Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics Chapter 5973 - 4992: Forward Yueke Forward (10)

"Tony, I completely understand your concern." Carter was the first to say. "In fact, there aren’t many reliable gods on Earth. We’ve been through so much in our universe, and just the ones killed are numerous. It’s normal for you to have doubts about them."

"But, do we have any better options?" Carter tried to soften his tone as much as possible. "We’re not thinking that this situation is already perfect, but the Earth really can’t afford another civil war in such a short time."

"Mr. Stark," Peter also spoke up: "Have you ever paid attention to the interns at Stark Group? Those who can intern there are often the cream of the crop. What about the food stall vendors in the alleys surrounding Stark Group? The convenience store owners? The city cleaners?"

"Let me give an example. When my uncle was still alive, once, whether it was a superhero fight or a mutant ability explosion, the road he took to work suddenly collapsed, causing him to be late and miss an urgent repair job. This resulted in him losing his weekly wage, which was about 600 US dollars back then. Although it was considered a blue-collar wage, it doesn’t seem like much to you, right?"

"But this had a series of impacts. That year, New York had a harsh winter, firewood was snatched up in an instant, and the fireplace wouldn’t work at all. The electricity bill for the heater increased by 1.5 times, and the power company raised the electricity prices under the pretext of a snowstorm. And at that time, I still had to pay for book fees; we could only choose one."

"My uncle chose to pay for my book fees and sent me to stay at another classmate’s house. He got some firewood through friends, but the quality was poor, so they could only lay on the floor near the fireplace. Just one winter, and my aunt developed rheumatoid arthritis, leaving her with a severe back pain. And we obviously couldn’t afford therapy."

"The irony is, the one who cured her of this ailment was the assassin Kingpin hired to shoot her. She died, and I made a deal with Mephisto. After she was resurrected, she no longer had back pain."

Peter lowered his eyelids and said, "Sometimes, maintaining surface peace is unacceptable to many people, they see it as appeasement. Because their lives have a high tolerance for errors, even if a few more fights break out, you can rebuild the Stark Building. But ordinary people really lose their jobs and become homeless because roads are repeatedly destroyed."

"I’m not as stupid as you think." Iron Man retorted: "Stark Group has countless charity projects, and I use my technology to ensure the money goes where it should. I’m sorry for what your aunt went through, but I’m not the kind of person you think who doesn’t care about the people at the bottom. I support the registration act because I want to protect the rights of ordinary people!"

"It’s precisely because I care about the broader public that I can’t let this guy rule us." Iron Man stared hard at Thor. "We would notice if the superheroes disappeared. But what about ordinary people?"

"Why would I want to make ordinary people disappear?" Thor rebuffed him.

"Have you never done it?" Iron Man snorted coldly. "How did you treat Lady Jane Foster? It’s that you seduced her without regard for your own identity. Your brother sent people to interfere with your relationship, causing her psychological harm, and your foolish father even sent people to kidnap her, under the guise of a test."

"None of your family really takes humans seriously. In your eyes, humans are just toys to be manipulated at will, using immortality and divine power as temptation. But in the end, did Ms. Foster get any of these?"

"She went through so many dangers and so much emotional harm. Do you think that by erasing her memory in the end, everything can just be as if it never happened?! Thor, answer me. What evidence do you have to prove you won’t play with other humans’ feelings just like you did with Ms. Foster?!"

Thor was left dumbfounded. Spider-Man immediately sensed things were not looking good and said, "Don’t listen to him, he’s just a madman. I just had a few words with a classmate, and he rushed in and hit me..."

"You ungrateful brat! Fool!" Iron Man shouted angrily. "I thought your betrayal was the dumbest decision you’d make, but I didn’t expect what you did today to surpass my understanding. On your first day at school, you almost got into a fight with a classmate."

"That’s because he tried to steal my suitcase," Bruce said. "I just wanted to restrain him first."

"You brainless moron! Didn’t you notice that the place you were in conveniently had no surveillance, and there was an accomplice at the corner secretly filming? They just wanted to capture Bruce Wayne, heir to Wayne Enterprises, bullying a classmate to blackmail your dad for money!"

Spider-Man was stunned. Peter couldn’t help but rub his forehead. This kid was still lacking a bit in the alertness department, but thinking back to when he first became Spider-Man, he was also a reckless one causing much bigger troubles, so it was understandable.

Then Iron Man turned to Carter: "How long will a temporary measure be temporary? Do you treat not making any plans or precautions at all as a temporary measure? I must state, I never blame Batman for being suspicious, because working with you people, I’d rather live in the Batcave!"

"Fine, suppose you want to guard against Thor, why are you fighting with Bruce?" Peter asked.

"I suspect this group was sent by Thor," Iron Man suddenly changed his tone, saying whatever came to mind. "He wants to dismantle the Rebirth Alliance from within so no one can guard against him anymore. The easiest target is Spider-Man, so of course, he wants to first catch something on him to use as leverage or release the photos publicly to severely damage Spider-Man’s reputation."

Thor couldn’t help but cover his forehead. He found this Iron Man peculiar, sometimes clear-headed, sometimes mad. His reasoning about him and Foster was legitimate and not entirely fallacious, but when it came to Bruce, it was completely illogical.

"Then why don’t I just control Spider-Man directly?" Thor asked. "You know I have the ability to do that."

"Look at you! Look at you!" Iron Man jumped and shouted. "In front of so many people, he’s already starting to make threats! Where did you take Reed and the others?! Did you secretly execute them? Why can’t I get through to them on the phone?"

"They’re in Jotunheim, how could you get through on the phone?" Thor explained helplessly.

"You were the one who blocked Jotunheim!" Iron Man roared. "You think we’re the kind of idiots who can’t master cross-realm communication technology?!"

Carter was really at her limit: "Tony Stark!" She slammed the table. "Pepper was right, you’re a lunatic! Reed almost destroyed this universe, and you’re still defending him?"

"I didn’t say he shouldn’t stand trial, but why should he be judged by him?" Iron Man pointed at Thor. "He’s always been watching me, monitoring me, trying to steal my technology, and wants to isolate us! Why don’t you guys understand?!"

"Mr. Stark," Shiller finally spoke up again. "I know that a god truly controlling the Nine Major Kingdoms brings you a lot of pressure. This pressure makes you very anxious, and you have some persecutory delusions."

"This isn’t just a symptom, he’s a persecutory delusion patient!" Carter said through gritted teeth. "He should be in Arkham Asylum!"

Obviously, Iron Man’s previous intention to defend Reed had completely angered Carter. Peter quickly grabbed this lady and quietly comforted her. After all, this was a mediation scene, not suitable for overly aggressive words.

"I don’t care what you all think, I’ll find the evidence," Iron Man said. "If anything happens to me during this period, it must be his doing. Please remember that!"

After saying this, Iron Man was about to leave, but found himself still wearing handcuffs. He started to struggle violently despite the restraints, but after all, his body was just mortal flesh, and with the violent struggle, both wrists were bloody. The crowd hurried forward to restrain him.

For some reason, Iron Man’s strength became great, and Peter and Carter could not hold him down. Thor wanted to help, but found Iron Man staring at him, afraid of being falsely accused, so he didn’t dare to step in. In the end, Spider-Man subdued Iron Man.

"He’s definitely having an episode," Peter said. "We can’t let this go on. Professor Shiller..."

Shiller frowned, seemingly evaluating, then said, "Indeed, if before it was just a tendency towards persecutory delusion, then this sudden self-harm and aggression can be diagnosed as persecutory delusion. However, I don’t believe the Stark Group’s medical team can’t solve this issue. If he was sent to a psychiatric hospital, public opinion and stock prices would likely fluctuate sharply. It’s best to let Stark handle it internally."

Carter calmed down, and upon thinking, it made sense. Iron Man’s unique point is that he’s also a billionaire. Such a person’s every move concerns people’s livelihood; truly angering the Stark Group would also harm Stark Group employees, wouldn’t it? Not to mention the numerous industry chains and workers upstream and downstream?

She made a call. Not long after, Stark Group sent someone over, but not Pepper. Now Pepper no longer serves as Iron Man’s personal assistant, but the person who came was very professional, brought a medical team’s doctor to bandage Iron Man’s wrists, and then carried him onto a stretcher.

Peter watched him leave, sighed deeply, and turned to comfort Spider-Man, saying, "He might just be having an episode, don’t take it to heart."

"Actually, if he came over to remind me, I’d be grateful to him," Spider-Man said. "Maybe I overreacted; him waving might not have been to hit me, just to stop me from touching that guy stealing luggage."

"An expert will evaluate him," Carter said. "If he truly has serious persecutory delusions, he might need treatment. The strategic security department he heads will also need a new leader and a handover. But we already don’t have enough manpower..."

As he spoke, his eyes shifted to Peter. Peter slightly widened his eyes: "I no longer have superpowers..."

"Then how did you hold them back?" Carter said, arms crossed, looking at him. "If I hadn’t seen you use magic, I wouldn’t have known that our Dr. Parker is actually a mage. Who did you learn from?"

Peter glanced at Shiller but didn’t dare to say anything, coughed a few times, and said, "Self-taught, self-taught."