"Sir, the diary has been updated."
Inside the luxurious Mabury mansion.
Tony Stark, fully engrossed in upgrading his armor, heard J.A.R.V.I.S.'s notification.
The playboy paused his work and immediately approached the diary. Sure enough, there was new content.
Tony glanced at it and his expression quickly turned surprised.
Captain Marvel is back on Earth?
It took him only a moment to piece it together.
Clearly, Nick Fury had taken his advice and called Captain Marvel back.
And the purpose? Without a doubt, to deal with the Skrulls.
That "bald egg," as Tony privately called him, wasn't entirely hopeless after all.
Tony nodded slightly, silently remarking in his mind:
Even with all his intelligence, facing the Skrulls was something he couldn't handle easily.
For now, the only one they could rely on was Captain Marvel.
The diary had certainly elevated her reputation, and Zhou Cheng clearly held her in high regard.
Tony silently hoped she would live up to the expectations and solve this tricky problem.
"Until Infinity War?"
Nick Fury, reading another diary, felt a mixture of disbelief and slight annoyance.
Infinity War—the event where Thanos snapped his fingers, wiped out half the universe, and killed half of Earth's population.
Only something of that magnitude would draw Carol Danvers back to Earth?
Before this, she hadn't returned once. Clearly, Earth didn't matter much to her deep down.
For Fury, that was far from ideal.
But there wasn't much he could do about it.
He had wanted to strengthen Captain Marvel's bond with Earth—perhaps even arrange for Colonel Rhodes to meet her, given that in another universe they were lovers.
Yet Captain Marvel simply didn't stay long on Earth, not even for a sick friend—she left after just a week.
Otherwise, such a powerhouse could have been a solid anchor for Earth.
Wait a minute…
Danvers' power wasn't limited to that. The diary explicitly stated that if she "activated her Binary form," she could reach the level of planet-destroying power.
Planet-destroying?
That meant blowing up a planet… easily.
Even Nick Fury, familiar with Captain Marvel, gasped at the thought.
This put her on par with Dormammu-level destructive capacity.
So, was Captain Marvel essentially a dimensional-god-tier powerhouse?
Yet what exactly "Binary form" meant, Fury couldn't comprehend.
(Almost forgot—this universe had no mutants, so it was uncertain whether Captain Marvel had a Binary state.)
Regardless, even without Binary form, she was nearly unstoppable, especially against the likes of Loki or the Skrulls.
With Captain Marvel on Earth, the Battle of New York was essentially a joke.
She alone could fly into the wormhole and destroy the Skrulls' mothership.
Those Skrulls who had already arrived in New York through the portal would go offline as the mothership was destroyed.
In other words, the Battle of New York could be over in minutes, simple and effortless.
Mutants!
Tony Stark raised an eyebrow.
Mutants again.
The diary had mentioned them before. Though this group didn't exist in Tony's universe, he still paid attention.
Signs suggested the future would be a multiverse era.
Whether it was a darkened Scarlet Witch, Ultron Infinity, the Observers above the multiverse, or the TVA governing time across dimensions—they could traverse universes freely.
And that was only what the diary casually revealed.
Who knew if there were other powerful beings or organizations capable of traveling between universes?
What if mutants from another universe invaded this one?
Or what if Tony himself later reached multiverse-level abilities and encountered them elsewhere?
Given their unique abilities, it was clear mutants were an incredibly formidable and abnormal group.
As for this event, the diary hinted that mutants had a significant role in Captain Marvel achieving Binary form.
Even someone of Captain Marvel's caliber relied on them—enough said.
Tony didn't dwell on the details and returned his focus to the diary.
His expression turned confused.
Sure, Captain Marvel destroying the mothership through the wormhole made sense with her powers.
But why would the Skrulls in New York go offline when the mothership was destroyed?
By "offline," the diary seemed to mean dead.
But what connection did their lives have to the mothership?
It made no sense!
The Skrulls weren't on the mothership—they were in New York, across a portal.
Could it be that the Skrulls were controlled remotely, like iron armor puppets?
Destroy the mothership and the puppets go offline?
Or perhaps the Skrulls shared a hive mind controlled by a central "Skrull King," so once he's destroyed, all fail?
Tony Stark sank into deep thought.
No matter how he reasoned, he couldn't come to a definite conclusion. Only Zhou Cheng, the diary's owner, could know for sure.
Thus, the original Avengers wouldn't be beaten down by the Skrulls.
And most importantly, Iron Man didn't have to risk his life carrying a nuclear bomb into the wormhole.
Had Black Widow closed the portal even a minute earlier, Tony might not have made it back—obliterated along with the Skrulls' fleet.
No wonder Tony developed anxiety and nightmares after the Battle of New York. He had a legitimate psychological trauma.
So that's the truth behind the nuclear bomb in New York!
Tony's face lit up with realization, a sigh of relief escaping him.
The diary had already revealed that the U.S. government launched the nuke.
Everyone worried that even if the battle was won, New York might have been destroyed due to the bomb's power.
But thankfully, it hadn't.
Tony carried the nuclear bomb into the portal himself.
The other side of the portal? Tony had already deduced it: the Skrulls' fleet.
Brilliant!
The bomb went straight into the Skrulls' lair—what a move!
Just one thing puzzled Tony.
Why did he have to carry it personally? Missiles had guidance systems—couldn't they be launched straight into the portal?
Ah—Skrulls!
The portal was their vital passage. They would naturally defend it.
Being an alien civilization, intercepting a missile would be basic practice.
So sending the bomb directly wouldn't work.
That meant the government likely gave up on New York, and Tony's split-second decision saved the city.
Tony Stark alone saved New York.
As for his anxiety and nightmares? That was probably Zhou Cheng habitually belittling him in the diary.
"Was that really Stark?"
Nick Fury, reading from the other side, was stunned.
A nuclear bomb! Entering the portal alone—it was effectively a suicide mission.
The portal led straight into the Skrulls' fleet. One man against countless alien ships.
Even if the mothership survived, Tony risked being killed by the bomb itself.
The diary confirmed it: Tony nearly died from the nuke.
With his intelligence, he surely planned for this and was prepared to sacrifice himself to save New York.
Considering Tony's usually arrogant, self-centered personality, this was surprising even to Fury.
This was Stark's true face beneath the prideful exterior.
Moreover, Tony destroyed the Skrulls' mothership while carrying a nuke.
Fury was amazed. An alien civilization… and a man with a nuke could defeat them?
How "low-tech" were the Skrulls? Normally, their first shot should have taken Tony out. Yet the mothership couldn't touch him.
Even the nuke didn't intercept Tony.
It was baffling.
But fortune and misfortune are intertwined.
If not for Tony's anxiety, he wouldn't have obsessively produced suits and built the Iron Legion.
Without it, how could he handle Kilian's Extremis soldiers?
Kilian alone had destroyed multiple Iron Man suits by hand.
So yes, in a twisted way, Tony's anxiety saved lives.
Without it, Iron Man wouldn't have survived.
The U.S. might have lived under the Mandarin's terror.
"Kilian."
Tony muttered the name absentmindedly.
It sounded familiar, yet he couldn't recall who it was.
For a mind like Tony's, only two possibilities:
He'd never met Kilian, only heard the name.
He had met him, but Kilian was insignificant, not worth remembering.