Chapter 3434: Midnight Sons (44)

The Strange who appeared in the New York Sanctum was already dressed as a fully armed Sorcerer Supreme. The stationed mages stopped to salute him, and only then did they see the Moon Knight following behind Strange.

Strange, however, was in no mood to explain to them; he just said: "Give me the maintenance logs for Earth's magical defense network from recently. Who is the mage on duty recently?"

Not long after, a female mage walked over, leading Strange and Schiller into a room deep within the Sanctum.

In the center of the room was a prismatic light cone, emitting rich magical power. A beam of light connected the light cone from top to bottom, and the end of the light beam should be the magical defense network covering the sky above Earth.

Many mysterious symbols emerged above the light cone. Strange began to check the data, and the female mage helped him find useful information on the side. Suddenly, Strange waved his hand, and one of the runes flew over.

He discussed something with the female mage, but it was too professional, and Schiller couldn't understand it. Soon, the female mage left, presumably to get something, while Strange held the rune and said to Schiller:

"The magical defense network has no problems, but the defense network has monitored that the total amount of energy in New York has risen over the past half year. We haven't investigated which laboratory applied for additional magical energy usage rights, so the rise is abnormal.

"Currently, there are very few people who can directly use magical energy without the approval of the New York Sanctum; Tony counts as one. I have to go to his place to get his data; if it still doesn't add up to the rise, it means there are others frequently using magic during this half year."

Soon, the female mage brought a written document, which didn't have those mysterious symbols on it, but normal English. Schiller glanced at it; it should be the translated energy monitoring data.

This made him sigh that magic also keeps pace with the times. Presumably, the mastermind behind the scenes didn't expect that the major Sanctums under Strange's leadership had long been modernized, with perfect monitoring systems, precise data to two decimal places, and even highly likely to have legal effect.

While following Strange flying out, Schiller asked: "What is the principle of this kind of monitoring?"

"The magical defense network is like a big net, not only able to resist foreign enemies but also able to conduct detailed monitoring of various types of energy produced within Earth, including not only magical energy but also energy created by scientists using instruments."

"Not only can it monitor, but it can also set the type and energy level of energy to trigger automatic interception. For example, if someone wants to open a portal on Earth that has a different energy consumption and operation method than Earth mages, it will be immediately intercepted. The same goes for wanting to use powerful magic or create large-scale energy bombs."

"No wonder there haven't been any strange guys invading New York for a long time." Schiller nodded and said.

Actually, this didn't exceed Schiller's expectations. The things he did, although they united the superheroes and partially changed Earth's landscape, Earth's stable days now mainly relied on the development of basic technology in various industries.

The magical defense network might have originally had this function, but the Ancient One didn't walk this path at all, so even if it existed, it wasn't used, let alone studied deeply.

Because Strange's personal strength wasn't as good as the Ancient One's, but he caught up with a booming era, he had to try every means to maintain Earth's stability, developing every nook and cranny of functions, and the effect was actually much better than before.

Other industries were basically the same; in order to drink from the soup of the interstellar era, they were all comprehensively innovating, self-revolutionizing, rolling themselves, and in the end, every industry had redundancy, and anti-risk capabilities were greatly enhanced.

The two flew to the roof of Stark Tower, then flew down to the window of Stark's office. As soon as they flew over, they saw Pepper scolding Stark.

The soundproofing effect of the building was very good, but Schiller didn't need to listen at all to know what Pepper was scolding.

Although this matter had nothing to do with Stark, in Pepper's words, if Stark could take half of the energy he used to mock others' merchant style and put it on the internet, he wouldn't have been defeated in the public opinion war.

When the two flew in, Stark was leaning against the table like a defeated rooster, dejected.

Schiller felt his sadness, but only felt a bit of gloating.

Tony Stark is a bit aloof. If others recognize him, he is very happy, even if that person is just an ordinary person, or even might not have any understanding of science at all, he will feel smug because of the other's recognition.

But if he were asked to find a way to win others' recognition, even if that person holds technology leading Earth, Stark is unwilling to do so, and even has a rebellious psychology: the more you need me to recognize you, the more I will offend you, just to see what you can do to me.

For example, he can be genuinely happy when facing the praise of Asgardian children, but if he were asked to take the initiative to get close to Thor and Loki, he is unwilling.

His relationship with Loki is actually okay, but with Thor, it's just average, and one could even say the two aren't very familiar. Even when chatting with Loki, they never discuss issues like Asgardian technology.

It's the same in terms of managing his internet image. Although he would show off to Schiller and the others how many fans his account has, if he were really asked to film a video that fans like to circle fans, he would avoid it, and when filming, he would be awkward, like a thief.

Pepper has many complaints about this, because public opinion warfare is like sailing against the current; if you don't advance, you retreat. If you don't occupy the public opinion position, your enemies will naturally occupy it. When public opinion warfare really starts, you will know what it means to be surrounded on all sides and attacked from both sides.

Now, Stark is eating his own bitter fruit. He isn't sad because he is being scolded, mainly because those fans of his who are desperately helping him clarify and expose Dario's lies, although they have tried very hard, the effect is still not good, and many people are being chased and scolded, which can be said to be retreating steadily.

Stark feels he should be responsible for this. If he were like what Pepper said before, managing his personal image well, posting more of his resume and scientific research achievements, or simply filming more cool videos of his mecha, the situation now might be much better.

But if he were to film now, it would inevitably look like he was guilty and couldn't sit still, so the PR team could only choose to handle it coldly.

It just so happens that Stark's anxiety disorder repeats, and he feels uncomfortable while also having obsessive-compulsive disorder, insisting on watching, the more he watches, the more uncomfortable he feels, and the more uncomfortable he feels, the more he wants to watch, with his mental stability declining in a straight line.

And Schiller, as a professional psychologist who takes 300 million US dollars from him every quarter, adopted the most direct method—snatching his phone away.

Stark didn't have time to call his suit, and Schiller had Kong Su's help; with a wave of his staff, a white light hit Stark's wrist, and the phone flew away directly.

The phone fell to the ground, and the screen cracked. Stark just wanted to pick it up, and another white light fell to the ground, and the phone disappeared with a swoosh.

Stark glared at him, and immediately wanted to call Jarvis, but Jarvis was as quiet as dead. Stark even started to suspect if he had been killed by the furious Scarlet Witch.

"Alright." Stark spread his hands and said, "Did you come here just to find trouble for me?"

"Look at this." Strange stepped forward and handed the file to Stark. Stark originally just scanned it, but soon his gaze focused on the data on the file.

After a while, he shook his head and said: "No, I started using magic frequently after the Midnight Sons were established, Peter is about the same, even if the two of us combined, we can't fill the gap."

"This means someone is secretly using magic." Strange sat sideways on the table, one arm bent and resting on the table, his two hands pinched together and said, "But the gap isn't big, and from beginning to end, it hasn't triggered a high-energy alarm, which proves that the magic level used by the other party isn't high, and the frequency of use is uncertain, and the locations are scattered, making it very difficult to trace through monitoring."

"Then we have to send people to tail them." Stark's eyes rolled, and he said, "Avengers, Midnight Sons, New Warriors team... who else? You New York Sanctum don't have enough manpower, I know."

Strange snorted coldly and said: "I will have the employees of the Sanctum Sanctorum contact the demons, have their agents pause their work, and solve this matter first."

Both looked at Schiller, and Schiller nodded, but then shook his head.

Strange and Stark both understood what he meant—he himself participating is no problem, but he couldn't convince Nick to let people go.

Logically speaking, this kind of matter should indeed be managed by S. H. I. E. L. D., but now the situation in the public opinion field is unfavorable, and Nick must keep a close eye on the internet to prevent internet influence from affecting offline, destroying a great stable situation.

About half an hour later, the members of the Midnight Sons met at the Temple of Moonlight. Stark, standing at the very front, sighed and said: "The situation is like this, we have to find out who is secretly using magic in New York."

Danny immediately turned his head to look at Johnny. Stark waved his hand and said: "Not Ghost Rider, the quota for the demon's agent is counted in the maintenance of the Sanctum Sanctorum, and doesn't belong to extra energy consumption."

"Then it's possible it's another apostle of Mephisto." Danny said, "Devils are best at being sneaky."

Stark didn't exclude this possibility either, he just said: "You have fought with him for so long, you must have an understanding of him, then follow the clues you have learned to investigate."

"But I have two requirements, one is absolutely not allowed to involve innocent ordinary people, and the other is not allowed to frame your brother without rhyme or reason, find evidence first."

Danny still wanted to say something, but looking at Stark's not-so-good complexion, he gave up, just secretly glared at Johnny again.

What made Schiller somewhat surprised was that Johnny, who hadn't said much from beginning to end, suddenly opened his mouth and said: "I have a few brothers in the motorcycle gang, I can let them help keep an eye on it, but you have to pay some gas money."

"Motorcycle gang? Ordinary people?" Stark frowned; he actually didn't want ordinary people to get involved, mainly because ordinary people basically have no power to fight back in front of magic.

Johnny shook his head and said: "Not an ordinary motorcycle gang, most of them have some skills, and a few are mutants. They are very familiar with the terrain of New York and should be able to help."

"Alright," Stark nodded and said, "I will transfer the money to the Sanctum Sanctorum, and then have them transfer it to your account."

The plan was settled like this, and each went their separate ways to investigate people they felt were suspicious. At the same time, the Avengers and the Sanctum Sanctorum were also staging the same scene internally.

In places ordinary people couldn't notice, superheroes became active again. Only there was one more figure they weren't very familiar with—Moon Knight.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 3435 =====