Chapter 4975

After dealing with a major hassle, Peter went back to teaching, and Shiler followed along to sit in on the class. Honestly, Peter's teaching is top-notch. As soon as he steps into the classroom, he connects with the students. The moment he walks in, there's a round of cheers.

"Dr. Parker! I heard that super-rich Bruce Wayne has come to study at our school—do you know?"

"Of course, I just saw him a moment ago," Peter said mysteriously.

"What does he look like? Is he handsome?"

"Haven't you seen his photos?"

"Photos and the real person aren't the same, you know. I heard he's a real handsome guy. Does he like football? Do you think I could run into him at Saturday's game?"

"You'd better think about whether you can handle Friday's exam." Peter placed his books on the lectern, pushed up his glasses, and said, "Speaking of Bruce Wayne, I have to remind you of one thing. Although he's a billionaire and a handsome guy, he's still here to study. If you really want to get close to him, pick a time when he's not busy—and for heaven's sake, don't entertain any ulterior motives."

"I heard that as soon as he stepped through the school gates, someone tried to shake him down. The security situation in Progress York City these days isn't what it used to be. Even without surveillance, there are telepaths from the Renaissance Alliance, and even time-traveling runners. Reconstructing the incident is too easy—don't count on luck."

Although the students love joking with him, when he speaks, everyone listens attentively. His English carries a slight Queens accent, but honestly, the Queens accent itself isn't that strong. Peter Parker speaks with a very standard modern Queens street dialect—aside from some unclear retroflex sounds, he's easy to understand.

More importantly, his word choice is very modern, and he uses some popular youth abbreviations, plays with current internet memes, and isn't just an old guy forcing himself to imitate. Overall, his speech is very trendy and well-liked by young people.

Moreover, as Shiler listened on, he realized Peter Parker truly has the makings of a great teacher. He really can lecture!

From the moment he walks in, his mouth is like it's rented—never idle for a second. He goes from the latest campus gossip to trending social news. While teaching, he seamlessly weaves in real-world examples from various professional knowledge, and each example is vivid and dramatic. After finishing the professional knowledge, he can still impart some life lessons.

The students also love listening to him, after all, he used to be Spider-Man. Peter Parker's identity was exposed during the Civil War. But after he stopped being Spider-Man, his reputation actually improved. Students love hearing him tell stories about his past crime-fighting. He even has a dedicated podcast teaching people how to prevent pickpocketing and street theft, along with some self-defense knowledge—it's currently quite popular.

After one lecture, Shiler felt his head buzzing. Although he wasn't particularly familiar with the functional overview of urban planning and didn't deliberately try to memorize while listening, the examples were so vivid that he actually remembered them. This professor is spot-on.

After class, when the students had all left, Shiler stepped forward, shook Peter's hand, and sincerely said: "Professor Parker, have you recently considered changing your environment?"

Peter immediately became alert. Last time Shiler said he wanted to change his environment, he was suddenly dumped right in front of the Black Sun.

"It's like this: in my universe, Gotham also has a sun now, and Gotham University's ranking has been rising steadily..."

Peter turned and walked away. Teaching in Gotham is still a bit too stimulating. Although he now counts as teaching in Gotham, after all, he still has many acquaintances there. Truly going to live in a Gotham where he knows no one, unless he finds Spider-Man's big number, he absolutely won't get involved. But just thinking about the content of Gotham Travelogue, he decided that even finding it wouldn't involve him.

Shiler watched his retreating back and sighed. Gotham's reputation is still too hard to reverse. Recently, his talent recruitment plan hasn't been going well. But this matter can only be gradually addressed—it can't be rushed.

After Peter's class ended, he didn't need to go back to his part-time job either. Worried that Shiler might not adapt to being here, he followed him back to the hotel and prepared to stay overnight, so he could accompany Shiler the next morning to the multidimensional visitor observation event.

Back at the hotel, Shiler went to change clothes. When he came out, he heard Peter on the phone. He silently closed the door, not listening to the conversation. A while later, Peter came over and said: "I called Ms. Potts—Tony's situation isn't looking good."

"Of course it's not good." Shiler chuckled, "His only advantage is that he's more ruthless than the righteous Iron Man. For the sake of acting, he's bled both hands raw. The real Tony might not necessarily be ruthless enough to do this."

"Acting?" Peter said, slightly surprised, "You mean he's having his breakdown while acting?"

"Not that his breakdown is happening during acting—he's been acting from start to finish." Shiler shook his head, walked to the living room sofa, and sat down, "Haven't you noticed his mania is a bit abnormal?"

"Indeed it is. Even during the worst period of his falling out with Spider-Man, he never laid a hand on him." Peter frowned as he sat on the sofa, "He's not the type to resort to violence over a disagreement, and the accusations against Thor don't match his usual behavior at all."

"Tell me in detail." Shiler said.

"I can only say this: Tony Stark doesn't like direct confrontation." Peter gave this assessment, "If he has ill will toward someone, he'll secretly investigate, prepare for emergencies, but he won't march straight up to them and start swinging."

"Whether it's aimed at Spider-Man or Thor, this time it's really too reckless. I completely understand his suspicion of Thor, but if he truly suspected him, he wouldn't bring it up now—wouldn't that be like scaring the snake by beating the grass?"

"Just like how we're indeed dissatisfied with Reed causing this, but before we can ensure we can control him, we can only take conciliatory measures. If we really push him too hard, it benefits no one."

"You've hit the nail on the head." Shiler said, "Reed has already gone to Jotunheim—do you think Tony wants to go there?"

"How would he be willing to go to that bird-shit-free place?" Peter shook his head, then paused, surprised, saying, "Is he pretending to be crazy and acting dumb just to avoid trial?!"

"Do you really think the things he did in his original universe will never come to light? Pepper has already gone to investigate."

"But Pepper couldn't possibly be—" Peter started to say, Pepper is because of personal feelings, but then he thought, Pepper really isn't the type easily swayed by emotions. Or perhaps emotions are a factor in her consideration, but not the most important—her evaluation of her own interests and social demands matters more.

She left this Iron Man, and it's not necessarily because they didn't get along—more likely because he's too dangerous. White Tank's past actions in his original universe show he's a cold and evil person. For her own safety and benefit, Pepper gave him up.

Even, because he holds a key position in the Renaissance Alliance, Pepper even gave up job opportunities there. Maybe what she found frightened her, and she doesn't want to have anything to do with this Iron Man at all.

"He wants to use this method to avoid trial..." Peter murmured, "But actually, in the recently concluded Civil War, he did make a contribution. The arrival of the Three Great Empires is a good thing—if it weren't for him, we'd struggle to deal with Darkseid."

"Precisely because of this, there's room to maneuver. Otherwise, as one of the main culprits who caused the Civil War, what right does he have to still be on Earth now, instead of having gone to Jotunheim?"

Peter suddenly understood. If Reed's actions were the spark, then Iron Man and Spider-Man were the direct causes, and moreover, Iron Man was the main point of conflict where the contradiction exploded, and in the Civil War he injured many of the opposing superheroes. There's no reason he shouldn't be held accountable.

From Carter's attitude toward him, we can see that many in the Renaissance Alliance want to settle accounts with him, and quite a few have already looked into his past. They haven't acted against Iron Man yet, primarily because he produced the decisive key device—the Three Great Empires from the pocket universe—which made a major contribution to the current cosmic situation.

Even if accountability is needed, it can't happen now, or else people might easily see it as kicking away the ladder after using it. Not only should it not be done, but he should be given an important position to demonstrate his contribution in this war.

After all, the Civil War was temporary, but the Three Great Empires helping Earth resist Darkseid's elbow strike is long-term. This contribution is indeed substantial—it can't be casually tampered with.

But White Tank isn't stupid either. Pepper has started investigating him, and his pile of messy affairs will eventually be exposed. No matter how great the contribution, over time everyone will forget it, and only remember him as a combo of mad scientist, heartless capitalist, and Civil War instigator, among other identities.

One could say, his identity is worse than Reed's. When the time comes to settle accounts, maybe even Jotunheim won't be available—he'll just prepare to break out of the underworld directly.

If there were no Thor, he'd surely be destroying evidence, starting to quibble, or preparing to stage a big event, weaken all the heroes' health first, and then begin calling himself king and overlord. But unfortunately, Thor is just too strong. This makes those harder tactics unusable, so he can only seek another path.

Feigning mental illness to escape legal sanctions is also a classic tactic. And he can't really be said to be faking it—although the mainstream universe's Iron Man shows no anxiety symptoms, his alcohol problem is severe. Especially this old 616 universe version—it's truly one-three-five dry, two-four-six drinking, not in the process of quitting, but on the road to quitting, yet basically never succeeds. Alcohol dependence is also classified as a mental illness, let alone his narcissistic tendencies and such symptoms.

"He chose his entry point well." Shiler evaluated, "Paranoid delusion can be used to explain many unusual actions. For example, in the Civil War, when he attacked Spider-Man, he could claim it was due to a paranoid delusion episode—he thought Spider-Man was coming to kill him, so he struck first."

"But his past sins in other universes..."

"After all, it didn't happen in this universe. And now that pocket universe is in his hands, gathering evidence is very difficult." Shiler shook his head and said.

"Professor, I noticed you're going along with his story," Peter pointed out, "You were the one who first voiced his idea. But if this isn't his true thought, why are you saying it like this?"

"I don't deny I'm going along with him. But this does have certain advantages." Shiler said, "Thor must realize he brings pressure to people. Others are actually fine, but the closer someone is to him, the more easily they're affected by this immense pressure. If he doesn't improve quickly, it might still lead to tragedy."