Virginia "Pepper" Potts

"Miss, would you like to upload this project to the Stark Industries internal database for easy access?"

Whether it was a routine inquiry or for another reason, Jarvis's words made Miss Stark fall silent.

Sitting in the ergonomic chair in front of her computer, she gently tapped her toes on the ground, spinning around slowly with a contemplative look on her face.

"No need, Jarvis... Frankly, I don't trust them, those ignorant fools."

She was the only daughter of the late Howard Stark, born as the heir to Stark Industries, the leading arms manufacturing conglomerate.

According to the will left by the late Howard Stark, she had not yet reached the age to officially inherit the company.

Since she hadn't inherited the corporation yet, its operations were managed by the Stark Industries Board of Directors.

But—to her, the so-called Board of Directors was nothing more than a group of short-sighted fools.

"I understand, Miss. Project Veronica has been created and uploaded to your private database."

Hearing Miss Stark's words, Jarvis responded plainly, his tone still as cold and emotionless as ever.

"Good... By the way, restrict others from freely entering and leaving the villa; they must get my approval first."

"Shall I enable a whitelist, for instance, Miss Virginia or Mr. James Rhodes?"

"A whitelist? Only retain Pepper's access rights; others need to notify me before coming in."

Gently massaging her temples, she slowly closed her eyes, a trace of restlessness surfacing on her face.

In the depths of her fragmented memories, she clearly saw the past and the future—

Or rather, what happened to another version of herself in another world, a parallel universe.

Obadiah Stane easily entered Anthony Howard Stark's workshop and took him down.

Then, with the so-called arc reactor he had extracted from Stark's chest, he left without a trace.

Miss Stark thought of the Obadiah Stane in her life, that seemingly loyal middle-aged man.

After Howard's death, Obadiah Stane had taken on all the administrative duties of Stark Industries.

On the other hand, that old guy Obadiah had also maintained a relatively good relationship with her.

She never imagined that the him in another world would do such a thing.

Therefore, even if it was just to protect herself, she had to close all loopholes.

But... even if she managed to close this loophole and protect herself, it would only be herself she protected.

It would never compare to what might happen in the future—an event that would lead to the destruction of half of all life in the universe.

She fell silent again, the only sound in the quiet basement coming from the fans of the computer and server equipment.

Only she understood, only she knew just how dangerous the future could be.

"Tony Stark, you're not the only one cursed with knowledge—"

She still remembered, in the fragments of her memories, that purple giant once said this.

But when she saw what might happen in the future, her heart suddenly became overwhelmed with a sense of helplessness and fear.

"You are destined to witness the end of this world, and you cannot change its arrival."

"When the time comes, I wonder if you will make the same choice as I did."

The giant, who seemed to have fallen into madness, still smiled in his final moments and spoke these words.

But Miss Stark could tell that the mad Titan was not actually mad; on the contrary, he saw more clearly than anyone.

The more you know, the greater your fear of the unknown becomes.

Thanos had calculated the entropy curve of life, and his conclusion was that this universe, this world, would be destroyed, which is why he chose to gather supreme power.

He wanted to prevent the destruction of the world by sacrificing half of the universe's life, forcibly cutting the total number of lives in half, to keep it permanently limited. Miss Stark understood his reasoning but didn't want to be part of the half of the universe's life that would be obliterated for the sake of balance.

So, the most pressing desire for her at this moment was to find a way to stop him.

And the answer was—she shook her head, then reopened her eyes and got up from the ergonomic chair.

Though it was comfortable to lie back in, she had no mind for a moment's peace right now.

"Jarvis—"

"What are your instructions, Miss?"

"My father used to tell me bedtime stories about a guy named Steve Rogers."

"Ah—Captain America, I know who that is, Miss. What about him?"

"I want to know if he was a real person, if my father didn't lie to me."

Miss Stark recalled that when she was little, her father often told her stories about Captain America before she went to sleep.

During World War II, her father, Howard Stark, had been a good comrade and friend of Captain America.

But even though she had often heard those stories, as she grew older, she came to think of him as a fictional character.

Although there were many legends about Captain America, no one had ever actually seen him.

"Miss, according to the records in the database, Captain America, Steve Rogers, was indeed a real person."

"Additionally... his weapon, a shield made of a special metal, was kept in Mr. Howard's private storage room."

Miss Stark didn't tell Jarvis her true purpose—the existence of the Tesseract, the Space Stone, which appeared in her memories.

According to the records, in 1942, Johann Schmidt, the then-leader of HYDRA, discovered this alien artifact in an old church in Norway.

It was then researched by Nazi Germany and HYDRA scientists loyal to the Nazis to create weapons.

The most infamous of these was the HYDRA organization's Valkyrie bomber, powered by the Tesseract.

This project was initiated by HYDRA's chief scientific advisor, Dr. Arnim Zola.

He extracted the energy from the Tesseract to create a special bomb, with power comparable to the atomic bomb that America had just developed at the time.

As the Nazis were about to fall, HYDRA activated their doomsday plan, deploying that unconventional jet bomber.

It was a jet bomber powered by the Tesseract, code-named Valkyrie.

A typical brute-force approach—the Nazis planned to use it to fly at high speeds in Earth's orbit and drop bombs on the capital cities of various nations.

Afterward, no... before that, the plan was thwarted by a super-soldier named Steve Rogers.

Steve Rogers, codenamed Captain America, led the Howling Commandos to successfully break into HYDRA's headquarters.

Although he couldn't stop the Valkyrie jet bomber from taking off, he managed to pilot it and crash it into the Arctic Ocean.

He died, but at least the Allies were saved, and the Nazis lost their chance to drag the world down with them.

"Did he really sink into the Arctic Ocean along with HYDRA's giant bomber, as my father said?"

"According to the database records, that is correct, but..."

"No buts, Jarvis. I need to find him, and I need to do it now."

She completely disregarded what Jarvis was about to say, raising her hand, and the computer screen in front of her instantly lit up.

Jarvis didn't understand why Miss Stark suddenly had the idea of finding Steve Rogers.

In its database, he was already marked as deceased, having sunk to the bottom of the ocean with HYDRA's aircraft.

"Set the search area within the Arctic Circle, centered on the southern tip of Greenland."

"Recalculate the ocean currents for the past seventy years, factoring in the environmental variables near the polar circle; we'll find him."

Perhaps it was because this man had been presumed dead that no one had searched for him over the past seventy years.

But Miss Stark knew she had to find him, and while she was at it, find that missing Tesseract.

The Tesseract appeared in many of those memory fragments, but none of them revealed its current location.

So, Miss Stark could only hope that Steve Rogers might provide her with some clues.

Of course, if she hadn't interrupted Jarvis earlier, she might have heard another piece of information from him.

For instance... after Captain Steve Rogers went down with the ship, Old Man Howard sent out a team to search for him.

Although they didn't find Captain America's whereabouts, they did successfully recover the Tesseract from the ocean.

That alien artifact, constantly emitting energy waves, was found almost immediately.

At this moment, the Tesseract was no longer at the bottom of the ocean but in the hands of the Strategic Scientific Reserve—or rather, S.H.I.E.L.D.

Unfortunately, Miss Stark wouldn't disclose her true intentions to Jarvis, so this became a beautiful misunderstanding.

"Miss, though I am reluctant to disturb you, I must inform you—Miss Pepper has arrived."

Just as Miss Stark continued using the company's satellite network to refine the bomber's crash site calculations, Jarvis suddenly spoke up.

"What, now? What time is it?"

Hearing this name, Miss Stark paused, blinking in surprise.

"It is now 5:43 a.m. Would you like me to prepare your breakfast?"

The storm and fierce winds of the previous night had passed while she was working in the basement.

No wonder she hadn't heard much from outside later on—she had thought she was just too absorbed in her work, but it turned out that the storm had ended.

"No rush. Once Pepper is inside, have her arrange it for me, Jarvis."

With that, she slowly got up from her computer, stretched her body, and yawned.

"If I want to survive, I must become stronger... much stronger..."

She muttered to herself, almost neurotically, though her voice was low enough that Jarvis didn't hear.

But the most pressing issue right now was to fill her stomach. Thinking this, she walked through the garage and returned to the upper floors of the villa.

As she walked past the circular staircase, the first thing that caught her eye was a woman in white, flipping through a magazine on the sofa.

She had long, orange hair, a fair face, and wore a neatly pressed white tailored suit. Her skirt, falling just above the knee, offered a modest yet noticeable glimpse of her thighs. Her slender legs were elegantly crossed, accentuated by black four-inch heels.

Seeing Miss Stark emerging from the basement, the woman on the sofa seemed a bit surprised.

She put down the magazine in her hand, stood up from the sofa, and walked toward Miss Stark.

Virginia "Pepper" Potts—she was Miss Stark's personal assistant and also served as her lifestyle secretary.

When Miss Stark had just graduated from MIT, Pepper had already been working at Stark Industries.

Perhaps due to their similar ages, the old man Obadiah had arranged for Pepper to be by Miss Stark's side.

This move allowed the once reclusive genius to gain her first close and intimate friend.

"So... you stayed up all night in the workshop again, didn't you? I've told you before, that's terrible for your skin."