The One Being Force-Fed Dog Food

Tony Stark was spotted by the media at New York's airport the moment he returned to New York, and once the media knew, the whole world knew.

Stark Industries' stock price rose accordingly, multiplying several times in a short period. It was already not far from its level before the plunge.

That was the genius effect. Investors around the world all felt that Tony Stark was worth this price.

Chen Changsheng had never sold the Stark Industries shares he held. It was not until that afternoon, when Tony Stark held a press conference at Stark Tower, that Chen Changsheng finally acted and sold all the shares he had bought over the past few days in one go.

As soon as those shares were released, they were immediately snapped up. The tens of millions of US Dollars in Chen Changsheng's hands had, unsurprisingly, expanded dozens of times over.

From fifty million in cash to five hundred million US Dollars, Chen Changsheng had needed only the time it took to rescue Tony Stark.

At the press conference, Tony announced to New York that he, Tony Stark, was back!

Tony seemed to have returned to his old, carefree state after coming back to New York. Ignoring everyone's gaze, he sat brazenly on the low platform, eating the hamburger Little Pepper had bought on the way while recounting his recent experiences.

After going through life and death, being threatened and intimidated by terrorists, and finally learning that his friend and lifesaver, Dr. Ethan, had died saving him, Tony Stark's mentality had changed drastically.

Tony naturally spoke most about his various battles of wits with the terrorists. As for the final famous scene, he did not mention it at all.

While vividly recounting his experiences, Tony Stark suddenly thought of Dr. Ethan, who had saved him only to be killed by the terrorists.

At the press conference, Tony's voice grew quieter and quieter. He had thought of the mountains of Stark Industries' weapons piled up at the terrorists' base. He had no idea how many innocent people those weapons might kill.

Chewing his hamburger in silence, Tony Stark felt that he needed to do something. He looked up at the constantly flashing camera lights, then glanced at his assistant. After swallowing the food in his mouth, Tony Stark stood up and solemnly walked to the microphone at the press platform.

Arriving before the microphones arranged side by side, Tony quietly looked at everyone in front of him. For a moment, he did not know what to say or what he should do.

Tony Stark opened and closed his mouth soundlessly before finally speaking with a resolute gaze. "I, Tony Stark, chairman of Stark Industries, hereby announce that Stark Industries will permanently shut down its weapons-manufacturing division."

Before Tony Stark had even finished speaking, waves of gasps immediately erupted from the reporters below. Obadiah rushed over and put an arm around Tony Stark's shoulders, explaining, "Everyone, I'm sure you can see that Tony just got back. He's still not in his right mind, and he needs to rest now."

After saying that, Obadiah escorted Tony Stark down from the platform. At the same time, Obadiah's face had gone as dark as the bottom of a pot.

Tony Stark's personality had already made Obadiah extremely annoyed, but for the sake of his money, Obadiah still needed to carefully maintain their relationship.

Meanwhile, the reporters who felt they had discovered a huge secret surged toward the edge of the platform like mad dogs, hoping to obtain even more explosive news.

"Is Stark Industries really going to shut down its weapons-manufacturing division?"

"Stark, is what you said true?"

"Tony, what really happened to you during your kidnapping?"

Watching the live broadcast on television, Chen Changsheng also saw Tony Stark's smug declaration that he would stop manufacturing weapons. He had to admit that Tony Stark finally looked like a superhero now—a man willing to take responsibility.

Many others were watching Tony Stark's press conference as well. Those with quick hands had already begun selling their Stark Industries shares.

These people understood Tony Stark's personality. He was a playboy who kept his word, a lawless tycoon. He would really honor his promise and cut off the main source of profit for his own company.

If a Stark Industries stock chart had been in front of Chen Changsheng, he would have seen that the stock price was plummeting off a cliff.

Chen Changsheng had already instructed his stockbroker to buy back Stark Industries shares when the price crashed, so naturally he no longer needed to worry about it. The stockbroker still had the integrity expected of one.

It was not that no one wanted to bottom-fish and take a gamble, but they had not prepared in advance. At most, they could only drink a little of the broth—not even enough to count as broth, really, just scraps and crumbs.

On the way home, Tony Stark was also subjected to Obadiah's nonstop lecture. Clearly, Obadiah was furious.

It was no wonder Obadiah was so angry. After Tony Stark's stunt, the stock price would certainly fall even harder. That was all his Obadiah's hard-earned money!

Tony still regarded Obadiah as his good uncle and did not argue with him. After returning to his seaside villa, Tony shut himself away, preparing to work on his new idea: creating a new Iron Man Armor.

Having been kidnapped by terrorists, Tony had developed a trauma. Therefore, Tony Stark wanted to create an Iron Man Armor to give himself greater protection.

Tony Stark was a hands-off owner, so the responsibility of stabilizing the stock price fell to Obadiah. Seeing the stock price, Obadiah felt an impulse to personally shoot Tony Stark dead. That was his hard-earned money!

The losses were devastating—absolutely devastating! Who knew how long it would take for the price to rise again? This further intensified Obadiah's dissatisfaction with Tony Stark. In Obadiah's eyes, Tony Stark was an uneducated, money-wasting playboy.

Returning to his office alone, Obadiah reestablished contact with the group of terrorists in Afghanistan, intending to express his dissatisfaction to them.

But as soon as the video connected, before Obadiah could say anything, the terrorist leader shouted first, "Obadiah, you need to compensate us for our losses. Nearly two hundred of our men died, and our base was blown up. You need to take responsibility for all of this!"

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It would have been better if he had not said that. His words only made Obadiah even angrier. He shouted back without backing down, "Not only did you fail to fulfill our agreement, you also let Tony Stark escape back. That put me in an extremely difficult position. Do you know how much money I lost? You should be compensating me for my losses!"

"I don't care about any of that. You need to give us a batch of weapons immediately. Otherwise, you know what will happen." The terrorists had no time to care about such things. Their troubles were greater than Obadiah's. Obadiah had only lost some money, while their problem here concerned their lives.

If their superiors learned that something had gone wrong, that so many brothers had died, their own lives would probably be over immediately. Their top priority was to scrape together some money, recruit more men, and make up for their mistake. Therefore, regardless of how angry Obadiah became, the terrorist had already begun issuing threats.

Unfortunately, Obadiah did not fall for it. He was in America, while the terrorist was in Afghanistan. What could the terrorist possibly do to him?

Nearly laughed out of anger by the terrorists, Obadiah sneered, "If you hadn't been blinded by greed and wanted to make another profit, would any of this have happened? If you'd killed Tony Stark earlier, would things have turned out like this? You're truly useless. So many of you couldn't keep watch over one Tony Stark! And now you still want me to invest in you."

When force failed, the terrorist leader immediately changed tactics and softened his tone. "It's not entirely our fault. Tony Stark created a new weapon in the cave himself, and he also had help from the US Military. Otherwise, he would absolutely still be under our control."

As he spoke, the terrorist took out and displayed the fragments of the Iron Man Armor they had collected from the desert, indicating that he was not lying.

Seeing the fragments on the ground through the monitor, vaguely shaped like a person, Obadiah fell into thought.

Tony Stark had invented something new again—something that seemed to be individual armor.

Although Obadiah was extremely annoyed by Tony Stark's behavior, he still had great faith in the weapons Tony Stark invented. Without Tony Stark's mind, Stark Industries would never have developed to its current level.

No, without his, Obadiah's, management, Stark Industries would never have reached its current heights. Obadiah drove the inexplicable thought from his mind and turned his attention back to the negotiation before him.

Looking at the fragments of the Iron Man Armor, Obadiah felt that he had found another way to make money. For a moment, he no longer wanted to kill Tony, this golden goose that laid eggs.

"Collect the remains of this weapon and hand them over to me. You will get what you want." After saying that, Obadiah hung up the video call. That was the advantage of having money: even terrorists who killed without batting an eye had to humbly beg him for help.

Obadiah now wanted to make some preparations as well. He could no longer tolerate this group of terrorists. They were incapable of accomplishing anything but excelled at ruining everything. If they had not been so greedy this time, Stark Industries would already have belonged to him.

Obadiah planned to find some professionals to deal with them. He wanted to get his hands on the new weapon, but he would not give the terrorists a single cent! Robbing a robber required thorough preparation, or he might easily overturn the boat.

The terrorists on the other side were somewhat angry as well, but they still followed Obadiah's instructions and began preparing. After all, terrorist activities required funding too.

As peripheral members of the Ten Rings, these people did not dare invoke the Mandarin's name to threaten Obadiah. Therefore, they could only grit their teeth and accept the loss.

Chen Changsheng had already bought twenty percent of Stark Industries at a low price. Tony Stark now held thirty percent, Obadiah ten percent, the military ten percent, S.H.I.E.L.D. ten percent, the US government ten percent, and everyone else ten percent. Chen Changsheng was unquestionably Stark Industries' second-largest shareholder.

Only now did Chen Changsheng understand why Tony Stark could be so carefree. Looking at this shareholder structure, even if the stock price fell all the way to hell, Stark Industries would still have backing.

The military and the government were shareholders, along with some unknown department...

Even after becoming Stark Industries' second-largest shareholder, Chen Changsheng still had no intention of showing up beside Tony Stark to make his presence known. After all, it would be rather improper. More importantly, Chen Changsheng had other matters to worry about at that moment.

With the help of his wife, Dr. Otto had already been able to remain lucid for long periods. Although he could communicate normally, he would still occasionally be disturbed by the artificial intelligence in the mechanical arms, severely affecting his thoughts.

Dr. Otto would mutter to himself from time to time, leaving Rosemary somewhat helpless. Therefore, Rosemary asked Chen Changsheng to think of a way to help Otto recover.

Of course, she only meant mentally recovering. After learning that his spinal nerves had already become entangled with the metal needles, the Otto couple had given up on treatment.

This troubled Chen Changsheng as well. He did not want a Doctor Octopus controlled by mechanical arms. What he wanted was a Dr. Otto who would tirelessly devote himself to the advancement of human technology!

Chen Changsheng had also carefully examined Dr. Otto's mechanical arms. For the time being, there was no other way to resolve the problem of the mechanical arms' probes fusing with Dr. Otto's spinal nerves.

Judging from Dr. Otto's continued attitude of taking the world as his responsibility, Chen Changsheng felt that Dr. Otto might even be secretly pleased to have several more mechanical hands he could control at will...

Chen Changsheng did have the ability to give Dr. Otto a better body and completely separate him from the mechanical arms, but Chen Changsheng might dare to do it—Dr. Otto would still have to dare to trust him.

After thinking it over, the simplest solution was to use the inhibitor chip designed by Dr. Otto to suppress the mechanical arms' intelligence. That way, Dr. Otto could remain lucid for long periods without any side effects.

Manufacturing the inhibitor chip was very simple. It had originally been modified by Dr. Otto from another chip. After Chen Changsheng found an identical model, Dr. Otto modified it himself.

With the inhibitor chip, Dr. Otto returned to his former image of someone who took the world as his responsibility. The four mechanical arms behind him did make things somewhat awkward, though.

Fortunately, as a scientist, Dr. Otto was highly accepting. He did not particularly care whether his new appearance would cause unnecessary disturbances.

Chen Changsheng had originally wanted to discuss the artificial intelligence Dr. Otto had written. After all, an intelligence capable of influencing its user's mind could hardly be considered ordinary artificial intelligence.

Even compared with the most advanced artificial intelligence Chen Changsheng had seen, Jarvis, Chen Changsheng had never sensed that it might possess such abilities.

Dr. Otto's wife continued to love her husband as deeply as ever. Looking at their affectionate gazes and listening to their sweet, tender words, Chen Changsheng felt that he had been force-fed a huge mouthful of dog food...

Dr. Otto held a doctorate in physics, while his wife held a doctorate in literature. If the two of them had not truly loved each other, they probably would never have ended up together. True love was truly great—great enough that she did not even care about the mechanical arms behind Dr. Otto.

Looking at the loving couple, Chen Changsheng decided to find Gwen and spend some time deepening their relationship. He had a girlfriend too, after all. There was no need to stand here watching Dr. Otto show off his affection.