Welcome Anytime

Welcome Anytime

In the restaurant, Stark, who had thrown up three times, finally calmed down. He sat at the bar, clutching a large glass of lemonade and gulping it down.

The way he looked at Alvin had completely changed. Alvin had become mysterious in his eyes. He was no longer the fraud who kept a few big dogs to scare customers and posed as an exorcist to swindle people.

The lucky Miss Pepper had fainted and still had not woken up. She was resting in Jessica's room.

The unlucky bodyguard, Happy, had been so frightened in the basement that he fell face-first again. Seeing his pitifully battered nose, Alvin kindly called him an ambulance.

Watching Stark sign a check and hand it to Frank, who wore the expression of a killer, Alvin fiddled with the digital camera in his hand and looked through the pictures. Hmm, they had come out very clearly.

He tapped the bar in front of Stark and said warmly, "Mr. Stark, I think the misunderstanding between us has been cleared up, hasn't it?"

Stark looked lividly at the digital camera in Alvin's hand. The pictures inside were a massive stain on his life. He had plenty of tabloid scandals, but never anything as awful as what was in those photos.

Looking at Alvin's punchable face, Stark suppressed the urge to throw a fist at him and said stiffly, "Yes, buddy. You showed me some incredible things. I think I should apologize for what I said before."

Stark glanced at the camera in Alvin's hand and said, "Buddy, name your price for those photos. I won't haggle."

Alvin shook the digital camera in his hand, put it into the cabinet beneath the bar, and said with a smile, "Mr. Stark, you're a billionaire, a genius inventor, and a philanthropist. You must be full of social responsibility, right?"

Stark could clearly sense that there was something wrong with those words, but he could not shake his head and deny them. That was not in his nature. "You're right. That person should be me."

Smiling like a seasoned pimp, Alvin patiently coaxed him. "Then I believe that a man as socially responsible as Mr. Stark would certainly be willing to show the media everything you saw today and remind the public that terrifying vampires are lurking around them."

As he spoke, Alvin tapped the spot where he had put the camera. "After all, if I were the one to show it to the media, this might turn into tabloid gossip."

Stark gritted his teeth as he looked at the smiling Alvin, deeply regretting why he had come to this damned Peace Hotel.

Stark gave an angry snort. "No problem! This is a good thing. I'll call a press conference when I get back and show the reporters what I saw today."

Stark glared at Alvin. "But you have to give me that damned digital camera of yours. I'll need some evidence to convince those reporters."

Alvin met Stark's eyes, pursed his lips, and nodded. Without hesitation, he took the digital camera from behind the bar and handed it to Stark.

Stark accepted the camera, somewhat stunned. He turned it on and took a look. It was filled with footage of him vomiting in the basement. The images were too beautiful; after looking at two, he did not want to see any more.

He raised the camera in his left hand, shook it at Alvin, and asked, "Why?"

Alvin smiled. "Because I think you have at least a basic sense of social responsibility. That wasn't sarcasm this time. When facing things like that, we should be on the same side. Our methods might just be a little different."

Glancing at the camera in Stark's hand, Alvin said, "Actually, it was just a joke."

Caught off guard by Alvin's praise, Stark was no longer as arrogant as usual. He said blankly, "You're right. We should be on the same side this time. Against these vampires, not only can I gather the media, I can also donate money to the New York Police Department to fight them."

Alvin burst out laughing. This guy had finally caught on. He had been worrying about how to pull Stark into the fight against vampires.

Alvin shook his head and said with a smile, "Actually, money is the most useless thing when dealing with vampires. If Mr. Stark is willing, it would be best if you could develop some specialized weapons. I can provide you with some references."

He asked JJ for the silver dinner knife he had been given for protection and handed it to Stark.

Stark took the dinner knife and examined it carefully, but found nothing special about it. Seeing Alvin's smiling expression, clearly waiting to answer his questions, Stark pulled a long face and studied it more carefully. Finally, he ventured, "Silver?"

Alvin gave him an approving thumbs-up. "Mr. Stark, you really are a genius! It's silver!"

Hearing that it was merely a materials issue, Stark lost interest and tossed the dinner knife onto the bar. "If it's just a materials issue, you can make them yourselves. There's no need to waste my time. How difficult could it be?"

That sounded rather punchable again. Smiling, Alvin said, "It's not difficult, but it costs a lot of money. Look at the people sitting here—does anyone look like they have more than a hundred thousand dollars in the bank?

"And the best weapon against vampires is actually sunlight. If you can invent something like a sun lamp and light up every dark corner of the world, vampires will go extinct."

Stark looked disdainfully at the poor fools in the restaurant. He had finally found his sense of superiority again. He smugly stroked his little mustache and waved a generous hand. "In that case, no problem. I can set aside a production line specifically to manufacture, hmm, silver-plated weapons and bullets. They'll be provided free for the New York Police Department."

JJ asked curiously from the side, "Why silver-plated weapons and bullets?"

Holding up the dinner knife, Stark said, "Isn't this silver-plated?"

Dumbfounded, JJ muttered to himself as he retreated to the side, "Fuck, I should've known. Why would old Kent be willing to give away pure silver cutlery?"

Not wanting JJ to embarrass himself any further, Alvin stood up solemnly and shook Stark's hand. "Thank you very much for your generosity!"

He seriously looked at the future Iron Man, who was half a head shorter than him, and said, "I truly think you're a pretty good guy now. I hope we get the chance to become friends."

Faced with Alvin's praise, Stark felt ashamed, because he was actually a little excited. Rarely serious, he said, "Nice to meet you, Alvin. You're very special!"

Stark looked over Alvin's not particularly muscular arms and said, "When I've mastered judo, I'll come back and see what other special things you can do."

Although the awkward Stark had reconciled with Alvin, he had not given up on the idea of beating Alvin up.

Perhaps all superheroes were like that. Wherever they fell, they had to get back up from there.

Alvin smiled at the unconvinced Stark. "You're welcome anytime!"