Chapter 218: Expo Farce (Part 1)

The headquarters building of Stark Industries, also known as the Stark Building, is located on East 45th Street at Grand Central Station in Manhattan, New York, USA. It was completed in the 1990s, about 350 meters high, with a total of 89 floors.

Howard, the founder and owner of Stark Industries, originally bought a piece of land on the east side of Grand Central Station, and then planned to build a new headquarters for his car company. Later, at the suggestion of Obadiah, it was built into the tallest building in New York City at the time, becoming one of the most famous landscapes on the New York skyline.

But unfortunately, Howard did not see the completion of this building. After Stark grew up and took over the Stark Group, he renovated the building many times. Now, it has become a giant building integrating high-tech laboratories, group headquarters, and commercial office buildings.

Many New Yorkers also like to jokingly call it the "Triangle Tower" because the shape of the Stark Building is a right triangle. The buildings on the east side are taller, from the 79th to the 89th floors are Stark's personal laboratories, while the buildings on the west side are shorter and are commercial office buildings, which are where the employees of the Stark Group work.

Although this design makes the building look a bit weird, it is very practical. The two buildings are connected but do not interfere with each other. Although it was criticized by many landscape architects when it was built, who believed that this strange-shaped building destroyed the beauty of the New York skyline, today, the Stark Building has become an indispensable part of the New York travel guide.

The first Stark Industrial Expo was organized by Howard Stark in 19. Before the 20th century, the Stark Industrial Expo was the world's largest industrial expo.

After Howard's death, Tony Stark, who inherited the Stark Group, did not like to hold industrial expositions very much. Therefore, from the late 1990s to the early 21st century, the grand scene of the Stark Industrial Expo was no longer there. Until today, Tony Stark said at a press conference in Stark Tower, facing the flash and microphone:

"The most important component of human industrial development has been forgotten for many years. I am to blame. What makes me very disappointed is that after the death of the founder of the Stark Group, I have never heard of any industrial exposition in the world that can stand up to fill this gap."

"And now, what I want to tell you is that you will receive an invitation that may be the most important in your life. You will witness with your own eyes how much human industrial development has moved forward. If these decades of blank period are my negligence, then I will use a Stark Industrial Expo to tell you."

Stark looked around, and the reporters around him looked at him silently.

Reporters are very familiar with Stark, but most of the time, Pepper stood in front of the reporters to explain to them that the bad things Stark did would not have any big impact, and then the drunk Tony was dragged up from the backstage and perfunctorily said a few words to the reporters.

But now, all reporters can see that Mr. Stark in front of them is a little different.

Stark used to be very arrogant. He often said things like "ordinary people can't understand me", "you will never know what kind of changes my invention will bring to mankind" or "those little things are not important at all, I will change the course of human industrial development".

Arrogance is his business card, and frivolity is his synonym, but this time, Stark's tone is very different, even making these reporters who have heard all kinds of celebrities' sophistry focus their attention on him.

"There are many rumors in this world that are hard to tell true from false, and your job is to spread them, but these things can never really change the world. You can't do it, Yin Fan Vanke can't do it, and the air force, army and navy behind him can't do it either."

Finally, Stark said to the microphone: "But I can."

Stark picked up an invitation from the table and showed it to the reporters,

saying: "This is the Noah's Ark ticket for the new century. If you don't want to board the ship, then stay in the waves of decay and wait to die."

Countless flashes lit up, and the sound of shooting was accompanied by noisy questions, "boom" resounding, Stark's calm face was photographed and frozen on newspapers one after another.

The newspaper screen shook, and the hand holding the newspaper fell down, revealing Peter's face behind him. He took a bite of the hot dog and said to Gwen next to him: "I didn't expect you to get a ticket to the Stark Industrial Expo. I thought..."

Gwen shrugged and said: "Recently, there have been reports about Stark everywhere. I happened to be interested in the industrial expo, so I asked my father to help me get two tickets. Let's go together."

Speaking of this, Peter was a little angry, "I think some reporters are distorting the facts"

"I know you are a fan of Stark. You said that when you were an intern at Stark Group before, he treated you well." Gwen turned to look at Peter. Peter sighed and said a little frustrated: "Do you also think he is a bad person? But..."

Gwen patted Peter on the shoulder and said: "Many people know Stark from reports, which may be different from the Stark you know, but this is also normal, because people are multifaceted."

"You think they are smearing your idol, but they also think you are whitewashing him. But no matter what, I am more concerned about whether Stark can really fulfill the bold words he said at the press conference."

Gwen took off her schoolbag, then took out two invitations from it, handed one to Peter, and said, "Take it apart and have a look. If the design is too ugly, we won't go."

Peter turned the invitation upside down and said, "From the outside, it doesn't look special."

As he said, he opened the invitation, and Gwen did the same as him, and then said a little disappointedly, "The design of the invitation is quite ordinary. There is a card inside, saying please go to the 90th floor of the Stark Group headquarters building at East 45th Street, Grand Central Station in Manhattan."

"Wait!" Peter interrupted Gwen. He picked up the card in the invitation in his hand and looked at it carefully. He said in surprise, "90 floors?? Where is the 90th floor of the Stark Building? That building only has 89 floors!"

Gwen also took a look and said puzzledly, "You Maybe I counted wrong, right?" After saying that, she put her eyes back on the invitation and said, "It says 90 floors on both of our cards, so it shouldn't be a mistake."

Peter scratched his head, his tone a little uncertain: "I remember there should be only 89 floors? At least the elevator must go to the 89th floor."

"Could it be that he plans to let us visit on the roof?"

"And I remember" Gwen took the newspaper that Peter put down and pointed to the picture of Stark Building in one of the reports and said: "Shouldn't the exhibition hall of Stark Building be on the top floor of the shorter building on the left? How can this building have 90 floors?"

"Indeed, I have also been to that exhibition hall. It is really big. It should be more than enough to hold an industrial expo."

Just when Peter and Gwen were confused, other people who received the invitation had the same doubts as them. Even if they stood on the roof of other buildings and looked at Stark Building with a telescope, counting one floor at a time, there were indeed only 89 floors, and there was no 90 floors at all.

Many reporters seized on this point and began to attack Stark. They claimed that this was a bad joke of a playboy, saying that he did everything to attract attention and gain publicity. Some people also mocked him for being at the end of his rope and struggling before death.

Indeed, after Stark made those bold words, most industrial groups and large enterprises were angered by his arrogant attitude. If Stark's words before were more like a nouveau riche bragging, but now Stark, who has taken it seriously, launched a ridicule that broke many people's defense.

Because a fact is in front of them: a rotten person like this, still came up with a cross-era mecha technology, and can even wear that handsome mecha to be a superhero in New York.

Many scientists and leaders of industrial groups who are not living a satisfactory life can't help but fantasize that if they develop this technology, they will not be as naive as Stark and wear a battle suit to be a superhero.

They fantasize about cooperating with the military, increasing production, controlling the mechanical army and even ruling the world.

Therefore, they ridiculed and mocked Stark with more confidence, thinking that his choice was extremely naive.

Many people said that Stark made the most wrong choice in every link, which led him to fall into such a quagmire. If it were them, they would not only have to cooperate with the military, but also with their peers. Everyone would join hands to use this technology to seize the market, divide the monopoly profits, or participate in international political games.

But no matter what they do, it must be much more mature than putting on an iron shell and doing justice in New York.

The most ironic thing is that the objects of Stark's chivalry are ordinary people who are protected and saved by him. They don't appreciate it. In fact, the voices of the people against Stark and Iron Man are more intense than those of Stark's peers.

In short, whether it is peers, the military or ordinary people, after receiving this invitation, they still plan to go to participate.

Most of them are looking for fun and want to see how this playboy, whose reputation has been so bad, plans to make this gimmick.

There are also many self-proclaimed professional scientists who intend to use their professional knowledge to expose Stark's scam. Many young people who are not appreciated for their talents intend to watch Stark's jokes to comfort themselves. These rich people are just lucky.

People like Peter and Gwen who are simply interested in industry and machinery and want to learn and visit are actually a minority.