Chapter 223: Expo Farce (Part 1)

The headquarters building of the Stark Industrial Group, also known as Stark Tower, is located at 45th Street East of Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan, New York, USA. It was completed in the 1990s, is about 350 meters high, and has 89 floors.

Initially, Howard, the founder and owner of the Stark Industrial Group, bought a plot of land on the east side of Grand Central Terminal and planned to build a new headquarters for his car company. Later, at Obadiah's suggestion, it was built into the tallest building in New York City at the time, becoming one of the most famous landscapes on the New York skyline.

But unfortunately, Howard did not live to see the completion of this building. After Stark grew up and took over the Stark Group, he renovated the building many times. Now, it has become a giant building integrating high-tech laboratories, group headquarters, and commercial office buildings.

Many New Yorkers also like to jokingly call it the "Triangle Tower," because the shape of Stark Tower is a right-angled triangle. The building on the east side is taller, with the 79th to 89th floors being Stark's personal laboratory, while the building on the west side is shorter and is a commercial office building, which is where the employees of the Stark Group work.

Although this design makes the building look a bit strange, its practicality is very good. The two buildings are connected to each other but do not interfere with each other. Although it was criticized by many landscape architects when it was built, who thought this strange-looking building destroyed the beauty of the New York skyline, today, Stark Tower has become an indispensable part of New York travel guides.

The first Stark Industrial Expo was organized and held by Howard Stark in 1981. Before the 20th century, the Stark Industrial Expo was the largest industrial exhibition in the world.

After Howard passed away, Tony Stark, who inherited the Stark Group, did not like holding industrial expos very much. Therefore, from the late 1990s to the early 21st century, the grand scene of the Stark Industrial Expo was no more. Until today, Tony Stark said at a press conference at Stark Tower, facing the flashes and microphones:

"The most important component of human industrial development has been forgotten by people for many years, and I am to blame. What makes me feel very disappointed is that after the founder of the Stark Group passed away, I have never heard of any industrial expo in the world that could stand up to fill this gap..."

"And now, what I want to tell you is that next, you will receive an invitation that may be the most important in your life. You will witness with your own eyes how big a step human industrial development has taken forward. If the blank period of these decades is my negligence, then I will use a Stark Industrial Expo to tell you..."

Stark looked around. The surrounding reporters were all looking at him without saying a word.

Reporters were very familiar with Stark, but most of the time, it was Pepper standing in front of the reporters explaining that the messes Stark made wouldn't have much impact, and then a drunk Tony would be dragged out from the backstage to perfunctorily say a few words to the reporters.

But now, all the reporters could see that this Mr. Stark in front of them was a bit different.

Stark used to be very arrogant too. He often had things like "ordinary people cannot understand me," "you will never know what kind of changes my inventions will bring to humanity," or "those small things are not important at all, I am about to change the process of human industrial development" on his lips.

Being self-centered was his business card, and being frivolous was his synonym. But this time, Stark's tone was very different, even making these reporters, who had heard all kinds of sophistry from celebrities, focus their attention on him.

"There are many rumors in this world that are hard to distinguish between true and false, and your job is to be responsible for spreading them. But these things can never really change this world. You can't do it, that Ivan Vanko can't do it, and the Air Force, Army, and Navy standing behind him can't do it."

Finally, Stark said to the microphone: "... But I can."

Stark picked up an invitation from the table, showed it to the reporters, and said: "This is the Noah's Ark ticket for the new century. If you don't want to board the ship, then stay in the decaying and declining waves and wait for death."

Countless flashes lit up, and the sound of shooting resounded with noise. Stark's calm face was captured and frozen on one newspaper after another.

The newspaper image shook, and the hand holding the newspaper lowered, revealing Peter's face behind it. He took a bite of a hot dog and said to Gwen beside him: "I really didn't expect you to get a ticket to the Stark Industrial Expo. I thought..."

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Gwen shrugged and said: "Recently, everything has been about Stark. I'm quite interested in the Industrial Expo, so I asked my dad to get two tickets for me. Let's go together."

Speaking of this, Peter was a bit angry, "I think some reporters are distorting the facts..."

"I know you are a fan of Stark. You said that when you were interning at the Stark Group before, he treated you well." Gwen turned to look at Peter. Peter sighed and said a bit dejectedly: "Do you also think he is a piece of trash? But..."

Gwen patted Peter on the shoulder and said: "The Stark that many people know from reports might be different from the Stark you know, but this is also very normal, because people are multi-faceted."

"You feel they are smearing your idol, but they also feel you are whitewashing him. But regardless, what I care more about is whether Stark can really realize the bold words he said at the press conference."

Gwen took off her schoolbag, then rummaged through it and took out two invitations, handed one to Peter, and said: "Open it and take a look. If the design is too ugly, we won't go."

Peter flipped the invitation up and down and said: "From the outside, there's nothing special..."

As he said that, he opened the invitation. Gwen did the same, and then said a bit disappointed: "The design of the invitation is quite ordinary. Inside is just a card, written 'Please go to 90th Floor, Stark Group Headquarters Building, 45th Street East, Manhattan Grand Central Terminal'..."

"Wait!" Peter interrupted Gwen. He picked up the card in the invitation in his hand and looked at it carefully, surprised: "90th floor?? Where does Stark Tower have 90 floors? That building only has 89 floors!"

Gwen also looked at it and said suspiciously: "You must have counted wrong, right?" After saying that, she put her eyes back on the invitation and said: "The cards for both of us are written as 90th floor, so it shouldn't be a mistake."

Peter scratched his head, his tone a bit uncertain: "I remember there should only be 89 floors? At least the elevator definitely goes to the 89th floor."

"Could it be that he intends for us to visit on the roof?"

"And I remember..." Gwen took the newspaper Peter had put down and pointed to the picture of Stark Tower in one of the reports: "Shouldn't the exhibition hall of Stark Tower be on the roof of the shorter building on the left? How could this building have 90 floors?"

"Indeed, I have also been to that exhibition hall. It is really big. Holding an industrial expo should be more than enough."

Just when Peter and Gwen were confused, other people who received invitations also had the same doubts. Even if they stood on the roof of other buildings and looked at Stark Tower with binoculars, counting floor by floor, there were indeed only 89 floors, and there was no 90th floor at all.

Many reporters seized this point and started attacking Stark. They claimed this was a malicious joke by the playboy, saying he was doing everything possible to attract attention and gain gimmicks. Others mocked him for being at his wit's end, a struggle before death.

Indeed, after Stark released those bold words, most industrial groups and large enterprises were angered by his self-centered attitude. If Stark's words before were more like a nouveau riche who didn't know the height of the sky bragging, but now the serious Stark launched a mockery that made many people "break their defenses."

Because a fact was placed in front of them: a piece of trash who was rotten to this extent still produced cross-era mecha technology, and could even wear that handsome mecha to be a superhero in New York.

Many scientists and leaders of industrial groups who were not doing well would inevitably fantasize that if they had developed this technology, they wouldn't be as naive as Stark, wearing a battle suit to be some kind of superhero.

They fantasized about cooperating with the military, increasing production, controlling mechanical armies, and even ruling the world.

Therefore, they mocked and satirized Stark even more justifiably, believing his choice was incomparably naive.

Many people said that Stark made the most wrong choice in every link, leading himself into such a quagmire. If it were them, not only would they cooperate with the military, but they would also cooperate with their peers. Everyone would join hands to use this technology to grab the market, divide the monopoly profits, or participate in international political games.

But no matter how they did it, it would definitely be much more mature than putting on an iron shell and acting chivalrously in New York.

What made people feel most ironic was the object of Stark's chivalry. Those ordinary people who were protected and saved by him didn't appreciate it. Even the civil opposition to Stark and Iron Man was more intense than that of Stark's peers.

In short, whether it was peers, the military, or ordinary people, after receiving this invitation, they still intended to go and participate.

Most of them were holding a "looking for fun" mentality, wanting to see how this playboy, whose reputation had already stunk to high heaven, intended to round off this gimmick.

There were also many self-proclaimed professional scientists who intended to use their professional knowledge to expose Stark's scam. Many talented young people who were not appreciated intended to go and see Stark's joke to comfort themselves that these rich people were just lucky.

People like Peter and Gwen, who were purely interested in industry and machinery and wanted to come and learn and visit, were in the minority. ===== CHAPTER 224 =====