Batman Incident (11)

In the Stark Tower laboratory, Peter spread his hands and said, "That's how it is. What are your thoughts on the two factions of vampires and the so-called descent of the Bat God?"

As Stark repaired his Jaeger, he said, "As expected, those moderates are only moderate on the surface, but quite a few people actually believe their nonsense. They keep standing up and calling for an end to the war, and those people the Truth they will live in peace with humanity."

Schiller frowned and said, "Are you sure Deacon is so certain that the power of the Bat God will descend?"

"Yes, and he even specified the exact time, which is tonight when the moonlight is at its brightest."

"They descended directly without needing to perform any rituals?"

"That should be the case. He also specifically emphasized that our response was completely ineffective."

Seeing Schiller deep in thought, Steve polished the damaged parts of his shield as he said, "This is a bit strange, isn't it? I've fought quite a few evil creatures, and their so-called divine intervention is nothing more than using some strange methods to strengthen themselves. But now he's saying that a guardian of a god is going to descend in person. Who could it be?"

Schiller seemed to have some idea, saying, "We'll know tonight."

He had barely finished speaking when Nick called. Schiller said into the phone, "... Really? Okay, send someone to pick me up... They've already compiled the data? Never mind then, just send the data over..."

"What are you up to now?" Stark asked, sticking his head out from behind the mech.

Jarvis beeped twice and said, "Mr. Schiller, your data has been transferred to printer number 1..."

Schiller walked over to the printer, picked up the stack of papers, flipped through them, looked at them for a while, and then said, "The experts Nick found are pretty good; the data is organized quite well."

Steve curiously leaned over, and Peter craned his neck to look in their direction. To be honest, they were quite uneasy about some of Schiller's plans, because you never knew whether his plans would be a revelation or a disaster.

Steve glanced at some words on the document and said with a puzzled look, "The basis for the analysis of bat bloodline theory? What is this? What kind of bloodline theory is there for bats?"

"I have a question for you." Schiller tapped the table, drawing everyone's attention.

"Let me assume, I mean assume, that there really is a factor in the blood of these vampires that can extend lifespan. Do you think all vampires have this factor in their blood?"

"Uh, isn't that right?" Peter scratched his head.

"So do you think there might be a difference in the concentration of this factor in their blood? Could those high-level vampires who can use magic have more of this factor than other vampires?"

Steve opened his mouth and said, "I'm a little unable to answer this question because I don't really believe that their blood contains the factor that grants immortality..."

Stark pursed his lips and said, "Actually, that makes some sense. High-ranking vampires have more magic, are stronger, and their bats are larger than ordinary vampires. Logically speaking, their blood should indeed be more effective."

"That actually makes sense," Peter said, arms crossed. "Otherwise, what's the difference between them and those vampires who can't use magic?"

"So, let's reason in reverse: does a vampire with more of this factor in their blood have a purer bloodline?"

Stark stopped tapping on his mech. He wasn't stupid; he immediately understood Schiller's meaning. He said, somewhat absurdly, "You don't mean to let humans define which type of vampire is a pure-blooded vampire, do you?"

"Why not?" Schiller spread his hands and said, "Now humans have found that mysterious factor in their blood. We have conducted a series of rigorous scientific analyses on it and finally concluded that different vampires have different amounts of this factor in their bodies."

"Indeed, we use scientific methods, while they are magical creatures. But they have been using magic for so many years and still haven't figured out where their bloodline comes from."

"We were just offering them a possibility; it was just a chance discovery."

"Humans are merely taking an objective perspective, conducting a series of analyses and demonstrations. Of course, the rapid pace of human technological development is not without reason. Our analysis is very rigorous, as you can see..."

Schiller placed the paper in his hand on the table and pointed it out to the people who had come over. "Look here, this is the conclusion given by the theological research experts from the Vatican. They call the Immortality Factor 'Blood of Cain.' They believe that all vampires today are descendants of Cain, and the higher the concentration of this factor, the closer the blood relationship with Cain, and the nobler the bloodline."

"This report was given by Osborn. He believed that the Immortality Factor provided vampires with tremendous power. The more of this factor there was, the stronger the vampire would be. Therefore, the difference in the number of factors was the difference between high-level vampires and ordinary vampires."

"I'm almost starting to believe what you're making up," Stark said. "If I remember correctly, this thing called Immortality Factor was actually something we made up, wasn't it?"

"What nonsense are you talking about? Don't you remember? This involves a major event in the history of the Stark and Osborn families!"

Then, Stark listened, completely bewildered, as Schiller recounted a completely new version of the Stark and Osborn family's rise to power.

In Schiller's backstory, the elder Stark and the elder Osborn embarked on a grand adventure against vampires in their youth.

It all started with a romantic night between Howard and a female vampire...

After hearing this, Stark was dumbfounded. He said, "You mean, Howard slept with a female vampire, then stole her blood out of curiosity, and discovered this factor while doing research..."

"Then, due to their limited knowledge of biology, they found old Osborn to collaborate with, and the two confirmed the existence of this factor and even completely analyzed its structure."

"Afterwards, the research results were leaked, discovered and hunted by the vampire clan, and most of the data was ultimately lost. Norman and I were just trying to recover that part of the data???"

"This..." Stark seemed to choke.

Steve listened and nodded repeatedly. He said, "This story is very reasonable, even more reasonable than Howard's experience with the hovercar company. And the most reasonable part is the part where your father sleeps with the female vampire. Schiller, I have to say, I almost thought you knew Howard too."

"Don't talk nonsense. This is Stark's son, Stark Jr., telling me himself. It has nothing to do with me."

"I..." Before Stark could even open his mouth to refute, Steve said, "Indeed, I think the story should go like this: Young Stark, who used to run an arms business, suddenly repented and couldn't sleep at night when faced with the vampires' ruthless Carnage of humans. Eventually, he found a clue in a portion of his father's inheritance, so he took the initiative to seek out Norman to cooperate. Together, the two of them unearthed their fathers' research results..."

"That's right. The Stark Family has always taken the rise and fall of humanity as their own responsibility. Every Stark is concerned about the country and its people. What a touching story!"

Schiller exaggerates, saying, "The relay between father and son across an era is not only a transmission of the same wisdom, but also a manifestation of the same great character!"

Stark was stunned. He stood there for a long time, then finally touched his nose and said, "Okay, but I hope you'll cut out the part about me having sleepless nights. Even if I have sleepless nights, I won't be thinking about Howard."

Steve walked over and patted Stark on the shoulder, saying, "It's okay. If you're not satisfied with this part, we can arrange a female vampire for you..."

"No need!" Stark shouted, then asked suspiciously, "Jarvis, Pepper isn't on the comms, is she?"

"No, sir, but she could be connected at any time."

"That's definitely not necessary," Stark said immediately.

"So what's the point of making up these stories?" Peter asked, still somewhat unable to understand the intricacies involved.

Schiller pointed to the contents of the document and said, "There have always been different factions within the vampire community. Now, humans have presented a very convincing research finding to prove that one group of them may be more noble than another. What do you think they will do?"

"But they don't necessarily have to acknowledge the results of human research, do they? Even if we're not making things up, they can still deny it..."

"What if I told them that whichever faction among them acknowledges this research first, we would declare that, according to our investigation, all members of that faction are direct descendants of Cain, with a huge amount of Immortality Factor in their blood, and should be royalty among vampires?"

Steve thought for a moment and said, "This is indeed a good way to divide them. Different factions of vampires also fight each other. In order to gain the upper hand over other factions, they will naturally look for evidence to prove that they are more reasonable. And the theory of bloodline is actually quite strong evidence."

"In order to gain more benefits for their own faction and prove that they are more orthodox, many vampires will spontaneously come to support this bat bloodline theory."

Steve's gaze fell on the documents on the table. He said, "Vampires have been fighting each other for so many years, and they can't produce any evidence to prove that their bloodline is more noble, but humans have given them this opportunity."

"In essence, they don't care whether their bloodline is truly noble or not, as long as they are more noble than others."

"Exploitation will always exist." Schiller also looked at the document and said, "But if they don't have a legitimate reason to exploit other vampires, then we'll give them a copy."

"They want to infect us physically, turning more humans into vampires, to increase the number of their own race, gradually infiltrate human society, and then manipulate the entire human race..."

Schiller's voice remained calm and even, yet it sent chills down the spines of the others present.

"Then let's try to influence them spiritually, and give them the dregs of human development over thousands of years: divine right of kings, Dynasties, pure blood supremacy... Human development to this day, internal strife is the Eternity theme. In terms of internal consumption, vampires are just child's play compared to humans."

"Build a pyramid of exploitation, block all upward mobility, let your birth determine everything, and there will never be a chance to turn your life around."

"If they don't plan to develop in this way, then we can definitely help them out."

"Pure-blooded vampires are nobler than other vampires. They will exploit other vampires, but other vampires also need to live, so they must find another object of exploitation, one that is even lower than themselves..."

"Whom will they exploit?" Peter asked.

"Only vampires transformed from humans." Schiller's tone turned cold.

"This exploitation will be even more brutal than within their own ethnic group."

"When all humans can see the horrific exploitation of vampires transformed from humans within the vampire race, they will no longer harbor the wishful thinking that they can survive even after being transformed. Rather than being transformed into vampires and living a life of unbearable suffering, they would rather end it all."

Peter shuddered, Schiller continued, "When no more fresh blood is added, or when the fresh blood becomes less and less, their society will become completely closed off."

"At this point, without a large lower class to continue exploiting them, the original middle class will fall to the lower class."

"Because there are too few middle-class people, but the upper class is unwilling to reduce exploitation and lower their own quality of life, the exploitation per middle-class person will become more and more severe until they can no longer survive..."

"Then one day..." Steve began, but Schiller said somewhat cryptically, "The exploited will need some kind of ideological weapon to guide them."

Stark was silent for a moment, then said, "My weapons may be able to destroy the canopy of a tree, but you are burning its roots."

"As I've said before, sometimes words are more powerful than fists."