Inside Tony Stark's New York home, Tony Stark took off the tuxedo he had just put on. Pepper Potts was waiting for him outside the door. They were supposed to attend an official party tonight, where various high-ranking officials, dignitaries, famous merchants, and wealthy people would gather.
"Pepper, I can't go tonight!" Tony Stark said.
Then the door opened, and Pepper Potts, in her formal dress, glared at Tony Stark, saying, "Tony, you've stood me up so many times. What exactly are you researching all day?"
"Pepper, I can't help it. But when inspiration strikes, you can't ignore it, right?" Tony Stark said with a smile.
"Really?" Pepper Potts looked at Tony Stark with some suspicion, her face full of doubt.
If it were before, she wouldn't have believed Tony Stark even if she were beaten to death. After all, she knew what kind of person Tony Stark was.
He must have secretly gone to the casino, or he went to find young models to play with. Anyway, it was hard to get him to attend those boring official banquets.
But lately, Tony Stark had been going out less, and most of the time, he was like a technical geek, desperately researching at home.
Sometimes she even worried about Tony Stark's physical and mental health.
This wasn't like the usual playboy at all.
"Of course it's true!" Tony Stark said, a little speechless, wondering just how bad his reputation was.
But he also knew one thing very well: time was completely insufficient for him. He had significantly reduced his outings for pleasure, and he didn't want to attend boring official events, hearings, and so on. He wanted to improve his strength as much as possible.
He now somewhat understood Lin Feng's feelings. Others could be leisurely and enjoy the quiet life because they didn't know that a disaster was coming. But he knew. He knew that the future Earth would be full of crises. Therefore, the more it was like this, the more he felt a sword hanging over his head, ready to strike down at any moment.
No wonder Lin Feng, a second-generation rich kid, was so disciplined, or rather, it wasn't discipline; it was purely out of fear.
"But you left me alone there again. Do you know how many times they've looked for you recently?" Pepper Potts said very discontentedly.
Tony Stark was also a little embarrassed. He was well aware that the official party invitation couldn't possibly be for anything good. They were probably trying to pressure him into handing over the armor's manufacturing technology.
He just wanted to laugh. Your technology? Can you even handle it? It wasn't arrogance; even if he gave them the blueprints, they wouldn't be able to make heads or tails of it.
But the pressure was still there. In America, capital wasn't truly all-powerful; at least a few other hands were also trying to cover the sky.
"Remember to eat. Your stomach isn't doing well. I'm going now." Pepper glanced at Tony Stark, knowing it was useless to say anything. After all, she was just a workaholic.
After Tony Stark saw Pepper off, he changed into a comfortable set of clothes and said, "Why is Lin Feng starting to write his diary so early today..."
Yes, he only learned about the updated diary after receiving Jarvis's notification, and he immediately canceled his plans to attend the party.
When he walked into the basement, the S.H.I.E.L.D. team had already logged on. They were projected onto the table and had already started chatting.
"Natasha, you don't look so good lately?" Hawkeye Barton asked with some concern.
"Of course it's not good! I have to deal with Fury's missions, and then Lin Feng's missions. How can it be good? If I hadn't taken leave today, you wouldn't even see me. These damn, evil capitalists..." Natasha yawned.
"Hey, I seem to hear someone cursing. It has nothing to do with me, okay? Don't lump everyone together," Tony Stark said, displeased. "Why don't you come to my company? I'll give you a more relaxed job, guaranteed not to be tiring."
Natasha glanced at Tony, speechless. She rolled her eyes at him and didn't speak.
Capitalists and their masterful promises!
"Today, we have a new member. As everyone knows, Captain America, Steve Rogers," Nick Fury began to introduce.
"Hi, everyone. Nice to meet you all. Please be kind. I still don't quite understand this equipment; things have changed so much in seventy years," Captain Rogers said.
He was fiddling with the projection equipment in his rented room; it was too complicated for him.
In his time, watching television was already super-new technology, let alone everything else.
"Captain? It's great to meet you. You're much younger than I imagined," Tony Stark glanced at Captain Rogers. Although his idol wasn't Captain America, he had to admit that he had grown up hearing the Captain's legends, so he couldn't help but be curious.
"You are... Tony Stark, right? You're a lot like Howard." Captain America Rogers glanced at Tony Stark, a wave of emotion washing over him. He couldn't believe it; in the blink of an eye, his old friend's son was all grown up.
And mentally, probably even older than him.
Tony Stark's lips twitched slightly at the words. It felt like, 'Hey kid, I held you when you were little, remember me?'
He wanted to say, 'Who are you? Don't pretend to be my elder,' but this guy really was his elder.
"Alright, introductions aside, let's begin today's diary study," Fury announced. "Based on the information, the 'Big Three' of the Avengers are likely Tony, Thor, and the Captain. That should be about right."
Captain America Rogers was also puzzled by this. He didn't understand why Lin Feng would include him in the Big Three of the Avengers. He had only just heard of the Avengers organization.
And he was self-aware. His combat abilities were far superior to most, but compared to a god like Thor, the difference was significant.
Tony Stark, on the other hand, just scoffed. He felt he hadn't done enough to deserve the title of Big Three and decided to accelerate the rate of his armor upgrades.
"Captain's early return clearly caught him off guard. He probably thought it would be around 2010 or 2011. Looks like there are things he doesn't know," Hawkeye Barton said.
"That's normal. In his past life, he was just an ordinary person. It's like a normal person reading history; knowing the general timeline is already good enough. You can't expect him to remember specific years, can you?" Hill said. "But didn't he acquire a lot of companies related to Captain?"
"Related to me?" Captain America Rogers was a little incredulous. He had become an IP, and there were copyrights involved.
In the era he came from, patents and copyrights existed, but enforcement was, to put it mildly, lacking.
"Yes, Sharon and I handled that. He probably wanted to stockpile some copyrights to use in a couple of years, but Captain's sudden return saved him the wait. He made at least four billion on this one," Natasha replied.
Everyone present, except Tony Stark, couldn't help but feel envious, jealous, and resentful. Damn capitalists, making money so easily?
They realized then that Lin Feng's prior knowledge of many future events, even if not perfectly remembered, was enough to bring him countless benefits.
Even Tony Stark was moved. Unless he was playing the stock market, it wasn't that easy for him to earn four billion.
"I think the main point is this, 2012, the Chitauri invasion... it's only a few years away..." Tony Stark said, bringing the others to attention.
Compared to how much Lin Feng had earned using his foresight, this was the real problem.
They had only vaguely known about this before, but now they knew the specific date and even which alien civilization was invading.
Suddenly, a looming mountain of dread pressed down on them, almost crushing them.
They were also very clear on one thing: aliens capable of interstellar travel, even at the lowest level of civilization, would find it no harder to defeat humanity than European colonists had found it to defeat Native Americans.
No, to be precise, it would probably be like modern civilization fighting monkeys.
Humanity, a small, skinny monkey tribe that hadn't even left Earth, wouldn't stand a chance.
Tony Stark himself could think of some potential technological applications in the interstellar age. For example, what if the enemy had the Death Star Cannon?
One shot, and half of America would be gone. How could they fight?
And the most powerful hydrogen bomb explosion on Earth could only move the ground a few millimeters, completely on a different level.
It's not even as much energy as Earth generates from volcanic eruptions every day.
"So, how do we fight? Or rather, how did the original us actually win this alien invasion?" Tony Stark asked. "The previous video, the one where the kid sought help from Doctor Strange, we estimate that time was 2017. The world seemed peaceful then. So, at the very least, we managed to fend off this alien invasion twelve years prior. And Lin Feng said it was the Avengers' first gathering, which suggests we might have actually won on our own, without relying on the Ancient One and the other sorcerers. So, the question is, how did we win?
I've calculated every possibility, and I still see no chance of victory!"
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(End of Chapter)