutes later, the two of them walked side by side down the street, each holding an ice cream.
"What flavor did you get?" Felicia asked, bouncing into the sunlight.
Her floating blonde hair made her look like an elf.
"Vanilla," Bant answered.
"I got strawberry." Felicia paused, then bit her lip, staring longingly at Bant's ice cream, the one he'd already taken a bite from.
"I want to try vanilla too…"
That night, Bant walked Felicia home.
Her household rules were strict. She basically wasn't allowed to come back late.
After seeing Felicia off, Bant didn't head home. He went to his lab.
That afternoon, he'd already had Storm deliver part of the equipment first, especially a supercomputer.
Inside the crude lab, the advanced machine looked absurdly out of place, sitting right in front of him.
Connors' old lab had one too. Back then, he and Peter had used it to simulate experimental data models.
The first thing Bant wanted to do was create an AI.
It didn't need to be as powerful as JARVIS or Ultron. It just needed to assist him with certain tasks.
He transformed into Grey Matter and fed in the modified JARVIS base code.
Not long after, the program responded.
"Hello, Mr. Parker," a clear female voice sounded in the lab.
"Hello, Eunice," Bant replied.
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