War Is About Burning Money

Inside the helicarrier.

Nick Fury watched the footage recorded by the satellites.

As he watched Tony and the friends Tony had brought along fight, purple light appeared around their bodies, and he fell into thought.

At first, he had assumed it was the result of Tony’s technology.

But now Nick Fury could see it clearly. Tony had undergone a complete transformation compared to before.

Although Tony had progressed at an astonishing pace because he had gone into space, the extreme speed provided by such powerful Iron Man armor—

if Tony’s body had still been that of an ordinary person, he definitely would not have been able to withstand it. The fact that he could meant his physical condition had already surpassed that of a human.

And when it came to who could have completely transformed Tony’s body, a demonic figure unconsciously surfaced in Nick Fury’s mind.

Only Harvey Anberaka, who was like a demon, could have brought about such changes in Tony.

If it had been an ordinary person, he might have been able to think of some way to obtain some power from them.

But since it was Harvey, there was no way he could buy him off or threaten him.

That left Nick Fury somewhat frustrated.

Because of their reckless probing at the very beginning, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s relationship with Harvey had become rather strained.

The fact that Harvey had not considered wiping them out, nor stopped Tony from helping S.H.I.E.L.D. protect humanity, could already be considered his mercy.

But Tony had become this powerful merely by receiving Harvey’s help.

Then just how powerful was Harvey’s true strength?

That made Nick Fury recall Harvey’s warning to him back then.

Don’t think about bringing Captain Marvel over to help. Even if Captain Marvel came, it would be useless.

So the best course of action was to avoid provoking Harvey.

With Harvey around, however, Earth could be said to be as secure as an impregnable fortress.

Even if Harvey did not involve himself, Tony, whose strength had greatly increased after receiving Harvey’s help, gave Earth even greater protection.

Next, they only had to see who else might receive Harvey’s blessing.

Afterward, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s statistics showed that in this battle, which had lasted barely more than ten minutes,

6,396 people had died, with Black people accounting for 80 percent of the casualties.

White people accounted for only 20 percent. The fundamental reason was that although most white people had been dissatisfied, they had been urgently evacuated by the military.

Most of the white people who died had been soldiers and police officers.

They did not know exactly how many Chitauri had died, but it was at least in the hundreds of thousands.

With fewer than ten thousand deaths, humanity had dealt a crushing blow to the technologically superior Chitauri. Without a doubt, humanity had won a great victory in this battle.

As for damaged homes, vehicles, and other property, compensation would be provided afterward according to certain proportions and amounts.

There was no helping it, because in modern times, there was a saying: war was about burning money.

Training soldiers cost money, weapons cost money, compensating those who suffered because of war cost money, and rebuilding all kinds of facilities damaged by war also cost money.

But this battle had been unavoidable, and Nick Fury had also achieved his goal.

Now those politicians knew that aliens truly existed, so they would grant S.H.I.E.L.D. greater authority.

Tony, meanwhile, would soon receive the praise of countless people.

The various heroes who had participated in the battle would be the same, receiving the admiration of many.

Honor and fame were things countless men dreamed of.

Although Tony’s reputation was already enormous—he had wiped out many terrorists and was also a wealthy man in New York—

Nick Fury felt that no one would ever dislike having an increasingly greater reputation. In America, a sufficiently great reputation could bring many conveniences.

Harvey had watched the entire battle.

The main reason this battle had ended so quickly and easily was that Tony’s technology and strength were far ahead of what they had once been.

Moreover, Tony had brought in four extremely reliable helpers.

Renoli and the others also let Harvey see that some members of the Void Cult seemed capable of standing on their own.

This was both a good thing and a hidden danger. He needed to pay closer attention to maintaining order within the Void Cult.

The Void Cult was still stable because its internal atmosphere was very good.

They all saw one another as brethren, so there was no contempt or other such thoughts.

But once that impression and atmosphere were destroyed, the other members of the Void Cult would become less harmonious.

He could not control what these people did after gaining power, but at the very least, he could not allow the other members of the Void Cult to fall apart or even slaughter one another.

Steve and Banner should both have learned quite a bit from this battle.

Banner would almost certainly come looking for him afterward. After all, Tony had said that if Banner wanted to better control his strength, he should come find Harvey.

As for Steve, it was still uncertain whether he wanted to join the Void.

Harvey could take the initiative to recruit Steve into the Void Cult, and it would be very easy.

All he had to do was grant Steve’s lover, Peggy, the power of immortality and restore her youth.

But Harvey had already passed the point where he needed to actively recruit people himself. Now, he only had to wait for the Void Cult’s influence to gradually expand.

Then an endless stream of people would wish to join the Void Cult and gain the power to change their lives.

However, after the Avengers Initiative’s first assembly, numerous superheroes would begin appearing on Earth as well.

If they came looking for him voluntarily, as long as their character was not too poor, Harvey would not mind giving them a chance.

After joining the Void, Tony had become more confident in both personality and conduct.

Harvey was also somewhat looking forward to seeing how the others would change.

During this battle, Harvey did not know whether Tony had deliberately avoided it,

but of his more than thirty villa estates in New York, only three had suffered any damage, so the compensation afterward would not be that much.

This ruined Harvey’s plan to make a huge fortune from New York being half destroyed.

But he did not care too much. After all, he could now make money while lying down. Even if he indulged in extravagance every day, his money would not decrease. Instead, it would only grow.

Because he spent less each day than he earned while lying down.

However, after this battle, Harvey had already spent more than a year on Earth. It was about time for him to stay on Xandar for a while.

The aerial movement technique Renoli had mentioned was clearly not taught by him.

After all, he had never even been to Xandar and had been enjoying himself on Earth the entire time. Sonia had not specifically mentioned this matter to him either.

But when Harvey thought of Sonia’s workaholic nature, it was only natural that after being inspired by Tony and learning about Void Power, she would try every possible way to use it.

Everything would become clear once he spent some time on Xandar and asked Sonia about it.

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