He Couldn’t Be This Mediocre

After making the arrangements, Tony first had a hearty meal at home. Only after satisfying his appetite did he head to the Helicarrier.

The others in the Avengers Initiative had basically gotten to know one another by now.

Although Loki did not think much of them, Thor was naturally easygoing and cheerful.

So he quickly hit it off with the others in the Avengers Initiative.

Steve was also asking Thor about the universe.

Over the past few days, he had seen far too many things he had never even dared imagine before.

It was obviously impossible for Steve to humble himself and keep asking Tony Stark questions.

And aside from Tony, Thor was the only one present who knew much about the universe.

But when Tony arrived—

"How did it go?"

Thor, who had been chatting with Steve and the others, immediately looked over.

"It’s settled. I found four reliable friends."

"They’re all powerful fighters, no weaker than me."

Tony nodded slightly upon hearing that.

"Are warriors from the universe really that fierce?"

Banner was shocked by those words. If they were no weaker than Tony, didn’t that mean they could beat him?

"No weaker than you?"

"Then they’re no small fries either."

"Who are they?"

Thor asked thoughtfully after hearing Tony’s words.

"They’ll arrive within three days at most. You’ll know when you meet them."

Tony did not explain much and merely smiled.

The others were curious, but seeing that Tony Stark had no intention of telling them, they could not force him to speak.

So they could only suppress their curiosity for now.

"Loki, where’s Dr. Erik?"

Tony then looked at Loki and asked.

Opening and closing the portal was the highest priority, so Tony did not want to waste time. He wanted to figure it out as quickly as possible.

"Erik is already here. He’s in the laboratory."

Loki answered.

"Alright. Jarvis, tell me where the laboratory is. I’ll go take a look."

"Banner, come with me."

Tony nodded, gave Jarvis the order, and brought Banner along with him.

Banner knew this was something that required brains, so he followed as well.

"Don’t forget, everyone, this is a war between civilizations."

"America’s technology may rank among the best on Earth, but compared to the universe, it’s like a child who hasn’t learned to run yet."

"If you think that once war breaks out, you can crush your enemies with technology and equipment like before—"

"Then all of America, even the entire Earth, may become a battlefield. There will be nowhere safe."

"You’re all being this lax. When danger comes, don’t blame me if I don’t save you."

Before leaving, Tony swept his gaze over the other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and military soldiers in the control room. Some were spacing out, while others were even playing games on their computers, all looking utterly slack.

Those words instantly froze the previously relaxed atmosphere in the control room.

In the past, even when America faced off against other countries, it held the technological advantage ninety percent of the time. Of course it was easy for the advanced side to crush the backward one.

Without exaggeration, there were only a few countries on the entire Earth that could truly go to war with America.

That had fostered the arrogant attitude of America’s military.

When they learned they were about to face a war, they had initially been nervous. But Tony Stark’s decisive manner—

Coupled with the heroes on their side, especially terrifyingly powerful ones like Thor, Tony, and the Hulk, made every one of them believe victory was assured.

Tony’s words were unpleasant, but they also woke up the agents and soldiers present.

One by one, they began working out plans and mapping out the distribution of the war zones.

Tony brought Banner to the laboratory and met the recovered Dr. Erik.

After exchanging a few polite greetings, they began discussing the technology.

The main reason science could not advance was that certain problems were too difficult for ordinary people to overcome.

But Tony, Dr. Banner, and Dr. Erik were all geniuses in their respective fields.

And Barton had also obtained the key element needed to stabilize the Tesseract’s energy.

Thor and Loki had left the Helicarrier first and gone down to New York on Earth to relax.

Harvey looked down on all of this. To be honest, he had not expected—

The Avengers Initiative’s first assembly to be completely led by Tony.

But with Tony’s already extremely forceful personality, combined with power far greater than anything he had possessed in the past—

It was only natural for him to seize command from Nick Fury and take control of the outbreak of this war.

Harvey stayed at home, leisurely waiting for the war to begin.

In truth, if things had followed the original course, the Avengers Initiative’s achievement had been less about completely repelling the Chitauri army—

And more about defeating Loki, then forcibly closing the portal.

Otherwise, with the portal remaining open, the early Avengers Initiative would have had no way to stop the endless stream of Chitauri army pouring through.

Three days passed quietly.

On this day, a Cosmic Battleship descended outside Earth’s atmosphere.

Renoli contacted Tony directly. After confirming their meeting place, they landed on the ocean.

After the Cosmic Battleship landed on the sea—

"This planet’s environment is quite similar to Xandar’s. In terms of its environment, it may even be better. It’s a fine place to live."

Lacey flew out of the Cosmic Battleship and looked at the clear seawater below, the vast number of unmutated marine creatures, and the clean, refreshing sea breeze. Her eyes gleamed.

Perhaps because Earth’s technological level was not that high, many places and resources on Earth had yet to be effectively developed.

As a result, compared to highly developed planets, its environment was exceptionally good.

"Didn’t they say there was going to be a war?"

"Why haven’t I detected any of the Chitauri army’s usual weapons?"

Kyle, who stood over two meters tall, stood atop the Cosmic Battleship. Seeing no sign of large-scale warfare on the radar, he muttered in confusion.

"Everything will become clear once we meet Tony."

"Precognitor, how long until Tony arrives?"

Renoli’s silver hair drifted in the sea breeze, making him look exceptionally handsome as he spoke calmly.

"One minute."

A glint flashed through Precognitor’s black eyes as he answered.

Hearing that, the group waited.

Sure enough, before long, a medium-sized aerial transport ship entered the radar’s range.

"An invisible aerial transport ship made by cleverly using reflective panels. That’s somewhat smart."

"But its counter-detection system is pretty trash, so it only looks impressive on the surface."

Kyle spoke as the radar screen directly displayed the full outline of the approaching medium-sized transport ship.

"Was this Tony’s work?"

Lacey descended from the air as well and asked in confusion.

"Impossible. Tony’s technological level can’t be this mediocre."

Renoli shook his head.

Tony was capable of creating such powerful Iron Man armor and was proficient in gravity systems and intelligent AI development. How could the technology he made be so trash?

"Tony didn’t make it. It was made by other humans on Earth."

Precognitor answered.

The nineteenth day of daily ten-thousand-word updates. Here is the first chapter.