New Company

Although Tony desperately wanted to kill Obadiah on the spot, he could only continue to play along with him for now.

"This is not your fault. Where is the venue? I have something to announce."

"You don't actually need to come here. I can drive. Just let everyone know that the genius Tony Stark is back, and our stock will skyrocket."

As he spoke, Obadiah's face was flushed, as if he were genuinely excited about the rising stock price, but Tony suspected that he was blushing because he was angry that he had returned safely.

Upon arriving at the venue, Obadiah went up first, intending to say a few words, but Tony beat him to it, stood on the podium, and waved to Obadiah.

Obadiah, with a sheepish grin, could only step aside and wait for Tony to speak.

"Mr. Stark, what have you been through these past few months?"

"What do you want to say about that video?"

"What are your views on the situation in the Middle East, and how will your experience affect Stark's future operations?"

Before Tony could even speak, the reporters launched into a barrage of questions.

"I don't want to answer those questions right now. I'm here today mainly to announce something." Tony paused for a moment, and only spoke slowly after the reporters were all ready.

"Stark Industries will suspend the development of new weapons and adjust the capacity of existing production lines."

As soon as Tony finished speaking, the reporters immediately erupted, wanting to continue asking whether this decision was related to Tony's experiences over the past month. Some irresponsible reporters even hurriedly called their stockbrokers to sell all their Stark Industries shares and also buy short.

Tony showed no interest in answering the question, turned and left without offering any response, leaving Obadiah there weakly shouting, "Don't panic, the important thing is that Tony is back, healthy and back," trying to stabilize the stock price with this news.

Tony left the venue, got into his car, and had Happy drive away.

Stopping the development of new weapons isn't because Tony truly loves peace; he's not the real Tony Stark, he doesn't have such lofty ideals. He himself wishes Stark Industries could expand its production capacity several times over, making money like crazy, and incidentally sending a few big rockets to the damned Rings gang that dared to kidnap him.

The problem is that Tony doesn't know how to build them now. Forget about new weapons, he can barely disassemble a car. At most, he can assemble a computer.

Actually, it wouldn't be too difficult for Tony to start learning now. After all, he has Tony Stark's complete memories. Even if he can't develop the Iron Man armor, he can still rely on his past knowledge to make some Jericho missiles.

But since everyone has the superpower to open treasure chests, who would bother with that? Opening treasure chests is still much more convenient.

So Tony simply halted the development of new weapons to cover up his scientific idiocy. As for adjusting the existing production line, that was just something he mentioned casually, all to create the image of a provoked anti-war activist.

As for the outcome of the adjustment, it's obviously about expanding production capacity, burning through existing reserves, and not letting our own wallets suffer. We'll also take advantage of the stock price drop to see if we can buy back some shares from existing shareholders, especially Obama's, although we don't plan to buy Obama's shares with our own money.

"Sir, where are we going?"

"Going home, Pepper, do you want to come with me?" Tony said, looking at Pepper with a sincere expression and a lecherous glint in his eyes.

Pepper blushed slightly, as if she had thought of something, and quickly said, "I have to go to the company. The things you just announced will cause chaos there, and I need to deal with them."

At this point, Pepper suddenly remembered something and then said angrily, "This is your job. I'm just the CEO's assistant."

Tony explained helplessly, "I'm giving you full authority. You're the CEO when I'm not at the company. I believe you can do a good job. Besides, I don't want to go to the company today either. Happy, let's take Pepper to the company first."

"Okay, sir!" Happy put away his perked ears and started the car.

At the entrance of Stark Industries, Tony held Pepper's hand and said, "Some people in the company have some ideas about me, very dangerous ideas. You don't need to do anything for a while. The company just needs to proceed as planned."

Pepper, seeing Tony suddenly become serious, also became serious. Knowing Tony wouldn't say these things without reason, she asked worriedly, "Could this kidnapping not be an accident? Who was it? Do you have any suspects?"

"It's Obadiah," Tony said directly.

"Mr. Obadiah, how is this possible?" Pepper was utterly shocked.

Happy, who was standing next to him, was also a little shocked, but his professionalism made him continue driving and not interrupt.

"Yes, I don't want to believe it either." Tony couldn't explain that he knew it directly from the movie, so he could only gloss over it without going into details.

Fortunately, Pepper was probably used to being intellectually challenged by Tony, so she directly believed Tony's words, accepted the answer, and concluded that Obadiah was a bad guy.

"Is there anything I can do for you?"

Tony shook his head and said, "No need, just work normally. Be careful and don't be alone with him. He's capable of anything these days."

"Okay, I understand." Pepper isn't the kind of female lead who'd deliberately get herself killed to add more screen time, so there's no need to worry about her going up close and unleashing her ultimate move.

Then, as if remembering something, Tony pressed on, "By the way, did any of those people from that organization with the really long and awful name approach you at the press conference?"

Pepper immediately remembered that someone named Coulson had given her a business card. She nodded and replied, "Yes, he wanted to talk to you about what happened during your kidnapping. I don't think you're interested, so let's get rid of him for now." As she spoke, she took out Coulson's business card and was about to give it to Tony.

Tony shook his head and refused the business card: "You can keep it. They have some influence. You can call them if you have any problems."

"Do you want to see him? Should we add him to your schedule?" Pepper asked, seeing that Tony was interested.

"No need, there's no need to see them for now." Tony wasn't interested in meeting an old black man, and then continued to instruct, "Also, keep an eye out for any board members who want to sell their shares, and send me the information on the biological research department."

"Biological research? Didn't you cut that department?" Pepper replied with a hint of surprise.

"Layoffs?" Tony thought carefully and realized that there really was such a thing. Compared to biological research, he valued weapons development more and had indeed laid off this department. However, in his memory, it was a small matter, and he only found it after careful recollection.

"Then let's rebuild it, establish a biological research department, no, let's set up a subsidiary, mostly funded by my personal funds, and keep it relatively independent from Stark Industries."

"Okay." Pepper, as always, faithfully carried out Tony's orders, without asking too many questions. "Is the company called Stark Bio-Research?"

"No, let's call it Umbrella. With the highest salaries and benefits, gather the best biologists in the country as soon as possible."

"Umbrella, Umbrella, okay, I understand."