Chapter 540: A Ghost Named

The weather has gradually turned cold again. The mornings and evenings no longer hold the heatwaves that previously made breathing difficult; instead, they have become cool. The humidity characteristic of East Coast cities comes ashore with the morning sea breeze, and as it blows through the windows, it makes the steam rising from the coffee appear somewhat thin.

Shiler picked up his coffee cup, took a sip, and turned to look at the scenery outside the window. On the brightly colored walls of Hell's Kitchen, a new piece of graffiti had been put up last night. Looking at the Mexican-style undead motif, one could tell it was definitely painted by Gonzalez, the taco vendor.

That's right, Shiler had moved back into that clinic in Hell's Kitchen, but in a sense, he had brought this upon himself.

Perhaps some still remember that Shiler's initial goal was merely to find some work for the Avengers, to keep them from always staring at the weak and helpless Hydra, so as to preserve the last spark of the poor Hydra.

The first major twist occurred when Nick Fury reported Shiler directly on the spot.

Perhaps some still remember that when DC Shiler came online, he destroyed several of Nick Fury's secret bases. Since Nick's secretly established bases were damaged, he had to pay for the repairs out of his own pocket with no way to get reimbursed. This one-eyed man felt his heart bleeding, and reporting Shiler could be said to be a long-premeditated plan.

Later, Shiler being taken to the CIA and running into Moon Knight was just a coincidence.

But afterward, Shiler began to constantly open side quests. First, out of curiosity about the secret of the Egyptian pantheon's resurrection, he made a deal with Khonshu. After drawing out Ammit, he let Ammit kill him to replicate Marc's experience in the Moon Knight series, as that was the only way to reach the Underworld.

After hijacking a ship in the Underworld, the twists began again. To retaliate against Marvel Shiler for finding him so much work in the Green Lantern industry, DC Shiler simply opened the security permissions of the Mind Palace, allowing Stark and Steve to enter the depths of the Mind Palace.

Then, DC Shiler persuaded the Id to put on a show for Stark and Steve, fabricating a tragic childhood origin story for himself.

Who would have thought that Stark and Steve, based on this, would believe Shiler had fallen into an obsession with resurrection? They rushed to find Shiler, who was exploring the secrets of resurrection, and the process of Shiler talking on the phone with Death looked so much like a mental breakdown that it deepened their misunderstanding.

The third accident appeared in Death's stubborn attitude.

For some reason, Death adamantly refused to allow Shiler to go to the Realm of Death. Due to his competitive nature, Shiler teamed up with Strange and Loki to come up with hundreds of sales proposals, vowing not to stop until he had won over Death, this major client.

However, the scales exist within the dream world. If Shiler wanted to pitch, he had to enter a dream. To outsiders, this looked like he had fallen into lethargy due to mental problems, making Stark and Steve even more worried.

At this time, DC Shiler's revenge wasn't over. He had long ago deliberately left the Philby list and the Red Flag Medal he found in the Metropolis manor in the cabinet of the nursing home Shiler now owned. Besides causing some trouble for Marvel Shiler, it could also blow the roof off, which would solve the identity issue of the Hydra heads he had left behind during his substitute shift.

Stark and Steve were guided by DC Shiler to find these clues in the nursing home, and they concocted another strange story, though it was later refuted by Seeing Natasha.

But the fourth turning point was quite unexpected. At a time when superhero culture had just developed and gained significant popularity, Congress couldn't wait to harvest this wave of heat and make superheroes work for them, resulting in the Superhero Registration Act.

At that time, Marvel Shiler already knew he had been tricked. If he didn't confirm his KGB identity, Stark and Steve would only endlessly guess those melodramatic stories. If they were a bit loose-lipped and let the members of the Avengers know, Shiler would really be unable to explain himself.

To regain the final right of interpretation for his backstory, Shiler had to confirm this identity first, and only then would there be room for explanation. The Superhero Registration Act gave him this opportunity.

On the way to Capitol Hill, Shiler had already thought through this series of plans, the ultimate goal of which was to make the various countries on Earth more united.

In fact, quite some time had passed since the concept of Stark's Solar System Construction Plan was proposed. According to Stark's productivity, if no one held him back, the probes should have already touched every corner of the solar system by now.

But the problem was, there were too many people holding him back.

The United States definitely wanted to seize the initiative in this plan and restore their hegemony, but the Far Eastern countries would certainly not agree. After their disputes, the US discovered that rather than working hard to build this plan and fight for more territory, it was better to frame others. As long as the other side didn't have enough territory, they could still maintain their advantage.

Simply put, this was already an era of "competing to be the worst." If someone wanted to do well, everyone would rush up to hold them back.

In the Solar System Construction Plan, this point was particularly evident. Stark's productivity had actually far exceeded the needs of the initial plan, and the reason this plan couldn't move forward was that the political resistance was simply too great.

Stark's goal wasn't for him to walk into the universe alone; if he wanted to, he could even break through the single universe directly. But his fundamental goal was to allow human civilization to step into the universe and enter an interstellar society, so even though this plan moved at a snail's pace, he was still pushing it forward.

In this regard, Stark showed particular patience, but just because he had patience didn't mean Shiler did.

In most cases, Shiler was relatively patient, but since the masters on Capitol Hill had already provided such a good opportunity to make trouble, and Shiler's own background had already been paved to this point, the subsequent play was very easy to perform.

Shiler actually wanted to become a pole himself, and then let Earth return to that peak era of bipolar confrontation, forcing human unity through ideological confrontation.

To achieve this, he first needed to state his position. This was why Shiler adopted an extremely radical far-left attitude during the Congressional meeting. He had to make those congressmen, who had been comfortable for too long, understand that he was a fanatic obsessed with ideology who would do anything.

Next, he needed to make everyone understand he had the ability. Thus, he made his information and special abilities public.

In reality, Shiler didn't have the brainwashing ability as strong as Professor X; he only copied mind-reading, and in most cases, he could only perceive emotions.

But on the way to Capitol Hill, he took a nap in the car and went to the dream world to have afternoon tea with Professor X.

Previously, Shiler had lent the Underworld ship to Professor X as a school bus, which made him very grateful. Professor X indicated that this didn't count as lying; what he said was completely true, it just depended on how one interpreted it.

With the strongest endorsement, the rest of the Avengers didn't know the specific strength of Shiler's abilities. In their view, it was more that Shiler was unwilling to use his abilities, rather than being unable to.

Through mutual verification from various parties, leaders around the world believed that Shiler was an immortal who had been active since the peak of the Soviet Union and possessed a faith firmer than anyone else's.

And recently, he felt disappointed with the situation on Earth, so he wanted to pull that red behemoth back.

No one wanted him to do this, and there was only one solution: self-inspection immediately.

Plug all the oil leaks, quickly replace missing parts, change tires when they need changing, and step on the gas when it's time to step on the gas.

Let us unite to prove to the giant that has passed away that the lighthouse of human civilization is still bright enough. We can join hands and step into the universe, lighting up star after star in the deep space you once gazed at countless times but never personally visited.

You can see it, and we are gratified, but the best viewing spot is your grave.

Actually, the smart people in the leadership layer all saw Shiler's goal, but they didn't dare to gamble. Fortunately, the vast majority of people in the leadership layer of countries now had experienced that Cold War era.

The curtain of idealism had not yet dissipated. They knew that in order to liberate all mankind, this group of people could spare no cost. They could even give up their own lives, let alone launch a crazy plan to brainwash all of humanity?

Since that was the case, they should move quickly. The faster they moved and the bigger the actions, the larger the share they could occupy in the inevitable forward plan. So, overnight, all countries became incomparably active.

Of course, there was one more problem they had to consider, and that was that although there was no way to deal with Shiler, they still needed to restrict him.

Professor X was very strong, but he also had weaknesses that could be targeted, namely the school for mutants, and an old rival, Magneto. Mutants were the knot in his heart he couldn't let go of, so he couldn't be truly invincible.

Although Congress chose to compromise, throwing the Superhero Registration Act aside and starting to wipe lightbulbs, fix pipes, and relight the lighthouse, at the same time, they also had to make a second plan, ready to restrict the crazy Shiler at any time.

To know what Shiler's weaknesses were, they naturally had to send people to observe him. The FBI and the CIA were reunited after a long time, starting to tail him 24 hours a day.

Originally, Shiler lived in his own super-luxurious nursing home, and that super-luxurious nursing home was located in a small town near New York with the best environment and the most rich people. Besides the nursing home, the buildings were all luxury villas.

Congress gave enough funding, so these agents naturally lived as luxuriously as possible.

They were happy, but one person was unhappy, and that was Shiler.

He had gone through so much trouble to get this nursing home, and as a result, these agents came over to monitor him, and they even wanted to have equally luxurious hardware conditions? This was too much!

Based on the European and American diplomatic philosophy of "I'm doing well, you can't do well, and if you do well, no one should do well," Shiler resolutely gave up that super-luxurious nursing home and moved back to his small clinic in Hell's Kitchen.

This way, although his living conditions became worse, the living conditions of the agents tailing him became very miserable.

Because the location of that clinic was actually the best house in the surrounding three blocks, while the rest of the houses were as rotten as could be, with extremely poor living environments.

Only then did Shiler finally feel better, because in his view, he was completely a victim in this series of events. Now, these agents were actually not catching the real culprits but were tailing him, the victim? It was simply unreasonable!

Putting aside the tailing by the low-level agents, the higher-ups were also discussing what Shiler's weaknesses were and how to restrict Shiler so he would consider things a bit more before going crazy.

In the Vice President's office, the old man with graying temples rubbed his temples. He looked much more haggard than usual, and even the white hair on his head had increased.

"Star-Treading"

Apparently, the plan to attack Shiler's weaknesses had almost no progress. He had hit walls frequently in the last few days, and his blood pressure had reached its peak.

The secretary walked over and handed him a secure phone. After he picked it up, he said to the other side:

"How is the investigation into his emotional status? If he really is a Soviet, he should have had a marriage history, right?"

"... Can't find it? Could it be that he is also high-level classified personnel? What does the Russian Federal Security Service say?"

"No such person? It seems his security clearance is not generally high. Could it be that he is also part of some resurrection plan from the former Soviet Union?"

The Vice President sighed, covered his head, and then said:

"Alright, let's not talk about the past. What about recently? Has he had any frequent contact with the opposite sex?"

"Hmm, when he was teaching at the university, didn't he have any close female students?"

The person on the other side seemed to be in a difficult position. The Vice President waved his hand and said, "Just say what you have to say."

"He has almost no interaction with the opposite sex. If you have to say he has frequent contact with the opposite sex, there is indeed one, but it's not a student, it's an agent."

"Agent? Which agency's agent? An agent is even better, it even saves the trouble of persuasion and training."

"Uh, it's an agent from S. H. I. E. L. D."

"Who?"

"Seeing Natasha Romanoff, she just finished an internal investigation regarding her suspicion of being a KGB spy..."

"Clatter!"

"Mr. Vice President! Mr. Vice President! What's wrong with you?... Your Excellency! Wake up! Quick! Call a doctor! Mr. Vice President is having a heart attack!

!" ===== CHAPTER 541 =====