Chapter 131: R: The Great Bat Incident (Part 8)

After spending about 20 minutes, Stark read this report carefully from beginning to end, then threw the stack of papers on the table and said, "Complete nonsense."

"Anyone who has received a university-level or higher education in biology can see that this is pure nonsense."

"I am, after all, a psychologist, and I don't have any educational background in biology. Besides, this is just an outline; what specific content to fill in depends on you genius scientists..."

Stark hesitated, then picked up the report again and said, "Laymen might think it's very reasonable, but in reality, it's very outrageous. However, I just thought about it, and it seems a bit reasonable too..."

Stark, with a conflicted face, pinched the report and said, "Vampire blood contains immortality factors that humans can utilize? This is too ridiculous... Forget it, can you explain this part in detail?"

"Didn't Dr. Connors already say it? Their blood contains a magical factor that science cannot crack, so I'll give it a name, called 'Immortality Factor'. That's not too much, is it?"

"Fine, this barely makes sense. After all, you're the only one among these people who understands magic. Besides..." Stark hesitated and asked, "Are you sure this factor can really make people immortal?"

"Whether it can really make people immortal isn't important; what's important is, when you saw this conclusion, did you have any impulses?"

"Or rather, when you just asked this question, what were you thinking?"

Stark pursed his lips, lowered his eyes, then pretended to be nonchalant as he put down the stack of data and said, "Fine, I admit, any human would have this thought. How great would it be if I could live forever..."

"I'm not greedy, but I really feel that if I could have 500 years... no, just 300 years, if I could have a lifespan of 300 years, then I could really change this world..."

His Adam's apple moved, then he turned his head to look out the window and said, "You really are a devil. When I saw this sentence, I even had a moment where I wanted to use some uncontrollable power to capture and study these monsters..."

"No one can refuse this temptation," Shiller said. "Even if he were a saint, when facing a lifespan of only less than 100 years, he would also feel a sense of sorrow."

"This is humanity; humans often live short and brilliant lives, and we often take pride in this."

"But if you could not be short-lived, would you not be tempted?"

Stark spread his hands and said, "Fine, are you trying to use this method to persuade Congress and the Security Council? Let them want to obtain immortality, and then go deal with the vampires?"

"No, I'm trying to use this method to persuade you."

"Persuade me? Persuade me to do what? Isn't my heart to deal with vampires firm enough? Even without this temptation, I would still want to eliminate them all."

"The problem lies in the method of elimination. Your individual armor isn't very effective against them, but once you enable large-scale armed forces, it will attract the wariness of too many factions. But in fact, you still have a better path you can take."

"What do you mean?"

Shiller took a pair of headphones out of his coat pocket, handed them to Stark, and said, "I invited a guest; he should have already arrived at the conference room by now."

"Thank you for giving me the highest level of security clearance, allowing me to invite others to visit as you."

"Wait! Who did you invite?" Stark put on the headphones, and then he was pushed by Shiller out of the lab. He had a very bad premonition. Stark said, "Don't tell me you invited an important figure from Congress here. My God! I won't know how to deal with them! No! Wait... I'm not going..."

"Don't worry, it's not those politicians."

Stark stared at Shiller suspiciously, but Shiller said nothing. The two of them stared at each other for a long time. Stark said, "Damn it, you lying doctor! You did this on purpose, didn't you? You tricked the highest level of security clearance out of me!"

"Don't put it so harshly; you opened it to me yourself."

10 minutes later, when Stark saw Norman Osborn in the conference room, he covered his forehead and whispered into the headset, "I'm going to dock all your pay! I'm not joking!! Why did you invite this old guy here?"

"Alright, now that he has seen you, it's useless even if you don't want to talk. Listen, I want you to talk business with him."

"Talk business? Why would I talk business with Osborn? Their technology is complete garbage..."

"That's not important. Now walk up and shake his hand, and then I'll tell you what to do."

Stark had a dark face, as if he were going to the execution ground, and reluctantly shook hands with Norman. Norman didn't mind; he was the image of a standard American businessman, wearing a suit and leather shoes, with some white hair at his temples, but he looked very spirited.

Norman spoke first: "Mr. Stark, this is my first time coming to Stark Tower. It's much more advanced than I imagined; it really opened my eyes..."

Stark raised his head and made an "hmm" sound through his nose. Shiller said in the headset, "Look at him; if you could talk half as well as he does, I wouldn't have to go to such great lengths."

"I heard that your company has mastered a healing serum technology and intends to sell it."

Stark could only parrot what Shiller was saying in his headset: "That's right, but we'll talk about that later. Now there's a better business opportunity in front of you; do you want to hear about it?"

Norman's expression didn't change, and he said, "So the healing serum technology doesn't exist? Then what did you invite me here to talk about?"

"This technology certainly exists, but before the main course, we should talk about the appetizer first."

"You should have already heard about the accident that broke out at the Brooklyn Bridge, where hundreds or thousands of vampires are launching an attack on humans."

"That's right, the military even purchased a batch of weapons from the Osborn Group for this."

Stark took out a proposal and handed it to Osborn, then whispered into the headset, "You're just going to show him that proposal? It's full of nonsense. Norman also has a doctorate in biology; you can't fool him."

"He's different from you; he's a businessman first, then a scientist."

To Stark's surprise, after Norman finished reading the proposal, he didn't point out the errors like a rigorous scientist, but his face began to become brighter and brighter. He said, "Mr. Stark, I really didn't expect you to be so talented in business!"

Stark said, "What? Ah, I mean... do you think there's nothing wrong with this proposal?"

"A genius hype idea!" Norman concluded. "Medicinal value! Yes, that's right... that's the word. I love this word so much!"

"This is a great opportunity. If we can really package parts of the vampire's body as nutritional supplements or health products, we can definitely make a fortune."

"Think about it, the raw materials are falling from the sky right now. Whether it's Congress, the military, or other forces, they will all support us."

But Stark said, "I want to remind you that we actually cannot crack the magical factor in their blood, and it's not certain whether it really has the effect of immortality..."

"Is that important?" Norman stared into Stark's eyes and said, "Not being able to crack it is the best part. Something that cannot be cracked—we cannot fully prove it's useful, so no one can fully prove it's useless."

Norman took the proposal and flipped through it again, saying, "Immortality Factor? Indeed, this name might be a bit exaggerated, but it's not a medicine, just a health product. The effect needs to be based on actual results."

"We don't need to promote it; the vampires are living examples. They can all live forever, and they heal very quickly when injured."

"Everything happening in Brooklyn right now is the best advertisement."

"The whole world knows that there is a species that can live for hundreds or thousands of years, fighting humans with an extremely fast healing speed."

"Soon, the aftermath of this matter will continue to ferment, and the whole world will know about the vampires' full-scale invasion of humans, and their characteristics will be written on the front page of every newspaper."

"What is this? This is a worldwide, huge-exposure promotion! What other advertisement can compare to this level of publicity?"

"At this time, if our two companies join forces—you know, industrial giant Stark and pharmaceutical giant Osborn—if the two of us join forces to prove that there is a mysterious factor in vampire blood that can extend human lifespan, this is very likely, right? After all, they are long-lived species."

"This could even open up a new industrial field: research on the medicinal value of non-human species." Stark mimicked Shiller's words: "Not just vampires, there might be other creatures in the future."

"And what we need to do is use our technological credibility to tell the whole world that these species have significant medicinal value."

"That's right!" Norman clenched his fist and said, "That's what I think too. Once this is successful, everyone will believe that we have the ability to identify the research value of alien species. It's indeed as you said, we can completely open up a new industry, which will bring unimaginable huge profits."

Finally, Norman stood up without any hesitation and said, "I'll go organize experts to perfect this proposal now. Mr. Stark, I have to say, although this idea is genius, your proposal is really not professional."

"Against the Gods"

Watching Stark's face get darker and darker, Norman continued, "But I know this is because you wanted to see the sincerity of the Osborn Group, so you did it on purpose. I don't believe that Stark Group can't even find a few biology experts."

"But this is as it should be. Your idea alone is already worth tens of billions in profits. I didn't expect that Stark Industrial Group and Osborn Biological Group would start cooperating under these circumstances."

"But I want to say, this must be a good start. You will understand that Osborn is one of the few trustworthy partners in this world."

After speaking, Norman shook hands with Stark again and then left hurriedly.

Stark was still a bit confused. He said, "What did he mean just now? I feel like... did he misunderstand something?"

"It doesn't matter. Anyway, he wasn't wrong. It's just that the biology experts hired by Stark Group are busy saving the world..."

"... saving it in a physical sense." ===== CHAPTER 132 =====