The days of being a spiritual mentor in Meiman.

Chapter 3445: Son of Midnight (Forty-four)

Strange appeared in the New York Temple dressed as the fully armed Sorcerer Supreme. The garrisoned wizard stopped to salute him, and then saw Moon Knight following behind Strange.

Strange was in no mood to explain to them. He just said, "Give me the recent maintenance log of the Earth's magic defense network. Who is the wizard on duty recently?"

Not long after, a female sorceress came over and led Strange and Schiller into a room deep in the temple.

There was a prismatic cone of light in the center of the room, emitting a strong magical power. A beam of light connected the cone from top to bottom, and the end of the beam of light should be the magical defense network covering the sky above the earth.

Many mysterious symbols appeared above the light cone. Strange began to check the data, and the female sorceress helped him find useful information. Suddenly, Strange waved his hand, and one of the runes flew over.

He discussed something with the female sorceress, but it was too technical for Schiller to understand. Soon, the female sorceress left, probably to get something, and Strange took the rune and said to Schiller:

"There is no problem with the magic defense network, but the defense network has detected that the total amount of energy in New York has increased in the past six months. We have not investigated which laboratory has applied for additional magic energy usage rights, so the increase is abnormal.

"Currently, there are very few people who can use magic energy directly without the approval of the New York Temple, and Tony is one of them. I have to go to him to get his data. If the total is still not enough to make up the increase, it means that there are other people who have been using magic frequently in the past six months."

Soon, the female sorceress brought a written document. It was written in normal English instead of those mysterious symbols. Schiller glanced at it and thought it was the translated energy monitoring data.

This made him sigh that magic also keeps pace with the times. The mastermind behind the incident probably didn't expect that the major temples under Strange's command had long been modernized, with a complete monitoring system, and the data was accurate to two decimal places, and it was even very likely to have legal effect.

As he followed Strange out, Schiller asked, "What is the principle of this monitoring?"

"The magic defense network is like a big net. It can not only defend against external enemies, but also monitor all kinds of energy generated inside the earth. This includes not only magic energy, but also the energy created by scientists using instruments.

"Not only can we monitor, but we can also set the type and level of energy to trigger automatic interception. For example, if someone wants to open a portal on Earth that uses and operates differently from the energy of Earth mages, it will be intercepted immediately. The same goes for using powerful magic or creating large-scale energy bombs."

"No wonder there haven't been any strange guys invading New York for a long time." Schiller nodded.

In fact, this was not beyond Schiller's expectations. Although what he did united the superheroes and partially changed the pattern of the earth, the current stable life of the earth was mainly due to the development of basic technology in various industries.

The magic defense network may have originally had this function, but Ancient One never went down this path, so even if it existed, it would not be used, let alone studied in depth.

Because Strange's personal strength was not as good as that of the Ancient One, but he happened to live in an era of vigorous development, he had to try every means to maintain the stability of the earth. He developed all the functions in every corner, and the effect was much better than before.

It is basically the same for other industries. In order to get a piece of the interstellar era, they have all carried out comprehensive innovation and self-revolution, and rolled themselves up in the wind. In the end, there is redundancy in all walks of life, and the ability to resist risks has been greatly enhanced.

The two flew to the roof of Stark Tower, then flew down to the window of Stark's office. As soon as they flew over, they saw Pepper scolding Stark.

The building was well soundproofed, but Schiller knew what Pepper was cursing without even having to listen.

Although this matter has nothing to do with Stark, in Pepper's words, if Stark could put half of his energy in mocking other people's business style on the Internet, he would not be defeated in the war of public opinion.

As the two of them flew in, Stark leaned against the table, dejected, like a defeated rooster.

Schiller felt his sadness, but only felt a little gloating.

Tony Stark is a bit aloof. He is very happy if someone recognizes him, even if the person is just an ordinary person who may not even know much about science. He will feel proud of the other person's recognition.

But if he is asked to find a way to gain recognition from others, even if that person has the most advanced technology on Earth, Stark is unwilling to do so. He even has a rebellious mentality: the more I need his recognition, the more I offend him. I want to see what he can do to me.

For example, he could be genuinely happy when faced with praise from the children of Asgard, but he was unwilling to take the initiative to get close to Thor and Loki.

His relationship with Loki was okay, but his relationship with Thor was just average, and it could even be said that they were not very familiar with each other. Even when chatting with Loki, they never discussed issues such as Asgard technology.

The same is true when it comes to managing his online image. Although he would brag to Schiller and others about how many followers his account has, if he was asked to make a video specifically for his fans to watch in order to attract more fans, he would avoid it and would be very shy when doing so, like a thief.

Pepper was quite critical of this, because the war of public opinion is like sailing against the current, if you don't advance, you will retreat. If you don't occupy the public opinion position, your enemy will naturally occupy it. When the war of public opinion really starts, you will know what it means to be surrounded by enemies and attacked from all sides.

Now, Stark is suffering the consequences of his actions. He is not sad because he was scolded, but mainly because of his fans who tried their best to help him clarify and expose Dario's lies. Although they have tried very hard, the effect is still not good. Many people are being scolded and it can be said that he is losing ground.

Stark felt that he should be responsible for this. If he had managed his personal image well, posted more of his resume and scientific research results, or simply shot more cool videos of mechas, the current situation might be much better.

But if we shoot it now, it will inevitably appear as if we are guilty and impatient, so the public relations team can only choose to handle it coldly.

But Stark's anxiety disorder recurred. He felt uncomfortable, but he had to watch it like he had obsessive-compulsive disorder. The more he watched, the more uncomfortable he felt, and the more uncomfortable he felt, the more he wanted to watch, and his mental stability plummeted.

Schiller, a professional psychologist who earned $300 million a quarter, took the most direct approach - taking away his phone.

Before Stark had time to call for his armor, Schiller had Kong Su to help him. He pointed his staff and a white light hit Stark's wrist, and the phone flew out directly.

The phone fell to the ground, and the screen cracked. Just as Stark was about to pick it up, another white light fell to the ground, and the phone disappeared in a flash.

Stark glared at him, and then wanted to call Jarvis, but Jarvis was as quiet as death. Stark even began to wonder if he was killed by the angry Scarlet Witch.

"Okay." Stark spread his hands and said, "Are you guys here just to cause trouble for me?"

"Take a look at this." Strange walked forward and handed the document to Stark. Stark glanced at it at first, but soon his eyes focused on the data on the document.

After a long while, he shook his head and said, "No, I started using magic frequently after the establishment of Midnight's Sons. Peter is almost the same. Even if the two of us are added together, we can't make up the difference."

"This shows that someone is using magic in secret." Strange sat sideways at the table, one arm bent and placed on the table, his hands clasped together, and said, "But the difference is not big, and no high-energy alarms were triggered from beginning to end. This proves that the magic energy level used by the other party is not high, and the frequency of use is uncertain and the locations are scattered, making it difficult to track through surveillance."

"Then we have to send someone to keep an eye on them." Stark rolled his eyes and said, "The Avengers, Midnight Sons, New Warriors... who else? I know you don't have enough manpower in the New York Temple."

Strange snorted coldly and said, "I will ask the staff of the Sanctuary to contact the Demon God and have their agents suspend their work and resolve this matter first."

The two looked at Schiller together, and Schiller nodded, but then shook his head.

Both Strange and Stark understood what he meant - it was okay for him to participate, but there was no way he could convince Nick to let them go.

Logically speaking, this kind of thing should be handled by SHIELD, but the public opinion situation is unfavorable now. Nick must keep a close eye on the Internet to prevent the network from affecting the offline world and destroying the good and stable situation.

About half an hour later, the members of Midnight Sons met at the Moonlight Temple. Stark, who was standing at the front, sighed and said, "This is what happened. We have to find out who is secretly using magic in New York."

Danny immediately turned to look at Johnny. Stark waved his hand and said, "No, Ghost Rider. The quota of the Devil's Agent is counted as part of the maintenance of the Sanctuary, and it is not considered additional energy consumption."

"It could also be another apostle of Mephisto." Danny said, "The devil is best at sneaking around."

Stark did not rule out this possibility, he just said: "You have been fighting him for so long, you must know something about him, then follow the clues you know and investigate.

"But I have two requests. One is that you must not involve innocent ordinary people, and the other is that you must not frame your brother for no apparent reason. Find evidence first."

Danny wanted to say something, but seeing Stark's unhappy expression, he gave up and just secretly glared at Johnny again.

What surprised Schiller was that Johnny, who had been silent from the beginning until now, suddenly said: "I have a few brothers in the motorcycle gang. I can ask them to help keep an eye on it, but you have to pay for the gas."

"Motorcycle gang? Ordinary people?" Stark frowned. He actually didn't want to let ordinary people get involved, mainly because ordinary people had basically no ability to fight back against magic.

Johnny shook his head and said, "They are not ordinary motorcycle gangs. Most of them have some skills, and some are mutants. They are very familiar with the terrain of New York and should be able to help."

"Okay," Stark nodded and said, "I'll transfer the money to the Sanctuary of the Holy, and then have them transfer it to your account."

The plan was finalized, and everyone went their separate ways to investigate the people they thought were suspicious. At the same time, the same scene was playing out inside the Avengers and the Sanctum Sanctorum.

In places that ordinary people don't notice, superheroes have become active again, but there is one figure that they are not familiar with - Moon Knight.