Meeting in Progress

At that moment, Nick Fury really wanted to drag Ivan Vanko out and whip him hard a few times. You were so capable, so why did you keep resorting to petty tricks? Why not just upgrade your armor by a few dozen generations and go straight to Tony’s door?

It was lucky that he had aimed the nuclear missile at America itself. If he had aimed it at another country, that would have been great—he could have directly triggered a nuclear war and taken the whole world down with him.

Ivan Vanko had already lost his mind over revenge. He no longer cared about the consequences and would stop at nothing.

No one knew what had happened to Ivan Vanko now, but presumably, he was dead too, right?

The guy had not even had time to leave the military district before the nuclear missile descended like divine judgment and blasted the entire base into the sky. Ivan Vanko was not the protagonist, so why would he possibly survive?

Even if he had been wearing his armor at all times, he probably would not have had a chance of surviving.

"The Avengers?"

Everyone present wore strange expressions. Over the past two days, the Avengers had become incredibly famous. In order to lessen the impact of the aliens, divert the public’s attention, and create a "hero team," the Avengers had naturally become the hero team that America had spent a fortune building up.

"They were only candidates."

Nick Fury remained expressionless as he calmly said, "America’s tradition is to welcome all talented people to contribute to our nation. Ivan Vanko possessed considerable talent, and Justin from Hammer Industries should know that as well."

"No, I have a serious grudge against Ivan Vanko!"

Justin Hammer, who had barely made his presence known until then, stood up from a seat in the corner and said irritably, "That guy ruined Hammer Industries’ expo and caused hundreds of billions of dollars in economic losses. As I recall, wasn’t he already brought to justice? And I heard there was apparently a fire in the prison. Didn’t he die?"

"What? So he ended up in your S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

Good lord, Justin found these tactics awfully familiar. They were exactly the same as the methods he had used to get Ivan Vanko out of prison back then!

"…"

Nick Fury remained silent and offered no rebuttal.

"Rather than that, has no one reflected on what caused the current situation?"

Seeing that the room had gone quiet and no one was paying attention to him, Justin began desperately trying to make himself heard.

"Oh? Then what brilliant insight do you have, Justin?"

Tony glanced at Justin Hammer and asked indifferently.

"Ahem, this is exactly what I wanted to say!"

Seeing that everyone was paying attention to him, Justin adjusted his collar and said, "Weapons. It’s because we don’t have powerful weapons! If America also possessed powerful weapons, we could wipe out the aliens directly!"

"More importantly, we need a weapon that is extremely convenient and can be used by everyone!"

"What weapon?"

Even Nick Fury’s curiosity was piqued.

"This is Hammer Industries’ newest product!"

Justin proudly pulled out a tablet and began playing a video.

"The Children’s JR15! This scaled-down automatic rifle can give even children reliable means of self-defense!"

Good lord, they had specifically released an automatic rifle for children?

As expected of Justin Hammer. His imagination was truly something else!

Still, one thing he said was not wrong. If every person in New York possessed power like the Chinese, why would they need to fear aliens?

Forget anything else. If the Chitauri portal had opened in China, the people in that city might have directly formed teams to launch a counterinvasion, charged through the portal, and attacked the other side!

But people from the United States could never possibly be as strong as the Chinese.

What you said made sense, but this was not the time to sell weapons!

And look at this thing of yours.

A children’s automatic rifle? Letting children carry automatic firearms?

"This will fill children with confidence, allowing them to pick up their own weapons and resist the aliens!"

Justin grew more excited as he spoke, gesturing wildly during the meeting. "I’ve noticed that school shootings in America have become frequent in recent years. If children had this weapon, they could protect themselves when facing criminals!"

"That is why this weapon came into being. And if everyone had one of these during the New York Battle, there would have been no need to worry about those aliens at all!"

"…"

Everyone looked at Justin Hammer speechlessly. They wanted to refute him, only to realize that he seemed to have a point.

The people present had all paid attention to those aliens and watched the footage. Good lord, even New York police officers could take out several of them with small pistols. Their combat strength might really be inferior to that of a child holding an automatic rifle.

"Not bad. Let me know when it goes on sale. I think I should get one for my son."

As absurd as Justin Hammer’s words were, even more absurdly, several people immediately wanted to order a few of those weapons as gifts for their children.

"Damn, what a bunch of lunatics."

Tony felt completely numb. The people of this country truly were beyond saving!

Compare them to people in other countries, like China. On Children’s Day, parents there prepared MP4 players and AKG headphones as gifts for their children, while American parents prepared MP5s and AKM automatic rifles!

This was utterly ridiculous!

Without comparison, there was no harm. At that moment, Tony truly felt despair toward this country.

What kind of freaks were these?

"Ahem, pay attention to the subject of this meeting."

Seeing that the meeting seemed to be heading in another bizarre direction, Nick Fury hurriedly said, "China now possesses space capabilities. Our Western world must have countermeasures!"

Nick Fury slammed the table hard and spoke loudly.

"China’s spacecraft have already formed combat capabilities. What do we have to compete with them?"

At that moment, many people raised that question.

"That is why the existence of S.H.I.E.L.D. is necessary!"

Nick Fury said proudly, "As early as twenty years ago, S.H.I.E.L.D. had contact with alien civilizations and established friendly relations with them. Not all aliens in the universe are aggressive. There are also peaceful races. S.H.I.E.L.D. is about to establish a new department specifically for communication and cooperation with alien civilizations. This department will be called the Sky Sword Bureau!"