The new round of questions had just begun, and the atmosphere in the room immediately became unprecedentedly tense.
No one expected the first question to be so "explosive."
Firstly, the question involved the extremely serious issue of Tony Stark's parents' deaths. Secondly, the Winter Soldier was among the answer choices!
If the Winter Soldier was merely a distraction, that would be one thing, but if he turned out to be the answer, then events would take a very bad turn.
Tony Stark, in particular, looked incredibly grim, his eyes wide, staring intently at the big screen, his breathing slightly ragged.
Tony Stark had always believed his parents died in a car accident, but now it seemed there might be more to their deaths?
Otherwise, why would the question-and-answer system pose such a question?
But Tony Stark carefully recalled the circumstances at the time and found no suspicious points.
After the car accident, the police investigated and officially closed the case as accidental death.
"Everyone!" Hawkeye Barton's voice was the first to break the silence, interrupting everyone's thoughts. "What should we do with him?"
Whoosh!
At Hawkeye Barton's words, everyone couldn't help but turn their gaze to Loki.
They found it hard to accept answering questions with Loki, after all, this was the demon who led an alien army to invade New York.
"Should we lock him up first?" Hawkeye Barton glanced at everyone, seeking their opinions.
"That won't work." Nick Fury shook his head. Besides them, the surrounding world was in a state of time-stop.
They couldn't even open a door, so there was no way to take Loki anywhere.
Hawkeye Barton might not be aware of this, but Nick Fury, an experienced participant in these quizzes, knew it well.
"Or… knock him out?" Black Widow suggested, looking serious.
"Oh, oh!" Loki couldn't help but exclaim, "Isn't that a bit much? I've already surrendered."
"Since the system has chosen him, I think we can only let him participate in the quiz with us," Captain America said solemnly to everyone after some thought.
Up until now, the quiz system had never interacted with them in any way other than posing questions and administering rewards or punishments.
They knew very little about the quiz system.
No one knew if forcibly preventing a chosen participant from answering would "anger" or "annoy" the quiz system.
Moreover, as it stood, none of the participants chosen by the quiz system had ever been truly evil.
So, after a brief discussion, although reluctant, everyone ultimately agreed: Loki would remain on-site to participate in the quiz.
"Loki, since the quiz system has chosen you, we can let you join us in answering, but!" Nick Fury said, sternly warning Loki, "If you dare to pull any tricks, you'll be asking for trouble!"
"My hands are tied, what tricks can I pull?" Loki raised his hands and wiggled them. "So, can this quiz thing start now?"
Loki said, full of anticipation.
He was quite interested in this so-called quiz.
Everyone else in the room ignored Loki and refocused their attention on the quiz.
In this round, there were still six participants:
Iron Man Tony Stark, Captain America Steve Rogers, Black Widow Natasha Romanoff, Hawkeye Clint Barton, Nick Fury, and Loki Odinson.
"Nick Fury!"
After some thought, Tony Stark turned his head and looked at Fury, asking seriously, "Didn't you say my father was one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s founders? Then S.H.I.E.L.D. must have investigated his death, right?"
"Naturally," Nick Fury nodded.
Howard Stark's identity was so important that his death could be said to have affected the entire United States; not only the police, but multiple departments and agencies were highly concerned.
On the surface, the police investigated the case.
But in secret, there were quite a few departments investigating the matter.
And given Howard Stark's identity, S.H.I.E.L.D. had undoubtedly conducted its own investigation.
"However, according to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s investigation results, Howard did indeed die in a traffic accident," Nick Fury then added, speaking seriously to Tony Stark.
Even S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn't find anything, which spoke volumes.
Either Howard's death truly was an accident, with no conspiracy behind it.
Or, Howard's death was a shocking conspiracy, controlled by a very powerful unseen hand.
The power of that hidden hand was terrifyingly great, capable of deceiving even S.H.I.E.L.D.
Everyone in the room wasn't foolish; they instantly understood this point.
"Iron Man Tony Stark?"
Loki's voice sounded. He looked around, then at Tony Stark. "This must be referring to this tin man, right? This question wasn't prepared for me after all?"
Loki had initially thought that this so-called quiz was something these guys had cooked up, and although he didn't know their purpose, it was probably meant to deal with him.
But now, Loki realized he had completely misjudged.
This question had absolutely nothing to do with him!
They were just amusing themselves!
So what exactly were these people doing?
However, no one in the room paid any attention to Loki. Loki wasn't annoyed; instead, an increasingly interested expression appeared in his eyes.
He wanted to see what tricks these people were up to.
"Stark, as it stands, the only option we can rule out is D," Black Widow said first to Tony Stark. "There aren't terrorists that powerful in this world."
"Romanoff is right." Hawkeye Barton nodded in agreement. "If this car accident was truly orchestrated, I have to say it was a truly seamless operation."
"The police, the military, S.H.I.E.L.D., and other organizations—so many agencies, and the perpetrator managed to perfectly deceive them all, without leaving any trace!"
"This is simply not something terrorists could do."
The others largely agreed.
Terrorists are generally untrained, low-quality illegal armed organizations—in short, a disorganized mob.
The likelihood of them being able to plan an operation of this caliber was extremely small.
"Nick Fury." After some thought, Tony Stark turned his gaze to Nick Fury.
"When I was investigating the Ten Rings before, I also had Jarvis keep an eye on other terrorist organizations, and I found that some of them were quite formidable."
"For example, there's an organization called the Hand, which has been around for over four hundred years and is a ninja assassin organization, far beyond ordinary terrorist groups."
"They operate discreetly, are well-trained, and their influence is deeply entrenched and global, but I only noted them and didn't look into them closely."
"As the boss of S.H.I.E.L.D., you should have a more in-depth understanding, right? Are there other similar terrorist organizations in the world?"
"Do they have the capability to plan such an operation?"
Tony Stark asked Nick Fury with a serious expression.
"You're right, Stark, the Hand is indeed not an ordinary terrorist organization." Nick Fury nodded at the remark. "There aren't many terrorist organizations in the world that can contend with S.H.I.E.L.D., but the Hand can be considered one of them."
"However, according to my understanding, faking a car accident in this manner is not the Hand's style, nor do they possess that capability."
After all, this wasn't a simple assassination, but a perfect fabrication.
It involved many complex aspects, and the Hand truly couldn't achieve such a feat.
"As for other organizations?" Nick Fury fell into thought, then gave his answer a moment later.
"With S.H.I.E.L.D.'s intelligence network, we have a handle on all terrorist organizations of any scale worldwide."
"But I've reviewed those lists, and I haven't found any terrorist organization that could accomplish such a thing."
Since even Nick Fury said so, the possibility of option D for this question was indeed reduced to the absolute minimum.
Reduced to the point where it could be ruled out.
"First-generation Ant-Man, Hank Pym, we've all witnessed his prowess; he could even take down the entire Avengers team by himself."
"Not only that, Hank Pym was also a S.H.I.E.L.D. veteran, very familiar with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s operational procedures."
"If it were him, killing the Howards, faking a car accident, and perfectly deceiving S.H.I.E.L.D. is entirely within the realm of possibility."
Next, Black Widow focused on the second option, analyzing it methodically.
"Not just that, S.H.I.E.L.D. once coveted Hank Pym's technology, so it wouldn't be strange for Hank Pym to hold a grudge against Howard because of it."
Captain America added from the side.
In short, Hank Pym had the ability and the motive, so he couldn't be ruled out for now.
"The Winter Soldier, in Howard's era, the Winter Soldier was still a HYDRA-controlled assassin." Nick Fury then continued to analyze another option.
"As S.H.I.E.L.D.'s number one enemy, HYDRA wanting to kill S.H.I.E.L.D.'s founder also makes sense… In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if HYDRA wanted to kill anyone."
"Considering HYDRA's long-standing infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D., their ability to perfectly fake a car accident after killing Howard is also achievable."
After everyone's initial analysis, apart from option D which could be clearly ruled out, options A, B, and C were all currently possible.
"Stark, all known evidence currently indicates that Howard's death was a traffic accident," Nick Fury then said, looking seriously at Tony Stark. "So it might truly have been just an accident."
"However, which one you ultimately choose to believe is up to you."
"Up until now, the quiz system has only shown us the future," Tony Stark said to Nick Fury after some thought. "Except for the time Thor was exiled, there have been no other exceptions."
"Excuse me, you said it shows the future?" Loki couldn't help but interject at this point, staring at Stark and asking.
From the tin man's words, did this mean the questions from the quiz system were about future events?
How was that possible?
Tony Stark completely ignored Loki, as if the man didn't exist.
He continued speaking to Nick Fury and the others, "So, probabilistically speaking, the chance of this question showing the past is very, very small."
"In other words, there's a high probability that this question is also showing the future!"
"Which means, in the future, I must have re-investigated my parents' deaths, or something else happened that led me to a new understanding of their deaths!"
"Why would this be?"
"If my parents truly died in a car accident, then why would something like this happen in the future?"
"So I believe my parents' deaths might truly have more to them! Therefore, I won't choose A; I'll choose between B or C."
This question was about Tony Stark, so everyone implicitly agreed that Tony Stark should answer.
Since Tony Stark had said so, no one felt it appropriate to say more, especially since Tony Stark's reasoning also held some validity.
Now, everyone completely disregarded A and focused all their attention on options B and C.
Was it Hank Pym, or the Winter Soldier?
They just needed to choose one of these two people.
The atmosphere in the room began to feel a bit subtle.
At this point in the quiz, the likelihood of the Winter Soldier being chosen had reached fifty percent!
Or even… greater than fifty percent.
Everyone in the room put themselves in Tony's shoes for a moment; if they were answering this question, they would most likely choose the Winter Soldier.
Although both had motives to kill Howard, Hank Pym's motive was somewhat weaker compared to the Winter Soldier's.
After all, Hank Pym merely had a falling out with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s founders and left S.H.I.E.L.D., nothing more.
It hadn't escalated to a life-or-death confrontation.
But what about the Winter Soldier?
At that time, he was HYDRA's murderous puppet, committing all sorts of evil deeds!
HYDRA's motive to kill Howard was naturally much stronger than Hank Pym's.
And that was just one point.
The second was that Hank Pym was a successful entrepreneur, and based on everyone's current known information, he had no major scandals.
But what about the Winter Soldier?
He was a killing machine who had taken countless lives, his hands stained with blood!
If they had to choose between the two, everyone would naturally lean towards choosing the Winter Soldier.