Chapter 124: Continental Hotel

"What do I need to buy a dilapidated hotel for?" Tony, caught off guard, shot back.

Henry casually said, "I don't know. Maybe you want to turn the whole building into a giant robot; or convert it into a love hotel and install hidden cameras everywhere..."

"OK, one delusion, one bastard idea. If you really plan to do that, don't say you know me when you're out there."

Warned, Henry shrugged indifferently; after all, he never intended to use the name 'Tony Stark' to go out and swindle people.

Did he really think this name brought a good reputation? Even Kryptonians feared that after announcing this name, enemies from who-knows-where would come out to beat them up.

"I'm not joking with you. Do you remember that incident of ours before?" Tony asked.

Hearing this, Henry immediately said warily, "Which incident before? We have no past between us, Young Master Stark. I must emphasize again and again, I am innocent."

"Fuck! Even if I slept with your wrinkled old mother, I wouldn't even look at you straight. I'm not talking about that."

Given that in his past life his mother was out of reach, and in this life he didn't even know who she was, Henry didn't take this level of verbal attack to heart at all.

Both of them, without prior agreement, each took a glass of champagne from a waiter's passing tray to moisten their throats.

Tony Stark, having slightly calmed his emotions, spoke again: "The attack by assassins we suffered at the banquet in Los Angeles before. According to my information, those assassins came from the Continental Hotel."

"So?" Henry, who had long smelled trouble and tried to make jokes to brush the matter aside, obviously failed. He could only respond with an indifferent attitude.

Tony was naturally dissatisfied with such an attitude, but he knew not to stray from the topic, otherwise he would definitely be led astray by this person. So he stuck to the subject and said, "I want to ask you to go with me to the Continental Hotel to demand an explanation."

"Not interested," Henry stated bluntly.

Tony, momentarily speechless, understood something and said with slight anger, "I know that in the situation that day, you actually faced no danger whatsoever. —"

The young master thoughtfully remembered not to expose Henry's special nature in public.

"—But when people came looking for trouble, did you make no response at all? If you show yourself as weak and bullyable, there will only be more people bullying you."

Did he really think the Young Master of the Stark family had never encountered school bullying? He skipped grades in school, surrounded by children older than himself, and they were all children of wealthy families.

There were always some unperceptive little brats looking for trouble, finding it on his doorstep. His father didn't care about his life or death, —in Tony's eyes, at least— so he could only save himself.

Every time bullying occurred, Young Master Tony would fiercely retaliate with his own strength! Only by beating the other party until they dared not fight back would such matters cease.

If the other party went home crying to find their father, then let's see whose backing was harder! Anyway, Howard Stark, summoned by the school, would never allow an outsider to deal with his only son.

And because doing so allowed him to see Old Stark's face looking as if he had eaten shit, Tony found himself somewhat enjoying it.

Fortunately, he still cared about the Stark family's reputation, and did not change from the role of the bullied and retaliator into that of a bully.

But regarding the matter of the gunmen sent by the Continental Hotel nearly taking his life, if he didn't retaliate, he could never swallow this grievance.

It was just that he had previously been unable to find any clues to the Continental Hotel. He thought such an assassin organization should be rolling around in some stinking gutter. To ask, one could only ask the rats also drilling in the gutter to find them.

Regrettably, he didn't know anyone like that, so he only came to Henry today.

Who knew that all of this was actually a case of darkness under the lamp! They were openly running a business on the surface, and even truly had a hotel in operation.

Since he learned from Henry's mouth, and since the two of them had experienced that gunfight together, Tony therefore opened his mouth to invite him. If he had found the clues himself, he would have probably gone to the door to demand an explanation himself; why would he waste effort finding this coward.

However, Henry said dismissively, "You say those assassins were sent by the Continental Hotel; to me, that sounds like an organization that works for money. Those assassins, to put it plainly, are just tools.

"If you want to look for trouble, shouldn't you look for trouble with the main culprit? Taking out your anger on tools, what kind of hero is that? I'm not saying that if someone bullies us, we have to obediently accept it.

"But if there is a grudge, solve it on the spot; leaving it overnight won't generate interest. The people who shot at us that day were mostly knocked down, and some were even killed. Isn't that good enough?

"Will the Continental Hotel come to your door to look for trouble regarding the injured or dead from that day, making a scene endlessly? If not, what is the point of pursuing the people who ran away afterwards, or the organization called the Continental Hotel?

"It's like being bitten by a dog. If you didn't kick that dog away on the spot and let it run. Because our mood isn't good, so I must go to great lengths to find this dog, and then bite back?

"Shouldn't we look for trouble with the owner who condoned this dog, or commanded this dog to bite? People are the focus; what is the point of holding a grudge against a dog.

"Besides, looking at the final situation that day, the whole matter was just something we were caught up in; purely an undeserved disaster. You were neither someone's target, nor did anyone want to silence you. So stirring into this matter, isn't that just inviting more trouble upon yourself?"

Actually, Tony also knew that what Henry said had not a single flaw. But what Tony didn't say was that he wanted to find the Continental Hotel precisely because he wanted to find the true mastermind behind the execution event that day. The controller of that island.

It was just that according to the warning from that financial big shot, Alex Hart, the executed Josh Hilton was killed because he had a big mouth and went around talking about that island, which angered the people behind the scenes, leading them to hire assassins.

So Tony did not directly go around probing for news about that island. Instead, he started with the Continental Hotel, which, although secret, was not so taboo.

But even if he really found the hotel... what to do next, Tony temporarily had no idea. Without knowing the opponent's true strength or background, formulating any plan had little substantial meaning.

Tony simply asked Henry, "Do you really not intend to help me?"

"Help you with what? You look like you want to take a machine gun into someone's hotel and spray fire; am I supposed to go be a meat shield?" After retorting, Henry said again:

"Since the other party is an organization, I think you bringing a suitcase of money over would be more useful than me bringing a gun with you. If you're afraid the money's protective power isn't enough, then how about a suitcase of gold bricks? At least when bullets come, maybe they can block a bullet."

(End of this chapter)