Chapter 5011

"Loki?" Shiler called out, a hint of confusion in his voice.

"You've got the wrong person." The female reporter smiled at him, shaking the press badge hanging around her neck.

Shiler sighed: "The correct way to deny it is to admit you're Loki, then say you're from another universe. If you don't want to be Loki, don't make yourself look so much like him."

The other party's movements paused, eyes lowering as she said: "At this point, exposing me serves no purpose."

"Who says?" Shiler spoke as if chatting casually, "You appearing here surely isn't just to watch the show. I have every reason to suspect you're here to cause trouble..."

"I'm not." Loki glared at Shiler, "I just... just came to watch, to see how that idiot eats crow."

"Loki, the reason you can never beat Thor isn't entirely because Odin plays favorites. You're too obsessed with drama."

"If I can watch drama like this every day, what does it matter if I can beat Thor or not?" Loki deliberately mimicked a theatrical tone, "Making that high-and-mighty Asgardian heir solemnly apologize to these little ants. Such a spectacle, I simply cannot miss."

"How do you know he's here to apologize?"

"Our brotherhood was exposed long ago. I caused this much trouble; others would only say he failed to discipline me. Even if he killed me, he'd still have to apologize for me." Loki twirled a lock of his black hair around a finger.

"Finding a safe place to hide and watch the news would be the same. The risk of showing up in person far exceeds what you can bear. Unless you're still expecting something." Shiler seemed to see right through his thoughts, saying, "Whether good or bad, Thor rarely disappoints you, doesn't he?"

Loki stared at him fixedly, but Shiler said no more. He asked Eddie for a notebook and pen, and started writing. But he wasn't writing anything meaningful, just doodling a few random strokes.

The moment the press conference began, the shutter sounds didn't stop. The superheroes all entered in suits and leather shoes. They no longer walked in as teams like the Avengers and Justice League used to, but each wearing their own work badges, heading to their respective department positions. The parties involved all sat together.

When Iron Man walked in, the shutter sounds became even more frequent and louder. He was still like before, waving at the cameras like a big star, acting nothing like a mental patient.

Shiler noticed Thor's gaze was locked on Iron Man the entire time. The other superheroes' expressions were also slightly unnatural. Same old story — he ran fast, wasn't held accountable, but that doesn't mean the anger in everyone's hearts can dissipate with time.

When he didn't use the mental illness excuse to leave the Revival Alliance, everyone's mood was fine, they could interact with him normally. Him leaving like that only made people more annoyed. Some wouldn't even grace him with a glance.

Yet Iron Man sat down as if nothing happened. His gaze kept wandering among the reporters. Shiler sat further back, head lowered writing things, so Iron Man seemingly hadn't noticed him.

"Today, the Revival Alliance and everyone are gathered here mainly to explain and clarify many things that happened recently. Thank you all for taking time from your busy schedules to attend today's press conference. Next, I will briefly recount the course of events..."

Nick sat before the microphone reading from a script. He briefly summarized recent events, basically in chronological order — from the discovery of the fish problem up to now, including the publicly known news of the Asgardian brothers turning on each other.

"Investigation shows the mastermind behind the seafood poisoning in Forward York City, the targeted sabotage, was originally the Second Prince of Asgard, Loki. He used mind control..."

Nick went through Loki's crime process again — mind control plus poisoning — then played a video. When the video came out, Thor's gaze shifted to Shiler. Because from the angle, it was Shiler who filmed it.

It was that day when the tsunami was raised; Thor flew up to stop the two arguing sea clans. Because Shiler stood on the ground the whole time, looking up, the tsunami wall appeared exceptionally majestic, and Thor's figure very heroic.

Of course, only the parties involved would know who filmed it. Others seeing this angle would think it was a bystander photographing a house fire first. But this video was indeed very useful, because it showed Thor's attitude in solving the problem.

That tsunami wall might just look scary; if it really fell it would at most be like a rainstorm. But if those two's argument was allowed to escalate, what came wouldn't just be a tsunami wall, but a true full-scale tsunami. Thor stopping their argument truly protected Forward York City.

"What a big hero." Loki exclaimed in admiration.

Shiler glanced at her, but didn't respond. Loki acted like she really needed someone to agree with her, but at this occasion she couldn't find anyone besides Shiler to discuss this topic with. Shiler didn't engage, so she fell silent too.

"Next, we invite the parties involved to speak." Nick finally finished reading, looking first at the two sea clans beside him.

"We offer our deepest apologies." Namor also picked up his script, "Although Seven Seas Corporation was purely a victim in this accident, I still need to apologize for my own recklessness..."

Arthur spoke in much the same tone. Though the seafood problem wasn't his fault, and he didn't raise the tsunami, who let him appear in the most critical video.

But this wasn't entirely bad for the two of them either. This was a globally watched press conference. Having their two company brands appear at such a conference counted as a powerful wave of advertising. This was also the main reason they were willing to come. Making money, no shame in it.

Finally, it was Thor's turn to speak.

He lowered his head to glance at the script, expressionless as he began to read.

"Thank you all for taking time to attend the press conference. Regarding previous matters, I have a few points to respond to. First, I must apologize for my brother Loki's actions on Earth. He targeted Seven Seas Corporation's fish farms... poisoning... aiming to... interfere with my rule over the Nine Realms... sow discord between me and the Revival Alliance..."

He read this passage haltingly, basically pausing at every word. At the end he even spaced out for several tens of seconds. Nick nudged him with an elbow before he snapped back.

"Loki is the God of Lies and Deceit," Thor continued reading, "I've been fooled by him many times before. But this time, I saw through..."

Thor fell silent again. Causing everyone to turn and look at him. Thor squeezed his eyes shut, clenched his fist, and said: "I saw through his scheme. And for the sake of protecting Earth's safety... I..."

Thor went completely silent. He wiped his face with his hand, took a deep breath, subconsciously looked up ahead. When he saw those green eyes, he froze.

Thor "scraped" his chair back and stood up abruptly, startling everyone. The shutter sounds grew even louder, practically a death knell. He just stared blankly at that spot, but there was no one there anymore.

Thor closed his eyes, head slightly bowed. He stood in place, took a deep breath, stood silently for a few seconds, then directly picked up the microphone and said: "Sorry, I just lied."

"The true mastermind behind this series of events isn't Loki." Thor frowned, a pained look between his brows, "He's been locked up by me the whole time, impossible for him to have time to come out and commit crimes. Even if he came out he wouldn't do it like this. We grew up together, I know him well..."

The first to change expression wasn't the Revival Alliance people, but Iron Man sitting in his seat. Thor was still speaking quietly there, "He indeed did many wrong things, turned the entire Nine Realms upside down, but this really wasn't done by him. I can't slander him like this..."

"Me killing him wasn't because I wanted to uphold justice, I just lost control. I... because of some misunderstandings, I thought he wanted to kill me. That's why I acted. But that wasn't him either, just a clone of his. He's definitely still alive."

"Not discovering the seafood poisoning, I indeed bear responsibility. I will investigate to the bottom and find the culprit. As for the Revival Alliance, it was just because the investigation time was too short. They couldn't find out. In short, everything is my mistake..."

Thor's breathing became somewhat rapid: "I didn't mean it, I wanted to do well. I know you may never be able to believe in a truly existing god. I'll give you an explanation."

"Bang!" Someone slammed the table. Iron Man stood up. He stared dead at Thor, as if wanting to say something but unable to, making his chest heave with anger.

A message from Brainiac popped up on Shiler's phone: "Iron Man gathered evidence, preparing to expose the Revival Alliance."

"Was it him."

"Yes. The mysterious compound is the Extremis virus."

"He's not afraid of being discovered."

"Dosage is very low, harm minimal, almost no effect on human body. The key to this round isn't the Extremis virus."

Shiler naturally knew this too. Iron Man's move this time wasn't really about poisoning Forward York's citizens to death through fish. Nor was it like before, making money by having people renew Extremis subscriptions. He knew this trick definitely wouldn't work anymore, and you can't answer chemistry on a test paper every time.

But Extremis really is a good thing. Unlike other Iron Men skilled in mechanical engineering, White Can's biotech and chemistry are also quite formidable. Extremis isn't just useful on humans, it works on fish too.

Or rather, for most animals, Extremis makes them more beautiful. Just that on deep-sea fish, bigger naturally means beautiful. And that so-called aggression is actually just giving them stronger vitality. After being caught by humans, they naturally have more room to struggle.

The purpose of poisoning the fish wasn't to poison people through fish, but to have the fish sabotage the reception plan, make the Revival Alliance lose face before multiverse guests.

But this is actually a surface plan. The purpose is to tie down the Revival Alliance's attention, make them think someone wants to poison citizens, so they spend huge effort hunting the culprit. Originally short-handed, if they dispatch many to investigate this, other areas will have oversights.

Iron Man's real killing move is Jane Foster. He sent people to awaken Foster's memories, wanting her to step forward and accuse Thor, but didn't expect Sif and Loki to beat him to it. Memories were awakened, but Foster completely refused to step forward and accuse. Meanwhile, Sif also alerted the Revival Alliance, Foster was protected, Iron Man had no way to get to her.

And at this time, Loki had an incident. Due to a series of misunderstandings, he was killed by Thor in the Revival Alliance hall. Iron Man just happened to have left a backdoor in the Revival Alliance's surveillance, so this incident was exposed, achieving the same effect as having Foster come out to accuse.