Chapter 2987: Chapter 2148: Ultimate New World (27)_1

Steve let out a deep sigh.

It's not that he had a stereotyped prejudice against scientific researchers, but indeed, some people could be characterized as being more adept at causing problems than solving them.

Steve learned from the person in charge that two of the three exit cameras in the Particle Laboratory had been broken for half a year. These people who could propose a project to create the sun somehow had no one to fix the cameras.

But Steve did not give up. He asked to see Dr. Otto's research data. The person in charge did not refuse and explained on the way to the lab.

"After Dr. Otto joined us, he continued his research on the artificial sun project, integrated his findings with our research, and made a significant breakthrough."

Steve understood that this was only his cover story. The project was an artificial sun which had not made any progress for years, but recently had a significant breakthrough; most likely, it could be attributed to Otto's contribution.

"However, Dr. Otto's approach to developing the artificial sun is different from ours. He hopes to maintain a completely stable property through a single ignition. Thus, he has been trying to find an ignition particle and seems to have made some breakthroughs recently."

Steve thought about what Otto and Peter had said on the phone. It seemed that Otto had found this particle and urgently called Peter to see it. Yet, after seeing it, both of them disappeared.

There didn't seem to be any secrets in Otto's research findings. Steve quickly got the data, but he didn't understand it, so he had to send it to Nick.

Nick called in a nuclear physics expert. The final conclusion was that Otto had found a mysterious factor in San Francisco, which could serve as the perfect ignition particle for his artificial sun project. This factor had some amazing properties, but Otto hadn't recorded them in detail.

Nick immediately called Steve and asked, "Do you think the mysterious factor Dr. Otto found has anything to do with the mutation of the residents of San Francisco?"

Steve had obviously thought of this. Otto had just recently come to San Francisco. Before he came, he hadn't made significant progress on the artificial sun. But after he arrived, he made a breakthrough.

The mysterious factor mentioned in his experimental data seemed to have a very unique property, and the mutations occurring in the residents of San Francisco were also very strange.

Through the investigation data provided by S.H.I.E.L.D., Steve already knew that the mutation of San Francisco residents was not towards ugliness and weirdness, but instead to become more beautiful and robust. He and Nick immediately linked the emergence of this mutation to the so-called mysterious factor.

This universe where Shiller was located never had an outbreak of the Doomsday virus. The virus might have already been researched, but never got a chance to wreak havoc, which Nick had not encountered.

Although viewing the future timeline before, Nick knew this thing should be put into water sources but he didn't understand its inherent nature nor could he be sure this was a virus.

What if the virus was just a diversion? It was very likely that a certain mysterious factor in the potion was truly effective.

In the end, all clues once again pointed to the White Can.

Nick speculated that the mysterious factor Otto studied might be the virus White Can had put into San Francisco's water sources. To avoid exposing his conspiracy, White Can killed the victims to silence them.

But at that time, the situation was under White Can's control. He knew that Spiderman was also a superhero. If his death was confusing and provoked public opinion, then suicide would be the best cause of death.

Nick took a deep breath as anger burned inside him.

November 12, Stark Industrial Park, San Francisco Bay Area, 8.00 AM.

With a snap, the phone was slammed onto the table. Pepper Potts turned her head and stared wide-eyed at her subordinate, saying, "What did you say? Our factory is suspected of illegal discharge, and the agents of the California Investigation Bureau have arrived?!"

"What on earth are they doing?!" Little Pepper said incredulously, biting her teeth, "We have no chemical industry here, there's no wastewater discharge at all. How could we be illegally discharging waste?! Have they gone mad?!"

Dum-dum-dum, a series of heavy and rushed footsteps appeared outside the door. A California Investigation Bureau agent knocked on the door, flashed his ID at Little Pepper, and said.

"Hello, Miss Pepper Potts. Trevor Andaco, an agent of the California Investigation Bureau. We received a lot of complaints about Stark Group's four factories in San Francisco illegally discharging wastewater, leading to water pollution and resident mutations. Now our bureau asks relevant personnel to cooperate with the investigation. Please."

"Have you gone mad?!" Pepper exclaimed in disbelief, "Stark Group has no chemical plants on the West Coast! How could it discharge waste illegally?!"

"Metal smelting wastewater, ma'am, and suspected of heavy metal exceeding standards and nuclear leakage."

Pepper could have stuffed a whole egg in her open mouth. She opened her mouth and closed it again, then exclaimed, "This is ridiculous."

"Ma'am, we have ample evidence to substantiate the case. I'd like to ask you, the current actual control and chief scientist of Stark Group, Anthony Stark, has previously had symptoms of palladium poisoning, right?"

"Of course, but that was when he..."

"He created an Ark Reactor with a new element and resolved his own crisis. We suspect him of widespread use of untested reactors inside Stark Group's factories, causing leakage of some harmful element."

Pepper was completely stunned. She didn't understand how these two events were connected, but her subordinates behind her seemed a bit doubtful.

For Pepper, who knew Tony Stark extremely well, this was unimaginable. Because Pepper was well aware of the paranoia-like symptoms Stark's anxiety disorder caused him. He was always beyond nervous about the controllability of technology. If a technology had the potential to be uncontrollable, he would refuse to use it under any circumstances. So, he would never apply Ark Reactor technology to an ordinary factory.

But not everyone saw it the same way. On one hand, the technology was indeed advanced, so it was incomprehensible to the average person. They didn't know how safe it was. On the other hand, on a logical level, if this technology is so amazing, then why not use it broadly?

Pepper felt a chill in her heart. The moment the Ark Reactor technology got involved, Stark would undoubtedly leap up like a startled cat, and she wouldn't be able to stop him.

This baseless smear couldn't be without reason, but the best way to break the deadlock wouldn't be to use scientific detection to prove they didn't have illegal emissions. Instead, it would be better to ask the relevant stakeholders to mediate; simply put, it was to use political means.

However, Stark would never allow anyone to say his Ark Reactor was leaking. He would do everything possible to prove that his technology was flawless.

A complete trap, Pepper thought. The adversary must be very familiar with Tony Stark, or they couldn't set such a perfect trap.

Suddenly, Pepper noticed the reflection of the notebook on the desk flashing through the glass.

When Pepper turned her head, there was nothing. At that moment, her phone vibrated. A text message from an unknown network number appeared on her phone screen. It was a code snippet.

Pepper seemed to remember something. She quickly excused herself to the investigators from the California Investigation Bureau and hurried to Stark's office. She found his dedicated computer.

Subsequently, she called up the program execution window, input the content of the text message, and pressed the Enter key. A video appeared on the screen.

"Pepper, I'm glad you found me." In the center of the screen was Stark. He said, "Just now, I woke up. I learned that I am the Tony Stark consciousness you backed up. Your wisdom and decisiveness always impress me."

"Listen, Pepper, we may not have much time. I found in the Stark Tower's database that the real me is researching the Accute Virus created by Maya Hansen. He modified it, making it more transmissible and powerful."

"The deadliest part is that I found in his research logs that he needed experimental launches for this virus. Understanding myself, I fear he has already done so."

"How could it be? Tony!" Pepper couldn't believe it. She shook her head and said, "Why would he release a virus? What good would that do for us and for Stark Group? Biochemistry and medicine are not the main sources of profit for Stark Group."

"Maybe he wants to expand his profit channels." Stark sighed, "Anyway, the Tony Stark you are dealing with now is not right. I'm searching for more evidence in the database and trying to control the battle armor. Do your best to stall him and be careful, Pepper."

The video ended. Pepper hit the desk forcefully and bit her lip, stood up and took a deep breath.

Hearing footsteps, she lifted her head and found that an investigator from the California Investigation Bureau was standing outside, watching her.

Pepper thought, so this was no framing or trap. It was a conspiracy exposed. As the CEO of Stark Group, could she say she knew nothing about it? Probably neither side would believe her.

Pepper's mind was racing. Soon, she composed herself and walked with firm steps towards the investigator.

Silicon Valley, San Francisco, 7:20 AM.

Bruce lifted Aisha out of the car. The two sneaked around the side wall of the building. Aisha immediately bit off the lock on the back door.

They scampered along the wall into the building's park. Guided by Aisha, they evaded the monitoring cameras and slipped into the building as quickly as possible, taking the public elevator to the computer room of this IT company.

Aisha immediately started operating on the computer. Bruce went to the window and looked down from the 22nd floor. The morning peak hadn't fully arrived, so there weren't many vehicles on the street.

A police car with a siren suddenly rushed out from the corner. Bruce squinted as he recognized it was a vehicle from the California Investigation Bureau. He followed the direction the vehicle was heading in, and saw the Stark Industrial Park building on the skyline.

"Are you done yet? Aisha." Bruce asked.

"Almost. Releasing Stark's backup consciousness isn't difficult," Aisha took a deep breath. The pressing time made her much more straightforward in her speech. She continued, "But we must present evidence against this rogue Stark."

"Hold on." Bruce said with some confusion, "If you haven't released the backup consciousness yet, or shown him the evidence, why are the California Investigation Bureau heading towards Stark Park? Did someone report before us?"

"It's done, we did it." Aisha jumped off her chair to announce, "Iron Man was released. Next is Osborn. Let's go."

Bruce quickly lifted Aisha up. It was almost the start of work time, and the bustling sound of footsteps were starting to be heard from the corridor. Guided by Aisha, Bruce dodged the crowd and successfully got back into the car.

Bruce stepped on the gas, and the car drove away from this street at the fastest speed, heading to the suburbs against the direction of the morning traffic. Evidently, their destination was Osborn Medical Experimental Center.

As the car hit the highway, Bruce and Aisha noticed that a thin layer of fog had formed on the window.

An alien cold fog was drifting on the always warm and sunny West Coast morning road.

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