"Mr. Paul, the meeting will begin in five minutes."
The secretary's voice came through the intercom, a gentle and cautious reminder.
Paul lifted his head from a chaotic pile of blueprints and data models, rubbing his dry eyes. On the monitor, Pym Particles endlessly collided and annihilated in a virtual environment, emitting a mesmerizing, ethereal blue glow, like a key to another dimension.
He yawned, glancing at his reflection on the wall.
His hair was a bird's nest, two heavy, dark circles hung beneath his eyes, and his white T-shirt was stained with a coffee splash from last night.
He looked for all the world like a gaming addict after pulling an all-nighter.
And it was in this state that he walked into the most exclusive conference room at Stark Health.
Inside, the atmosphere was already buzzing.
The long conference table was flanked by the company's core executives. They were all young, with an average age under thirty-five, and radiated the sharp edge and drive unique to a startup.
Seated next to the head of the table was the company's general manager, a top talent poached from Wall Street, who was spiritedly summarizing the last quarter's brilliant performance.
"...North American market share has surpassed seventy percent, while orders from Europe and Asia continue to grow explosively. Our production lines are running twenty-four hours a day and still can't keep up with demand."
"Wall Street has named 'Baymax' 'the greatest consumer tech product of the century,' and the company's market value..."
The general manager announced a figure that made even Paul's jaw drop.
He remembered designing Baymax partly to fulfill Hiro Hamada's vision, and partly to monitor Tony's health at all times. The commercialization was entirely Pepper's doing.
He had barely paid it any mind.
He never imagined that this "marshmallow" he'd created on a whim would become such a terrifying money-printing behemoth.
"Furthermore," the general manager's voice trembled with barely suppressed excitement, "dozens of multinational corporations have sent us partnership proposals. Amazon wants to integrate Baymax into their smart home ecosystem; Johnson & Johnson hopes to collaborate on a more specialized medical version; and even... the Pentagon has sent an invitation. They are extremely interested in Baymax's material science and artificial intelligence systems and wish to procure a batch for field medicine."
Listening to the report, the expression on Paul's face slowly froze.
He felt none of the expected joy, but rather a strange sense of absurdity.
Here he was, working himself to the bone, researching energy sources that could change the world, particles that could traverse dimensions, and serums that could create super-soldiers...
The blueprint he was drafting was for the stars, for a leap in human civilization.
But in the end, the thing that truly took the world by storm, that brought him fame and fortune, was a soft, inflatable robot that only knew how to say, "Hello, I am Baymax."
He looked up, his gaze sweeping across the laboratory that held all his hard work and ambition.
In the corner sat an iterative model of the Arc Reactor, capable of powering a city for a century.
On the workbench lay the design for "Sideswipe," the pinnacle of single-pilot mech technology.
And on the screen he had just turned off, the theoretical formulas for Pym Particles lingered, the gateway to a whole new dimension.
Any one of these things, if released, would be enough to drive the world mad.
Yet here they all were, lying silent and unnoticed.
Meanwhile, the little "trinket" he had casually thrown together was making tidal waves outside, turning him into a billionaire, a new god of technology in the eyes of the world.
The immense contrast stirred a complex, indescribable emotion in Paul's heart.
He had always believed that technology was a weapon, a force, a tool to realize ambition.
But now, reality had just given him a resounding slap in the face.
He waved the secretary away and sat back down alone before the main console. The screen displayed Stark Health's dazzlingly bright financial report.
Paul stared at the astronomical revenue figure, silent for a long time.
A question surfaced from the bottom of his heart, without warning.
Technology... what was it all for?
To build stronger weapons for unknown enemies?
Or to create more products like Baymax, to improve the lives of ordinary people?
Or perhaps, the two weren't mutually exclusive?
For the first time, he felt lost.
Back in the conference room, the heated discussion continued.
The head of logistics was complaining about the pressure on the global supply chain, while the marketing director argued heatedly with a rival over the promotional plan for the next quarter.
The entire team operated like a high-speed, precision machine—efficient, professional, and full of vitality.
Paul listened quietly, his eyes sweeping over every person present.
He knew these people were elites. They believed in data, in logic, in tangible profits.
To them, what he was about to say would probably sound like a fantasy.
The general manager's impassioned summary finally came to an end. He took a sip of water and looked at Paul, who had been silent all this time.
"Mr. Paul, what are your directives for the next quarter's core strategy?"
All eyes instantly focused on Paul.
The room fell silent.
They waited for their boy genius boss to once again pull out a product as disruptive as Baymax, or perhaps even more so, to lead the company to new heights of glory.
A home-use medical pod, maybe? Or more advanced smart prosthetics?
Paul cleared his throat, surveyed the room, and then slowly uttered a single word.
"Games."
"..."
"..."
A dead silence fell over the conference room.
The air seemed to freeze.
The logistics head's mouth fell open, his pen clattering to the floor.
The marketing director's eyebrows knitted together, certain he had misheard.
Even the ever-composed general manager's professional smile froze on his face.
Games?
Us? A top-tier health-tech company valued at a hundred billion dollars, making games?
Did the boss fry his brain pulling an all-nighter in the lab?
After a brief silence, a low, irrepressible murmur filled the room.
"Games? Did I hear that right? We're in high-tech healthcare."
"That's too big of a leap... Marketing has zero experience in that field."
"Exactly. The console market is a three-way standoff between Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. How are we, a total outsider, supposed to get a piece of that pie?"
"Maybe... the boss means some kind of health-themed motion-control game?"
"That's way too niche. It could never support a company of our size."
Hearing the doubts and speculation around him, Paul's expression remained unchanged.
He simply tapped the table lightly, signaling for silence.
Then, he pressed a button in front of him.
The giant screen at the back of the room instantly lit up. It didn't display a product design, but an industry ecosystem map so mind-numbingly complex it was dizzying.
At the very top was a black console with a strikingly futuristic design.
Beneath the console, countless branches extended outward.
"Software Development Platform," "Exclusive Game Matrix," "Next-Gen VR Device," "Global Esports League," "IP Derivative Ecosystem," "Online Virtual Community"...
Each branch had even more detailed plans and technical path analyses beneath it.
From the hardware's chip architecture to the software's development engine, from content distribution channels to peripheral commercialization, a terrifyingly complete closed-loop ecosystem was clearly laid out before them all.
This wasn't a simple product plan.
This was... a declaration of conquest.
A declaration of war to single-handedly upend the entire entertainment industry!
The executives who had been whispering just moments before were now completely silent.
They stared, transfixed, at the diagram on the screen, their eyes filled with shock.
They were only just realizing that the "games" their boss spoke of and the "games" they understood were not on the same dimension.
"I know what you're all thinking."
Paul's voice rang out again, calm and clear.
"You're wondering why a healthcare company like us would venture into the seemingly unrelated field of gaming."
He stood up, walked to the screen, and pointed at the astronomical figure on the financial report.
"Baymax was a huge success. He brought us immense wealth and prestige. But he also made me realize something."
"The power of technology isn't just about building stronger armor or more powerful weapons."
His gaze swept across the room, his eyes deep and profound.
"It's about how many hearts it can touch, how much joy it can create, and building... a world that people want to lose themselves in."
"Baymax did that, but all he can offer is a warm hug."
"And what I'm going to do next..."
A mysterious smile touched the corners of Paul's lips, his eyes glinting with a light called ambition.
"...is to give the entire world a new dream."
He paused, looking at the faces filled with shock and confusion, and slowly delivered the sentence that made the room so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
"This isn't just a game."
"It's the entertainment revolution of the future."
Everyone held their breath. They realized their impossibly young boss was about to personally unleash another storm that would sweep the globe.
And what, exactly, lay at the heart of this coming storm?