I Became Spider-Man's Cousin in Anime Crossover

Chapter 241 [Two Chapters Combined] Closing the Weapons Department

"Something else... Oh, I remember now."

Under Tony's persistent questioning, Pepper frowned and began to think carefully.

After a brief silence, Pepper mimicked the other person's tone and answered truthfully.

"He also said, 'Congratulations on your successful escape, and I hope you remember this experience and don't continue to waste your life.' And..."

Pay more attention to the people around you.

"...That lecturing tone...it sounds like something he would say. All these years have passed, and he still treats me like a child?"

Almost as soon as Pepper finished speaking, Tony's eyes changed from initial doubt to meaningful certainty.

Therefore, his gaze was complex, and after muttering to himself, Tony, who wasn't stupid and had personally experienced the wickedness of human nature during these three months of crisis, immediately realized that what the other person wanted to express was not just to make Tony value the feelings of those around him...

In a sense, this can be seen as a warning, reminding him that even if he returns to the United States, he is not completely out of danger.

With his thoughts racing, Tony had already formed a rough guess. He strode forward and got into the Rolls-Royce Phantom driven by Happy, which had come to pick him up to return to Stark Industries headquarters.

next second...

Before Happy could even say hello and celebrate his safe return.

Or perhaps it was Pepper Potts who got into the car right after, trying to get Happy to drive to the hospital for Tony to receive further treatment.

Tony, like a child holding his breath, eager to prove himself to his elders, beat the two to the punch and gave the order in a huff.

"Alright, enough chit-chat... Hogan, drive me to the press conference."

"I still have a lot of work to do."

……

A short time later, at Stark Industries headquarters in New York City.

As the Rolls-Royce Phantom drove into the scene, the reporters who had been waiting there for a long time, upon learning of Tony's return, burst into applause to celebrate Tony Stark's return.

Of course, not everyone was happy about Tony's return.

For example, Obadiah, who orchestrated this kidnapping.

It's important to understand that Tony's return means Obadiah must relinquish control of the situation back to Tony! He'll once again become a tool for Tony to boss around and clean up his messes!

So much so that when Obadiah learned that the terrorists he had hired not only failed to kill Tony on the spot, but also gave him a chance to escape, he cursed them all night long!

Even the reason Obadiah finally stopped cursing wasn't because he'd had enough. It was simply that dawn was breaking, and Tony was almost back. As the second-in-command, he had to greet him, which forced him to suppress his rage!

That's why it's obvious that Obadiah, who rarely wears glasses, wore a pair of huge sunglasses to cover the dark circles under his eyes from staying up all night when he greeted Tony.

Tony was thoughtful about Obadiah's unusual behavior, but chose not to point it out.

After that, while feigning concern and pretending not to know anything, she chatted casually with Obadiah, and walked into the Stark Industries lobby surrounded by the crowd.

Of course, during this time, Blackie, upon learning of Tony's return, was also very curious about how Tony had escaped from the terrorist hideout without any weapons or equipment. And with his excellent intuition, he keenly sensed that Tony must have mastered some incredible new weapon in those short three months.

So, aside from industry heavyweights like J. Jonah Jameson who were formally invited to attend the press conference, Coulson was once again assigned by Black Egg to try and strike up a conversation with Tony and uncover all the secrets hidden behind this incident.

In other words, this nice guy who's bad at saying no got tricked by his boss again and was given a new task that was very easy to offend people.

Incidentally, because he ignored Riley's advice and insisted on ordering Coulson to lead a team to investigate the landing site on Earth where the Asgardian quartet landed on the Rainbow Bridge.

As expected, shortly after Coulson arrived at the scene, he encountered the Destroyer armor that Loki had sent to Earth to hunt down the Asgardian quartet.

As expected, the firepower of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team was like a tickle to the Destroyer armor. They couldn't even last a minute before being completely wiped out.

If Riley hadn't held some goodwill towards Coulson and hadn't arranged for Jade to accompany him beforehand, so that he could summon a large number of ninja soldiers the moment Coulson was knocked unconscious, delaying the Destroyer armor's operation while simultaneously bringing Coulson to safety...

It seems Coulson will have to die on the spot in the line of duty, just like his "Sniper" colleagues, forcing Black Egg to give Coulson a "resurrection armor" ahead of time!

Even so, Coulson was seriously injured and spent more than a month in the hospital before he could barely recover.

But now, having only been discharged from the hospital not long ago, without even a word of comfort, he's been assigned this troublesome task by Black Lu Dan...

You're clearly bullying honest people!

Even though Coulson remained loyal to Black Egg, he still harbored some resentment towards him.

However, the higher rank of an officer always has an advantage, leaving Coulson, who had been feeling uneasy from time to time since joining this mission, with nothing to do but pray silently...

Interacting with "ordinary people," routinely asking a few questions—this seems like a simple task...

Please, please don't let it end up like Thor did, where gods fought each other and caused widespread destruction that nearly ruined the entire town!

If that were the case, let alone whether it would endanger their lives...

Even if he survived by sheer luck, according to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s bureaucratic procedures, Coulson would still have to fill out a ton of forms and write at least a dozen more, detailed enough to record exactly how many times he went to the bathroom each day, resulting in long and tedious written reports!

The feeling is like being a web novel author, struggling to ensure the plot's logic is sound while simultaneously planning for future storylines and how to resolve foreshadowing without any drafts. It's like working yourself to the bone every day just to barely manage three updates on time – it's incredibly agonizing!

For Coulson, who had already experienced it once as the sole survivor of the operation not long ago and absolutely did not want to experience it a second time, it was even more unbearable than being killed!

So, to avoid a repeat of his nightmarish experience, Coulson went to great lengths, using every trick in the book, to strike up a conversation with Pepper Potts.

To this end, when Pepper Potts asked Coulson which organization she served, Coulson simply told her the full name of S.H.I.E.L.D. – Strategic Homeland Defense, Attack and Logistics Agency.

Little did they know that Howard Stark, the founder of Stark Industries, was also one of the founders of S.H.I.E.L.D.

As a secret organization, and with Hydra's constant infiltration, it strives to reduce its presence in order to bide its time, accumulate strength, and ultimately rebuild Hydra's glory.

As a result, even people with special status like Pepper Potts and Tony Stark don't know anything about "S.H.I.E.L.D.", let alone the full name, which sounds awkward and unreal!

Therefore, even when Coulson was flirting with Pepper Potts, he always spoke in a very polite manner.

But Pepper Potts subtly frowned, offering a formulaic, professional smile as she promised to consider including Coulson's request in Tony's schedule. She simultaneously sized Coulson up, wondering if he was an escaped patient from a mental hospital, and whether she should call her bodyguard Happy to "send" this overly familiar guest away.

Fortunately, before Little Chili could put her idea into action...

After getting to know Riley, Coulson deeply understood the importance of knowing when to stop. Even though he could tell that Pepper Potts was just going through the motions, he didn't continue to press her with a forceful attitude.

Instead, he smiled with great gentlemanly manners, exchanged pleasantries with Chili Pepper, and then left the press conference on his own initiative.

This made Pepper breathe a sigh of relief, and then she shifted her gaze to Tony, who was being fawned over by everyone.

"You know what? It feels so good to see you again... I didn't get to say goodbye to my father, and I didn't get to give him the gift before my neighbor moved away."

At that moment, Tony raised his left hand and patted Obadiah on the shoulder, making a meaningful joke.

Then, before the guilty Obadiah could respond,

Tony immediately changed the subject and began to give a lengthy speech in his highly infectious, magnetic voice.

"In fact, being able to retain the opportunity to meet again after parting ways is a truly precious gift..."

"Over the past three months, I have witnessed passionate young Americans being murdered right before my eyes, completely losing the chance to reunite with their families."

"What's even more ironic is that the weapons used to kill them were precisely the ones I developed, originally intended to protect them and reduce their chances of being killed or wounded."

"It was during these three months that I was able to witness firsthand that I realized that not all the news reports you've written are exaggerated... Indeed, much suffering stems from the weapons developed by Stark Industries. Even as we sit here talking, a tragic separation of life and death may be unfolding somewhere in the world."

"This made me realize that I had been intoxicated by the readily available benefits, while neglecting the responsibilities I should have taken... just like those fools who promised to use the weapons I developed for the right purposes, but then turned around and sold these dangerous items to our enemies, causing a great deal of suffering and profiting from it, all for the sake of making more money."

"So, after those three months of upheaval, I realized that with my intelligence, I could have made a greater contribution to the world instead of simply creating explosions and death."

"Therefore, I hereby announce publicly that, effective immediately, I will be closing Stark Industries' weapons production division until…!"

In his words, if Tony's previous remarks were like a wealthy person hearing someone complain about how hard life is and asking why they don't rent out their extra properties, they would just take Tony's "let them eat cake" Versailles-style talk and listen to it for fun without taking it to heart.

But then Tony suddenly stood up from the ground and walked to the podium. He was announcing a major decision without warning, in order to prove to someone that he could definitely make changes and gain their approval and praise.

After a moment of stunned silence, everyone realized that Tony was serious and instantly erupted in excitement!

Obadiah, in particular, was so furious that he was convinced that Tony had completely lost his mind after enduring those three months of torture!

Otherwise, why would they be clamoring to cut down the company's cash cow?

He rushed forward, grabbed the microphone from the podium, and tried his best to smooth things over and stop Tony from continuing...

If it weren't for the large number of people present and the fact that he wanted to take over Stark Industries legally and legitimately, he would never have killed Tony with his own hands...

Obadiah really wanted to take action right then and there and strangle that good-for-nothing Tony on the spot!

And so, Obadiah thought he was simply letting the outside world know that Tony was safe and sound, and incidentally using the news of Tony's safe return to reverse the downward trend of Stark Industries' stock. However, he never expected that the press conference, which almost plunged Stark Industries into bankruptcy, would end in a chaotic atmosphere as Obadiah racked his brains, desperately tried to smooth things over, and dealt with all sorts of questions from reporters.

It's fair to say that both Obadiah and the journalists were caught off guard by Tony's unpredictable antics!

And that's why Obadiah, whose attention was completely drawn to Tony, didn't notice that...

Just as news of Tony's rescue spread, causing Stark Industries' stock to briefly rise thanks to public trust in the "Tony Stark" brand, two accounts began dumping large quantities of stock.

Then, using the capital earned from the price difference, when Tony announced the closure of Stark Industries' weapons division and the stock once again plummeted, he accurately bought a large amount of Stark Industries stock again when the price hit its lowest point!

By the time Obadiah realized what was happening, these two rising stars had already quietly taken the positions of second and third largest shareholders, respectively, based on the number of shares they held!

In addition, after Tony returned, he clearly favored Pepper Potts, giving her special importance and trust.

As a result of this series of changes, Obadiah, who should have been the second-in-command, was pushed to the fifth position!

Upon learning the news, Obadiah vandalized his own home. Due to his advanced age, he was so angry that he suffered a stroke, nearly dying of anger in his own house!