Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics-Chapter 4389 - 3482: Midnight Sons (44)

```html

Strange, appearing at the New York Temple, was already dressed as a fully armed Supreme Magician. The stationed mages paused to salute him, only then noticing the Moon Knight following behind Strange.

Strange, however, had no mood to explain to them. He simply said, "Give me the recent maintenance logs of Earth's magical defense network. Who is the mage on shift recently?"

Soon after, a female mage came over, leading Strange and Shiller into a room deep within the temple.

In the center of the room was a prismatic light cone, emanating a dense magic power. A light beam connected the cone from top to bottom, the end of which should be the magic defense network covering the sky over Earth.

Many mysterious symbols floated above the light cone. Strange started checking the data, with the female mage helping him find useful information. Suddenly, Strange waved his hand, and one of the runes flew over.

He discussed something with the female mage, but it was too professional for Shiller to understand. Soon, the female mage left, presumably to fetch something, while Strange, holding that rune, said to Shiller:

"There's no problem with the magic defense network, but the monitoring has detected an increase in the total energy usage in New York over the past half a year. We haven't found any laboratory that has applied for additional magic energy usage rights, so the increase is abnormal.

"Currently, very few people can use magic energy directly without the approval of the New York Temple, and Tony is one of them. I need to go to him to get his data. If together we can't account for the rise, it means someone else has been frequently using magic over the past half year."

Soon, the female mage brought a written document, which was not filled with those mysterious symbols but normal English. Shiller glanced at it, and it seemed to be translated energy monitoring data.

This made him sigh; magic was indeed keeping up with the times. The behind-the-scenes manipulator probably didn't expect that under Strange's leadership, all the great sanctums had modernized, with a complete monitoring system, data precise to two decimal points, and possibly even legally binding.

While following Strange outward flying, Shiller asked, "What is the principle of this monitoring?"

"The magical defense network is like a big net. Not only can it resist external enemies, but it can also monitor all kinds of energies generated inside Earth in detail, including both magic energy and the energies scientists produce with instruments.

"It not only monitors but can also set energy types and levels to trigger automatic interception. For example, if someone wants to open a teleportation portal on Earth that differs in energy consumption and operation mode from the Earth mage's energy, it will be immediately intercepted. The same goes for using powerful magic or creating large-scale energy bombs."

"No wonder there haven't been any strange guys invading New York for a long time," Shiller nodded and said.

Actually, this was not unexpected by Shiller. What he did made the superheroes unite, partially changing Earth's framework, but the peaceful days on Earth mainly relied on the development of foundational technologies across various industries.

The magical defense network probably originally had this function, but the Ancient One never took this path, so even if it existed, it was unused and not further studied.

Strange, with personal strength not equal to the Ancient One, yet catching up with a booming era, had to do everything possible to maintain Earth's stability, developing every corner function, and the effect turned out to be much better than before.

Other industries were mostly the same. To have a taste of the interstellar era, they all underwent comprehensive reform and self-revolution, out-competing themselves, resulting in surplus capabilities in various fields and greatly enhanced risk resistance.

The two flew to the rooftop of the Stark Building and then flew down to the window of Stark's office, just in time to see Pepper scolding Stark.

The building's soundproofing was excellent, but Shiller didn't need to hear to know what Pepper was scolding about.

Although it had nothing to do with Stark, Pepper said if Stark could put even half the effort he uses to mock others as businessmen into the internet, he wouldn't be completely defeated in the war of public opinion.

When they flew in, Stark looked like a defeated rooster, dejectedly leaning against the table.

Shiller sensed his sadness, but he couldn't help but feel a little schadenfreude.

Tony Stark is somewhat arrogant. If someone recognizes him, he's happy, even if that person is just an ordinary person, possibly with no understanding of science, he would feel proud of their approval.

However, if he has to find a way to gain others' approval, even if that person is holding technology ahead of Earth's, Stark is unwilling to do so, and may even have a reactive psychology: the more someone wants him to recognize them, the more he'll antagonize them, just to see what they can do to him.

For instance, he can be genuinely happy about the praise from children in Asgard, but he is unwilling to approach Thor and Loki proactively.

His relationship with Loki is alright, but not so much with Thor; they are not very familiar, and even in conversations with Loki, they never discuss Asgardian technology.

It's the same with maintaining his online image. While he brags to Shiller and others about how many followers his account has, if he were specifically asked to film a video his fans would like to gain more, he'd actively avoid it, and even if he does, he'd do it awkwardly, like a thief.

Pepper had complaints about this because a public opinion war is like sailing against the current. You fall behind if you don't advance. If you don't occupy the public opinion field, your enemy naturally will. During a public opinion war, you would know exactly what it means to face a siege from all sides.

Now, Stark was facing the consequences. He wasn't particularly upset by personal accusations but felt responsible as his fans, who tirelessly tried to clarify and expose Dario's lies, struggled. They were making efforts but to little effect, and many were being pursued and criticized, steadily losing ground.

Stark felt he should take responsibility. Had he, as Pepper suggested earlier, maintained his personal image well, publicized his resume and research achievements, or simply produced more cool mecha videos, the situation might be significantly better now.

However, if he started now, it might appear as if he was feeling guilty and losing patience, so the PR team opted for a cold treatment.

Stark's anxiety was recurrent. He felt distressed yet compulsively wanted to watch, the more he watched, the more distressed he became, and the more distressed, the more he wanted to watch, leading to a rapid decline in his mental stability.

As Shiller, a professional psychiatrist paid three hundred million US dollars a quarter, took the most direct approach—snatching his phone away.

Stark didn't have time to call for his battlesuit, and with Khonsu's help, the magic wand flicked, and a white light hit Stark's wrist, causing the phone to fly out directly.

The phone hit the ground, its screen cracked. Just as Stark was about to pick it up, another white light hit the ground, and the phone vanished in a flash.

Stark glared at him angrily, about to call Jarvis, but Jarvis was as silent as if dead. Stark even began to suspect that he had been done in by an angry Scarlet Witch.

"Alright." Stark spread his hands and said, "Did you come here just to trouble me?"

"Take a look at this." Strange stepped forward and handed the document to Stark. Stark initially just glanced but soon stared intently at the data on the document.

After a while, he shook his head and said, "No, I started frequently using magic after the Midnight Sons was founded, and Peter did too. Even together, we can't fill the gap."

"This indicates someone is secretly using magic." Strange leaned side-saddle on the table, an arm curved up on it, hands clasped together, said, "But the gap isn't big, and no high-energy alarm has ever been triggered from start to finish, proving the opposing party's magical energy usage isn't high, with irregular frequency and dispersed locations, making it difficult to trace through monitoring."

Read lat𝙚st chapters at fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓ Only.

"So, we'll have to send someone to tail them," Stark's eyes rolled, and he said, "The Avengers, Midnight Sons, New Warriors Team... who else? I know your New York Temple is short-handed."

Strange snorted coldly and said, "I'll have the Holy Sanctuary staff contact the Demon God, asking their agents to pause their work and resolve this first."

The two looked at Shiller together. Shiller nodded, then shook his head.

Strange and Stark understood his meaning—he didn't mind participating, but it was impossible for him to convince Nick to release people.

Logic dictates this matter should be managed by S.H.I.E.L.D., but the situation in the public opinion field is disadvantageous now, Nick must keep a close eye on the internet to prevent online influence from affecting offline, ruining the stable situation.

About half an hour later, members of Midnight Sons met at the Moonlight Temple. Standing at the front, Stark sighed and said, "The situation is like this, and we need to find out who's secretly using magic in New York."

Danny immediately turned to look at Johnny. Stark waved his hand and said, "It's not the Ghost Rider; the Demon God's agents' quota is accounted for in the Holy Sanctuary's maintenance, not extra energy consumption."

"It could also be other apostles of Mephisto," Danny said, "Devils excel at sneaky activities."

Stark did not rule out this possibility; he simply said, "You've fought him for so long; you must understand him. Investigate based on the clues you know.

"But I have two requirements: one, absolutely no involving innocent ordinary people, and two, no framing your brother out of the blue, find evidence first."

Danny wanted to say something more, but looking at Stark's not-so-good face, he gave up and merely glanced at Johnny secretly.

To Shiller's surprise, Johnny, who hadn't spoken much from the beginning, suddenly said, "I have some brothers in the Motorcycle Gang; I can ask them to help keep an eye out, but you'll have to cover some gas money."

"Motorcycle Gang? Ordinary people?" Stark frowned. He didn't actually want ordinary people involved, mainly because ordinary people were virtually powerless against magic.

Johnny shook his head, "Not a gang of ordinary people, most have some skills, and a few are mutants. They know New York's terrain well, and they should be able to help."

"Alright," Stark nodded, "I'll transfer the money to the Holy Sanctuary, then let them transfer it to your account."

The plan was thus finalized, each going to investigate whoever they found suspicious. Simultaneously, similar scenes unfolded within the Avengers and the Holy Sanctuary.

In places unnoticed by ordinary people, superheroes became active again. Among them was a figure they were not very familiar with—the Moon Knight.

```