After the nightfall in New York, the lights of the city started to gradually go out, leaving only the dim lights at the top floors of the Stark Building. Pepper, who had been busy all day, stepped into the elevator. As the indicator light of the elevator lit up, she took a deep breath, but she did not completely relax.
When the elevator doors opened, the ceiling lights lit up with her footsteps, leading her to Stark's laboratory, a place she hasn't visited in a long time.
The lab door slowly opened without making a sound. The entire lab was pitch-black, with only the dim lights of the experimental equipment. Stark seemed to be asleep, slumped over the lab table.
JARVIS turned on a soft light; enough for Pepper to see her feet, but not enough to wake Stark. Stark seemed to be in deep sleep. As Pepper approached him, she noticed his furrowed eyebrows.
She saw a pile of documents on his lab table. Usually, those were experimental data that Pepper couldn't understand, but today, Pepper saw several books on the lab table that shouldn't have been there.
Social engineering, game theory, political science, international relations and so on. Pepper even saw several textbooks from her college days. There were visible signs of use, and a few books were laid open on the table - Stark hadn't finished reading them yet.
She moved a bit closer and picked up some of the documents. Most of them were related to the military, Congress, and S.H.I.E.L.D, especially personnel information.
Just as Pepper was about to walk around the lab table to reach Stark, he stirred. 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, blinked hard, looking very confused — a look that Pepper often saw on him after a night of binge drinking or staying up late for experiments.
"Oh, you're here. Are you done with your work? How have you been?" Stark seemed slightly flustered, as if he had grown somewhat unfamiliar with Pepper over these days and initiated small talk in an embarrassingly awkward tone.
But Pepper remained unaffected. She approached him and asked, "What's going on with you? Why have you started reading these books?"
Stark glanced back at his desk, his expression reminiscent of a child caught playing video games by his parents. He awkwardly twisted his neck, then replied, "A friend recommended them. He said I should read more of these books, or else I wouldn't be able to handle the troubles."
Stark paused, then lowered his head. His voice sounded somewhat low, carrying a seriousness rarely seen before.
"The S.H.I.E.L.D, the military, and the Congress have basically gotten what they wanted. Coming up is the final negotiation of this incident."
"I am representing the Stark Group. I know that no one is going to handle these troubles for me this time. I have to learn to deal with everything myself."
"I have never participated in any significant negotiations. Sometimes, even when I do, I only need to sit there, wait for Uncle Obadiah to finish all the talks. I am just a symbolic figure. Everyone knows I am a genius, so even if I show impatience, or leave early, no one dares to say anything…"
"I know. I'm really messed up. I've caused a lot of trouble. I've mocked the representative on the other side as an idiot or deliberately spilled coffee all over the table just to get away early."
"I can't remember how many times I've done such stupid things, but I know that this time, it's all up to me."
Stark rubbed his eyes, then massaged his face with both hands, trying hard to hide his saddened and lost expression. He said, "There won't be anyone to do these things for me anymore, no one to help me resolve those troubles, and not even anyone to look at my inventions or listen to my brilliant ideas…"
Pepper had to admit, this was the first time she saw Stark truly looking so sad. His past sad expressions were often for play or purposely to cheer others up. But now, he was genuinely sad.
After a moment of silence, Stark clapped his hands and said, "Alright, let's leave it at that. I can handle this, right?"
"I am Stark; how could I not be up for this? How hard could these things be compared to building a Mecha? Watch me. As long as I finish reading these documents and books, I can bring them down by myself in the negotiations coming in the few days…"
Pepper felt a sourness in her heart. Before this, whenever Stark acted coy and didn't want to do something, she found it a headache, feeling like she was wasting too much time on coaxing this adult child. She yearned for Stark to mature faster.
But now, seeing Stark calmly accept things he did not want to do, Pepper suddenly wished he could be as willful as before.
She didn't know what was wrong with herself. Stark's maturity should be a good thing, but Pepper knew very well that such growth must come with intense pain and sadness. She'd rather Stark not experience such pain and live forever in a utopia.
Pepper 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 call. She didn't even have the time to chat with Stark; she needed to deal with more never-ending work.
Stark watched Pepper's retreating figure. His pain and helplessness peaked. He rested a hand on the lab table and covered his eyes. Never before had he felt the New York nights were this prolonged.
When he was engrossed in his experiments, a whole night felt like a fleeting moment. The day would have dawned before he even finished a small part of his experiment. Every time this happened, he always complained about how fleeting these moments of pure joy were.
But the night tonight seemed endless, as if no matter how long he suffered here, the sun would never rise.
In the dim and dark room, Stark thought, what the books say is true, in this world, not everything can be roughed through in a Mecha. Humans cannot live detached from societal rules. As long as he is living in this society, he must follow some social rules.
Stark used to think there were no rules he had to abide by, he could live as he wished without any thought. But now he found that someone else had merely paid the price of following the rules on his behalf.
Only after they had paid the price could Stark continue living in this warm cocoon of ignorance.
Stark was well aware that Pepper worked until midnight every day to manage his tabloid scandals for him, and Uncle Obadiah had cleaned up all kinds of mess for him more than once.
But since the kidnapping incident, reality felt like a heavy hammer, smashing the shell of this fledgling and letting the cold wind of reality blow on his still-growing feathers. After tumbling and getting covered in mud, he had to struggle to stand up again.
After the warm wings he was infatuated with disappeared, he was left alone to face everything. The chilling wind howled in the nest built on the cliff, and Stark had to learn to fly himself.
After a while, Stark began to accept the situation as if he'd made peace with it. He slowly organized the scattered materials on the table, put various books marked with bookmarks aside, and continued to read one of them.
Stark wasn't sure if his actions would be of any use. When he learned from Shiller that the chips of various parties were almost ready, and only the final step of negotiation to divide all the interests was left, Stark had never felt such anxiety and panic before.
He never considered these things in the past many years, but at least he knew that if he did nothing, it would mean giving up the entire Stark Group, giving up the hard work of his father, his uncle, and himself.
If he couldn't take this step, the Stark Group would only retreat until it was bled dry and completely divided.
Now, no one could turn the tide and save the situation, except for Stark himself.
In the many years of his life, he never had to consider anyone else's feelings, but now he was about to participate in what could be the highest level negotiation in the country. There were congressmen who had been in politics for many years and dominated the political circle, SHIELD agents who acted from behind the scenes, and military leaders who were aggressive and insatiable.
And Stark, in this situation, was like a primary school student suddenly participating in a doctoral forum. He had no theoretical knowledge or practical experience, he even didn't know how to read people's faces. He could already imagine that his previous distracting behaviors would only give these wolves an opportunity to make a fuss and bite off more meat. They would not serve any other purpose.
He had to learn to be calm, to hide his reactions, to use tactics and skills, to accomplish a war without gunpowder on a battlefield without the sound of cannons.
It was not easy, nor was it easier than starting a real war.
Stark was like a freshly born baby. With Shiller's advice, he had to start learning from theory.
Not all politicians knew these things, but they had abundant practical experiences.
Stark was a blank sheet in this regard. Fortunately, he was the genius Stark, his brain allowed him to memorize all the knowledge in a very short time. Even if there was no time for him to practice and integrate it, having this knowledge in his head was better than not having it at all.
Stark felt that Shiller was right. If he had already decided to bow his head, decided to learn these theories that he originally thought were empty talk and didn't even bother to look at, he should read through them as quickly as possible and try to understand them.
The former was not difficult, thanks to Stark's genius brain, he was able to memorize several books in a single night. His brain was almost photographic at its peak.
But understanding and applying the knowledge was a different matter from reading and memorizing. After Stark memorized everything, he had to refer to data on personal relationships and think about how to act.
How would each of them react to certain topics? Within the same force, who had more intricate subdivisions? Which relations could be exploited? Why were the bottom lines of some people lower than others? Why were some people willing to offer more than others?
All these questions overwhelmed Stark. Even as a super genius, he could not learn the essence of human knowledge in one night.
More importantly, game theory and psychology sometimes looked more like occult science. Human nature would always be mysterious and elusive. Analyzing everything theoretically would only yield increasingly inaccurate answers. Everything came down to on-the-spot response, which put immense pressure on Stark.
Finally, in the deep night of New York, Stark mumbled, "You're a genius... Stark, you're a super genius... no one in the world is smarter than you, so you certainly have no problem…"
Then, as his voice gradually faded, he fell asleep. By that time, a hint of violet dawn had just lit up the skyline of New York.