Why Not?

Josh’s idea was very simple. Since he wanted to leave a deep impression on the future Tony Stark, what could be better than saving his father?

Josh remembered that no matter which version it was, Tony’s relationship with his father Howard had seemed strained. But in truth, it was simply because these two geniuses did not know how to express their care for family. After his father died, Tony had missed him dearly.

"If I remember correctly, Howard was killed by the controlled Winter Soldier—Captain America’s best friend, Bucky. It was an extremely humiliating death. If I give him some way to save his life beforehand, wouldn’t I be able to save him?"

Josh stroked his chin. Frankly speaking, he seemed to have gotten another idea. Howard Stark was someone even the future Tony found difficult to surpass. If someone like that could work for him, or help him, Josh did not know how much trouble he could save himself.

"First of all, when it comes to building a territory, I think he should be better at it than I am. Although he’s a scientist, with his learning ability, helping me handle the construction of a territory and its future upgrades should be a piece of cake. And maybe I could even use this connection to bring Tony over in the future?"

The more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. As for how exactly to carry it out, Josh already had a rough plan in mind. For a top figure in any world, whether on the scientific side or the magical side, the most attractive things were always those they did not understand. Josh was not worried that Howard would refuse the bait.

No sooner had he thought of it than he acted. Since he was fairly free right now, Josh, who had memorized a huge pile of books and materials, went directly to bid Master Ancient One farewell. Of course, before that, he had Master Ancient One open a portal for him and went to fetch Natasha.

The purpose of bringing Natasha along was simple: to give this little girl, who still harbored a few fantasies, a profound understanding—after following him, she should stop thinking about all sorts of nonsense, because those things were basically impossible. There was another reason as well: he wanted this little girl to lead the way for him.

After all, according to the memories of that Red Wall officer, this little girl had already completed her basic training. All that remained was a period of brainwashing, sterilization, and similar procedures. Though she lacked experience, she had the ability. Josh intended to test this little girl’s intelligence-gathering skills.

After passing through the portal, Josh quickly brought Natasha to New York, America. The little girl still looked utterly incredulous. Although she had experienced it once before, the shock of having her worldview overturned was not so easy to shake off.

To be honest, New York in the forties was not particularly special. It looked prosperous, but after going through the Great Depression and then entering World War II, even if Americans were optimistic, things could not have been all that good.

"This is America?"

Natasha curiously looked around. She had lived in Moscow since childhood. At that time, war was constant, and the standard of living could not compare with America’s at all. Later, her entire family died, and she was adopted by her foster father. Then it was discovered that she had a talent for espionage, and she began being trained in that direction.

The phrase "no childhood" fit Natasha perfectly. At her current age, she had already received training in languages, assassination, hand-to-hand combat, firearms, and more. Aside from her lack of practical experience, she was actually not much worse than the later Natasha.

Oh, and her physical fitness was much worse too. But Josh did not care about that at all. Physical fitness could be cultivated. He did not think someone injected with strange drugs to forcibly enhance their physique and delay aging could compare to someone he trained to wield high-level energy.

"What’s so strange about that? America in the forties really isn’t that interesting. If you want, I can take you to see the United Kingdom in the nineties someday."

"Oh, your English does have a London accent. Did you study there? What’s it like?"

"Not much. After all, I’ve been to a twenty-first-century world. Honestly, I don’t think much of anything here, whether it’s the clothes or technological achievements. Although my own territory is even worse, I’m looking for some capable people to help me rebuild it."

"I’m not some scientific talent. Why did you capture me? Is it really like your companion said?"

"How could that be? Even if I were interested in you, I’d have to wait until you grew up. Is that really the only thing you care about? I told you, what I need is your ability to gather intelligence. I may enter all kinds of worlds, and I need you to collect information about those worlds so I can make judgments. Understand?"

Where was that noble bearing he had promised? Josh silently cursed Garen. That guy was getting more and more mischievous, spouting all kinds of nonsense. Still, Josh did not truly blame Garen for anything. He thought this version of Garen was better. Before they found a way home, Garen was his best partner.

"I see." Natasha seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. "To be honest, is your homeland a feudal society? Because you keep talking about territory. And if my abilities don’t meet your requirements, what will you do?"

"There might be two ways of handling it." Josh seemed to want to scare the girl. With a somewhat sinister expression, he said:

"First, I could train you as someone to vent certain desires on. Since you’ve already guessed that we have a feudal system, using a female slave for other nobles’ enjoyment would not be anything shameful. As for the second, I could erase all your memories of me and throw you back. I’m sure your superiors would be very interested in your experiences. As for what would happen then, I have no idea."

Well, what Josh said really was far too frightening. When he mentioned only the first option, Natasha’s face had already turned pale. By the time he mentioned the second, her body had begun trembling involuntarily. Josh could not hold it in any longer and burst into laughter. Only then did Natasha realize she had been toyed with.

Natasha was not familiar with Josh, so she did not dare gamble on whether he would truly do such things. If Garen had been here, he would definitely have sneered disdainfully before saying with contempt, "What’s the point of scaring an ignorant little girl?"

Garen had followed Josh for a year and had stayed in Josh’s territory, so he naturally knew what kind of person Josh was. If Josh had truly been a heinous villain, Garen would rather never return home than not fight him. He would probably swing his broadsword while shouting, "Die, you cunning villain!"

"Don’t worry. I know your future. Although you’ll go through some hardships, you’ll become an exceptionally outstanding female agent. Otherwise, after coming to this world and learning about the situation, I wouldn’t have taken you away while you were still young."

Josh laughed for a while before finally stopping. Looking at Natasha, whose eyes carried a hint of anger, he said indifferently, "You should have confidence in yourself. And what I’m showing you is an extraordinary world. I believe you’ll become even more outstanding than you were in your future."

"I don’t even know what my own future will be like."

Natasha rolled her eyes. Honestly, she had been frightened badly just now. But looking at Josh’s current attitude, if she still did not understand that she had been tricked, then she would truly be an idiot. Yet she felt something she had never felt before. It seemed that this godlike person before her did not see her merely as a tool.

"Your future… it’s not exactly bad, but it’s not exactly good either." Josh thought back carefully, but there did not seem to be much information about the movie-world Natasha in his mind, so he picked out a few key points. "You’ll defect from your current espionage organization and join an annoying organization called S.H.I.E.L.D. But all your memories from your time in the Red Wall will be altered, and you’ll be brainwashed. Although you’ll eventually break free of that control, by then you’ll have been sterilized and injected with a drug that extends your lifespan and slows your aging. Oh, right. Your codename will be Black Widow, and all your husbands will die."

"That really doesn’t sound very good."

Natasha nodded. Such a future did not seem particularly pleasant, but her eyes lit up at the mention of slowing aging and extending one’s lifespan. Even though she was still a little girl, who would not want their charm to last forever?

"Don’t think about that stuff. It’s something that can’t really be called a success or a failure. It’ll give you some benefits, but it’ll also ruin your potential completely. Look at Master Ancient One—the bald guy. She’s lived for more than five hundred years through her own abilities."

"You mean magic?"

"Yes, but I don’t think you can learn magic. I’m still not sure what kind of talent you have. But my homeland has other cultivation methods. Take my companion Garen, for example. He cultivates Battle Qi. His Battle Qi is still very low right now, but living for one or two hundred years isn’t a problem, and he has tremendous combat power too."

"Can I do that?"

Natasha’s worldview was truly shattered this time. Before, she had merely been shocked and believed that people as extraordinary as Josh really existed in the world. But now, she had discovered that ordinary people could also reach the level of gods. How unbelievable was that?

"Why not? I brought you along to help me learn about other worlds. If you don’t have some strength, you might die directly in another world. Or if your life level is too low and you don’t live long enough, wouldn’t all my efforts be wasted?"

Natasha took a deep breath and suppressed her excitement. Honestly, if life could be like this, it would be countless times better than the future Josh had described for her. At that moment, Natasha finally stopped holding on to any fantasies. Or rather, she had completely accepted and acknowledged the fact that Josh had taken her away.

"Then, sir, what is our mission now?" Natasha asked with a serious expression. She truly had a bit of the bearing of a future agent, but Josh did not like it.

"I’m not your superior. If you really join us, then we’ll be companions. Oh, right, my name is Josh. Josh Augustus. Just call me by my name. Once we return to the Muya Continent, I’ll give you a Memory Magic Crystal. But for now, our mission is to find Howard Stark. Any problem with that?"

"No problem at all, sir… Josh."