Marvel Cybernetic Girl

The next two days brought more activity to the cave room.

Thanks to the list that Tony Stark gave to the leader of the Ten Rings gang, a wide range of weapons, equipment, and tools were moved in.

With the addition of more lighting and ventilation, the room became much brighter and more comfortable. It was impossible not to admire Tony Stark's ability to improve his living conditions, no matter what the circumstances were.

For Kagura Hitomi, this improvement was a blessing in disguise—it was practically a lifesaver.

Since being confined here, her food rations had been extremely limited. The Ten Rings gang only provided her with a small amount of military rations to keep her alive.

These rations might be enough for an ordinary girl, but for someone like her, an automated humanoid with much higher energy consumption, they were far from sufficient.

I'm so hungry! I feel like I'm going to starve to death!

But now, with the room well-lit, she could conserve a lot of her energy just by absorbing sunlight, as long as she kept her dignity and wore fewer clothes.

This is great! I was seriously worried about starving!

Wearing a tank top, the girl couldn't help but feel a little relieved.

Once the materials and equipment were in place, Tony Stark used the need for focus as an excuse to get all the members of the Ten Rings gang out of the room.

The fat gang leader didn't mind much. After all, with all the cameras in the room, they were confident they could track Tony Stark's every move.

When everything was ready, Tony Stark and Yin Sen began dismantling the missile's guidance warhead.

Kagura Hitomi knew he was collecting palladium from the missile's guidance system, a critical radioactive material required for the construction of the first-generation arc reactor.

As for her, she had something else to take care of.

Pretending to feel unwell and needing to rest in bed, Kagura Hitomi activated her Basic Electronic Hacking skill, targeting the surveillance camera on the rock wall.

First, she checked her core energy: [Core Energy Remaining: 64%].

Next, she activated the skill: [Basic Electronic Hacking, Activated].

With the indicator turning green, she used the camera as a port to hack into the Ten Rings gang's electronic network.

Their network was primitive, crude, and utterly outdated, with virtually no encryption—easy pickings.

To cover for Tony Stark's work, she first altered the camera feed in real-time, ensuring that the Ten Rings gang couldn't detect any changes.

After ensuring the cameras showed nothing unusual, Kagura Hitomi dove deeper into the network.

Wandering through the data world felt like an entirely different experience for her.

Here, she could freely alter the underlying data structures, even reshape the entire network if she wanted to. She realized that her Electronic Hacking skill was probably the most powerful one she had—after all, we live in an information society.

Of course, there wasn't much worth changing in the Ten Rings gang's network, but some of the data was incredibly valuable—for both herself and Tony Stark.

Got you!

She had finally pinpointed a mobile phone's storage unit.

A quick glance at the phone's hardware and call logs told her that this belonged to the bald second-in-command of the Ten Rings gang.

As she dug deeper, she uncovered call records between the Ten Rings gang and Obadiah, a director at Stark Industries.

Following the timestamps, she was able to track down some secret records of arms deals between the Ten Rings and Stark Industries on a computer hard drive.

Wow, this is real treasure!

She marveled internally. These documents could not only warn Tony Stark about the dangers surrounding him, but they could also be used to blackmail Obadiah.

But wait...

No, no, no. Blackmail would be such a waste! I have a much better idea.

After making her decision, she connected the laptop on the desk to the room's network, creating a hidden space on the hard drive to secretly store the valuable data for later.

Kagura Hitomi's core system could store information, and she could directly transfer data into nearby electronic devices. But simply pulling data out of her head wouldn't be as convincing as handing Tony Stark a USB stick.

"Hitomi, Hitomi!"

At that moment, Tony Stark's voice called out to her.

"What is it, Mr. Stark?"

"How are you feeling? Does your stomach hurt?"

"Hm, I'm fine. I'm just a little tired. Is there anything I can do for you?"

Of course, pretending to feel unwell was just an act—an automaton doesn't get sick...

"Yes, I need you to help with something, if you don't mind."

"Sure, no problem."

Kagura Hitomi replied as she got up from the bed.

"Come over here."

Tony Stark beckoned, "Stretch out your hand. Let me see it."

Kagura Hitomi tilted her head, puzzled, but then raised both her hands and opened her palms.

"Oh, what delicate, slender hands! Absolutely perfect."

Tony Stark chuckled, praising her, "Alright, your hands are going to come in handy now."

He pointed to an advanced air-to-air missile beside him. "There's a superconducting coil in here that's crucial for our work, but I accidentally pushed it in too far. My hands are too big to reach it, so I was wondering if you could help pull it out."

He pointed to the opened missile body. "If you can't get it, we'll have to use a copper wire instead."

"Hm, let me try."

Kagura Hitomi squatted beside him, reaching her hands into the missile body.

"Did you find it? It should feel like a metal wire, but colder, almost like iron."

"Hm… I think I've found it."

Her fingers brushed a cold, fine metal wire deep inside, and she gripped it tightly.

"Great! Now pull it out!"

"Okay."

With a firm grip on the superconducting coil's metal wire, Kagura Hitomi pulled.

Zzzz—!

The silver-white coil was dragged out of the missile body.

"Fantastic! Thank you, little cutie."

Tony Stark excitedly ruffled her hair. "I'm so glad you're here with me. You're like a little angel! Thanks to you, our power output will increase by 15%."

Huh? A headpat?

Kagura Hitomi's cheeks flushed slightly. "N-No, it was nothing..."