Marvel: A Lazy-Ass Superman Chapter 859: An Investment Deal That Fell Through

Don’t naively assume that being an angel investor is a business where you can never lose money.

Not every promising idea makes a fortune, and not every team’s abilities live up to the impressive things its members say. There was always an element of gambling involved. The only difference was that there was no house in this particular gamble, just two players cooperating with each other.

If that had been all there was to it, Henry wouldn’t have paid this man much attention. But he remembered the warning Tony Stark had taken the time to give him at Katherine Hepburn’s birthday party. The person he needed to watch out for had precisely this name.

And there was something else... Judging by his appearance, the man was a textbook example of a Frenchman. He was physically fit, looked to be in his forties or fifties, and had black curly hair and a beard. All in all, he was a rather handsome French gentleman.

That assessment, of course, was contingent on him not being the real mastermind behind the plan to kidnap Sky.

Henry couldn’t be certain whether this was the same man the street punks had identified as the person behind their operation, so he raised his guard a little. He wanted to see what the man intended to do and assess the situation carefully. Had he mistaken him for someone else, or was this bastard really the culprit?

Standing beside the bar, Henry sipped a glass of whiskey that the bartender had just poured for him. Champagne and some light cocktails were being served around the reception, but anyone who wanted hard liquor had to order it at the bar.

After exchanging greetings, the man ordered a martini, seemingly hoping to project an air of effortless composure. But the moment he turned back to Henry, he said, "Mr. Brown, we’ve actually been keeping an eye on you for quite some time."

"Heh. Plenty of people keep an eye on me, and they all have different reasons. The one thing I’ve never had is a woman who’s in love with me. So which kind are you?"

It sounded like self-deprecating humor, but there was a note of caution behind it. A sharp glint flashed through Henry’s eyes before disappearing again.

This was the old-money style of doing things: pretending not to understand what everyone else already knew. Henry simply wasn’t sure whether the other man had noticed the performance.

Ezekiel Sims acted as though he hadn’t picked up on Henry’s signal at all and casually changed the subject.

"I saw the exhibit you brought. It’s reasonably good. How much investment do you need? Name your price."

Oh? So he thinks I’ve come to an event like this to beg for money?

"That exhibit you consider reasonably good is a one-of-a-kind work of art in my eyes. Once it was finished, the only expenses were the light bulb and the electricity needed to run the motor that turns it. Even if I left it running for an entire year, would it use up a single kilowatt-hour of electricity?"

Henry’s retort sounded more like mockery than a genuine question. Behind his standard business smile lurked the contempt of someone in a superior position looking down on an inferior. This realization made Ezekiel Sims distinctly unhappy.

"Do you think you’ve secured an investment from Mrs. Mellon? I haven’t heard anything about that, and the lady has no history of engaging in commercial ventures. Wipe that expression off your face if you still want money."

"Sir, that’s exactly the point. I don’t want money," the Kryptonian replied with a piece of honest truth that nobody was willing to believe.

Sure enough, Ezekiel Sims gave a cold laugh.

"That’s the funniest joke I’ve heard in my entire life. If you don’t want money, why are you here?"

"Because Mr. Givenchy invited me."

Henry raised his intonation as though asking a question, but he was simply stating a fact.

If the invitation had come only from the Mellon family, Henry would probably have declined. But Givenchy had invited him as well, and that changed things. The retired fashion master had helped him out on numerous occasions. Henry couldn’t simply ignore the man’s goodwill.

"Besides, I don’t see what’s so appealing about running a company with someone else’s investment money. And I’m too lazy to run a company anyway," Henry added.

That was another genuine expression of his innermost thoughts. What kind of boss did someone become by starting a company with other people’s money? They were still just wage slaves! Worse, they were wage slaves who could be held legally responsible for the company’s troubles.

Did people understand what the term legal representative really meant? It was someone who could be made to take the fall and shoulder the blame! When the company made money, the profits had to be shared. When it lost money, the losses had to be swallowed. And if the company went under, other people’s investments could become your personal debts.

Unless someone went into business from the beginning intending to borrow a chicken, swallow both the chicken and its eggs, and run, anyone hoping to conduct legitimate business should think twice before borrowing money or accepting outside investment.

That was a hard-earned lesson written in the blood and tears of those who had been there before!

Just think about why the internet was full of such utter garbage masquerading as success advice. If someone had a business that genuinely made money, would they really tell everyone how to do it?

Naturally, this explanation did nothing to satisfy Ezekiel Sims. Nevertheless, he could tell that the man before him distrusted angel investors.

That distrust wasn’t surprising. The practices of many angel investors had attracted plenty of criticism. They would exploit inexperienced founding teams unfamiliar with the law, seize the businesses and achievements those teams had built, and then push the founders out.

And... Ezekiel Sims himself had done this more than a few times.

His methods were even more heavy-handed. When he set his sights on a project, few founders could refuse his investment! If the project went wrong, he had his own methods of liquidating the assets and recovering his costs.

His investment strategy was practically guaranteed to make money, allowing his business empire to grow steadily larger.

Based on this man’s past behavior, Henry was actually an excellent investment target. If the setting had been different, and if other people at a higher level hadn’t already set their sights on him, Sims might have switched to another form of "persuasion" by now.

Remembering what his partners had proposed, Ezekiel Sims reluctantly changed his pitch.

"If you aren’t interested in running your own company, I have another proposal.

"Abstergo Industries, a major international corporation, would be willing to hire you as a special researcher, with an excellent compensation package. If you don’t want to join someone else’s research team, you can propose your own research projects.

"Believe me, the protection offered by that organization is worth far more than money alone. Ordinary researchers never get access to this level of support. You would already be standing above the vast majority of people."

Henry noticed Sims’s choice of words: protection.

Considering that he had come as a representative of Abstergo, it wasn’t difficult to guess that the man had access to intelligence at a certain level. He wasn’t merely some clueless employee doing a job.

But so what? Was Abstergo really such a powerful patron worth clinging to?

In organizations held together by mutual interests, everyone inevitably had their own private agenda. Henry didn’t despise people for pursuing personal gain. What disgusted him was that those who held power had no bottom line and behaved as though they could do whatever they pleased.

He still couldn’t be certain that this Frenchman was the one directing the people who had targeted Sky. But the man’s consistently condescending attitude had already made such a terrible first impression that Henry was ready to sentence him to death on the spot.

However, Henry was a guest in someone else’s home. He had no desire to upset the hosts.

This wasn’t about sucking up to anyone or currying favor. It was simply the most basic courtesy one owed when visiting someone else’s home.

So Henry raised his glass and politely declined.

"Thank you for your generous offer, Mr. Sims. But I’m quite happy with my current work and have no desire to change jobs. Perhaps we’ll have an opportunity to work together in the future."

Having said that, he shifted his gaze elsewhere. The gesture was somewhat impolite, but his intention to refuse was unmistakable.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~