After the night in New York City fell into darkness, the lights of the whole city began to gradually go out, and there were only faint lights on the top few floors of Stark Tower, Pepper, who had been busy all day, walked up the elevator, and waited for the elevator lights to come on, she took a deep breath, but did not completely relax.

The elevator doors opened, and the ceiling lights lit up one by one with her footsteps, guiding her to Stark's lab, which she hadn't been here for a long time.

The door of the laboratory slowly opened, and there was no sound, and the whole laboratory was pitch black, only the light of the experimental instruments was faintly on, and Stark was lying on the laboratory table, as if he was asleep.

Jarvis turned on a soft light that was enough for Pepper to see his feet without waking Stark, who slept soundly, and when Pepper walked over, he noticed that his brow was furrowed.

She saw a pile of materials on his bench, which used to be full of experimental data that Pepper couldn't understand, but today, Pepper saw several books on the bench that weren't supposed to be here.

Social engineering, game theory, political science, international relations, etc., Pepper even saw several of his own college textbooks there, which all had traces of flipping, and even a few books were opened and buckled on the table, apparently Stark hadn't finished reading them.

She walked a little closer, picked up the materials, most of which contained some information related to the military, Congress, and S.H.I.E.L.D., especially some information about their personnel.

Pepper was about to walk around the bench to Stark's side, Stark moved, he coughed dryly, and then woke up, and in the dim light, he saw Pepper standing in front of him, and thought he was dreaming.

Stark shook his head and blinked hard, looking very confused, and Pepper often saw his expression, often after drinking too much or staying up late to do experiments.

"Oh, you're here, are you done? How is everything? Stark looked a little confused, as if he hadn't seen Peto in so many days, and he greeted in that somewhat embarrassing tone.

Pepper was unaffected by him, she came over and said, "What's wrong with you?" Why did you start reading these books? ”

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Stark glanced back at his desktop, his expression was a bit like a child who was found by a parent stealing a game console, he twisted his neck a little unnaturally, and then said, "A friend recommended it, and he said that I should read more books like this, otherwise I won't be able to cope with those troubles." ”

Stark paused, then lowered his head, his voice a little muffled, with a seriousness rarely seen before.

"S.H.I.E.L.D., the military, and Congress have basically gotten what they want, and what will happen next will be the last negotiation of this incident."

"I'm representing the Stark Group, and I know that this time there won't be anyone to deal with it for me, and I'll have to learn to handle it all on my own."

"I've never been involved in any decent negotiations, sometimes even if I go, I just have to sit there and wait for Uncle Obadiah to finish talking about everything, I'm just an iconic symbol, everyone knows I'm a genius, so even if I show impatience or leave early, no one dares to say anything......"

"I know, I sucked, I made a whole bunch of messes and troubles, and used to taunt the rep on the other side for being mentally retarded, or deliberately filling the table with coffee just to get out early."

"I can't even remember how many times I've done this stupid thing, but I know I'm the only one to do this time."

Stark rubbed his eyes, then rubbed his face with his hands, trying to get the sad and lost expression back, and said, "No one will do these things for me anymore, no one will solve these problems for me, and no one will even look at my inventions and listen to me talk about my genius ideas......

Pepper had to admit that it was the first time she had seen Stark with such a sad face, and that in the past he had made those sad expressions for funniness or to deliberately find someone happy, but now, he was really sad.

After Stark paused for a moment, he slapped his palms and said, "Okay, so be it, I can handle all of this, right?" ”

"I'm Stark, how could I not? How difficult are these things to make mechas? Look, as long as I read all these materials and books, I can defeat them alone in the negotiations in a few days......"

Pepper felt a kind of sadness, before that, whenever Stark cheated and didn't want to do anything, she felt a headache, and felt that she had wasted too much time coaxing this big child, hoping that Stark would mature quickly.

But now, when Stark calmly accepted to do what he didn't want to do, Pepper suddenly wished he was still as willful as before.

She didn't know what was wrong with her, Stark had matured, which should be a good thing, but Pepper knew very well that such growth must be accompanied by intense pain and sadness, and she would rather Stark not experience this pain and live in a utopia forever.

Peto choked up, and just as she was about to say something, the phone in her pocket rang again, and she had no choice but to leave to answer the phone, and before she could even bother to talk to Stark, she had to deal with the seemingly endless work again.

Stark looked at Pepper's back as he left, his pain and helplessness reached its peak, he propped one hand on the bench and covered his eyes, he had never felt that the night in New York was so long.

When he was concentrating on the experiment, the night seemed to be a flick of a finger, and before he could finish a small part of the experiment, the day dawned, and he always complained that this pure and happy time was short-lived.

But it was as if the night would never end, as if the sun would not rise as long as he was suffering here.

In the dim and dark room, this Stark thought, what the book said makes sense, in this world, not everything can be worn in a mecha all the way, social human beings cannot survive without social rules, as long as he still lives in this society, he must follow some social rules.

Before, Stark felt that he didn't have to follow at all, didn't have to think about anything, and lived as he wanted every day, but now he found that someone just paid for him to follow the rules.

It's just that they paid the price first, so Stark can live in this warm eggshell all the time, thinking about nothing.

Stark actually knew that Pepper was busy until midnight every day in order to deal with those peachy news for him, and Obadiah had cleaned up all kinds of messes for him more than once.

But since the kidnapping, reality has been like a hammer, directly smashing open the shell of this chick, letting the cold wind of reality blow on his feathers that have not yet grown, making him turn over a few heels, and after being covered in mud, he has to struggle to get up.

After the warm wings that made him covet were gone, he had to face the rest, and the cold wind howled in the lair set up on the cliff, but Stark had to learn to fly on his own.

After a while, Stark seemed to accept this fact, and he slowly sorted out the scattered materials on the table, then put the various books aside with bookmarks, picked up one of them and continued to read.

In fact, Stark didn't know if it would be useful for him to do this, and when he learned from Schiller that the chips of several parties were almost ready, and only one last step was left to negotiate to divide all the interests, Stark had never felt so anxious and flustered.

He hadn't thought about it for many years, but at least he knew that if he didn't do anything, he would give up the entire Stark Group, his father, his uncle, and all his hard work.

If he can't take this step, the Stark Group will only retreat again and again until they knock out the bone and completely divide up.

And now, there will be no one to turn the tide and turn the tide in this situation, except Stark himself.

He had spent many years of his life without having to think about anyone else's feelings, and now he was about to participate in what could be the highest-level negotiations in the country, including long-time politicians, scheming agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and aggressive and greedy military leaders.

And Stark, in this situation, he is like a schoolboy who suddenly participates in a doctoral forum, he doesn't have any theoretical knowledge and practical experience, and he can't even look at people's faces, Stark can already imagine that the nonsense he used in the past will not have any effect except for making these wolves make a big fuss and bite off an extra piece of meat.

He had to learn to be calm, to be quiet, to use wits and skill to complete a war without gunpowder on a battlefield without the sound of artillery fire.

It's not easy, and it's no easier than waging a real war.

Stark was like a baby in swaddling clothes, and at Schiller's suggestion, he had to start with theory.

Not all of those politicians know these things, but on the other hand, they have a lot of practical experience.

But Stark is a blank slate in this regard, but fortunately, he is a genius Stark, his brain allows him to memorize all the knowledge in it in a very short time, even if there is no time for him to practice and integrate it, but having this knowledge in his head is better than nothing.

Stark felt that what Schiller had said, and since he had decided to bow his head and decide to study these theories, which he had not bothered to read at all, and which he thought were empty words, he had to read them as quickly as possible and try to understand them.

The former is not difficult, Stark's genius brain made him memorize several books almost in one night, and when his brain was running to the extreme, he simply couldn't forget it.

But after reading it, memorizing it, and understanding and using it are completely different things, after Stark memorizes it, he has to think about how to act against those popularity and relationship materials.

How do some of them react to certain topics? What are the intricate subdivisions of the same force? What relationships can be leveraged? Why do some people have lower floors than others? Why are some people willing to pay more than others?

These questions almost overwhelmed Stark, and even if he was a super genius, he couldn't learn the essence of human knowledge overnight.

What's more, sometimes game theory and psychology seem more like occultism, because human nature is always mysterious and unpredictable, and all the use of theory to analyze will only get more and more wrong answers, and everything depends on on-the-spot reactions, which really puts Stark under great pressure.

Finally, in the deep darkness of New York, Stark mutters, "You're a genius...... Stark, you're a super genius...... There's no one smarter in this world than you, and you're fine......"

Then, as the words faded away, he fell asleep, just as the New York skyline lit up with a fuchsia glow.