Chapter 125: The True Genius of the Marvel Universe

Henry's refusal was clear enough; Tony was not the kind of spoiled child who dared not go out without a nanny.

Besides, this invitation was merely something brought up casually since the person was right there; it was not as if his plans could not advance without the other joining in, so he dropped the matter.

There was no need to say it; the shadow of that island lay behind this matter. If things were made public, who knew who would be silenced next.

Tony might not have a deep understanding of not harming the innocent, but he certainly would not wish to become the target of being silenced himself, so the matter still had to proceed in secret.

Shifting his attention back to the banquet, he had intended to shake off the unlucky celebrity assistant beside him, shed the negative emotions, and find some fun for himself.

Tony Stark would not have minded if he hadn't looked, but upon seeing him, he frowned and muttered in complaint: "Why do I have to see that annoying guy wherever I go?"

Hearing the complaint, Henry became interested.

No matter how annoying mortals were, the future Iron Man would ignore them, but if someone could be liked or disliked by Tony Stark, it was quite an achievement.

So Henry was curious about that "annoying guy" Tony mentioned and asked: "Who are you talking about? It can't be that person who argued with you at Caltech last time, can it?"

Henry's words made Tony think for a moment before he suddenly realized and said: "Justin is just a clown who overestimates himself; no need to pay attention to him. That guy is the real annoyance." As he spoke, Tony pouted his mouth toward a certain direction.

Looking in the direction Tony indicated, Henry noticed a young man who looked prematurely aged.

He had the unkempt air of a scholar, a scruffy beard, and a head of fairly neat brown hair.

He looked presentable enough, but arrogance occasionally flashed through his polite expression, making those with sensitive nerves feel quite uncomfortable.

Henry asked curiously: "Do you know him?"

Tony made no attempt to hide his disgust and said: "When I was pursuing my doctorate at Caltech, he happened to return to the university to receive a doctorate degree. I met him once, and neither the process nor the result was pleasant."

"Who is he?"

"A fool who calls himself a genius. He read through a pile of university and doctorate degrees; in my opinion, he is just a guy who travels around to scam research funding. Reed Richards."

Hearing that name at first, Henry could not recall who this deity was, but immediately, a certain figure in his memory matched up with this person.

In the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), who is truly the smartest person?

Basically, there are two factions of supporters: one stands with Iron Man Tony Stark, and the other stands with Princess Shuri of Wakanda. Some even bring in Rocket Raccoon from the Guardians of the Galaxy for comparison.

But in the Marvel Universe, this question has an officially certified answer: the leader of the Fantastic Four, Mr. Fantastic Reed Richards.

Although in terms of IQ, there are settings with people higher than him, namely the Inhuman Moon Girl and Mr. Fantastic's daughter Valeria, their achievements and performance are far inferior to this genius who is keen on causing trouble.

Looking at his entire experience, it is an alternating cycle of making messes and cleaning up the messes he made.

Even the Illuminati, composed of the smartest brains in the Marvel Universe, only serves to make bigger messes and clean up the resulting messes with more tragic means, then endlessly repeating these two processes...

Fully embodying the core Marvel value that with great power comes great destruction, and naturally, great responsibility.

If in the DC world, the plague one needs to stay farthest away from is the Flash who likes to mess with timelines, then in the Marvel Universe, the one one needs to stay farthest away from is this Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards, right here.

Truly, not every hero is someone you can stick to and hug for their big legs; their experiences of selling out teammates based on who they perceive as a threat are far too numerous.

The Hulk wept and collapsed in the universe.

Looking at Tony Stark, Henry asked: "You said he scams funding; do you have any evidence or rumors?"

Asking this was purely because he wanted to know what heaven-and-earth-resenting things this Reed Richards, who looked like he had not yet been mutated by cosmic rays, had done in this world to be disliked by the future Iron Man to such an extent.

It was absolutely not because some melon ripens and sweetens, with a gossiping heart burning fiercely, causing him to disregard the taboos he had set for himself and also want to know what the future Mr. Fantastic had done.

Regarding the matter of the annoying guy, Tony certainly had no obligation to keep it secret; in fact, he even thought about spreading it everywhere and telling everyone he met. It was not that he harbored the idea of ruining the other's reputation, but simply because the young master could not swallow that grievance and had to vent it.

Tony showed a rare angry expression and said: "Before he left the university, based on the professor's recommendation, I went to the laboratory to visit this genius senior. There were indeed many interesting little gadgets in his lab.

"Like a butler robot, not the trash-can-on-wheels design of R2-D2, but one that moved on tracks, with two robotic arms and observation lenses like eyes. It was better than the intelligent robotic arm in my undergraduate thesis.

"There were also magnetic levitation, micro-batteries, and a series of finished products and semi-finished products. I have to admit, there were many things I was curious about regarding how he did them. But the ideas behind most of the things were quite good and could serve as excellent references.

"But when I asked him questions, that guy actually replied directly that I was too stupid to understand his explanations, so he did not want to waste time explaining those things.

"And he did not want to leak those so-called 'beyond'—"

Tony made a double-quote gesture, paired with a look of disgust,

"—results that were too far beyond existing technology, so he also forbade me from taking anything away; of course, they were all non-sale items. If you are interested, just look around in his lab.

"Basically, if you want to see monkeys, just buy a ticket and go to the zoo to look; don't think about buying a monkey to take home to see if you want to raise it or dissect it.

"Of course, throughout the entire conversation, he was doing his own thing and never looked up at me once. Even if I wanted to communicate, I could only speak while looking at the back of his head, so I left.

"Later I found out that this gentleman's attitude was always like this. He asked the school for research funding, but the achievement papers were always sealed up with various confidentiality reasons. So almost every school gave him a degree and then kicked him out.

"After too many schools suffered losses, no one was willing to continue giving him funding, so he shifted his gaze to Wall Street, to those rich fools who hoped to become tech giants by switching industries.

"I hope his legal knowledge or legal advisors are as powerful as his genius brain; otherwise, sooner or later he will end up begging on the streets. But even so, he is not worthy of sympathy."

(End of this chapter)