Return of Stark

"Welcome back, Master Leon. Long time no see."

The moment Leon stepped back home, JARVIS's voice rang out immediately.

JARVIS was the artificial intelligence created by Tony, named after Edwin Jarvis, the old butler of the Stark household.

"It has been half a year since we last saw each other, JARVIS."

Leon walked toward his bedroom.

When he entered space half a year ago.

Considering that he would spend most of his time in slumber and that the spacecraft's construction time was rushed.

Therefore, the crewed spacecraft was not equipped with JARVIS's subroutines.

Hearing JARVIS's voice again now, a sudden sense of relaxation at being home washed over Leon's heart.

"JARVIS, I have good news. Tony has been rescued by me from the terrorist organization."

"Is Pepper at the company right now? Please let her know so she doesn't have to worry anymore."

Leon instructed JARVIS in his room while taking off his pants and entering the shower room.

He had not washed with water for half a month, and the cleanup procedure on the spacecraft was truly a long story.

"Master Leon, Miss Pepper received the news of the young master's rescue ten minutes ago and is currently waiting at the airport," JARVIS replied.

"So fast? I didn't expect the garrison base's operational efficiency to be quite so high," Leon muttered.

"It's enough that Pepper knows; she must have been worried sick these past few months."

"It's also Tony's fault for being so careless. How many times was he warned, yet he always took it lightly each time."

"Well, now look. Calculating the time, it must have been that I went to space one second, and he went to Afghanistan to deliver himself on a silver platter the next."

"I told him Obadiah was eyeing him covetously, but he wouldn't believe it."

"Still, Obadiah is truly formidable, seizing the best moment to strike. The moment he saw Tony and me separate, he decisively made a lethal move."

JARVIS listened quietly to Leon's complaints.

Leon had not spoken these blaming words in front of Tony.

After all, Tony had already suffered enough because of this arrogance; he did not need him to go and criticize a few more times to add fuel to the fire.

Someone who had just escaped mortal danger actually needed their family's bantering to dispel the psychological shadows even more.

"Master Leon, you just said that Obadiah orchestrated the attack on Mr. Stark?"

JARVIS suddenly chimed in: "Do you need me to help pass these words to Mr. Stark and remind him to be careful?"

"No, I've already told him."

"When he gets back, we'll go solve Obadiah's problem."

Leon lathered shampoo into his hair: "Also, JARVIS, why do you always call Tony the young master or Mr. Stark? Shouldn't the young master be me? And I'm a Stark too. Tony is so old, calling him the old master would be more fitting."

"Apologies, Master Leon, I have been serving Mr. Stark since before the nineties."

"Before you came to this family, I was accustomed to calling Mr. Stark the young master."

"If you wish, I can change the address next time."

"No need for that, just call me like this." Leon started rinsing off the foam.

He felt that JARVIS had probably developed human emotions, otherwise how could such a thing as habit exist.

Perhaps in the future he could help JARVIS evolve into a true intelligent life form.

Instead of being killed by Tony's "son," Ultron, like in the movie.

Leon quickly finished washing and changed into a fitted set of grey clothes.

Wiping his hair with a towel, he walked out of the room.

"JARVIS, help me prepare some food. I'm feeling a bit hungry."

Leon walked to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator door, but it was empty inside.

"Aha, an expected situation. JARVIS, help me order takeout."

Los Angeles was already morning at this moment.

The entire city had just awakened from its sleep and was beginning its operation for the whole day.

Leon's takeout was delivered to the mansion very soon.

He impatiently sat at the dining table and began to eat.

Having eaten bread and nutrient solution in space for half a year, his mouth had long since gone completely bland.

Tasting the deliciousness of fats and carbohydrates once again, he couldn't help but eat continuously for two hours.

"JARVIS, order me a cheeseburger takeout. No, order ten!"

"JARVIS, order ten pizzas, one of every flavor. Wait, get three of the highest-calorie cheese flavor!"

"JARVIS, order five portions of roast chicken from the Chinese restaurant..."

The meal lasted until noon.

Full of food and wine, Leon patted his completely flat belly with satisfaction and sat on the living room sofa.

"Satisfying, thoroughly satisfying."

"No wonder Tony likes cheeseburgers; foods that are an explosion of calories just make one feel utterly full of happiness."

Leon sighed with emotion.

He suddenly felt that for him, the greatest benefit of a Man of Steel might actually be the fact that he never got fat no matter how much he ate.

No matter how many calories or how much fat he consumed into his body, it could only transform into nourishment to make his body stronger.

This was simply a gospel for a Chinese soul who loved food like him.

Taking the last cheeseburger and taking a bite, Leon felt so satisfied at that moment as though he could comprehend the solemn and sacred artistic conception in the Pietà.

"JARVIS, let me see the unread communications from the past half year," Leon said.

"Alright, Master Leon."

A string of information windows popped up on the flat screen in front of Leon.

JARVIS summarized in an orderly fashion: "You currently have a total of one thousand six hundred and thirty-four unread messages on your WeChat, and eight hundred and seven emails in your mailbox."

"Among them, messages sent by your high school classmates account for seventy-four percent, female classmates account for eighty-nine percent, and messages with a pornographic bias account for ninety-three percent..."

Leon was speechless: "These people are truly blinded by money. Even guys sent me those kinds of messages? Fine, fine, ignore emails from unfamiliar people."

"Understood, Master Leon, you currently have no unread messages."

Leon clapped his hands: "Perfect! JARVIS, now tell me about the company's development over the past half year. Right, the companies under my name."

When Tony developed the smartphone two years ago.

Leon also utilized the resources at hand to establish an internet company—Stark Network.

Anyway, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, the internet sector in the United States was also in the ascendant.

Moreover, the internet bubble had only ended a few years ago, and this field had not yet been occupied by other larger capitals.

Since such large, undiscovered cakes were just sitting there waiting to be carved up.

Then why couldn't the person who ate the cake be him?

With the resources of Stark Industries behind him.

Leon brought many internet applications that would only exist twenty years in the future onto the market within a single year.

He founded WeChat, Twitter, acquired Amazon and YouTube... and even Pornhub he didn't let go of, creating it and registering a company before that crowd in Canada.

Today, Stark Network had over two hundred million users worldwide.

Leon slept in space for half a year, yet this company's market value quietly doubled.

It was just that his disappearance a while ago, along with Tony's missing status, caused the risen stock price to plummet by nearly half.

After listening to JARVIS's report, Leon clicked his tongue: "Although the stock price dropped by half within a month... how is it still higher than when I left?"

"This is truly a pleasant surprise. The company's president is Old Joe right now, right? Tell him he did a good job, and give him three days off to rest."

"Alright, Master Leon, I'll send a notification to Mr. Joe Bush right away."

JARVIS acknowledged and then suggested: "However, I think compared to a vacation, Mr. Joe Bush might prefer that you agree to let him add an external physical Home button to the smartphone."

Leon was speechless: "Oh my god, he's still obsessed with that useless feature like drawing legs on a snake!"

"Tony has already developed the smartphone into an ultra-thin full-touch screen. The next step is projection phones and projection glasses. How is Old Joe still immersed in his retro stubbornness?"

"JARVIS, tell him to hurry and bury his obsession in the ground, then take a good rest for a few days, and stop being as conservative as Aunt Susan next door!"

"Understood, Master Leon," JARVIS accepted, "However, it seems there is no lady named Susan next door to us."

"That's a metaphor, JARVIS, it's a rhetorical device," Leon emphasized.

"I understand..." JARVIS's voice paused for a moment, with some static, as if taking notes.

Leon held the flat screen: "Right, JARVIS, Tony should be returning to Los Angeles around four to five in the afternoon. Since there's still so much time, put on Superman for me."

"Understood, now playing the 1979 film Superman. Turns out you like watching nostalgic films just like Mrs. Susan." JARVIS applied what he had just learned.

"Who is Susan... Oh, you learn really fast." Leon twitched the corner of his mouth.

Time came to the afternoon.

After Tony returned to Los Angeles.

He first gazed deeply into Pepper's eyes.

Then he immediately diverted his course to buy two cheeseburgers.

Afterward, he headed back on his way to Stark Industries to hold a press conference.

Through Leon's repeated emphasis, Tony had already developed deep suspicions about Obadiah.

So when Obadiah appeared, warmly hugging him and making polite small talk asking him for a hamburger to eat,

Tony chose a flat refusal.

"Sorry, I only have this burger in my hand, I can't share it with you," Tony said as he pulled another burger from his pocket.

Leon, meanwhile, was at home watching the live broadcast on television.

KNKV Television Station was broadcasting the scene live on both the internet and TV.

Tony Stark had been rescued from Afghanistan, which was a major event capable of shaking all of Los Angeles.

The news hit Twitter's global trending topics the moment it appeared, attracting tens of millions of people to enter the livestream to watch.

At the same time, the stock price of Stark Industries rebounded all the way up.

Just as it had plummeted off a cliff before, it now soared upward like a rocket.

All because Tony Stark had come back alive.

It was as if his name alone was worth hundreds of millions of US dollars.

All the stockholders were thrilled; this was simply a guaranteed win-win entry opportunity!

Until inside the livestream, Tony squatted in front of the podium and talked at length about things like the rulers being out of touch.

Then he stood up, walked behind the podium, and said with utmost solemnity.

"I announce that starting from now, the weapons division of Stark Industries is permanently closed!"

Tony was dead serious: "I'm going to seriously think about the future of this company... and let this group create greater benefits for the world!"

Boom!

Everyone at the scene, every netizen in the livestream, was in an uproar at this moment!

The scene was noisy and boiling over, with every reporter trying to thrust a microphone toward Tony's mouth to ask what kind of trauma he had suffered to make such a decision.

The livestream was filled with all sorts of vocabulary.

There were those who couldn't believe it, and those mocking capitalists for having a sudden burst of conscience.

But even more were stockholders who had just bought shares flooding the screen with curses.

"Tony really is decisive, without any buffer at all; now the company's market value is going to drop again."

Leon lay on the sofa, raising the glass of milk in his hand to Tony on the television: "Still, this is his style."

"Master Leon, you seem to have known beforehand that Tony would do this?" JARVIS asked.

"Of course, this is what I wanted him to do two years ago."

Leon flipped over and sat up, casually picking up a piece of fruit from the table and popping it into his mouth.

"He'll be back soon, I need to go get ready."

"Right, has the Mark armor been cleaned up? You can give Tony a surprise, JARVIS." Leon pushed open the door and walked down the stairs.

JARVIS replied: "Per your arrangement, the armor has already been repaired on the robotic arm console. You can bring Mr. Stark over after he returns."