On the rooftop of Stark Building, Shiller corked a jar housing a mass of black slime, Gray mist was communicating with Venom through brainwaves. Venom said, "Do you feel any remorse for deceiving such an innocent kid?"
"As if you're not an accomplice. If it were not for his lack of negative emotions, insufficient to trigger fear and chaos, I wouldn't have thought of such a desperate measure."
"Moreover..." Shiller paused and said to Venom, "I've found that you have potential movie-making talent, the scenes of Stark's death that you conjured up really scared Peter."
"I know that crappy guy too well, he only has one trick, and sooner or later it will come true."
Shiller sighed, seeming to relax a bit as he said, "It surprised me that those guys from the multiverse would arrive so early. Without scaring them off with the deceit, we would have never had peace again."
Venom replied, "Our deal is complete, now you can let me choose my own host, right?"
"Sure, but considering your risk and unpredictability, you can only choose from those you have already parasitized."
"So, who will you choose? Stark? Bruce? Or..."
"The reporter!! I choose the reporter!!" Venom shouted simply.
"Oh, I almost forgot, you have parasitized a human reporter. Okay, I'll ship you to his place tomorrow."
"Like we agreed, you'd better not casually change hosts and don't go around eating people's heads, otherwise, I'll let the Gray mist bite you."
Venom emitted a nasal sound similar to Stark's, full of reluctant emotion.
Shiller stood on the roof for a while. Soon, he heard footsteps from behind. Nick walked over and leaned beside Shiller, saying, "This has caused a lot of commotion, hasn't it?"
"Has it exceeded your expectations, Director General?"
"I'm no Director General, just like you're not a stagehand, are you?"
"Am I not?" Shiller didn't look at Nick, he kept gazing at the lights in the New York City skyline and said, "And don't tell me that the increasingly widespread faith in Bat God growing among the vampires over the years is just a coincidence."
"And don't tell me the prophecy of the Bat God descending, coincidentally circulating just before the General Election because the Moderate Faction wants to manipulate the results, is also a coincidence."
"Who knows, there are just so many coincidences in this world."
"Yes, the exclusive coincidences of S.H.I.E.L.D., everything eventually falls into your interpretation."
"Let's talk about the good news now." Nick crossed his arms, "The bats infected by the Lizard Serum can't be used anymore, right? The raw materials are becoming scarcer, and our production has hit a snag..."
"Where's the location of the nursing home?"
"Still Manhattan, you know, it's closer to their homes."
"However, there's no time to build a new nursing home, there's an old bank from the 1930s, and its new owner has run off because they couldn't afford the inheritance tax, construction will begin tomorrow."
"How many usable bat materials do we have left?"
"The police and the SHIELD Agents suffered severe casualties on the battlefield, the number of people we could send out for the hunt is less than one-tenth of what it used to be, and many of them are new recruits who can't even hold a gun properly. We don't have many Freeze Guns left, nothing we can do..."
"How many did you report?"
"Only 12 left. We only have 12 valuable bat materials with the Eternal Life Factor left." Nick shrugged.
"That's too many." Shiller said without a second thought, "We will keep two. Connors has a good long-term freezing technology, freeze the remaining 10 for now, store them in your SHIELD warehouse till the price is inflated a thousand times, and then sell them slowly."
"Isn't that a bit of an exaggeration? A few thousand armed police and hundreds of SHIELD Agents, and only two were captured during the bat's defeat?"
"A few thousand people, hundreds of Agents? You're underrating the severity of this war, by the end, only 10 armed police and one Agent was left for the hunt, does that not sound too exaggerated now?"
"Okay, but the problem is, Natasha, Coulson, Hawkeye and Daisy will have to go out for missions after some time, who are you planning to sacrifice among them?" Nick asked.
"And don't think about using an injury as an excuse again, Hawkeye has been injured over 80 times this year, exceeding his insurance quota by 4 times, and Daisy has also been seriously injured over 20 times..."
Shiller rubbed his forehead and said, "It's not even summer yet, and you've exhausted their quotas, don't you plan on saving some margin for unexpected situations at all?"
"Unexpected situations? Every day is an unexpected situation at SHIELD."
"Alright, if you are willing to give me a little more consultation fee, I can go and persuade Osborn and Stark to take on the Brooklyn Bridge reconstruction project."
"In the name of charity? There's not much room to manoeuvre there since everyone can see the bridge construction."
"If a charity act of this scale isn't satisfying your conditions, then launch an even larger one, you should know more about this ensemble than me..." Shiller explained with a gesture.
"Dispatch war correspondents to the field, photograph the postwar ruins, promote the severity of war, mobilize charity organizations, host fundraising dinners, they'll involve celebrities, influencers, brands, political factions..."
"If everything else is not enough, declare sanctions against the vampires."
Nick sighed, "So far, our policy is still conservative for a host of reasons, the UN Security Council will not agree to impose massive sanctions."
"If you're willing to split one of the only two precious raw materials you have with them, I think they'll be tempted?"
"You plan to deceive your own people?"
"Stop talking nonsense, there are only two in the first place, the remaining 10 are the emergency reserve funds of S.H.I.E.L.D., they just haven't had time to liquidate them."
On top of Stark's building, Shiller and Nick were staring at the brilliant night view of New York together. Inside the Stark Building, Stark was lying in a hospital bed, all wrapped up like a mummy. He watched Peter pacing back and forth in front of him, and said, "Hey, stop turning, you're making my head dizzy."
"When will that doctor come? With the current time, there should be no traffic jam, right?"
As soon as Peter's voice fell, Dr. Strange's voice came from outside the door accompanied by footsteps, he said, "I wish what I see right now is the corpse of a man named Stark."
He walked in, looking sleepy, obviously roused from his bed in the middle of the night. Annoyed, he straightened the monitor next to him. Peter leaned in and asked, "Dr. Strange, Mr. Stark should be okay, right? His injuries are a bit heavy..."
"If he was really injured badly, you'd be seeing a priest, not me."
Dr. Strange abruptly pulled out the pillow supporting Stark, causing Stark's head to knock on the corner of the bed. He screamed, "You quack! Are you trying to murder me?!"
"I may be ruthless, but I am absolutely not incompetent."
Stark mumbled a few words, "All you doctors are the same..."
"Alright, the checkup is over, you're fine, should be able to live till you die, pay me, then send me home to sleep."
Stark looked him up and down, "What did you check? You just turned the machine on and off again. Don't think I don't know this stuff. Who do you think you're dealing with? I am Stark, don't try to fool me."
Dr. Strange said impatiently: "Then you can check yourself, send me home."
"Don't rush off, I have a big business deal to discuss with you." Shiller appeared at the door and handed Dr. Strange a plan. Dr. Strange took a look, he said, "Stark-Osborn United Pharmaceuticals, Chief Consultant Appointment Statement?"
"What the hell is this company?" Dr. Strange looked puzzled. "I don't remember hearing about Stark and Osborn joining together, and it's a pharmaceutical company?"
He flipped through the appointment statement, then said, "And, I am a neurosurgeon, I won't be selling drugs."
"You might want to flip to the last page and look at that number."
Dr. Strange glanced at Shiller, then with some doubt, flipped to the last page of the appointment statement, and focused his gaze on that number.
Within a second, he had closed the appointment statement. He cleared his throat, straightened his collar, stuffed the appointment statement into his briefcase, and said, "I am currently employed by the New York Elderly Association Hospital, and the contract term is not over yet, you cannot ask me to violate my contract spirit."
"I know, of course I know, I am also a person with a strong contract spirit." Shiller said with a smile, "The staff coffee shop upstairs should still be open. We might as well talk more there."
After the two doctors left, Stark and Peter stared at each other. Stark said, "So, my examination?"
At this moment, Connors walked in. Upon hearing Stark's words, he said, "Although it's been several years since my last clinical study, I can still manage to do you a check-up."
"Oh, no! Wait! No need, I think I'm okay!"
"Don't worry, I have rich battlefield medical experience." Saying this, he approached and lowered the upper part of Stark's hospital bed in one move. Stark yelled in pain from the sudden drop.
Peter hesitated to step forward and stop Connors' brutal act, but Connors glanced at him and said, "Peter, Dr. Ethan called you upstairs, there might be something."
Peter hesitated for a few seconds, first looked at Stark, who was wrapped in bandages, and then looked at Connors, whose scales had not subsided. Then he ran away in front of Stark's resentful eyes.
Stark hit the bed board with the only functioning hand he had, "This ungrateful kid! If it wasn't for his rescue! How would I be injured like this?"
Connors was holding a diagnosis report, "Now, I have good news and bad news, which one do you want to hear first?"
"Don't play these games with me, just say them both."
"The good news is that there is not much problem with your spine and nervous system, and the bad news is that there's a problem with that thing in your chest."
Stark stiffened for a moment, he said, "There's no problem with this thing in my chest either."
"Ethan explained to me a bit about the principle of the reactor in your chest. Although my strength lies in biology, I have some knowledge about machinery and physics. Your physical examination report tells me that there is a big problem with this thing."
"You pursued to provide more power to the Mecha using too many palladium elements. As far as I can see, if you don't work out a solution, you will die of poisoning sooner or later."
Stark turned his head; it was clear he didn't want to discuss this issue. Connors put the report down and looked into Stark's eyes, "You understand this more clearly than anyone else, but you are persistent in your habit. I believe your friends must have advised you before, but you were the most stubborn one I've ever seen."