Stark leaned forward and asked, "What's going on?"
"I... once offended the Royal Family of Wakanda." Erik turned his head to one side and said, "I was too rash when I was young and angered the King of Wakanda. He banished me."
Stark reached out and patted his knee, saying, "It's alright, Erik. I said I would protect you. I can arrange a position for you at Stark Group. You can stay in New York legally, and no one can break through the defenses of the Stark Group to hurt you."
Seeing that Stark didn't ask about the matters in Wakanda, a hint of disappointment flashed in Erik's eyes. But he knew that this was the best outcome he could get for today. So, he stood up and hugged Stark, saying, "Thank you for taking me in, Tony. I wouldn't trouble you if I had anywhere else to go."
Stark patted Erik's arm again, indicating that he should stop talking like that. He then picked up his phone and called Uncle Obadiah.
Hearing Obadiah's name, Erik instinctively widened his eyes. After Stark finished making work arrangements and hung up the phone, Erik immediately said anxiously to Stark, "Who is Obadiah? Is he also part of Stark Group?"
"Yes, he's in charge of security now, what's wrong?"
"I heard his name from those attackers, Tony. It's very likely that he's the one who commanded them to attack you." Erik raised his voice, "He is the manipulator behind the scenes!"
But the next second he stopped because Stark showed a puzzled and slightly dissatisfied expression. Erik heard Stark say, "He's my uncle, who watched me grow up. How could he want to kill me?"
"Uncle Obadiah was my only guardian after my father died. He could have killed me when I was a child, why wait until now?"
"Alright, Erik. You must have misheard because of the stress. Uncle Obadiah must have made all the arrangements. You should report to the security department, I have to adjust some details of my experiment, so I can't accompany you."
After Stark turned and left, Erik clenched his fist and cursed under his breath.
In the Devourer Engine, Stark shook his head, saying, "As the saying goes, familiarity breeds contempt, he was a bit too anxious."
After taking a sip of his drink at the bar, Nick said, "That's not all, his skill level is far below Shiller's."
Stark turned his head to look at Nick. He was never good at these things, and everyone was looking at Nick, waiting to hear the opinion of the King of Special Agents.
Nick raised a finger and said, "I am not deliberately belittling him, but Shiller is a born manipulator. In terms of controlling people's minds and influencing their behaviors, I have never seen anyone stronger than him. It's because he has a special talent."
"This Erik clearly also has a psychological disorder. These types of people are charismatic to ordinary people and therefore can easily influence others' actions."
"But from what I can see now, Erik is just a talented, inexperienced calf. They usually get a taste of the benefits of manipulating others and feel like it's the best shortcut and then they can't stop."
"But manipulating people is a profound knowledge." Nick shook his head, somewhat sentimentally said, "The biggest reason why people like them can never achieve great success is that they do not understand the nature of manipulation, or they understand but can't do it."
"How so?" Stark perked up his ears.
"They cannot love." Natasha tapped her cheek with a finger, "Psychopaths are incapable of love."
"So, once they have this ability, nobody can resist their manipulation." Nick said, "This is the number one reason why Shiller can make everyone act according to his plan, he is a psychopath who can love."
"You might think that Erik's emotional expressions are also very apt, but almost all of his emotions are performed to mask their cold-blooded nature."
"But the fake is ultimately fake. If it were someone else, it would be fine, but it happens to be Tony Stark." Nick looked at Stark and said, "Your emotions are too rich, which leads your emotional receptors to naturally be more powerful than others. You can notice every subtle emotional change, and almost no one can deceive you in this regard."
After a moment of silence, Stark said, "Shiller's affection for me and for all of us and the entire human civilization is definitely not fake. I can clearly feel it. It may be a bit intense at times, but it is real, surging, and fiery … Just like staring straight at the sun."
"Exactly." Nick tapped the bar table with his hand and said, "At least in terms of love, his emotions are real, and with him as a comparison, Tony Stark can better distinguish between true and false."
"And the most important point." T'Challa began, "This is also why I said Erik cannot be the king of Wakanda. He always thinks he's clever and focuses on superficial effort, but he overlooks the core of the problem."
T'Challa poured Nick another glass of wine and continued, "Shiller set up this series of traps with the ultimate goal of drawing Stark's attention to Pierce."
"Why would he do that?" Eddie, who was sitting on the sofa, asked.
And Venom's deep voice sounded, "Because there needs to be a powerful enough enemy to build a united front."
T'Challa nodded and said, "That's right. The terrifying news that the S.H.I.E.L.D Director is Hydra allows Tony to temporarily tolerate all minor actions, because only by gathering enough allies can we defeat Pierce."
"In which case, the conflict between Tony and Obadiah won't break out, most importantly, this makes Shiller valuable."
"Given Tony's character, he would not let Pierce off easily. But he is not the kind of person who commits assassination. He will definitely want to bring Pierce to justice in a legitimate way, so he needs evidence."
"But this news came too suddenly. The only breakthrough that Tony could think of to collect evidence was Shiller."
Nick smiled and said, "This could be called the highest level of method for cultivating Stockholm Syndrome patients. There's no need for isolation, no need for the individual to be present, but it can attract all of the other party's attention and even create more pressure than a confined space, ushering in the transformation of concepts."
T'Challa continued to explain, "Shiller confessed to being part of Hydra long ago, but Tony chose to accept him and even to rescue him at all costs. That's because Shiller managed to unify emotional value with the value of benefits."
"And what Erik failed to grasp is that he hopes to have emotional value but fails to create value in terms of benefits. He tends to exchange emotional value for value in terms of benefits, but this can only yield meager profits."
T'Challa mused over the bottle of wine and said, "Humanity prides itself on being emotionally rich animals. Yet history tells us, time and time again, that whenever forced to choose, humans always prioritize benefits over feelings. We are colder than we think."
"If in a relationship, one person can only provide emotional value and yet they keep asking for benefits using sentiments, then that relationship will crack sooner or later."