Chapter 84: The Good Guys’ War (Part 1)

With a noisy voice and flashing lights, Stark stood in front of the interview desk in a suit. As soon as he stood still, more than a dozen microphones were immediately extended to him. He stretched out his hand and pressed it down, signaling them to be patient.

"Hello, Mr. Stark, I am Brock, a special reporter for the Global Times. Mr. Stark, how do you view the doubts and accusations of disregarding human life that you have suffered for terminating your medical cooperation with the military?"

"You need to understand one thing." Stark pointed his finger at the male reporter.

"I am not going to shut down the cooperation, and with your small brain, I am afraid you cannot understand the difference between industrial medical device technology and ordinary medical technology used in hospitals..."

Although Stark looked in good spirits, his heavy dark circles betrayed the fact that he had not slept well recently.

Pepper was very busy. The smooth operation of the giant Stark Group depended on her. Since Stark fell out with the military, he has been facing various pressures from the outside world.

Just like this press conference, Stark glanced down, he knew that at least half of the people here were paid by the military, and they would ask all kinds of tricky questions like the reporter named Brock just now, trying to put all the responsibility on him.

The reporter said again: "Stark Industries is obviously not as active as Osborne Group in the research and development of medical technology. Does this mean that you are not as concerned about the development of human medicine as the leaders of Osborne Group, or that you don't have sympathy to care about those patients suffering from diseases?"

Stark glanced at his work ID, well, it seems that this man named Eddie Brock is here to find trouble.

"I don't want to get entangled with you on this issue. You'd better ask the Army General about the closure of the medical technology cooperation project."

"What about the weapons of Stark Industries? After these weapons were used in the war, you refused to develop more medical technology to save the soldiers who were injured on the battlefield. Does this mean that Stark Industries is actually only concerned with making profits from the war and is a traitor who ignores the casualties of civilians?"

The reporter named Bullock spoke very fast, and a long paragraph came out of his mouth like a machine gun. Every angle and every question hit the point. Stark thought that if there was no script given to him by the military, he would really be called a genius reporter.

When someone wants to find fault with you, no matter what you do, you will definitely be accused from all aspects.

The next day, major newspapers in New York appeared with overwhelming negative reports about Stark, among which Bullock, the gold medal reporter of the Global Times, was the most critical.

Stark knew that the military was constantly putting pressure on him in order to make him bow his head, but he knew that he had to withstand this pressure, otherwise Pepper would be isolated and helpless.

What happened during this period made him think a lot about love, friendship, and family affection.

Iron Man will never retreat, but this is not only for his lofty ideals, but also for all the people he loves.

The military's propaganda war is very useful. They not only suppress the reputation of the Stark Group, but also support the Osborn Group. The Osborn Group is originally good at biotechnology and medical technology. In comparison, the Stark Group is more proficient in military industry.

This has also become a reason for the media to attack the reputation of the Stark Group. They portray the Stark Group as an evil organization that disregards humanity and criticizes it as a human cancer, as if the world would be completely peaceful without the Stark Group.

It is impossible to say that these overwhelming negative reports have no effect on Stark. If these reports are really like gossip, all of them are groundless, then he may not be under such great pressure.

The problem is that Stark himself knows that the weapons he sold hurt many people. What the media said was not all wrong. The Stark Group originally made its fortune through war.

Stark, who had just come out of that extremely negative mood, fell into depression again.

On the other hand, during Peter's sewer exploration trip, he once again found traces of human activities in the sewer.

Since he discovered the clues last time, Peter has always been careful and will take a closer look at every inspection point. Then he found that this sewer weirdo has lived in more than one base. He seems to be running around in the sewer every day. There are traces of his life at five or six inspection points in the same block.

Following these traces, Peter began to get closer and closer to the truth. He guessed that this weirdo must have a real base at a certain intersection of these activity traces.

As the sewer map became more and more complete, Peter finally found the possible intersection, which was near a reservoir in the sewer. The four passages extending from there corresponded to four blocks with traces of activity. This weirdo might have built a base there, and then established temporary bases in several other blocks.

This is not surprising. Not everyone has the physical strength of Spider-Man to run through half of the city's sewers in one day.

The sewer is very large and the road is very long. There is no manhole cover that can lead to the ground near the reservoir. He must build a rest point between the manhole cover and the reservoir, otherwise he will not be able to walk such a long distance even if he is exhausted.

Peter also keenly discovered this point, which means that the weirdo in the sewer is likely to be just an ordinary person. He can't walk several kilometers in such a damp and dark sewer, so he needs to build multiple rest rooms in the sewers that are connected in all directions.

This gave Peter confidence, because as long as the person on the other side is an ordinary person and he catches him off guard, he will definitely catch him.

One night, Peter touched the base of the reservoir. He knew that the weirdo would definitely not be here at this time, so he pried open the door of the maintenance station near the reservoir.

Entering the maintenance station, Peter was surprised. There were bottles and jars inside, and there were many simple equipment.

Peter picked up one of the bottles and took a look. He found that it seemed to contain some biological tissue samples. He thought, who is this person? Why would he come here to conduct experiments?

He walked over the boxes piled up in a mess on the ground and went further in. It was even more incredible. There were many biological specimens inside, which looked particularly terrifying in the gloomy light.

This was just like the base of a crazy weirdo.

This person was very cautious. Apart from the materials used for the experiment, he did not leave any data or text. Peter turned around and did not find any relevant identity information.

A crazy scientist who conducted biological experiments in the New York sewers? Peter gradually sketched an evil image in his mind.

He couldn't let him go on like this. Peter thought that although the sewers in New York were not often visited, this was also the lifeline of New York. Once someone dumped some dangerous experimental waste in, the whole of New York might be in danger.

Thinking of this, Peter walked to the door, took down the waste paper boxes that were piled high at the door and were still dry, then tore up the paper shells, lit a fire, and planned to burn down this base completely.

Although the sewer was very damp, the maintenance station was relatively dry. Once the fire was lit, the whole room was soon filled with black smoke. Peter closed the door of the maintenance station and watched the fire engulf all the experimental equipment inside.

He breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, he discovered it early. Once this crazy scientist really developed some poison or poison gas, it would be too late.

Peter, who came out of the sewer, was still a little worried. He felt that although one base was destroyed, this crazy scientist might have other bases. He had to keep an eye on this place in the next few days, and it would be best if he could catch him.

In the next few days, Peter interned at Stark Group during the day and frequently went in and out of the sewer at night. Since the base was destroyed, the traces of life in the sewer seemed to have disappeared.

It seems that the crazy weirdo has given up.

Peter felt relieved. His internship was not going well recently. He found that Mr. Stark seemed very negative. He even stopped doing experiments. He smoked and drank all day. Sometimes he was drunk and fell on the floor of the laboratory. Peter had to help him up.

Peter had read the negative reports about Stark, but he didn't believe a word of it. He felt that it was completely slanderous. Iron Man was a superhero. He saved many people. He was not the inhuman devil in the mouths of the media.

Peter wanted to reverse this situation, but he didn't have any good way. He was not good at this kind of thing. He didn't even dare to make a phone call to question those reports. So he came to the psychological clinic again. He felt that Dr. Schiller must have a way to reverse public opinion.

Schiller was busy finding food for the symbiote recently.

When Peter came to the psychological clinic, Schiller was bandaging Pikachu with a bandage. When he was cooking, Pikachu jumped around on the kitchen table. Its tail fell into the pot and burned a large tuft of hair. At this time, it was lying on the table pitifully and asked Schiller to treat him.

Peter said, "Hey! Did I bother you? I can come back tomorrow..."

"It's okay, come in, I don't have anything to do right now."

Peter walked in and rubbed Pikachu's face hard. Pikachu wrinkled his nose and tried to avoid it, but Schiller still held his tail in his hand. He jumped to the side, and his tail was grabbed hard, and he fell on the table again, knocking over a bunch of cups.

"Be honest." Schiller said, "Otherwise your tail will be bald forever."

Peter sat on the chair next to him and said, "Doctor, have you read those reports recently? Those reporters are really good at talking nonsense. There are even people who swear that they saw Mr. Stark selling weapons to those terrorists, and even described the scene of their negotiation vividly..."

"This is the specialty of reporters. If you don't have this skill, you don't need to mix in the New York reporter circle."

"But they are completely spreading rumors!" Peter pounded the table angrily and said, "Mr. Stark is not that kind of person!"

"Really? If it's really a rumor, Stark's attitude should be the same as yours. You are extremely angry about your friend being rumored, and the person involved will be even more angry when facing the rumor about himself."

"Then..." Peter was choked, because what Schiller said made sense. When Thompson made up some stories about him in school, he was almost furious, but why didn't Mr. Stark get angry? Didn't he stand up and try to refute them?

You know, even he, although he is not good at speaking, still tried very hard to explain those rumors to the people around him.

"Why are you so sure that what you believe in is right?" Schiller asked him.

"Because I... But the Stark I know is not like that!"

"Maybe you only see one side of him?"

"But..." Peter clenched his fists and said, "Doctor, isn't Mr. Stark also your friend? Do you think he is really the kind of person described in those reports?"

Schiller shook his head and said, "The Stark in my eyes and the Stark in your eyes may be completely different, just like there are a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand people."

"The view of a thing always changes due to different positions. A bad person may see a good person as a bad person, and a bad person may see a bad person as a good person."

Peter hit the palm of his other hand with his fist and said, "I believe that those reporters and the Osborne Group must be bad people who see bad people as good people, because they are all birds of a feather, so they flatter each other, and those reporters must see Mr. Stark as a bad person who can't stand good people..."

"How do you define good and bad people?"

Uh... people who do good things are good people, and people who do bad things are bad people?"

"Then how do good things and bad things define it? ”

“At least… at least it must be true, not to make up rumors, and not to violate laws… and morality, and you must follow the moral bottom line, so that’s a good thing, right?”

“Do you think you haven’t violated the traffic safety law by flying around New York all day?”

“But I did it for… well, I think my starting point is good, and the purpose is good, too. I saved people, right? So it’s okay to violate a little bit of law…”

Schiller shook his head and said, “You will eventually understand that there are no completely good people or completely bad people in this world. This world is full of bad things with good starting points and results, and good things with terrible starting points and results.”

Peter scratched his head and said, “I think this is like a tongue twister.”

“If you always use a simple black-and-white way of thinking to observe the world, sooner or later you will find that these black and white are mixed into a hazy gray.”

“But good things are good things, and bad things are bad things. I just want to help more people and do more good things. "Peter said.

When leaving Schiller, Peter's head was still a little dizzy. He was a little confused by Schiller's metaphors of good and bad things. Peter's idea was very simple. He was a good person, so he had to do good things and stop bad people from doing bad things.

What's wrong with this? Isn't this a very simple truth?

Peter shook his head. He felt that he was right, and if everyone thought like him, the world would definitely be much better. The reason why there are so many crimes is that those bad people are unwilling to give up doing bad things. If everyone is a good person, then there will be no more crime in this world, right?

After walking and thinking all the way, Peter looked at his watch and found that it was still early. He had asked for leave from the internship team leader, and if he went home now, his uncle and aunt would definitely not be at home.

Peter thought about it and decided to continue his superhero career.

Finding the nearest manhole cover, Peter drilled down. He felt that for the sake of safety, he should still Patrol in the sewers to prevent the possible dangerous behavior of the Frankenstein.

However, as soon as he entered the sewer today, Peter had a creepy feeling. This feeling has not reached the level of spider sense, but it still makes his back cold.

As a last resort, he opened his backpack, put on the spider suit, hid the backpack in a corner, and continued to walk deeper into the sewer as Spider-Man.

The ubiquitous sense of crisis made Spider-Man not run as fast as before, but walk quickly. Just as he got closer and closer to the central reservoir of the city, the spider sense began to sound slightly. He was a little panicked, but he couldn't find the source of panic.

After walking for a while, suddenly, he heard a slight "hissing" sound in front of him, accompanied by a friction sound like metal scratching stone.

The spider sense suddenly moved, and Spider-Man quickly rolled to the other side and avoided a slate fragment thrown at him.

Amid the splashing of stone chips, Peter looked up and saw a huge figure appear at the end of the dark sewer.

It was a huge monster at least four or five meters high. He walked closer and Peter saw clearly with the weak light of the sewer that it was a lizard walking upright, a huge lizard man that was so tall that it almost filled the entire sewer space.

Spider-Man swallowed his saliva and found that his small body was really thin and small compared to this lizard man.

But obviously, this monster had discovered him. Peter quickly began to flee along the wall, and the huge lizard man was chasing him closely behind. Every step he took, the ground of the sewer trembled.

The lizard man roared violently and grabbed various stone slabs and threw them at Spider-Man. Spider-Man was faster than him, but not much faster. More importantly, those stone slabs made him dodge left and right, which seriously reduced his speed.

In the sewer, spider silk was not very useful. Peter could only rely on his legs to run, and creatures with two feet on the ground have a weakness, that is, once the center of gravity shifts, it is easy to fall.

In order to avoid a stone slab, Peter turned to the right, but then he was knocked down by a stone fragment from the left. Once his center of gravity was unstable, he immediately rolled on the ground several times. The huge lizard man grabbed his legs and threw him out.

Peter was thrown against the wall of the sewer. He coughed desperately twice and felt a fishy and sweet taste in his throat.

He struggled to get up and wanted to be ready to continue to deal with the tough battle that might come next, but suddenly the lizard man shook his head, seemed a little unconscious, and then he didn't care about Peter anymore, but turned around and ran away in another direction.