Cosmic Demon Totem Common Prosperity Project (Part 1)

Time rewound to several weeks earlier.

In an office at Arkham Asylum, Schiller and Strange sat together, drinking coffee.

"I don’t believe Kingpin and The Hand fell out without your Shade behind it." Strange took a sip of coffee and looked at Schiller.

"That was a plan Nick and I had, but it didn’t succeed. A dark horse appeared halfway through, and the Life Foundation ruined our plan."

"What were you originally planning to do?"

Schiller sighed and said regretfully, "Originally, we wanted to use Kingpin and The Hand to drive up the price of Immortality Factor serum on the black market."

"I previously gave Kingpin a Batch of Goods of Immortality Factor serum and had him sell it to The Hand."

"Kingpin was a crocodile that could never be fed enough. Of course, he would want to sell that Batch of Goods at a high price, so he would help us hype it up, throwing out gimmicks like scarce ingredients and exclusive supply."

"Nick and I deduced that The Hand would definitely buy it. First, they weren’t short on money. Second, they were extremely interested in dragon bones with similar effects and had even searched all over the world for them."

"The serum I gave them would show obvious effects in the early stages. After trying it, they should have bought the serum Kingpin had."

"At that point, I would release another Batch of Goods to Kingpin, except this time I would charge cost price. Naturally, since the ingredients really were scarce, the cost might be a little expensive. But Kingpin would still take it, because he was confident he could sell it to The Hand for an even higher price."

"The Hand should have bought the second Batch of Goods as well. Even if the price had risen, it would still have been within their acceptable range. And at the time, Kingpin was indeed the only one with channels to acquire large quantities of serum. They wouldn’t fall out with him; they would only buy from him again."

"And the third time would be the same?" Strange asked.

"No. Using that trick a third time might have crossed The Hand’s psychological bottom line. An excessively high price could have given them ideas about killing Kingpin and taking the goods, while also giving Kingpin too much liquid capital and fueling his ambitions. That wasn’t what we wanted."

"At that point, we would bring some other forces into the market. The official supply was too limited, so people who couldn’t get any and weren’t short on money would naturally turn to the black market."

"By the third round, word that Kingpin had a supply source should already have spread. Plenty of others would come to him seeking Immortality Factor serum, and because Kingpin wanted to make more money, he would definitely raise the price again."

"After that Batch of Goods was sold, we would stop supplying Kingpin. Once the supply was cut off, the few Immortality Factor serums on the black market would become highly prized. Real therapeutic effects combined with a shortage of supply would naturally drive the price up."

"Once the price reached a certain point, organizations with supply sources wouldn’t want it to fall, because if it kept climbing, the goods in their hands would become increasingly valuable. It would be like money falling from the sky while they sat at home."

"They would join us and begin the same kind of hype, using the same methods: small quantities, limited distribution, and higher prices with every sale."

"And then the price would be driven up, right?"

"Exactly. This was an important part of Nick’s autumn funding plan. He was counting on selling goods once the price rose to recover the funds."

"So the Life Foundation cut you off?"

"Not entirely. Just as we were about to begin the third round, they suddenly brought out a cheaper Immortality Factor serum. Their supply was abundant, and they sold without restrictions, so naturally they crashed the market price."

"But there was one benefit: The Hand believed Kingpin had cheated them with overpriced goods, so they fell out with him."

"Nick had been worried that their cooperation was too close and might affect the regional situation. After they split, they instead achieved a certain balance and reduced S.H.I.E.L.D.’s workload. You could only say that every gain came with a loss."

"That’s just how you see it. From what I know of Nick Fury, he definitely wanted to kill that Drake from the Life Foundation right now," Strange said with certainty.

"So where did their Immortality Factor serum actually come from?" Strange asked in confusion. "Wasn’t this stuff extracted from vampires? Where did they get vampires? Did they catch them themselves?"

"That proved there were still smart people in this world. They also realized that the principle behind Immortality Factor serum was fundamentally impossible to falsify, and whether it truly extended one’s lifespan wouldn’t be known until decades later."

"So, just like us, they could make a serum with a bit of healing effect and call it Immortality Factor serum."

"Next, we should claim that their ingredients don’t meet regulations, right? After all, we previously said that only ingredients collected by S.H.I.E.L.D. were legitimate and legal. The Life Foundation didn’t have bat ingredients, so naturally they couldn’t produce real Immortality Factor serum."

"No. Fighting them head-on is the most troublesome approach. We say theirs is fake, they say it’s real—or even if it is fake, it’s cheap and works just as well, so it will always capture part of the market. In that case, why not simply bring them in as partners?"

"They had abundant supply, and our publicity was effective. We could directly outsource production to them. They would handle the supply, and we would handle the sales. Everyone would make money."

"But wasn’t what they had fake?"

"Wasn’t what we had fake too?"

"That made sense."

The two clinked their coffee cups and shared a knowing smile.

That afternoon, Schiller carried a cup of coffee into Stark’s most frequently used laboratory. The moment he entered, he saw blood all over the workbench. Stark stood before it, grimacing as he clutched his chest.

Schiller stood in the doorway and stared at Stark. Stark looked up at him as well, and the two stared at each other wide-eyed. Stark asked, "Do you know which profession is least welcome in my lab?"

"Considering you asked Strange the same question last time, I’d guess Doctor?"

"You know you’re a Doctor, don’t you?! Get over here and help me!!"

"But I’m a psychiatrist." Schiller walked over, slowly set down his coffee, and said, "Everyone dies eventually. Try to take it in stride."

Stark rolled his eyes, put down the towel he had been using to wipe away blood, and reached out to smear the blood on the bench around haphazardly.

Schiller pulled over a chair and sat beside the workbench. He took a stack of newspapers from his coat, shook one open, and asked, "Why are you messing with that thing in your chest again? Have you finally decided to replace it?"

"Not yet, but I came up with a new method."

Stark treated the fresh wound with alcohol. He sucked in a sharp breath through clenched teeth and said, "I thought about it and decided that the current way of replacing the reactor is a little too primitive."

"What did you mean?"

"Whenever I want to upgrade the reactor in my chest, I have to undergo surgery, remove it from my chest, and then install a new one. The process is extremely troublesome and somewhat dangerous."

"So what were you planning to do?"

"I’m planning to make a slot, then research portable reactors. The slot would be fixed inside my body, and I could pull the reactor out of my chest whenever I wanted and replace it with a new one."

"I discussed the idea with Dr. Ethan. He said he had never seen anyone in the world who enjoyed courting death more than I did."

"His assessment was fair."

"Th-this isn’t just about replacing reactors more quickly." Stark gathered up the blood-stained cotton balls and towels from the table and threw them away as he explained.

"While modifying the armor, I discovered a major problem. Originally, I only had one type of armor, and its capabilities were roughly the same: enhancing my personal combat ability."

"But you previously created a set of magical armor. Later, we developed the concept of swarm robots together. After actual combat, we discovered that we needed a logistical mechanical support system. In the future, we might also need enchanted armor. With so many different kinds of armor, I needed more reactor models to power them."

"Although a standard Arc Reactor could provide different levels of output, I wanted it to have more functions, especially in terms of adapting to magic."

"And once I developed different versions of the reactor, I couldn’t exactly have surgery every day, could I? If I had to spend more than half my time lying on an operating table every day, I wouldn’t be able to do anything else."

Schiller put down the newspaper and glanced at Stark’s chest. "So you’re planning to install a zipper in yourself?"

"Like that joke: no matter what the Doctor leaves inside you, you can unzip yourself and take it out."

"Oh, zipper, lightbulb—those are the only words you know." Stark spoke sarcastically.

"So how far had your experiment gotten? Why did you call me here?"

"I wanted you to help me test whether magical abilities could be used on an Arc Reactor. Or rather, I wanted you to help me make a magical version of an Arc Reactor."

"You should go to Strange for that."

"He said he couldn’t do it and told me to come find you."

Schiller put the newspaper on the table, stood up, and said to Stark, "First, you should understand my skill level. The most advanced work I’ve ever done in your lab was screwing in a lightbulb."

"Second, there was no such thing as a magical Arc Reactor. You said that the Arc Reactor blueprints your father left behind used a new element. That had nothing to do with magic, and magic didn’t work that way either."

"So it really couldn’t be done?"

Schiller walked to the workbench and stared at Stark’s chest for a moment. Then he said, "A magical version of an Arc Reactor might not work, but what you actually needed was an energy source installed in your chest, right?"

"Although I knew absolutely nothing about the structure of an Arc Reactor, if you just needed an energy source, that should be possible. After all, anything was possible with magic."

Schiller snapped his fingers. The newspaper and coffee on the workbench flew over, and he said, "Give us access to an advanced laboratory. Strange and I will study it, and we’ll give you an answer in a week."

Two hundred chapters already! Thank you, everyone!