Chapter 99: Genius Sets Off Again (Part 1)

After the night in New York fell, the lights of the entire city began to gradually go out. Only the top few floors of the Stark Building had faint lights. Pepper, who had been busy all day, walked up to the elevator. When the indicator light of the elevator came on, she took a deep breath, but she did not completely relax.

The elevator door opened, and the lights on the ceiling lit up one by one with her footsteps, guiding her to Stark's laboratory, which she had not been to for a long time.

The door of the laboratory slowly opened without making any sound. The whole laboratory was dark, and only the lights of the experimental instruments were dimly lit. Stark lay on the laboratory table and seemed to be asleep.

Jarvis turned on a little soft light, enough for Pepper to see clearly under his feet, but not to wake Stark up. Stark was sleeping soundly. When Pepper walked over, she found that his brows were furrowed.

She saw a pile of information on his laboratory table. In the past, it was full of experimental data that Pepper could not understand, but today, Pepper saw several books on the laboratory table that should not be here.

Social engineering, game theory, political science, international relations, etc. Pepper even saw a few textbooks from her university there. There were traces of flipping on them, and even a few books were opened and placed on the table. Obviously, Stark had not finished reading them.

She walked a little closer and picked up the materials. Most of them were intelligence related to the military, Congress and SHIELD, especially some information about their personnel.

Pepper was about to walk around the experimental table to Stark's side. Stark moved a little, he coughed dryly, and then woke up. In the dim light, he saw Pepper standing in front of him and thought he was dreaming.

Stark shook his head and blinked hard. He looked very confused. Pepper often saw him with this expression, often after drinking or staying up late to do experiments.

"Oh, you're here. Are you done? How are you doing recently?" Stark seemed a little at a loss, as if he hadn't seen Peto for so many days and he was a little strange. He greeted him in that somewhat embarrassing tone.

Pepper was not affected by him. She walked over and said, "What's wrong with you? Why did you start reading these books?"

Stark looked back at his desk. His expression was a bit like a child who was caught by his parents playing video games. He twisted his neck a little unnaturally and said, "A friend recommended it to me. He said I should read more books like this, otherwise I can't handle those troubles."

Stark paused, then lowered his head. His voice seemed a little low and serious.

"SHIELD, the military and Congress have basically gotten what they want. Next, it will be the last negotiation of this incident."

"I represent the Stark Group. I know that no one will deal with these troubles for me this time. I have to learn to deal with it all by myself."

"I have never participated in any decent negotiations. Sometimes even if I go, I just need to sit there and wait for Uncle Obadiah to finish talking about everything. I am just a symbol. Everyone knows that I am a genius, so even if I show impatience or leave early, no one dares to say anything..."

"I know, I am really terrible. I have made a lot of messes and troubles. I once mocked the representative on the other side as a retard, or deliberately spilled coffee all over the table just to leave early."

"I can't remember how many times I have done such stupid things, but I know that I can only do it myself this time."

Stark rubbed his eyes, then rubbed his face with both hands, trying to take back the sad and lost expression. He said: "No one will do these things for me anymore, No one will solve these problems for me anymore, and no one will even look at my inventions or listen to my genius ideas anymore..."

Pepper had to admit that this was the first time she saw Stark with such a sad expression. In the past, he used those sad expressions to make people laugh or to make people happy, but now, he was really sad.

After Stark paused for a while, he clapped his hands and said, "Okay, that's it, I can handle all this, right?"

"I'm Stark, how can I not? How difficult are these things than making mechas? Just wait and see, as long as I finish reading all these materials and books, I can still defeat them alone in the negotiations in a few days..."

Pepper felt sad. Before this, whenever Stark played tricks and didn't want to do anything, she felt a headache, thinking that she was wasting too much time coaxing this big child, and hoped that Stark could mature quickly.

But now, when Stark calmly accepted to do something he didn't want to do, Pepper suddenly hoped that he would still be as willful as before.

She didn't know what was wrong with her. Stark had become mature, which should be a good thing, but Pepper knew very well that such growth would inevitably be accompanied by intense pain and sadness. She would rather Stark not experience this pain and live in a utopia forever.

Peto choked up and was about to say something when the phone in her pocket rang again. She had no choice but to leave to answer the phone. She had no time to chat with Stark, and had to deal with the seemingly endless work.

Stark looked at Pepper's back as she left. His pain and helplessness reached the peak. He propped one hand on the laboratory table and covered his eyes. He had never felt that the night in New York was so long.

When he was devoted to the experiment, the night seemed to pass in a snap. Before he finished a small part of the experiment, the sky was bright. At that time, he would always complain that this pure and happy time was short.

But today's night seemed to be endless, as if no matter how long he suffered here, the sun would not rise.

In the dim and dark room, Stark thought that what the book said made sense. In this world, not everything can be rushed through in a mecha. Social humans cannot survive without social rules. As long as he still lives in this society, he must follow some social rules.

Before, Stark felt that he didn't need to follow the rules at all, didn't need to think about anything, and lived as he pleased every day, but now he found that someone just paid the price for him to follow the rules.

It was only because they paid the price first that Stark could live in this warm eggshell all the time without thinking about anything.

Stark actually knew that Pepper was busy until midnight every day to deal with those romantic news for him, and Obadiah had cleaned up all kinds of messes for him more than once.

But since the kidnapping case, reality was like a heavy hammer, directly smashing the shell of this fledgling, letting the cold wind of reality blow on his ungrown feathers, making him turn over several times, and after being covered in mud, he had to struggle to get up.

After those warm wings that made him greedy left him, he had to face the rest by himself. The cold wind was howling in this nest built on the cliff, but Stark had to learn to fly by himself.

After a while, Stark seemed to have accepted this fact. He slowly sorted out the scattered materials on the table, then put various books aside with bookmarks, picked up one of them and continued to read.

In fact, Stark didn't know whether it would be useful to do this. When he learned from Schiller that the bargaining chips of several parties were almost ready, and there was only one last step left to negotiate to divide all the benefits, Stark had never felt so anxious and flustered.

In the past many years, he had never thought about these things, but at least he knew that if he did nothing, it would be equivalent to giving up the entire Stark Group, giving up his father, his uncle and all his hard work.

If he couldn't take this step, the Stark Group would only retreat again and again until they were squeezed and completely divided.

And now, no one would be able to turn the situation around and turn the tide in this situation, except Stark himself.

In his life for many years, he didn't need to consider the feelings of anyone else, and now he was about to participate in a negotiation that might be the highest level in the country. There were congressmen who had been in politics for many years and dominated the political arena, SHIELD agents who were hidden behind the scenes and strategized, and aggressive and greedy military leaders.

Stark, in this situation, is like a primary school student who suddenly participates in a doctoral forum. He has no theoretical knowledge and practical experience, and he can't even read people's faces. Stark can already imagine that the unreasonable actions he used in the past will not have any effect except that these evil wolves will make a fuss and bite off more meat.

He must learn to be calm, learn to remain calm, learn to use wisdom and skills to complete a war without gunpowder on a battlefield without gunfire.

This is not easy, nor is it easier than starting a real war.

Stark is like a baby who has just come out of the cradle. Under Schiller's advice, he can only start learning from theory.

Not all politicians know these things, but relatively speaking, they have rich practical experience.

Stark was a blank sheet of paper in this regard. Fortunately, he was a genius, and his brain allowed him to memorize all the knowledge in a very short time. Even if he had no time to practice and integrate it, it was better to have this knowledge in his mind than to have nothing.

Stark felt that what Schiller said made sense. Since he had decided to bow his head and learn these theories that he had originally disdained to read and thought were full of empty words, he had to read them as quickly as possible and try to understand them.

The former was not difficult. Stark's genius brain allowed him to memorize several books almost in one night. When his brain was working to the extreme, he could remember everything he saw.

But reading, memorizing and understanding and applying are completely different things. After memorizing, Stark had to compare those popularity and relationship information to think about how to act.

How would some of them react to certain topics? In the same power, what are the intricate subdivisions? Which relationships can be used? Why do some people have lower bottom lines than others? Why are some people willing to pay more than others?

These questions almost overwhelmed Stark. Even if he was a super genius, he couldn't learn the essence of human knowledge overnight.

More importantly, sometimes game theory and psychology look more like mysticism, because human nature is always mysterious and unpredictable. Using all theories to analyze will only get more and more wrong answers. Everything depends on on-the-spot reactions, which really puts Stark under great pressure.

Finally, in the deep night of New York, Stark muttered: "You are a genius... Stark, you are a super genius... There will be no one smarter than you in this world, of course you have no problem..."

Then, in the gradually fading voice, he fell asleep, and at this time, a purple-red glow just lit up on the New York skyline.