Yeah.
It was the same principle as saying that ninety-nine point nine percent effort, plus zero point one percent talent, made all the difference.
If you put in the effort, you might gain what you wanted. But a talented person could get what they wanted without making any effort, and might even get more than the person who had worked for it.
There was a reason why motivational drivel was called chicken soup.
So there was only one way to give Tony special treatment: chop him up, then throw Tony Stark into the 108 Demon Stars in the Chaos Underworld and have one of the three leaders—an Underworld Warrior—seal him away.
But since Tony was unwilling, Lake was unwilling to force the matter either.
In any case, the Stark family already had a Gold Saint. By then, even if Tony really became a nobody, it would not truly diminish the Stark family's prestige, would it?
One week later.
Lake flew from New York to Washington D.C. Once there, he first went home to report to Karen, the family's boss, that he had returned. Then, that evening, he drove as agreed to a house with no sign hanging outside.
He entered the building.
The interior decoration was completely different from what could be seen outside. The more ordinary the exterior looked, the more magnificent and luxurious the inside appeared.
Alexander Pierce, who had already been waiting there for quite some time, rose from his seat when he saw Lake enter under the guidance of a servant. "Mr. Edwin."
Lake smiled and shook Alexander's hand. "My friends all call me Lake. I like it very much—unless, Alexander, you feel that we aren't friends."
He had never cared about what others possessed when making friends. He only cared about his own mood and