Gong Xi Fa Cai

"We stopped it quickly enough. We only lost around twenty percent, but food is in short supply worldwide now. Twenty percent of the grain is already a terrifying loss."

Old Tony spoke just as Wang Bert was about to say something. At that moment, Friday reported to Old Tony, "Mr. Stark, all the food in the granaries has been contaminated."

"What do you mean, contaminated?"

Old Tony shouted in alarm. Losing twenty percent was manageable, but if all the food had been compromised, Earth would descend into massive chaos and might even head straight into World War III.

Friday replied, "Drone Armor scans detected a strange bacterium in the food. In a short time, this bacterium contaminates the grain, making it toxic and inedible."

Wang Bert said, "So the fire was only a cover. Their real goal was to contaminate the food with bacteria?"

"Damn it."

Old Tony cursed furiously. He walked over to the granary, activated the Time Stone, and prepared to reverse the food to its undamaged state.

Under the glow of time, the granary swiftly returned to how it had been. Tony could not help sighing in relief, but Wang Bert shook his head. "It’s useless. The food is still contaminated."

"What? That’s impossible!"

Old Tony froze, then immediately rushed into the granary. Just as Wang Bert had said, the flour inside was still contaminated. He shouted in disbelief, "How is that possible?"

"There’s nothing impossible about it. Those bacteria were infused with Time Power."

Wang Bert said, "It sounds unbelievable, but they can travel between universes. Mastering Time Power is perfectly normal for them."

"I won’t let him succeed. I’ll use the Reality Stone to remove the Time Power from it."

Old Tony roared. He was so furious because he knew exactly how serious the consequences would be.

"You can’t afford such a great price. Back when you had more Stones, you could sacrifice Stones with Stones, but now you only have six real Stones left."

Wang Bert shook his head. "In other words, you must offer enough sacrifice. You can’t exploit bugs like before."

"No price is worse than World War III."

Old Tony gritted his teeth. Wang Bert said, "Your thinking is still stuck at Earth’s level. Earth has no food, but aliens have plenty. For example, Xandar has massive food reserves. They have several agricultural planets, and with robots being widespread, the Snap incident did not greatly affect their food production.

"Besides, you have the Space Stone. Transporting food is no difficulty for you at all.

"As for buying food, with the technology you possess, those planets definitely won’t refuse."

Old Tony said, "I considered that method, but alien food may not be suitable for Earthlings. It will take quite some time to verify. Besides, buying small amounts is fine, but if we buy huge quantities, the aliens will definitely conduct reviews and inspections."

Wang Bert said, "Our Main Universe has already conducted similar experiments. I can give you the data. Also, the Main Universe has now completely solved the problem of food and clothing. Being full is no longer our goal. Our goal is to eat well and eat healthily.

"As for alien inspections, that won’t be a problem. I know the Xandar of the Main Universe very well. I have a way to get them to sell large quantities of food to Earth."

Old Tony was greatly excited by this. He asked, "Really? That’s wonderful, Blood God. Can I see that data?"

"Of course."

The intelligent system Wang Bert carried with him contained a huge amount of data. He transferred it to Old Tony through the wireless network.

As Old Tony received the data, he ordered, "Friday, block all news related to the granaries. I don’t want this getting out. With this data, plus Blood God’s help, I can obtain enough food within a few days."

"Mr. Stark, blocking it is no longer meaningful, because news of the granary fires has already spread throughout Europa and America."

Friday said, "Five minutes ago, a large number of posts and pictures appeared online. According to projections, riots are about to break out."

"Damn it. The Behind-the-Scenes Manipulator clearly came prepared."

Old Tony cursed loudly. He shouted, "Activate all Drone Armor. Mobilize all military forces, the National Guard, and the police. No matter what, we must stop the riots. Blood God, I’ll handle North America. Take those Super Heroes to Europa."

"This approach won’t stop terrified civilians."

Wang Bert shook his head and said, "I think I know why the Behind-the-Scenes Manipulator did this. I’m his target. It seems the Behind-the-Scenes Manipulator already knows about Thanos and me. As expected of Brain Eater."

Old Tony asked in confusion, "What do you mean?"

Wang Bert smiled. "Old Tony, have you ever heard a chinese song called ‘Gong Xi Fa Cai’?"

Old Tony looked utterly bewildered. "Gong Xi Fa Cai?"

America, New York, Hell’s Kitchen.

"Aren’t all the granaries destroyed? Is America about to run out of food?"

When a large fat man saw the news online, his first reaction was disbelief. But the pictures in the news and the granary addresses that had been found made his heart sink.

"This news is real. That damn Iron Man is completely useless."

Deep panic surged through the fat man. He immediately grabbed his car keys and rushed toward the supermarket.

With half the population suddenly added back, Earth’s food supply had already been insufficient. Now that so many granaries had been burned, the food crisis would become unprecedentedly severe. At a time like this, nothing was more important than going to the supermarket to buy food.

Right, he also needed toilet paper. Toilet paper would probably become scarce next.

Americans had an enormous need for toilet paper because they basically never used rags. They used toilet paper for everything, including wiping tables.

Before the fat man even reached the supermarket, he realized something was wrong. There were simply too many cars heading there. Anxiety filled his heart, and he slammed down on the accelerator. A drive that normally took an hour took him only half an hour.

Then, the fat man discovered that the supermarket was packed with people. Even more shocking, the supermarket was closing.

That was right, it was closing. A loudspeaker shouted, "We’re sorry, but this supermarket will be closing due to an unexpected incident. Please leave."

"What kind of bullshit unexpected incident is that? You’re obviously trying to hoard goods and jack up prices."

Quite a few people cursed loudly. Clearly, the capitalists wanted to use this chance to make a fortune.

As long as they held onto the food, within a month they could make ten or even a hundred times the money. Besides, the supermarket owner also wanted to keep more food for himself. No one knew what the future would bring.

The supermarket owner was clever, but the public was not stupid either. Seeing that the owner absolutely refused to open the doors, they directly knocked over the security guards and rushed inside to seize food.

Not opening the doors? Easy. They would change from buying to looting, and save money in the process.

Chaos completely erupted at that moment, and this was only a small microcosm. Similar events were occurring in countless supermarkets throughout North America and Europa. Everyone was snatching food because they knew that if they failed to get any, they would starve to death in the future.

At first, it was merely chaos. But as time passed, the chaos gradually turned into arguments, fights, clashes, and even gun battles.

Gunshots rang out one after another across North America and Europa. Riots seemed inevitable.

Let us turn our attention back to the Hell’s Kitchen supermarket. Relying on his size, the fat man successfully seized a box of flour, a box of instant noodles, and a box of biscuits amid the chaotic crowd.

Looking at those people grabbing bread, the fat man felt a surge of superiority. How many days could bread last? At a time like this, biscuits, chocolate, flour, and similar goods were what truly mattered.

The fat man was carrying several boxes of supplies back to his car when a burst of gunfire suddenly rang out from outside the supermarket. Everyone hurriedly crouched down in fright.

"That’s the sound of an Uzi submachine gun. Damn it, this isn’t a civilian conflict. Those gangs are here."

Having lived in Hell’s Kitchen, the fat man was very familiar with the sounds of all kinds of firearms. He hurriedly and cautiously backed away, but unfortunately, his large size made retreating extremely difficult.

At that moment, a group of heavily armed men rushed into the supermarket. Their leader shouted, "Put down all the supplies, or don’t blame us for getting rough. This supermarket belongs to the Black Bull Gang now."

Though unwilling, the civilians could only obediently put down their supplies under the threat of submachine guns. Just then, more than a dozen cars arrived. Another gang from Hell’s Kitchen had come.

This gang had also come for the supplies. The two sides cursed at each other across the vehicles, neither willing to back down, because this was the largest supermarket in Hell’s Kitchen.

Please don’t start fighting. Please don’t start fighting.

The fat man prayed desperately to God. Bullets had no eyes. If the two gangs started a war, those crouching on the ground would definitely be hit by stray bullets.

Unfortunately, God was on vacation today and did not hear the fat man’s prayers. The two gangs argued more and more fiercely. In the end, no one knew who fired first, but a gunfight broke out. One side hid behind cars, the other behind walls, and bullets flew back and forth without stopping.

The civilians were terrified and fled into the supermarket. The fat man was no exception. As he ran, he looked behind him, and then he saw the most unbelievable thing of his life.

The gang members engaged in the fierce shootout suddenly all threw away their guns. Then they stood up, strangely clasped their fists together, and sang loudly, "I congratulate you on getting rich, I congratulate you on your brilliance…"

That was right. All the gang members began singing together, and they were singing a chinese song. The fat man did not understand Chinese himself, but he could understand it. So could everyone else. They all understood it.

"What is going on?"

The others noticed it as well and stared in stunned disbelief. The two gangs had been fighting, yet they had suddenly started dancing and singing together, singing a chinese song that everyone could understand?

Were they in an Indian movie? This scene was not limited to this supermarket. Everywhere in North America and Europa, everyone filled with rage and violence began singing "Gong Xi Fa Cai." The entire world became quiet and peaceful, overflowing with festive cheer.

The whole world was dumbfounded. What baffled them even more was that those people would keep singing until they gave up all anger and violence and became honest people.

"God has descended. He has come to save us."

Countless people thought excitedly. Violence in North America and Europa had temporarily been forbidden.

"This is practically a miracle!"

Black Panther looked at the "choir" on the screen and could not help exclaiming, "Although I don’t know who acted, there’s no doubt he stopped World War III."

"Who else besides Bert could do something like this?"

Tony complained, "And besides him, who else would have such twisted tastes and make everyone sing a chinese song?"

Black Widow hummed the tune and smiled. "The melody is pretty nice. I think I’m about to learn how to sing it."

Sersi complained, "I learned it long ago. Every Spring Festival, that song plays everywhere in the streets and alleys of that Eastern country. I learned it after traveling there for three days."

Max asked in shock, "The BOSS did this? That’s too unbelievable. Is he God reincarnated?"

Tony reminded him, "Max, calling Bert God reincarnated is basically insulting him."

"What?"

Max was stunned. Saying the BOSS was God was actually an insult? Seriously?

Tony said matter-of-factly, "God is Creator God level, while Bert is Creator God level. Calling him God is like calling a president a general manager. Of course it’s an insult."

"My BOSS has a higher status than God?"

Max was dumbfounded. Everyone nodded deeply. That was right, your BOSS had a higher status than God.

"Also, when you normally cheer ‘Long live Blood God,’ you’re basically cursing him. How could he possibly live for only ten thousand years? Even if the universe died, he wouldn’t."

Tony continued, "Whenever I think about how that guy can keep enjoying beautiful women decades from now, centuries from now, millennia from now, or even tens of thousands of years from now, I want to punch him."

Everyone looked at each other. Falcon sneered, "Isn’t that the legendary envy, jealousy, and hatred?"

"No, absolutely not."

Tony flatly denied it. He said, "Think about it. That guy might end up having relationships with your great-granddaughters, great-great-granddaughters… Can you accept that?"

"That does seem hard to accept."

Everyone could not help frowning. Only Winter Soldier was indifferent. "I’m not planning to have children anyway."

"Right, because Steve is the only one in your eyes."

Tony said sarcastically. His attitude toward Winter Soldier had never been particularly good, after all, Winter Soldier had killed his father.

Winter Soldier could not be bothered to respond to Tony. Steve said, "All right, enough of this. Let’s contact Blood God first."

"No need."

Along with that voice, Old Tony walked out of a Space Gate. His expression was ugly as he said, "Blood God has already entered the Mind Sea and can’t come out for the time being. He also took my Mind Stone."

Everyone was stunned. "Mind Sea?"

"Yes, the Mind Sea. Only by merging with the Mind Sea can he control the minds of everyone on Earth for an extended period."

Old Tony nodded. "It is long-term control. From now on, anyone who gets angry or develops killing intent will enter singing mode until we find food and completely resolve this crisis."

"In other words, we’ll be hearing ‘Gong Xi Fa Cai’ every day from now on?"

Sersi was stunned. This was practically the entire world celebrating Spring Festival.

"Yes."

Old Tony’s mouth twitched slightly. He said, "But that isn’t the main point. The main point is that we must solve the food problem as quickly as possible. Otherwise, within seven days, people will starve to death. Furthermore, the lack of food will cause social order to collapse.

"In fact, plenty of people are still fighting over food right now. It’s just not as intense."

Everyone nodded gravely. Food was more important than anything else, but the problem was not easy to solve. Even Wakanda, a major wealthy nation, did not have enough surplus food to supply North America and Europa.