Marvel: The Alchemist Just Wants a Peaceful Life

Although they have gained freedom, they have lost their so-called 'goals'.

Just like a prisoner who has just been released from prison, no matter how arrogant they were before going to prison, all they feel after being released is confusion, which is the main reason why countless prisoners eventually embark on the path of crime again.

(Referring specifically to the United States, with the example of Morgan Freeman's situation after his release from prison in The Shawshank Redemption.)

Chapter 260 The Final Battle 6

Logically speaking, before being frozen, Captain America would definitely have contacted the authorities to deal with these Black Widows. Even now, Captain America's first reaction is to contact S.H.I.E.L.D. to deal with these Black Widows.

After all, the Black Widows in front of them not only possessed skills far beyond those of ordinary people, but their combat power was also unmatched by ordinary people. In addition, their large numbers meant that no one could allow such "unstable factors" to roam freely.

But these Black Widows are inextricably linked to Scarlett Johansson, and even everything in the red house they are in now can turn the secrets that Scarlett Johansson has hidden into secrets that are no longer secrets.

Ultimately, both the Red House and these Black Widows in front of us can be considered Scarlett Johansson's private affairs. Therefore, from any perspective, contacting the authorities to handle the aftermath is not a good option.

At least for Black Widow, it wasn't a good choice, especially since Captain America knew from the beginning that both Sherlock and Tony had a natural aversion to so-called 'official' entities.

Neither S.H.I.E.L.D. nor that group of heartless maggots can be trusted by the two of them.

Thinking of this, the captain sighed helplessly, and began to miss his own 'innocent days'.

After waiting outside Drekoff's office for a while, the captain, unable to come up with any good solutions, could only turn around and leave, temporarily abandoning any further thought about how to proceed and waiting to discuss the matter with his comrades before making a decision.

Just then, Sherlock's voice came through the comms, telling everyone to go to the server room on the lowest floor where Tony was for a short meeting.

When the captain arrived at the floor where the server room was located in the elevator, the first people he saw were the extremely disheveled Zhao Weike, Hawkeye, and Yelena's family. The captain was quite surprised to see the five of them looking so disheveled.

"Wait, didn't Sherlock release the antidote? Why are you all in such a sorry state?"

Listening to the captain's nonchalant and detached criticism, Hawkeye and Zhao Weike almost rolled their eyes to the sky. However, they quickly seemed to realize something and stared intently at the captain, who was completely free of dust, and asked.

"You mean you didn't encounter any resistance the whole time?"

Hawkeye was practically gritting his teeth as he stared at the captain, and Zhao Weike was in a similar state, staring intently at the relaxed captain, also gritting his teeth as he took over Hawkeye's words.

"You just got to the top floor so easily?"

Seeing the two men gritting their teeth, the captain could only nod in bewilderment, which naturally resulted in the two men giving him the middle finger in perfect unison.

The two men, who had made an international friendship gesture to their captain, walked past the bewildered captain without saying a word, their faces dark, and headed towards the server room.

Watching the two men's angry backs, the captain could only look at Yelena, who was also following them, with a puzzled expression.

Yelena rolled her eyes and gave the captain a brief explanation. Only then did the captain smile, shrug helplessly, and look at the two unlucky guys walking in front with a sly grin.

"Don't blame me, it was just a matchmaking error. After all, you chose the route yourself."

Hearing their captain's words, the two men walking in front became even angrier.

Fortunately, the door to the computer room was right in front of them. Although the two were angry, they were only angry about their bad luck. Of course, the captain, who had been corrupted by Sherlock, did not tell them about his encounter with Antonia.

Upon entering the server room, everyone quickly noticed something was amiss. Sherlock stood beside Tony with his arms crossed, while Tony looked helpless, occasionally glancing at Sherlock and sighing.

Once everyone was present, Sherlock signaled to Tony that he could begin to confess.

Seeing Sherlock's unfriendly gaze, Tony could only sigh helplessly before announcing to everyone present.

"I didn't completely delete the research on Melina's neural control system; I only deleted some technical drawings and ideas..."

Before Tony could finish speaking, everyone in the room frowned instantly, especially Black Widow and Captain America, who looked at Tony with particularly unfriendly eyes.

“Tony, you know…”

"Captain, let Tony finish speaking!"

The captain had barely begun to speak when Sherlock interrupted him, standing to the side and staring intently at everyone present.

Seeing Sherlock's expression, the captain could only swallow his words and wait for Tony to continue.

"Well, actually, I found information on neural control technology as soon as I hacked into the Red House's server. In this information, I discovered two control methods, one of which is the situation with the pigs we saw at Melina's house."

Another type can significantly stimulate the central nervous system, multiplying a person's learning and reaction abilities. According to the information, there is only one such case in the Red House, namely the girl named Antonia.

The reason I didn't delete all the data is because I discovered that this technology, with just a slight modification, can be perfectly adapted to treat epilepsy and various neurological diseases. Even that single implantation plan can significantly improve the lives of patients with spinal cord injuries.

Given this situation, and on Sherlock's advice, I plan to establish a biotechnology company with Stark Industries as the parent company, and appoint Melina as the principal investigator, specializing in tackling various neurological diseases.

Under Sherlock's watchful gaze, Tony blurted out everything he wanted to say in one breath, almost as if he had given up entirely, and was even prepared to face everyone's criticism after he finished speaking.

To Tony's surprise, neither Captain America, Black Widow, nor Melina criticized him in any way. Black Widow even looked at Tony as if she had seen some rare treasure.

The reason is simple: Tony's plan provides Black Widow with a different path. After all, couldn't Black Widow, who was trained as a spy, work in an ordinary company?

Even the issue of technology misuse is implicitly resolved in this plan. If it is really as Tony said, then the supervision of technology use will not only be the government and the government, but will also be subject to public supervision.

Without a doubt, this is the most powerful form of oversight.

Tony was stunned by everyone's reaction. Looking at the thoughtful expressions on everyone's faces, Tony asked them in surprise.

"I kept the technology to myself, don't you have anything to say about that?"

Upon hearing Tony's words, everyone present almost instantly understood why Sherlock had gathered everyone here for a meeting. Black Widow immediately patted Tony on the shoulder and said to him.

"I have nothing to say, Tony. You did the right thing. Technology is neither good nor evil, is it?"

Hearing Black Widow's words, and even Captain America smiling and nodding to Tony, Tony was quite surprised and looked at Sherlock in disbelief. Sherlock, however, did not say anything, but simply nodded to Tony.

However, to everyone's surprise, Alexei jumped out at this moment and pointed at Tony, asking a question.

"Wait a minute, you're Iron Man Tony Stark? You're actually a Hydra?"

Chapter 261 Post-War Arrangements

Needless to say, Alexei's words successfully silenced the room for a moment, and everyone stared at him with strange looks.

After arriving at the Red Room, when the Avengers were almost all playing their cards openly, Alexei's unwavering belief that Tony was a Hydra spy infiltrated into the Avengers was truly remarkable.

So much so that when Alexei asked the question, both Scarlett Johansson and Yelena covered their faces in unison, while Melina quietly covered her mouth as if she was secretly laughing.

The others stared at Alexei with twitching lips and strange expressions, but Alexei himself hadn't realized what was happening. He looked at the people around him with a serious expression, seemingly a little dissatisfied, and continued to ask.

Why are you looking at me like that?

Hearing Alexei's question, Sherlock's lips twitched even more. He quietly nudged Tony beside him and asked him.

How much salary are you planning to pay Melina?

"what?"

Tony, who was initially speechless at Alexei's intelligence, looked at Sherlock beside him with some surprise after hearing Sherlock's question, and asked Sherlock further, not understanding why.

Sherlock, however, paid no attention to Tony's doubts, his gaze fixed on Alexei. After thinking for a moment, he finally answered Tony's question.

"I plan to find out more about it beforehand, and then go back and figure out how to sell his health products. We'll split the profits 50/50. I call this my salary recovery plan."

Hearing Sherlock's teasing, Tony silently gave Sherlock a thumbs up and praised him with an expression of great learning.

"Everyone says that Satan should have a capitalist tattooed on his back, but I think capitalists should have your Sherlock tattooed on their backs instead!"

What the hell is this payroll recovery plan? Are you even human?

Of course, although Tony didn't say it aloud, it was already the consensus of everyone present, especially Melina, who silently resolved that she would never let Alexei manage the money again.

Black Widow and Yelena felt utterly ashamed. Black Widow gave Yelena a sharp look, and Yelena, receiving Black Widow's signal, pulled Alexei and Melina away from the server room without hesitation.

On one hand, it was because Alexei was so humiliated, and on the other hand, Yelena knew that the Avengers probably had other things to discuss.

As expected, after Yelena led Alexei and Melina away, the group made some jokes about Black Widow using Sherlock's payroll recovery plan before getting to the main topic.

The reason Sherlock forced Tony to tell the truth was precisely this: on the one hand, to strengthen communication between Tony and Captain America, since the civil war that broke out later was, on the surface, due to the man whose name could never be reversed.

But in reality, the man whose name absolutely cannot be reversed was merely the fuse; the rift between the two had already been sown before Ultron appeared.

Ultimately, however, it all boils down to the two refusing to communicate, which led to their eventual falling apart. Even in the final battle, Tony and Captain America had numerous arguments, both big and small, due to communication issues.

Sherlock was actually influencing Captain America and Tony Stark from the moment he met Captain America, all in an effort to prevent a civil war. Getting Tony to reveal his hidden techniques was also a way to build a bridge of communication between the two.

After all, only through communication can we find common ground while reserving differences, allowing the captain to realize his own insignificance and Tony to abandon his arrogance, so that the Avengers team can continue to develop.

Of course, besides that, a more important reason is also the need to deal with the floating castle in front of them, which, strictly speaking, is the Avengers' first spoils of war that belonged entirely to them.

In addition, since the floating castle of the Red House is inextricably linked to Black Widow, Sherlock naturally hopes that someone will set a good example and open their hearts to each other, which will make it easier to arrange things later.

Just as Sherlock had envisioned, there was a bit of an argument about how to deal with the floating castle in the red house, mainly to persuade the captain.

In the captain's mind, such a large base was far beyond the capabilities of their small organization of only a few people. The best solution was to contact the authorities for harmless disposal or to reuse it.

However, after Tony and Sherlock demonstrated what true financial power was, Captain America obediently shut his mouth and said nothing more.

Damn it, not to mention that Captain America had never seen so many zeros in Tony's bank account in his life, Sherlock's ability to conjure up gold with a flick of his wrist almost shattered Captain America's worldview.

Honestly, even when they were touring around every day promoting the "American spirit," the captain had never seen so many props of fake money, let alone real money.

As a result, the poor captain had to experience firsthand the awkwardness that Superman felt when he stood in front of Batman. Damn rich people!

Without the captain's obstruction, things proceeded smoothly. After some discussion, everyone decided to transform the red house's floating castle into a space watchtower just like the Justice League in the comics.

Taking it out of the stratosphere and directly to near-Earth orbit was not difficult with Sherlock's alchemy and Tony's technical support. Sherlock even took charge of the method for personnel to enter later, saying he would solve this small problem.

Of course, in the early stages, Tony was mainly responsible for the renovation of the entire floating city, while Sherlock was responsible for the finishing touches and would only be able to enter the city later, once the floating castle was on its designated track.

Even with this secret base, Tony still planned to create a visible base on the ground to draw fire.

After all, those heartless maggots haven't forgotten about the Avengers since the Battle of New York. No one can guarantee that these guys won't drag us down again. Setting up a false target is still very necessary.

Furthermore, once the entire floating city ascends to near-Earth orbit, it can provide full-area support to the Avengers. No matter how you look at it, it's a very worthwhile deal, and it can even solve part of the Black Widow's resettlement problem.

Black Widows who wish to continue their espionage work can be housed in the base, while those who prefer fieldwork can go on a list to liberate Black Widows hidden in various locations.

Those who no longer wish to be Black Widow can also gain freedom and live the life they want. Even if they don't have a goal right now, it's not a problem. They can join Tony's newly established biotech company, which can be considered as providing some security for their future life.

Everything seems to be moving in a positive direction.

Chapter 262 An Elderly Knight? (Part 1)

Although the plans made on the surface seem wonderful, they often encounter various difficulties when they are actually implemented. After all, people are not cold data; they naturally have all sorts of needs.

For Scarlett Johansson, the most difficult thing to deal with is her relationship with Antonia.

Fortunately, Antonia herself didn't care too much about the little story between her and Black Widow. Of course, Antonia also didn't want to have any more contact with Black Widow and chose to become an ordinary person without any hesitation.

Black Widow secretly approached Sherlock several times for Antonia's sake, and ultimately Sherlock stepped in to give Antonia a perfect compensation: repairing the scars on her face.