"S.H.I.E.L.D., get out here and clean this up!"
With S.H.I.E.L.D. intervening, everything in the surrounding area was soon cordoned off.
Nick Fury soon arrived at the scene as well, and the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents began carrying out their respective tasks.
Tony's experience dealing with the military told him that Nick Fury was bad news, but with Li Ang there, he wasn't particularly wary.
"Collect all the phones at the scene first. Delete all the videos!"
Seeing this, Li Ang immediately took issue.
How was he supposed to earn presence if they deleted all the videos? Was he supposed to beat Tony, that golden pig, every day, or spend an entire night playing hero for a thousand points?
"No!" Li Ang said firmly.
The surrounding agents stopped what they were doing and turned their eyes to Nick Fury.
"No? You want the videos to get out?" Nick Fury narrowed his one eye at Li Ang.
He was finding the man before him rather hard to read.
"The videos can't be deleted. They have to be posted online." Li Ang met Nick Fury's gaze without hesitation.
This concerned his ability to gain presence. He wouldn't back down.
The atmosphere instantly chilled. Tony glanced around, then slowly walked over to Li Ang's side.
"Letting this footage get out will only cause panic. And the ones panicking won't be your enemies, but ordinary people sitting at home watching the news. They won't thank you. They'll fear you, and that fear will breed more trouble than you can handle."
Li Ang neither agreed nor disagreed. Still smiling, he said, "There are pros and cons. You said it yourself: this world needs heroes. This is an opportunity."
Nick Fury didn't answer right away. His face darkened as he weighed the pros and cons, while the agents around them all remained still.
As the atmosphere grew increasingly tense, the smile gradually faded from Li Ang's face.
After several seconds of silence, Nick Fury sighed. "The videos can stay, but they have to be edited. We'll take full responsibility for that."
"Fine." Li Ang agreed to Nick Fury's condition.
As long as the videos could be posted, Li Ang didn't care whether they caused panic. All that mattered was gaining presence.
Tony came over and slung an arm around Li Ang's shoulders. "Don't worry. Stark Industries isn't just sitting around doing nothing. We have our own publicity department. I'll promote you!"
He hadn't forgotten what Li Ang had told him back in the Middle East.
Everyone had something they pursued, and what Li Ang pursued was fame.
He was more than willing to support Li Ang, just as Li Ang supported him.
"That would be great."
Nick Fury sighed and was about to leave when Li Ang called out to him, watching his forlorn back.
"Want to hear a secret? Consider it payment for your help with the editing."
Who didn't like secrets?
Gossip was ingrained in their bones, probably originating from the survival instinct of their ape-man ancestors to keep their ears open in every direction.
That went double for a spymaster. If he could resist the temptation of a secret, then Li Ang could resist the temptation of Victoria's Secret.
But everyone knew that wasn't realistic.
Nick Fury stopped, deliberately putting on an angry expression, though he might as well have had the word "curious" written across his face.
"Let's hear it."
Li Ang gathered his words. "My hearing is different from most people's. I can hear a faint heartbeat beneath a glacier in the Arctic. You could go take a look."
"A glacier in the Arctic?" As Nick Fury pondered this, he suddenly remembered a file he had read a long time ago.
He thought he knew who was beneath the glacier.
At the same time, he gained a little more understanding of Li Ang's abilities. He could hear a heartbeat in the Arctic from Los Angeles!
Didn't that mean he could easily hear his operational plans from New York?
At that thought, Nick Fury gave Li Ang a long look, and the importance he attached to this young man rose a little further.
Before the night wind had carried away all the smoke from the fighting in Los Angeles, the internet had already erupted like a pot of boiling oil.
The first thing to go viral was a shaky phone recording, its image so blurry it looked like it had been filmed on a potato. That did nothing to stop it from racking up a million views.
In the footage, Iron Monger was punched into the asphalt like a tin can, and the comments instantly turned into a massive family reunion.
"What gym does this guy train at? Someone send me his trainer's contact info!"
"The Pentagon should revise its recruitment ads overnight: forget enlisting, go home and practice your punches. One punch is worth a whole missile company."
Next, the major social media platforms fell one after another.
New York Post front-page headline: Former Stark Industries CEO apparently cooked through on the spot. A hunk descended from the sky! Iron Monger punched into the earth's core. New Yorkers suggest renaming him Iron Discus Wong!
The Wall Street Journal finance supplement: Mecha stocks crash overnight. Investors wail: that man shorted the entire defense sector with his eyes!
The New Yorker column: On a superhero's self-cultivation: how to teach these lunatics physics and philosophy with a single straight punch!
Daily Bugle reader letter: Hello, editor-in-chief. I suggest your paper try a different headline, something like "That man shattered the villain with his gaze-and shattered my heart." Also, is he single? My daughter is twenty, a college student, and doesn't mind an age gap.
BBC: Tony Stark's latest response at his own press conference is out! Tony Stark is actually Iron Man?!
A reporter asked, "As Iron Man, what do you think of Li Ang?"
On television, Tony was still quite serious. "He's a friend of mine... yes. Also, if he's interested, I can build him a flashier suit of armor, though he doesn't seem to need one."
A reporter below the stage followed up, "He said you can't fly faster than him. Is that true?"
Tony fell silent for three seconds, sorely tempted to ask which fucking news outlet this reporter worked for.
"Next question!"
In Tony's underground garage, Li Ang laughed and slapped his thigh as he watched Tony's speechless expression on television!
Three days had passed since the Iron Monger incident, and the presence notifications in his mind hadn't stopped.
Even now, the rate of increase was only slightly slower than it had been at the start.
Li Ang opened his panel, wanting to see just what this Conscientious Slot Machine was.
[Owner: Li Ang] [Presence: 130893 (Each upgrade costs 5000 presence points)] [Abilities: Man of Steel lv:7, Heat Vision lv:3, Super Senses lv:3, Gravity Capture Net (Cannot be upgraded)] [System ability upgrades (Unlocked) Conscientious Slot Machine (Unlocked)]
One hundred and thirty thousand!
That was right. After all that publicity, Li Ang's presence had broken through the hundred-thousand mark!
As for the Conscientious Slot Machine, opening it revealed something shaped like a slot machine, a big square box resembling a vending machine.
Li Ang asked the system, "How do the draws work?"
[It's simple. There are three reels, with three types of symbols on them.] [Coins, diamonds, and medals. The three types of symbols are arranged randomly. Coins represent the lowest tier, diamonds the middle tier, and medals the best.] [If you get three medals, you win the jackpot!] [Each draw costs 3000 points. Would you like to try once?]
Li Ang checked his presence. After setting aside what he needed for upgrades... he had just enough for ten consecutive draws!