For someone like Tony Stark who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, human suffering was probably just fodder for news and entertainment, or perhaps material for scripts to showcase his compassion during idle chitchat.
He only needed to donate some scraps to cultivate an image of compassion while securing himself a place in the headlines.
Even though Tony Stark was different from most wealthy heirs, he couldn't completely escape convention. Although he was considerably more down-to-earth compared to other trust fund kids, deep down he didn't have much empathy for ordinary people.
Essentially, he was still a rich guy without much sense of responsibility. His approachability was merely a natural expression of his personality, not born from any moral constraints within him.
When captured by the Ten Rings and held in that Mesopotamian cave, Tony got a taste of real human suffering.
A thousand lectures and readings can't compare to a single firsthand experience—this saying couldn't be more perfect when applied to Tony Stark.
The cave lacked food and air conditioning, featuring terrible conditions with Ten Rings members who resorted to violence at the slightest provocation, and human life worth nothing there.
This experience brought more change to Tony Stark than perhaps his previous twenty-one years combined—the most significant transformation since Howard's car accident.
For instance, right now the press conference was about to begin. Obadiah Stane would announce Tony's triumphant return, with everything under control—clearly a press conference meant to maintain Stark Industries' stock price.
Meanwhile, Tony Stark had just awakened from a nightmare where he hadn't developed the MK1, had no arc reactor, and no doctor who spoke eight languages.
In the dream, a Jericho missile had hit Manhattan, after which the Ten Rings had casually dumped him in the desert to fend for himself, ultimately becoming nothing but bleached bones lost in the endless sands.
Fortunately, when he woke up, Tony Stark found himself merely in his soft bed, at eight in the morning, his arm still in a cast—evidence that escaping from the Ten Rings' crude camp had taken considerable effort.
JARVIS opened the blinds for him, and the light rising from the horizon finally dispersed Tony's unease. He knew he was still alive, living thanks to someone else's life.
"Tony, call me back when you wake up, and don't forget to pick up your Margherita pizza and cheeseburgers. The press conference is at ten o'clock. Don't be late."
Virginia "Pepper" Potts's message broadcast throughout his mansion. JARVIS was already controlling Tony's food delivery cart, which arrived before him with a massive Margherita pizza, two cheeseburgers, and two large glasses of bright green medicinal concoction.
Clearly he couldn't finish it all, but pizza and burgers weren't foods that needed to maintain freshness. Tony Stark liked fast food—nutritionally balanced, calorie-dense and filling. The key was that they only needed a minute in the microwave to be ready to eat.
——
"Alright, class dismissed."
The students filed out one by one as Lynn gathered his teaching materials. Next, he would head home with Jessica after school. If his guess was correct, this first press conference would be where Tony Stark announced his intention to shut down Stark Industries' weapons sales division.
Afterward, Stark Industries' main focus would undergo a significant transformation.
But regardless of what growing pains Stark Industries might face during this transition, Lynn couldn't take advantage of them for now. He was still far from being a behemoth like Stark Industries.
"Mr. Sidis, ready to go home?"
"Miss Ava?"
"I came to thank you for your advice. Um, I've been feeling much better these past couple of days, not so timid anymore. Many things have been going more smoothly than I expected."
"Although I'm not quite sure what you're referring to, I'm happy for you."
"Anyway, thank you, Mr. Sidis."
Ava gave a slight bow before walking away with her backpack. Lynn wasn't sure what good thing had happened to her, but he could sense that some hesitation that had previously gripped her heart had disappeared, replaced by a sense of responsibility deeply rooted in her core.
Lynn didn't dwell on this matter, though. Today was the day of Tony Stark's somewhat reckless press conference. Many things in this world differed from Lynn's memories.
Perhaps there would be other changes at Tony's press conference today.
Lynn had no more classes today and planned to watch Tony Stark's press conference from the closest possible vantage point.
Starting up his old car's engine, half an hour later, after pushing through congested traffic, Lynn finally arrived at the press conference venue in Manhattan—disaster-prone Manhattan.
Lynn naturally couldn't get inside, so he sat on a patch of grass in the park outside, watching reporters file in. Through the transparent glass, he could see Tony sitting below the podium with a cup of cola. One hand was still in a cast from his fracture, and bandages were still faintly visible on his face.
Worse than Lynn remembered.
A few minutes later, Tony Stark's press conference began as scheduled. Apart from some minor discrepancies, it looked pretty much as Lynn had expected.
"Maybe I'm overthinking this?"
This world naturally differed from Lynn's imagination, and Lynn didn't think Tony would only have that one streak of bad luck.
But now it seemed Tony was safer than he had imagined, surrounded by armed security guards, National Guard and Marine Corps soldiers.
If you counted the NYPD too, there were security personnel in four different colors on site. Who would attack Tony Stark at a time like this? At least not now.
That was what most of the security personnel on site thought.
But Lynn still noticed something incongruous. Thanks to his keen sense of energy, he eventually detected certain "civilians" with strangely powerful life energy.
Some of these seemingly ordinary people had life energy far exceeding normal humans, shining like stars in the night sky.
"Something's wrong. These guys..."
Lynn suddenly realized he was completely surrounded by these abnormal "ordinary people."
Coming for me?!
Some were coming for Lynn, but more were running toward the press conference venue.
One of the "civilians" was already pulling out a weapon from behind his back.
Lynn frowned as purple mist began swirling around him. A powerful psychic wave erupted, knocking over the assassin who tried to attack him. Lynn could now clearly see the weapon in his hand.
A Japanese sword.
Another deep purple psychic wave erupted, forming a purple wall that blocked the attacks coming toward Lynn. Numerous shuriken were stopped by the psychic field Lynn created, unable to advance an inch.
As the barrier shattered, the shuriken were deflected back toward their original owners, but these well-trained killers obviously wouldn't be hit by such simple projectiles.
The reflected shuriken were all caught bare-handed by the assassins, who now revealed their weapons—hook gauntlets, chain blades, staffs, Japanese swords.
Their weapons were varied and eclectic.
Many assassins began revealing their true identities, their eyes glowing with an ominous red light, their clothing transforming into crimson Japanese ninja attire.
At this point, it would be ridiculous if Lynn still didn't know their identity.
"The Hand..."
Although Lynn identified them, he didn't understand why the Hand would target him.
The Hand's appearance was clearly unexpected. Tony Stark's press conference was immediately halted, with agents and security quickly escorting him away, while the NYPD and National Guard outside hurriedly formed defensive lines.
But these lines were weak. The Hand ninjas moved incredibly fast—before the first soldier could fire, they were already in front of the first Marine.
With a flash of white light from a sword, the Marine was decapitated, his weapon sliced in half along with him.
"Open fire, open fire!"
Soon, gunfire erupted everywhere. Even the weapons on the infantry fighting vehicles began spitting flames.
Hand ninjas hit by heavy machine guns instantly split into pieces, then dissolved into smoke, leaving only weapons and clothing behind. Their actual bodies turned to ash and disappeared.
But the soldiers with assault rifles weren't so lucky. The small-caliber bullets could hardly hit the Hand ninjas, who wielded their weapons at speeds that ordinary human reflexes could barely track, creating ping-pong-like sparks.
Those burst-fired bullets were somehow deflected by these ninjas.
And ended up killing their fellow soldiers instead.
Meanwhile, after their initial attack failed, the ninjas around Lynn simply surrounded him vigilantly without launching further attacks.
"..."
Lynn suddenly realized something. Since obtaining the Darkhold, he had carried it with him constantly to prevent others from taking it. This object bore Chthon's influence and would quickly take over the minds of ordinary people who possessed it.
Turning them into instant, unrestrained black magicians.
The Hand organization clearly had some knowledge of magic. These ninjas probably sensed something on Lynn, which was why they contained him here to prevent him from interfering with their mission.
However, this put Lynn in an awkward position.
It's worth noting that he hadn't concealed his tracks coming here.
Such obvious encirclement, witnessed by so many people, exposed in the view of SHIELD and various factions, had become an established fact. The risk of exposure had greatly increased.
"I've been a bit careless. I should have changed identities before coming. I'll need to be more careful next time."
Lynn glanced at the ninjas before him, naturally not pleased with them. These ninjas couldn't be killed, but that didn't prevent Lynn from directly disrupting their plans.
Causing them some losses while muddying the waters would be the better choice. Though the test subject wasn't one of Tony's opponents, these Hand ninjas would do just fine.
"Go."
Lynn gave the command in his mind. Nearby, a raggedly dressed homeless man moved through the crowd as his muscles began to writhe, his entire body bursting open.
A giant humanoid beetle appeared in everyone's sight, frightening the surrounding crowd into scattering even faster.
"My God, what is that thing!"
"A beetle monster!"
Exclamations came from the crowd.
The moment Jekyll appeared, Lynn expanded his psychic barrier. Meanwhile, the heat-emitting organs on Jekyll's body began to glow with dazzling light.
Dozens of heat organs simultaneously fired bio-lasers, instantly piercing through the Hand ninjas' bodies, melting their weapons, and penetrating several infantry fighting vehicles controlled by the ninjas, causing them to explode.
This single attack easily killed nearly three-quarters of the Hand ninjas. The pressure around Lynn instantly eased. He swept his palm over his temple, purple electricity flickering between his temple and palm.
His pupils flickered with faint purple mist.
Then massive deep purple lightning erupted, once again lighting up everyone's eyes. With a thunderous boom, the place where Lynn stood erupted in a cloud of dust, while countless weapons shattered and were sent skyward by the shockwave.
The Hand ninjas surrounding him truly turned to ash.
Jekyll stepped forward, lifting an infantry fighting vehicle with one hand and casually throwing it, accurately hitting another vehicle preparing to start.
As he flipped the vehicle, bio-lasers shot from his wrists, melting the infantry vehicle's steel plates like butter and detonating the fuel tanks of both vehicles.
By the time the dust settled, Lynn had vanished.
Only Jekyll and a few remaining Hand ninjas remained. Bio-lasers erupted once more as Jekyll easily annihilated all the Hand ninjas without engaging in any hand-to-hand combat.
Now all that remained at the scene were silently burning infantry vehicle wrecks, many masterless cold weapons, some seriously injured Marines and National Guard soldiers, and Jekyll.
These survivors looked at the bioweapon in terror, not even daring to make a sound, only able to squirm through their pain, praying in their minds that Jekyll wouldn't notice them.
Jekyll looked up, clenched his fist, and slowly placed it on the ground. After a cloud of dust, he disappeared, leaving only a large crater and a scene of devastation.
Lynn now stood in a tall building not far away. He could use his psychic power for short-distance flashes—the latest application of his variant ability that he had developed. Although the distance wasn't very long, and using it required some preparation time.
But at least it gave him a means of quickly leaving the scene.
He looked at the Darkhold in his hand.
"Need to find a way to shield this."
Lynn shook his head helplessly.
"I originally wanted to focus on developing the first control core, but now that'll have to wait. I need to quickly implement some of my other knowledge."