Chapter 35: Tony Stark? Can that playboy really pull it off?

“Jackpot!”

At this moment, Yu Fei’s mind was consumed by this single thought.

With ten strands of merit points, he could elevate two maxed-out ordinary skills into extraordinary skills!

The key point was—

He had only made one phone call and received this bounty of merit points; it was practically like getting them for free!

“No, that can’t be right!”

“Just calling S.H.I.E.L.D. alone shouldn’t have earned me this many merit points. The main reason is that I handed over the T-virus antidote to them!”

Yu Fei estimated that at least eighty percent of these ten merit points came from the T-virus antidote.

Simply notifying S.H.I.E.L.D. would have earned him at most one or two strands of merit points.

The system wouldn’t leave loopholes; the more involved you were and the greater the help you provided, the more rewards you could earn!

“Ding!”

“Host has met the criteria and is now upgrading…”

“Upgrading again?”

Yu Fei raised an eyebrow.

Before he could ponder further—

“Avery, how’s it going?”

“Can S.H.I.E.L.D. really handle this?”

Alice, Kaplan, Matt, and the others couldn’t help but ask.

They had overheard the earlier call. When they learned that there might be internal issues within S.H.I.E.L.D., and that Yu Fei was unwilling to hand over the T-virus formula, their hearts sank.

“Don’t worry!”

Yu Fei spoke calmly.

“S.H.I.E.L.D. will definitely handle this!”

You might doubt Nick Fury’s character, but you cannot doubt his capability.

Remember, Nick Fury’s skills are so formidable that even Alexander, one of Hydra’s heads, willingly stepped down in his favor.

Look at how, in just over a decade since Nick Fury took over S.H.I.E.L.D., the organization’s strength has multiplied several times and risen to become the world’s premier intelligence agency. That speaks volumes about his ability.

The reason S.H.I.E.L.D. became Hydra-infested wasn’t largely due to Nick Fury’s personal failure but rather historical legacy.

Back during World War II, after defeating Hydra, S.H.I.E.L.D. astonishingly absorbed most of Hydra’s members. Can you believe that?

These former Hydra agents, instead of switching allegiance, remained deeply indoctrinated and continued to identify as Hydra.

They even kept recruiting more S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to join their ranks.

Decades later, their leader Alexander even became the director of S.H.I.E.L.D.—a Hydra member leading S.H.I.E.L.D.—how ironic!

Under Alexander’s subtle influence, most people, including Nick Fury, genuinely believed Hydra was completely destroyed.

Nick Fury was personally promoted by Alexander, so how could he possibly suspect that his mentor was Hydra all along?

“Alright then.”

Exchanging glances, they had no choice but to trust.

“Avery, you said you wanted to find someone to definitively solve the T-virus problem. Who exactly?”

“You all know him—it’s Tony Stark!”

Yu Fei didn’t hide it and revealed the answer directly.

“Tony Stark?”

“The playboy?”

“Can he handle it?”

In America, you can always count on Tony Stark’s popularity.

Even though he wasn’t yet the Iron Man everyone would later know, he was already one of the world’s top ten richest men, constantly making headlines in the entertainment pages. It’s hard not to know him!

But despite that, to most people, Tony Stark’s most glaring title was “playboy.”

Would you believe a playboy could save the world?

Everyone frowned.

“Tony Stark may be a playboy, but his personal abilities are unquestionably top-notch!”

Yu Fei spoke up for Tony Stark.

If he had a choice, Bruce Banner would be Yu Fei’s first pick, with Tony Stark second.

Both men were among the top geniuses in the Marvel Universe.

Bruce Banner had a stronger background in biology, while Tony Stark excelled more in mechanics and energy sciences.

Unfortunately—

“Bruce Banner is either already a military test subject or hiding out in some remote place.”

Yu Fei had no realistic way to contact him.

“Tony Stark isn’t bad either! With his talent, even if he never studied this field, he could master it quickly!”

Moreover, Yu Fei recalled reading somewhere that Tony Stark actually held a master’s degree in biology but lost interest and didn’t pursue it further.

Tap tap tap! Tap tap tap!

Yu Fei began searching online for Tony Stark’s contact info. Compared to Nick Fury and his team, Stark’s contact details were much easier to find.

He easily located Tony Stark’s “private contact” within the Stark Group.

“This feels way too easy…”

Yu Fei muttered. From what he knew, getting through to Tony Stark by phone wasn’t supposed to be simple.

What happened next confirmed his suspicion.

“Beep beep beep~”

“Beep beep beep~”

“Beep beep beep~”

No “out of service” messages, just endless ringing tones.

“Alright then!”

Yu Fei wore a “I knew it” expression and immediately activated Plan B—

Pepper Potts!

Everyone who knew Tony Stark understood that if you couldn’t reach Tony Stark, you could call Pepper Potts.

She was Tony Stark’s assistant and the best channel for outsiders to contact him.

Even if you wanted to crawl into Tony Stark’s bed, Pepper Potts could arrange it.

Of course,

there was another excellent way to meet Tony Stark—becoming Playboy magazine’s cover girl for the month!

But that was history. Since returning from the Middle East, whether Tony Stark still acted like that was uncertain.

Surprisingly, Pepper Potts’ contact information was even harder to find than Tony Stark’s.

Makes sense—although Pepper Potts seemed low-profile, she represented Tony Stark, so reaching her wasn’t easy.

Naturally, this was no challenge for Yu Fei, a computer genius at the pinnacle of human capability.

After a few deft maneuvers, he easily obtained Pepper Potts’ contact information.