At the scene of the Stark Industries press conference.
When Tony Stark tossed aside his prepared speech and, facing the World's cameras with a smile that blended arrogance and resolve, uttered the words, "I am Iron Man."
The entire venue instantly transformed into a rowdy marketplace.
Flashbulbs blurred into a sea of white, completely drowning out Tony's figure. Countless reporters went frantic, desperately thrusting their microphones forward as sharp questions rang out one after another.
Having dropped this bombshell, Tony didn't answer any more questions. Surrounded by bodyguards and wearing that trademark smirk, he turned and walked away with style, leaving the overwhelming storm of public opinion entirely behind him.
The World was in an uproar... A few days later.
The heat from the press conference had yet to dissipate, but inside the Stark mansion in Malibu, the atmosphere was a complete contrast to the clamor outside.
On an oversized holographic screen, a live broadcast of a century-old excavation site in the North Pole was being streamed in real-time via an encrypted S.H.I.E.L.D. channel.
This was the top-secret operation Nick Fury had launched after Lin Huai provided the coordinates.
"I can't believe it," Tony Stark said, holding a glass of juice with his legs crossed. "A random note you wrote could actually mobilize a research team worth hundreds of millions of dollars. I should have asked you to manage my stock portfolio long ago."
Just as he finished speaking, the live camera provided a close-up beneath the ice-breaking equipment.
It was a frozen, red, white, and blue circular shield. The five-pointed star emblem in the center was clearly visible even through the thick layer of ice.
Tony's smile instantly froze on his face.
He sat bolt upright, nearly dropping his juice glass. An absurd thought he had pushed to the back of his mind struck him like a bolt of lightning.
He remembered.
On the night he received the first "Fool" email, he had mocked it to Jarvis.
He had said: "Another one of those cliché plots. What? Is the next one going to say Captain America is still ali..."
At the time, it was just a casual joke filled with contempt.
But now, that joke had become a cold, unbelievable reality.
"Fuck..." Tony cursed under his breath, his eyes glued to the screen, his expression complex to the extreme. He felt as if he had stepped into a script woven by "The Fool" from the very beginning—a script that was impossibly vast.
Lin Huai just watched the screen calmly, as if all of this was meant to be. From the moment he decided to use this information as a bargaining chip, he had already seen the opening of this play... A few more days passed. In New York, inside a disguised hospital ward specially prepared by S.H.I.E.L.D.
A baseball game from May 1941 was playing on the radio, the announcer's voice thick with nostalgia.
On the hospital bed, a blonde man's eyelids flickered.
Steve Rogers' eyes snapped open.
The room had a smell of disinfectant that was unnervingly clean. The air temperature was held at a perfect constant, without a single draft from outside. It didn't feel like a hospital ward; it felt more like a carefully maintained laboratory.
His soldier's instincts immediately sounded an alarm.
Then, he heard the broadcast—the Brooklyn Dodgers versus the Philadelphia Phillies.
That's not right!!
He sat up abruptly, his heart tightening with alertness. He remembered this broadcast! He had heard it in his small apartment in Brooklyn on his last night before heading to the front lines! Every run, every cheer, was exactly as it was in his memory.
A coincidence? Impossible!!
This meant it wasn't a live broadcast; it was a recording. A recording full of flaws, played specifically for him to hear.
They were trying to create an illusion he was familiar with, but they were doing a terrible job of it.
This was a hoax! A psychological trap for interrogation!!!
His mind, conversely, grew calm as his adrenaline surged. He wasn't a patient; he was a prisoner of war!
Almost out of physical instinct, he leapt up and, before the two Female Agents dressed as Nurses could rush in, he charged without a second thought toward the wall that looked the weakest!
"Boom—!"
He watched as the solid wall burst open before him like it was made of paper, revealing a modern, metallic corridor behind it, along with a group of utterly bewildered S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents.
Alarms immediately rang out through the entire Base!!!
But this only further confirmed his judgment. This was an enemy camp!
No one could stop him.
Steve Rogers, the legend who had been frozen for seventy years, was now more like an enraged lion breaking free from its cage. With a pure, unstoppable combat stance, he charged out of this disguised prison.
When he finally burst through a heavy door and rushed onto the street under the night sky, he was completely stunned.
This... wasn't any city he knew.
There was no sound of hooves or the roar of old-fashioned engines, only a continuous, strange "humming" sound. The air carried the scent of food spices he didn't recognize, along with a certain pungent exhaust smell.
Skyscrapers stood like a forest of steel, towering into the clouds. The buildings were covered in Giant, moving "paintings" with shifting light and Shadow, hundreds of times brighter than any neon sign he had ever seen.
Countless uniquely styled cars zipped through the streets at high speeds.
And the pedestrians... they walked with their heads down, obsessed with the glowing little squares in their hands, their faces wearing expressions he couldn't understand—either silly smiles or indifference—completely oblivious to everything around them.
What... were they doing?
There was no war here, no depression, none of the landmarks he was familiar with. It was prosperous and noisy, yet also cold and detached. The World he had fought for, the home with a common enemy and a common goal, was gone.
Steve stood frozen in place, like a classical sculpture thrown into a future junkyard. The surrounding lights, sounds, and smells—every single thing was screaming, "You don't belong here." The convictions and memories frozen for seventy years had now become the heaviest shackles on his body, isolating him from this clamorous World.
Just then, several black cars slid quietly to his side, surrounding him. The people who stepped out were all wearing uniform black outfits, their movements efficient.
The one-eyed Black man leading them, wearing a black trench coat, looked exceptionally resolute under the flickering lights.
Nick Fury walked up to him, looked at the bewildered legend, and spoke in a low voice that mixed respect with solemnity:
"Sleep well, Captain?"
...In the Malibu mansion, Lin Huai turned off the news broadcast.
A sleeping legend had been forcibly awakened by the torrent of the times. The scroll of history was unfolding with an irreversible momentum.
A symbol of Order from a bygone era had returned; so, what would be the next thing swept into this "drama"?
Lin Huai returned to his room and pulled a set of homemade tarot cards from his bag.
He spread the deck out on the table, closed his eyes, and slowly ran his fingertips over the smooth backs of the cards while sending his prayer into the heart of the gray mist:
"Please guide me and reveal the next vortex eroding the World."
His finger finally stopped on a card, and he slowly drew it out.
He flipped it over.
On the card, a serene lady was using both hands to gently yet firmly close the mouth of a lion. Above her head was the symbol for infinity; her power did not come from suppression, but from compassion and fortitude.
[VIII. Strength].
The shadow of a Giant radiating a tyrannical aura and a Woman in Red flashed through Lin Huai's mind.
His fingers unconsciously tapped on the sofa.
I see... It's not simple destruction, but a furious power that needs to be 'tamed'.
He put away the tarot cards, turned, and walked out of the room, looking at Tony, who was still processing the shocking news of "Captain America's return."
"Tony," Lin Huai's voice was calm and clear, but a spark of realization flashed in his eyes, "A hero symbolizing Order has taken the stage. Now, it's our turn to go and greet a... Beast that needs to be 'tamed'."