novelhk Chapter 331 Earth's Reflection
Chapter 331 Earth's Reflection
Chapter 331 Earth's Reflection
At Zhang Parker's warning, Joey rushed from underground to the surface with Professor X's brain, scanning all the planet's equipment, only to find that everything was normal.
Following closely behind, Zhang Parker nervously looked around. His spider-sense was still pricking his nerves. Finally, unable to find any visible danger, he could only follow his instincts and stare intently at the sky.
Dudu~
A car horn sounded from somewhere. Looking up at the sky, Zhang Parker instinctively jumped, but he couldn't dodge in time and was sent flying by a car that seemed to appear out of nowhere. He rolled back and forth on the front of the car and the windshield.
He angrily got up, pointed at the people inside the car window, and was about to start cursing, but then he felt a little uneasy down there. He reached down and pulled out a small golden statue with its head held high, arms outstretched.
He recognized it; it was a "Goddess of Joy" statue, commonly found on the hood of certain vehicles, such as...
Rolls-Royce Phantom?
At that moment, it seemed that the mindset of Peter Parker, the penniless wretch, had taken over Zhang Parker's mind. In an instant, sweat broke out on his forehead as he began to involuntarily think about how he would compensate for the damage he had caused.
Then he realized that he wasn't Peter Parker, but the wealthy owner of Parker Industries, and that he could afford to lose even a Rolls-Royce Phantom.
And then—no.
Why would a Rolls-Royce Phantom be in such a godforsaken place, and then crash into someone so badly they'd be completely disoriented?
"It's okay, it's my fault. I didn't choose a good landing spot. You don't have to pay anything!"
"Big entrepreneur" Kang, cigar in mouth, opened the car door, wiped his newly acquired gold-rimmed monocle, and generously forgave Zhang Parker for the debt he owed for knocking the little golden statue off the hood of his car:
"Anyway, Spider-Men like you can never afford to pay for it."
After all, as the IP manager of Punk Spider-Man, he knew perfectly well that almost every Spider-Man was a poor guy reincarnated, and it would be difficult for him to have any connection with large sums of US dollars in this life.
"you!"
Zhang Parker, who was inexplicably hit by a car and then mocked as a poor wretch, was about to retaliate and have a physical argument with the guy in front of him when he discovered that his spider-sense had not disappeared and was even stronger.
After getting out of the car, Kang looked around and his gaze was soon drawn to the huge Ultron 30k wreckage in the distance.
Looking at the knuckles that were as big as a mountain range, Kang whistled lightly: "Wow~ Is that a Celestial Group?"
But after scanning it, he was greatly disappointed: "What? It's just Ultron."
Even so, he still secretly picked up a piece of debris from the ground and put it in his pocket: "It's really rare to see such a large Ultron. I'll go back and study it."
"Superman, long time no see!"
The not-so-clean-handed businessman, Kang, greeted Joey familiarly: "So you're working on Ultron this time? I thought it was something serious!"
"Did I tell you before that a colleague of mine also encountered Ultron?"
As if to cover up his act of petty theft, Kang rattled off one set of words after another:
"That Ultron was incredibly powerful. My colleague traveled through time, leading superheroes from all over the world to fight him time and time again, but they never won—thankfully, after thousands of cycles, that stupid robot who kept winning finally realized this and then self-destructed!"
Joey, clutching a can of brains, watched Kang, who was still automatically collecting debris from the scene, until finally lost her patience and coughed lightly.
"Hey, what are you doing here?"
Kang, who was squatting on the ground holding two pieces of wreckage and comparing their sizes, finally remembered the purpose of his trip:
"Oh right! The X-Men! Where are they? Everything's arranged over there, just waiting for them to head over and give their 40th-century fans a slow-motion left and right hand gesture!"
"What?"
How did Joey know that Professor X wanted to resurrect the X-Men and other mutants through cloning?
"This is still in the early stages, and it might not even happen yet. How do you know that?!"
"What?! You're not doing it?! No way! You're the one who asked me to come!"
Upon hearing this, the tycoon Kang flew into a rage, instinctively assuming that Superman was trying to renege on his debt. He gritted his teeth, pulled a thick stack of documents from his suit jacket lining, and slapped them loudly in his hands.
"Those dolls—no, toys! I've already ordered tens of millions of sets to import! Do you know how much effort I put into getting all these documents in order to make everything compliant, and how many top-notch legal teams I hired to deal with those greedy customs and tax authorities?!"
"What is this?"
Joey was still not quite processing what was happening, and instinctively took the document and glanced at it.
Kang clenched his fist, seemingly to show off his victory:
"Time is of the essence, no need to watch anymore. Just know that I beat those greedy parasites to a pulp in court!"
Even though it was full of technical jargon and complicated clauses, Joey read and understood it all before Kang finished his boastful speech, and that's when she finally understood what was going on.
Firstly, Kang is indeed a great entrepreneur; even before he got his hands on the mutants, he had already started commissioning the production of soft vinyl dolls and SHF figures.
Secondly, perhaps it was Kang's own insistence that, in any case, in the world of his business, even someone as powerful as Kang the Conqueror, who could traverse timelines, still had to accept the supervision of customs and taxation.
The documents that Kang handled mainly concerned the issue of tax rates.
As is well known, different categories of goods are subject to significantly different tariffs when they are declared through customs. Therefore, reducing tariffs is an important means for enterprises involved in import and export to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
As a trendy entertainment company that operates cultural and entertainment IPs, Kang, a major entrepreneur, happens to have a business segment that he can make a name for himself in: IP-derived dolls, or toys.
To the average consumer, "doll" and "toy" are whatever they want to call them, but to customs, they are two completely different tax categories.
"Dolls" specifically refers to toys in the form of "human figures," such as Barbie dolls and G.I. Joe dolls, and the declared tariff rate is 12%.
Other "toys" refer to toys depicting "animals" or "non-human creatures," and are subject to a tariff rate of 6.8%.
So, in order to save on tariff costs, Kang, a "big entrepreneur," hired a bunch of lawyers and fought a lawsuit against customs for almost half a month, finally proving one thing: mutants, as mutated humans, some have claws, some are even just blue-skinned beasts, and some can even transform into a thundercloud. All of this proves that mutants are not human at all!
Therefore, toys made in their likeness cannot be considered "dolls" but only "toys," and customs must levy tariffs at the low rate of 6.8%!
"hehe!"
This laugh, utterly speechless, didn't come from Joey, but from Professor X, who was communicating with Joey through the Mind Stone. He was genuinely amused by what the tycoon Kang had said.
"I hate capitalism."
Throughout his life, Professor X dedicated himself to bridging the divide between humans and mutants and promoting mutual understanding between the two sides.
Ultimately, he just wanted to prove one thing: that mutants are not some kind of monster; they are human beings, just like ordinary humans, with joys and sorrows, families and friends.
As someone who has dedicated his life to fighting for the same rights as ordinary humans for mutants who suffer discrimination and are frequently dissected for research, Professor X should have been furious when he heard that his ideal of a world of universal harmony had been kicked away by the tycoon Kang.
But now he's a little unsure where to begin his anger.
The philanthropist Kang's motivation to prove that mutants are not human differs from those who genuinely want to exterminate them. His motivation is not horrific racism, but rather extremely pragmatic capitalism.
Whether mutants are human or not, in his eyes they are nothing more than a tariff reduction of less than 6%.
After learning the whole story, Joey, who was Superman, was speechless.
Aside from being somewhat greedy, Kang may not be inherently bad.
He could have chosen the traditional, unadulterated capitalist approach, directly resorting to physical force and signing unequal tariff treaties.
However, he chose to hire a team of lawyers and honestly litigate against customs within the legal framework, which truly made him an oddity among the many conquerors.
Just as Joey's impression of this version of Kang was starting to improve, the other party, who was clearly obsessed with money, suddenly had a scheme to take advantage of Joey again:
"You seem to have mentioned that you're a Kryptonian? Then can you provide proof so I can argue in court that Kryptonians aren't human either?!"
"Get lost!"
Suppressing the urge to slap the tycoon Kang, car and all, flying to another universe, Joey began to ponder how to arrange everything:
"There's one more thing—you just said I asked you to come?"
"Of course!" Kang answered confidently, then realized what was happening as he looked at Joey's suspicious expression.
"I understand! You haven't called me over yet, have you?"
"Maybe." For Joey, this was yet another troublesome time travel problem, but he couldn't easily believe it:
How can you prove it?!
"No!" Kang shrugged confidently. "If you don't believe me, then you have only yourself to blame. You didn't tell me this was the situation at all!"
"Superman!"
Zhang Parker, who had been tormented by spider-sense for a long time, finally identified the source of the danger. He roared to draw everyone's attention to the direction from which the danger was approaching:
"Quick, look at the sky!"
Unexpectedly, this shout triggered the smart speaker in the big entrepreneur Kang's car, and a background music that Joey knew all too well started playing. "Look! Look at the sky! Is that a bird? Or an airplane?"
"Kang, turn that thing off right now!"
Joey never expected that Kang would still be using this song, just sticking to the Superman IP?
After hastily turning off the stereo as Superman instructed, "Big Entrepreneur" Kang followed everyone's gaze to the sky, and immediately froze on the spot, the cigar he was holding falling to the ground with a clatter.
"A generous gift of crab!"
The entire sky was like a mirror, reflecting another planet of the exact same size beyond the horizon.
A blue Earth.