All Kinds of Schemes, the Challenge Begins

Tony had always been generous with money, but this time, he was a little embarrassed. Spreading his hands, he said, "Director Hill, you know Stark Industries’ stock price got cut in half again. Uh, why did I say ‘again’?"

Hill asked, "That shouldn’t mean much to you, should it?"

"And then the military, along with all sorts of other parties, demanded that Stark Industries compensate Manhattan for its losses!" Tony continued. "Under these circumstances, Stark Industries has to retain sufficient liquid capital, so Pepper ordered all investments and sponsorships over a million suspended!"

"In other words, you’re broke too?"

Hill sighed. These days, even the rich had no surplus grain!

"Why don’t you ask that richest bastard in all of America for money?" Tony asked. "Not only does he not have to pay compensation, he also got the Manhattan reconstruction and cleanup projects, making a fortune. And that guy bought alien invasion insurance ahead of time. Several insurance companies are about to go bankrupt just from paying him out. I’m starting to wonder whether he directed this alien invasion himself. Otherwise, why is everyone else losing money while he’s the only one making it?"

"You know the reason. He is, after all, a Vampire!" Hill said. "Tony, help us think of something. If this keeps up, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s morale will fall apart. Someone already sent me an anonymous letter today cursing me for canceling the cupcakes."

Tony was stunned. "Someone dared curse you, the Director? You’re the director of an intelligence agency!"

"They’re agents too—agents who are ready to go on strike over a few cupcakes!" Hill sighed. "Sometimes, I really want to just abandon this mess. But Tony, the world needs S.H.I.E.L.D. Humanity needs S.H.I.E.L.D.!"

Tony fell silent. He took out his phone and said, "Maybe you could try commercializing Super Heroes. Don’t look at me like that. Yes, I mean the Watchmen Company model. They make a ton of money—their market value exceeded ten billion today!" After a pause, Tony added, "Actually, Stark Industries has been selling Iron Man merchandise all along. Before the Battle of Manhattan, sales were pretty good."

Hill frowned. "Commercializing Super Heroes? That doesn’t seem right. We’re an official intelligence agency. It wouldn’t be appropriate for us to be too high-profile."

"What’s wrong with that? Super Heroes can’t possibly keep a low profile anyway!" Tony said. "Commercializing Super Heroes can not only bring S.H.I.E.L.D. a great deal of wealth, it can also improve S.H.I.E.L.D.’s image. Your reputation is pretty terrible right now!"

"Isn’t that because of that ‘Trish Talk’?" Hill was filled with resentment. After thinking for a moment, she asked, "Does the Avengers Team have enough commercial value?"

"Of course!" Tony projected a screen and pointed at a photo on it. "This Avenger is insanely popular on Twitter!"

Looking at the screen full of revealing photos, Hill complained, "Tony, you follow Natasha too? Don’t forget, you already have a fiancée!"

Natasha Romanoff was the hottest beauty on Twitter. Though she had never shown her full face, all kinds of tantalizing photos had still left people drooling. Not to mention that she often posted pictures with Super Heroes. Many people on Twitter were discussing who exactly she was!

"I’m gathering intelligence!" Tony coughed and defended himself. "Besides, a whole bunch of your S.H.I.E.L.D. people follow her, okay? Hawkeye and Coulson both follow her. That bastard Hawkeye was even shouting about tight outfits!"

Hill was speechless. Those people really were embarrassing. She had even heard that someone had used S.H.I.E.L.D.’s dedicated network to watch Victoria’s Secret. Once they got through this crisis, she would definitely straighten out S.H.I.E.L.D.’s culture! "Back to the point!" Tony said. "Natasha is so popular that with a little promotion, you can attract the attention of the entire nation. Then, if you introduce the Avengers Team, they’ll definitely become an instant hit! In the entertainment industry, as long as you’re famous, you can make money! It’s a pity the Captain’s rights belong to the Department of the Army. Otherwise, he alone could earn S.H.I.E.L.D. billions of dollars a year!"

"The Captain is worth that much?" Hill’s eyes lit up, but she immediately shook her head regretfully. The Department of the Army would never give up such a cash cow! "Tony, S.H.I.E.L.D. can’t appear directly." After considering it, Hill said, "We can only authorize a company to commercialize the Super Heroes for us!"

"Stark Industries can work with you, but you need to invest as well. Authorization fees alone won’t get you much money," Tony said.

Hill nodded. "Fine. Once I’ve sought the opinions of Minister Pierce and the Avengers Team, I’ll come talk to you officially."

"Okay!"

After they finished discussing it, Tony turned and left. When he reached the entrance to the Triskelion, he looked back, his eyes full of coldness. S.H.I.E.L.D.—or rather, Hydra S.H.I.E.L.D.—you won’t be jumping around for many more days!

On his private plane, Tony looked at Carter’s holographic projection and asked, "Aunt Carter, has Whitehall confessed?"

"Not yet. That guy is troublesome!" Carter shook her head and asked, "What did you gain from going to S.H.I.E.L.D. today?"

"A lot. If I’m not mistaken, Nick Fury is Hydra’s leader." Tony said coldly, "That means he’s the one who killed my parents!"

"Why are you so certain?" Carter asked in astonishment. "Steve and I both believe Fury isn’t Hydra!"

"That’s because you don’t know how much money he embezzled!" Tony sneered. After hearing him out, Carter was dumbfounded. At this point, no one would believe that Nick Fury wasn’t Hydra!

"Steve and I will interrogate him again," Carter said. "Tony, don’t act rashly. We not only need to avenge Howard, we also need to uproot Hydra completely!"

"I know!" Tony nodded. Then he explained his plan to commercialize Super Heroes. "I proposed commercializing Super Heroes for two reasons. First, it will leave S.H.I.E.L.D. even more short of money. This project can indeed make money, but it requires substantial early investment. It will take at least half a year to recoup the costs. The other reason is to find opportunities to approach the Super Heroes and turn them into our people!"

"That could work." Carter reminded him, "However, there may be Hydra among the Super Heroes too!"

"I’ll be careful to identify them!" Tony said.

Carter asked, "Tony, why do you want S.H.I.E.L.D. to be even more short of money? Do you have a plan?"

"A lack of money will cause chaos. The more chaotic S.H.I.E.L.D. becomes, the better it is for us!" Tony explained. "Also, it can help us identify Hydra. S.H.I.E.L.D. may be short of money, but Hydra might not be!"

Carter praised, "Good idea. Best of all, it won’t alert the enemy!"

"Of course it’s a good idea. I, Tony Stark, came up with it!" Tony said arrogantly.

"You look exactly like Howard did when he was young!" Carter laughed. Then she thought of something and asked, "By the way, Tony, are you close with Sin Buster?"

"We know each other a little. Why?" Tony asked.

"Bert told me that Sin Buster’s Penance Stare can see memories. I want to use him to scare Whitehall. If that doesn’t work, we can just burn him directly. At the very least, we’ll learn who Hydra’s leader is!" Carter said.

"That could work!" Tony’s eyes lit up. "Leave it to me. I’ll ask Sin Buster for help!"

"Good!" Carter nodded and went offline. Tony thought for a moment, then called Wang Bert. The moment the call connected, he complained, "Bert, can’t you control Ivan? That lunatic asks Little Pepper out to dinner every day. Believe me, I’ll blow him up with a missile! And what’s with you sending durians to my house every day? Let me tell you, the Starks don’t have a tradition of kneeling on durians!"

Wang Bert asked, "Then what do you kneel on? Keyboards or washboards?"

"We… we don’t kneel!" Tony snapped.

Wang Bert burst into laughter. "Kneel on a durian once, and I’ll give you one kilogram of Vibranium. How about it?"

"Not interested!" Tony refused without hesitation. How could Tony Stark possibly bend his knees and kneel on a durian for a mere kilogram of Vibranium? Ten kilograms would be more like it! Wang Bert asked, "Whatever. What do you need from me? Don’t tell me it’s really about durians?"

"I heard you want to build a military Space Station and put armor around Earth?" Tony asked.

Wang Bert nodded. "Yes. If Loki wasn’t lying, Thanos will come sooner or later. We have to prepare!"

"Count me in. I’ll build it with you!" Tony said.

Wang Bert glanced at Tony and asked, "Do you have money?"

"Me, Tony Stark, without money? I’ll settle that pile of crap within a month!" Tony said angrily. "When the time comes, however much you put in, I’ll put in the same!"

"Then you’d better be prepared. The military Space Station concerns Earth’s security!" Wang Bert said. "I plan to spend over a hundred billion building it!"

Tony sucked in a breath. "Over a hundred billion? Are you planning to build it with Vibranium?"

"Yes. There will be at least several hundred kilograms of Vibranium on the Space Station. Otherwise, it won’t be able to withstand alien attacks at all." Contrary to Tony’s expectations, Wang Bert nodded directly. "It won’t just be a Space Station. It will also be a space fortress. A hundred billion is only an estimate. Over the next ten years, I’ll keep pouring money into it!"

"Several hundred kilograms of Vibranium?" Even Tony was stunned by Wang Bert’s extravagance. "Do you have that much Vibranium? You can’t buy this stuff even if you have money, can you?"

Wang Bert sneered. "In a few days, forget several hundred kilograms—I’ll have several thousand kilograms!"

"Looks like you gained quite a bit in Wakanda!" Tony gritted his teeth. "I’ll find a way to handle the funding, but ownership must be split evenly between us. This isn’t just for my sake, but yours as well. Only then will humanity feel at ease!"

"Talk when you can actually produce the money!" Wang Bert directly shut off the holographic projection.

Tony gave him the middle finger viciously. That guy was getting more and more arrogant. But then again, who told him to be rich?

"Over a hundred billion in funding!" Tony had a massive headache. Stark Industries’ total market value was only a few hundred billion dollars! Looks like I really need to figure out a way to make money.

In Wakanda, above the waterfall, a large number of citizens had gathered. Today, Erik, the son of N’Jobu, would challenge T’Challa, the son of King T’Chaka!

The Wakandans had different thoughts about this challenge, but they agreed on one thing: the challenge conformed to tradition and the rules.

In other words, no matter who won, they would accept it! Wang Bert sat atop a large rock, quietly reading a book. At that moment, a young girl walked over and said to him unhappily, "Aren’t you supposed to be a great hero? Why are you coming to take Wakanda’s things?"

The girl was none other than Princess Shuri! Wang Bert turned to glance at Shuri and said indifferently, "I’m not taking anything. I’m simply standing up for my disciple!"

Shuri said unhappily, "After Erik wins, you’ll definitely make him open Wakanda up. How is that any different from taking our things?"

"Even if Wakanda opens up, we’ll be buying Vibranium, not taking Vibranium!" Wang Bert said. "Little girl, if you were about to die, and only one thing could save you, but no one else had it—all of it was in someone else’s hands, and that person refused to give it to you—what would you do?" Wang Bert added, "Oh, and that person has a huge amount of it, enough to fill a mountain, while you only need a tiny bit!"

Shuri knew Wang Bert was talking about Vibranium. "It’s not as exaggerated as you’re making it sound, is it?"

"It is exactly that exaggerated. Without Vibranium, Earth can’t stop Thanos. When that happens, half of all people will be slaughtered!" Wang Bert said. "Little girl, perhaps you see me as an invader, but you should know that if I truly wanted to invade Wakanda, there probably wouldn’t be any living people left in Wakanda by now! Then your mountain of Vibranium would all belong to me alone!"

Shuri was startled, then shouted defiantly, "Wakanda isn’t that weak!"

Wang Bert merely smiled without answering. Shuri snorted, but her hatred for Wang Bert lessened considerably. She asked, "Is that Thanos really as terrifying as you say?"

"He has slaughtered at least several hundred planets and is still perfectly fine. Do you think he’s terrifying or not?" Wang Bert said. "Besides Thanos, Earth has many other enemies, such as Mephisto!"

"Was that really Mephisto? The American government has been claiming they were aliens too!" Shuri asked curiously. "Can you tell me about Mephisto? I’m very curious about Hell!"

"Sure. I happen to be reading a book about Hell right now!" Wang Bert smiled. "Hell has many layers, and each layer has a Demon King. Mephisto is one of them. Besides him, there are Demon Kings like Lucifer, Hades, and more…"

Shuri listened with great interest. Seeing this from afar, T’Chaka frowned deeply. What was this nonsense? With a great battle about to begin, his daughter was chatting with the enemy? T’Chaka hurriedly sent Okoye to bring Shuri back, then said to T’Challa, "Don’t be nervous. Believe in yourself!"

T’Challa took a deep breath and said, "Father, I will defeat him!"

Before long, the duel began. T’Challa first drank the potion that removed the effects of the Heart-Shaped Herb, then stood bare-chested in the water opposite Erik! T’Challa held a sword in one hand and a shield in the other as he shouted at Erik, "I know you’re strong, but I won’t lose to you!"

"You have no idea how strong I am!" Erik pointed at the countless raised scar marks across his body and said, "Every time I kill someone, I make a mark on my body. Do you know how many people I’ve killed so far?"

Looking at the marks on Erik’s body, T’Challa sucked in a breath. He had killed at least several hundred people, hadn’t he?

"If that’s true, then I absolutely can’t lose to you. Wakanda doesn’t need a murderous Demon King!" T’Challa said.

"Childish!" Erik sneered disdainfully. He couldn’t be bothered to waste any more words. Taking up his stance, he beckoned and said, "T’Challa, come!"