"The President is about to convene a board meeting, and he doesn't have time to meet with you, sir. If it is not very urgent, perhaps you should reschedule your visit," the receptionist at Stark Tower suggested to Henry.
"It's fine, I can wait here," Henry shook his head and replied.
"Very well, Mr. Henry. You can wait in the guest room. I will inform the President once the board meeting concludes."
"Thank you."
Henry waited for half an hour, growing anxious and starting to feel a headache.
He covered his head, took out the painkillers the doctor had prescribed, and swallowed a few, but they offered no relief.
Just then, the receptionist returned to the guest room.
"Mr. Henry, I suggest you come back this afternoon."
"Why?" Henry asked, puzzled.
"Mr. Stark is supposed to be attending this board meeting. But as you may have heard about our Mr. Stark... the meeting was supposed to have started long ago, but Mr. Stark still hasn't shown up, and we don't know when he'll arrive. I think it would be better for you to find another time to visit, Mr. Henry, rather than waste your time here." After speaking, she turned and left. She felt she had done her duty by giving the warning, preventing Henry from wasting time unnecessarily. As for whether Henry would follow her advice, she couldn't control that.
"Tony Stark?!"
Hearing that name, Henry's headache flared up again for no apparent reason. He sat down in the chair, clutching his head with both hands.
What's going on? Hasn't this playboy gone off to play his hero-acting game and stopped caring about the company?
The thought of Tony Stark's unpredictable and reckless style gave Henry a headache. As the breadwinner supporting his family, Henry craved only stability and security.
In Henry's view, Tony Stark was the epitome of instability, acting capriciously and entirely according to his own personal whims.
His previous decision to suddenly shut down Stark Group's most profitable weapons manufacturing division made Henry, an employee whose company relied on business dealings with Stark Industries, feel very insecure.
In contrast, Henry preferred a more reliable CEO for Stark Industries, like the current president, Pepper Potts, who at least managed the company's affairs in an orderly manner and ensured stable business development.
She wouldn't make any head-scratching decisions on a whim, ensuring that Stark Industries stayed on a stable path. This way, the project between his company and Stark Industries could proceed steadily without any major incidents.
The more Henry thought about it, the more irritable he became, and the worse his headache got. If anyone else had been present at that moment, they would have seen a strange red glow in Henry's eyes and yellow, square lights flickering around his body.
To be honest, becoming a friend or partner with the current Tony Stark was quite a headache-inducing endeavor.
Of course, Henry, being just an employee of a small company that depended on Stark Enterprises, was an insignificant figure to Tony Stark—not worth a second glance, let alone a friend.
Even Tony's old friends, such as Colonel Rhodes of the U.S. military, often found dealing with Tony an exasperating experience.
Tony was self-indulgent in all kinds of situations, often stood up his friends, and rarely considered others' feelings or saving face.
Even when his long-time friend personally awarded him, Tony Stark would nonchalantly run off to the casino to have fun with a beautiful woman. This kind of spontaneous, friend-ditching, or even friend-teasing behavior was common throughout Tony's past life.
In fact, some of Iron Man's enemies were created due to Tony's own personality, such as Dr. Killian in the Iron Man 3 story, who was initially one of Tony's admirers.
However, after being mocked by Tony when seeking partnership and support, and subsequently left to freeze on a rooftop all night, Killian became completely corrupted. He devoted himself to researching the Extremis Virus and immediately sought revenge on Tony once he succeeded.
Therefore, working with the current Tony Stark, whether as a friend or a partner, truly required a highly accepting mindset; otherwise, most people would likely be driven half-crazy by him.
Although the kidnapping incident in the Middle East had indeed begun to change Tony's mindset, with a tendency to transform into a hero, this was only the beginning of the change.
A leopard can't change its spots easily. For Tony to fully transform, he would have to endure a series of major changes later on—his life being at risk, his friends on the verge of death, and the world in peril—before the playboy fully evolved into the genuine hero, Iron Man.
In short, Tony was changing, but not completely. Arrogance, willfulness, self-centeredness, and a love for the spotlight were still deeply ingrained in him.
At least in the eyes of many, including Henry, even though Tony Stark wore the Iron Man suit and acted as a vigilante, it was nothing more than a playboy's acting game.
Tony Stark was thus one of the biggest sources of stress in Henry's life.
And it was bad enough that this playboy was rich as a nation and promiscuously wealthy, but he had actually built a suit of armor and acted as a hero from video games and comics, earning the boundless admiration of Henry's children. This, Henry admitted, was truly something to be both envious and jealous of.
Upon hearing that Tony Stark was attending the board meeting, Henry couldn't help but speculate that he might be about to make another unexpected and strange decision.
Under this stress and anxiety, the Bugster Virus flared up. A large mass of glowing material expanded from Henry's body, forming a massive, merged Bugster monster. With a roar, it prepared to wreak havoc on the Stark Industries building.
For Henry, Tony Stark was an unstable element and a source of mental pressure, primarily because of his influence on Stark Industries.
If Stark Industries were to run into trouble again, Henry's company would inevitably be affected, and his hard-won stable life could be destroyed.
Therefore, the Bugster monster that was born chose to directly attack Stark Industries to escalate Henry's mental distress.
The Bugster monster born from Henry easily smashed through the wall of the reception room and rampaged through the main lobby of Stark Tower.
Employees in the building panicked and scattered upon seeing the suddenly appearing monster.
The security guards of Stark Industries demonstrated excellent professionalism. They fired their pistols at the monster while directing employees to evacuate to safety. Despite facing an unprecedented monster, they remained completely composed, acting like a small, well-trained military unit.
After all, as America's largest defense contractor, Stark Industries naturally maintained very strict requirements for its security department.
As a result, a majority of the Stark Enterprises security team were seasoned, top-notch retired veterans and ex-agents. If equipped with enough weapons and ammunition, they would be no less capable than any active U.S. special forces unit. If they were equipped with the advanced infantry weapons from Stark Industries, their combat effectiveness would absolutely surpass that of U.S. special forces.
When the security personnel realized that their ordinary firearms could not inflict any effective damage on the monster, they continuously fired to distract the monster while reporting to the senior management to request backup.
Although Stark Industries had closed its weapons manufacturing division under Tony's orders, the weapons stockpiled in the warehouse couldn't all be disposed of immediately. Some inventory remained, and some temporarily undealt-with individual weapons were simply assigned to the security department as equipment.
Although the monster was powerful, invulnerable to bullets, and its origin was unknown, the security guards were confident in their ability to handle it. This confidence stemmed from the powerful firepower available at Stark Industries.
Thus, with authorization from Pepper Potts, the current CEO of Stark Industries, the head of the security department immediately unlocked the reserve armory. Teammates equipped with powerful firepower would soon arrive to provide support.
This firepower consisted of products that Stark Industries once prided itself on, the culmination of Tony Stark's intellect, and weapons recognized across America, and indeed the world, as the most lethal individual combat weapons.
Under normal circumstances, these weapons were kept only for contingencies and would rarely ever be needed, given that the Stark Industries headquarters had not been subjected to a terrorist attack in decades.
"Did anyone call the police?" someone asked over the communication channel.
"Do we even need to call the police? If we haven't dealt with this monster by the time the police arrive, the NYPD probably won't be able to do much."
"The police still need to investigate where this monster came from and who planned this attack."
"That's true, we should call the police. We must find out which group orchestrated this monster attack."
The security guards' conversation clearly suggested that they viewed the police as being merely for the cleanup and aftermath once the matter was resolved.
In a sense, there was nothing wrong with this. The security department staff were all elite retired agents and special forces veterans, and they were equipped with advanced Stark Industries weaponry.
In terms of both personnel quality and weapons and firepower, they far surpassed any unit of the New York City police department, enough to clash with an elite military force. If they couldn't deal with the monster, then the police's presence would be largely meaningless.
(End of Chapter)