An unnamed place... the headquarters of the Time Variance Authority.
The woman who had eerily appeared behind Qin Xiao earlier was standing in a room that resembled a courtroom.
In front of her, a young blonde woman in uniform sat at what looked like a judge's bench.
"I don't understand. Why stop me from arresting the criminal? That man violated the Sacred Timeline, and he isn't just a time criminal. His appearance has even affected the Sacred Timeline itself."
The woman in black voiced her grievance to the blonde woman seated high above her.
"C18, I fully understand your determination to defend the Sacred Timeline, but the great Time-Keepers are personally watching this incident. It was their decision to stop you from arresting that man."
The blonde woman spoke calmly, her face expressionless.
"But he'll cause chaos like this. The Sacred Timeline must not be desecrated!"
The woman in black was still somewhat indignant. She had been born to protect it, just as they had named it-the "Sacred" Timeline.
"Are you questioning the Time-Keepers' decision?"
The blonde woman's voice suddenly rose.
"I wouldn't dare!"
At the mention of the Time-Keepers, the woman in black immediately reined in her anger and bowed slightly as she spoke.
"Very good!"
The blonde woman nodded in satisfaction.
"The Time-Keepers are omniscient and omnipotent. All I need to do is carry out their wishes. You may go!"
After the woman in black left, the lights throughout the courtroom went out section by section.
A sigh came from the darkness...
(Readers unfamiliar with the Time Variance Authority can watch Marvel's new series, Loki. Personally, I think it's much better than WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.)
Qin Xiao knew nothing of the Time Variance Authority's actions.
After several idle days, he came to Tony's house again.
This time, he had mainly come for JARVIS. He still had two thousand points left in the system's points shop.
He had earned three thousand points in total so far, still some distance from unlocking the level-two shop.
But at this point, there was nothing left he could exchange them for except real-world currency.
That was no help at all in this world, though the option did mean he no longer had to worry about money in the real world.
But money alone wasn't enough to live freely. He had to build a business empire.
A business empire that possessed cutting-edge technology.
That raised the question: who was the best at cutting-edge technology?
With Black Panther out of the picture, Tony was king!
And so, Qin Xiao shamelessly showed up in Tony's lab.
Bang!
He had just walked down into the basement when he saw Tony spin through the air.
Tony flipped upside down and slammed hard into a section of wall protruding overhead.
Then, like a poster, he slid headfirst down the wall above.
Qin Xiao dashed forward and grabbed Tony by the ankle, sparing him the embarrassment of landing on his head.
"You should hire a private acrobatics instructor, Tony. I saved you again. You'd better write that down in a little notebook!"
"Damn it! I should've started testing at ten percent. Put me down!"
Two minutes later, Tony held an ice pack against his neck and asked Qin Xiao in surprise.
"What do you need an AI butler for? No offense, but your apartment isn't even as big as my garage, and I think you're renting it."
"I've got my eye on an apartment in downtown Los Angeles. I'm planning to buy it and renovate it. I want all the appliances and everything fully automated, like a smart home. It doesn't need to be as advanced as JARVIS. Do you get what I mean?"
Qin Xiao rolled his eyes as he spoke. Tony's words didn't do much damage, but they were extremely insulting.
Yet there was no way to argue. Comparing wealth with him was practically pitting your entire net worth against his pocket money.
"Then go buy the place first and give me the architectural plans. You don't need to worry about anything else. I'll set up a private server for you and install an intelligent program when the time comes."
"I'll have Pepper bring a company crew over to renovate it according to my plans, but you'll have to buy your own furniture!"
"Tony! I love you! Don't worry, I'll pay you!"
Qin Xiao threw an arm around Tony's shoulders, grinning for all he was worth.
Tony shot Qin Xiao a haughty look and brushed his arm off.
"Keep your pitiful little fortune, you pauper," he said disdainfully. "Any random thing in this garage is worth more than your apartment!"
"All right, I know you're rich. You're Tony Stark, after all. In that case, take care of the furniture for me too. I think I'm also short a car. Looking at the ones in your garage..."
"Get lost! JARVIS, revoke this guy's access. I don't want to see him again."
The two were trading idle jokes.
A news report on the television, which had been playing the whole time, caught Tony's attention.
"Yesterday, a small town called Gulmira suffered a terrorist massacre. The terrorists call themselves the Ten Rings..."
As the reporter at the scene spoke, footage of the town's shattered walls and ruins appeared on the television.
Many civilian bodies lay by the roadside, with women and children among them.
In some shots of the terrorists, the Stark name on their weapons was particularly conspicuous and jarring.
One bald man who looked like a leader stood amid the rubble, directing the terrorists' atrocities.
"It's him?"
"That guy's still alive?"
Tony and Qin Xiao spoke almost simultaneously.
Both of them had seen the bald man walk to the cave entrance with their own eyes, and Tony had pressed the detonator himself.
They hadn't expected the bald man to be lucky enough to survive.
"Damn it! Yinsen!"
Tony suddenly sprang to his feet with a startled cry.
"I was just thinking I'd heard of that town somewhere. It's Yinsen's hometown. For God's sake, JARVIS, contact Rhodey!"
"Tony, the intelligence agencies will be faster with something like this!"
Qin Xiao knew what Tony wanted to do. After the last incident, Tony had wanted to offer Yinsen a job in the United States.
But Yinsen had insisted on returning to his hometown to treat the people there.
Tony had even promised to build them a large hospital later.
He hadn't expected the terrorists to come knocking.
Qin Xiao called Black Widow again. Yinsen had spent time with all of them, even if they hadn't lived alongside him in the cave day and night as Tony had.
Still, they were comrades who had been through gunfire together.
Black Widow worked remarkably quickly, finding the answer less than twenty minutes after they hung up.
"Tony! I'm sorry! Yinsen is gone!"
"The survivors in town said they captured Yinsen and burned him alive inside his house."
Qin Xiao hung up and spoke despondently.
"What about his family?"
Tony stared fixedly at the bald man on the television.
"They were all in that house. Not one of them escaped!"