Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 1107, Chapter 1103: The Orator (First Update)

"Everything here is in preparation for war," Sam Wilson concluded.

Seeing Bucky Barnes's incomprehension, he pointed to the pitch-black tunnel outside the train window. A series of massive lighting installations swept past the window in the darkness. Sam Wilson, by observing the distances between the lighting installations and the carriages, and the distances between the installations themselves, calculated the vastness of the transportation network formed by the parallel tracks to their train. They couldn't pinpoint their exact location, but Sam Wilson, as a professional soldier, was still gathering intelligence as best he could. He took down the Redwing drone from his equipment and used the thermal imaging system connected to the drone's HUD eyepiece to scan the scene outside the window.

"Count to three again, three, two, one, another light! Do you see that? This underground space is definitely larger than we imagined. This underground transportation network definitely leads to some unknown places. The peak capacity for transporting supplies and personnel that such a powerful transportation network can handle is definitely not low. If we add the rock layers that can withstand a nuclear explosion, and those factories and cities we see... if this underground transportation network connects them all, then even in a nuclear winter and after a second nuclear strike, those cities can still transfer supplies and personnel, and even social order may be maintained."

Sam Wilson clicked his tongue repeatedly. "This is insane. What kind of government would spend so much money to build infrastructure that may never be used? As far as I know, this government hasn't been in power for very long, and we all know that the local economy hasn't been very good in the past. How did your old friend earn so much money to waste and maintain such a massive project?"

“As far as I know, he has never worried about money.” Natasha Romanoff didn’t tell the others that Diana Lister had prepared her favorite wine for them, and she assured them that their old friend was now monitoring the carriage. She felt a strange mix of joy and annoyance at her old friend’s control over intelligence. “I suspect his wealth has long surpassed Tony Stark’s. That question has been answered after killing all the industrialists, large-scale farmers, grain companies, NGOs, and media moguls in the Balkans, and confiscating their personal and corporate assets.”

"Damn!"

“Don’t scare him anymore, Natasha,” Steve Rogers shook his head. “And don’t drink too much. We need to stay clear-headed for the negotiations. These two bottles of red wine are yours; you can save them for later.” He paused, looking at Sam Wilson. “You seem a little nervous, Sam. Perhaps it’s a security measure in response to the alien fleet. You know the astronomers’ observations and Latvian’s warnings. We’ve fought wars with aliens before, and we know Latvian has the ability to determine whether it’s a comet or an alien fleet.”

"Maybe so. I think you guys still have a lot of secrets you haven't told us," Sam Wilson said. "They didn't take our gear, and I don't want anyone calling my gear the Birdman suit anymore."

Fifteen minutes later, the massive underground train slowly came to a stop. Stepping out of the carriage, they looked around. Before them lay a vast, empty space. A solitary underground platform, illuminated by streetlights casting a cold, white glow, stood alone in the darkness, like an isolated island on a black sea, surrounded by stagnant water.

"Where is this?" Natasha Romanov asked, holding another bottle of wine that was still half-finished.

"This is part of a future eco-city, and it's not finished yet. The section you're passing through is a military tunnel," Diana Lister replied coldly. "Please follow me. Don't try to escape. We won't waste our manpower searching for missing persons in this underground network. More than one person has already starved to death in those tunnels."

"Oh! I knew you liked to scare people, girl."

Sam Wilson laughed, but his smile quickly faded.

"I think she's serious." Bucky Barnes shook his head. "Keep up with her, you definitely don't want to starve to death here."

Diana Lister led them through a narrow elevator shaft that was under construction, and onto a supply elevator that took them directly to the ground. While not as large as the landing pad they used for their Quinjet fighters, the elevator was still large enough to accommodate one. As the elevator ascended, warm sunlight streamed into the seemingly bottomless shaft. Once on the ground, everyone welcomed the return of the sunlight.

"Where are we?" Steve Rogers squinted and looked around.

"Royal City, military airfield." Diana Lister pointed to the armored personnel carriers and heavily armed genetically modified warriors waiting nearby. The tall warriors in power armor immediately became alert upon seeing them, their fingers hovering over the triggers of their explosive guns and plasma weapons. The air tensed instantly. Twenty-meter-high war engines passed by, their roaring footsteps further amplifying the tension. "Get in the vehicles. I suggest you obey orders." Diana adjusted her glasses. "These warriors are about to depart, to unleash the Lord's wrath upon the cult that should have vanished. You certainly don't want to be their opponents."

He was a natural orator; everyone who had ever heard him speak said so.

Even without resorting to force, he was exceptionally adept at persuasion. He knew exactly which words would resonate most with his audience, as precise as a scalpel cutting a vein. He could effortlessly weave his ideas into their thought processes, as if those words were smooth pebbles in a babbling brook, neither hindering the flow nor diminishing their presence, and even gleaming anew with time. He would talk to petitioning citizens about their meals, popular versions of Engels' works, their jobs, their savings, and their debts. He would discuss rights and obligations, justice and the judiciary with bankers and officials, and his hidden scalpel behind the administrative system, used for oversight and tumor removal.

Now he was facing a future king, and this wasn't so much an exchange as a meeting disguised as a speech. He would speak of the previous king's last wishes, the honor and shame of the throne, and the future of the nation, subtly and effortlessly guiding the conversation in the direction he desired. Anyone sitting opposite him could feel a heat emanating from him, a fervent emotion born from the clash of contradictory passion and reason. On one hand, one could sense his hope for the future and his confidence in his cause; on the other hand, one could understand that he wasn't blinded by ideals, but genuinely understood how to reach that hoped-for future, humbly bowing his head and pressing his feet into the cold, hard ground of reality.

But this is merely the feeling he projects to his audience, a necessary performance when instilling ideas, and one of the thousands of speaking techniques best suited to today's dialogue scenarios to persuade the audience to agree. When the dialogue scenario changes, he can naturally use different attitudes to face the audience and give them different feelings.

Diana Lister stood before the Royal Guard, head bowed, quietly awaiting her summons.

Dr. Lister "firmly" sided with the right side during the internal purge by the conservative Hydra, thus making Diana Lister one of the Malik family's closest deputies, responsible for managing the family's century-old business empire, which had lost out in the political struggle within the conservative Hydra. Her parents had been sterilized, meaning there would be only one heir for the Lister family from then on—she. As a gift and compensation to her ally, Diana Lister enjoyed the protection of the Immortal City's mystical technology, keeping her soul and body in a relatively safe state.

After Stephanie Malik brought her out of the Ivy League and she inherited Dr. Lister's research institute and pharmaceutical company, Diana Lister absorbed everything she needed for her future work with astonishing speed. She took over some of Stephanie Malik's lower-level tasks, managing a large group of government staff, education officials, and numerous Latvian news media, becoming an indispensable member of the government. Perhaps such work was challenging for a young woman in her early twenties, but for the conservative Hydra, which had always prioritized educating its offspring with elite education, Diana Lister clearly understood how to execute the monarch's will on a practical level.

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(End of this chapter)