Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 966 Mental Cleanliness Obsession (Second Update)

For days, Stephanie had been busy sending supplies and personnel into the mountains of Latveria to support the guerrillas there. This included large quantities of Immortal City currency, administrative staff to set up a temporary bank, and numerous preachers to spread the ideology of Immortal City. These preachers were also responsible for training local youth and establishing schools. Stephanie was extremely dedicated to this work, personally overseeing every detail to ensure that everything was executed flawlessly.

Victor von Doom's initial idea was to storm the Latvian ruler's castle, arrest his entire family, put them on trial, and hang them, before focusing on technological and economic development. However, the Immortal City's monarch disagreed. He believed Latvian needed complete liberation, both economically and culturally. The establishment of a temporary bank and the goods sent to the Latvian countryside guerrillas for exchange were intended to fundamentally establish the Immortal City's credibility among the local populace. This credibility and currency would be the subject of another covert war, with Stephanie as its commander-in-chief.

Even an illiterate, toothless old woman in the countryside must understand that this war is for the future of the Latvians. The time the Immortal City gained through its information warfare advantage was used to change hearts and minds, to call upon the Latvians to fight for their own future, and then to teach them to fight for others, for all of humanity. Only in this way can the future Latvians become the backbone of the Immortal City, and only then can Salomon cultivate an army with lofty dreams—these people may have been children of laborers in the countryside, or children of scavengers in the city, but Salomon will give them completely different lives, just as he did in Eastern Europe. This army, tempered by war, will cultivate more talent, nurturing the seeds for future humanity to set foot in the universe, and deserves the Immortal City's careful protection.

Such peaceful wars will never return; the dark future foreshadowed by prophecy will not allow for the preservation of humanity.

This is a large-scale social experiment. If the experiment succeeds, it will prove that the vision of the Immortal City is not out of reach.

For this experiment, Salomon and Stephanie traveled to Wakanda to negotiate, offering a large number of contracts. King T'Chaka of Wakanda fully understood Salomon's motives, but due to Salomon's speech in the palace perfectly aligning with the Wakandans' savior complex of possessing advanced technology, Prince T'Challa's persuasion, and Shuri's deep cooperation with the Immortal City, the contracts for infrastructure and high-tech industries were ultimately accepted by Wakanda. Salomon aimed to transform the previously barren Latvinia into an ideal industrial utopia at the fastest speed in the world, responsible for producing many high-tech components that the Martian foundry could not currently manufacture, and fully integrating it into the Immortal City's industrial system.

Ten to twenty years is the development period for Latvian, which requires a huge investment from the Immortal City.

The proud Victor von Doom eventually agreed to this approach, as he had to admit that Salomon had considered matters far more comprehensively than he had. The future monarch of Latvia humbled himself and ventured into the mountains to contact the partisans in the Latvian countryside. Stephanie, based on the results of the negotiations, dispatched personnel to establish basic administrative and financial departments in the remote, uninhabited mountains where the partisans were located. Meanwhile, the intelligence department, along with trained military discipline officers led by Sofia of the Lost City, trained intelligence personnel and commanders there, transforming the partisans into a professionally trained regular army.

Viktor von Doom had another important responsibility: to completely eradicate religion from the partisans and instill Salomon's ideals within them. This would inevitably lead to bloodshed, given the strong Orthodox Christian atmosphere in Latvia. Viktor von Doom preferred to destroy the partisans who refused to lay down their crosses and pick up books rather than persuade them to surrender, precisely to prevent the poison of religious belief from spreading throughout the entire Latvian army in the future.

In fact, Salomon did not demand that Viktor von Doom be so absolute; in his view, this was a matter that could be reformed through education. However, as regent, Viktor von Doom handled the matter quite cleanly, leaving no room for future trouble, to the point that Salomon, while at the manor, began to consider Viktor von Doom's obsessive-compulsive disorder after receiving the report.

Faced with such a heavy workload, Stephanie even used watching the Royal Guard's mission logs as a form of entertainment.

Even though the parts of the mission report she was familiar with were already on her desk, Stephanie told her secretary that she was still watching the video because she didn't want to miss any possible details. Diana Lister quietly rolled her eyes, then continued to flatter her direct supervisor with completely insincere praise.

After Diana left the office, Stephanie pressed play. Watching mission reports from the Guard's first-person perspective often made her brain unable to process the information, but only Salomon and she could see the Guard's mission recordings. Even though she was seeing an edited version, Stephanie still quite enjoyed the feeling of having power.

"It's you!" Constantine pointed his halberd at the gap in the concrete wall created by his battle with Ghost Rider, and Daisy Jensen immediately felt a sharp gust of wind hit her cheek. Without hesitation, she raised her hands to indicate that she had no intention of attacking. She saw Robbie Reyes lying on the ground, listlessly breathing out hot air, while Wanda Maximoff knelt beside him, muttering incantations. She stood there unharmed, her expression serious, somewhat different from Mike's description, but there were indeed charred marks on the ceiling, resembling volcanic eruptions, with the central charred area being the ceiling above Wanda's head. Daisy Jensen also smelled the acrid smell of burning protein in the sulfurous air, a smell she was quite familiar with, especially when she first used the curling iron.

"Daisy!" Mike, rushing over, slid across the floor with the soles of his shoes. He pointed the shotgun with the axe attached at Constantine, and even though he knew it was futile, he still stood in front of Daisy Jensen, shouting to the guards and Wanda, "Drop your weapons!"

"No!" Daisy Jason shouted at Constantine, "Don't hurt him!"

“We won’t hurt him.” Wanda Maximoff blinked her dry eyes, her fingers unconsciously tugging at the ends of her singed hair. The exorcism was indeed successful, but it had also caused many problems. Previous exorcism methods didn’t seem to work as well on the Spirit of Vengeance. Even with her blood sacrifice, she ultimately relied on the method Salomon had secretly taught her. She stood up, her expression bitter, and said, “The problem is solved. Robbie Reyes will come with us. The Immortal City has taken over the case; S.H.I.E.L.D. has no right to interfere.”

"You're not..." Mike asked hesitantly. At that moment, Fitz arrived, holding a freeze gun, and stood on the same side as Mike, but didn't raise his weapon. Mike glanced at him with a mixture of admiration and reproach, then turned back to point his gun at the three men opposite them, who could hardly be considered human anymore. "I know who you are, but this is a S.H.I.E.L.D. case, authorized by Congress."

Constantine lowered his halberd and walked silently towards Mike's gun barrel. Then, to Fitz and Mike's astonishment, he crushed the shotgun barrel and the sharp axe with his bare hands. Daisy Jensen nearly reached out to use her powers in shock. "Don't say such stupid things again," the Guard said coldly. "The incompetent shouldn't interfere in matters they can't handle."

"That's a bit hurtful," Fitz muttered under his breath. "We can help."

Wanda recalled her near-death experience not long ago, and she now truly understood the nature of the Praetorian Guard. They were beings with only reason, no emotion; if she hadn't completed the ritual in time, Constantine would have really killed her. She didn't understand why her gentle teacher had created such a Praetorian Guard. "Stop talking nonsense. He hasn't killed you because you're still useful."

Daisy Jason watched as Wanda helped Robbie Reyes struggle to his feet. "Fitz's right. Regardless, we're on the same page: preventing what's in this lab from endangering human safety. Let us help you, okay?"

Please vote for me!

(End of this chapter)