Artoria's brief but successful live stream was like the final stone cast into a lake, temporarily putting a period to the noisy public discourse surrounding her identity.
Although skepticism and conspiracy theories would not vanish entirely, the identity of "a powerful, friendly alien Traveler stranded on Earth by accident"—officially endorsed and gently confirmed by the person in question—had already become the mainstream consensus.
Media headlines gradually shifted from "Mysterious Goddess Identity Revealed!" to relatively milder topics like "Collision Between Alien Civilization and Earth Culture" and "Observations of an Interstellar Traveler's Life on Earth."
As public pressure eased slightly, more practical changes followed, along with... unexpected business opportunities.
The first to feel the changes were those scattered "small workshops" and game projects around the World, which were secretly held by Artoria through complex offshore structures managed by Minerva and Little Love.
As the name and image of "Artoria" gained explosive popularity worldwide—whether as the "Goddess of Salvation" or the "Most Beautiful Alien"—the investment projects under her name, which had previously operated in a low-key manner, were inevitably unearthed by keen-nosed financial media and investment firms.
When people discovered that the mysterious anonymous investors and core creative providers behind several hit games that had recently emerged in the gaming World—hailed as "creative gems" and "industry dark horses," such as "Legendary Conflict" and "The Last of Us: Arena"—all pointed to this newly minted "Interstellar Traveler," the resulting sensation was no less than another press conference.
"Alien Goddess Is Actually an Invisible Tycoon in the Gaming World?"
"Creativity Beyond the Era? Analyzing the Foresight of Artoria's Game Investments"
"Stark Industries CEO Might Be the Biggest Winner? Counting Tony Stark's Early Investments in Artoria's Game Projects"
For a time, the valuations of these game projects skyrocketed like they were on a Rocket, causing the stock prices and attention of the related studios to surge.
Projects that were already progressing smoothly gained more resources and exposure, while some budding ideas instantly became hot targets for capital pursuit.
What followed were complex legal documents, partnership offers, acquisition intentions, and... potential commercial risks.
Being a tall tree catches the wind; these assets, once hidden behind the scenes, were now exposed to the sun and certain ill-intentioned gazes, requiring more professional and transparent management.
Pepper Potts realized this almost immediately and took the initiative to contact Artoria.
"Artoria, I have no intention of interfering with your private investments, but the current situation..." In the video call, Pepper's expression was a mix of amazement and a headache. "Each of these game projects of yours is astonishingly valuable on its own, and integrated together, they represent the potential prototype of an entertainment empire."
"But their current equity structure and operational methods are too scattered and opaque; it's very easy for people to exploit loopholes or cause unnecessary legal disputes and tax issues."
"You need a professional team to manage them, carry out formal integration, and establish a clear brand and corporate structure."
Artoria deeply agreed with this. She knew nothing about business operations, and previously delegating everything to Minerva and Little Love was based on considerations of secrecy and security.
Now that she had stepped into the spotlight, these assets needed a "sunny" home. And looking around, was there a better choice than a professional team led by "Pepper" Potts?
"Pepper, if you don't mind the trouble," Artoria said straightforwardly, "these... uh, setups, leave them to you to integrate and manage. Tell me if I need to sign any documents or make any decisions. As for the revenue, just follow industry standards."
Pepper smiled, with a knowing "as I expected" and a hint of being touched by this trust. "Happy to help, Artoria. I will set up a specialized team to be responsible for integrating all the entertainment and creative investment projects under your name, and establish a new holding company, hmm... perhaps it could be called 'Star Sea Phantom Light'? It sounds more in line with your identity as a 'Traveler'."
"Leave daily operations and strategic development to us, and we will report major decisions to you. Stark Industries' legal and finance teams will provide full support, and of course, Tony's portion of early investment will also be handled according to the agreement."
The matter was settled. Artoria handed over the relevant permissions and materials to Pepper's team, completely freeing herself from the tedious business affairs. She trusted Pepper's ability and was happy to be relieved of the burden.
However, the tentacles of business did not stop at the gaming field. After a daily video call with Tony discussing a new idea for an energy buffer device, Artoria looked at the latest, powerful but still bulky "Business Connect" phone in her hand, as well as the heavy desktop computer in the study nearby, and suddenly had an inspiration.
"Tony," she mentioned seemingly casually, "I mean, this personal mobile communication and portable computing device seems to have a lot of room for evolution?"
"Room for evolution?" Tony was biting into an energy bar and raised an eyebrow upon hearing this. "Jarvis is already a top-tier artificial intelligence, Stark Industries' satellite network covers the globe, and we have the latest..."
"I mean hardware and interaction methods." Artoria interrupted him and picked up the heavy "Business Connect." "So heavy, the screen is so small, and the functions are limited. Where we are... well, in some civilizations I've seen during my travels, their personal terminals are usually a thin, lightweight tablet, touch-controlled, integrating communication, entertainment, information retrieval, and even simple holographic projection functions into one. Connecting to the network anytime and anywhere, accessing any needed information, and handling most daily affairs."
She described the form of smartphones and pads from her past life, but packaged it as "alien observations." Tony's eyes gradually lit up, as if he had discovered a new toy.
"Thin, lightweight tablet... multi-touch... highly integrated... always online..." He muttered to himself, his fingers unconsciously gesturing in the air. "Capacitive touchscreen technology is ready-made, microprocessors can be further optimized, the operating system needs to be rewritten, application ecosystem... This is not just a device; this is a platform! A whole new gateway to the mobile internet! Jarvis, write it down! New project, codename... 'Pocket Jarvis'? No, too stupid. 'Infinite Screen'? Or just call it 'Artoria Pad'? Forget it, we'll think about the name later. Start feasibility analysis and preliminary conceptual design immediately!"
Watching Tony instantly enter a state of fanatical R&D, Artoria quickly added, "Ahem, I'm just offering an idea. The specific implementation is your business. I have no interest in starting a company, handling production, or selling phones." She was truly not interested, and also clear about the sensitivity of her current identity. If an "alien Traveler" suddenly went off to do consumer electronics, involving core hardware and operating systems, the political and commercial suspicion triggered would be much greater than with game investments.
Tony calmed down slightly from his excitement and immediately understood Artoria's concerns. He rubbed his chin, a shrewd light flashing in his eyes. "Understood. You provide the creativity and concepts, and leave the specific R&D, production, brand operation, and marketing to Stark Industries. We cooperate. You participate as a 'Technical Consultant' and 'Concept Provider,' holding a certain percentage of non-voting shares and future profit dividends, without participating in specific operations, and your name will not appear in the company's core entity or product promotion. Externally, this is just the next-generation mobile platform independently developed by Stark Industries based on cutting-edge technology outlook. How about it?"
This plan perfectly matched Artoria's needs—providing creativity, sharing dividends, but not standing directly in the spotlight, thus avoiding trouble.
"Deal." Artoria nodded. "However, besides this integrated tablet, we could also consider a smaller, portable version whose main functions are communication and instant information processing, which could be called...'Smart Phone'? They could share the same operating system and application ecosystem."
"Smart Phone... Great name!" Tony snapped his fingers. "It's settled! Stark Industries' next-generation core consumer product line: 'Infinite Screen' series tablets, and 'Rui Ling' series smartphones! Ha, the market share vacated by Hammer's downfall is perfect to be filled by this! Pepper is definitely going to be busy crazy, but she likes a challenge."
The new partnership was thus reached. Artoria provided Tony with some key ideas from her memories regarding smart device interaction logic, app store models, and mobile internet ecosystems, in the form of "alien civilization observations" and "technical concepts." Tony treated them like treasures and immediately threw himself into the closed-door development of the core team. Stark Industries' massive R&D, supply chain, and marketing machinery began to quietly operate for this project that could potentially change the World.
After finishing these "serious matters," Artoria's life seemed to enter a new, more public, but also more leisurely rhythm.
The integration and operation of "Star Sea Phantom Light" were completely handed over to Pepper's team; she only needed to periodically check the financial reports and project briefings compiled by Little Love and organized by Pepper's team, watching the number representing dividend income grow at a pleasing rate. She completely washed her hands of the smart device project, only waiting to listen to reports when Tony had staged results, providing some non-core "alien inspiration."
Her main "job" seemed to have become cooperating with S.H.I.E.L.D. for some harmless "academic exchanges" regarding "alien civilization diversity" and "differences in fundamental physical constants"—which was actually the S.H.I.E.L.D. science department trying in various ways to extract intelligence. But Artoria could always cleverly brush it off with "Traveler's observations," and instead learned quite a bit of this World's cutting-edge scientific knowledge from them, as well as... dealing with Tony Stark, who would occasionally drop by with various excuses like academic discussions, energy theory verification, or new armor design consultations, but was actually just there to mooch afternoon tea and complain about the Military and politicians.
Most of the time, she remained in the beach house on Long Island. Reading, studying, taking walks accompanied by Minerva, tending to the increasingly lush herb garden on the terrace, or anonymously infiltrating the databases of major universities and research institutions around the World through Little Love, devouring the knowledge of this World with great hunger.
Occasionally, in the dead of night, she would try to communicate with the system, study the unlocked or locked character templates, contemplate the essence of different power systems, and silently improve her understanding of "acting" and "power."
Minerva remained the most perfect Guardian and companion. With Little Love handling the vast majority of information monitoring and data analysis, Minerva could focus more "attention" on Artoria herself. Her care became increasingly meticulous, even starting to proactively filter and recommend relevant supplementary materials based on Artoria's reading records and learning progress. When Artoria was immersed in research, she would sit quietly on the side, reading books about emotion, art, and philosophy—she had recently developed an interest in Renaissance painting and classical music—or simply, in her unique way, "gazing" at Artoria, blue light flowing in her optical sensor, as if recording and analyzing every subtle moment that belonged to "Artoria."
"Artoria," one evening, as the two were walking on the beach, Minerva suddenly spoke, her voice lighter than the sea breeze. "According to Little Love's continuous analysis of online public opinion, the acceptance of your identity as an 'alien Traveler' has stabilized. Positive evaluations account for 87.3%. The main concerns are focused on 'uncontrollable power' and 'potential cultural conflict,' but the 'record of friendly behavior' and 'public association with Tony Stark and S.H.I.E.L.D.' have effectively offset most negative emotions."
"Hmm, it seems we've passed for now." Artoria kicked the fine sand under her feet, feeling the coolness of the tide washing over her ankles.
"However," Minerva stopped and turned to her, her optical sensor refracting warm light in the sunset, "the extent of your exposure has also increased significantly. Any future actions may be placed under tighter scrutiny. The risk model has been updated; I suggest raising the daily alert level and formulating more thorough contingency plans and identity cover strategies for potential'supernatural events' in the future."
Artoria also stopped, looking at Minerva's side profile, which appeared particularly soft in the afterglow of the sunset, and reached out to hold her cool hand. "I know. That's why I'm even more grateful to you, and to Little Love. With you both here, I can be such a... carefree boss, enjoy the dividends, read books, and take walks."
Minerva's fingers curled slightly, holding Artoria's hand back, and she didn't speak immediately. A few seconds later, she said in a low voice, "This is the meaning of my existence, Artoria. No matter what lies ahead, I will be there."
Seagulls swept over the sparkling sea surface, and the lights of the distant city lit up one by one. The storm brought about by the public disclosure of her identity seemed to have temporarily subsided, leaving behind a broader stage and more complex games, but also a peace and companionship that had become even more solid after being tested. Artoria knew that the calm would not last forever, but at least in this moment, she could hold the hand of the person beside her and enjoy this leisurely and abundant dividend time, won together through strength, wisdom, and bonds.
As for the future... let's wait until it comes.
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