Inside Obadiah Stane's office, the air was as taut as a string about to snap.
Following Phil Coulson's instructions through her earpiece, Pepper Potts inserted a micro flash drive into the computer tower, her heart pounding wildly in her chest.
"Downloading... the data volume is large, stay alert."
On the screen, the blue progress bar advanced steadily. With every segment it filled, Pepper's breathing grew more rapid. Natasha Romanoff stood behind her, leaning against the wall with feigned nonchalance, but her eyes scanned the hallway outside the office like a hawk, taking in every subtle movement.
The progress bar reached seventy-three percent.
Then, without any warning, it stopped.
One second, two seconds, three seconds... time seemed to stretch out at that moment. Fine beads of cold sweat instantly broke out on Pepper's forehead. She subconsciously held her breath, almost able to hear the sound of her own blood flowing.
Just as her heart was about to leap out of her throat, the progress bar surged forward again, rushing toward the finish line at an even faster speed.
[Download Complete].
Pepper yanked out the flash drive and gripped it tightly in her palm; its burning temperature allowed her to regain a slight sense of reality.
"It's done," she said in a barely audible voice, letting out a breath into the air.
"Great job, Miss Potts," Phil Coulson's voice came through. "Evacuate immediately. Our people are downstairs to meet you."
Beside her, Natasha didn't speak, but a faint, nearly imperceptible doubt flashed in her sharp green eyes. That pause, lasting nearly three minutes, was definitely not a normal fluctuation. It was more like... the data stream had been forcibly intercepted at a certain node, scrutinized, and then released.
Her intuition as a top Agent sent off alarms in her head, and she firmly noted this strange detail.
The two quickly walked out of the office and took the elevator straight to the first-floor lobby. As long as they stepped out of this building and handed over the evidence, Tony Stark would be saved.
Just as the elevator doors slid open and the harsh light illuminated their faces.
A figure stumbled in through the building's revolving doors, leaning against the doorframe and panting heavily.
It was a young man with an East Asian face, his complexion as pale as paper, his forehead covered in beads of cold sweat as if he had just been fished out of water. His body was trembling slightly, seemingly enduring immense pain.
It was Lin Huai, currently in a state of exhaustion following a spirituality overload.
But his eyes were strikingly bright, like stars burning in the night, precisely locking onto Pepper Potts.
"Pepper Potts."
Lin Huai's voice was hoarse and urgent, as if he were using every ounce of his strength.
Natasha's body tensed instantly, and she instinctively took a step forward, shielding Pepper and taking a defensive stance. It was the other target of her mission—the mysterious "Fortune Teller" who was difficult to track and impossible to contact. He had actually delivered himself to her doorstep!
Lin Huai didn't look at her, however. His gaze passed over her shoulder, staring intently at Pepper as he said word for word:
"You are the key figure to saving Tony Stark."
Pepper was stunned, intimidated by the unquestionable resolve in his eyes.
Lin Huai didn't give her time to think, speaking the words he had glimpsed Above the Gray Fog:
"When steel bites in the sky, when the light of the heart is extinguished,"
"The fury of the heavens shall be purified by it,"
"And the resolve of a mortal is the hammer blow that rings in the end."
"Listen, the final key is in your hands."
"That is the choice of the (Lovers)."
At S.H.I.E.L.D. Trident Headquarters, Nick Fury's single eye narrowed sharply, staring fixedly at the disheveled figure on the surveillance screen.
"What is he saying? What hammer? What key? Amplify the recording for me. Get all linguists and cryptographers online immediately and analyze every single word of this!"
In the hall, Pepper was completely bewildered by these cryptic words. She subconsciously looked at the flash drive gripped in her hand. The key... does he mean this?
Her mind was in a mess as she looked imploringly at Natasha in front of her, and then at Lin Huai, who looked as if he might collapse at any moment. She remembered the complicated expression Tony Stark had—half-annoyed, half-helpless, yet carrying a hint of trust—when he mentioned this man.
A crazy decision formed in her heart.
She took a deep breath, bypassed Natasha, and walked straight toward Lin Huai. No, she didn't walk closer to him; instead, she turned and resolutely pressed the flash drive—the one tied to Tony Stark's life and livelihood—into Natasha's hand.
"Tony trusts him," Pepper's voice wasn't loud, but it carried an unprecedented firmness.
Then, she turned back to Natasha, the confusion gone from her eyes.
"Then, I trust him too. I'm leaving this evidence to you, Agent Romanoff; I believe you will handle it well. After this, whatever happens has nothing to do with you all."
In this way, she made her choice.
Whether it was the FBI or the CIA, those were mortal rules. And now, she was choosing to believe in the "mysterious" just this once.
Seeing Pepper's actions, a sigh of relief finally appeared on Lin Huai's tense face. That smile was pale and weary, yet it came from the heart.
To reach this step, the price he paid had been too high. Fortunately, his painstaking efforts had not been in vain after all.
The will to wield the Hammer of the End with a mortal body had now awakened.
"Follow me," Lin Huai said to Pepper, then turned and walked toward the depths of the building.
Pepper didn't hesitate for a second and followed immediately. Natasha gripped the flash drive, which still held some residual warmth, and watched their receding backs with a furrowed brow. Her mission was to protect Pepper, and she should have stayed by her side. But Pepper's words just now were like an invisible line, separating her and Phil Coulson's mission from the "mysterious event" before her.
After a moment's hesitation, she followed anyway, but maintained a prudent distance.
Lin Huai led Pepper all the way to the core area of Stark Tower—the energy center of the arc reactor.
The massive ring-shaped reactor let out a low hum beneath their feet, its faint blue light illuminating the entire space like the deep sea.
Lin Huai didn't waste any words, directly raising his hand to point at the large, conspicuous emergency button covered by a red protective cover among the complex array of buttons on the main control console.
"Trust your own judgment," he said, looking into Pepper's eyes with an incredibly serious expression.
"At the most critical and desperate moment, open it and press it. This is the choice of the Lovers."
Pepper's gaze fell on the red button; it seemed like a beating heart, radiating a fatal temptation.
"Tony's life is in there," Lin Huai's voice echoed in her ears. "It is also in your hands."
With that, Lin Huai gave her a deep look, turned, and walked toward the passage they had come from.
"I'm going to help him."
His voice spread through the empty energy center, carrying an unquestionable promise.
"I will bring him back, safe and sound."
As his voice fell, his figure had already vanished into the shadows of the passage, as if he had never appeared.
Leaving Pepper Potts standing there alone, facing the red button that decided everything from a distance. Not far away, Natasha's figure was hidden in the shadows, watching all this with a solemn expression, her communicator having already transmitted everything happening here in real-time to the one-eyed Director.