Everyone's eyes were fixed on Bruce's face. Although Bruce wasn't as young as Spider-Man, he was still quite youthful. The question was, which young Batman was he, and why was he standing up for Spider-Man?
"Who are you?" Iron Man, who had the most contact with the Multiverse and the neighboring worlds, asked. "I mean, which Batman are you?"
"That's not really important." Bruce leisurely walked to a seat, standing in front of the chair, "But I do know that you're the Iron Man who researched the Extremis Virus yet only knows how to run a pyramid scheme, lost your girlfriend to someone else and couldn't do anything about it, instigated a Civil War but dared not face the music, pretending to be crazy and foolish to evade judgment."
Iron Man's face instantly darkened. Just as he was about to say something, Bruce turned to Pepper: "And as for you, ma'am. Although I know your hobby is raising sons, abandoning this baby who's already learned to crawl to look after another who can only lie in a cradle, well that's asking for trouble."
He then turned to Luther: "You too, if you were a bit smarter, you'd know humans haven't evolved the brains to meddle in marital affairs yet. Or do you think using this novel argument proves you're the smartest person in the world?"
Thor recalled all the sad things in his life but couldn't help laughing. Given how many sad stories Thor has, it's clear his threshold for humor is low, and Bruce's comments hit the mark.
Before he could finish a laugh, Bruce looked at him: "Don't laugh, your relationship with your brother makes me grateful my parents died early, so I didn't have a sibling."
Thomas couldn't help it either, glaring at Bruce, but secretly, because he was also afraid of being scolded. When Bruce goes all out, no one can withstand him, as he's harsh even on himself.
Thor opened his mouth, condensing millennia of wisdom to think but still couldn't figure out how to respond. He finally mumbled, "He's not blood-related..."
"Pepper was kidnapped right after leaving Wayne Enterprises, how do you explain that?" Iron Man tried to steer the conversation back on track, "Can you honestly say it has nothing to do with you? Then why did you start poaching Stark Group's people right after the kidnapping?"
"Do I even need to poach from Stark Group?" Bruce looked at Iron Man incredulously, "You're saying that the two actual controllers of the company went mad one after the other, each stabbing their own company in the back, and I, an employee, can't leave? If I were a Stark Group employee, the only reason I'd stay would be to see how many toilets your spectacularly cliché soap opera could clog."
"You think you're so smart?!" Luther, pale-faced, glared at Bruce with his remaining eye, "You can't even manage Wayne Enterprises properly, and your business is a mess..."
"I usually tell people like you to open their eyes and see the world, but you don't need to. With your remaining eyesight, you probably can't see clearly anyway. Thankfully, the Nick Fury in this universe is white, or else saying you're like Nick Fury would involve racial discrimination."
The agent leaned against the door, clicking his tongue, surprised that even among the strong, there's someone stronger. How had Bruce not poisoned himself with his words?
No wonder Arrogant has recently calmed down; he sounds almost human now. Turns out he passed on the gene for caustic speech.
But think carefully, Arrogant and Bruce's styles are different. Arrogant usually hits where it hurts, while Bruce purely engages in personal attacks; the former speaks to the matter, while the latter just spews venom.
It doesn't matter what the logic of the situation is or who's right or wrong—he'll latch onto your weakness and fire away, regardless of whether the weakness is related to the matter.
Yet this tactic is indeed effective. Everyone present is a person of stature. Regardless if Luther is as evil as he is, Iron Man as ruthless, or Nick Fury as conniving, they're all part of the upper circles, even if they're cursing internally, externally they have to maintain a façade of reasoned discussion.
Moreover, typically, if you can't present a coherent set of logic to argue your point, if you can't appear confident and articulate to refute others, you'll easily fall behind in an argument. In a debate, the first to lose composure and resort to personal attacks loses.
These people are all skilled debaters. They're used to this mode of debate, and even if they know they're wrong, they have to find a way to argue back; simply cursing won't do you any good.
Like if Iron Man were to go to court, he couldn't just insult the Rebirth Alliance or the Judge to clear his name; he needs to find a suitable logic to achieve his goals.
So suddenly having a venomous commentator amidst a bunch of debaters left everyone a bit bewildered. They didn't know who he was, why he was here, or why he was insulting them. Though it was evident he was quite enjoying himself, that's what made it most infuriating.
We're all suppressing our emotions here, racking our brains to slander each other, our minds nearly smoking with effort, and you come in just to vent, first enjoying yourself. What does that make us?
No one in this world doesn't want to vent their emotions freely. Everyone wants to say what they want to say without having to flatter or suppress themselves. But the problem is, sometimes to gain benefits, you have to suppress your emotions first.
Is there anyone among these people present who hasn't suppressed their anger?
Iron Man has been holding back his anger since before the Civil War started due to a quarrel with Pepper, and now he almost simultaneously lost both Pepper and Stark Group. Pepper was almost infuriated to death by Iron Man's childish transformation plan, then got kidnapped by Luther, and her career also hit a cliff. Luther failed in his schemes, got overturned, and lost an eye, becoming a one-eyed dragon from then on. And Nick, the seasoned one-eyed dragon, not only lost investment at this crucial moment of receiving Multiverse guests but also had to come over to mediate them.
They can still argue here purely because everyone has their own interests to fight for; no matter how huge their temper is, they have to control it first. As a result, Bruce Wayne, who popped up from who knows where, vented all his pent-up anger on them, making them even angrier: I ask you, did you profit or lose, and does it make you feel good?
After Bruce lashed out at everyone, he exhaled a long breath and then said, "You guys should stop arguing. Why don't we do this: let's merge Luther Group, Wayne Enterprises, and Stark Group into one super company and just monopolize Earth."
"No!"
"No!"
"Absolutely not!"
"Are you crazy?" Iron Man couldn't help but say, "Why should Stark Group merge with anyone else?!"
"Obviously because Stark Group is about to go bankrupt relying on you alone," Bruce said with a cold smile. "Haven't you figured it out yet? You're not cut out for business, Tony Stark; stop torturing yourself. The greatest contribution you can make to Earth's economic landscape is to stay out of anything related to economics!"
Iron Man hadn't said anything yet when Pepper frequently glanced sideways. Clearly, she felt Bruce's words had a certain point.
In the past, people around Iron Man, including Pepper, were actually humoring him, and no one told him the truth, which led him to always believe he could do it. Although Bruce's words were somewhat blunt, they were indeed accurate enough.
"Of course, Ms. Bozi, it's not to say you were particularly proficient either," Bruce started a new round of finger-pointing. "Stark entrusted you with his most core secrets and the power to manage the group, yet after striving for half a lifetime, you still haven't turned Stark Group into Bozi Group. Don't tell me it's because you love Stark too much and want to marry him, so you took his surname in advance."
Pepper clenched her fists tightly; she couldn't tolerate anyone insulting her career. However, she ultimately turned her head and remained silent; she was much more self-aware than Iron Man. She excelled at execution rather than decision-making, so it was difficult to become the top leader of a large group, at best a middle to senior level. Otherwise, she would not have been unable to alter Tony's mind with actual actions after he came up with the transformation plan.
If she could manipulate shareholders, the plan simply wouldn't be implemented. But the fact is she couldn't, so she could only use breaking up and remarrying as a threat to make Tony change his mind.
"And you," Bruce looked at Luther, "choosing to invest in the Rebirth Alliance was a bad move. Simultaneously choosing to invest in the Rebirth Alliance and kidnapping Pepper was even worse, and neither the investment nor the kidnapping succeeded. If I were your assistant, I would suggest you change careers and open a public toilet."
"With your ability to make and execute plans, Luther Group falling into your hands is truly unlucky. Considering how eager you must still be to prove your 'long-term vision,' letting go of Luther Group is the best choice."
"Besides, you all still haven't figured out one thing." Bruce's tone became somewhat serious, "the stage of the Fusion Universe is larger than that of other universes, which means those business routes you think have long since expanded to the limit still have the possibility for further expansion. If there's no ability to develop business while suppressing competitors, then why not unite to expand the business?"
"And even if you don't unite, after defeating and acquiring competitors, you still can't ensure the parent company won't be diluted. In such cases, it's not feasible. By then, internal strife will intensify, and the best outcome would be once again splintering after maintaining a behemoth form for a period. At that time, the size of the piece you can get is not certain."
"This won't work," Nick said, "we can't allow such a super company to appear on Earth; the consequences of extreme monopoly are very terrifying, and we can't let this happen."
"What if this super company were the Rebirth Alliance?" Bruce asked again. "Even if they want to merge, external forces are needed to integrate them, and only the Rebirth Alliance can do that."
"The superheroes won't agree to it," Nick seemed to be expressing opposition, but actually, it was more like aiming for the question, "Many within the Rebirth Alliance strongly oppose monopolies; they believe the current size of the Rebirth Alliance has already exceeded the norm and think it should be divided into several different functional organizations. These people won't stand idly by regarding the merger."
"What if we use a better term, like 'unity,' how about that?"