But today, this seemingly ordinary notification actually gave him a bit of a creepy feeling—it had somehow been foreseen by someone in advance.

To put it another way, he had accidentally discovered a plot against him. From the current perspective, both possibilities seemed likely.

“JARVIS, do you have the information I asked you to look up on Brian Carter last time?”

Tony Stark asked. Because the name Brian Carter on the diary cover was in Chinese, Tony Stark couldn’t understand it at first. It was only after he scanned it that he figured out what it meant and how to pronounce it.

“Based on this name, it’s more in line with naming conventions used by people of Asian descent. More precisely, it fits the single-character surname tradition in China and Korea. However, judging by Korean naming habits, this name doesn’t really sound Korean—there’s only a 20% chance of that. The remaining 80% probability is that it’s Chinese!” JARVIS’s mechanical voice replied. “According to the data previously searched, if it is Chinese, we’ve hacked into household registration management sites around the world and found a large number of relevant Chinese profiles. There are approximately 283,765 people whose names match the two Chinese characters Brian Carter!”

Hearing that there were so many people, Tony Stark just felt a headache coming on. There really are a lot of Chinese people, and this name is incredibly common.

“Of these, 273,560 are in China, and the rest are among Chinese people worldwide!” JARVIS said.

“First, exclude those who are overseas!” Tony Stark said. “From what’s recorded in this diary, it seems like this person can see my news every day, so they’re most likely local. After all, if it were foreign media, they probably wouldn’t pay so much attention to my tabloid news!”

Tony Stark thought for a moment. It wasn’t the first or second time he’d made the front page, which was normal, but if someone could frequently see his tabloid news, it was most likely within the United States. Foreign media wouldn’t waste space on his tabloid stories unless it was something truly sensational.

Only American paparazzi would track his every move like this day after day.

“Pull up all the Chinese people named Brian Carter within the United States!” Tony Stark ordered.

Currently, there are about four or five million Chinese people in the U.S.—not a small number. To be able to find them instantly was a testament to JARVIS’s powerful algorithms and computing power.

“There are currently 138 people named Brian Carter in the United States!” JARVIS reported.

“Of those, how many are from well-off families, or at least middle class and above?” Tony Stark asked.

“Sixteen are middle class or above, and among them, one is in the wealthy class—a third-generation immigrant with family assets exceeding one hundred million!” JARVIS answered directly.

“Focus on that third-generation rich kid!” Tony Stark said. “Also keep an eye on the other middle-class and above individuals named Brian Carter. For the rest, just apply the lowest level of monitoring!”

“Sir, how did you come to this conclusion?” JARVIS asked.

“Because the diary says he’s waiting every day for me to get kidnapped in Afghanistan, then waiting for the stock price to crash, and then he’ll buy in at the bottom. If he’s planning to buy at the bottom, he must have some money. If his financial situation is poor, could he even afford stocks? What was our stock price yesterday? $98 per share. It’s not that I look down on them, but even if ordinary people knew this information, they wouldn’t have enough capital!” Tony Stark explained his reasoning.

This is also the current reality in America: the vast majority of Americans have every penny accounted for. Suddenly coming up with five hundred bucks in cash could break their budget, let alone buying up stocks at the bottom.

If you only have a few hundred dollars on hand, even if you buy at the bottom, how much could you really make?

Chapter 3: What Kind of Good Person Keeps a Diary?

So the main suspect is this third-generation rich kid Brian Carter!

Of course, “third-generation rich” is only relative to the average American. Compared to Tony Stark’s own fortune—tens of billions of dollars—just this trip to Afghanistan would earn his company at least several hundred million. That kind of money is really nothing to him.

“Hack into his account and see how much money he has?” Tony Stark said.

For someone like Tony Stark with JARVIS as his AI, there were very few places in the world he couldn’t hack into. Of course, he wouldn’t do it recklessly. Besides his own conscience, he was also one of the biggest beneficiaries of this system of rules. If he started breaking them himself, that would be a problem.

You can’t treat everyone else like fools. If the government really started watching him, it would be a big hassle.

“Found the record. His parents just transferred a million dollars into his account a few days ago!” JARVIS said.

“Then that’s it. Most likely, it’s him!” Tony Stark stroked the little goatee on his chin and said, “Is there any more information about him? For example, is he a bad kid? Any connections to gangs or terrorists? Or does anyone in his network have such ties?”