Begging with a Golden Rice Bowl

Although Stark wanted to drag the intruder out, events never unfolded according to anyone’s will. Besides, Kraft’s original intention had not been to invade Stark’s database, but to test Angela and Harrow’s abilities. So after breaking into Stark’s network, he did not have Angela plunder any data. Instead, he switched from offense to defense and began testing her defensive capabilities.

"Mr. Stark, the other party does not seem hostile."

Jarvis quickly noticed the intruder’s unusual behavior. He decisively reported the situation to Tony Stark and offered his own assessment.

"Is this… using us as a test?"

Understanding it in an instant, Stark laughed in anger. But remembering that he had indeed lost to the other side, he could only shake his head helplessly and abandon the pursuit.

"Who are you?"

Having given up resisting, Stark sent the other party an inquiry.

A reply came quickly.

"Red Queen."

"Red Queen? She’s actually a girl?"

The online war between the artificial intelligences had long ended. Tony Stark had returned to his room, and the cover girl had already left. Stark did not care in the slightest. He took a fresh set of clothes from the wardrobe and changed into them, then carried the coffee Jarvis had made for him toward the dining room.

"What girl? Have you found yourself a new target again?"

Virginia Pepper Potts, nicknamed Little Pepper, was Tony Stark’s personal assistant, spokesperson, nanny, psychologist, and official wife…

In short, she was someone indispensable to both Tony Stark’s life and work.

For example, she had just seen off the cover girl who had spent the night here, then prepared Tony Stark’s favorite cheeseburger for breakfast.

"A new target?"

Tony Stark froze for a moment, then nodded firmly and declared with absolute certainty.

"That’s right! She really is my new target!"

"Sounds like she’s very special."

Pepper, who knew Tony Stark very well, felt a sourness rise in her heart. She had never seen Stark wear such a serious expression toward any woman before.

"Yes! Extremely special!"

Stark did not notice his personal assistant’s subtle thoughts at all. His eyes gleamed as he answered.

"I’m completely captivated by her!"

"Then what kind of gift and restaurant would you like me to arrange?"

Suppressing the sourness in her heart, Pepper asked according to the usual procedure.

"A gift? A restaurant?"

Only then did Stark realize that the two of them did not seem to be talking about the same thing.

"No, none of that is necessary." Stark laughed. "You can’t ‘win over’ that girl with those things."

"Is that so?" Tony Stark’s misleading words finally made Pepper unable to suppress her jealousy any longer. She began speaking sarcastically. "It seems our playboy has finally decided to settle down and consider the important matters in his life?"

"Hey! Little Pepper! Are you jealous?"

Tony Stark happily continued teasing Pepper. He had been somewhat downcast after losing the online battle earlier, but now he had completely recovered.

Stark was fairly resistant to marriage at the moment. Otherwise, even though he and Pepper had feelings for each other, he would not have dragged things out for so long without defining their relationship. But seeing Pepper get jealous over him, there was no way Tony Stark could be unhappy about it.

"I’m only your personal assistant. What do I have to be jealous about!"

Pepper felt bitter inside. She viciously shoved the breakfast she had brought into Tony Stark’s hands, then turned to leave.

But Stark grabbed her in one swift motion.

"Alright, don’t be angry."

Tony Stark was no fool. Naturally, he could not just let Pepper leave like that. A joke was a joke, but if Pepper truly misunderstood him and left his side in anger, that was something Tony Stark could never accept.

He quickly gave a brief account of what had happened. To make the explanation clear, Stark even brought Jarvis in as a witness.

After hearing Tony Stark’s explanation, Pepper secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Then she angrily began lecturing Stark again.

"How could you be so reckless! What if your database had really been breached?! Do you know how much damage that would cause the company?! You can’t always act according to your own preferences, Tony!"

Stark’s computer stored plenty of Stark Industries data, as well as all kinds of design blueprints. If they had truly leaked, the consequences would definitely not have been any better than when he later announced he was shutting down the weapons division.

"Alright, alright, I understand."

Tony Stark forced a smile as he dealt with Pepper’s anger.

"Nothing happened, did it? Besides, judging by the strength that artificial intelligence displayed, if she wanted to sneakily steal Stark Industries’ data while I wasn’t paying attention, Jarvis wouldn’t have been able to stop her."

At this point, Tony Stark’s expression turned serious. He reached out and held Pepper by the shoulders.

"So, Little Pepper, for the next while, I need to give Jarvis a proper upgrade. I’ll leave all the company matters to you."

"I understand. Go ahead and do it without worry, Tony."

Once the discussion turned to business, Pepper returned to her decisive and efficient style.

Meanwhile, Kraft had no idea that this little test of his had actually made the famous Tony Stark doubt himself. Of course, if he had known, he might have thrown his head back and laughed twice.

After using Jarvis to test Angela’s abilities, Kraft handed her the two tasks he had already been working on.

The person behind the Magia Gang’s human experiments back then, and the source of Vibranium, the primary material used to make Captain America’s shield.

After several days of gathering and filtering intelligence, there were still no leads regarding the Magia Gang. After all, the internet had not been very developed seven years ago, and there had been very little information stored on computers. Furthermore, the mastermind had been extremely cautious, and almost all related information had been erased on a physical level.

There was simply too much information related to human experimentation. Not only was America far ahead in that regard, but other countries also had similar experiments to varying degrees. Their research directions were mostly focused on creating super soldiers as well. It seemed Captain America’s successful example had made a huge impact.

Therefore, it was practically impossible to start by investigating forces involved in human experimentation. Even excluding other countries, America alone had a large number of official and unofficial groups that had secretly conducted human experiments. The number within America nearly matched the combined total of all other countries.

On the other hand, Angela and Harrow quickly pinpointed information about Vibranium.

This unusual metal came from a small country in northeastern Africa called Wakanda. There were two ways to obtain it. One was the small amount of Vibranium occasionally sold through official channels, while the other was smuggling. As a result, Vibranium’s price had always remained high, and it was in demand without supply. It simply could not be bought easily.

The high price was not much of a problem for Kraft now, but the issue was that even with money, he might not be able to buy it.

And besides…

Wakanda clearly possessed a resource far more valuable than gold and diamonds, so why was it still a poor, backward agricultural nation living on international aid?

Kraft carefully calculated the total amount of Vibranium that had been documented as leaving Wakanda, along with its sale prices. If even half of that money had been used for Wakanda’s own development, Wakanda could never still be an impoverished country.

Out of curiosity, he had Angela and Harrow conduct a deeper investigation into Wakanda.

Then, he was shocked.

Wakanda, this supposedly backward agricultural country, actually possessed fairly advanced network technology. It even had its own intelligence agency, PRIDE. The organization’s main role was to block and delete information about Wakanda online. Yet thanks to that intelligence agency, Angela had the opportunity to hack into Wakanda’s internal network.

"This really is… shameless beyond belief…"

Looking at the information Angela had gathered, Kraft wore a mocking smile.

I caught a cold… My head has been foggy since this afternoon. I’ll look at the donation messages tomorrow. I’m going to sleep first.

Neither the comics nor the movies ever mentioned Wakanda receiving international aid. I based it on the circumstances of impoverished countries in reality. I do not know whether it was actually implemented, but there has always been quite a bit of related aid, both private and official…

Also, regarding S.H.I.E.L.D., I think many fanfics overestimate their intelligence capabilities. Leaving aside their network capabilities, considering they could be breached by a civilian organization like Tidal Wave, their everyday intelligence processing abilities probably were not that absurd either.

So many things happen every day that it is impossible to process all of them. Under normal circumstances, they should gather and organize information, then retrieve it for closer investigation once it attracts attention or when that portion of intelligence is needed.

To put it bluntly, as long as you did not act too outrageously, Fury would not even know who the hell you were.

Those plots where you casually beat up some street thug and your file immediately gets delivered to Fury’s desk are far too fake. With that time, Fury might as well go feed his cat.

I also made character sheets for the other characters. The image for Negative Film seems to have been stuck in review.