The lighting inside the antique shop was slightly dim, and a quiet scent of old books mixed with dust floated through the air.
Tony Stark pushed the door open and entered, shattering the silence.
Like a monarch surveying his territory, his gaze swept across the room before landing precisely on Leon Hall, who was sitting quietly behind the counter.
Leon raised his eyes to meet Tony’s calmly, showing neither surprise at his intrusion nor unease at his status.
He even raised his hand slightly, gesturing toward the empty chair opposite him.
This subtle gesture caught Tony’s carefully prepared, overbearing opening line right in his throat.
The other man’s posture did not resemble that of an exposed fraud; instead, he looked like a partner who had been waiting for him all along.
“Nice mental prep,” Tony said, pulling out the chair and sitting down.
He casually tossed his expensive sunglasses onto the table with a soft *clack*.
“But in front of me, no amount of mental fortitude will do you any good.
My friend Jarvis found some rather interesting data.”
Tony crossed his arms and leaned back, attempting to reclaim control of the conversation.
“Thirty-one short-term divinations—lost items, weather, short-term stock trends…
The results: one hundred percent accurate.”
He leaned forward slightly, his eyes as sharp as knives, piercing straight into Leon’s.
“Tell me, how did you do it?
Some kind of advanced probability model?
Or big data psychological profiling based on the city’s surveillance network?
If you’ve cracked the underlying logical algorithm that dictates ‘coincidence,’ I’m far more interested in your brain than your little tricks.”
Tony was trying to define the mysterious event before him in the scientific language he knew best, dragging it into a realm he could comprehend.
Leon, however, merely shook his head gently.
“Mr.
Stark, your framework is too narrow.”
His voice was calm, yet it carried an undeniable sense of authority.
“You are trying to measure the entire ocean with a teacup.
Everything I do does not stem from what you call ‘technology,’ but rather from a set of ‘rules’ you have yet to understand.”
“Rules?” Tony raised an eyebrow, the word triggering his sensitivities as a scientist.
“Everything in the universe follows physical rules.”
“Not entirely.”
Leon’s expression didn’t change in the slightest, as if he were stating a fundamental axiom.
“Your understanding is rooted in the material world.
But the ‘rules’ I speak of come from a higher-dimensional existence.
I am merely a speaker of His revelations, a messenger passing on information.”
“God?” Tony scoffed, relaxing his body and leaning back against the chair.
“If you’re here to pitch for investment, just say so.
The churches looking for my donations could line up from New York to California, and their pitches are more or less the same as yours.
But unfortunately, I, Tony Stark, don’t believe in that.”
Faced with Tony’s ironclad atheistic beliefs, Leon did not argue, nor did he even attempt to persuade him.
He merely spoke slowly in an incredibly solemn tone, as if reciting the fundamental laws of the universe.
His gaze pierced through the ceiling of the shop, looking toward a dimension that did not exist in this world.
His voice was calm, yet it carried an unparalleled majesty.
“The one I serve is—”
“‘The great ruler above the spirit world, the King of Yellow and Black who wields good luck, the beacon of destiny.'”
“He is known as ‘The Fool.'”
The moment the title “The Fool” was spoken, an invisible weight seemed to press down on the Divination Parlor.
The sarcasm at the corner of Tony’s mouth instantly froze.
He even had a ridiculous illusion—that everything he was proud of, his wealth, intellect, and technology, was as insignificant as dust in the face of this name.
This was no performance, and certainly not the raving of a fanatic.
It was a calm declaration.
Just as Newton declared universal gravitation or Einstein declared relativity, it was devoid of emotion, yet possessed the power to change the world.
Tony found his heart racing before he even realized it.
He cleared his throat and forced himself to sit up straight, the dismissiveness on his face vanishing completely, replaced by an unprecedented seriousness.
“Alright…
you’ve successfully piqued my interest.” He adjusted his breathing.
“So, messenger of…
‘The Fool,’ you didn’t seek me out just to show me an inexplicable statistical miracle, did you?”
“Of course not.” Leon’s focus returned to Tony.
“My prediction for you was not a boast, but an introduction letter, a proof of qualification.”
“Proof that I am qualified to enter into a partnership with you that concerns the future of the world.”
He laid out the key proposition.
“Cooperation?” Tony caught the word sharply.
“Yes, cooperation,” Leon said in an indisputable tone.
“You can think of our world as a stable program that follows physical laws.
And right now, a piece of ‘code’ from the outside, with a completely different logic, is invading.
I call it ‘erosion.'”
He switched to an analogy Tony could better understand.
“This ‘erosion’ will warp matter and corrupt minds.
For instance, ‘things’ that do not belong to any known biological category will be born in the water.
It can burrow into your brain, magnifying your fears and desires until it drives you mad.
And your most cutting-edge medical equipment won’t detect a single anomaly.”
The scene Leon described sent a long-absent chill down the genius scientist’s spine.
The most terrifying enemy was not missiles or armor, but this kind of “virus” that existed outside of the rules—unobservable, incomprehensible, and impossible to fight.
“You need an ‘antivirus’ that can ‘see’ these viruses,” Leon said, looking straight at him.
“And right now, I am your only choice.”
“To begin our cooperation, I need to upgrade my ‘permissions’ to deal with the ongoing ‘erosion.’ Upgrading my permissions requires a ritual, and the ritual requires specific ‘components.'”
He stated his demands outright, like submitting a project checklist.
“I need two things.”
“First, the blood of the ‘Lava Octopus’ from the deep sea.”
“Second, a ‘Stellar Crystal’ from the depths of a subterranean crater.”
Tony fell silent for a long time.
His genius brain was working at high speed, assessing the risks and rewards of this crazy deal.
The young man before him had shown a composure and confidence far beyond his years from start to finish.
He didn’t seem like a con artist, but more like the representative of another mega-corporation, armed with cutting-edge technology, seeking a partnership.
“Alright.”
Tony suddenly stood up, his trademark smile returning to his face.
“I love crazy investments.
I call it…
an angel round of funding for you and ‘The Fool’ behind you.”
He pulled a sleek black phone from his pocket and placed it on the table.
“But any investor needs to see a return.
Before I add multi-billion-dollar deep-sea submersibles and core-drilling rigs to my schedule, you have to prove to me that this ‘erosion’ you speak of actually exists, and that your value is worth this investment.”
Tony Stark put his sunglasses back on, hiding his complex gaze.
Having just returned from the brink of death and witnessed how the weapons he created had almost killed him, he desired control over powers outside the rules more than ever.
“Prove to me that you and your ‘The Fool’ can actually solve some…
problems that I can’t.”
With those final words, he turned and pushed the door open, the wind chimes above jingling softly.
Leon picked up the encrypted phone from the table—one that far surpassed the current level of technology—his expression serene.
An equal dialogue begins with equal strength.
Now, he had the qualification to show Tony Stark his “strength.”