Become a Homelander and a Marvel superstar

"Jessica." Azu's gaze locked onto Treasure Girl.

"I'm here." Jessica stopped twirling her pen.

"Your approval rating has dropped by 1.5 percentage points among women." Azu pointed to the data. "The PR department said that you were too rough during the last live rescue broadcast. That was an old lady, not a sandbag."

"She grabbed my hair and screamed!" Jessica protested. "I just wanted to shut her up."

"Then smile and shut her up." Azu flashed a standard toothy grin. "Manage your expressions, Jessica. We're heroes, and we're commodities. If we're not popular, we're worthless."

"And you, Pietro!"

"Here!" Pietro jumped in surprise.

"You're not engaging enough on social media. Fans want to see your life, not those boring car trolls you're sharing. Post more selfies, show off your muscles. Ashley's got you a photoshoot for Esquire magazine, go do it later."

"Boss, I've been training lately..."

“Training and business don’t conflict,” Azu interrupted him. “Remember, in this day and age, if no one talks about you, you’re as good as dead.”

"Is tomorrow okay? I have plans..."

"Listen to Anthony! Pietro!" Wanda glared sternly at Pietro.

"Okay, boss." Pietro raised his hands in surrender. "I'll go take some sexy photos after the meeting."

"Good boy!"

Listen, everyone.

Ah Zu placed his hands on the table, leaned forward, and exuded a strong sense of pressure.

"We are Walter. We don't just want to win, we want to win spectacularly. I want absolute dominance, not only on the battlefield, but also in the arena of public opinion."

"I want to see every single one of your names trending on social media, I want to..."

"Click!"

The conference room door was pushed open.

The noise interrupted Azu's speech, and everyone's eyes turned to the door.

Tony Stark and Bruce Banner stood there, both looking grim.

"Uh... I'm sorry to bother everyone," Tony said first.

"Oh..." Pietro whistled. "Looks like someone's in trouble. Interrupting the boss's speech is a serious crime."

Ah Zu slowly straightened up, the smile on his face disappeared, and his eyes were frighteningly calm.

"Tony."

He spoke calmly.

"We did reach an agreement. As a technical advisor, you have certain privileges. But that doesn't include breaking into my meetings."

"Unless you tell me there's another alien invasion."

Tony walked into the conference room, his steps heavy, as if his legs were made of lead.

Banner followed behind him like a student who had made a mistake, not even daring to look up at Azu.

"I think... about right."

Tony walked to the end of the long table, put his hands on the back of the chair, and looked up at Azu.

"Anthony, we need to talk now."

"Right here?" Azu scanned the crowd. "In front of everyone?"

"Yes." Tony gritted his teeth. "This is urgent, and... the consequences could be severe."

"Then go ahead and speak." Azu sat back in his chair, gesturing with his hand, "I'm listening."

"I messed up."

Tony said it bluntly.

"I messed up completely once again."

The meeting room fell silent.

"What happened?" Jessica keenly sensed the seriousness of the problem. "If it were just a lab that was blown up, you wouldn't look like that."

"It's more serious than that."

Banner added from behind, his voice low.

"We lost one... artificial intelligence."

"To be precise, it is a super artificial intelligence with self-awareness, super learning ability, and possibly distorted underlying logic."

Its name is Ultron.

Then, Tony and Banner recounted what had happened in the most concise language.

From the inspiration of the Mind Scepter to the concept of "Ultron X", to the discovery of the code escape, and the interception records of Skynet.

After speaking, Tony lowered his head, awaiting judgment.

He awaited Azu's wrath.

Waiting for those red eyes to light up.

"You mean, you created an AI in my base that wants to destroy the world?"

Ah Zu spoke, but his voice was devoid of any emotion.

"...Yes." Tony closed his eyes. "That's my responsibility. You can lock me up, or...do whatever you want. But I beg you, deal with Ultron first."

Time seemed to stand still.

One second, two seconds, three seconds.

"puff."

A soft laugh broke the silence.

Tony opened his eyes in surprise.

Instead of getting angry, Ah Zu leaned back in his chair with a helpless yet tolerant smile on his face.

"Tony, Tony..."

Ah Zu shook his head, stood up, and slowly walked to Tony.

He didn't use thermal vision, nor did he throw a punch.

Instead, he reached out and gently patted Tony's stiff shoulder.

"Do you know why I admire you?" Ah Zu's tone softened, and there was no blame in his eyes, only understanding.

"Because you have a heart that wants to take on everything."

"You saw the threat to the future, and you felt fear. But you did not back down, and you did not bury your head in the sand like a coward."

"What do you choose to do?"

Even knowing you would make a mistake, even knowing you would be misunderstood, you still did it.

Ah Zu's words seemed to carry a strange, comforting power.

"This is the price of pioneers, Tony."

"If you do nothing because you're afraid of making mistakes, that's the biggest mistake you can make."

Tony stared blankly at Azu.

He had imagined countless scenarios—being humiliated, being blamed—but he never considered this one.

understand.

When he was overwhelmed by guilt, this man, whom he considered "hypocritical," gave him the understanding he needed most.

A strange pang of sadness welled up in my nose.

"You..." Tony opened his mouth, his voice even choked with emotion, "You're a really... strange guy."

"Thank you, but it was my mistake..."

"Who hasn't made mistakes?" Azu shrugged. "The important thing is how we make amends."

"Now that it's already happened, Walter has only one principle—family."

"When a family member gets into trouble, we all share the burden. We're a family, right, Tony?"

"...Of course," Tony said in a low voice.

Gained a special popularity bonus of +10000! (From Tony Stark)

Hearing the system notification, Azu's smile became even more genuine.

He turned around, clapped his hands, and brought the atmosphere back from the emotional to the tactical level.

"Alright, let's save the emotional words for the victory celebration."

"Now, let's talk about how to deal with this 'Ultron'."

"Dr. Banner just said it's in the network. That means it's everywhere, yet nowhere to be found."

Jessica frowned and analyzed, "He can control banks, the power grid, and even nuclear weapons systems. If we don't bring him to justice, we're sitting on a powder keg."

"How do we do it?" Pietro asked. "Go after him through the internet cable?"