New Official Takes Office

Time passed quickly, and a week later, it was the day Norman Osborn officially took office as Governor.

"Now, let us welcome our new Governor, Mr. Norman Osborn, to speak."

Just as Harry was growing bored, the system, which had been silent for a long time, suddenly popped up a notification.

[Detected: Norman Osborn (Trusts Host) becomes Governor of New York State]

[Social-Political Mission Tree Unlocked]

[Reward: Psionic Theory]

['Link' Vision Loaded]

[Mission Issued: Power]

[Mission Objective: Control over 50% of US Power]

[Progress: 11%]

The system's sudden activity startled Harry, but also delighted him.

It seemed his system was the dormant type—if he waited for missions to appear on their own, they wouldn't come.

Becoming the US President? That was already part of his plan.

After the system loaded the so-called 'Link' vision, it felt like he had unlocked a Sixth Sense. He could vaguely discern others' attitudes toward him.

For example, his father—in his Sixth Sense, the colors were pride and pride, mixed with some guilt.

According to the feedback from this new ability, Tony seemed to have already regarded him as a friend, though there were still some lingering doubts.

As for Psionic Theory, it discussed the existence of psionic power and included some cultivation methods similar to meditation, which Harry still needed to organize and practice.

Harry happily accepted the reward, then waved at his father.

Go for it, Dad!

"Citizens of New York State, I am honored to stand here today to deliver my inaugural address."

The day of Norman's inauguration arrived quickly, and the venue was packed with people.

"So, your father is now the Governor of New York State. Congratulations."

Tony sat down beside Harry.

To be honest, Harry didn't really want Tony here. After all, Iron Man's whereabouts attracted too much attention, and he didn't want Tony's limelight to overshadow his father.

He'd have to let the media spin it afterward.

"Thanks. So, what are you here for? Not just to say congratulations, right?"

"Of course not. This is what you asked for."

Tony handed over a disk. Inside should be the AI Harry had requested.

Seeing this, Harry smiled—who wouldn't want an AI like Jarvis?

But Harry wasn't getting this for personal use; he was going to train Leining with it.

"Nice. Hope you didn't stuff any hacking programs in there."

"Of course not. How could I?" Tony's gaze drifted into the distance. "Using a hacking program to spy on an 18-year-old kid? Of course not."

In reality, Tony had indeed installed a backdoor.

Tony thought: Kid, you're lopsided in your studies, aren't you? Let me teach you a lesson.

Harry thought: You'd better not let me catch you, or I'll have Leining deliver a dimensionality reduction strike to your Jarvis.

"Anything else?" Harry noticed Tony suddenly start fiddling with something. "You switching careers to become an Agent? What are you doing?"

Tony looked around, as if confirming no one was eavesdropping, then tapped his watch, seemingly to block any listening devices.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. Heard of it?"

Hearing Tony's words, Harry was a bit surprised: He's actually coming to me to discuss this?

"Sounds like some illegal organization. Have you heard of Hydra? A legendary dark organization. These two names seem to have the same style."

"What? Of course they're not the same thing!" Tony shook his head like a rattle-drum.

Actually, they were pretty close. Harry held back his laughter: Nick Fury's direct superior was Hydra!

"But aren't official departments supposed to be called something like 'Bureau' or 'Division'? What the hell is S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"It's an acronym. Full name is Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division. They want to form a superhero organization to..."

"To protect the world?" Harry cut in. "They invited you?"

"Yeah! They invited me to protect the world. But they need to evaluate me first."

"An intern. I get it."

The word 'intern' seemed to irritate Tony.

"What? It's just a standard assessment procedure for an organized department. You know, every Stark Industries employee also has to go through..."

"An internship. Osborn Group has that procedure too." Harry cut off Tony's machine-gun-like chatter.

Tony couldn't refute that, and suddenly felt annoyed: wasn't it that bald black guy who begged him to join? Why did he have to go through an internship first?

Taking a deep breath, Tony continued:

"Fine, intern. They invited you too, but they seem unsure about that skateboard guy's identity, so they sent me to make contact."

"I refuse."

Harry's decisive refusal nearly made Tony spit out his drink.

"What? But I think that black... no, their director's ideas are pretty close to yours."

Harry didn't deny that.

Nick Fury's thinking was indeed very similar to Harry's—he also wanted to be the driver.

But Harry didn't think he'd do any worse than Fury. Besides, what he wanted was ownership of the car; becoming the driver was just a small step along the way.

"I can do better. Simple as that. But if you want to join, I won't object."

As for Tony... at this stage, what he most wanted was probably to fly around like a superhero and bask in the adoration of thousands.

As he finished speaking, Norman's speech reached its final phase. Harry stood up first—he needed to go backstage to greet his father.

"Let us together—"

Suddenly, the situation changed. Harry keenly noticed Norman's speech slow down, his body beginning to sway—

"Welcome, a bright... tomorrow..."

Thump!

Norman collapsed to one side.

Outside the medical room, Harry paced in silence.

Norman wasn't that old. Previous health reports had shown everything normal, and there had been nothing troubling him lately.

In other words, this fainting spell had no warning signs.

But Harry still had some guesses.

Retrovirus.

However, right after Harry had transmigrated and confirmed his identity, he had checked the Osborn family history.

He hadn't heard of any hereditary disease in the Osborn family, and in his memories, only the Osborn family from the movie The Amazing Spider-Man had such a genetic condition. So he had assumed the Osborn family in this world didn't have it.

Of course, it was also possible that Norman had been infected with the virus at some unknown point.

Now he had to reconsider how to deal with this. And if Norman had been infected before Harry was born, then Harry might very well carry the virus too.

Fortunately, Doctor Connors' and Peter's blood samples were still in his hands.

"Harry..." Doctor Connors walked out of the lab. "This is a very rare condition. It's a retrovirus."

"...Doctor Connors, that means I need to be tested too."

Connors nodded. The atmosphere was oppressive.

"I understand. But Doctor Connors, I want all of this kept secret—whether it's about my father or about me."

Norman's political career was just starting. Spreading news of the illness would hinder his further development.

As for Harry, whether or not he had the retrovirus in his body, his genes would still shock Connors.