Luo Chen's diary was updated once again, and the news quickly caught the attention of Nick Fury and the others.
At the moment, in addition to Maria Hill, who was on an assignment, Nick Fury, Phil Coulson, Natasha Romanoff (the Black Widow), and Clint Barton (Hawkeye) were all gathered in Nick Fury's small team.
Upon reading the contents of the diary, Nick Fury's face shifted slightly. From what he could tell, Luo Chen had actually met Tony Stark.
"The two of them have already met?" Nick Fury muttered, somewhat taken aback.
The others exchanged glances, clearly surprised as well.
The meeting between Luo Chen and Tony Stark wasn't completely unexpected. After all, based on the contents of the diary, it seemed that Luo Chen had a favorable impression of Tony Stark.
Although Luo Chen often complained about Tony's sharp tongue, his playboy nature, and his arrogance, his overall assessment of Stark was still positive. It was even more favorable than the views most people in the America had of Tony Stark.
Luo Chen didn't just mention Stark's flaws; he also acknowledged his strengths—like his near-godlike abilities as a mortal, his willpower, and his overall brilliance. In short, it was mostly positive.
While Luo Chen had hoped to profit from Tony Stark's eventual kidnapping, it was clear that he still viewed Tony Stark in a friendly light. Based on this, the team had privately calculated that the likelihood of Luo Chen approaching Tony Stark was high.
It just seemed that Luo Chen hadn't been prepared to meet Tony Stark yet, and instead, Tony Stark had met him first.
"Tony Stark is going to be kidnapped," Phil Coulson said, reading from the diary. "Luo Chen has written about this several times. It's obvious that he knows the sequence of events—the story of Marvel begins with Tony Stark's kidnapping."
"So many of the plans he wrote in his diary are based on this event," Coulson continued. "Seeing Tony Stark in his Mark armor now is obviously outside of his expectations. It seems like it's disrupted his understanding of things. His perception was correct."
"Phil, did Tony Stark come up with that armor?" Nick Fury asked, surprised. "I haven't heard anything about it."
"It's likely that it hasn't been revealed to the public yet, maybe it's still in the testing phase," Coulson replied slowly. "Although we've been monitoring him, we're limited in how much we can get close, given the powerful artificial intelligence he has. We can't risk getting too close, so we don't have first-hand information."
Nick Fury accepted this explanation. He was well aware of the power of Tony Stark's artificial intelligence. After all, it had once almost breached S.H.I.E.L.D.'s network. With this kind of technology, it was almost impossible to approach Stark without exposing oneself. Unless someone was willing to reveal their presence, getting close to Tony Stark was no easy feat.
"That brings us to the real issue," Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow) said, furrowing her brow. "Based on our earlier speculations and the information in Luo Chen's diary, the result seems to suggest that the story starts with Tony Stark's trip to Afghanistan. He gets kidnapped, escapes death, and sees the weapons he sold fall into the hands of extremist organizations. Upon his return, he's deeply shaken and changes his ways—shutting down his weapons division and turning to the development of new energy sources."
"At the same time, he begins working on the Mark armor series and becomes known to the world as Iron Man," Natasha continued, summarizing the expected timeline.
"Yes, that's right," Nick Fury nodded. This was indeed the storyline they had discussed internally. It followed the typical Hollywood arc: an ordinary man, after experiencing great hardship, changes his path, becomes enlightened, and eventually transforms into a superhero.
It was a story made for a blockbuster Hollywood movie.
"And this is likely a story that Luo Chen read in his previous life, before he traveled through time," Natasha Romanoff added. "Now, let's make an assumption: under normal circumstances, this process should not change. The so-called butterfly effect wouldn't kick in so quickly. From what we can tell, Luo Chen has tried his best not to interfere with the original plot, and he hasn't even gotten close to Tony Stark."
"Yes, I've had people investigate," Nick Fury said. "Tony Stark was originally scheduled to visit Afghanistan to sell his latest missile to the military."
Once Nick Fury learned that Tony Stark might be kidnapped, he couldn't take it lightly. After all, Tony Stark was a super-rich man, and if something happened to him, it would have a huge impact. The results of the investigation also aligned with what Luo Chen had written in the diary—Tony Stark was indeed about to be kidnapped in Afghanistan.
This added credibility to the things revealed in Luo Chen's diary, but Nick Fury was still cautious. He wouldn't fully trust any single source of information, no matter how convincing it seemed.
"So, judging by this, it seems like Tony Stark's kidnapping, as mentioned in Luo Chen's diary, is indeed going to happen," Coulson said. "At least, it fits with the current events we can foresee."
"And we've also found that in Afghanistan, there are indeed many warlords and extremist groups who possess weapons produced by Tony Stark's company," Coulson continued. "This matches what Luo Chen said in his diary—that Tony Stark was shocked in Afghanistan when he saw how his weapons, which were originally meant to protect the innocent, were used to harm the very people he wanted to protect."
At this point, Nick Fury felt a headache coming on. This situation involved the military-industrial complex of the American State—a massive, predatory beast that had its claws deeply embedded in the body of the nation.
Ordinary people didn't dare to challenge it, and even S.H.I.E.L.D. had to tread carefully.
When the interests of the military-industrial complex were at stake, even the president could find himself caught up in a political mess. It was a reminder of the dangerous power the complex wielded—something as obvious as the mysterious deaths of Melaleuca and his family decades ago, which had served as a stark warning to anyone who dared to challenge them.
[Please support me at my patreon if you want more: patreon/OGCrafter for 20+ chapters]