"Stark Industries Chief Operating Officer Obadiah Stane fell to his death from a building three days ago at the Stark Industries Park."
"According to official investigation results."
"Obadiah Stane's cause of death was not the act of another, but rather a suicide to escape punishment."
"Police announced."
"Stane had repeatedly engaged in arms deals with overseas terrorist forces under his personal name."
"And committed multiple counts of murder, interfered in the internal affairs of other countries, and other felonies."
"Including the attack several months ago on Stark Industries CEO Tony Stark, which was also orchestrated by Obadiah Stane."
"For more detailed reports, we now connect to our reporter on the scene..."
Leon was practicing horse stance in the living room, watching the news and stuffing a piece of cheese pizza into his mouth.
"That's just fantastic... Now the stock that just rebounded after I showed my face at the company the day before yesterday is going to plunge again, like a roller coaster."
Leon sarcastically mocked himself.
"Although this doesn't affect me much, I always feel really sorry for those retail investors who support Stark."
He thought for a moment, opened Twitter, and posted a status update.
--Obadiah's matter was just an accident, and Stark Industries is irreconcilable with evil.
Please continue to trust Stark Industries and support Stark Industries stock; you will definitely wait for the day when you return fully loaded. Stark never lets supporters down.
It was accompanied by a picture of the leftover pizza on the table.
And so, a few seconds later, the comment section under his post exploded.
Hundreds of abusive comments appeared immediately, as if they had bought property on Twitter.
[Look at that Obadiah, a person like that could still be Chief Operating Officer, Stark Industries is doomed to collapse!]
[It's all bullshit! Tony Stark came back and I bought stock, and in the blink of an eye he shut down the weapons division and made me lose half my net worth.
Leon Stark showed his face after half a year and I bought stock again, yet two days later it explodes that the COO is a supervillain?
I can already picture myself begging on the streets of Los Angeles a month from now!
Damn you, Stark, you made me lose everything!]
Then more and more comments popped up every second, all of them broken-spirited retail investors crying about how they must have lost their minds to buy Stark stock.
Looking at the comment section that hit 999+ in a single minute, Leon felt slightly ashamed.
"Uh, it looks like Stark's investors all have their own thoughts. Whatever, I believe everyone will have a bright future, peace and joy."
At that moment, Pepper walked over holding a cup of coffee: "Just now I seemed to hear you praying for the investors?"
"Actually, not really..." Leon looked at Pepper's expression, feeling a bad premonition.
But Pepper went on talking on her own.
"To be honest, Leon, if you really want them not to lose too terribly, you should go down right now and call up that Tony who has been missing for three days!"
"And then you yourself should get back to your own company chair and make some good money, instead of dumping all the work on me!"
Pepper got somewhat frantic when talking about work, because the burden on her shoulders was simply too heavy.
"Tony doesn't know what he's up to, Obadiah committed so many crimes and deserved to die, and you're out here sunbathing at home every day—how am I supposed to do so much work all by myself?"
She complained at a lightning-fast speed: "Stark Industries, Stark Network, Stark Electronics Technology, even if I had three heads I wouldn't be able to handle this many things!!"
"And you, Leon, you actually still have the leisure to pray for the investors!"
The more Pepper spoke, the angrier she got, and she heavily shoved the coffee in her hand into Leon's grasp: "Oh my god, only after sorting it out now do I realize how crazy these past few days have been!"
"Leon, I demand that you tell Tony that if he doesn't walk out of that damn lab, I'm resigning!"
"And you! Leon, my boy, if you don't manage your own network company any longer, I'm resigning as well!"
Having said that, Pepper gave Leon a serious, angry warning look, turned around, and walked out clicking her high heels clack, clack, clack.
She had to go to work at that damn job again.
Leon opened his mouth on the sofa, wanting to say a few nice things to make Pepper hold on for a bit longer.
But... leaving the decision-making work of all three companies entirely to Pepper really seemed a bit too much, didn't it?
He scratched his head: "Maybe I should go back to the company... No, how could I even have the thought of going to work? Damn it all."
"What I should do is... make Old Joe stop his vacation and go back to continue working! Yes, that's it!"
Leon slapped his palm, and asked JARVIS: "JARVIS, is Joe Bush still on vacation? Notify him and have him go back to work as soon as possible!"
"I am sorry, Master Leon," JARVIS spoke up. "In fact, Mr. Bush's vacation ended just yesterday, and he already returned to the company for work at four o'clock this morning."
"Four? Four in the morning?" Leon exclaimed in amazement, "So it turns out I misunderstood. Old Joe truly is the best CEO in the world."
"Someday I must create a World's Outstanding CEO Award and present the award to Old Joe every single year."
"Tell me... since Old Joe is already at his post, Pepper shouldn't be angry anymore, right?"
This question made even JARVIS fall silent for a few seconds: "Master Leon, I am afraid not."
"Because Mr. Bush only oversees Stark Electronics Technology and temporarily handles a portion of the Stark Network work. The other tasks are still being handled by Miss Potts."
Leon muttered thoughtfully: "Is that so? When I left half a year ago, it was indeed arranged that way, except that Tony would participate in company management back then."
"JARVIS, do you have any suggestions?"
"Master Leon, to prevent Miss Potts from resigning, I suggest you temporarily return to work. Once a successor CEO is found, you may return home to continue sunbathing."
Leon immediately shook his head: "That won't do. Sunbathing is the most important thing; it cannot be delayed!"
"Besides, these past few days I haven't just been sunbathing; you know what I've been up to."
Three days ago, Leon had JARVIS collect all the combat tutorials on the internet.
Through these days of study, he had already mastered most combat arts.
Jeet Kune Do, Muay Thai, Krav Maga, Judo, Mixed Martial Arts, Bajiquan...
Yet the more he learned, the more Leon discovered that his control over his strength had grown stronger, but his combat effectiveness had hardly increased at all.
This made martial arts appear rather tasteless.
Think about the world he was currently in.
Anyone he could beat, he could kill with a single slap.
Anyone he couldn't beat, pulling out all the stops wouldn't guarantee he could withstand a single move from them.
Only when fighting enemies of matched strength would these martial arts come in handy.
However, the people who could match him in strength were far too few when counted up.
Odin counted as one, the Purple Potato counted as one, Captain Marvel counted as one, and well... they were truly countable on one hand.
"Yet your combat skills have already reached the upper limit, and continuing to practice them holds no meaning."
JARVIS offered another suggestion: "Therefore, it would be better to return to work. That way, it will not only make Miss Potts happy, but you can also have a fulfilling day."
"JARVIS, how come you seem especially keen for me to go to work?" Leon paused.
He thought of something: "Ah, I get it. You're protesting me throwing you under the bus in front of Tony three days ago, aren't you?"
"Well, aren't you something, JARVIS? And here you said you had no subjective thoughts, when you've clearly already started developing human grudges!"
The orb of light representing JARVIS flashed on the screen: "Master Leon, I would never do anything detrimental to you."
"But you're instigating me to do those things that delay me from getting stronger and make me unhappy." Leon spread his hands.
He thought for a moment: "How about this: I'll go down first to call Tony up, and then go find a CEO for the company. That way, all the troubles will be gone."
"As you wish." JARVIS remained very considerate.
Before you continue