Chapter 5018

"But this can't really be called an accident." Greedy sighed. "I told him not to sell it to civilians first. On one hand, we don't need that money; on the other, if something went wrong, it could be traced back. But he wouldn't listen."

"So the fish ended up being sold to restaurants in Advance York City, and then, by chance, a mutant ate a bad one and happened to run into the Thunderbolt Fire gang having a group meal, triggering the vigilance of the Revival Alliance?"

Greedy nodded: "This isn't really an accident either. First, faced with such obviously over-vitalized fish, Gotham restaurant owners wouldn't touch it, so the fish basically gathered in a few New York restaurants."

"And because this fish's destructive power is too strong, it shattered many restaurant kitchen water tanks, even injuring people, causing many restaurants and bars to shut down, leaving only one bar open on the entire bar street, which is why Peter and the mutants ended up colliding."

"And precisely because the fish is so lively and strong, whoever went to investigate afterward—whether it was Thunderbolt Fire and Aisha, or Natasha—saw the abnormal fish at first glance and naturally thought the fish was the problem, which led to the mutant being hospitalized."

"This further led to, when they discovered some mysterious compound in the fish's body, they automatically assumed the compound was harmful, even without detailed testing, and pinned the blame on the sea clan."

"And since Tony refuses to cooperate with the sea clan, the sea clan had no idea what the truth was, so they thought they were being framed, turned to investigate what was wrong with the farm, found someone had swapped the feed, and the case was treated as poisoning."

"By the time things had progressed this far, there was hardly any room for recovery. Let alone increasing the commercial value of the Doomsday Virus—if they knew the compound in this fish's body, which caused so many problems, was the Doomsday Virus, Tony should already have been cuffed by now."

"So why exactly is he unwilling to cooperate with the sea clan?"

Greedy shook his head: "You don't understand—this Iron Man's mind has a Cold War-style adversarial mindset; he sees everyone as an enemy, never wants mutual gain, believes others winning means he loses, so he'd rather use underhanded tactics than let more people sit at the table and share his dish."

The agent thought carefully: if following Greedy's original plan, it would be a win-win for the sea clan, the Revival Alliance, interuniversal visitors, Iron Man, and Stark Industries.

The sea clan would have a method to raise larger, better seafood, open sales channels, and earn more money; the Revival Alliance would get better seafood to entertain guests; interuniversal visitors could purchase improved Doomsday Virus to boost food production; Iron Man could redeem himself; and Stark Industries' transformation could succeed.

But Iron Man's actions clearly show he only wants himself to win, with everyone else losing.

It's not hard to see his plan is actually: I'll first disrupt the Revival Alliance's activities, then frame the sea clan, letting them fight each other, then step forward and declare, 'You're all big idiots—this is actually my genius invention,' and show off in front of the interuniversal visitors.

Also, since he didn't intend to harm anyone, White Tank just wanted to embarrass the Revival Alliance and use them as a stepping stone to display his idea, which is why he did it—this plan seems rather childish and caused no significant damage.

As Greedy said, White Tank's style is pure zero-sum game thinking: I must make someone lose for me to win; the concept of mutual gain isn't beyond him—he just can't accept it.

In his view, the sea clan can't be allowed at the table, because if they contributed to raising better seafood, it wouldn't highlight the power of the Doomsday Virus. The Revival Alliance also can't contribute too much—if the interuniversal reception excels in other aspects, it wouldn't show the fish's quality, so naturally his intelligence couldn't shine. Even the interuniversal guests can't be too well-off, because if the reception isn't his arrangement and they're overly satisfied, it would make others seem more capable than him.

You could even say he's not doing this intentionally—it's just how his mind works: 'This thing is mine to handle, so I must take all the credit; no one can outshine me.' 'This thing isn't mine to handle, so it can't be done; no one can be more capable than me.'

Such people often cause greater destruction than mere fools or villains, because they usually have talent, can reach high positions, but their surroundings must be a vacuum—otherwise, the whole circle will fall into endless internal strife because of them.

And precisely because he's strong, can produce good things, and offer substantial benefits, the internal strife around him intensifies—power struggles, mutual suspicion, constant internal drain.

"If you want to help him, there should be a way, right?" the agent asked. "After all, you could make him have no choice."

"This time it might work, but what about after? I can't live here." Greedy said, "This time I can press his head and make him get this done, but if a similar situation arises later, he'll still make the same choice—and might even cause greater destruction."

The agent knew Greedy's last sentence was the key: if we elevate White Tank this time, next time he'll surely cause an even bigger disaster, making peace impossible.

This time he's been set back—even if he doesn't change, he'll likely never reach the height he should have, so the scale of any future disaster will be much smaller.

"And I've sincerely advised him," Greedy said, "I laid out all the stakes for him, including what each of my steps gains him and what each of his steps costs him. But it's still the same: mountains and rivers can change, but nature is hard to alter."

"He might be dealing with the Revival Alliance out of fear of being purged," the agent said.

Greedy shook his head again: "After causing trouble, wanting to avoid purging—the best way isn't to eliminate others, but to make oneself more important. Do I not have a say in this?"

The agent deeply agreed. Greedy stirs up big trouble daily—let alone purging, the central universe is desperately protecting him, with some people already spouting nonsense with eyes wide open, simply because Greedy is important enough.

All his plans can make Earth and the universe better—though the process may be rocky, at least the outcome is good, indeed very good, benefiting everyone and fulfilling their dreams, so it's no surprise he has supporters.

But White Tank's approach is to suppress opponents, rendering them powerless to investigate. This tactic may have worked before, given White Tank's talent—suppressing others is too easy for him.

But he happened to run into Thor this time—can't match him in strength, and the conspiracy has no foothold, so of course he capsized.

If following Greedy's plan—pursuing livestock and agriculture—then even if Thor wanted to settle accounts, all of Earth's government and ordinary people would unite to protect him, because he's important enough.

Pamela bustled about all day, having swindled so much budget from the Green of All Things, she could only influence plants—at most producing some gigantic flora—and even that is Brainiac's beloved treasure; Brainiac would gladly support her, not even bothering with her private research on aggressive plants.

The Doomsday Virus White Tank produced—whether for humans, animals, or plants—works on anything with a physical form. Holding it, even Thor would have to temporarily avoid its edge.

Not to mention anything else: mutants absolutely want this—on one hand, they have many defective mutant abilities; if they could fix the flaws, even just weaken them, they'd be enough to revere him as an honored guest. On the other hand, Professor X's legs still need treatment—just for this, Magneto would firmly stand by his side.

In fact, even having come this far, there's still room. White Tank hasn't realized that at the press conference, Professor X wanted to say something but was stopped by Magneto.

In fact, in that setting, they should have spoken up for the Revival Alliance, but it's very likely Professor X saw something about the Doomsday Virus in White Tank's mind via brainwaves and passed it to Magneto, who recognized its value and formed the idea of benefiting from both sides, not wanting to offend White Tank too severely, thus remaining silent all along.

Even, the agent suspects that Revival Alliance high-ups like Nick are also fully aware of the Doomsday Virus's value, so they haven't pushed things to extremes—otherwise, they wouldn't have avoided separating the two, but instead thought about reconciling them.

The agent stood up, walked to the door, pressed his ear to it, listened—outside had quieted slightly; it seemed the argument's climax had passed.

Logically, one side should have slammed the door and left, but this office is Greedy's, and they appearing here clearly means they came to find Greedy for something, so naturally neither wants to leave first—thus after arguing, they just froze in place.

The agent pushed the door open and looked out. Iron Man wore his armor but no mask, face icy, sitting on the sofa. Pepper sat in Greedy's original office chair, normally wiping tears with a tissue.

The agent turned back, seeing Greedy had no intention of coming out. He could only step forward, extend his hand to Pepper, and say: "I'm the agent sent to protect you, ma'am. Nick Fury sent me."

"Ha, another one." Iron Man's mocking voice came, "After Happy dies, you can just marry another bodyguard."

The agent didn't bother arguing, took another stack of paper from beside him, handed it to Pepper, then said: "My mission is to protect you from any violent acts. Normally, that means close protection, but for you it might be inconvenient. I'll give you an emergency call device—just call me if any trouble comes up."

"You think you can stop me?" Iron Man sneered again, almost saying he planned to use violence.

Earlier, their argument was too heated—Iron Man didn't see the agent shoved into the restroom; after the agent came out, he kept his back turned the whole time, so Iron Man never knew what he looked like.

Upon hearing this, the agent turned directly around—Iron Man's next mocking remark got stuck in his throat.

"Cough cough cough cough cough cough!"

Obviously, this face is very intimidating. That's exactly what Nick Fury had in mind—send whoever, Iron Man might dare to strike, but Shiler wouldn't be the same.

"So what are you guys trying to do?" Iron Man stared at Shiler coming out of the restroom, "Two Shilers? Using us to fight a proxy war?"

"You misunderstood." Shiler shook his head, saying, Iron Man had thought he'd make excuses, but Shiler, while picking glass shards from his hair, said, "Proxy wars require one side controlling each side—I might not even be on yours."

"What do you mean!" Iron Man stood up again, "Can't you even tell who's who between us two..."

"Doctor Shiler." Pepper put away her sad expression, stood up, looked at Shiler, and said, "Happy's condition isn't good—I hope you can help him. You must have a way, right?"

Obviously, this is why she came here to find Greedy. But before Greedy could speak, Iron Man chimed in again: "Fixing Happy's trouble is simple—just one shot of Doomsday Virus guarantees recovery. You know where I keep all my stuff—just go get it. Won't you, Husband's life not worth you lowering your dignity to do petty thief tricks? Lady Hogan?"

The agent couldn't help but glance sideways at him. White Tank still knows how to argue, but hearing this, it sounds... a bit... not like someone without personal feelings.

"When you take our past feelings and use them as a weapon—especially using our former mutual trust to attack me—I only feel you're pitiful, Anthony." Pepper trembled all over, but her tone was cold and deep.

"You think I can easily get the Doomsday Virus, not because right now only I know where your precious virus is stored—aside from me, you won't let anyone know where the original is kept, not even dare to arrange security for it?"

The agent couldn't help but look at Pepper again—this woman really knows how to argue, truly heart-wrenching. He turned his head again, seeing Iron Man's shattered expression—really, only Pepper knows that, huh?

The agent gave Greedy a look—if they keep attacking each other like this, the thing they're trying to protect will be shattered, leaving nothing intact.