America Conference

"I think S.H.I.E.L.D. should be responsible for this incident." A councilman shouted loudly, trying to make S.H.I.E.L.D. bear the losses from the incident.

"If not for S.H.I.E.L.D., the losses this time would have been even greater!" Nick Fury was no pushover either. He knew full well how serious the impact of this incident was. If S.H.I.E.L.D. truly had to take responsibility, even selling the entire organization would not be enough to cover the damages.

So, Nick Fury began his well-practiced blame-shifting routine again.

"In this war, S.H.I.E.L.D. played an indispensable role. Without S.H.I.E.L.D. agents killing the aliens, the Battle of New York could never have ended so quickly!"

Nick Fury presented his evidence. The total number of aliens killed by Hawkeye and Black Widow actually exceeded that of the American military.

Though the two of them had indeed killed quite a few, a combined total of over a thousand would already have been impressive. One could only imagine how useless the American military had been in this war, to be outdone by just those two!

"Hmph, if it weren’t for the armor they wore, they could never have outperformed the military!"

The military representative was an old acquaintance—General Ross. He glared at Nick Fury with an unhappy expression and said, "But when the war broke out, your S.H.I.E.L.D. people kept hiding far away and contributed absolutely nothing!"

Wasn’t that the truth? S.H.I.E.L.D. had been slacking off during the war. The American military was not blind, so naturally they had seen it. Their later retreat had merely been learned on the spot, hadn’t it?

"My S.H.I.E.L.D. people are all agents. Do you expect them to stand on the front lines with pistols?"

Nick Fury looked at General Ross with contempt. Wars were supposed to be fought by soldiers—did they expect a group of agents with little handguns to take the field instead?

"…"

After Nick Fury retorted, General Ross was left speechless.

There was no helping it. What Nick Fury said made a lot of sense.

"This should be your military’s responsibility!"

Nick Fury spoke righteously, silently giving himself a pat on the back. I really am clever. This way, the military can share a lot of the pressure for me.

"Judging from this war, the alien army was not particularly strong. Given the strength of the American military, it should have been fully capable of wiping them all out."

Nick Fury looked at General Ross critically and said, "Yet on the battlefield, all we saw was the American military retreating first, without any regard for the civilians."

Although not a single person present truly cared about ordinary people, that did not stop them from using those people as a banner to wave around.

"The American military’s retreat was the main reason tens of thousands of ordinary people died!"

Without comparison, there was no harm. When faced with danger, China’s military always stood in front of ordinary people. But the American military? It was already fortunate enough that they had not dragged civilians over to use as human shields. How could they possibly sacrifice their precious lives to save those ordinary people?

"Bullshit! If your S.H.I.E.L.D. people hadn’t retreated first, why would the American military have retreated?"

General Ross flew into a rage, slammed the table, and rose to his feet.

"We have plenty of evidence proving that the American military withdrew first."

Nick Fury confronted General Ross head-on. Under normal circumstances, he would not have dared to challenge General Ross like this. But now S.H.I.E.L.D.’s survival was at stake, and he had no choice but to drag more people into the mess. Only then could S.H.I.E.L.D. get a chance to catch its breath.

"Hmph!" General Ross snorted and sat back down. He truly was worried that Nick Fury might produce evidence.

"More importantly, China wants an explanation regarding the nuclear missile launch this time. What we should be discussing now is how to give them a reason they can accept!" Seeing that the topic had already been diverted, Nick Fury continued with another matter to shift everyone’s attention.

"Why should we? They sent the nuclear missile to our military base and destroyed it. We haven’t even gone looking for trouble with China yet, so why are they demanding an explanation from us?"

An American military general seated beside General Ross spoke with a deeply dissatisfied expression, looking furious.

Yet his words left everyone else speechless, and no one paid him any attention.

Did he think this was still the old Earth, where America had the final say?

Did he think China was still the same country that others could knead and manipulate at will?

China’s military strength was now unquestionably the strongest on Earth. If he still thought he could control them like before, then there was truly something wrong with his brain.

Thus, no one paid any attention to the man. Even General Ross, seated beside him, shifted away with a look of disgust.

How had someone like this gotten into this meeting? Who had let him in?

"Our military never gave the order to launch a nuclear missile."

General Ross frowned deeply as he spoke.

"The military did not order a nuclear launch? Then tell me, why was a nuclear missile launched from a military district?"

Nick Fury remained calm. Speaking of the person who launched the nuclear missile, he was extremely displeased. If not for that missile, they would not have provoked China, nor would they have ended up in such a passive position in public opinion.

Most importantly, was the person who launched the missile an idiot? So much alien technology had fallen to the ground—just picking it up would have made them rich overnight. Only a lunatic would destroy it all!

"That is exactly what we want to say."

General Ross looked at Nick Fury and said, "According to reports from the military district, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, Ivan Vanko, went there. Then, without any authorization whatsoever, the military district’s missile was launched. Therefore, we have ample reason to suspect that your S.H.I.E.L.D. agent was the one who launched the nuclear missile."

Motherfucker! That lunatic Ivan Vanko again!

Fine, take revenge on Tony if you want, but why run to a military district to launch a nuclear missile?

Were you trying to blow Tony Stark to death with a nuclear missile?

At that moment, Nick Fury felt as sick as if he had eaten shit.

"Tsk, it’s that guy again."

At that moment, Tony Stark, who had been slacking off during the meeting, could not help but sneer. He looked at Nick Fury with amusement and said, "So this is the Avenger you chose. First, he blew up your S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. Now, he has directly bombed an American military district. Hmm, both with nuclear weapons. I have to say, you really know how to pick people."

At that moment, Nick Fury truly wanted to curse. Twice now, S.H.I.E.L.D. had had to clean up after this bastard twice!

The first time had been the contamination caused by the nuclear reactor, which had nearly wiped out the small country of Lithuania. And now, things were even better—he had directly fired a tactical nuclear missile at New York!

Good lord, even terrorists were not as terrifying as you!