Competition

"If you find a way to deal with Ultron in the universe, bring it out as soon as possible. Any further delay will drive Tony Stark to the brink of collapse... Stark Industries needs him as its leader, its compass."

In the central control room of the Raft, Nick Fury looked at Tony Stark on the monitor screen and spoke earnestly to Wei Xiuming.

During Tony Stark's imprisonment, Stark Industries' market value evaporated by over ten billion dollars, and Nick Fury, who held a significant stake... no, S.H.I.E.L.D..'s assets shrank considerably. Even Pepper Potts' best efforts to salvage the situation couldn't prevent it from happening.

Furthermore, public discontent with Tony Stark is escalating, with groups holding daily protests in the plaza in front of Stark Tower —even though Ultron's presence doesn't affect them, aren't rallies and protests what they love most when they have nothing better to do?

Especially with the deliberate guidance of the media, the embers of public protests against the Avengers have reignited, with the focus directed at Tony Stark. Some politicians have also been spreading the Avengers threat theory, arguing that the superhero group should either disband or be subject to government oversight—ideally, reduced to their henchmen.

During this period, United States politicians displayed a baffling logic. Even though Ultron exposed the dirty deeds of politicians and celebrities behind the scenes, they still managed to shift the blame onto Tony Stark —the evil deeds I committed are not important, but your act of exposing what I did is illegal and an infringement on freedom.

Thanks to the United States's long-standing policy of keeping the masses ignorant under the guise of "happy education," the general public, whose IQ is generally not high, actually believed the politicians' words. As for those well-educated, highly intelligent individuals, they either know that wading into these muddy waters is not so easy and choose to stay out of it to protect themselves, or they are members of some interest group, responsible for fanning the flames behind the scenes to seek greater benefits for their own group.

And those people started targeting Iron Man directly. Countless interest groups began using the names of the White House, the Pentagon, and other government agencies to search Tony Stark's mansion on Malibu Street with search warrants. In other words, they were searching for Tony Stark's various high-tech devices, Iron Man suit, artificial intelligence codes, and various instruments.

They were extremely envious of Tony Stark's various inventions, but had never found an excuse to ask for them. Now was the perfect opportunity—especially the Iron Man suit. Tony Stark had left himself a version capable of going toe-to-toe with aliens, but the Mark 0.034 version sold to the military only upgraded flight capabilities, barely managing to break Mach 1. Taking advantage of the fact that everyone was against Tony Stark, various forces united like never before and began to target Iron Man.

This behavior is like trampling the "wind can enter, the king can enter, but the king cannot enter" principle, which constantly advocates the boundary between public and private rights, into the mud, and then spitting on it—he... pei.

Even though some of them, like Tony Stark, were capitalists and corporations, after Stark went to prison, they pounced on Stark Industries, this ailing behemoth, like jackals smelling their prey, tearing at its flesh and blood.

Nick Fury was one of them, but everything he did was very secretive. On the surface, he helped Pepper Potts deal with the various overt and covert tactics of her business rivals, supporting the normal operation of Stark Industries. On the other hand, he quietly acquired Stark Industries' stock, because whether or not Tony Stark was released was entirely up to him, which meant he had the power to control the rise or fall of the stock price.

"I'll talk to him."

Wei Xiuming said, "But not now. We need the power of the Boon-type virus... Have your scientists who were in charge of the Tesseract project made any discoveries? They learned a lot from me, they should have some findings."

At this point, Nick Fury surprisingly displayed an angry demeanor, with veins bulging on his forehead, just like Piccolo gathering energy before unleashing a powerful attack.

During this time, he finally learned what it meant to slack off. At least half of the scientists belonging to S.H.I.E.L.D.. were the kind who did nothing but eat and not work. They had no motivation for serious research, but were good at fighting for power, forming factions, and becoming academic tyrants.

For the same project, he issued orders to scientists from S.H.I.E.L.D.. and Conglomerate B respectively, using the identities of Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.., and Deathstroke, a high-ranking executive of Conglomerate B. While Conglomerate B was producing results and making improvements, S.H.I.E.L.D.. had only just begun and was requesting additional funding from him.

The scientists at S.H.I.E.L.D.. are all formally trained professionals. To win people over, Nick Fury provides them with all the benefits, including social security, housing fund, annual leave, and bonuses. In the year when the agents could only drink instant coffee due to budget cuts, the scientists and researchers were provided with high-end products.

The scientists at Conglomerate B are a very diverse group. Some are "non-mainstream" individuals rejected by the mainstream; some are disillusioned scientists who have spent huge sums of money from their sponsors, even bankrupting their bosses, yet have produced no results; some have ideas that are too advanced for the world to accept... amateur scientists. But it is this group of people, who have no benefits other than a basic salary and room and board, who have managed to survive on canned coffee and win.

So even though Wei Xiuming has been sent to detect unusual space phenomena around the world, S.H.I.E.L.D.. scientists have found nothing to this day.

However, family scandals are best kept private, and Nick Fury had no intention of revealing this matter. But he had many connections, and while the S.H.I.E.L.D.. research institutions hadn't discovered it, he wasn't entirely without information.

"Dr. Selvig discovered a peculiar astronomical phenomenon: nine interconnected dimensions, based on a higher-dimensional space called the World Tree, will gradually align into a straight line. At that time, the barriers between the Nine Realms will become extremely fragile, spatial ripples will appear, and some areas within the Nine Realms will even overlap." Although Dr. Selvig gestured and used various technical terms when he described it, Nick Fury relayed it in his own understanding, which, while more accessible, lacked technical rigor. "At that time, monsters from the other Nine Realms might appear on Earth using these special phenomena. Thor's example has already shown that humans are the most vulnerable of the Nine Realms."

"The time for the stars to return has come, the past is gone, the end is near... When they return, hope will return to darkness." Wei Xiuming hummed the lullaby inappropriately, then noticed Nick Fury's strange expression and said, "Continue."

"Dr. Selvig's measurements and calculations have revealed that this peculiar phenomenon will not last long and will only occur in a specific area. As long as humanity can maintain control during this period, they can safely pass through it. The next time this phenomenon occurs will be more than a thousand years from now, and whether humanity will still exist by then is uncertain," Nick Fury said. "According to Dr. Selvig's measurements, the location of this anomaly will be the Greenwich area of London."

"Then you should contact the Five Great Powers as soon as possible and have them prepare for war, just like the last time the Chitauri invaded, preparing to drop nuclear bombs on Greenwich," Wei Xiuming explained. "Earth is called Midgard because it's the bridge connecting the Nine Realms. Using Earth as a springboard, it's easy to invade other territories within the Nine Realms. Asgard was able to rule the Nine Realms, but it was through Odinforce to defeat its enemies, a result of military suppression. There must be rebellious forces in Asgard's eyes. If they attack Earth..."

"The British Empire is no longer the empire on which the sun never sets. Of the five permanent members, it is the only one without its own nuclear weapons, instead purchasing them from the United States. Its military is exhausted and it is no longer capable of fighting. But even so, the British cabinet, through its members in the World Security Council, rejected S.H.I.E.L.D..'s armed support."

"You really agree?" Wei Xiuming asked Nick Fury. "You really didn't send any secret teams there?"

"Of course, England is one of the five permanent members of the World Security Council, and it holds one-fifth of the seats in the Security Council. I will certainly give them that much face," Nick Fury said frankly. He wasn't English, so what did it matter to him what kind of losses England suffered or how many people died? Anyway, he had already warned the English through official channels, and the video conference call and emails had been saved and could be used as evidence at any time.

When the World Security Council investigated and held him accountable afterward, he simply laid out the evidence on the table and could have easily exonerated himself.

"However, I think you should take a look at Dr. Selvig." After carefully choosing his words, Nick Fury said, "He's been behaving somewhat abnormally lately... He keeps saying that there's a god in his head who's constantly teaching him the truths of the world, and now he has to rely on large doses of psychiatric drugs to stay calm and be able to communicate normally."

Dr. Selvig's situation was far worse than Nick Fury described.

To care for this mad scientist, a sanatorium under S.H.I.E.L.D.. prepared a professional team specifically for him, responsible for taking care of him and recording his ravings. Some of the seemingly random drawings and formulas contained very advanced knowledge, and some of the seemingly crazy ideas and phenomena were actually real.

This made Nick Fury, who held the idea that "the so-called gods are just aliens with technology far more advanced than humans," begin to waver and doubt whether there really were any naturally divine beings.

Of course, Dr. Selvig wasn't crazy all the time; he had his moments of normalcy, during which he would play cards, chess, and have a drink with two other elderly gentlemen at the sanatorium.

Although Dr. Selvig still occasionally uttered some strange phrases, Mr. Wednesday, who had lost an eye in World War II, and the old rogue Lee were able to keep up with him, and the three of them even chatted and laughed. But a careful analysis of their conversation was like a principal's speech at a flag-raising ceremony—it contained absolutely no valuable content.

But when Nick Fury brought Wei Xiuming to the sanatorium, the director told them some very bad news— Dr. Selvig was missing.

That happened after Dr. Selvig had another bout of madness. As a pastime, he went drinking with his two old friends again and then disappeared without a trace. The staff responsible for taking care of him searched the entire sanatorium but couldn't find any trace of him.

The surveillance footage was reviewed in the monitoring room, but there was no trace of Dr. Selvig leaving through the front door, back door, side door, or sewer. There were also no signs of anyone climbing the walls. He simply vanished into thin air.

Led by the person in charge, Nick Fury found two old friends of Dr. Selvig. These two were very good at creating a lively atmosphere, turning the originally quiet and relaxing card room into a bustling place. If you didn't know better, you would think you had walked into a lively bar.

A shaky, retired S.H.I.E.L.D.. agent, acting as the referee, shouted, "Start!"

Mr. Wednesday and Mr. Li, who wore glasses, each held a glass of beer and had a straw in their mouths. As the referee's voice fell, a small glass of strong liquor was submerged in the beer—the so-called "depth charge."

The two old men started slurping their beer through straws, while the elderly people around them waved their arms and cheered them on; they were clearly having a competition.

This was clearly not their first drink of the day. The strong smell of alcohol in the air made Nick Fury feel slightly tipsy after just a couple of breaths. He was genuinely worried that these old men might pass out at any moment—and where did the alcohol and glasses come from? This was a nursing home, and the staff were just sitting by and watching these old men have some kind of drinking contest without doing anything to stop them. What were they thinking?

The competition quickly came to a conclusion. Mr. Wednesday, wearing an eye mask, was the first to empty the bottom of his glass, slamming the beer mug down on the table with a loud "thud," signaling the end of the competition.

"In today's seventh match, our Mr. Wednesday finally won a round against Lee." The referee shakily raised Mr. Wednesday's right hand, like a referee announcing the winner after a boxing match. "But I'm sorry, Lee won six out of today's seven rounds. The winner remains him, and the power to choose the television program still rests with him!"

Mr. Li slowly finished his last sip of wine, then smiled and said to Mr. Wednesday, "Heh heh, before I retired, I worked as a bartender for a while. If I hadn't let you win, I would have won all seven rounds today."