Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

Chapter 5863 - 4885: Marvelous Shadow and Wonder Play (11)

Stark’s solo scene was quickly finished, and it was said the process went smoothly. After all, he was adept at playing Iron Man. However, before starting scenes from his youth, he took two days to adjust his state. Besides changing his appearance, he also had to regain his youthful aura.The first scene filmed was the interaction between Stark and Shiller. In simple terms, it’s about Shiller returning from the Soviet Union, and the two reunite after a long separation. Indeed, for them, it was a long-awaited reunion.

The moment Stark saw Shiller walking towards him, he knew he wasn’t Greed. However, his previous encounters with Arrogance made Greed’s friends no longer so reactive.

Other traits were indeed peculiar. Seeing a face identical to Shiller’s can evoke a bit of the uncanny valley effect. But the newcomer had a youthful face, with medium-length hair, very different from the typical Shiller, and thus Stark didn’t feel so repulsed.

Nevertheless, he remained reserved, staying in place while assessing this Shiller. If he were to describe the young Shiller’s appearance, it would probably be "normal to the point of abnormal."

Stark had a rather indulgent and chaotic youth. He mingled in the nightlife, witnessed countless beauties, and had a much deeper understanding of sex and love than ordinary people. He was well aware that the ultimate attraction in this world is sexual appeal. And a person with sexual appeal can always be generalized.

A beautiful face, sexy figure, glamorous dress, fresh and lively expression, elegant and confident demeanor—such a person is liked at first glance and is the center of attention wherever they go. Seeing such a person being chased is not surprising at all.

Stark, in his youth, was like this. Even without the identity of a member of the Stark Family, he had enough capital to be a heartthrob. He was handsome and tall, with soulful eyes, well-informed, skilled in flirting. Many were crazy about him.

However, strangely, the young Shiller presented himself as rather ordinary. His tousled hair obscured his brows and eyes; being mixed-race, his features were softer than typical Caucasians, lacking strong impact. He dressed plainly and didn’t appear as someone lively and chatty. Such a person wouldn’t become a crowd-puller.

But oddly, this young Shiller had a very special allure that made people irresistibly curious about him.

This contradictory feeling made Stark’s hair stand on end. He truly couldn’t see anything intriguing about Shiller’s appearance. He looked very normal, just like a regular college student. Yet, there was an inexplicable attraction.

As Shiller walked towards him, Stark instinctively retreated a few steps. He looked at him very cautiously, almost wanting to run away. But strangely, no one else felt the same way.

It was unclear whether Stark’s life experiences gave him a stronger sensitivity or if Shiller’s unique appeal was released only to a specific individual—Stark seemed like the only one seeing ghosts.

Others just felt bewildered. The staff even asked, "It’s about time, shall we begin filming, Mr. Stark? Or would you like to chat a while longer?"

Stark suspected he might be having an anxiety attack, leading to paranoid delusions. He couldn’t discern, so he temporarily decided it was that, trying hard to suppress the unusual thoughts in his mind and cleared his throat to say, "Sure, let’s begin."

The first shot was a hug.

Stark stood there, really wanting to curse the version of himself who approved the script. It’s like seeing ghosts in broad daylight and then immediately having to hug them. Ghost couldn’t even describe it accurately—it was more like a monster only he could see.

It’s all fake, all hallucinations from paranoid delusion... Stark kept hypnotizing himself mentally, then walked over to give Shiller a hug.

Of course, nothing happened. Shiller didn’t bite his head off, nor did he suddenly pull any tricks to send him flying. It was just a very ordinary hug.

But the more it was like this, the colder Stark felt all over, causing him to repeatedly lose focus in the following scenes. Even the director was a bit helpless.

"Sorry, Mr. Stark, are you feeling unwell? Should we call a doctor to take a look?" The director couldn’t afford to offend him, so he tried to soothe him as much as possible.

Stark waved his hand, saying, "Sorry, I might be having an anxiety attack, really not feeling well. Let me take a break."

Stark went to rest, but he still needed to find a way to solve this problem. He took out his phone and sent Greed a message, roughly asking what was going on and whether he was having another episode.

Greed quickly replied with a somewhat enigmatic message: "I’ll have him tone it down."

Upon returning to the set, Stark sensed some changes. The previous hallucinations were gone, and the strange allure also vanished. The young Shiller now seemed as ordinary as he appeared on the surface. Except for his gray eyes, there was nothing attention-grabbing.

Stark immediately understood that it was this young Shiller’s trickery. Either it was a superpower, or psychological spirit manipulation. But Stark couldn’t figure out his purpose—was it just to scare him?

During the next break, Stark took a swig of ice-cold beer, leaned on the bar, looked at the young Shiller, and then asked, "What was that all about?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean." Stark frowned, "Stop being mysterious. What was that earlier?"

"Just a little trick." Shiller laughed, "Alright, it was actually to create some pressure for you, to prevent you from pressuring Steven."

"Creating some pressure?" Stark repeated his words, "You almost scared me to death!"

"Sorry, I didn’t handle the intensity well." Shiller paused for a moment and then said, "I thought you all went along with this."

"We, who are we referring to?"

"The Iron Men." Shiller answered truthfully, "The teacher said you were the first to notice the problem. At least, to me, you’re the smartest Iron Man in the entire multiverse."

Stark visibly appreciated the compliment but tried to keep a straight face as he said, "What about the others? Did they all fall into the trap?"

"More than that. They’re swinging on vines, swimming in swamps, and settled in the belly of the Kraken."

Stark was amused by the metaphors, but quickly realized he shouldn’t laugh. He shook his head in frustration. This guy must have realized that the previous trick didn’t work on him, so he switched tactics, and he almost fell for it.

"You’re speaking too much with me." Stark decided to distance himself.

"Is that so? I thought after you got married, you would be a bit more restrained." Shiller raised an eyebrow in a certain direction.

There was a female assistant there, seemingly sneaking glances in this direction. Stark was pretty sure he saw her winking. He frowned, then said, "I don’t even know her, and nothing’s happened between us, so stop slandering me."

"But if you’re not here chatting with me, she would probably have some work-related questions to ask you. And Mr. Brock seems quite regretful for never having been able to catch any of your tabloid stories." Shiller looked in another direction, where Eddie was writing something in his notebook.

Stark covered his face. Truly, out of the frying pan into the fire, he kind of regretted making this film. Isn’t it said that God stands on Captain America’s side? Why didn’t Steve have so many messy things when making a movie? Oh, he didn’t have to personally be there, so that’s why.

But no matter how much Stark complained, the film still had to be shot. In the afternoon, there was a dialogue-heavy scene primarily about two people sharing what they’ve done over the years, along with some visions about the future.

Shiller performed very well; he was very into his role, as if these things had truly happened, acting relaxed and natural, even bringing Stark into the scene with him. The director finally breathed a sigh of relief.

After it was finished, everyone lavishly praised Stark, making him slightly embarrassed. He turned to look at Shiller, really suspecting that Shiller might have created an alternate timeline where they actually said these things, because his acting was so convincing.

"Honestly, if you weren’t Tony Stark, you’d be a very popular lead in a teen movie." Shiller looked at him and said, "Your eyes are full of stories. As long as I look into your eyes while speaking, I don’t even need to deliberately think about my lines."

"Oh, God. I’m not a Bond Girl." Stark was a bit exasperated, "Stop playing these lame tricks on me. I won’t fall for it."

Yet, he was still somewhat embarrassed, and hurriedly walked away. But during the subsequent filming, many people continued to compliment his eyes, making Stark start to doubt himself a bit.

Of course, Stark knew his eyes were attractive. Countless people have mentioned this before. But these film folks aren’t focusing on how charming the eyes are; they constantly talk about the eyes having a "story sense."

Stark didn’t exactly understand what "story sense" meant. Besides, wasn’t he young and now still having the same pair of eyes? Why did no one praise the story sense when he was younger?

He felt these people were just flattery machines. Stark wasn’t foolish; he knew that when you’re wealthy and powerful, you meet a lot of nice people wherever you go. He had heard so many praises all his life that he didn’t take this slightly special description seriously, seeing it as these filmmaking people coming up with some new term to butter him up, hoping he’d give them more money.

Unexpectedly, when Strange’s scenes started filming, upon arriving at the set, he was also stunned by Stark’s eyes.

"You..." Strange hesitated to continue.

"What?" Stark was weirded out by the gaze. He rubbed his arms and said, "Why haven’t you gotten any younger?"

Strange still looked the same, seemingly not wanting to change too early. But he didn’t answer Stark’s question; he stood there looking at Stark for a moment and then said, "Has anyone ever told you? You have ’pure’ eyes."

Stark broke out in goosebumps: "What are you up to?"

It seemed like Strange didn’t hear, and he even walked towards Stark. Stark instinctively backed away, and that’s when Strange realized he was being a bit inappropriate. He squinted his eyes and said, "Why do you have such eyes?"

Now Stark was a bit displeased. First, you praise me, then question me. What new form of mind manipulation is this?

"Stop this act!" Stark was like a cat with its fur standing on end, "I’ve always had these eyes, never heard you say much before. You must be in cahoots with them to mess with me..."

"No..." Strange seemed fully into his role as the Supreme Magician, with a flicker of light in his eyes, "No, no, Tony Stark, you’re just... incredible."