Chapter 2675

Stark sat in his chair in the Stark Tower office, feet propped up, scrolling through videos. Pepper, standing outside the door, sighed and said to Obadiah, "Sir, I know he looks a bit unlearned, like a good-for-nothing internet-addicted teenager, but at least he isn't anxious anymore. He won't focus too much attention on me either, like a turkey in mating season, stretching his neck to pick fights with others. I suppose that counts as a good thing."

Obadiah craned his neck to peek inside, frowning and curling his lip with a look of slight disdain. But then he glanced at Pepper and said, "Fine, at least he isn't bothering you. Let him scroll through short videos if he wants, but you must remind him not to stay up late. The medical budget for next season cannot increase again."

Pepper nodded. After Obadiah left, she immediately picked up her phone and said cheerfully to the person on the other end, "Wanda, do you have time this afternoon? How about we call Pamela and go shopping? I need to go get that invitation-style sample I saw last time..."

"Oh, him?" Pepper tossed her hair back and glanced at the office door again. "He's been obsessed with TikTok lately, spending several hours every day scrolling through short videos. He even set up his own account and posts videos every now and then to gain followers. He doesn't have time for me..."

"My god, I'm just glad he's like this. Short videos are truly a miracle cure for anxiety. He finally stopped coddling me like an alien baby. Otherwise, how could I possibly have a free afternoon?"

"Alright, I'll drive to pick you up. Ah, I mean, I'll have Jarvis drive to pick you up. See you at our usual spot."

Stark scrolled through the short videos one by one. Soon, a voice came from the screen.

"... That's right, I checked the dropout list for Columbia University's medical school and couldn't find Dr. Schiller Rodriguez's name at all. He isn't on the leave-of-absence list either. This obviously contradicts the claims made by his classmates that he had taken a few years off..."

"I suspect someone deleted the doctor's experience during this period. This might be related to his cooperation with law enforcement agencies back then. But what's suspicious is, if it were just simple cooperation with the FBI to provide technical support, why would they need to erase the existence of these records? Or is there some hidden story behind this?"

Stark sat up straight, staring at the screen without blinking.

Soon, another voice came from the screen. It was someone reviewing the video of the person who had just spoken, and he clearly had more to say.

"I investigated an eyewitness report of a traffic accident in Brooklyn. Pay attention here: this records a street racing accident report from the A02 section to the E63a section. The owner of the vehicle is named Alex Leonas."

"I looked into this name and found that he was the captain of the football team at Columbia University in the same year as Dr. Rodriguez. This person was sued and imprisoned in 2006 on charges of intentional injury, and sued and imprisoned again in 2009 for drug trafficking and six other charges. He has yet to be released."

"But the crimes he committed later are not the point. The important thing is that when this street racing traffic accident occurred, Alex had a solid alibi."

"During the spring semester of that year, Columbia University won a home game against the University of Michigan. That night, Alex and all the other football team members went to the victory party and stayed until very late before leaving."

"During those at least 6 hours, Alex stayed in a place where people could see him, without even half a minute of time to leave. This proves that this street racing incident could not have been done by him."

"Following this clue, I found some other things—home videos filmed by a Columbia University football team member. Please look here: it mentions that some crazy things happened on the night of the victory party. He didn't say exactly what, but I suspect it might have been some brawls, or even possibly bloodshed."

"The reason this matter is not known to the public is very likely related to the mysterious street racing incident and Dr. Rodriguez's leave of absence. The truth is that Columbia University concealed certain things to reduce the impact of this accident. As for what exactly, I'm afraid only the people involved can give us the answer."

Stark paused the video and looked closely. Below the analyzing blogger, it read "Retired FBI Agent."

Stark couldn't help but laugh out loud. This was truly a hell of a joke, because those FBI agents who hadn't retired might not even be able to find out this much—or rather, they definitely couldn't, because if they had the ability to find it out, they would have already voluntarily retired by now.

Stark had been scrolling through short videos related to documentaries for a long time, mainly looking at the various evaluations of the documentaries online and the analysis of the characters in them. It was very addictive. Sometimes, an analysis from one angle could lead to seventy or eighty videos, and then the related videos would have another angle, followed by a third and fourth angle, as if it were a never-ending brand-new world.

Of course, Stark mainly scrolled through those related to himself, and the parts he liked to watch most were the viewpoints that praised him. In short, once he started scrolling, there was no end to it. He didn't even know there were so many novel angles to praise himself.

Of course, after scrolling through these types of videos too much, the big data started recommending analyses of other people to him. What Stark liked to watch most was praise for Pepper, followed by Jarvis.

But in reality, the popularity of other characters in the documentary combined didn't even equal Schiller's alone, so it was hard to avoid scrolling through Schiller's as well.

However, Schiller's videos had a different style from theirs. In the short videos related to Schiller, the bloggers were all part Sherlock Holmes and part Leeuwenhoek. Every move the doctor made was magnified and analyzed by them, from the present to the past. Basically, every tiny detail had been dug up.

Of course, the most common ones were still the various videos analyzing Schiller's past, because Schiller's past was indeed like a mystery. Stark couldn't say he wasn't interested at all.

They actually knew long ago that Schiller wasn't from this world, but they didn't know the specific details—for example, when he came, how he came, what he did after he arrived, and what this world and they, his friends, were in his eyes. Basically, no one knew.

Stark didn't really want to ask in the first place; he valued their current relationship more than he needed to understand anyone's past. But now, he had some ideas.

This group of ordinary people who suddenly focused on Schiller gave Stark a subtle sense of crisis, as if people who had never met Schiller in person knew more about him than they, his friends, did. What was this supposed to mean?

Just as his neck was getting stiff from scrolling through short videos, Stark stood up, shook his head, and stretched. Just as he was about to call Pepper, he saw a text message from her on his phone: she was going out shopping this afternoon, and no one was to bother her.

Stark thought for a moment and eventually went to the S. H. I. E. L. D. base.

When Coulson received him, he was completely confused. He looked at Stark and asked, "Why are you here at this time, Tony? Is there something very important?"

"Where's Nick?" Stark asked.

"The boss isn't here. He seemed to have left in a hurry for something earlier. Do you have something to find him for?"

"Nothing particularly important. Where's Seeing Natasha? Is she here?"

"Of course, she's in her office."

"I heard she's been quite busy lately." Stark turned to look at Coulson and said, "I haven't seen her in a long time."

"Yes, you know how it is. Ever since Dr. Schiller became popular, Nick suddenly became interested in his past. Of course, the ones doing the work are us agents, and Seeing Natasha is the first in line."

"It must be because they are both from the same hometown." Stark smiled and said, "Where is her office? I'll go find her to chat."

"This way, follow me."

As soon as Stark walked over and pushed the door open, he found Seeing Natasha scrolling through short videos at her workstation, her brow furrowed and her face full of thought.

Stark walked in and leaned over to take a look. Very good, he saw a familiar face. Wasn't this that retired FBI agent?

"You watch his videos too?" Stark raised an eyebrow and said, "Come on, you're a real agent. Why do you want to watch videos by this group of fake agents online?"

"Of course, it's because what he says makes a lot of sense." Seeing Natasha answered instinctively, then realized Stark had arrived. She looked up at Stark and said, "Why are you here at this time? Not hovering around your fiancée anymore?"

Stark sat down opposite her, placed his hands on the table, and stared at her. "You've been investigating Schiller's past lately? Any discoveries?"

Seeing Natasha hesitated for a moment, but still told Stark about her findings—of course, the story of Schiller's college days.

The more Stark listened, the worse his expression became. He said, "You mean Schiller was set up by those bastards at the FBI during college and had to do their dirty work?"

"Theoretically speaking, that's how it is, but we can't be sure that the Schiller of that time is the Schiller of now. You know, he isn't from our world. It's not even certain if he had arrived yet at that time."

Although Seeing Natasha said this, she actually knew in her heart that it was Schiller, because the personal style of that case was just too heavy. But she couldn't be bothered to tell Stark these details, only adopting the attitude of fooling a superior, saying she couldn't be sure either.

Stark rubbed his chin and said, "So that's how it is. I was just saying that the current Schiller is unlikely to fall into the hands of agents. What about before that? How did he get into college? Who are his parents?"

Seeing Natasha looked away.

Stark revealed a suspicious look. He stared at Seeing Natasha and said, "What's wrong? Is there a problem with Schiller's family?"

Seeing Natasha crossed her hands, tilted her head, and pursed her lips. "I wouldn't say there's a problem. It's about the same as yours."

"What do you mean 'about the same as mine'?" Stark was even more confused.

Seeing Natasha knew that Stark was a pest who wouldn't give up until he reached his goal, so she could only sigh, take two files from under the table, and hand them to Stark.

Stark was somewhat suspicious, taking the files hesitantly, still a bit afraid to open them. But eventually, he opened the files and started reading. The more he looked, the wider his eyes opened, and then they turned into a deep frown.

"See, I told you it was about the same as yours." Seeing Natasha shrugged and said, "But it might not be the Schiller we know now either. Don't be too sad."

Stark was silent as he looked at the content written in the files. After a long while, he tapped the table lightly and said, "Hydra..."

His tone was quite gritted-teeth. Then he looked down at the files again and said, "These Hamiltons, too. Don't they know that cooperating with Hydra is like asking a tiger for its skin? Did they think they were working for an ordinary scientific organization?"

"They should have thought this day would come when they were upgrading the firewall for Zola. It would have been one thing if they had died themselves, but they just had to adopt Schiller before they died. Was it to have someone visit their graves?"

Seeing Natasha sighed lightly again and said, "Schiller was still relatively lucky. The group of agents who went to silence them didn't find him. He escaped a disaster."

Seeing Natasha's words made Stark think of something. When he and Steve were wandering around Schiller's tower, he had once seen a corridor and a room.

That room seemed to reveal some terrible thing Schiller had once encountered, which also seemed to have happened during his childhood. Could it be the murder of the Hamiltons?

This memory existed in Schiller's Tower of Thought, which meant that Schiller had come to this world during his childhood. Was the one who experienced all this the Schiller they knew now?

Stark felt suffocated.