Marvel: The Alchemist Just Wants a Peaceful Life

Who would have thought that even the lawn underfoot, which looks like it's suitable for playing golf, is different from the ordinary lawns in the park?

The lawn beneath Sherlock's feet felt soft and yielding, like stepping on an incredibly plush, thick carpet; almost every step was a pleasure.

Moreover, as he stepped onto the lawn, the unique fragrance of the grass instantly filled Sherlock's nose.

Sherlock swears that this is the first time in his two lifetimes that he has ever smelled such wonderful grass!

If these things only surprised Sherlock, then when Sherlock stepped onto the path in the lawn, he was dumbfounded by the sight before him.

The reason is simple: this path is actually paved with pebbles.

It's not the kind of pebble in the broad sense, but the kind of pebble in the narrow sense. If you still can't understand why this path shocked Sherlock so much, then you should know if those cobblestones under your feet were given a name.

Agate!

That's right, the path in this meadow is paved entirely with agate stones! Although a single agate stone may not be expensive, the sheer quantity of them makes Sherlock's teeth ache with envy.

Honestly, just the things displayed in this courtyard made Sherlock, a proper alchemist capable of mass-producing gold, feel a crushing sense of superiority on a cognitive level.

Not to mention the roads, fountains, and artificial landscapes in the yard.

Fortunately, Sherlock wasn't there to investigate whether Obadiah had embezzled Stark Industries' money; he was there to investigate whether Obadiah was the murderer of his parents.

Therefore, no matter how surprised she was by the expensive courtyard, Sherlock ultimately chose to sneak into the house.

Following the changing guards into the most magnificent house in the manor, Sherlock found Obadiah's core residential area with almost no effort, the process so smooth that he didn't even need to use alchemy.

As for why it's so simple, the reason is also very simple.

When you enter the house, you will see two groups of servants. One group is dressed normally, bending over and doing their work, their hands rough and thick. The other group is dressed in very short maid skirts, each with a curvaceous figure, beautiful face, and even their delicate, boneless hands are covered with pure white silk gloves.

Based on what I learned during my undercover work—that Obadiah is even more cunning than Tony—can you guess where Obadiah's living area is inside this house?

No need to think too much, just head towards the area where the maids in miniskirts are gathered!

The more maids like this appear, the closer we get to Obadiah's lair!

Following the maids, Sherlock found Obadiah's luxurious bedroom with almost no effort, and also got a glimpse of the old man's unsavory fetishes.

After casually making some modifications using alchemy to ensure that the fire department couldn't open those messy 'toys' without calling in the fire department, Sherlock lost interest in the so-called bedroom and turned to walk outside.

After all, even if Obadiah were stupid, he wouldn't hide evidence of his crimes in this bedroom, which is meant for entertainment.

Chapter 36 Sherlock Gains Nothing

After leaving the bedroom, Sherlock wandered around the mansion and soon discovered a room that seemed amiss.

Whether it was the glamorous maids or the servants who actually did the work, almost everyone seemed to ignore the room. Even the cleaning staff would simply walk around it.

Moreover, the density of security personnel patrolling outside this room was significantly higher than that of the other rooms.

There's definitely something shady going on in this room!

After making this deduction, Sherlock did not rush into the room. Instead, he gently pressed his hand against the door of the room, and with the help of alchemy, a cold smile quickly appeared on Sherlock's lips.

Just as he had expected, behind this seemingly ordinary door were countless sensors.

Opening this gate rashly would not only send a text message to Obadiah's phone, but it would also alert the entire estate's security system.

Most importantly, this security system is the most advanced kind that you can find on the market, and it even has countless redundant secondary security systems beneath it.

Putting everything else aside, the mere presence of these security systems suggests that something extremely important to Obadiah is definitely hidden behind this gate.

Although in theory the security system in this room could trigger an alarm if anyone entered except for Obadiah, the owner, unfortunately, Sherlock is no ordinary person.

Sherlock randomly picked a nearby spot, used alchemy to create a hole in the wall, and walked in without a care in the world.

Clearly, these so-called security systems take into account intrusion through the main door, windows, and even exterior walls, but they fail to consider the possibility of someone silently entering the room through the interior walls.

As Sherlock entered, everything in the room was quickly revealed to him.

The room's decor still follows that luxurious style, with solid wood coverings everywhere, giving it a very old-money feel.

The flooring and carpets on the ground are also quite valuable.

To Sherlock's surprise, the room, which was so heavily guarded, contained only a table, a chair, and a computer that was not connected to the internet.

Despite the table's unparalleled magnificence and its enormous size, and despite the chair's obvious comfort, the simple furnishings still surprised Sherlock.

Stepping forward, Sherlock cautiously tried to turn on the computer in front of him.

Perhaps it was the security of the manor and the security system in this room that gave Obadiah confidence, because the computer in this room did not have a system lock set, and Sherlock entered the computer system almost without any hindrance after turning it on.

However, when Sherlock began to examine the computer, he was still stunned by what was stored on it.

This computer contains a large number of blueprints for weapons designed by Tony.

It's no exaggeration to say that as long as you get your hands on these blueprints, and assuming the supply chain isn't too bad, mass-producing these weapons would be absolutely no problem.

Aside from these weapon design blueprints, what Obadiah actually stored most of were videos with the .avi extension?

Obadiah has this little quirk?

Sherlock opened the video with a critical eye and was completely dumbfounded. The reason was simple: Sherlock had just seen the protagonist of this short video on the news channel on TV a couple of days ago!

Goodness, who would have thought that the guy who acted so righteous and awe-inspiring when facing reporters would be such a playboy in private?

Incredulous, Sherlock promptly pulled out a USB drive from his four-dimensional pocket and backed up all the videos one by one before finally shutting down his computer, satisfied.

Unfortunately, Sherlock still couldn't find any evidence or clues on the computer that Obadiah had murdered his parents, but he did find evidence that Obadiah had stolen Stark Industries' weapon blueprints.

After thinking for a moment, Sherlock placed his hands on the ground and activated his alchemy. Soon, with his All-Knowing Perception, Sherlock discovered a safe hidden inside the wall.

A safe might be a hassle for an ordinary person, but for Sherlock, it's no different from something made of paper.

With a casual use of alchemy, Sherlock severed the latch on the safe and opened the hidden safe in less than a minute.

Inside the safe, besides a huge amount of money and gold jewelry, Sherlock also found several documents.

One of the documents was a company document with Obadiah as the legal representative. This company was established in Southeast Asia and was a standard manufacturing company. Sherlock took out his phone, looked up the company's name, and then a speechless expression appeared on his face.

The case is solved. Sherlock has finally figured out exactly how Obadiah bypassed Tony's surveillance to smuggle weapons into the Middle East.

Or to be more precise, Obadiah really never smuggled weapons for Stark Industries!

He simply stole weapon blueprints from Stark Industries, then had his 'contract manufacturers' produce the weapons, and then legitimately shipped them all over the world with Stark Industries' logo, thereby amassing a fortune!

Not only that, what left Sherlock even more speechless was that Obadiah was not satisfied with this and wanted to take over Stark Industries, truly turning himself from a 'contract manufacturer' into a 'production plant'!

The most direct evidence is that Sherlock also found a number of short videos of Stark Industries shareholders on Obadiah's computer!

However, to Sherlock's disappointment, no evidence or clues were found that Obadiah had murdered his parents, which left Sherlock extremely frustrated.

Is it really because so much time has passed that Obadiah has had enough time to destroy all the evidence?

Sherlock reluctantly restored the scene to its original state and, while still remaining invisible, left Obadiah's manor.

Aside from providing Obadiah with a few minor, potentially disastrous, infiltrations of his estate caused him virtually no trouble.

As for confirming that Obadiah was indeed smuggling weapons, Sherlock did not intend to tell Tony. After all, some things can only be understood by discovering them for oneself, and Sherlock would only go with the flow without pointing it out.

Moreover, for Tony, only by personally dealing with Obadiah could he truly say goodbye to the past and transform into Iron Man.

What Sherlock never expected was that when he left Obadiah's suburban 'manor' and drove to his short-term rental for the night, he saw a very familiar figure at his doorstep.

Colson!

Chapter 37 Tony's Actions

While Sherlock was taking action against Obadiah, Tony wasn't idle either. Although he was angry that Sherlock hadn't listened to his advice or ideas, Tony wasn't stupid.

After Tony calmed down and thought about it carefully, Sherlock's suspicions weren't entirely unfounded. After all, after Sherlock's parents died, Obadiah was undoubtedly the one who benefited the most.

It's not just that; if he were to die in the Middle East, Obadiah would still be the biggest beneficiary of the entire Stark Group!

Thinking about this, Tony felt more in agreement with Sherlock's guess, and even felt that he had misunderstood Sherlock.

However, being an engineer, even though Tony had begun to suspect his uncle, he didn't immediately show hostility. Instead, he instructed Jarvis to hack into Stark Industries' servers and scan for any anomalies.

With Jarvis's capabilities, he quickly informed Tony of the anomalies he had detected.

"Sir, according to my scan, some of the blueprints from the weapons manufacturing department were illegally printed and downloaded, and I cannot find any destruction reports in the system."

Upon hearing Jarvis's words, Tony, being a businessman himself, immediately realized what had happened. He frowned slightly and continued to give Jarvis orders.

"Jarvis, can you trace it back to the source?"

"I'm sorry, sir, we cannot trace the source. All downloads are currently coming from computers belonging to different people within the group. According to the system, there is no need to trace it."

Jarvis answered quickly, but after saying that, he paused and then offered Tony another suggestion.

"Sir, I can hack into the computer to find the source by examining the logs. Do you authorize the intrusion?"

Upon hearing Jarvis's words, Tony couldn't hide the conflicted look on his face. After a while, Tony sighed and said to Jarvis.

“Abandon the invasion. Jarvis, contact Pepper and have him prepare a press conference. I want to shut down Stark Industries’ weapons division.”

Upon hearing Tony's words, Jarvis immediately retorted.

“I do not recommend that you do it that way, sir. According to my calculations, if you announce this decision, the entire Stark Group's stock price will drop by 53%.”

Clearly, Tony didn't want to listen to Jarvis's advice at this moment. His brows furrowed even deeper, his expression wasn't good, and he spoke to Jarvis in a cold tone.

"Execute the order, Jarvis!"

"As you wish, sir."

Jarvis responded and then said nothing more. Tony, on the other hand, frowned and stared at the Mark II armor, which was almost 80% complete, for a long time after Jarvis fell silent, before finally letting out a helpless sigh.

"Uncle Obadiah, I hope you won't disappoint me."

Tony seemed to be talking to himself as he murmured this sentence before turning back to focus on making the armor.

Yes, Tony softened. When faced with Obadiah, who had been playing the role of an elder after the passing of both his own parents and Sherlock's parents, Tony still gave in.

Closing the weapons department was merely a way to provide a pretext for Obadiah's arms smuggling activities.

By closing down the weapons division and ceasing all weapons research for Stark Industries, Tony could effectively stop weapons smuggling. For Tony, this was all he needed to do, as long as Obadiah could turn back before it was too late and cut his losses.

Even if he was the mastermind behind his kidnapping during his trip to the Middle East, Tony could tolerate it and even let Obadiah continue to hold his position as a senior executive at Stark Industries.

What Tony didn't know was that Obadiah's ambitions went far beyond simply being an executive at Stark Industries, so Tony's pity was ultimately just wishful thinking.

After receiving Tony's message, Pepper Potts, despite not knowing why Tony made this decision at this time, carried out his orders well as Tony's secretary.