Chapter 216: Military Trends (Part 1) (Patreon)

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"I'll repeat myself, I am a doctor, not a god." Strange stood by Obadiah's hospital bed and said, "He's the first patient I've seen who was readmitted within a week of being discharged. At this rate, even the newly-developed medicine won't be able to save him, let alone god."

Stark sighed deeply on the other side of the bed, and Schiller asked him, "I'm sure all his physical indicators were fine before he was discharged, even exceeding those of an average person. How did you manage to give him hypertension and readmit him within a week?"

Stark said, feeling wronged, "I didn't do anything. He just saw the recent reports of Stark Industries and the contract with Osborn Industries and the Immortality Foundation after he was discharged, and he became like this."

The reason for this was that after Obadiah completed his final treatment, he woke up, exactly as expected by Connors and Schiller. The Medicine extracted from the fear gas to stimulate brain activity, combined with the healing Medicine from the lizard serum, not only awakened Obadiah but also enhanced his physical abilities.

After a short rest, Obadiah returned to work. Yes, his first action after waking up was not to have a conversation with Stark but to rush towards his beloved company.

Obviously, in Obadiah's eyes, Stark Industries was more important than Stark himself.

Although Obadiah had prepared himself mentally before returning to the company, the situation still made him feel dizzy.

The original industry of Stark Industries was not a problem, although Pepper had a long period of adaptation when taking over. At first, it was a bit chaotic, but in the end, she managed to tidy things up. Although the profits were not as high as when Obadiah was there, it was still passable. Obadiah felt a bit heartbroken, but he accepted the result.

What really made Obadiah angry was the new business in recent times, which was the Osborn Industries and Immortality Foundation.

To put it bluntly, the entire Stark Industries was built by Obadiah alone. Without him, Howard's genius ideas would only be talk on paper and could not be turned into actual benefits. Obadiah's business acumen was unmatched.

When he returned to the company, he was surprised to hear about the Immortality Industry. He felt that it was a genius idea. However, he saw the contract between Stark and Osborn Industries and the Immortality Foundation and had a hypertensive attack, readmitted to the hospital.

Using the phrase "heart is bleeding" cannot express Obadiah's feelings well. His heart was empty, and he was almost having a brain hemorrhage.

Stark felt very wronged. Objectively speaking, he had already done his best.

Stark sighed and said, "It doesn't matter. I can finally stop worrying about those annoying things and return to my happy life."

Schiller shook his head and said, "I'm afraid you're happy too early. Do you know the recent movements of the military?"

"The military's movements, oh." Stark said, "Let me guess, they must have a lot of questions waiting for me. Maybe they want to hold a hearing and ask me to hand over the technology of becoming a cosmic god and creating countless mechanical armies."

"Nick won't let them do that." Schiller told Stark directly. "He's even prepared a speech to criticize the military."

Schiller was right. Nick was currently butting heads with the military.

Stark's attitude now leaned more towards SHIELD. They had common interests in the Immortality and Cosmic God areas, and they cooperated happily. Neither side wanted a troublemaker to interfere. Stark would never fully cooperate with the military, but even if they took a small portion of the profits, Nick would be heartbroken.

It's hard to change human nature. If Stark was still just a scientist who had mastered Mech armor technology like in the movies, he would probably still be coerced by the military.

But now, he had gone beyond that level. The appearance of the Iron Man had made the military and the United Nations consider the idea of finding a new planet to live on. The "Wander Earth" plan was already on their lips. If the Stark, who had transformed into a cosmic god, had not disappeared, things would have been chaotic.

Even if the Iron Man, who could create a mechanical army out of thin air, disappeared, the military still had a lot of questions to ask Stark. However, because of the extraordinary power Stark had demonstrated, they dare not use any coercive measures.

As Stark had not yet publicly announced that he was Iron Man, the military thought it was impossible for him to participate in a public hearing, so they had tried to privately invite Stark to talk with the military.

But this plan encountered too much resistance. On the one hand, to avoid Stark's contact with the military from damaging their cooperation, SHIELD would definitely obstruct it. On the other hand, after Obadiah's return, Stark Industries seemed to have a backbone, and Obadiah was very resistant to cooperating with the military. The military also found it difficult to bypass him to contact Stark.

Now, Stark was not a hedgehog, but he was surrounded by a group of hedgehogs, and the military did not know where to start.

But it was impossible for them to just sit by and watch. They would not allow such a powerful force to leave their control, even if they knew it was a nuclear bomb. There would always be someone who wanted to knock some benefits out of it before it finally exploded.

In the end, the military sought out the World Security Council.

It had to be said that they found the right person. Seeing Nick Fury's power growing stronger and stronger, and the superheroes around him getting stronger, Alexander Pierce could not sit still.

Originally, he and Nick had common interests, such as the Immortality Factor industry, but Nick had grown stronger through a series of operations, and his reliance on Pierce had become smaller and smaller. Seeing that his chosen proxy was gradually becoming uncontrollable, Pierce also wanted to weaken Nick's power and regain control.

Changes in interests determined changes in positions. Soon, Nick received a call from the World Security Council.

On a plain weekend morning in New York, the Global Times published a heavyweight news article: "The Secret Behind Tony Stark's Iron Man Metal Mask."

Stark put down the newspaper, placed his coffee on the table, and said cheerfully, "Well, this is great. I don't have to announce it myself, they did it for me."

Pepper across from him was very helpless and said, "This will have a big impact. Many people have been influenced by the military and believe that you have a responsibility to hand over this advanced technology to the military to maintain world peace."

"To hell with world peace!" Nick shouted loudly on his mobile phone in his office, "Don't use your three-year-old's rhetoric to fool me!"

"How long do you want to play this game? Constant probing, inch by inch, public opinion pressure, and economic sanctions. Is your brain completely rusted? Why don't you understand that this game can no longer trap Stark? And once you anger him, the entire Earth will be in danger, and SHIELD will have to clean up the mess in the end!"

After hanging up the phone, Nick sighed and said to Hill next to him, "What was the name of the last host of the black symbiote? Wasn't he a journalist for the Global Times? Contact him immediately."

At this time, Eddie was arguing with Venom in front of a hotdog stand in Hell's Kitchen. "I warned you last time that the chili peppers in Mexico are very spicy, but you still insisted on buying the extra spicy hotdog. I almost died from the spice. I definitely won't let it happen again."

"You are the most cowardly human I have ever seen. A little chili pepper makes you scream."

"I'll have an extra spicy one, thank you." Eddie's hoarse and low voice came from his throat, and then he twitched and said, "No! Not extra spicy, just mildly spicy."

"No! Extra spicy!"

"No."

"Hey, wait, there's a beauty over there!"

"Don't try to distract me. That trick doesn't work anymore."

"Hello, I'm Hill. Are you Eddie Brock?"

Eddie turned his head and saw Hill in a professional suit appearing behind him.

"I am. What's up?"

"Hello, I'm SHIELD Agent Hill. We have some work that requires your cooperation." Hill showed her ID.

"Hello, Phantom, long time no see. We were too rushed on the battlefield last time. Do you have any free time now?"

"Wait!" Eddie stopped Venom from saying the next words. He whispered, "Didn't you hear what she said? She's a SHIELD agent."

On the other side, Phantom was also talking to Hill in his mind, "I told you before, Venom is crazy. He actually wants his host to hit on you!"

"I think he may not want his host to hit on me. Don't you think he wants to hit on you?" Hill thought as Eddie did, believing that Venom had taken a liking to Phantom.

"Don't be ridiculous," Phantom said. "Symbiotes don't have gender because we don't need to reproduce like humans do. My form is female only because the human host I parasitized was female."

At this point, the relationship between the two pairs of symbiotes and hosts became very subtle. Eddie thought Venom definitely wanted to hit on Phantom, and Phantom thought Eddie wanted to control Venom to hit on Hill. But Hill believed, like Eddie did, that Venom had taken a liking to Phantom.

This caused them to face each other, not knowing what to say, and could only talk to their own symbiotes in their minds.

Gonzalez, who sold hotdogs, knocked on the tray and said, "Do you want more hotdogs?"

Eddie didn't know how to speak, but before he could say anything, Venom said, "We'll have two, one extra spicy and one mild, and two glasses of juice, one without ice, thank you."

After the hotdogs were ready, Eddie and Hill sat down at the table under the umbrella next to the hotdog stand. Phantom said to Hill, "Are you sure you want to eat something that Venom ordered? I'm really worried about getting infected."

Hill didn't touch the food in front of her, but instead said to Eddie, "You must have read the recent report in the Global Times, right?"

Eddie took a bite of his hotdog and said, "You mean the report that exposed Stark as Iron Man?"

"What do you think about it?"

"Although journalists sometimes need to repeat some obvious facts, this report said something that anyone with a brain can guess, yet it has caused such a big reaction, which made me deeply ponder what my career really means."

"SHIELD suspects that this is a military ploy to pressure Stark again."

"It seems that I misunderstood my former colleagues. The stupid ones are not the journalists, but the military."

Hill asked Phantom in her mind, "Is this guy named Venom always so sarcastic?"

"I don't know. I'm not interested in understanding a lunatic."

"The situation now is like this." Hill explained to Eddie, "We don't know what the military has done, but in any case, they have convinced the World Security Council, and the Security Council and the military stand on one side, claiming that Stark's technology can better maintain world peace."

"They don't want Stark to hand over his technology, do they?"

"Maybe not all of it, but at least part of it." Hill paused for a moment. "If you look at Stark's power displayed that day, the goals of the Security Council and the military are at least his latest generation of Mech armor, and they may even want the power that turns Stark into a god."

"In order to achieve their goals, they will do everything possible to harass Stark. Even if Stark is not afraid of them in terms of force, there are many ways they can cause trouble for Stark and his group in this society."

"SHIELD wants to prevent this from happening, but the problem is that we are an organization under the World Security Council."

Hill made a gesture and said, "Obviously, our situation is a bit embarrassing now. The World Security Council asked us not to interfere, and Director Nick is also under a lot of pressure, so we cannot help Stark openly."

"But we don't want them to succeed, so we hope you can do us a favor."

"I used to be a journalist for the Global Times, but that was in the past." Eddie took a few sips of juice and said, "If you came to me because of my previous profession, then you may be disappointed. I don't have much credibility in the industry anymore."

Hill said to Eddie, "The military won't just use this one trick. Next, they should repeat their old tricks, manipulate major media outlets to target Stark, accuse him of having such advanced technology but unwilling to contribute to human peace, and even bring up old accounts and accuse him of selling weapons."

"We hope to obtain evidence that the editor-in-chief of Global Times accepted bribes and guided public opinion. You should know that editor-in-chief well, right?"

"Also, due to the pressure from the Security Council, SHIELD and SHIELD agents are not convenient to show up now, so we hope to hire you to help us resist the military's attacks and stop them from smearing Stark."

"I heard Phantom say that you have a grudge with Riot. SHIELD is currently using Riot for experiments. We can give him to you, along with some residual energy on his body. How about it?"

"Deal."

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Next Chapter>>Chapter 217: Military Trends (Part 2)