Support me and be 30 chapters ahead of webnovel:
patreon.com/Draco_
For every 5 Patreon memberships I receive, I'll release 15 chapters all at once. Your support means a lot to me.
*****
Returning to his room, Fini wasn't in a great mood either. He could actually understand Tony's emotions to some extent, but back then, he and Tony were complete strangers. Why should he have gone out of his way to save him, especially at the risk of altering the plot he knew so well?
Only after these few interactions had their relationship improved slightly, Fini thought gloomily. He had originally wanted to remind Tony about Yinsen's hometown, but he had been interrupted before he could finish. He didn't know what would happen next.
Meanwhile, Tony, feeling equally irritable, arrived at the gala, causing a wave of shock among everyone present.
The reporters who had been reporting earlier were still confidently asserting that Tony would definitely not show up. The current scene was undoubtedly a public slap in the face. But at this moment, no one cared about those reporters; they were all curious that Tony had actually appeared.
Upon receiving news of Tony's arrival, Obadiah ended his interview immediately and sought him out.
"Hey, look who's here."
Obadiah put on a look of surprise, sized Tony up with a smile, walked over for a warm hug, and then draped an arm over his shoulder, letting the nearby reporters snap plenty of photos.
"I really didn't expect you to come!" Obadiah whispered in Tony's ear.
"What is the world coming to when the host isn't invited to the party?" Tony looked at the flashing lights around him, frowned, and spoke as he walked forward: "I'll wait for you inside."
"Hey!" Seeing the cluster of reporters around them, Obadiah was worried that Tony would cause another scene like last time. He stopped him and whispered a precaution in his ear: "Listen to me, don't be in a rush. I think I'm close to convincing the board."
"Yeah, I got it," Tony replied impatiently. He hadn't really come with any specific intentions; he just wanted to find a place to have a drink to soothe his mood.
Arriving at the bar, Tony asked the bartender for a drink. At that moment, a man with a receding hairline that had nearly reached the top of his head approached with a smile.
"Hello, Mr. Stark. I'm Agent Coulson."
Agents may come and go, but the ironclad Coulson appears.
"Oh, right, right, you're from that... whatever..." Tony recalled that when he was first rescued, a department seemed to have come looking for him. Just thinking about it brought back memories of Fini just now, and Yinsen, making his mood even worse.
"The Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division..."
Coulson didn't notice Tony's impatient expression—or perhaps he did, but simply didn't care.
"You really need to change that name!" Tony said, sipping the alcohol in his glass, his gaze searching for something in the ballroom.
"Yes, we get that a lot," Coulson agreed with a smile, then continued: "We understand that things haven't been easy for you lately, but we need to debrief."
"There are many questions. Why don't we set a time? How about the 24th at 7 PM at Stark Industries?"
Coulson saw that Tony didn't want to talk right now, so he didn't press too hard.
"Fine, let's do that!" Tony wasn't actually paying attention to what Coulson was saying; he just saw that the man didn't intend to bother him right now, so he agreed just to get it over with.
At that moment, he finally found the target he was looking for. Seeing that beautiful silhouette radiating incredible charm, Tony couldn't quite hold back: "Excuse me, I need to find my assistant and discuss something with her."
Decisively bidding farewell to the semi-bald older man, Tony walked toward his assistant, Pepper Potts.
"You look beautiful today. I almost didn't recognize you!"
Looking at this figure, Tony felt his mood improve significantly.
"What are you doing here?" Pepper Potts looked at Tony in surprise, seemingly not expecting to see him here.
"I annoyed a little boy who does magic tricks and didn't know what to do, so I came out for a stroll." Tony didn't want to lie to Pepper, but he didn't want to talk much about it either, so he changed the subject: "This dress is beautiful. Where did it come from?"
"Oh..." Pepper lowered her head slightly in embarrassment and replied unnaturally: "It was a birthday gift..."
"It's very nice!"
"You gave it to me!" Pepper tried to return to her normal state, joking in her usual tone.
"Then I have pretty good taste!" Tony was clearly accustomed to this way of interacting, but a lingering atmosphere of intimacy still surrounded the two of them.
"Do you... want to dance?" Looking at the girl in front of him, Tony felt he couldn't just stand there like that.
"Oh, no." Pepper was a bit unaccustomed to this change in her boss.
"Alright, let's go!" The self-centered Tony clearly didn't know the meaning of refusal, and he pulled Pepper's hand directly toward the dance floor.
What followed was the beginning and development of a series of "overbearing CEO falls for female assistant" tropes.
However, this story didn't fully play out. When Tony went to get a drink, a reporter found him and said exactly what Fini had wanted to warn him about.
Yinsen's hometown was still suffering from terrorist attacks, and they were using the latest weapons developed by Stark.
Things had returned to their original trajectory.
Looking at the photos in the female reporter's hand and thinking back to what Fini had tried to say earlier, Tony's expression instantly turned grim. He immediately put Pepper out of his mind and found Obadiah to ask about the weapons division.
It was, of course, an unpleasant conversation. Fuming, Tony went straight home, while also beginning to suspect Obadiah.
In the workshop, staring at the faceplate design left on the table, Tony contemplated. At the same time, he glanced at the phone nearby, where Fini's number was stored.
"I can find out the truth without you!"
Tony ultimately didn't call to ask Fini. First, they had just had a fallout, and calling now would undoubtedly be an admission of fault; with his inner pride, he was naturally unwilling to do that.
Second, he still remembered what Fini said when he left—that no one was obligated to help him. Fini didn't owe him anything, and they weren't even considered good friends yet.
Looking at the information he had gathered on the screen, Tony's face was grim and serious. He looked at the faceplate on the table again and muttered to himself: "The flight system has been tested. Next, let's test the weapons system!"
The next day, somewhere in Afghanistan, at a military base.
Non-stop explosions filled the sky, and the sound of gunfire rose and fell. A man in iron armor strolled through the battlefield, walking without looking back. It was Tony Stark, the one responsible for all of this.
"The magic kid definitely couldn't do this. He probably can only break chairs at most!"
Looking at his feat, Tony thought narcissistically to himself. He didn't forget to take the opportunity to look down on Fini as he left. In truth, even now, he couldn't be sure just how high Fini's threat level was.
But that one trick with the portal was enough for him to categorize Fini as the most dangerous and bizarre person he had encountered in all these years.
Having tested the strength of the Iron Man suit, Tony felt both excited and inflated. Because of this, he even accidentally had a bit of a conflict with military fighter jets on his way back.
Of course, Tony wouldn't admit it in his heart. To some extent, he had intentionally provoked them just to prove that the armor was much faster than a fighter jet.
(End of Chapter)