Investigating the New World

"Julianne, could you please get me all the newspapers from the last three months? Go to the administration department and ask them to move them to my office."

Henry, upon arriving at Stark Studios, instructed his secretary in this way. Although she was physically capable of handling three months' worth of newspaper work by herself, it was best not to mistreat the staff. The administrative department was responsible for these kinds of miscellaneous tasks.

"Okay, boss." The chubby girl didn't ask any more questions and went to make the arrangements.

In this era when online media was just emerging and print media was still the mainstream, the only way to know the latest news was to read newspapers.

The library has a wider selection of newspapers than Stark Studios, but in the public reading area, you can only find the current day's issues, or at best, three days' worth. For longer periods, you need to go through a check-in process.

Henry didn't need to compare the differences between multiple newspapers, so he simply read the newspapers kept by the film company.

Each department at Stark Studios subscribes to newspapers according to the needs of its supervisors or departments. The newspaper used for archiving is the Los Angeles Times, which has one of the highest circulations in the United States and is located on the West Coast.

United States newspapers certainly have a strong political bias, the difference being whether they support the Democratic Party or Republican Party. Social news and entertainment news are equally unscrupulous, so there's no need to deliberately look for newspapers with different stances to compare.

The newspapers, enough for three months, were hauled in quite a few boxes using a trolley. After the group of young men left, Henry, alone, flipped through the three months' worth of news at Super Speed.

The events of these three months are similar to one part of my memory, but slightly different from another.

The social cases, financial news, and entertainment scandals that have occurred are basically the same. The biggest difference is that the Sentry, the "first real-life superhero in history" in New York, does not exist.

Therefore, in some disasters where Sentry were not involved in the rescue efforts, the damage was sometimes greater than when Sentry were present, and some losses could not be disclosed.

However, without the Sentry, there was no major battle in New York Manhattan, and no one lost their life in it. At least in this relatively peaceful world, there were no hundreds of thousands of people dying simultaneously, causing morgues and crematoriums to be overwhelmed.

The news that Henry cared about most, about that girl, was almost nowhere to be found in the news over the past three months.

This is normal, because she is still a relatively unknown actress, not a big star with a built-in following. Unless one of her movies is released, virtually no one will read her name in the news or newspapers.

After tidying up the newspapers he had read, Henry didn't immediately have his secretary call someone to take them away, because he hadn't spent much time reading them. If he had called someone to move the newspapers right away, it would seem like he, the boss, was making trouble for no reason and playing games with people.

Instead of reading the newspaper, Henry walked to the small office outside the CEO's office and asked the secretary who was munching on potato chips, "Julianne, do you know Charlize Theron?"

The chubby, dark-skinned girl carefully put away her bag of potato chips, tilted her head, and thought for a moment. "Was she the female lead in last year's * the Devil's Advocate *?"

Wasn't the question asking if she was his girlfriend?

Henry said, "It's her. Do you know her recent schedule?"

Flipping through her notebook, the chubby girl said, "If I remember correctly, she went to film a movie."

"Australia? The crew of <The Matrix>?"

The chubby secretary's eyes widened, and she said, "No, it seems like they're filming a movie in China."

"Could you help me find out Charlize Theron's public schedule, and the cast list for the Matrix, which is currently filming in Australia?"

The chubby secretary flipped to a blank page in her notebook, wrote down the to-do list, and casually said, "Okay."

Back in his office, Henry checked the development progress of various projects on Stark Studios ' internal Git repository, the usage plan for the supercomputer Hollywood Kid, and his own messages and progress on various servers.

Henry was careful not to leave any trace on public computers for his private work at places like Sheephole Valley and the Undersea Laboratory, lest someone trace it back to him. Therefore, it was impossible to check the situation through the public network, so he could only go and see for himself.

As for why it's easy to erase the trace after it's no longer in use, it's because the act itself is a "trace." Frequent occurrences of these blank spaces would raise suspicion in anyone with network management experience. Unless, of course, you're going to fabricate a story here...

Instead of going through all that trouble, it's better to be cautious and simply not use it.

This isn't laziness, it's dizziness. My vision is blurry and I feel lightheaded.

Realizing that the impact of his weakened vision was probably greater than he had imagined, Henry decided to get a normal pair of glasses.

The reason I don't make them myself is simple: the inability to use Heat Vision effectively renders more than half of my manual skills useless.

Furthermore, in precision machining, without microscope-level vision, even if you still have the precision control of your hands, it's useless.

First, call an eye clinic to schedule an eye exam. Only after you have the eye exam report can you go to an optician to get glasses.

Henry rubbed the bridge of his nose, pondering what the world was all about and what had happened to him. Suddenly, a certain image flashed through his mind, and he guessed at a possibility.

In one memory, after destroying the Sentry, the X-Men and sorcerers, as if courting death, attacked him again. Without holding back, he retaliated.

In this great battle, a group of people dressed in brown monks' robes stood out quite a bit. Most importantly, they all wore Sling Ring on their hands, ritual implements that looked almost identical to knuckle dusters.

So they are the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj?

Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch have stated that they are the Sorcerer Supreme's chosen helpers. Given that he is looking for them, their presence is quite reasonable.

Henry didn't see a young, bald mage who looked like a woman leading the group of Kamar-Taj. There was only a bunch of bearded, white-bearded guys with skin like the United Nations, and... Tony Stark?

Wait a minute! The future Iron Man isn't doing scientific research anymore, he's turned to magic?

What will happen to Stephen Strange after he loses both hands?

The Cloak of Levitation and the Eye of Agamotto, two distinctly characteristic magical artifacts, both fell into Tony Stark's possession. What will the future Doctor Strange do?

Or is it that what he saw on Tony Stark wasn't the two magical artifacts he thought they were?

He started rubbing his temples. While his Super Brain was incredibly intelligent, without the right conditions, simply filling in the blanks with his own imagination was just self-deception. So Henry gave up trying to think further.

Should we call Tony Stark and confirm directly with him?

Because in Henry's memory, he seemed to see an incredible scene that he couldn't explain.

Tony Stark, dressed in the Sorcerer Supreme suit, wore a nanomechanical version of the Infinity Gauntlet he created himself, complete with all six Infinity Stones.

Then he snapped his the Snap!