Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics Chapter 6079 - 5094: Fighter’s Fate (40)

This just highlights the downside of talking only about money and not about feelings. People often say "The wise don’t fall in love," but not being tied down by emotions also means that when you want to use emotions to tie down others, you can’t do it either.

In fact, the original Iron Man and Pepper did have feelings, but it wasn’t entirely love. Because in most cases, love is exclusive, and it’s hard for two people in an open relationship to be called love.

In the original relationship between Iron Man and Pepper, Iron Man showed a sense of dependency on Pepper. Due to his parents’ early death and his personal tumultuous experiences, Iron Man instinctively sought a sense of security in a relationship, and Pepper was the person who could provide him with that security. And the way he expressed his love was by entrusting everything in his personal life to her.

As for Pepper’s feelings towards Iron Man, it was more like admiration. She loved his inspiration and talent, but that wasn’t the most important thing; the most important was her admiration for his courage and kindness. Simply put, Pepper fell in love with Iron Man’s ideals, wanting to use her own strength to help him make the world a better place, and thus she was willing to take over his personal life and assist him wholeheartedly.

Unfortunately, the White Can had no grand ideals and also couldn’t see very far down the path of evil. In other words, the emotional aspect that could most deeply move Pepper was gone, and the two naturally only had a purely interest-based relationship left.

It’s often said that the most stable relationship is an interest-based relationship, but in reality, the most fragile relationship is also based on interests. Once common interests are lacking, the alliance collapses instantly. The person who collaborates with you for the sake of interest will go cooperate with someone else for even greater interest, just like Pepper.

Iron Man insisted on transitioning the group while Pepper was adamant against it, mainly because Pepper had no other options at the time. The remaining groups may not be better than Stark Group, and their prospects may not be better than the Extremis Virus. If Pepper switched jobs, starting from scratch would be even harder, so she tried everything to change Iron Man’s mind.

But now she has a better choice. Pamela came up with technology with a broader impact and greater operational potential than the Extremis Virus, and it happened to be a startup that lacked managerial talent. The other party’s character and attitude seemed good too, so naturally, Pepper was inclined to give up Stark Group and find a way to join Aisley Group because it would bring her more considerable benefits.

However, on the flip side, Stark Group would be in trouble. Remember, Iron Man could actually directly fire Pepper. Regarding the group’s transition, he disagreed with Pepper, so he could effectively dismiss Pepper and do it himself, but he didn’t because it wouldn’t work without Pepper.

This is also one of the dilemmas of American company development. Due to the excessively complex economic situation of the entire country and the intricately established laws, the pressure is at its peak in business operations, leading to the position of technical talents being far inferior to managerial and administrative talents.

A company might not have technology but cannot afford poor operations. Conversely, without technology, as long as your operational methods are high-handed, you can still stand firm; even if it’s pure deception, as long as you can manage, you can swindle quite a sum.

All technology must rely on professional operations to shine, leading to the long-term exploitation of many technical talents. Because if you don’t listen to those operators, your technology, no matter how good, can’t be promoted.

And management needs connections, connections require background. Managers like Pepper, who climbed up from the bottom, are a minority. Most professional managers are either rich or noble, can attend a good university, make more connections, mix with various fraternities, and a small group can firmly control the operations of companies in a region.

Any technology in this area will be monopolized by them. If you don’t let us operate for you, your thing won’t see the light of day in this lifetime, leading to much technology being overly commercialized, and technical talents moving towards economic operations.

This actually has its benefits, as the operation model is very mature, allowing much technology to quickly realize profits. You often hear about studios and companies being acquired by certain giants, which is a very mature pipeline, providing stable income for many original creators.

But the downside is also evident—that is, they focus on appearance, not substance. As long as you can create hype and marketing, the real quality doesn’t matter. Doing technology requires years of investment, but marketing can quickly earn money. So, over time, no one wants to work diligently on technology.

Especially in the internet age, viral marketing thrives, and flow is the quickest way to monetize. Even a shell company’s shell isn’t needed; as long as you can market, even a piece of crap can sell at a high price, further discouraging genuine craftsmanship.

The gap in technical talent worldwide is partly due to this, but it’s especially severe in America. In a consumerism-dominated country, few can resist the temptation of fast money, smart people are all studying economics, the financial industry is oversaturated, and all other industries lack talent.

Iron Man and Pepper are also in this situation. Not to mention anything else, convincing company shareholders and other managers to transition to the biology and chemistry fields couldn’t do without Pepper’s persuasive words; if she didn’t help, Iron Man might not be able to handle the others in the company.

He is very knowledgeable about technology, but his understanding ends there. You want him to deal with investor profiling, return on investment, and such; he doesn’t even know where to start. He doesn’t even know if the person he hired is doing it right because doing these things requires deep experience and connections.

If you’re not in the circle, it’s hard to know what kind of things investors are interested in, how much money they have, what their return expectations are, let alone market research. Without useful people, it’s impossible to find real data.

Even the data isn’t absolute; each item is biased. Only experience can judge which information in a set of materials can be used and which cannot. Not to mention legal risks; asking the legal team reveals there are risks everywhere, but which are genuine threats, which have exploitable loopholes, which must be exploited, and how the returns and risk probabilities weigh, all require experienced judgment.

Iron Man isn’t good at these things, yet unfortunately, most of the shareholders and investors are focused on them. They don’t understand technology, and they don’t care whether it’s good or not. They only care about the economic charts and whether the data aligns with the forecasts.

Even if you can turn the entire human race into supermen in the next second, if the return rate isn’t good, they’ll treat your technology as trash. It sounds ridiculous, but that’s really how big companies operate.

Iron Man isn’t some fledgling rookie anymore, or rather, as the purest American old money, he understands these things better than anyone. That’s why he was so anxious. If Pamela really poached Pepper away, he’d be completely doomed.

At this moment, Pamela also noticed the figure outside the window. Although Iron Man was flying alongside the wall, trying to hide from the two of them, Pamela caught a reflection from the mecha and immediately realized someone was outside.

She gestured to Pepper to calm down, then walked to the window, knocking on it to get Iron Man’s attention.

Iron Man had just flown over, trying to say something, when a thick vine smacked right onto the mecha. With a slap, Iron Man was sent flying. Pamela darted out, and another vine lashed out before Iron Man could adjust, spinning him like a top.

Brainiac wasn’t really messing with him, but Iron Man really wasn’t winning. Pamela’s abilities are just too tricky. She’s a Poison Ivy not using toxins but resorting to physical attacks. The vines flourish like springtime, pulling at a hand here, a leg there. Iron Man couldn’t adjust his posture before Pamela swung him directly to the ground.

On the ground, even more so the plants’ domain, an endless burst of vines wrapped Iron Man tightly. Pamela took out her phone and said:

"Hello, Ms. Bozi? Rest assured, I gave your ex-boyfriend a good beating... No no no, don’t misunderstand, it’s not to vent your anger; I mainly can’t stand him stirring up a civil war among superheroes..."

Iron Man was so frustrated he discarded the mecha. He realized this iron shell wasn’t as effective as his own skills. As he got out of the mecha, Pamela indeed hesitated. She wasn’t sure about Iron Man’s physique. What if he was just an ordinary person and easy to accidentally kill, so she let him escape.

Of course, Brainiac controlled the mecha to chase after Iron Man, saying, don’t leave me behind when fighting Pamela. If you’re not wearing the mecha, how can I mock you?

Iron Man could be described as escaping back to Stark Building in a state of disarray. The more he thought about it, the angrier he got, the more resentful he felt. I have issues with Pepper; why are you, an outsider, stirring trouble?

Iron Man vigorously scratched his head. Fighting was definitely out of the question, not to mention anything else. With New York City’s greenery so well maintained and her ability to control plants, battling her in this city would turn the world against him.

The Rebirth Alliance was also a major problem. If they fought, the Rebirth Alliance would surely back Pamela. At that time, Pamela could use street trees to fight him. Lose and get beaten, win and get charged with vandalism. Where could he find justice?

Iron Man sat back in the chair. So much had happened recently; he hadn’t had the time to think properly. The Extremis Virus greatly enhanced his brain’s computational power, but as they say, even a super brain isn’t omnipotent. He needed space to think, to derive a solution.

Iron Man didn’t feel something was wrong, but one unexpected event after another left him no time to analyze. But now, if he didn’t think things through, he’d really never get back up.

But as the saying goes, a leopard can’t change its spots. Character flaws are the deadliest kind. As long as the personality flaw is big enough, a person can possess both high intelligence and a myopic vision. Iron Man was an arrogant man; he racked his brain and could only feel that everyone was targeting him.

Reality’s iron fist told him that this conclusion was wrong. He couldn’t treat everyone as the enemy. He had to find a way out from this mess, who could he truly rely on?

Unlike other Iron Man, at this moment, White Can thought of someone else.

He paused and picked up the phone, saying:

"Shiller, where are you? I want to talk to you."