A certain American comic book's secondary profession master

Chapter 201 Tony's Dilemma

The following day, everyone split up to find suitable procurement targets.

At first, Li Wei and his group were very cautious in their actions.

They cover up their actions in various ways.

They were afraid of attracting unwanted attention.

But after a while, they realized that such a cover-up was completely unnecessary.

Because similar things actually happen frequently in Xandar—lower civilizations that have just left their home planet and come to Xandar, a higher and more open civilization, will engage in activities similar to Levi's group, such as purchasing high-tech products and technologies.

The Xandar government simply doesn't take this behavior seriously.

Technical controls and such are, of course, in place.

However, this control will only target technologies that are advanced even for Xandar itself.

For a primitive civilization like Earth, the technological gap is simply too great compared to that of Xandar, an established civilization that has been in the space age for thousands or tens of thousands of years.

The technology is too advanced; let alone whether a primitive civilization has the financial resources to purchase it.

Even if you had the financial means, you could basically only use it as a decoration, because it would most likely be unable to integrate with the existing technology of a rudimentary civilization.

For Xandar, there was no need to control low-level technologies at all.

This principle is the same as that of the Eastern country before Li Wei's time travel.

If a foreigner comes along wanting to buy the production line and technology for the J-20 or the Type 055 destroyer, the government will definitely not agree to it easily. They won't even accept a price increase of many times over, and they will have to carefully consider selling you finished products.

However, if you want to buy something like an old-fashioned tractor or a propeller plane production line, no matter how much you buy it on the market, the authorities may not care.

So this is the situation Li Wei and his group are in now.

The Xandar authorities wouldn't even give them a second glance at such a low-level technical transaction.

Most people in the league didn't feel much about this situation, and even felt quite relaxed about it.

With fewer things to worry about, things naturally became easier, and their journey in Xandar became increasingly smooth.

Even the entire shopping trip cost far less than the high expenses that Levi and his group had re-estimated when they first arrived in Xandar due to the high prices there.

The reason is simple: prices are high, but the technology being sold is indeed outdated.

In a fully open market, even if some brokers wanted to raise prices, it would be difficult for them to do so.

Moreover, for these brokers in Xandar, it was an outdated technology that was almost publicly known by advanced civilizations in the Milky Way. It was already quite good if they could make a profit, and there was no need to deliberately inflate the price.

Tony, however, seemed rather sullen.

"Tell me what happened. I can tell you that you've been feeling down these past few days."

That day, after Levi and Tony had just finalized a deal with a broker from Xandar for the construction technology of a super-large space station, Levi asked Tony about it upon returning to the hotel.

"Didn't you feel it? These Xandarians are very warm and attentive in their attitude, but deep down they look down on us," Tony said with some resentment.

During his interactions with the Xandarians over the past few days, he clearly sensed their disdain.

This disdain is not an attitude that is merely superficial.

On the contrary, the Xandarian merchants and brokers did not show any disdain for Li Wei and his companions because they came from a backward civilization; they remained very warm and attentive.

But Tony could sense the disdain hidden beneath the enthusiastic attitude.

That was a kind of contempt stemming from a difference in levels of civilization.

"That's it?" Levi looked puzzled after hearing Tony's words.

"What do you mean 'that'? They look down on us to the core, and you just say that's all?'" Tony was annoyed by Levi's nonchalant attitude. "Otherwise what? What do you think we should do, treat the Xandarians as enemies?" Levi was well aware of what Tony was talking about and fully understood it.

However, in his view, the Xandarians' attitude was quite normal.

Just like a powerful, modern, civilized country, when faced with primitive tribes without any vested interests, it might adopt a more positive attitude and even provide assistance.

However, the sense of superiority that modern people have towards primitive people is something that cannot be avoided.

The situation between Xandar and Earth is similar.

But is this a problem of the Xandarians?

Yes, no.

Ultimately, it's because Earth is too backward.

“Of course not…it’s just…” Tony was speechless for a moment. Yes, the Xandarians did look down on them.

And then what? What can he do?
"Backwardness invites aggression. This is a conclusion we've drawn long ago during the development of our Earth civilization. In fact, the Xandarians' attitude is already quite good. At least this inclusive civilization has no history of aggression and won't offer bounties on our Earthlings!" Li Wei advised, while also cracking a hellish joke.

Upon hearing Li Wei's words, Tony couldn't help but roll his eyes, unable to refute them.

Indeed, while Xandar's rise was accompanied by war, it was far cleaner than the rise of the United States.

At least there was no genocide.

Tony had absolutely no way to refute this.

“But we can’t just do nothing,” Tony said.

“How can you tell us to do nothing? What do you think we’re doing right now is for?” Li Wei retorted. “Or do you think you’re the only one who felt that kind of contempt?”

Tony didn't say anything.

Those who are valued by them and can join the alliance.

None of them are simple.

How could one not see the disdain beneath the Xandar people's warm exterior?
However, they are not Tang San, and they would not believe that the Xandars have a way to die because of this.

Especially since most of the alliance members come from unfortunate backgrounds, if they make things difficult for themselves and others over such a small matter, they might as well give up on life.

Of course, this doesn't mean that the members of the alliance don't care about this kind of thing.

In fact, after joining the alliance, under the influence of Levi and Tony, most of the time they are now thinking about issues from the perspective of the entire planet.

Therefore, the Sandalians' dismissive attitude was not something that the Alliance members, including Levi, didn't disregard; they simply didn't show it.

Because they knew very well that arguing with the Xandarians over such matters was completely pointless.

Changing this situation is actually quite simple.

The only way to succeed is to strengthen ourselves and accelerate the development of Earth's civilization to gain a voice in the Milky Way.

And that's what they're doing now: learning Xandar's advanced technology to develop the planet.

"Therefore, we don't need to dwell on this at all. On the contrary, we can take advantage of their mentality to gain some benefits for ourselves," Li Wei said.

However, he could understand Tony's feelings.

After all, unlike himself and the rest of the alliance, he did not come from very high social standing.

Tony was a true prodigy from a young age. He was never looked down upon on Earth, and virtually no one had the right to look down on him.

In the original timeline, only Captain America at the very beginning of the Avengers' formation had the right to say something like, "What are you besides your suit?"

(End of this chapter)