Nick Fury had also considered the same point: in order to resolve crises on a universal level, such a crisis must exist first. Yet, they knew almost nothing about what lay beyond their universe.
Well—almost nothing.
To be precise, Nick Fury did know a few things. After all, he'd encountered aliens many years ago.
The Skrulls.
And he even had a friend who roamed the cosmos freely: Captain Marvel.
But that was the extent of his knowledge.
The unknown was more terrifying than anything else.
The more you learned, the more you worried. In contrast, ordinary people—blissfully ignorant—could live carefree and happy lives.
Still, after digesting what they'd just learned, both men were left with a heavy feeling in their chests.
"But at least we know in advance now," Tony Stark said. "That means we can prepare ahead of time."
"Exactly. Better than being blindsided," Nick Fury nodded. "This whole chain of events is escalating. The scope is expanding beyond Earth, beyond this galaxy... it's reaching across the entire universe."
Assuming Luo Chen wasn't making things up, then every word in that diary had weight—each line held unique significance.
[The prelude to this era was opened by Tony Stark, and there's no turning back.
There's no longer any chance of a peaceful life.
What follows will be Tony Stark's struggle between life and death.
But this time, he wasn't kidnapped in Afghanistan. He never had shrapnel embedded in his body, nor did he need to implant an arc reactor in his chest to stop the fragments from reaching his heart and killing him.
Without that experience, he likely wouldn't discover the true mystery left by his father—an entirely new, undiscovered element.
Without that brush with death, can Tony Stark still become the same Iron Man, a mortal capable of standing shoulder to shoulder with gods?
Or will he simply become a narcissistic loudmouth?]
As the words shifted on the diary, Nick Fury couldn't help but burst out laughing—especially at the final jab, where Luo Chen labeled Tony as a narcissistic loudmouth.
Tony Stark opened his mouth to argue… but in the end, he couldn't.
He was different from your average egotistical blowhard. Sure, he was arrogant, sarcastic, and sharp-tongued—but he'd earned the right.
He was a super-genius, a master inventor, a brilliant philanthropist, and an unimaginably wealthy man.
With so many titles under his belt, wasn't a bit of arrogance justified?
And if his mouth was foul—so what?
He'd worked hard all his life. Wasn't he allowed to indulge a little?
Cue the music, bring on the dancing!
So even if he wanted to refute Luo Chen's words, he just… couldn't.
Still, Tony noticed something else.
In the original timeline, he had been kidnapped in Afghanistan. His body was riddled with shrapnel, forcing him to install an arc reactor in his chest just to stay alive.
That situation must have been utterly grim.
"It seems that in the original timeline, you went through some serious hardship," Nick Fury observed. "But in return, you also gained profound insight. That's probably why your Stark Industries shifted from weapons manufacturing to clean energy."
"I remember a saying from China—Luo Chen's homeland," he added. "Something like, 'When Heaven is about to place a great responsibility on someone, it first tests them with hardship and suffering.'
Sounds a lot like your original experience."
"No, I completely disagree," Tony snapped. "Smart people don't need to fall into a pit to know it's there. If you're intelligent enough, you can learn from others' mistakes. You don't have to experience every failure firsthand."
But his attention quickly shifted again.
"The real mystery left by my father?" Tony muttered, eyes narrowing.
Howard Stark.
He hadn't thought about his father in a very long time. Without photos, he could barely recall the man's face.
Howard had been gone for many years now.
And honestly, Tony had long assumed that he'd surpassed his father in terms of knowledge. After all, times had changed, and the technological gap between generations was enormous.
He had every reason to believe that his own understanding of science and engineering was leagues ahead of what his father had accomplished in his time.
But this diary entry shattered that assumption.
It suggested that Howard Stark might've discovered something extraordinary—a completely new element—something no one else had ever found.
That kind of breakthrough, whether it happened decades ago or today, would shake the entire physics world to its core.
"But why have I never heard of it?" Tony asked, visibly puzzled. "I've gone through my parents' belongings multiple times. Even though a lot of it was sealed away later, I never saw or heard anything about a new element."
"I think…" Nick Fury said slowly, his expression turning thoughtful, "I might actually know something."
[Please support me at my patreon if you want more: patreon/OGCrafter for 20+ chapters]