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The visuals on the old videotape were unstable, flickering occasionally. Yet, as Tony pressed the play button, the scenes from the past still came to life.
"Science and technology are the primary productive forces..."
As the camera panned upward, a younger Howard Stark appeared on the screen.
"Life becomes more wonderful, bodies healthier! And for the first time in human history, the possibility of world peace emerges."
Instinctively, upon seeing Howard's confident face, Tony grabbed a book from the side and began flipping through it.
For some reason, he simply couldn't bring himself to look directly at his father, even though it was just a pre-recorded video.
Even after seeing his own room—one filled with signs of his father's longing for him—Tony continued to deceive himself.
'This is merely my mother's love for me.' he told himself. That annoying man, the one who happily sent him off to boarding school, surely wouldn't care about his well-being.
Tony kept hypnotizing himself this way.
"I'm Howard Stark. Everything you'll ever need can be found here. The city of the future? Tomorrow's city? Or... Tony, what are you doing?"
Hearing his name from Howard's mouth made Tony involuntarily shift his gaze from the book to the screen, where his younger self now appeared.
Memories from the past resurfaced.
Yes, he was only 21 now. Not that much time had passed since then, and the scenes from those days remained vivid in his mind.
"Jarvis, he should be coming now." Tony murmured to himself.
As if summoned by his words, the younger Tony, who had tried to sneak away with the Stark Future City model as a toy, was caught by Howard and handed over to the arriving Stark family butler, Jarvis.
"Go, go, go!"
Howard's hurried words in the footage were exactly as Tony remembered them, as if his presence had been the greatest stain on Howard's life.
It felt as though, without him, Howard's world would have been perfect.
This was the root of the conflict between Tony and Howard—the fundamental reason they could never truly understand each other.
At this point, Tony didn't want to watch anymore.
All he could see was the cold, unfeeling Howard who never treated him like a son. There was no useful information to be gleaned from this footage.
The screen flickered, and the recording restarted, once again showing Howard introducing Stark Future City to the public. But this time, Tony never looked up. He never watched the scene again.
'I was right. Howard never loved me. He never did…'
Frustrated, Tony tossed the book in his hand aside. He stood up, intending to continue searching for something useful. But just then, the screen suddenly went black.
When it lit up again, Howard reappeared, his face etched with exhaustion after a long day of work.
"Tony!"
Hearing his name once more, Tony turned around in surprise. From Howard's eyes, he saw something unusual—a certain emotion that made it feel as if the Howard of the past was speaking directly to him in the present.
"You're still too young to understand many things." Howard said. "So I've made this into a film to leave for you."
In the footage, Howard gestured to the Stark Future City model behind him.
"This is built for you. One day, you'll realize it represents everything—not just an ordinary invention. This is the culmination of my life's work… the key to the future."
Tony didn't notice anything special about the model.
At 21, he was still too young. He hadn't yet officially taken over Stark Industries, nor had he contributed to the creation of the Arc Reactor. He couldn't grasp the significance of this model of Future City.
But in Howard's words, spoken over a decade ago, Tony felt something he had never experienced before—something new.
A sense of trust from his father.
"..."