A New Governor Takes Office

Time passed quickly. A week later, the day Norman Osborn officially took office as Governor arrived.

"Now, let us welcome our new Governor, Mr. Norman Osborn, to give his speech."

Just as Harry was growing bored out of his mind, the system, which had been silent for a long time, popped up another notification.

[Detected Norman Osborn (trusts the host) becoming Governor of New York State]

[Social-Political Mission Tree unlocked]

[Reward: Psionic Theory]

['Link' vision loaded]

[Mission issued: Power]

[Mission objective: Control more than 50% of the power in the United States]

[Progress bar: 11%]

The system's sudden resurrection left Harry both startled and delighted.

It looked like his system was the type that played dead. If he waited for missions to be issued, none would appear.

Becoming US President? That had been part of his plan from the beginning.

After the system loaded the so-called "Link" vision, it seemed as though his Sixth Sense had been activated. He could vaguely identify how others felt toward him.

For example, his father appeared in his Sixth Sense as the colors of pride and satisfaction, along with a trace of guilt.

According to the feedback from this new ability, Tony seemed to already regard him as a friend, though he still had some doubts.

Psionic Theory discussed the existence of Psychic Energy and included cultivation methods similar to meditation, which Harry still needed to organize and put into practice.

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

You can do it, Dad!

"Citizens of New York State, it is my great honor to stand here today and deliver my inaugural address."

The day Norman took office soon arrived, and seats were filled everywhere.

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

Tony sat down beside Harry.

Honestly, Harry had not wanted Tony to come. Iron Man's whereabouts drew too much attention, and he did not want Tony to steal his father's spotlight.

He could only have the media work on it afterward.

"Thanks. So what did you come here for? Don't tell me you came just to congratulate me?"

"Of course not. This is what you wanted."

Tony handed him a disk. The artificial intelligence Harry had asked for should have been inside.

Seeing it, Harry smiled—who would not want an AI like Jarvis?

However, Harry was not getting this to use himself. He was getting it to train Leining.

"Not bad. I hope you didn't install any hacking programs in it."

"Of course not. How could I?" Tony's gaze drifted away. "Using hacking programs to monitor an eighteen-year-old kid? Of course not."

In reality, Tony really had installed a backdoor.

Tony thought, So you're a lopsided little genius, huh? Let me teach you a proper lesson.

Harry thought, You'd better hope I don't catch you, or I'll have Leining give your Jarvis a dimensionality-reduction strike.

"Anything else?" Harry noticed Tony suddenly fiddling with something. "Did you switch careers and become an agent? What are you doing?"

Tony looked around as though confirming that no one was eavesdropping, then tapped his watch, apparently blocking listening devices or something similar.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. Ever heard of it?"

Harry was somewhat surprised by Tony's words. He actually came to discuss this with me?

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

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

Actually, they really were pretty similar. Harry held back his laughter. Nick Fury's superior was Hydra!

"But shouldn't legitimate agencies be called something like Department of Whatever or Bureau of Whatever? What the hell is S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"It's an abbreviation. The full name is the 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 before that, they have to evaluate me."

"An intern. Got it."

The word "intern" seemed to make Tony very unhappy.

"What? This is just the assessment procedure any organized department should have. You know every Stark employee, before joining Stark Industries, also has to..."

"Intern. The Osborn Group has that procedure too." Harry stopped Tony's machine-gun mouth.

Tony could not refute that, and he suddenly became annoyed. Clearly, that Black Egg had begged him to join, so why did he have to intern first?

Taking a deep breath, Tony continued.

"Fine, intern. They invited you too, but they don't seem too sure about the identity of that skateboard guy, so they asked me to contact you."

"I refuse."

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

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

Harry did not deny that.

Nick Fury's ideas really were quite close to Harry's. He also wanted to be the driver.

But Harry did not think he would do any worse than Fury. Besides, what he wanted was ownership of the car. Becoming the driver was only a small step along the way.

"I can do better. It's that simple. But if you want to join, I don't object."

As for Tony... at this stage, what he probably wanted most was to fly around like a superhero and receive the admiration of countless people.

As he spoke, Norman's speech also reached its final stage. Harry stood up first. He was going backstage to welcome his father.

"Let us together..."

Suddenly, something changed. Harry sharply noticed that Norman's speech had slowed, and his body seemed to begin swaying—

"Welcome a wonderful... tomorrow..."

Bang!

Norman toppled to one side.

Outside the infirmary, Harry paced in silence.

Norman was not that old, and his annual medical reports had always shown everything was normal. Recently, nothing unpleasant had happened either.

In other words, this collapse had come without warning.

But Harry still had some guesses.

Retrovirus.

However, shortly after Harry had transmigrated and confirmed his identity, he had investigated the history of the Osborn family.

He had never heard that the Osborn family carried such a hereditary disease. In his memories, only the Osborn family in the film The Amazing Spider-Man had this genetic illness, so he had believed that the Osborn family in this world did not have it.

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

Now, Harry had no choice but to reconsider how to deal with this thing. And if Norman had been infected before Harry was born, then Harry himself might very well have been infected too.

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

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

"...Doctor Connors, then that means I need to undergo an examination too."

Conners nodded. The atmosphere was heavy.

"I understand. But Doctor Connors, I hope all of this can be handled in secret, for both my father and me."

Norman's political career had only just begun. News of his illness would not be beneficial to his further development.

As for Harry, whether or not he had the Retrovirus in his body, his genes would still leave Conners utterly shocked.