Chapter 1311: Interstellar Grand Stage (Part 35)

In truth, he knew deep down that he occasionally found Peter a bit garrulous.

This kid was always prone to spouting a mountain of nonsense in any situation or atmosphere; whether it was to ease the tension or simply because he was a chatterbox, these bits of useless information were usually just a bit noisy and harmless in normal times.

But today, he had never hated Spider-Man's talkativeness more. Burying their chat history felt like digging into an bottomless abyss; scrolling down to the ground felt like climbing an insurmountable peak.

He scrolled through one message record after another for a full three minutes without finding a single piece of useful information.

Even more annoying was that, although he could open the personal pages of the speakers, most of the Spider-Men were just headshots of them making peace signs, and their bios were just piles of nonsense.

This forced him to focus his full attention on finding differences in every avatar, even having to judge whether they were the person he was looking for based on the facial contours shown in the masks. It was a hellish difficulty game of "spot the difference," designed purely to torture him.

Moreover, the search results weren't ordered by time, but were completely randomized. He clicked blindly on a dozen or so results and found five different Peter Parkers. At this rate, he would never find the one he was looking for.

Putting down the phone, he rubbed his temples hard. He had thought he'd found a shortcut, but it turned out to be an even longer road.

He wanted to ask a question in the Spider-Man group chat, but he didn't know how to describe the Spider-Man from his own universe.

There were so many Peter Parkers here; they all seemed to look the same, and their abilities were identical. He didn't know what the identifier for his own universe was, so he couldn't make anyone understand what he was trying to express.

A sense of defeat began to rise in his heart. Why was there such a place in the universe, yet he had never known of it? Why was he completely unaware of his own universe's position in the vast sea of stars? Why had he never come into contact with these things after all these years?

This left him feeling a sense of frustration, as if he had always been that frog at the bottom of the well, like a small-town youth arriving in a big city, his high spirits and curiosity replaced by a gap in status and perspective, leaving him feeling exceptionally exhausted.

Then, another thought occurred to him: was finding Peter and making him go back really a good thing?

Perhaps he should just be like every rural father whose child has gone to the city to study—silently rolling back to his own mud patch and not coming to the big city to cause trouble for a child who had found a new life.

Unstoppable sorrow spread in his heart, and a sense of shame began to interrogate him. What did it matter if he had replaced the Iron Man of this world? Could he provide his own child with such a stable and affluent environment? Could he let his own Peter be as carefree and happy as those two young ladies he had just seen?

Iron Man was undoubtedly a pessimist. He knew he was merely grabbing onto a piece of driftwood a little longer in the midst of a flood destined to destroy the world.

But now, a great ship had sailed before him, making him realize that even if the flood were destined to swallow everything, the universe destined to perish, and all things destined to end, there were those who had built a Noah's Ark—not only to save people, but to allow those destined to die to have a period of carefree, beautiful memories.

Iron Man felt the wound on his chest, which hadn't pained him in a long time, begin to ache strangely. Perhaps it was an old injury flaring up, or perhaps his heart was weeping.

As low spirits and mental exhaustion caused him to gradually drift into a dream, he dreamt of a battered eagle constantly plummeting toward death.

Yet, just before its wings finally failed, a gust of wind caught the wings that no longer had the strength to flap, carrying it toward an unknown direction. On the horizon, there was only the shadow of a brilliant and affluent city.

"Tony... Tony, Tony, wake up!"

A call rang out by his ear. He slowly startled awake. In his hazy vision, a familiar face appeared before him. The next second, he was so startled he jumped up.

Appearing before him was another Tony Stark.

"You!"

He uttered a single syllable, then realized his tone seemed a bit off, so he opened his mouth again and said, "I..."

He wanted to explain, but didn't know where to start, because he was also Tony Stark. He knew that if an imposter had broken into his home, impersonated him, and was sleeping in his lab, he would absolutely not listen to the person's explanation—he would go straight to armor deployment and charge his repulsors.

His muscles tensed, his brain whirring at high speed as he considered how to phrase his explanation. He had no armor now and couldn't engage in a physical conflict, so he had to find a way to stabilize the situation.

Before he could even open his mouth, the Stark opposite him spoke first: "Tony, Tony! Why are you sleeping? You still have the heart to sleep? Get up quickly, those mages are about to step on our heads!!!"

The Stark in black was wearing a tie and a black shirt, no glasses, looking as if he had just come from a meeting. He paced rapidly around the room, muttering, "That sword master from the last exchange meeting... the one the Kamar-Taj people call the 'Holy Sword Mage,' has actually made progress in greenhouse cultivation again. A sword master who doesn't practice swordsmanship but has switched to farming!"

The Stark in black gritted his teeth and said, "Six results in two weeks! That Strange's mouth is almost stretching to the sky! Loki just called me to say that Strange actually mocked the Stark Group's research speed as being like a snail climbing a tree at the quarterly summary meeting!"

"That damn Sorcerer Supreme! One day I'll let him know that the road to cosmic exploration has no end, and Stark will definitely run faster than him!!!"

Suddenly, the Stark in black turned to look at the Stark sitting in the chair and stared at him with burning eyes, saying, "You're still sleeping?! Tony, have you forgotten that you are the real Tony Stark!"

The Stark in black frowned, stopped his pacing, and stared at his face, saying, "What kind of mysterious things have you been up to lately? You dumped the shareholders' meeting on me, dumped the experimental reports on me—I'm a scientist, not your professional manager!"

"Wait a minute!" The Stark sitting in the chair raised a hand, stopping the other from speaking, and said, "I am Stark..."

The person opposite him stared at him, paused for a moment, and then said, "Right, you are Stark, but that doesn't prevent me from being Stark too."

He was stunned. So, the Iron Man of this universe had a clone, and was this clone a bit too righteous?

The Stark in black looked at his expression, pursed his lips helplessly, and said, "Fine, you're the difficult one. How long has it been and you still can't adapt to my image? Is this better?"

As he spoke, the Stark in black's appearance began to change gradually, his skin color turning deeper and deeper until it finally turned green. He revealed the appearance of a Skrull. In fact, this Stark was one of the unlucky Skrulls who had been ordered to infiltrate the Avengers and S. H. I. E. L. D.

Aside from the Skrull who had been cloning Spider-Man and was called back halfway, several Skrulls who preferred the Earth environment had stayed behind. This scientist was one of them.

He was a scholar who enjoyed stable research and wasn't willing to follow the fleet to some godforsaken place for pioneering work. The initial stage of pioneering didn't require him either. In the end, all the Skrulls decided to keep their precious scientist in a safe place for the future, and so he settled on Earth.

Of course, he had copied Stark's abilities beforehand. Unlike other heroes, this Skrull couldn't fully simulate Stark's genius brain, but being able to simulate seventy percent was already quite impressive. He himself was a very famous scholar in the Skrull Empire, so he had some real skills; for him, playing Stark wasn't difficult.

So, in fact, there were two Starks in Stark Tower at the same time. It was just that most of the time, one went to deal with business issues while the other stayed in the lab. The division of labor was very clear; they could be said to complement each other perfectly.

Of course, originally, two genius scientists should have both stayed in the lab to do experiments. The problem was, putting two Tony Starks in one room meant they would spend fifty minutes out of every hour arguing.

He realized from the other version of himself just how annoying his own temper was. Although he realized it, if he could change it, he wouldn't be Stark.

Only pure-hearted heroes like little Spider-Man had the possibility of team collaboration with other versions of themselves. Tony Stark was the typical "three monks have no water to drink."

He was so startled he almost jumped out of his chair. The Iron Man of this world was an alien?!!

No, that wasn't right. He immediately denied his first thought. If the person opposite was the real deal, he would definitely be furious to see an imposter like him breaking into his home and pretending to be him. He would have deployed his armor and charged his repulsors.

He realized that this world indeed had two Iron Men. One was human, and the other might be this green-skinned alien. Was it possible that this type of alien had the ability to clone humans?

He almost immediately deduced the truth, but he was still puzzled. How could this Iron Man be so trusting as to let an alien come and go as he pleased in his base of operations? If he had any malicious intent, wouldn't everything be over?

He was also a skeptic. He felt that he absolutely couldn't accept an alien biological entity that wasn't his own species wandering around in his most important laboratory.

"Come on, Tony! Wake up, get that super-genius brain of yours running, and then beat that Strange to a pulp! I get annoyed just seeing that smug smile of his!"

One of them was a human, and the other might be this green-skinned alien. Could it be that this kind of alien has the ability to clone humans?

Stark almost immediately deduced the truth, but he was still a bit confused. Then why was this Iron Man so assured to let an alien come and go freely in his base camp? What if he had some bad intentions, wouldn't it be all over?

Stark was also a skeptic. He felt that he definitely couldn't accept an alien creature that wasn't his own species wandering around in his most important lab.

"Please, Tony! Wake up quickly, let your super genius brain run, and then beat that Strange to a pulp. I get annoyed seeing that smug smile of