"From this moment onwards, Stark Industries will not produce any weapons. I am closing the weapons department effective immediately."
The words hung in the air like a bomb waiting to go off.
Noise erupted throughout the conference room—shocked voices drowning out whatever Tony Stark was about to say next. Reporters shouted questions over each other, cameras flashed constantly, and the carefully planned press conference fell apart within seconds.
But the chaos wasn't limited to that room.
Two people watching the live stream while eating lunch also stopped mid-bite, forks frozen halfway to their mouths. They sat in the employee cafeteria of a government facility, the TV in the corner broadcasting the press conference to an otherwise empty room.
They immediately started talking.
"This is really weird," the younger one said, setting down his fork. "He just closed the world's most advanced weapons company like that? Just like that?"
"No way," his companion replied, shaking his head. "There has to be more to it. Stark doesn't make decisions like this without—"
WHRRRRRR. WHRRRRRR. WHRRRRRR.
A loud alarm suddenly sounded throughout the base, cutting off their conversation. The shrill mechanical wail echoed through the corridors, designed to get everyone's immediate attention.
Both men stood automatically, training taking over. According to protocol, they were supposed to evacuate immediately—drop everything and head to the nearest exit. But before they could take more than two steps, an announcement came through the speakers.
"All doors will be closed temporarily. Please, everyone return to your designated offices until further notice. I repeat: return to your designated offices and await further instructions."
The two men exchanged glances. This wasn't unusual—security drills, equipment issues, occasional false alarms. The facility dealt with sensitive materials and classified projects. Sometimes things needed to be locked down while situations were checked.
So they simply turned around and walked toward their offices, though they didn't stop discussing the news from Stark Industries. Their voices echoed off the walls, mixing with dozens of other conversations happening throughout the building.
"Did you see his face? He looked serious."
"Of course he looked serious. He probably just lost half his company's value."
"Or maybe he actually means it..."
Inside the head office, however, the scene was completely different.
"How the hell can it vanish like that? Into thin air?" The head scientist's voice cracked as he shouted, his face flushed red. He stood in front of his desk, papers scattered everywhere, his usually neat appearance disheveled.
In front of him, two security guards could only respond quietly, eyes fixed on the floor.
"We have no idea, sir," the taller one said carefully. "The equipment was there during the last check at oh-eight-hundred hours. By the time we found it missing, it was already gone. So we initiated lockdown protocol. We will definitely find the equipment, sir."
"You—" The head scientist's face flushed darker, veins standing out on his forehead. "Do you have any idea how expensive that equipment was? Four billion rubles! Four. Billion."
The security guards flinched.
"You know what will happen after losing it?" The scientist continued, his voice rising. "Do you know what they'll do to us? To me? This facility is done! My career is done! Everything is—"
His rant continued, echoing through the soundproofed office, unheard by anyone outside.
Meanwhile, back in the empty cafeteria where the live stream was still playing, something impossible happened.
A boy appeared out of thin air.
One moment the space was empty—just tables and chairs and fluorescent lighting. The next moment, Elric stood there as if he'd always been there.
He looked up at the chaotic scene still playing out on the TV screen, Tony Stark barely visible through the crowd of reporters.
"So it's officially started," Elric said quietly to himself, a small smile on his face.
He knew what this moment meant. Not just for Tony Stark or Stark Industries, but for the entire world. From this point forward, everything would speed up. Events would cascade like dominoes, each one triggering the next.
From now on, all kinds of gods, demons, and monsters would appear to cause chaos. Heroes would rise. Villains would emerge. The world would never be simple again.
Elric also remembered that soon there would be a good opportunity to steal the arc reactor without alerting Tony Stark. The timeline was clear in his mind. He knew when and where things would happen, which meant he could position himself to take advantage.
The arc reactor would be important for dealing with Tony eventually. But more importantly, he needed it to power the new AI he was building—or rather, assembling from borrowed components and stolen technology.
No, he definitely wasn't smart enough to build any advanced AI from scratch. Maybe he was above average in intelligence, perhaps even gifted in some areas, but he was still far from monsters like Tony Stark and Rocket Raccoon. Those minds operated on a completely different level.
So instead, he'd borrowed it.
Specifically, he'd borrowed the blueprints from the Overlord version of himself. Even if that world was dystopian, it was still a future world from one hundred years ahead. So even if it wasn't fully sci-fi advanced, it could still be considered high technology compared to this universe's current level.
For the AI he had in mind, he needed a lot of advanced equipment to build it properly. Processors with quantum capabilities, memory cores with massive storage, cooling systems that could handle the load, and dozens of other components that didn't officially exist yet in this timeline.
And it wasn't like people would just trade him those things. They wouldn't hand over classified technology to a teenager, no matter how politely he asked.
Initially, he'd considered the roundabout approach—stealing money first, then using legitimate channels to purchase what he needed. But that was way too much hassle, too many steps, too many opportunities for things to go wrong.
So he'd just taken the equipment directly.
Anyway, some years later when Earth would be under his control, all this equipment would technically be his anyway. When you thought about it that way, was it really stealing? He was just claiming his future property a bit early.
Elric almost lost himself in thought, his mind wandering through. The cafeteria was peaceful, quiet except for the TV still broadcasting Tony Stark's press conference, but loud footsteps from outside, multiple sets, moving quickly, woke him up. The security team had probably traced some anomaly to this location.
So without wasting time, he raised his hand and opened a portal.