Greed had just reached out to pick up the medical record that fell on the ground, when he heard a bang and then a crash. A mecha smashed through the glass of the floor-to-ceiling window behind him, flying straight in and arming Iron Man.
Iron Man cut an imposing figure, but the glass shards scattered all over Greed. Seeing the situation escalate, Greed quickly ignored the glass fragments on him, picked up the medical record, and hid in the bathroom. Inside, he was met with an agent staring at him.
The agent crossed his arms, leaned against the bathroom wall, and sized up Greed, "The psychiatrist isn't going to try to mediate?"
"I can't," Greed replied. "A psychiatrist can only solve emotional issues."
"Aren't those two having an emotional issue?"
"Remember, human emotions are limited. Any argument fueled purely by emotions can only last a couple of rounds before they get tired—there isn't that much emotion to let them explode repeatedly. Any prolonged and fierce dispute isn't just because of emotions."
"What's actually going on?" the agent asked, stepping into the bathroom and sitting on the edge of the bathtub, elbows on his knees, playing with his gun. Greed closed the toilet lid and sat directly on it.
"Well, it's a long story..."
He hadn't even finished speaking when they heard another furious shout from outside: "...The Stark Group is my life's work too! I absolutely oppose you destroying it with your damn biotechnological transformation plan!"
"You illiterate fool, you have no idea how advanced my biotechnology is. It's not just the future of the Stark Group; it's the future of Earth! Stop using your short-sighted perspective to view my groundbreaking technology!"
"Huh? Your so-called groundbreaking technology is about poisoning people and then making them pay a subscription via a mobile app?! When will you pull your brain out of the gutter and read some business and financial newspapers?!"
"My technology is the soul of the Stark Group. With just your business and financial tactics, how is the Stark Group any different from those shell investment companies on Wall Street that go bankrupt three times a day?!"
"Do you really want me to be that harsh? Let me tell you, I've already checked with S.H.I.E.L.D., do you dare speak about the good deeds you've done in your past cosmos?!"
"Pepper Potts, stop acting like some Justice Messenger. When you were lying in the same bed with me, didn't you ever think I wasn't a good person?!"
"Tony Stark, you're such a fool! Do you think I was investigating your character? I was looking into your former company's performance and business practices! Your Ponzi scheme-like tricks have no long-term potential. Your transformation plan will only ruin the Stark Group!"
The sound of their argument continued, but the insulation was good, and the agent could only vaguely hear some keywords. It seemed that the conflict between these two wasn't simply a matter of personal feelings.
From an emotional standpoint, Pepper's choices indeed seemed strange. She had a cliff-like breakup with White Can and quickly married Iron Man's bodyguard and friend, Happy Hogan. If you were to say she wanted to distance herself from Stark, she didn't need to marry Hogan. If you were to say she couldn't bear to part with her hard-fought career, there was no reason to break up with White Can.
A significant fact is that Pepper knew White Can wasn't the kind-hearted and righteous Iron Man, yet they were still together. This proves that Pepper didn't actually care that much about Tony Stark's moral level and was unlikely to break up due to White Can's low moral standards. If that were the reason, she could never have accepted White Can in the first place.
Under these circumstances, Pepper's actions seem very contradictory, especially the quick marriage, which appears completely illogical. But that's viewing it from the perspective of private feelings. If looked at from another angle, it all appears very different.
First of all, many people might wonder why Tony Stark appears to be the type of person who leans towards conservatism and order. Whether it be his background, actions, or thoughts, they all tend to be traditional, longing for marriage and family. So why did he end up sleeping with nearly every female hero?
Or some might think, how can the combo of Tony Stark and Little Pepper coexist with Tony Stark's Playboy persona? In the comics, Pepper Potts and Tony Stark seem to be perpetually in a relationship, yet simultaneously, Stark jumps from bed to bed. How do these two aspects coexist?
This leads to the point that, actually, in Eastern thinking, conservatism and openness are completely reversed compared to Western thinking.
In Eastern thinking, open relationships are regarded as radical, while traditional, conservative family forms are supposed to be one-on-one. But in Western thought, noble couples having lovers and separating interests from physical relationships is considered the traditional model. Instead, the one-on-one small family formed post-Industrial Revolution is modern, advanced, and progressive.
That is to say, the Western aristocracy and old money families are more accepting of the kind of life where both spouses have their own affairs. In fact, the married members of various old families and royal families all have a slew of lovers.
This is because modern society's mainstream direction has changed. A few centuries ago, lovers could even be brought into the home, and sometimes spouses would even compare the number and quality of their lovers.
From an Eastern perspective, this is quite absurd, but for the Western upper class, it's the norm, as it's been their tradition since ancient times. In such an environment, pursuing that idealized loyalty in love is out of place. Just like Princess Diana's fierce reaction back in the day, which seemed strange to the royal family members, after all, if he has lovers, you can have them too, what's the big deal, why get so angry?
Similarly, the relationship between Tony Stark and Pepper Potts can be understood from this perspective. They are highly bonded in terms of interests, needing to jointly manage Stark Group and provide support for Iron Man's superhero identity. Privately, they get along quite well, allowing them to maintain a stable partner relationship.
However, this relationship is not exclusive. On the contrary, they have a low degree of intervention in each other's personal love life. If Iron Man gets involved with another superheroine, or Pepper privately dates someone else, they do not interfere with each other, which is also the norm among many Western upper-class couples.
As for Happy Hogan, he is not just an ordinary bodyguard. He was an underground boxer who later saved Iron Man from a car racing accident. Iron Man then hired him as his private bodyguard and even became friends with him; their relationship is quite good. Thus, Pepper also gets to know him and develop a romantic relationship with him.
In fact, in such marriages, one party's lover is very likely to be the other's friend, because if they're not friends, they're not in the same circle, and it's hard to get acquainted. Many times, lovers are quite well connected to both sides, and everyone is aware of it.
Iron Man isn't foolish; with his private assistant and personal bodyguard getting together, how could he not know? Even in the original comics, Pepper and Happy were in a relationship at Stark Group for a while before leaving the group to get married, a process Iron Man wouldn't be unaware of.
And obviously, White Can is not bothered by them sleeping in the same bed but rather about marriage. Marriage is an entirely different matter.
If the relationship between Iron Man and Pepper continues to develop, the next step would be marriage. Marriage means a deeper binding of interests, effectively solidifying them as an interest community, saving the process of interest exchange, and making them fully united in their efforts to garner more interests for both parties.
However, if Pepper marries Happy, it means she would be untethering from Iron Man and binding with Happy Hogan, becoming the closest interest community with Happy, which clearly poses a severe threat to Tony Stark's interests.
The two of them, one is responsible for protecting Tony Stark's safety, which is actually very important. Although White Can has injected the Extremis Virus and is not an ordinary person, no one around is a pushover, and security work is still essential.
The other one is an assistant who knows almost all of Tony Stark's secrets and has been deeply involved in Stark Group for many years, earning the trust of shareholders and other decision-makers.
If these two become a closely bonded interest community, wouldn't it be obvious whom they may target?
In fact, throughout history, when intimate partners and key subordinates get involved romantically, it often leads to catastrophic fallout, even leading to irreversible ruin. Pepper, by doing so, is like putting a knife to White Can's neck.
However, from their previous argument, the agent could roughly understand why Pepper was taking this risky move.
White Can, unlike other ordinary Iron Men, has a notable difference in that he is into biotechnology. Though he also has abilities in mechanical engineering, he clearly excels more in biology and chemistry, especially with the Extremis Virus, which is his forte.
This virus is actually much more potent than expected; it can not only make a person more beautiful but also achieve effects similar to the Super Soldier Serum, making a person stronger, smarter, and seemingly not limited to humans. It appears that any carbon-based life form can undergo transformation, akin to an "Ether Substance" in the chemistry world.
Since White Can has arrived in this universe, he must be inclined to develop biotechnology. Therefore, he proposed a transformation plan to gradually shift Stark Group's business from mechanical engineering and arms towards biotechnology and chemistry.
White Can loves and is good at this, and the Extremis Virus holds visible potential. He brought out this plan also because he wanted Stark Group to progress further. After all, if one can monopolize both military industry and medical fields simultaneously, it would just be a matter of time before the entire Federation bore the Stark name.
However, this points to a significant drawback of White Can—his business acumen is not stellar. He is indeed a shrewd and cold-blooded businessman, but his shrewdness lies mainly in his sensitivity to personal interests. This doesn't mean he has advanced business techniques.
For a technology like the Extremis Virus, his method of making money was to first trick others into using it, getting them hooked so that they'd have to continue paying, essentially the modus operandi of drug dealing. However, Extremis Virus doesn't carry physical addiction but rather relies more on psychological dependency.
This couldn't possibly be due to a lingering conscience, not forcing others to buy, but because he truly doesn't have a better method to market it, or rather he lacks a more advanced strategy to exploit this unique technology to capitalize further for himself. Ultimately, his failure also proved that he is a good scientist but not necessarily a savvy capitalist.