Stark sat in his Stark Building office chair with his feet up, scrolling through videos. Pepper, standing at the door, sighed and said to Obadiah, "Sir, I know he looks a bit indifferent to learning, like an internet-addicted teenager, but at least he's not anxious anymore. He won't be paying too much attention to me either, acting like a turkey in mating season, stretching his neck out to pick fights with others. I guess that's a good thing."
Obadiah craned his neck to peek inside, wrinkling his forehead and curling his lips in a look of mild disgust, but then glanced at Pepper and said, "Well, at least he's not bothering you. Let him scroll through short videos if he wants, but remind him not to stay up late. We can't afford a rise in the medical budget for next season."
Pepper nodded, and after Obadiah left, she immediately picked up her phone, cheerfully saying to the person on the other end, "Wanda, do you have time this afternoon? How about shopping with Pamela? I need to pick up the sample invitation design I saw last time... "
"Oh, him," Pepper said, tilting her head back and flipping her hair, then taking another glance at the office door. "He's recently been obsessed with TikTok. He spends hours every day scrolling through short videos and has even set up his own account. Now and then, he shoots some videos to attract followers, so he doesn't bother with me..."
"My goodness, I wish he would keep it up. Short videos are truly a cure for anxiety. He's finally not treating me like a fragile alien baby anymore. Otherwise, how could I possibly have a free afternoon?"
"Great, I'll drive to pick you up, ah, I mean I'll have Jarvis drive to pick you up. Let's meet at our usual spot."
Stark was scrolling through video after video online when a voice suddenly came from the screen.
"... Yes, I've checked the dropout list from Columbia University Medical School, and there's no mention of Dr. Schiller Rodriguez. He's not on the sabbatical list either, which clearly doesn't align with his classmates' claims about him taking several years off..."
"I suspect someone has erased this doctor's records for that period. This could be related to the time he cooperated with law enforcement. But the question is, if it was just a matter of providing technological support to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, why erase the records? Could there be some underlying issue we're not seeing?"
Stark sat upright, staring intently at the screen.
Soon, another voice came from the screen. Someone was reviewing the video of the person who had just spoken, and clearly, they had more to say.
"I've looked into a traffic incident report from the Brooklyn Area. Pay attention to this, here it documents a street racing accident from route A02 to E63a. The vehicle owner is named Alex Leonas."
"Upon investigating that name, I found he was the football team captain at Columbia University during the same years as Dr. Rodriguez. He was jailed in 2006 for assault charges, and again in 2009 for six counts including drug trafficking, and has not been released till this day."
"However, what he was later convicted for is not the point. What's important is, during the street racing incident, Alex had a solid alibi."
"In the spring semester of that year, Columbia University won a home victory in their football game against University of Michigan. That evening, Alex and all the football players attended the victory party and stayed very late."
"For at least six hours, Alex was in a place where he was seen by others, without even a half-minute of absence, which proves that he couldn't have been involved in the street racing event."
"Following this clue, I found some more information—a home video shot by a member of the Columbia University football team. Look here, it mentions that something crazy happened on the night of the victory party. He doesn't specify what, but I'm guessing it was probably a fight, or there might even have been bloodshed."
"The reason why this incident hasn't been widely known may have something to do with the mysterious street racing incident and Dr. Rodriguez's leave of absence. The truth is, Columbia University probably covered up some details to mitigate the impact of the accident, and what exactly those details are, well, that's something only the people involved could tell us."
Stark paused the video and took a closer look, noting that the analyst had written 'Retired Federal Bureau of Investigation Agent' beneath it.
Stark couldn't help but laugh, finding this to be quite the hell of a joke, considering that not even active Federal Bureau of Investigation agents could uncover so much—or rather, definitely wouldn't uncover it. Because if they had the capability to do so, they probably would have already retired voluntarily by now.
Stark had been watching documentaries and related video clips for a long time, primarily looking at various online reviews of the documentaries and analyses of the characters within them. It was quite addictive; sometimes, a perspective within a video could spark a stream of seventy or eighty more, and then linked videos would offer another viewpoint, followed by a third and fourth angle, opening up an endless, entirely new world.
Of course, Stark mainly watched videos about himself, especially those sections that praised him, which seemed to go on endlessly. He didn't even realize there could be so many fresh perspectives from which to sing his praises.
After watching a lot of these types of videos, big data started recommending other people's analyses to him. Stark's favorites were the ones that praised Pepper, with Jarvis's being a close second.
But in reality, the popularity of the other characters in the documentary combined didn't come close to Schiller's alone, so it was hard to avoid stumbling upon Schiller's videos as well.
However, Schiller's videos didn't quite follow the same pattern as the rest. In the short videos related to Schiller, every blogger seemed to have the deductive prowess of Holmes combined with Leviathan. Every move made by the Doctor was magnified and analyzed, digging into every minute detail, both past and present.
Most of these were analyses of Schiller's past, as his history was indeed a puzzle. Stark couldn't say he was completely uninterested.
They actually knew quite early that Schiller was not of this world, but the specifics were unclear—such as when he came, how he got here, what he did after his arrival, and what his view of this world and their friendship was. Basically, no one knew.
Stark originally didn't want to ask, prioritizing the current state of their relationship over understanding someone's past, but now he was having second thoughts.
The sudden attention Schiller garnered amongst everyday people gave Stark a subtle sense of crisis. How could it be that those who had never met Schiller seemed to know more about him than his own circle of friends? What kind of situation was that?
Having scrolled through short videos until his neck was stiff, Stark stood up, shook his head, and stretched. Just as he was about to call Pepper, he saw a text from her on his phone—she was going shopping this afternoon and didn't want to be disturbed by anyone.
Stark thought about it and decided to go to the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters.
Agent Coulson was confused when he greeted Stark, asking, "Why have you come at this time, Tony? Is there something very important?"
"Where's Nick?" Stark asked.
"The boss is out; he seemed to have something urgent and left in a hurry. Are you looking for him?"
"Nothing particularly important. Is Natasha around? Is she here?"
"Of course, she's in her office."
"I heard she's been quite busy recently," Stark turned to Coulson and said, "Haven't seen her for a long time."
"Yes, you know since Doctor Schiller became famous, Nick suddenly took an interest in his past. We agents are the ones doing the work, and Natasha is the one taking the lead."
"It must be because they are from the same town," Stark said with a smile. "Where's her office? I'll go and chat with her."
"This way, follow me."
As Stark walked over, pushed open the door, and found Natasha browsing short videos at her desk, frowning deeply in thought."
Stark walked in, leaned over to take a look, and sure enough, he saw a familiar face—wasn't that the retired Federal Bureau of Investigation agent?
"You watch his videos too?" Stark raised an eyebrow and said, "Come on, you're a real agent, why are you watching these fake agents' videos online?"
"Because what he says makes sense," Natasha instinctively answered, then realized Stark had arrived. She looked up at Stark and said, "What brings you here at this time? Aren't you hanging around your fiancée?"
Stark sat down opposite her, his hands on the desk, staring at her and said, "You've been investigating Schiller's past lately? Found anything?"
Natasha hesitated for a moment but still shared her findings with Stark, of course, the stories from Schiller's college days.
As Stark listened, his expression grew worse. He said, "Are you saying Schiller got screwed over by those bastards at the Federal Bureau of Investigation in college and had to do their dirty work?"
"In theory, that's correct, but we can't be sure that the Schiller from back then is the same Schiller we know now. You know he's not from our world. Whether he had come at that time is still uncertain."
Although Natasha said this, she actually knew deep down that it was Schiller, because the personal style of that case was too striking. However, she didn't bother going into these details with Stark, only putting on an attitude of fooling a superior and claiming she couldn't be sure either.
Stark stroked his chin and said, "So, that's the story. I thought the current Schiller was unlikely to fall into the hands of agents. What about before that, though? How did he get into college? Who are his parents?"
Natasha averted her eyes.
Stark looked suspicious and stared at Natasha, "What's wrong? Is there a problem with Schiller's family?"
Natasha crossed her arms, tilted her head, and pursed her lips before saying, "You can't exactly call it a problem, pretty much the same as you."
"What do you mean 'pretty much the same as me'?" Stark became even more puzzled.
Natasha knew that Stark was a persistent nuisance who wouldn't rest until he got to the bottom of things, so she sighed, pulled out two files from under the desk, and handed them to Stark.
Stark was skeptical, took the files hesitantly, and even seemed a bit afraid to open them, but he eventually started reading. The more he read, the wider his eyes opened, then they became deeply furrowed.
"See, I told you it's pretty much the same," Natasha shrugged and said, "But it might not be the Schiller we know now. Don't take it too hard."
Stark looked at the content on the files, speechless. After a while, he gently thumped the desk and said, "Hydra..."
There was a gritted teeth tone in his voice, then he lowered his head back to the files and said, "And the Hamilton couple too, didn't they realize working with Hydra is like hatching a plot with a tiger? Did they think they were working for a normal scientific organization?"
"The moment they upgraded Zola's firewall, they should have seen this day coming. It's one thing for them to lose their lives, but to adopt Schiller before their deaths—was it so he could tend to their graves?"
Natasha sighed lightly and said, "Schiller was relatively lucky. The agents sent to silence him didn't find him, and he escaped a fate."
But Natasha's words reminded Stark of something. When he and Steve were wandering around Schiller's High Tower, they had seen a corridor and a room.
That room seemed to indicate some terrible event that Schiller had experienced, apparently during his childhood. Could it have been the Hamilton couple's demise?
This memory existed within Schiller's Tower of Thought, which meant that Schiller had come to this world during his youth and that the one who experienced all this was the Schiller they knew now?
Stark felt suffocated.