Chapter 2676

Stark sighed through his nose, one hand resting straight on the edge of the table, his fingers tapping lightly on the desktop.

"We all feel very sorry for this." Natasha said, supporting her head with her hand. "But everyone has misfortune in their past. In order not to affect the future, we must never make up for regrets by crossing time lines."

Stark raised his eyes abruptly. Natasha had already stood up from her chair and started pacing behind the desk, while Stark's eyeballs moved back and forth following her.

"All employees of the Time Variance Authority follow such a rule: we can only be bystanders of time and must never influence the people in the time line, because once the fate of certain people is changed, all things related to him in the future will change."

"This kind of change is not necessarily in a good direction. Many times, it may bring greater disasters. It's nothing more than the difference between long-term pain and short-term pain. A moment of soft-heartedness will only create more tragedies..."

Natasha had never been such a talkative person. Alarm bells rang in Stark's heart.

In the past, Stark's genius brain, full of wisdom, would never turn in this direction. He had never spent a moment using his wisdom to solve those complex interpersonal problems, letting them flow past his eyes like water. Even if the torrent composed of that noise had completely submerged him, he could still find joy in the genius ideas in his brain, not caring about it at all.

He was just such a person: he paid extra attention to the eyes of others and was smug about the praise of others, but in fact, he didn't care about them at all, discarding them like shoes and turning a blind eye to them.

But now, at this very moment, a certain area in his brain had been lit up. The answers to those social codes, which were more complex than any mathematical formula to him, were clear at a glance.

"Yes." Stark stared at Natasha and said, "Interference with the past is too easy to cause time disasters, but if the result is not essentially changed, isn't that equivalent to no interference?"

"This is pure sophistry." Natasha said, "As long as you participate in the past time, it is impossible not to have an influence."

"You said we are very similar."

Natasha also turned to look at Stark. Stark crossed his hands and placed them in front of him, saying, "Especially our childhood and adolescence are very similar. The most similar point is that the Hamiltons and the Starks both died at the hands of Hydra."

"Since that's the case..." Stark also stood up, lifted the hem of his suit, put his hands in his pockets, leaned forward, and stared at Natasha. "Then is there any difference whether he was adopted by the Hamiltons or by the Starks?"

Natasha revealed a big smile and said, "I have no way to be sure. After all, I'm not a Stark with genius wisdom, just a small S. H. I. E. L. D. agent."

Stark also laughed, reached out to make a gesture of holding a wine glass, and said, "To this small agent, ma'am, goodbye."

After Stark turned around, he lowered his eyes. Countless keywords began to echo in his mind. Finally, one of the keywords came into his view.

"Helen!! Helen!!!"

Standing on the roof of Stark Tower, Stark took off his mask and shouted at Helen. Soon, a small black shadow descended from the sky and plunged into Stark's arms.

"What's wrong?"

"What are you doing?" Stark said after taking her a little further away. "Went to eat snacks again?"

"No, just drank some solar wind, just afternoon tea." Helen jumped to the ground, looked up at Stark, and said, "Why are you still here at this time? Shouldn't you be accompanying Pepper for a physical examination?"

"She went shopping." Stark held Helen's hand and walked toward the door of the rooftop, saying, "I have something I want to ask of you."

"What?"

"Where's Loki?"

"Her? She's been quite busy lately." Helen scratched her head and said, "And she's mysterious. She doesn't take me with her, and she doesn't say what she's going to do."

"Do you know when she'll be free?"

Helen shook her head, looked up at Stark, and asked, "Do you have something very important to find her for? If you really have to find her, it's not that you can't, but you have to write a letter to Thor. Only he has Loki's emergency contact information."

Stark thought for a moment and then said, "I just heard that she is very familiar with the employees of the Time Variance Authority, and she can also use magic."

"What's so special about that?" Helen patted her chest and said, "I'm also very familiar with the employees of the Time Variance Authority, and I can also use magic."

"You can use magic? When did you learn it?"

Helen sighed helplessly and said, "Did you forget? I have the blood of the Aesir, I have divine power! And aren't you also able to use magic?"

Stark suddenly realized. Having stayed on Earth for too long, he had forgotten that he was a magic god at any rate.

However, there were still quite a few people in the universe paying attention to the Iron Magic God. It was better for him not to show up easily to prevent causing panic. So he said to Helen, "Can you take me to the Time Variance Authority?"

"I can, but why are you going there?"

"Of course, to do business. Let's go."

The two soon arrived at the Time Variance Authority. Very unsurprisingly, Nick was not there. The one who received them was Mobius.

Helen was indeed very familiar with Mobius. While they were chatting, Stark walked around the corridor and, sure enough, saw a Time Affairs Management Office.

His gaze focused on the time machine hanging on the employees' waists. If he remembered correctly, this thing was something that could travel through time.

Soon, Stark called Helen out on the grounds of wanting to visit the Time Variance Authority. Helen tugged at his sleeve and asked, "Why are you being sneaky? What exactly are you trying to do?"

"I want to travel through time, but I don't want anyone to know. Do you think the time management machines in their hands are useful?"

"That thing? Those are all locked, useless." Seeing Stark's slightly disappointed expression, Helen giggled again and said, "But I have a useful one here."

Helen spat out a time machine, which was obviously the one she had swallowed when she and Loki first came to the Time Variance Authority. She handed it to Stark and said, "The lock on this thing has been unlocked by me. You can travel through time freely."

"But you should know the time management regulations, right? If you change the past rashly, it will lead to the future..."

"Don't worry, I have a way." Stark took the machine happily, but still said to Helen, "But there is one more thing. I have to change my appearance and go back to my childhood. Can you help with magic?"

"I can, but you have to remember what you looked like when you were a child, otherwise it's easy to become very strange," Helen said.

"Come on." Stark clenched his fists, obviously full of some kind of determination.

Stark returned to his adolescence very smoothly, probably around 13 years old. At this time, his parents were still alive. However, Howard and Maria had also been resurrected later, so Stark wouldn't be very excited, at most just feeling a bit emotional looking at their young faces.

Howard at this time was still relatively sober, not in the state of being drunk and confused later. At this time, he was completely worthy of being a good father, and he was the great hero in Stark's mind.

However, this good time didn't last long. Stark remembered that when he was about 15, which was just when he entered Harvard to study, everything started to change a little. According to the current time line, it was about two years later.

If it dragged on until then, everything would probably be unchangeable, so Stark had to take action immediately.

Finding Schiller was relatively difficult. After all, he was just an ordinary orphan now. But finding the Hamiltons was much simpler. After all, they were also famous scientists. He could contact them in the name of any relevant project team.

Stark didn't intend to let his parents participate in this stage. After all, he couldn't rashly tell them to adopt an orphan. This was really too strange. He had to let them realize it themselves and propose it.

Stark soon contacted the Hamiltons, of course in the name of Stark Industries, and used technical means to determine their whereabouts. He also learned that they had close communication with the director of a certain orphanage.

It seemed that this orphanage should be the one where Schiller was. But the problem came: people had already decided to adopt, so what reason did the Starks have to snatch it away?

It seemed he still had to find a way himself.

After a few days of observation, Stark found that he had indeed been young and ignorant, so much so that he didn't realize the changes in his parents at all. As early as two years ago, everything had already had signs.

Howard's work started to become very busy, and the time he spent with him became less and less. Maria was also running around busy because of some things, and the time she returned home was uncertain. She often left Stark to Obadiah to take care of, and then Obadiah also started to become very busy. In the entire Stark Manor, only he and his old butler were left.

At this time, the old butler Jarvis was already very old, and it was inevitable that he would be powerless to take care of children. This was also the main reason why Stark would develop very rebelliously later. In the most sensitive adolescent period, no one could take care of him.

Although Stark missed the time he spent with the old butler, he hadn't forgotten that he had business to do. Picking a day when Obadiah was free, he asked Obadiah to equip him with a computer, and then he started tinkering in his room.

Stark thought, if Schiller couldn't attract his parents' attention, then he would find a way to make Schiller attract their attention. The best way was to shape the image of a teenage genius.

Stark knew Schiller's scientific research level too well. At this age, he probably couldn't even screw in a light bulb properly. But it didn't matter. Wasn't it just creating a god? Couldn't Stark, with his genius wisdom, come up with something that would surprise Howard?

Howard was indeed surprised, but not because of what Stark had made, but because his hover car had found a built-in software system that was extremely compatible, almost as if it were tailor-made for Stark Industries.

Howard only discovered after some investigation that this was actually made by a little boy in an orphanage using that old computer. He was immediately amazed and asked Obadiah to investigate what was going on with this boy.

The results of the investigation also surprised him. This little boy named Schiller showed jaw-dropping talent in computer engineering.

Howard was a pure businessman. When he could get benefits, he wouldn't be soft-hearted. So he immediately contacted the staff of the orphanage, wanting to understand the boy's situation.

Upon learning that he might be adopted by the Hamiltons, Howard immediately discussed it with Maria and Tony, and finally decided to adopt him.