Chapter 4999

Obviously, Namor doesn't seem as confident as he appears. If he were truly a management talent, he wouldn't have failed to even become an anti-hero, and his manpower wouldn't be as insufficient as Arthur's; he likely has many management loopholes.

He went down and didn't take long before coming back up, cursing, and then said: "We tried a new type of feed at a fish farm in the deep Atlantic. This feed makes fish grow faster and better, and when I was preparing tonight's seafood, I only asked for the biggest and best, so they brought over the fish from that farm."

"Do you know what's in the feed?"

Namor shook his head and said: "I have so many fish farms, how could I possibly keep track? Many farms also change their feed ingredients for trials. If I must say what's special about that farm, it's that this new feed they found is indeed very effective—fish grow much faster and have a higher meat yield."

"Won't it make them more violent?" Carter asked.

"Come on, they're just fish," Namor said. "What fish could possibly resist us?"

Carter couldn't help but slap his forehead—no wonder this sea tribe didn't notice. To humans, being chased by a two- or three-meter-long fish is still quite impressive, but to the sea tribe, it's nothing at all; their ability is to control water, and water is the very foundation of fish survival—no fish could bare its teeth before them.

"I'm having someone send that feed over," Namor said. "You'd better investigate it properly—I suspect that bastard Arthur is using unfair competitive tactics, deliberately poisoning my fish farm to ruin my reputation..."

"We'll investigate," Carter said. "Also, we'll take tonight's seafood for testing. If we really find that special compound, you'd better give up that fish farm."

"The key is, is this really harmful to humans?" Namor asked. "If there are no side effects, being able to raise fish that are big and good isn't such a bad thing, is it?"

"Someone got a bad stomach from eating mutant fish," Iceman said, raising his hand, "but only that one person—others are fine, and physical exams showed no abnormalities."

"Not getting a bad stomach doesn't necessarily mean nothing's wrong," Shiler said. "Under normal circumstances, would the fish from that farm be supplied to New York?"

Namor blinked, then said: "No, that farm is closer to Europe, so the fish are usually shipped to Europe, and then..."

"In other words, someone secretly changed your feed? After raising these fish, they deliberately shipped them to New York—not just to restaurant kitchen aquariums, but even tossed a few into coastal waters. This is clearly an attempt to draw the attention of the Revival Alliance."

"Damn it," Namor gritted his teeth, "they want to kill me!"

"Just think—even superheroes who go night fishing almost got attacked by fish. If ordinary people were out at sea and encountered these violent fish, what would happen? And how would the Revival Alliance react?"

When Shiler encountered that violent perch on the yacht earlier, he had some doubts. Although Gotham produces all kinds of giant, violent animals, that would only make sense in normal Gotham. Earth Zero's Gotham isn't that intense to begin with, and after merging, it underwent pollution control—such fish shouldn't exist.

Now it seems those fish aren't native at all—they were likely deliberately dumped there.

If someone were secretly selling these fish to restaurant kitchens for profit, dumping them into the sea would just be causing trouble—purely harmful to others and useless to oneself. The goal is probably to provoke unrest.

"It's definitely Arthur who did it!" Namor roared. "He just wants to ruin my reputation and make the Revival Alliance come after me! I'm going to find him right now..."

"Wait a moment," Shiler said. "Although Arthur has sufficient motive and ability to do this, there's one biggest problem: after the incident, how would he clear himself?"

"You all trust him so much," Namor said. "He used to be a superhero and still is the leader of Atlantis—the Revival Alliance would naturally lean toward believing him..."

"My point is, how would he prove his fish are fine?" Shiler looked at Namor and said. "To some extent, you two share honor and disgrace together—you're both sea tribes living in Earth's oceans, and humans won't distinguish between you."

"If your fish have problems—whether from poisoning or ocean pollution—people won't bother to tell which sea tribe's fish brand is at fault. They're more likely to just abandon all sea tribe-farmed fish and switch back to human-farmed ones. By then, the Atlantis brand won't sell either."

Namor's lips moved, but he also clearly understood that, theoretically, this is indeed the case.

Just like when people hear "genetically modified," they don't bother to distinguish which kind—they just avoid buying it altogether.

Once these big, good fish farmed by the sea tribe are thought to have been grown using harmful compounds, most people won't just avoid the Seven Seas brand—they'll also avoid the Atlantis brand, after all, you're the same kind of people in the same sea, farming the same way—who knows if all of them have problems? People will tend to boycott them all together.

That's why Arthur using this method to create a scandal for the Seven Seas brand is also self-harming—he can't completely clear himself, and as Namor's biggest rival, if the Seven Seas brand has trouble, he'll definitely be a suspect, and a major one at that, unable to fully extricate himself in this regard.

"Also, there's the compound issue," Shiler said. "A compound that makes fish grow fast and well, without causing major mutations, and that isn't overly harmful to humans when eaten, requires very professional formulation. Do you think Arthur has that capability?"

"Maybe he could bribe a chemist," Namor still said, not fully believing. "There are many skilled chemists among humans—they could do it. And besides him, who else could even access a deep-sea fish farm? That place is basically inaccessible to humans..."

"Ordinary people can't go, but superhumans aren't necessarily unable to either," Shiler said.

"Do you have a suspect?" Namor figured out.

"I think you should check how the fish got from the farm to the U. S. East Coast—if it was transported by the sea tribe, there should be traces, right?"

Namor showed a thoughtful expression and said: "The ocean isn't as simple as you humans think it is. In the sea tribe's view, there are paths in the sea—you might call them ocean currents or something else—we use the flow of seawater to travel, saving time and effort."

"From the fish farm to the U. S. East Coast, there's no ready-made sea route. If it were the sea tribe, they'd likely prefer to open a new path so they could move the fish school quickly, and opening such a route would leave magical traces in the water... I'm going to check that now."

After saying that, Namor left with his subordinates, and those seafood items were also taken by Carter for testing.

This little interlude didn't affect the banquet's atmosphere, but it did bring up some special discussion.

Sif sat in her seat holding a wine cup, looking at Shiler and asking: "Who do you suspect?"

Shiler smiled and said nothing, then lifted his wine cup and took a sip.

Then they went to the campfire to tell ghost stories, the young people shouting and yelling, making a ruckus until midnight. Though they said no drinking, it couldn't stop the Flash and Quicksilver—two people sneaking to the bar several times, mixing juice with alcohol, alcohol with juice, back and forth, until no one knew whose hand held what. In the end, even Shark Dog Jeff was drinking until he bubbled, and almost everyone was unconscious.

The Revival Alliance agents carried them back one by one. The god king and queen also drank a little, but it had no effect, and they also helped send them back to their rooms.

After returning to his own hotel room, Thor looked at Sif and said: "Not changing clothes?"

"There's still an event tonight," Sif sighed. "Your brother in this universe is especially unreliable—for your reputation's sake, I'm afraid I have to do something."

Thor reached out, and Mjolnir flew into his hand. He handed the God of Thunder's hammer to Sif, then said: "Take this—it'll help him remember to respect you."

"I'm not going to deal with him," Sif said, though she still took the hammer and flew out the window.

Sif received a string of addresses from Shiler—it was Jane Foster's home. Sif wasn't entirely clear on her own image in this universe or whether it's the same, but she indeed knows everything a Sif should know, so there should be no problem.

To avoid scaring people, Sif first put away her weapons, stored her sword and Mjolnir, tidied her hair to look more approachable, and only then walked to the front door.

It was already very late, the Foster family had already gone to bed, Sif walked around the house once, planning to find Jane Foster's bedroom, quietly wake her up, and chat without disturbing anyone.

Unfortunately, plans don't always match changes—just as she found Jane Foster's bedroom, she saw a man walk out of the house. This person was clearly no stranger, more likely the male head of the household.

He answered a phone call, seemingly talking about work. Sif listened for a long time but couldn't make out what he was saying, yet she noticed someone was sneaking around, climbing over the courtyard wall, and entering the house through the back door that man had opened.

Sif rushed in after them—only to find those people had already stormed into Jane Foster's bedroom, holding something in their hands, about to stab it into her chest.

Sif acted quickly—she kicked that person flying. The scream they made woke Foster on the bed. Foster stared in shock at everything, not understanding what had happened.

Although that person had been kicked flying by Sif, the object in their hand fell onto Foster's chest. The next second after she sat up, she let out a painful groan, then clutched her head and collapsed.

Sif rushed forward to embrace her, saw the crystal emitting unknown radiation on Foster's chest, instinctively reached to take it away—but was blasted flying by a beam of light.

Sif turned her head and saw Loki's silhouette stepping out of the shadows.

The black-haired youth turned his staff and said: "What a coincidence—my respected brother's wife, you've finally decided to abandon my foolish brother and elope with his ex-girlfriend?"