Can I Go Back?

This kind of terrifying combat power, capable of holding off a thousand enemies alone.

Made Steve involuntarily recall how, after their brief argument during their last meeting, Tony had told him he was too weak.

But that was not the key point. Steve had also noticed that the date of Tony’s video exterminating the terrorists in Afghanistan was also in 2008.

Even if Steve did not want to admit it, Tony, Howard’s son, was indeed a super genius.

After several years, Tony Stark’s Iron Man armor had surely been upgraded and become even stronger.

So Steve continued watching. However, the next video’s date had jumped ahead by two years, to June 8, 2010.

The first person to appear on screen was not Tony Stark, but a handsome blond man with blue eyes. He wore an old-fashioned suit of armor and a cape, held a hammer, and had a tall, muscular build.

The location was a beach.

This blond man was fighting a metal monster made entirely of metallic components. It did not look human at all and stood a full three meters tall.

A storm had gathered around them, making the scene unclear, but bolts of lightning could vaguely be seen striking directly onto that hammer.

The blond man seemed capable of wielding lightning and using it in battle. He looked extraordinarily powerful.

Steve’s gaze sharpened.

The battle between the blond man and the metal monster stirred up a terrifying storm. It was not something ordinary people could possibly intervene in.

But what happened next filled Steve’s eyes with shock.

Because besides the blond man’s perspective, there was another split screen, this one from an aerial view.

Before the blond man began fighting the metal monster.

Tony had received the news and immediately departed from Stark Mansion. The target location was more than a hundred kilometers away.

Tony accelerated to mach 6. As he flew at extreme speed, sonic booms rumbled like thunder.

They rang in Steve’s ears and echoed through the fighter jet’s cabin.

In just over a minute, Tony piloted the Iron Man armor across more than a hundred kilometers, arriving near the blond man’s battlefield and directly entering that battle beyond the reach of ordinary mortals.

The two seemed to know each other. Working together, they temporarily suppressed the metal monster.

The hundred-meter-wide purple beam Tony unleashed tore a canyon-like fissure through the sea, yet it still failed to break the metal monster’s defenses.

Steve had no idea what that metal monster was.

But through this video, he learned that Tony’s Iron Man armor had become terrifyingly powerful, far beyond what human technology could handle.

Even if Mushroom Clouds were deployed on a massive scale, Tony would absolutely detect them in advance and retreat.

And the metal monster’s strength far exceeded not only what he could handle, but even what he could imagine.

Just as Steve felt utterly helpless.

A purple black hole suddenly appeared in the sky in the video, and a tall, handsome black-haired man stepped out of it.

He tore the metal monster apart with his bare hands, then left immediately.

"Who was that person who dealt with the metal monster?"

"Was he also a member of the Avengers Initiative?"

This scene made Steve’s eyes widen. He asked loudly in utter disbelief.

Before watching these videos, Steve had believed that even in the modern era, he was still very strong.

In fact, with five tons of strength, the speed to run forty-five meters in one second, and a body that ordinary bullets could not fully penetrate, his physical abilities were already formidable by modern standards.

But he was only exceptionally powerful compared to ordinary people. Compared to Hulk and Tony Stark of the Avengers Initiative, he appeared very weak.

Even with his incomparably sturdy vibranium shield, facing the speed demonstrated by Tony’s Iron Man armor.

If Tony wanted to kill him, he would not even have time to react before he might go straight to heaven.

Tony’s power was still understandable for now. The files clearly stated that it came from advanced technology Tony had created, so the source of that power could be traced.

But the strength displayed by the young man who had appeared at the end, who could tear apart the metal monster with his bare hands, was something Steve could not comprehend at all.

"That was Harvey Anberaka, currently the most dangerous known existence on Earth. He possesses the power to wipe out America by himself."

"If he were one of us, then Earth would remain as impregnable as a fortress even in the face of all kinds of threats from the cosmos."

"But unfortunately, he is not a member of the Avengers Initiative."

"And due to certain events in the past, he does not have a very favorable impression of S.H.I.E.L.D."

"So it would be best if you did not seek him out for no reason, much less provoke him."

When Coulson saw Steve mention the person who had appeared at the end of the video, he paused before explaining the situation.

"Harvey Anberaka… was he coincidentally named the same as that New York tycoon?"

Hearing the name Coulson mentioned, Steve froze for a moment before asking uncertainly.

"It was not a coincidence. That Harvey Anberaka was the person who appeared at the end of the video."

"Harvey Anberaka and Tony Stark are friends."

"Although we were unable to retrieve the specific conversation, Harvey Anberaka’s appearance on that beach to deal with the metal monster, which was terrifying enough to drive people to despair—"

"Led us to conclude that Tony Stark must have intervened in this matter and asked him for help."

Coulson shook his head at those words, a serious expression appearing on his face.

"Is it too late for me to go back to my old era now?"

After hearing that it really was the same person, Steve stood up and paced around the cabin before suddenly speaking.

How sought-after his strength had been in the past could be seen from the fact that modern history books used the label of an entire era to describe him.

But now, after being frozen for decades, he had awakened again in the modern world of 2012.

Some of the technology Earth had invented now far surpassed that of his era. Not only could it threaten him more easily, but he at least had his vibranium shield to deal with it.

Yet aliens and monsters he could not understand kept appearing one after another.

Even though he was slightly stronger than ordinary humans and counted as a kind of superhuman.

Before these monsters, Steve felt that his superhuman self had become an ordinary person again.

Whether it was Hulk, Iron Man Tony, the unidentified blond man, or Harvey Anberaka.

He did not possess the strength to confront any of them head-on. If he got carried away and tried to do so, it would be no different from a mantis trying to stop a chariot.

The second update is here.