"What do you mean by 'IP'?!"
Spider-Punk's question was not at all what Entrepreneur Kang had expected.
Still, he had an answer ready.
"When I say this universe is about to be erased from history, I mean that this world and everyone in it will cease to exist. Past, present, and future alike will be wiped away. Ah—wait. You're asking about IP?"
Naturally, IP meant intellectual property.
Spider-Punk might have been an anarchist, but he wasn't illiterate.
What concerned him was something else entirely.
He had apparently been trademarked, copyrighted, and turned into a global sensation in the future.
For a revolutionary, becoming famous, achieving legendary status, and being remembered by future generations should have been a good thing.
The problem was that someone had registered him as intellectual property.
Then mass-produced and sold him.
Allowing capitalists no different from Norman Osborn to make fortunes off his image.
To an anarchist, everything Entrepreneur Kang had just described amounted to the ultimate insult.
"Anarchy! Anarchy!"
"Punk never dies!"
"Down with capitalism!"
"We will never disappear!"
More and more plush dolls poured out of the portal.
The growing army of toys chanted their slogans with increasing enthusiasm.
The sight of price tags reading $44.99 still hanging from some of their waists only made Spider-Punk even angrier.
Planting both hands on the ground, he grabbed the electric guitar from his back and swung it directly at Entrepreneur Kang.
"I'm gonna kill you!"
"Good. More resistance."
Kang's body twisted through space in a teleport-like distortion, effortlessly avoiding the attack.
He looked even more pleased than before.
"That's exactly why consumers love you."
"The fact that you became popular as a rebellious icon in the late twenty-first century surprised even me. It proves that market-demand analysis isn't limited to mathematics. It's also a very complex branch of psychology."
After another furious attack struck nothing but air, Spider-Punk found himself completely surrounded by plush dolls.
Despite their cute chibi appearances, each possessed strength comparable to the real Spider-Punk himself.
Forced to calm down, he turned his attention back to the bizarre man before him.
"What exactly do you want?"
"I've already explained it clearly."
"I want you to come back with me."
"To the future."
"And help Kang Industries make money."
As Kang began counting on his fingers, he mentally calculated just how much additional profit a living Spider-Punk could generate.
"Of course, you'll need some adjustments."
"A little less anti-government terrorism."
"A little more punk music."
"People love rebels."
"But they don't actually want people like you showing up and disrupting their comfortable lives."
"So basically," Spider-Punk said, surprisingly calm, "you're here to drag me back and make me work for you."
Instead of exploding in anger, he unexpectedly began negotiating.
"And what do I get out of it?"
"What?"
Entrepreneur Kang looked genuinely offended.
"Are you asking me to pay you?"
As a businessman, Kang felt he had already offered Spider-Punk a deal generous enough to inspire gratitude.
Why was the man suddenly demanding money too?
"If you work for me, you'll live."
"You won't die young in your own era."
"You won't remain in this universe and be erased from history."
"You won't be forgotten by everyone."
"Isn't that reward enough?"
"So stand still and let me open a portal."
"I'll take you home."
Hearing this, Spider-Punk slowly nodded.
For a moment, it almost seemed as if he agreed.
"That actually makes a lot—"
He paused.
"—of bullshit! Hit him already! I can't listen to this idiot for one more second!"
BOOM!
A shockwave erupted with the force of a high-explosive detonation.
One corner of Oscorp Tower's rooftop simply vanished.
The chibi Spider-Punk plushies clustered around Kang were blasted away in all directions, scattering across New York City like confetti.
Caught completely off guard by the overwhelming force, Entrepreneur Kang lost all balance and spun helplessly through the air.
Combat suit structural integrity: 82%.
After surviving that lightning strike, Joey first evacuated everyone else from the area before quietly circling around behind Kang.
Originally, he had intended to let Spider-Punk squeeze a little more information out of this Kang variant.
But it was obvious that Spider-Punk's tolerance for people like Kang had already reached its limit.
That meant there was only one option left:
Punch first. Ask questions later.
Before Kang could react, Joey launched a follow-up attack.
With precise control over his strength, he kicked Kang like a soccer ball, sending him flying all the way from Manhattan to the Caribbean Sea.
Caught completely off guard, Kang crashed into the ocean surface, creating a massive impact bubble more than a hundred meters across.
Seawater flooded through the cracks in his shattered faceplate and nearly poured straight down his throat.
"Blurh!"
Armor Structural Integrity: 71%
Scrambling out of the water, Kang finally activated his armor's shield system at full power.
At the same time, a full-strength blue tachyon beam swept toward his opponent.
These particles, originating from temporal fields, traveled faster than light. Their minimum speed was the speed of light itself, theoretically placing them far beyond the reaction capabilities of any living being.
Yet his opponent reacted as though he had predicted the attack beforehand.
Crimson heat vision erupted from Joey's eyes at the same moment, canceling out the tachyon beam before continuing straight toward Kang.
Caught completely unprepared, Kang hadn't even considered using temporal blinking to evade.
The Kryptonian heat vision struck him head-on, spinning him through the air several times before he regained control.
Armor Structural Integrity: 67%
Having barely recovered his sense of direction, Kang suddenly felt the energy circuits in his abdominal armor nearing overload.
The world spun around him.
A moment later, he had accelerated past orbital velocity, broken through the atmosphere, and been hurled into space.
Armor Structural Integrity: 61%
Only now did Kang finally begin scanning the composition of his enemy's powers.
The scan results did not make him happy.
"You damned primitive!"
A high-powered primitive was exactly the type of opponent he hated dealing with most.
All of Kang's power came from advanced future technology.
Having reached the end of time itself, he possessed technological superiority over virtually every universe, every timeline, and every creation that wasn't built by another version of himself.
Against enemies who relied on technology, Kang only needed to lift a finger.
He could disable their weapons.
Corrupt their systems.
Or even turn their own intelligent machines against them.
But opponents like this primitive were another matter entirely.
As the saying went, no matter how advanced your skills are, a kitchen knife can still kill you.
Sometimes a body tempered through relentless training could outperform scientific achievements accumulated over dozens of centuries.
This particular Kang variant truly was obsessed with making money.
So obsessed, in fact, that he had never devoted much effort to combat.
Most variants of Kang the Conqueror opened interdimensional portals and brought war and destruction to other universes.
He remembered one particular Kang variant constantly boasting about how many Avengers and superheroes he had killed.
At the time, however, he had probably been thinking about next year's profit margins and tax deductions instead of paying attention to the details.
After all, he wasn't fond of fighting.
His original purpose in opening this portal had merely been to kidnap—no, invite—Spider-Punk back to his proper era so he could become a marketable icon.
Unfortunately, with this absurdly powerful primitive standing in the way, acquiring the Spider-Punk intellectual property rights at this point was probably impossible.
And now a fist the size of a sandbag was already right in front of his face.
For the first time in his life, Businessman Kang realized that the true foundation of capitalism wasn't production, costs, or market demand.
To become a truly great entrepreneur, what he needed wasn't a superstar IP.
It was overwhelming violence.
At this point, there was only one option left.
"Wait! Stop!"
Kang immediately raised both hands in surrender.
Joey's fist stopped precisely one millimeter in front of Kang's translucent faceplate.
"I don't want the Spider's IP anymore! But..."
Painfully accepting this enormous concession, Kang looked at the man before him.
The red cape behind him complemented the metallic S emblem on his chest perfectly.
The naturally powerful musculature, combined with the bold yet harmonious red-and-blue costume, created what could only be described as a flawless fusion of strength and beauty.
Kang completely forgot that this same man had nearly punched him into a concussion moments earlier.
His professional instincts immediately took over again.
"May I ask... are your image licensing rights available for purchase?"