Begging with a Golden Rice Bowl

Although Stark wanted to find the intruder, things never go as planned. Moreover, Kraft's original intention wasn't to invade Stark's database, but to test Angela and Haro's abilities. After breaching Stark's network, he didn't have Angela steal data. Instead, he shifted from offense to defense, testing their defensive capabilities.

"Mr. Stark, the other party doesn't seem hostile."

Jarvis quickly noticed the intruder's unusual behavior. He decisively reported the situation to Tony Stark and offered his own assessment.

"This is... using us for testing?"

Stark, understanding immediately, laughed in exasperation. But realizing he had indeed been outmatched, he shook his head helplessly and gave up on tracking them.

"Who are you?"

Stark, ceasing his resistance, sent a message to the other party.

Soon, a reply came.

"Red Queen."

"Red Queen? She's a girl?"

The network battle between the AIs had long ended. Tony Stark returned to his room. The cover model had already left, but Stark paid her no mind. He took a new set of clothes from his closet, changed, and walked to the dining room with the coffee Jarvis had prepared for him.

"What girl? Do you have a new target?"

Virginia Pepper Potts, nicknamed Little Pepper, was Tony Stark's personal assistant, spokesperson, nanny, therapist, and primary consort...

In short, she was indispensable in both Tony Stark's life and work.

Just like now, she had just seen off the cover model who stayed overnight and prepared his favorite cheeseburger for breakfast.

"New target?"

Tony Stark paused, then nodded firmly and stated unequivocally.

"That's right! She is indeed my new target!"

"She seems very special."

Pepper, knowing Tony Stark very well, felt a pang of jealousy. She had never seen Stark show such a serious expression towards any woman.

"Yes! Very special!"

Stark, completely oblivious to his personal assistant's subtle feelings, replied with sparkling eyes.

"I'm completely captivated by her!"

"So, do you need me to prepare any gifts or a restaurant?"

Pepper suppressed her jealousy and asked as usual.

"Gifts? A restaurant?"

It was then that Stark realized they weren't on the same page.

"No, I don't need those," Stark chuckled. "You can't 'chase' that girl with those things."

"Oh really?" Stark's misleading statement made Pepper unable to hold back her jealousy any longer. She started speaking sarcastically. "It looks like our playboy is finally settling down and considering his life's major events?"

"Hey! Little Pepper! Are you jealous?"

Tony Stark happily continued to tease Pepper. He had been feeling a bit down after being defeated in the network battle, but now he had completely recovered.

Stark was currently quite resistant to marriage. Otherwise, even with mutual feelings for Pepper, he wouldn't have dragged things out for so long without confirming their relationship. But seeing Pepper jealous over him, it was impossible for Tony Stark not to be happy.

"I'm just your personal assistant, why would I be jealous!"

Pepper was inwardly upset. She forcefully shoved the breakfast she brought into Tony Stark's hands and turned to leave.

But Stark grabbed her.

"Alright, don't be angry."

Tony Stark wasn't an idiot. He naturally wouldn't let Pepper leave like this. Jokes aside, if Pepper misunderstood and left him in anger, Tony Stark would find it unacceptable.

He quickly explained what had just happened, even bringing Jarvis in as a witness to clear up the misunderstanding.

After listening to Tony Stark's explanation, Pepper secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Then, she angrily began to scold Stark.

"How can you be so reckless! What if your database had really been compromised?! Do you know how much loss that would cause the company?! You can't always act on your whims, Tony!"

Stark's computer contained a lot of Stark Industries data, as well as various design blueprints. If they had been leaked, the consequences would have been no less severe than his later announcement to shut down the weapons division.

"Okay, okay, I get it,"

Tony Stark appeased Pepper's anger with a fawning smile.

"Nothing happened, right? Besides, with the strength that AI displayed, if she wanted to sneak attack Stark Industries' data while I wasn't paying attention, Jarvis wouldn't have been able to stop her."

At this point, Tony Stark's expression turned serious. He placed his hands on Pepper's shoulders.

"So, Little Pepper, for the next period, I need to give Jarvis a good upgrade. I'll leave all company matters to you to handle."

"I understand, go ahead and do it, Tony."

When it came to serious business, Pepper also returned to her decisive style of handling things.

Meanwhile, Kraft had no idea that his little test had completely demoralized the famous Tony Stark. Of course, if he had known, he might have laughed heartily.

After testing Angela's abilities with Jarvis, Kraft assigned her two tasks he had already been working on.

These were to uncover the mastermind behind the Magia Gang's human experimentation years ago, and to trace the source of Vibranium, the primary material used to create Captain America's shield.

After days of intelligence gathering and sifting, there was still no lead regarding the Magia Gang. After all, networks weren't very developed seven years ago, so there was very little data stored on computers. Moreover, the mastermind behind it was extremely cautious, and related information had basically been wiped out physically.

As for information related to human experimentation, there was simply too much. Not only was America leading the way in this regard, but other countries had also conducted similar experiments to varying degrees, and their research directions were generally focused on the super-soldier path. It seemed the success of Captain America had a significant impact.

Therefore, it was practically impossible to start by focusing on factions involved in human experimentation. Excluding other countries, America alone had a large number of official and unofficial factions that had secretly conducted human experiments. The number within America alone was almost equal to the total of all other countries combined.

In contrast, information about Vibranium was quickly locked onto by Angela and Haro.

This peculiar metal, Vibranium, originated from a small country in northeastern Africa called Wakanda. There were two channels to acquire it: one was the occasional small amount of Vibranium sold officially, and the other was smuggling. Therefore, the price of Vibranium had always been high, and it was available in name but not in practice, making it impossible to buy easily.

The exorbitant price wasn't a major issue for Kraft at the moment, but the problem was that even with money, he might not be able to get it.

And...

Given that Wakanda possessed resources far exceeding gold and diamonds, why was it still a poor, backward agricultural country relying on international aid?

Kraft had carefully calculated the total amount of Vibranium that had ever flowed out of Wakanda and its sales price. If even half of it had been used for its own development, Wakanda would absolutely not still be a poverty-stricken nation.

So, out of curiosity, he had Angela and Haro conduct a more in-depth investigation into Wakanda.

Then, he was astonished.

This so-called backward agricultural country, Wakanda, actually possessed not-weak network technology, and even had their own intelligence agency, PRIDE. The main function of this agency was to block and delete information about Wakanda online. However, thanks to this intelligence agency, Angela had the opportunity to hack into Wakanda's internal network.

"This is really... shamelessly done..."

Looking at the data Angela had collected, a mocking smile appeared on Kraft's face.

I've caught a cold... My head has been feeling groggy since the afternoon. I'll look at the reward messages tomorrow; I'm going to sleep now.

Neither the comics nor the movies mentioned Wakanda receiving international aid. I've applied the situation of poor countries in reality. Whether it was actually implemented or not, I don't know, but there has always been considerable assistance, both private and official...

Also, regarding S.H.I.E.L.D., I think many fanfictions overestimate their intelligence capabilities. Not to mention their network skills, the fact that they could be breached by a civilian organization like Tidal Wave suggests their usual intelligence processing capabilities shouldn't be that exaggerated.

So much happens every day that it's impossible to process it all. Normally, they should collect and organize information, and only retrieve and investigate it thoroughly when it attracts attention or when that specific intelligence is needed.

To put it bluntly, as long as it's not too excessive, Nick Fury wouldn't even know who you are.

The plot where someone easily teaches a street thug a lesson and the information is immediately sent to Fury's desk is too unrealistic. Fury would rather feed his cat with that time.

I've also created character cards for other characters. Mr. Negative's image seems to be under review.