Chapter 5031

Everyone's gazes landed on Bruce's face. Although Bruce wasn't as youthful as Spider-Man, he was still very young; the problem was there were plenty of young Batmen, and they didn't know specifically which one this was, nor why he was stepping up for Spider-Man.

"Who are you?" Iron Man, who had the most contact with the multiverse and the neighboring world, asked, "I mean, which Batman are you?"

"That's not very important." Bruce strolled over to the seat and stood before the chair, "But I do know that you're the Iron Man who researched the Extremis virus yet only knows how to run pyramid schemes, whose girlfriend was stolen away by someone else and he could do nothing about it, who instigated a Civil War yet dares to act but not take responsibility, and who can only feign madness and play the fool to escape judgment."

Iron Man's expression darkened instantly. He was just about to say something when Bruce looked at Pepper: "And of course there's you, ma'am. Although I know your hobby is raising a son, abandoning this baby who's already learned to crawl to go find a new one who can only lie in a cradle to care for is still a bit like asking for trouble."

Immediately after, he looked at Luthor: "You too. If you were even slightly smarter, you wouldn't not know that humanity hasn't yet evolved a brain capable of meddling in marital domestic disputes. Or do you think using this innovative argument will prove you're the smartest person in the world?"

Thor ran through all the sorrows of his life and still couldn't hold it in. Considering just how many sorrows his life held, one could only say his laugh trigger was very low, and Bruce's words just happened to step right on it.

But he hadn't finished a single syllable of laughter before Bruce looked at him: "You don't laugh either. The relationship between you and your brother has made me start to be thankful that my parents died early, so they didn't give me a brother or sister."

Thomas couldn't hold it in either, glaring at Bruce — but it was a sneaky glare, because he was afraid of getting scolded too. No one could withstand Bruce at full firepower; when he got vicious he even cursed himself.

Thor opened his mouth, condensed thousands of years of wisdom to think, and still couldn't figure out how to respond to that line, finally only mumbling: "He's not blood-related..."

"Pepper was kidnapped right after leaving Wayne Enterprises. How do you explain that?" Iron Man tried to pull the topic back on track, "You dare say this has nothing to do with you guys? Then why, after she was kidnapped, did you immediately start poaching Stark Industries' corner?"

"Stark Industries' corner still needs me to poach?" Bruce looked at Iron Man, saying with feigned disbelief, "You're saying the group's two actual controllers went crazy one after another, one dealt a blow to his own family company, and I'm an employee — I can't even run? If I were a Stark Industries employee, the only reason I could think of to stay would be to see just how many toilets this shocking, rotten, vulgar soap opera can clog."

"You think you're so smart?!" The pale-faced Luthor stared at Bruce with his only remaining eye, "You can't even figure out Wayne Enterprises, your business is a complete mess..."

"Usually when I meet someone like you, I'd make them open their eyes to the world, but you're exempt. Because your remaining eyesight probably can't see too clearly either. Good thing the Nick Fury in your universe is white; otherwise, me saying you and Nick Fury are cut from the same cloth would involve racial discrimination."

The agent leaned against the doorframe with arms crossed, clicking his tongue. He hadn't expected there's always someone stronger; how hasn't Bruce's mouth poisoned himself to death?

No wonder Pride has become peaceful recently; his speech even sounds human now. Turns out he's already passed on the venomous-tongue genes.

But thinking carefully, Pride and Bruce's speaking styles aren't quite the same. Pride is usually heart-piercing, while Bruce is purely ad hominem; the former still counts as addressing the matter at hand, the latter is just pure flaming.

Never mind what the logic of this matter is, never mind who's right or wrong here; he grabs your weak point and gives it a fierce spray, and even whether this weak point has anything to do with the matter isn't important.

But this move is indeed very effective. Everyone present is a respectable person; no matter how evil Luthor is, how ruthless Iron Man is, how insidious Nick Fury is, these people all move in high society circles — even if they're cursing up a storm inside, on the surface they still have to pretend to be addressing the matter at hand.

Moreover, generally speaking, if you can't produce a set of self-consistent logic to reason with someone, can't put on an air of having everything under control and righteously refute the other person, then it's very easy to fall into the lower hand in a quarrel. In a debate, whoever loses their cool first and starts ad hominem attacks loses.

These people are all very skilled at debate; they're already used to this debate mode. Even if they clearly know they're wrong, they still have to find a way to quibble, and can't just open their mouths and start cursing — cursing is useless too.

It's like if Iron Man stood in court, he couldn't exonerate himself by insulting the Avengers or the judge; he must find a suitable logic to achieve his desired goal.

So when a flamer suddenly mixes into this pile of debaters, everyone is a bit at a loss. They don't know who he is, don't know what he's here for, don't know why he's cursing them. Although they can tell he's cursing quite satisfyingly, that's what's most infuriating.

We're here suppressing our emotions, racking our brains to slander the other party, our brains practically smoking from overwork; you walk in and just vent your emotions, first spraying yourself satisfied — then what are we?

There's no one in this world who doesn't want to vent their emotions unbridled; everyone wants to only say what they want to say, without having to curry favor or suppress themselves. But the problem is, sometimes in order to seize benefits, you can only suppress your emotions first.

Among those present, is there a single one who hasn't suppressed their anger?

Iron Man has been holding in fire since before the Civil War even started because of his dispute with Pepper, and now he's nearly lost both Pepper and Stark Industries at once. Pepper was nearly driven to death by Iron Man's childish restructuring plan, then got kidnapped by Luthor, and her career has reached a cliff's edge. Luthor stirred up trouble but failed, not only capsizing in the gutter but also losing an eye, becoming a one-eyed dragon from now on. And Nick, this veteran one-eyed dragon, at such a critical juncture of receiving multiverse guests, not only lost the investment but also had to come over and pull them apart.

They can still argue here purely because everyone has their own interests to fight for; no matter how huge their tempers, they have to restrain them first. As a result, this Bruce Wayne who ran out from who knows where instead spews a bellyful of fire at them — this makes people even more furious: I ask you whether you lost or gained, and you say it felt good?

After spraying a full circle, Bruce let out a long breath, then said: "You guys stop arguing too. I think how about this — let's just merge the three into one. LuthorCorp, Wayne Enterprises, Stark Industries unite to become a super-company and just monopolize Earth directly."

"No!"

"No!"

"Absolutely not!"

"Are you crazy?" Iron Man couldn't help but say, "Why should Stark Industries merge with anyone?!"

"Of course because on your own, Stark Industries is about to go bankrupt." Bruce sneered, "Haven't you figured it out yet? You're not cut out for business, Tony Stark. Stop torturing yourself. The greatest contribution you can make to Earth's economic situation is to not meddle in anything related to the economy!"

Iron Man hadn't said anything yet, but Pepper glanced over frequently. Clearly, she felt Bruce's words still had a certain degree of validity.

Previously, everyone around Iron Man, including Pepper, was actually just humoring him; no one told him the truth. This led to him always thinking he was viable. Bruce's words, though a bit too blunt, were indeed precise enough.

"Of course, Ms. Potts, that's not to say you're very skilled either." Bruce started a new round of finger-pointing, "Stark put his most core secrets and the authority to run the group entirely in your hands, and you struggled for half your life yet still couldn't turn Stark Industries into Potts Industries. Don't tell me it's because you love Stark too much, wanted to marry him, so you took his surname in advance."

Pepper clenched her fists tight; she couldn't tolerate anyone insulting her career. But in the end she still turned her head away and didn't speak. She had far more self-awareness than Iron Man; she excelled at execution, not decision-making, so it was hard for her to become the supreme leader of a large conglomerate — at most middle-to-upper management. Otherwise she wouldn't have been unable to use actual actions to reverse his thinking after Tony proposed the restructuring plan.

If she could have manipulated the shareholders, this plan would never have been implemented. But the fact is she couldn't, she indeed couldn't do it, so she could only use breaking up and remarrying to threaten Tony into changing his mind.

"And you." Bruce looked at Luthor again, "Choosing to invest in the Avengers was a stinking move; choosing to invest in the Avengers on one hand while kidnapping Pepper on the other is utterly foul; and the investment didn't succeed, the kidnapping didn't succeed either. If I were your assistant, I'd suggest you change careers and go run a public toilet."

"With your planning and execution ability, LuthorCorp landing in your hands is just its bad luck. Considering you're certainly still just as desperately eager as before to prove your 'far-sighted vision,' throwing LuthorCorp out is the best choice."

"And, you still haven't figured out one thing." Bruce's tone gradually grew more serious, "The merged universe's stage is larger than other universes. This means those business paths you think have already been widened to their limit still have the possibility to continue expanding. Since you don't have the ability to develop business on one hand while suppressing competitors on the other, why not unite and make the business bigger?"

"And even if you don't unite, after you defeat and acquire your competitors, you fundamentally have no way to guarantee the parent company won't be diluted — it can't be done under these circumstances. By then internal struggles will become increasingly fierce; the best outcome is just maintaining a behemoth form for a period before splitting again. At that time, how big a piece you can get is uncertain."

"This won't do." Nick spoke up, "We can't let a super-company like this appear on Earth. The consequences of extreme monopoly are terrifying; we can't allow this kind of thing."

"What if this super-company is the Avengers?" Bruce asked again, "Even if they want to merge, there must be an external force to integrate them together. This matter can only be done by the Avengers."

"The superheroes won't agree." Nick seemed to be expressing opposition, but actually it was more like he was calling the shot, "There are many people inside the Avengers who firmly oppose monopoly. They believe the Avengers' current scale is already somewhat over the limit, and think it should be split into several different functional organizations. This group of people won't sit idly by on the merger matter."

"Then let's change to a better phrasing — 'unity.' How about that?"