Chapter 222: Military Movements (Part 2)

The fact that Stark is Iron Man brought about a huge public opinion response, because both Stark and Iron Man are quite famous.

Stark's reputation is really not very good. Previously, the military had already guided public opinion to smear him once. He was called an unscrupulous arms dealer standing on a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, a completely irresponsible playboy, and a lavish, villainous tycoon. If there were a star rating system, Stark's reputation would hover between half a star and one star.

"My Healing Game"

But Iron Man's reputation is very good, not only because he saved people in New York, but also because he was on the front line in several major incidents that endangered New York. Many people have seen him, heard about his deeds, and many people have become his fans because of that handsome mecha.

Before the incident, Iron Man even had his own fan website. Many people made public welfare merchandise, and there were even many fans waiting on the rooftops, filming the figure of Stark speeding across the New York skyline.

Thus, when the identities of Stark and Iron Man overlapped, the largest superhero "collapse" event in history occurred.

Generally speaking, when people like a certain image, they will mix in a lot of their own fantasies about him, and Iron Man's fans are no exception. As for who Iron Man actually is, fans had long guessed. His expensive mecha indicated that he must be a rich person, so most fans believed he was one of those young tycoons keen on charity.

Some guessed he might be the young master of the Osborn family, after all, the elder Osborn was very keen on charity. Others felt he was the boss of the largest construction company in the United States, or even the heir to a certain oil enterprise, but in any case, it definitely wouldn't be Tony Stark.

On the day the news was announced, Iron Man's fan website changed its background image to a blood-red color. The website manager claimed that he felt incomparably disappointed; Iron Man would no longer be the hero in his mind.

At the same time, many people who claimed to be Iron Man fans triggered a public opinion craze on the internet. They began to film videos, telling the story of their "de-fanning" process with heartbreak.

Many accounts started to analyze Stark's purpose in long-winded essays. Some said he was using small kindnesses to whitewash himself, some said he was to fool the public, and some said he was just to satisfy his own vanity. Anyway, looking through the whole thing, there were no good words.

This public opinion offensive was ten times more intense than the last one. Stark seemed to have been labeled as a hypocrite, and even the identity of Iron Man was pulled off the altar, falling vertically into the mud.

Originally, with Stark's personality, he should have been furious and wanted to fight back regardless of everything by now. But now, he locked the laboratory door. "Mortal trifles have nothing to do with me. Not listening, not looking, not feeling. The turtle is chanting scriptures."

Since ancient times, no matter what kind of drama, there has existed a concept called "counter-acting." If the opponent doesn't take the cue, then you are very likely to become a clown performing a one-man show. This is the state of the military now.

Public opinion attacks have a big problem: once the heat passes, people will start to forget. Therefore, the best way to deal with public opinion is not to clarify or fight back, but to play dead.

Stark, who had seen through it, self-taught this key point: if you want to scold, then scold. As long as I don't listen, don't look, and don't feel, all public opinion has nothing to do with me.

Stark's performance exceeded many people's expectations. Pepper had already prepared to clean up the mess for him, and Obadiah's staff team had prepared three or four sets of public relations plans. As a result, the military's hype lasted for three days, but Stark was as steady as Mount Tai and never came out of the laboratory. It was a case of performing for a blind person.

One plan failed, another was born. The military approached the Osborn Group again, wanting to use interests to move the Osborn Group to stand on the same front as them to deal with Stark.

The result was that they didn't even get through the door of the Osborn Group.

Although Osborn is a businessman, he holds a grudge against the military for prioritizing Stark and treating the Osborn Group's biotechnology only as a backup plan. Coupled with the fact that the Immortality Factor industry he is cooperating with Stark on is in full swing, his brain would have to be burned out before he would go to the military to beg for food again.

The Osborn Group was unwilling to cooperate, so there were not many objects the military could choose from. It just so happened that Drake, the boss of the Life Foundation, was sent to S. H. I. E. L. D.'s "little black room" together with Riot. The military wanted to take this opportunity to take over the Life Foundation's industry and foster a new agent.

They spent a lot of effort and finally found a fairly good agent. He inherited a part of Drake's prestige and claimed to be a scientist working for the well-being of ordinary people, used to make Stark appear even more evil.

As a result, he had only been in office for two days when Eddie used his connections to expose the detailed data of the Life Foundation using homeless people for experiments in Dora's hands. Just like that, the Life Foundation also "died."

The military's level was not very good, but their perseverance was quite sufficient, commonly known as "human dish, addiction big." Several famous large companies were unwilling to cooperate, so they approached Hammer Industries again, or rather, Hammer Industries was originally a dog raised by the military, at their beck and call.

Hammer Industries was anxious to perform in front of the military in order to receive more orders, but compared to behemoths like Stark or Osborn, their size was not quite enough.

Hammer Industries could only find another way and started searching the world for Stark's possible "black materials." Heaven rewards the diligent, and they really found one.

A few days ago, a car explosion occurred in the underground garage of Stark Tower. This case did not cause any waves because no one was injured at all. The person sitting in the car was neither Stark nor an employee of Stark Tower. The only living thing on the whole car was Jarvis.

Most people felt that this might be an accidental accident caused by a car test, but Justin Hammer, the boss of Hammer Industries, keenly discovered that this might be an artificially manufactured accident.

He thought the person who manufactured this accident would be a crazy fan who had "de-fanned" and turned back to bite, but he didn't expect to catch a big fish.

Ivan Vanko, who claimed to be Stark's enemy. In the version of the story he told Justin Hammer, his father and Stark's father developed the Arc Reactor together, but the final research results were occupied by Stark's father as his own, and his father was tragically murdered.

The authenticity of this story was difficult to prove because too much time had passed, but Hammer Industries and the military treated it like a treasure. Precisely because it could not be proven, it was better to use.

Stark turned a deaf ear to the comments smearing him and was in seclusion in his laboratory for research, but the military bet that he could not remain indifferent to the news smearing his father. Thus, this story was spread widely at a very fast speed.

The military exaggerated what Howard had done by ten times. In the story, all of Howard's research results were denied and changed to the results of Ivan Vanko's father being stolen by the evil Howard.

The only thing retained was Howard's failed hover-car demonstration, which was described as Howard's true level.

"It seems they successfully grasped your weakness." In the laboratory of Stark Tower, Schiller and Steve were playing checkers while talking, while Stark was sitting on the workbench on the other side, pretending to be focused on looking at data.

"Actually, it makes sense." Schiller continued to infer: "If they describe your father as a piece of trash, then you, who desperately wanted to prove you were stronger than Howard, would become very much like a clown."

"I want to state in advance that I did not use mind-reading. This is a problem that anyone with eyes can see. You seem to have always wanted to emphasize that Howard was not as genius as you, but when someone says Howard is an idiot, you will still be very angry. If my expectations are correct, you should be thinking about why you are angry right now."

"But I can give you the answer directly, because you actually don't hate..."

"Enough!" Stark slapped the table and stood up.

He walked out quickly from behind the workbench and stood next to the table where the two were playing checkers, then suddenly paused. He looked at the two who were fighting fiercely on the checkerboard and thought about whether it was a bit beneath his dignity to haggle with such two people.

Then he stretched out a hand and said, "Alright, I will hold a Stark Industrial Expo and let them see the latest achievements of Stark."

"I will tell them that no matter which Stark it is, they are all thousands of times stronger than that group of idiots."

"I know that Ivan also has an Arc Reactor. I know he thought of a stupid idea to use it. He actually made a..."

"Do you know what kind of people my nursing home welcomes the least?" Schiller suddenly interrupted Stark's words.

Stark asked, "What kind of people?"

"People who spoil the plot."

——————Author's Note——————

Been so busy lately, haven't written an interlude for a long time.

I will summarize the plot that is exactly the same as the movie or the original comic. I don't want to be a repeater. Those interested in specific plots can go see the original work, such as the relationship between Ivan's father and Howard, etc.

In my opinion, writing fan fiction that repeats the original plot is a bit like cheating money, and my conscience hurts a bit, but if I don't write it at all, many people might not understand, so I'll just write it simply. ===== CHAPTER 223 =====