Chapter 33:
"You're here! Yes! Long time no see." Stark also smiled in response, but his complexion didn't look very good, and there was a trace of anger flashing in his eyes.
Moreover, Tony, who had always been labeled as refined and elegant, was today dressed in ragged clothes and driving an old Volvo that seemed to have been found somewhere.
"Mr. Stark, what happened to you?" Alex Chen asked with a smile.
Ever since the New York incident, Tony had been plagued by unprecedented anxiety.
After the battle with Loki and the Chitauri, Tony increasingly felt how weak Earth was in front of other civilizations in the universe.
Moreover, Tony deeply understood that to prevent the New York incident from happening again, humanity had to do something.
For this reason, he had thrown himself madly into the development of upgraded versions of the Iron Man armor. In just half a year, he had successfully created an entire army composed entirely of Iron Man armors.
Unlike before, these armors did not require a wearer to control them and could be autonomously operated by the super-intelligent Jarvis.
In order to perfect this idea, Tony had worked day and night, even neglecting his girlfriend Pepper Potts.
Everyone knew that Miss Potts was famously a "little pepper." Since he had provoked the little pepper, one could imagine how difficult Tony's life had been during this period.
Normally, these matters wouldn't have been worth Tony coming to find Alex Chen late at night, but just moments ago, Tony and the female botanist Maya — with whom he had once had a brief encounter — had been subjected to a terrorist attack by the notorious terrorist leader "The Mandarin" at his seaside cliffside villa. The three of them had nearly been buried in the sea along with the wreckage of the house.
Not only had his house been blown up, but what was even more hateful was that earlier, his assistant Happy had also been seriously injured in an explosion and was now lying in the ICU of a Manhattan hospital.
During this period, the terrorist organization led by "The Mandarin" had carried out a series of bombings internationally.
Nick Fury had more than once wanted to send agents to eradicate this international cancer, but he had never expected that not only would they fail to find the person, but his own home would be stolen.
One could imagine how furious Tony was right now, with all this national hatred and personal grudge piled together.
Currently, Tony knew nothing about the enemy, so he had no choice but to come to Alex Chen to see if he could get any help.
Alex Chen knew the cause, process, and result of all this very clearly.
Therefore, Alex Chen first invited Tony into the room, then said calmly:
"Mr. Stark, originally I shouldn't have said too much about these things, but now I have no choice but to speak up."
"Haven't you noticed that although you always pride yourself on being a genius, you often do things that disappoint the people around you?"
Hearing Alex Chen's words, Tony's pride instantly flared up.
"What do you mean? Are you saying everything I've done has been useless? What do you mean I always disappoint the people around me? Without me, the entire New York City would have long become a pile of ruins, just like my house!"
At this point, the veins on Tony's neck bulged.
Alex Chen knew Tony was arrogant, but he hadn't expected him to be this arrogant. He had only said a casual remark, yet it had provoked such a strong reaction.
After soothing Tony's emotions again, Alex Chen continued:
"Have you never thought about why Maya suddenly came looking for you?"
Tony looked at Alex Chen in disbelief and asked:
"You've been monitoring me?"
"No, Mr. Stark. I've just been investigating a group of foreign terrorists who secretly infiltrated New York recently. Guess who I found?"
Upon hearing this, Tony showed an expression of sudden realization.
But he quickly denied it.
"No, that can't be. Maya is a very kind person. How could she possibly be working with the Mandarin?"
Knowing that Tony couldn't fully accept this cruel truth for the moment, Alex Chen could only continue to help him recall:
"Do you still remember when you first met Maya?"
Tony immediately fell into deep thought.
"It seems like it was at a party twenty-two years ago. She suddenly found me and discussed a new biological discovery she was researching."
As he spoke, a trace of reminiscence appeared on Tony's face.
"But do you remember that there was another person present at that time?"
"Who?"
"You made him wait for you on the rooftop at midnight."
At this point, Tony instantly remembered the incident.
But Tony became even more confused. Could this matter really have something to do with him?
Seeing the question marks all over Tony's face, Alex Chen continued:
"That night, you didn't keep your promise and go to the rooftop to find him. He was originally your loyal fan. That time, he brought the research results of his entire life to find you, hoping to gain your recognition."
At this point, Alex Chen paused.
"But you didn't give him what he wanted. Instead, you stood him up. He once stood on the rooftop and even thought about jumping off to commit suicide. But he happened to see fireworks rising in the distance. From then on, all his resentment toward you turned into motivation for revenge."
Only now did Tony finally understand what Alex Chen had meant earlier when he said that he always did things that disappointed the people around him.
"Through investigation, over the years he has continued researching the Extremis virus. Not long ago, he finally succeeded in testing it on humans and immediately came to New York to seek revenge on you."
"What is the Extremis virus?"
Alex Chen continued to answer patiently:
"It is a virus born from the direction of Dr. Maya's research. It upgrades the human body and mimics the characteristics of regenerative cells."
"The Extremis virus can allow people to recover from deformities and other physical and psychological injuries, and even regenerate."
"But if used improperly, this virus can also become extremely dangerous, because it is unstable and prone to causing people to explode."
Hearing this, Tony finally understood what kind of troublesome situation he was about to face.
He had just barely emerged from the shadow brought by Loki and the Chitauri army, and now another group of superhumans had specially come to seek revenge on him.
For a moment, Tony felt overwhelmed. Why did he always encounter all kinds of non-humans?
Since the enemy had already come knocking, Tony naturally couldn't just sit and wait for death.
As the saying goes, when soldiers come, use generals to block them; when water comes, use earth to dam it.
But on second thought, why could Alex Chen know so clearly about these highly secretive matters that even he couldn't find out?
Even more crucially, Alex Chen could recount the events from twenty-two years ago in such detail.
This made Tony fall into deep thought.
Tony felt that there might have been various hidden dangers around him for a long time, but he had never paid attention to them, which had led to the current embarrassing situation.
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