"Protest! Protest!"
"Get out of Stark Group!"
"Dirty politicians! What were you doing when the aliens invaded? You always show up after everything's been handled. Were we taxpayers paying our money for nothing?"
"Get lost, scum! I'd rather pay my taxes to Stark Group!"
Just as General Ross and Senator Stern got out of their car and slowly walked toward Stein Tower, a crowd of people had somehow begun gathering around them in addition to the clustered reporters.
There had not been many people at first, but as these people began making a commotion, passersby and those who had deliberately come to watch the spectacle gradually joined in. The protest crowd steadily grew larger.
People were forgetful, but no matter how forgetful they were, they could not possibly forget the life-or-death crisis from just two days ago.
That day, some had died on the spot. Some had lost family and friends. Some had lost their homes and been left displaced. Countless people were still immersed in grief and gratitude toward Stein Group.
All it took was the slightest provocation, or the pull of the atmosphere, for all of it to erupt.
Especially with Ross personally visiting Stein Tower in full public view—this was absolutely the most foolish decision he could have made.
Thanks to Lee Stein's preparations on the day of the Chitauri invasion, most of the credit for repelling the Chitauri fleet could be attributed to Stein Group.
Even if the military forces had immediately deployed from their bases to New York, by the time they arrived, they could only clean up the aftermath.
But that was not what most New York citizens saw. What they saw was Stein Group stepping forward at once to drive back the aliens, while the military was like the police in TV dramas,