Marvel: The Alchemist Just Wants a Peaceful Life

Moreover, his responsibilities for sales and international business are the lifeblood of the entire Tony Stark Group.

However, getting close to Obadiah and obtaining his information under such circumstances is by no means an easy task. Therefore, Sherlock decides to take a daring step, which is to join the business and sales department in charge of Obadiah!

Sherlock's past life as a corporate slave taught him one thing: sometimes, secrets that a leader thinks they've kept well hidden are actually no secrets at all within their department.

Or to put it more bluntly, it's an 'open secret' if you want to find out.

Of course, this is on the premise that you have truly integrated into the group.

As for whether Pepper Potts' offer would arouse the suspicion of Obadiah's men, Sherlock was not worried at all.

The reason is simple: Little Pepper has issued countless offers like this in a year, which are distributed across various departments of Stark Industries.

After all, even a behemoth like Stark Industries is not immune to nepotism. Don't assume that foreigners don't engage in nepotism; in fact, nepotism is even more prevalent in foreign countries. Just look at how popular recommendation letters are in the US to know this.

Especially within Obadiah's Ministry of Commerce, it was perfectly normal for anyone with any background to appear without attracting any attention.

What's more, there's Sherlock, the 'rich second generation' who drives a heavily modified 6x6 Raptor pickup truck.

Of course, even though there are so-called 'nepotism' connections, being proficient in a foreign language is still a necessary condition for getting a job in the business department. Otherwise, even with so-called 'nepotism' connections, a rich kid wouldn't be able to get it.

Fortunately, in addition to English, Sherlock also knew the rabbit's language, so he passed the interview in a flash. He even 'arrogantly' pointed out more than ten grammatical errors in the Chinese document used for translation to the interviewer.

And so, almost without attracting anyone's attention, Sherlock actually entered Obadiah's Department of Commerce, specifically the department responsible for rabbit relations and import/export trade.

In less than three days, Sherlock successfully integrated into the department by leveraging his past life's accumulated work experience, money, and the persona of a rich second-generation heir.

However, despite the integration, the so-called 'intelligence' that could be obtained was of no use other than letting Sherlock know that Obadiah, that old man, was even more extravagant in private than Tony was before he went to the Middle East.

Not only that, Sherlock couldn't find anything wrong with the daily work of the entire business and sales departments. The sales of weapons and the quantity of imported and exported parts all matched up.

It can be said that Obadiah is a saint-like figure here!

However, this is a normal phenomenon. After all, if Obadiah could not have such a 'saintly' image, he probably would not have been able to gain such a good impression from Tony, so much so that Tony has never doubted Obadiah over the years.

But this was not good news for Sherlock. He could only contact Pepper after get off work and ask her to help him stage a clumsy play where 'a conflict between colleagues is seen by the boss'.

Using the pretext of handling colleague relationships, Little Chili directly "demoted" Sherlock to the records management department.

For someone in the workplace, such a punishment is practically a fixed punishment. For a "rich second generation" like Sherlock, the so-called file management department is no different from exile.

At the same time, thanks to Pepper Potts' impatience and slightly disgusted attitude in dealing with Sherlock's affairs, no one in the company, from top to bottom, or even Obadiah, doubted Sherlock's identity.

After all, such things have happened far too many times here, so many that they've lost count.

This was exactly the result Sherlock wanted. In the archives department, Sherlock began searching for everything about Obadiah almost without stopping.

However, the results of the search made Sherlock gasp in shock.

Chapter 34 Obadiah's Past and the Mysteries Surrounding Sherlock's Parents' Deaths

Although the archives do not store specific information about Obadiah, they do contain all of Obadiah's administrative orders since he joined Stark Industries.

From these decisions, Sherlock almost clearly pieced together a living, real-life Obadiah.

It's true that Obadiah co-founded Stark Industries with Howard, but Howard has always kept a firm grip on both the technology and the company's decision-making.

During this period, Obadiah dealt with matters that Howard did not want to handle.

Or to put it more bluntly, Obadiah during this period was actually Howard's black glove, handling all the tasks that Howard couldn't handle himself and that would offend people.

It's no exaggeration to say that at this time, Obadiah was definitely the most unpopular person in the entire Stark Industries, but also one of Howard's best partners.

Everything changed after Howard's death.

At that time, Tony was too young and had no concept of company management at all. It was Obadiah who stepped forward.

Leveraging his status as Howard's partner, coupled with the 'prestige' he'd built up over the years as the Black Glove, Obadiah successfully 'stood by Tony's side' and became the new Stark's right-hand man.

At the same time, he shed his identity as the "black glove" and began to stand in the spotlight again. He and Tony addressed each other as uncle and nephew, a relationship that continues to this day. Based on Tony's trust in him, he even directly took charge of the business and sales departments.

Among this vast amount of information, Sherlock also saw his parents' names and roughly deduced a conclusion.

At the time, his parents were undoubtedly among the most opposed to Tony and Obadiah getting too close within the entire Stark Group, and even among the people who hated Obadiah the most.

This can be seen from the signatures on the frequently changing government orders during that period.

After his parents died, Obadiah clearly succeeded in carrying out all his plans and seized power within Stark Industries.

Nevertheless, these can only be considered as 'reasons' for Obadiah to kill his parents, not as evidence.

Sherlock had neither found out how Obadiah smuggled Stark Industries' weapons nor found any evidence that he had murdered his parents. Three days of working tirelessly to sort through intelligence had left Sherlock extremely exhausted.

Having gained nothing, he simply resigned from his job at Stark Industries and drove back to Tony's mansion.

By this time, Tony had completed most of the Mark I armor. He was extremely welcoming to Sherlock, who had been working for almost half a month, and his first words to him were...

"Welcome home, my dear Mr. Charles!"

Unfortunately, Sherlock had no interest in joking with Tony. He sat silently on the living room sofa, rubbed his temples wearily, and then asked Tony a question.

"Tony, let's get down to business. Tell me everything you know about my parents' murder, okay?"

With Tony's intelligence, coupled with Sherlock's recent actions, Tony almost immediately deduced who Sherlock suspected.

"Are you doubting Obadiah?"

Sherlock did not deny Tony's question, but stared at Tony silently for a while before rubbing his throbbing temples and speaking to Tony.

"Yes, not only that, I suspect that Obadiah is also behind the arms smuggling in the Middle East."

"Impossible! I've checked almost all the processes and raw materials in the department under Obadiah's control, and I haven't found any evidence of Obadiah smuggling!"

Tony dismissed Sherlock's conjecture almost instantly, but seeing that Sherlock clearly didn't want to talk to him, Tony quickly fell silent again.

After a long while, Tony sighed helplessly and began to tell Sherlock about what had happened in the past.

Obadiah and his father Howard Stark founded Stark Industries. Sherlock's parents were among the first employees, and Tony's father Howard was also an extremely family-oriented person.

That's why Tony often saw Howard having meetings at home with Obadiah and Sherlock's parents.

To Sherlock's surprise, Tony had a good relationship with the people who often came to his house for meetings, and among them, Sherlock's parents were the closest.

In particular, Sherlock's father, although not much older than Tony, always made Tony feel a kind of inexplicable fatherly love, or rather, the care from an older brother, when he and Sherlock's mother were together with Tony.

Obadiah is Tony's favorite uncle, he has been since he was a child, because Obadiah always gives Tony some of his favorite things whenever they see each other.

It wasn't until Tony's father, Howard, passed away, and Tony, who was in turmoil because of Stark Industries, felt like he couldn't go on, that Sherlock's parents stepped forward and, in the name of Sherlock's godfather, helped Tony to pull himself together again.

The rest is history. Sherlock's parents died in a plane crash, and Tony theoretically adopted Sherlock. Obadiah became Tony's only 'supporter' during that period, enabling Stark Industries to achieve its current success.

What Tony didn't know was that his original idea was to make Sherlock understand that Obadiah couldn't possibly harm his parents, but judging from the dusty documents Sherlock saw in the archives, it was clear that wasn't the case.

Obadiah is actually more of a suspect in Sherlock's case.

Seeing Sherlock's silent demeanor, Tony became somewhat angry. He immediately had Jarvis pull up his investigation into the plane crash and throw it at Sherlock, while he angrily went off to improve his armor.

Sherlock didn't pay any attention to Tony's little temper; instead, he looked through Tony's condiments.

This is the investigation report after the plane crash, which includes the pre-flight inspection and the landing inspection.

Both reports indicated that there were no problems with the aircraft's fuselage, ruling out mechanical failure as the cause.

But when Sherlock looked through the data report generated by the black box, he felt uneasy. The black box showed that the pilot had not made any operational errors and had even performed standard rescue procedures after the plane lost power.

In short, there were no useful clues in this air disaster. The plane was fine before the flight and fine after takeoff. The pilot was also very professional, but it just crashed inexplicably!

Most importantly, the document also includes an investigation report commissioned by Tony from a detective, which details Obadiah's interactions with Sherlock's parents before and after the plane crash.

There were no suspicious individuals on this list! Not a single one!

Chapter 35 Obadiah's Luxurious Life

Looking at the document in his hand, Sherlock was completely dumbfounded. According to the report, Obadiah was undoubtedly an innocent person.

Sherlock even began to doubt whether his investigation had gone astray, and whether the murderer of his parents was actually someone else.

However, Sherlock quickly dismissed the idea. Putting the plot aside, there is an unchanging rule in murder cases like this: the one who benefits the most is often the mastermind.

Without a doubt, whether it's the death of his own parents or Tony's kidnapping, in essence, no one other than Obadiah is the biggest beneficiary.

Based on this logic, Obadiah is the most suspicious person no matter what.

However, Sherlock also had some good news. Judging from the information in his hand, it was clear that Tony's trust in Obadiah was based solely on the lack of evidence that Obadiah had done anything wrong—a purely rational judgment.

Otherwise, there wouldn't be the investigation report about Obadiah that follows the plane crash report.

Good news is always accompanied by bad news, and the worst news is that Sherlock's investigation has once again come to nothing. Not only has he failed to find any evidence that Obadiah killed his parents, but he hasn't even found a single clue.

Left with no other option, Sherlock decided to try a different approach, planning to impersonate a thief and go to Obadiah's house to see if he could find any clues.

Why didn't Sherlock simply steal information from Obadiah's office computer as depicted in the movies?

It's very simple, there's no chance!

Obadiah was extremely cautious. Putting aside whether Sherlock had any chance to get close to Obadiah's office when he was undercover, the alarm device that the old man installed on his office door was enough to give Sherlock a hard time, not to mention that there was a secretary keeping watch outside his office.

Sherlock couldn't find a way to get close to Obadiah's office, and besides, Sherlock didn't believe that Obadiah would keep evidence of his parents' murder in his office.

It's important to know that Sherlock's investigation from beginning to end focused on Obadiah murdering his parents, not on Obadiah smuggling arms!

After contacting Pepper and obtaining Obadiah's itinerary from her, Sherlock drove towards Obadiah's house. On the way, he casually bought a complete set of bodysuit and a hood. After parking the car, Sherlock casually crafted an 'invisibility cloak' that only lasted for one hour.

After changing into a bodysuit inside the car, Sherlock arrived at the front door of Obadiah's 'house'.

If you were asked where the most expensive house in all of Los Angeles is, most people would probably say the legendary Beverly Hills.

But the truth is that the truly wealthy don't bother with places like Beverly Hills where land is incredibly expensive; the truly wealthy in Los Angeles always live in the suburbs.

For example, Obadiah's 'home' that is now appearing in front of Sherlock.

Or to put it more bluntly, this place should no longer be called a 'home' but rather a manor!

The sheer size of the lawn, large enough to play golf on, and the towering trees planted within the walls to protect privacy, all unmistakably tell everyone that the owner of this place is either extremely wealthy or powerful.

Even more astonishingly, even during the day, even though Obadiah is not currently in the manor, there are still countless security guards and servants in the manor, all diligently performing their duties.

Putting everything else aside, this scene alone is far more luxurious than Tony's mere "cramped" life in a mansion on a seaside cliff.

"Damn old Deng! Damn rich man!"

After cursing under his breath in a corner, Sherlock activated his invisibility cloak. With the alert set on his watch, Sherlock officially 'infiltrated' Obadiah's 'manor'.

When Sherlock actually stepped into the manor, he realized that his understanding of the wealthy was far too simplistic.