"But this can't really be considered unexpected," Greed sighed. "I told him, don't sell to the public yet. On one hand, we're not really short on money, and on the other hand, if something goes wrong, it will be traced back. But he wouldn't listen."
"So the fish were sold to restaurants in Forward York City, and coincidentally a mutant got sick from eating it, and just happened to run into Human Torch and the others at a gathering, which sparked the Rebirth Alliance's vigilance?"
Greed nodded: "This wasn't an accident either. First of all, faced with such obviously overly energetic fish, Gotham's restaurant owners didn't accept it, so the fish basically ended up in a few New York restaurants."
"And because the fish were too destructive, they broke a number of restaurant kitchen water tanks, even injuring people, many restaurants and bars had to close down, and only one bar was open on the entire bar street, which led to Peter and the mutants running into each other."
"And also because the fish were just too lively and strong, anyone who went to investigate, whether it was Human Torch and Aisha, or Natasha, noticed the abnormal fish at first glance, naturally thinking the fish was the problem, causing the mutant to end up in the hospital."
"This further led to, when they discovered some mysterious compound inside the fish's body, they immediately assumed the compound was harmful, not even conducting a detailed test, and the blame was pinned on the Sea Clan."
"And because Tony refuses to cooperate with the Sea Clan, the Sea Clan had no idea what the truth of the matter was, they thought they were being framed, and turned to investigate what went wrong at the farms, only to discover someone had switched the feed, and the matter was treated as a poisoning incident."
"At this point in the progress, there's really no room for remedy. Let alone increasing the commercial value of the Extremis Virus, if they find out the compound inside the fish that caused so much trouble was the Extremis Virus, Tony would probably have been cuffed by now."
"So why on earth doesn't he want to cooperate with the Sea Clan?"
Greed shook his head, saying, "You don't understand, this Iron Man has a sort of Cold War mentality in his mind, he sees everyone as an enemy, never wanting a win-win situation, if others win, it means he's lost. So, he'd rather resort to some disgraceful means, than let more people have a share of the pie."
The agent thought carefully, according to Greed's original plan, it was meant for the Sea Clan, the Rebirth Alliance, the Multiverse visitors, Iron Man, and Stark Group to all benefit.
The Sea Clan would've found a way to grow bigger and better seafood, opening up markets to earn more money; the Rebirth Alliance would get better seafood to entertain guests; Multiverse visitors could procure the improved Extremis Virus to enhance food production; Iron Man could clear his name; and Stark Group could successfully transition.
However, Iron Man's actions were clearly aimed at winning for himself alone, with everyone else losing.
It's evident that his plan was to first disrupt the Rebirth Alliance's events, then frame the Sea Clan, letting those two fight each other, and then he would come out and announce, 'You're all fools, this was actually my genius new invention,' meanwhile showing off in front of the Multiverse visitors.
And because it wasn't intentionally harmful, White Can went with the idea of embarrassing the Rebirth Alliance, using them to showcase his own ideas, which is why the plan seemed a bit juvenile, not causing any major damage.
As Greed mentioned, White Can's style is all about zero-sum mentality, that someone must lose for him to win. The concept of mutually beneficial success isn't something he can't think of; he just can't accept it.
In his view, the Sea Clan can't be at the table, because if they contribute to creating better seafood, it would make the Extremis Virus seem less impressive. The Rebirth Alliance can't contribute significantly either; if the Multiverse hosting activity is too well done in other aspects, the fish wouldn't stand out, thus failing to showcase his intelligence and talent. Even the Multiverse guests can't have things too good, because if the entire hosting activity wasn't arranged by him, and the guests were too satisfied, it would make others seem more capable than him.
It's hard to say he's doing this intentionally; rather, his thinking operates in such a way: If I'm doing it, I must take all the credit, no one can outshine me. If I'm not doing it, then it can't succeed, and no one can do it better than me.
Often, people like this can be even more destructive than those simply foolish or bad. Because they often have talent and can reach high positions, but around them must be a vacuum, otherwise, the entire circle will be plunged into endless internal conflicts because of them.
And because he is capable, can produce good things, and can offer sufficient interests, the internal conflicts surrounding him will escalate, with power struggles, mutual suspicion, and constant internal friction.
"If you want to help him, you should have a way, right?" the agent asked, "After all, you can leave him no choice."
"This time it can be done, but what about the future? I can't just live here," Greed said, "I can push him to get this done this time, but in future similar situations, he will still make the same choices, which may even lead to greater damage."