Time slowly passed, and in a blink of an eye, more than ten days had gone by. During these ten-plus days, the Amazing News Agency, which had published the Kingpin incident and the Iron Man incident, as Ron had expected, encountered a lot of trouble, endlessly, without a moment's pause.
First, from the New York government, the New York City government indeed took action against the Amazing News Agency. The CIA, the Department of Commerce, the inspection department, and various other government agencies all swarmed to the Amazing News Agency building, looking for all sorts of excuses to cause trouble for them.
Of course, Ron wouldn't deal with these people himself. The professional executive managers he had hired specifically to handle government departments were not just for show. As soon as government officials came to the Amazing News Agency, these managers would immediately pull out a cart full of miscellaneous documents, making it impossible for the troublesome government departments to find any flaws, and they could only leave disheartened.
Aside from the New York government, the Amazing News Agency's peers—The New York Times, The Daily Bugle, The Wall Street Journal, and other newspapers—all 'criticized and educated' the newly emerged Amazing News Agency to the greatest extent possible, claiming that it did not conform to industry rules, published unsubstantiated news, and so on, disparaging the Amazing News Agency to new heights and new levels.
But what was the use of that? Among the statistics of major news websites in North America, there was a weekly favorites list, specifically ranking news agencies by the number of times their content was favorited by users.
In that week, the Amazing News Agency's "Amazing Daily" had undoubtedly become the number one on the weekly favorites list, with nearly double the weekly favorites of the second-ranked "USA Today," fully appearing in the sight of all North Americans, becoming a new choice for people to get their news.
Although the Amazing News Agency's total number of favorites was still insignificant, it was enough to make the major news agencies in North America feel threatened and take suppressive measures against it.
However, would Ron care about these things? He said nothing, directly having dozens of lawyers from the Amazing News Agency issue legal letters, claiming that those newspapers were suspected of infringing on the Amazing News Agency's reputation, implying a readiness to go to court and not give up until they did.
Although those newspapers had experienced such a situation before, they had never seen the Amazing News Agency be so ruthless. They wanted to fight at the slightest disagreement, which was too unreasonable, wasn't it?
So they backed down. They all knew that the Amazing News Agency's backing was Ron, who owned half of Osborne's shares, and had strong capital. They didn't want to genuinely make an enemy of Ron.
Besides these two troubles, there was also the funniest thing: just a few hundred meters across the street from the Amazing News Agency building, a news agency called "Cheese Daily" also grandly opened, with very luxurious decorations and a large scale, directly facing the Amazing News Agency, like two fierce tigers fighting for dominance.
Ron didn't even need to guess; he knew that this "Cheese Daily" was opened by Tony Stark. The intention was obvious: to contend with the Amazing News Agency and try to bring down Ron's Amazing Daily.
In just these two days, dozens of employees of the Amazing News Agency and Ron's assistant, Tina, had submitted their resignations, preparing to go work for Tony Stark's Cheese Daily.
Not only that, even Ron's assistant, Tina, received an invitation letter from Cheese Daily, offering triple her salary to become the deputy editor-in-chief at Cheese Daily, a truly generous offer.
However, Ron remained indifferent. If they wanted to leave, then let them leave. After all, those who wanted to leave couldn't be kept. Ron hadn't given any mental suggestions to these subordinates requiring absolute loyalty to the Amazing News Agency, so there was no need to worry about their departure.
After all, there was no shortage of anything on Earth except people. Those who left weren't truly talented anyway; anyone could do the job. So, Tony Stark's tactic of poaching people was destined to fail.
Ron originally thought his assistant, Tina, would also leave. Ron knew that Tina's usual expenses were considerable, and she was a bit of a gold-digger. But to his surprise, Tina ultimately stayed and showed no intention of leaving the Amazing News Agency.
Tina's original words were that although her boss, Ron, was a bit stingy, he treated people well, and the prospects of the Amazing News Agency were definitely stronger than those of playboy Tony Stark's Cheese Daily.
Before this, there were many instances of Tony Stark starting companies on a whim, but those companies either ended up as retirement homes or were directly disbanded or sold, with none truly rising to prominence.
The Cheese Daily that Tony Stark had now opened, judging by its name, seemed to be just for fun. Its ultimate fate would probably also be disbandment or sale. The Amazing News Agency was still a better bet.
Ron just smiled at the reasons Tina gave, not exposing the little thoughts in her mind, and let Tina stay.
Today happened to be the opening day of Cheese Daily. Tony Stark sent Ron a message early in the morning, inviting him to attend the grand opening ceremony of his Cheese Daily.
Ron thought about it and didn't refuse. He took Peter and Jessica, and the three of them walked directly across to the Cheese Daily building to attend the grand opening.
When Ron and the other two arrived outside the Cheese Daily building, there were already many people there: reporters, people from other news agencies, and some partners Tony Stark had invited, models to boost the event, and so on.
However, among so many people, Tony Stark himself was conspicuously absent. Ron wasn't surprised by this. Instead, he had Peter take out the projector he had prepared earlier, set it up, and aimed it at the center stage, just waiting for that guy, Tony Stark, to appear.
Meanwhile, a thousand meters above the Cheese Daily building, a gold and red armored man was hovering, scanning everything below with his electronic eyes.
"J.A.R.V.I.S., has Ron Brunstad entered the Cheese Daily building?" Inside the Iron Man suit, Tony Stark asked J.A.R.V.I.S., who controlled the Mark IV, via the virtual screen in front of him.
J.A.R.V.I.S.'s steady voice replied, "Confirmed, sir."
"OK! Let that annoying Ron guy see the charm of the superhero Iron Man!" Tony smiled confidently, then ordered J.A.R.V.I.S. to dive down towards the opening ceremony below.
This wasn't the first time Tony had done something like this. Just yesterday, he had appeared at a public meet-and-greet wearing his redesigned Iron Man armor, the Mark IV, showcasing the armor to the entire world and eliciting countless screams.
A moment later, a red robot descended from the sky and landed on the stage in the middle of the opening ceremony.
"Iron Man!"
As expected, Iron Man's arrival was met with screams from almost everyone present. Even Peter and Jessica, standing next to Ron, looked enviously at Tony Stark on the stage, wishing they could be like Tony, have their superhero identities known, and receive countless cheers.
Unfortunately, they weren't Tony Stark. Tony could take off his mask and openly reveal his identity without worry; they couldn't.
They still had families, and if their superhero identities were exposed, perhaps the criminals who hated them would threaten their loved ones.
Peter and Jessica understood this, so they didn't do it. They silently wore their masks, letting their identities as Spider-Man and Gem Girl be known, but not wanting others to know their true identities.
Seeing Peter and Jessica looking a bit sad, Ron patted Peter's shoulder and said, "Alright, Peter, hurry up and project the photos you took earlier. That guy Tony Stark is too arrogant; it's time to deflate his ego a bit!"
"Alright, boss," Peter chuckled. Having followed Ron for so long, he had also gradually become a bit mischievous. Now, doing something embarrassing to Tony Stark no longer caused him any psychological pressure.
Peter turned on the projector he was carrying on his shoulder and projected a video he had secretly filmed earlier onto the center stage.
The next second, a video of Iron Man being brutally beaten by Iron Monger was projected in 3D onto the center of the stage. In the video, Iron Man was being thrashed by Iron Monger without any fight left in him, completely unlike the cool demeanor of Iron Man currently on stage.
Coincidentally, at that moment, several mechanical arms appeared on the center stage, revealing Tony Stark hidden inside the Mark IV, making the Iron Man in the projection and Tony Stark on stage appear as one, as if what was happening in the projection was truly happening there.
"M! M! P!" Seeing the images playing around him, Tony Stark couldn't help but utter the words he had cursed the most during this period, then walked up to Ron with a grim face.
PS: There's a book club group with girls, gays, and experienced drivers. The group number is 789640072. All fellow readers are welcome~