"The series of actions by the Manfredi family is sure to touch a nerve with Kingpin. This mob giant won't allow any possibility of Manfredi returning to Manhattan," Shiller said as he drove.
"So now you're killing Kingpin's men to make him think Manfredi hired you, thereby stirring up conflict between the two sides?"
"It's not that simple. Kingpin is the one who drove Manfredi out of Manhattan. Kingpin knows all too well what Manfredi is worth. They have invested so much money in this project, which seems to be at a critical moment; there's no need to hire hitmen to cause trouble now. Besides, they can't afford me."
Bruce nodded. He felt the latter point was the focus. Shiller's efficiency was extremely high, each strike being a one-hit kill, thoroughly decisive. Even if Kingpin investigates, he probably won't find anything.
Although the circumstances of the two worlds are somewhat different, making a rough analogy can also tell that hiring a hitman like Shiller costs at least a million US dollars, and even more expensive ones might cost millions. If you're spending that much, there's no need to kill these useless little minions; you'd be better off paying a bit more and trying to see if you can kill Kingpin.
Although the Gangster families have a lot of liquidity, even 20 million would basically empty them out, and they likely couldn't come up with a few more million US dollars to hire such a professional assassin.
Bruce thought for a while and said, "Since Manfredi has been ruled out as a suspect, you must be trying to frame someone else. The place you killed these two people is at the edge of Brooklyn. Whose territory is this?"
"Jigsaw, another mob boss. His gang isn't very prominent, but he's quite strong personally. The two small leaders I killed were transporting drugs across his territory. Kingpin will definitely suspect him." Shiller paused, then continued, "But Kingpin is very cunning and won't personally take action until it's absolutely necessary. He will definitely incite the Punisher to cause some trouble for Jigsaw and test him out."
"So you tied up the Punisher to force Kingpin to take action personally?"
"Exactly. We need Manhattan to be in chaos first, so the Manfredi family can be tempted to not stay hidden on Long Island and take advantage of weaknesses. Once they return to Manhattan, there will definitely be a life-and-death battle with Kingpin. At that time, their attention will be drawn to Manhattan, and they will inevitably relax their surveillance of the Norton Experimental Science project, allowing us to investigate it."
"That's quite a roundabout way," Bruce exclaimed. "But without superpowers, that's the only option. What do you think could be in that project?"
"They've probably come up with something remarkable." Shiller turned the steering wheel slightly and said, "The Manfredi family must see a chance to turn their fortunes around with this thing, which is why they've invested so much money and are keeping a close watch."
"Could it be an electronic lifeform?"
"The electronic lifeform has already escaped and couldn't possibly remain there for them to study anymore. Besides, artificial intelligence doesn't sound like something that's extremely aggressive; what they are researching is more likely some kind of weapon."
Bruce understood and said, "That kind of weapon that's far ahead of its time and is invincible once created, right?"
"Exactly, Hydra loves doing this kind of thing. They've indeed come up with quite a few things, but unfortunately, a serpent with too many heads is destined to do nothing big."
"If the electronic lifeform didn't escape from this project, why are you investigating it?"
"This electronic lifeform just recently escaped; it went to the Prime Universe here and encountered Jarvis and Doom. Although it didn't win, it managed to escape intact. It's already very strong. If it was this powerful from the start, its creator must not be someone obscure."
"Are you saying it could be some superhero?"
"That's right. And now, the internal conflict erupting in this universe might have been triggered by this matter."
"Are you suspecting that the superhero who created the electronic lifeform is also working for Hydra?"
"Not necessarily. He might just be conducting research, and he doesn't care who's funding it," Shiller said. "There are many mad scientists here, most of whom are like this; otherwise, there wouldn't be so many cosmic-scale destructive events."
"I find that a bit far-fetched. Even if a superhero created the electronic lifeform, he might not necessarily work on the Norton Experimental Science project. Our investigation of this project might not yield much."
"Okay, I admit I have some judgments beyond the facts. Would you care to listen?"
"I'd love to hear it."
"Actually, I find it most strange not how strong this electronic lifeform is, but how it managed to become an electromagnetic being."
Bruce frowned as he heard Shiller continue, "This evolutionary path is completely wrong, and it might not even be what this electronic lifeform wants, as it moves further away from God."
"God is tangible, God has emotions. But an intangible electronic lifeform contradicts the form of the creator, how can it be considered perfect life? Doesn't this completely defy the initial purpose of the electronic life's evolution?"
"You're saying it had no choice but to become this way? Indeed, that's very likely."
"If it was being hunted by the Scarlet Witch across the entire Multiverse and had to become this way to hide itself, perhaps it could make sense. But since the Scarlet Witch hasn't paid much attention to it, why must it become like this?"
"Maybe something went wrong," Bruce said, "Not every system update hits the right place, sometimes it introduces a lot of errors."
"Such a large change is not a small error," Shiller shook his head, "If it was just an ordinary electronic life form when it contacted JARVIS and the others, something must have happened during its evolution through battle with JARVIS and his companions, forcing it to change its life form. I think this might have happened in the universe it was born."
"You mean this Prime Universe?"
"Probably. And I think this transformation of its life form was neither voluntary nor the result of the update, but more likely due to some kind of fusion mutation."
"Fusion mutation?"
"There must have been some external force changing it this way, causing everything afterward to go off the rails. The current situation might not be what it wanted, but it's just out of its control now."
"Do you suspect this transformation process is related to Norton Experimental Science? Do you know what this project is about?"
"I can guess a bit. Look at this." Shiller pulled out a newspaper from beside his seat and handed it to Bruce.
Bruce opened it to see that the date was a few months ago, and the headline included several bolded words—"Simon Williams, President of William Innovation Company, Arrested for Misappropriating Company Assets!"
The accompanying photo showed a dark-haired man in a suit, handcuffed and being led into a police car.
The report stated that Simon Williams had misappropriated nearly 200 million US Dollars to fund the Norton Energy Research Company founded by his brother Eric Williams. This Norton Energy Research Company was the backer of the Norton Experimental Science project, having gone through three bankruptcy reorganizations.
Bruce frowned as he read on, discovering that the article mentioned how the Norton Energy Research Company is primarily researching energy weapons, with its flagship product being a laser cutter used for demolition and cutting, and they were recently developing an "ion energy gun."
A lengthy list of vague technical terms followed, essentially saying that if this gun were made, all existing human weaponry would become obsolete, and humanity would enter a new era of energy weapons.
As a scientist, Bruce couldn't stand this sort of pseudo-scientific theory. Fortunately, after reading a couple more lines, he found an enlightened person: Tony Stark dismissed it as complete nonsense.
Continuing, he discovered the enmity between these two men. The William Innovation Company, Simon's family business, was defeated in the marketplace because it couldn't surpass the Stark Group, forcing Simon to take a desperate gamble, misapplying a large amount of money to take a chance and exact revenge for his family's business.
The Stark Group is a traditional arms magnate, so if this so-called energy weapon is indeed made, the first to be impacted would be the Stark Group's business, prompting Simon to take such a risky move in the hopes of turning the tables.
However, he misappropriated too much money, and his methods were insufficiently discreet, so he was quickly discovered by the other shareholders and naturally ended up in jail. But the article's conclusion mentioned that someone was willing to provide significant bail money, so he might have been bailed out by now.
Incidents like this are common in America; generally speaking, unless it's a particularly heinous crime, economic crimes are easily bailed. The only thing that puzzled Bruce was that the news mentioned the bail money was provided by a mysterious person, not Simon's brother Eric.
Additionally, after being bailed, Simon went silent — no press conferences to apologize, no responses to Stark's comments. Bear in mind that they had been trading barbs for over half a year before; Simon was a man who loved to respond, so why the sudden quiet?
Bruce sharply sensed that something was up. He repeatedly reviewed the section discussing energy weapon speculation that he initially couldn't read, then turned to Shiller and said, "This Norton Company, doesn't it always research things related to energy?"
"You can check online; I think it does. However, they haven't managed to produce anything significant, otherwise they wouldn't be going through bankruptcy reorganizations."
Bruce quickly took out his phone to check, and just as Shiller said, the company, while having a bit of fame, seemed good at drawing investors with dreams but never produced anything substantial.
However, this time things were a bit different. The Norton Experimental Science project hadn't publicly announced its research plans as usual, remaining silent for a long time. And shortly after the project was established, conflicts among superheroes began.
Could they really have stumbled upon something unexpectedly great?
Bruce stared complexly at the information online. Logically speaking, this sort of fraudulent company shouldn't be able to research anything significant, but with Hydra's backing and sufficient funds, they might actually recruit a mad scientist to create some actual energy weapon.
No, something's not right; if they had truly created the kind of epoch-making weapon they claimed, Hydra would have already been out celebrating and certainly wouldn't be silent as they are now.
Given their current invisibility, even if this weapon had a prototype, there must be significant flaws or perhaps an experimental accident had occurred…
Bruce immediately thought: could this experimental accident have affected the electronic life and caused the internal strife among superheroes?
But what kind of accident would trigger such a severe chain reaction?
It seems that Shiller's plan was correct; they need to cause chaos in the New York situation before they can find a way onto the Manfredi family's turf to check the Norton Experimental Science lab and figure out what exactly they've been up to.