Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics
Chapter 4777 - 3850: The School Doctor’s "Daily Life" (28)

Chapter 4777: Chapter 3850: The School Doctor’s "Daily Life" (28)

"Alright, I’m not saying I’m here to perform or anything. I’m just... you know, I invested money in this movie. Earlier, someone, maybe the producer, called me to ask if I could invest a bit more. I had to come and check things out..."

"What exactly are you planning to inspect?" Strange wasn’t holding back. Now that he was here, there was no way Strange was going to let him leave.

Stark spread his hands, spun around on the spot, and surveyed the office, saying, "Mainly just to see how your work is going. How are those dear little kiddos doing?"

"You’d better not be referring to Batman."

"Of course not, I mean the little wizards." Stark dropped his shoulders, frowned, and said, "What kind of person would even call Batman ’dear’? Certainly not me. I’m not interested in them at all. I’m just here to see if this movie is worth my additional investment."

"Then go ahead and watch," Strange said.

"Hey, what’s with that attitude?" Stark was quite displeased. He walked over to Strange’s desk, sat down, and tapped the table with his hand, saying, "I’m the investor. Shouldn’t you be flattering me a little?"

"Do you know how many people are lining up to invest in this movie?" Strange rolled his eyes and said, "If you dare to withdraw your investment at this point, I guarantee Pepper will throw you off the top floor of the Stark Building."

Speaking of Pepper, Stark’s eyes shifted a bit, and he said, "Ah, yes. It was Pepper, she asked me to come over. She wanted me to tell you that if you want me to put in more money, then Stark Group’s signature products need to make an appearance in the movie."

"Stark Group’s signature product? Do you want us to launch a magic missile at someone, or have magicians attack your armory?"

"Hey, I’ve shut down the weapons business. And do you think those vulgar weapons represent Stark Group’s technological level?" Stark said as he pointed at his mecha, seemingly waiting for Strange to say something.

Strange couldn’t be bothered to argue with him any further, and said, "Whether you can make an appearance in the movie isn’t up to me. The entire script has to be approved by Director Chris. You’ll have to talk to him."

"I wasn’t planning on getting your approval anyway," Stark snorted, "Where’s Shiller? I want to see him."

"Probably at the school hospital," Strange casually flipped through the lesson plans at hand and then said, "But I wouldn’t recommend going to him at this time, or your medical budget for this quarter will skyrocket. I just saw a message in the group chat from Director Chris; you should be able to talk to him now."

"Alright then," Stark stood up and said, "I don’t have high demands, just a round in the mecha will do. He’ll definitely agree."

Stark flew all the way to the filming base. As expected, Chris and the others were still awake, even eating BBQ and drinking beer. Seeing Iron Man descend from the sky, the entire director team was shocked. Everyone enthusiastically surrounded Stark, taking photos with the mecha and chatting him up, which made Stark feel a bit shy.

Chris also stepped forward to shake hands with Stark and said, "Nice to meet you, Mr. Stark. What brings you here at this hour?"

"Uh, I just... I heard you needed additional investment, so I came to take a look..."

Chris’s eyes lit up instantly, and he said, "Ah, yes, about this issue I must explain: originally, the investment for props was enough, but during shooting, some problems arose, and what was done before couldn’t be used; everything has to be scrapped and start from scratch. This significantly increased the budget for sets, and we estimate needing an additional 20 million US dollars investment..."

"20 million?" Stark repeated the figure, personally not thinking it’s much, but matters involving money, he had to discuss with Pepper. So he said, "I think that’s doable, but Stark Group isn’t a one-person decision. I need to discuss with them. However, don’t worry, even if the group doesn’t approve, I can personally invest."

"That would be excellent," Chris was beaming, shook Stark’s hand firmly again, then stepped back a couple of steps to assess Stark’s mecha, and said, "I’ve heard of your news as the Iron Demon God back in the day. I believe the grand image of Iron Demon God fits well with the theme of this magic movie, and in the final battle at the New York Temple, you could play an important role..."

Stark immediately broke into a smile but felt he shouldn’t be too overt. He tried hard to restrain his joy, cleared his throat, and said, "I don’t want to interfere with your movie shooting. The commotion from Iron Demon God may be a bit too much..."

"No problem, then you can appear in the final battle using Iron Man’s image. I heard from the Supreme Magician that you have a mecha that also uses a magic core?"

"Yes, in fact, now all of my mechas can use magic cores. Are you planning to add some storyline based on this?"

"Of course, you can appear as external aid in the final battle, where we’ll have the protagonist little wizard find the magic core for you. However, the final film effect might not entirely reflect your combat power."

"Oh, it’s alright. I understand, everything serves the plot," Stark finally grinned broadly.

"But there’s one more issue, which is that all actors in the cast must undergo training. Now the training period has passed, but to ensure performance quality, we must take up a bit of your time so you get a basic understanding of the magic world and the movie’s world view."

"No problem." Stark tapped his foot on the spot, rubbed his hands together, and said, "What should I do?"

"For now, the best way is to spend some time at the magical school. Of course, since your role isn’t that of a student, I think you could consider being a guest professor for a while."

"Professor?" Stark hesitated for a moment, then said awkwardly, "But actually, I don’t use magic. I mean, the way I use magic is quite different from the magicians. Steven and the others say I’m a heretic. If I lead the students astray, won’t they come after me?"

"Oh? So, there are different schools of thought in magic usage? Which school do you belong to?"

"I... I might be from the engineering school." Stark was a bit unsure how to explain, "Mages directly output energy and transform it into something according to their ideas, that is, realizing what they wish. But I build something first, then use magic to drive it, utilizing a special form of energy to give my creation different capabilities."

"That sounds a bit like alchemy."

"The term is a bit old-fashioned, but if you insist, sure." Stark said, "In fact, magic’s modification of machinery is more like transmutation, not just speeding up or slowing down its operation through energy injection, but also affecting it through the evolution and metamorphosis of the energy itself. And this term was originally derived from alchemy."

Stark used some technical terms, which Chris didn’t quite understand, but he could notice that Stark’s argument had some similarities with things described in a compendium he had been reading recently. Thinking of this, he asked his assistant to bring over that compendium and handed it to Stark, saying, "Take a look at this."

Stark initially thought he was being handed a script and casually flipped through it, but after reading a few pages, he was taken aback. He picked it up and started to read it carefully from the first page.

His reading speed was very fast, scanning through without hindering his comprehension of the content. After finishing, he slapped his thigh, "Steven finally had a breakthrough! I’ve long said that his mumbo-jumbo way of training doesn’t work. If magic is to truly pass on and have more room for development, it needs systematic sorting and summarization. He’s always been quite resistant to this, but didn’t expect him to secretly work on it!"

"So this wasn’t written by you?"

"No, it’s my first time seeing this compendium. Isn’t it written by Steven?"

"Maybe he got a friend to write it," Chris said. "I originally thought that friend was you, but now it seems not."

This made Stark squint his eyes. He thought: This kind of thing doesn’t seem like something Strange could write. Don’t be fooled that Strange hasn’t been studying magic for long and was a highbrow intellectual before entering the magical world, but he is indeed a traditional magician. His understanding of the world leans more towards mysticism. He wouldn’t use logical deduction to analyze the animals and plants of the magical realm. But if it’s not Strange, then who could it be?

Suddenly, Stark had an epiphany: "Could it be Batman?"

Stark once shared a body with Primary Universe Batman, so he knows Batman somewhat. This kind of thing seems just like something Batman could write.

Stark’s feelings were mixed: On one hand, he felt happy that someone is on his side, using scientific thinking to explain these things and challenging Strange’s beliefs in mysticism and nihilism. But on the other hand, he felt anxious—previously, no matter how he emphasized this to Strange, he wouldn’t agree. Yet as soon as Batman came, Strange changed his mind. He was no longer the only one beside Strange analyzing magic with scientific thinking.

Stark immediately felt that his medical budget for the next quarter might need to be increased again.

However, he also thought that it wasn’t good to find Shiller in the middle of the night. So, he asked Chris for a copy of the compendium, spent the whole night carefully going through the content, made some annotations, added some of his ideas, and then returned it to Director Chris.

Early the next morning, Stark hurried to Strange’s office and told him Chris’s idea. Strange pondered for a moment and then said, "Then teach alchemy."

"What?" Stark didn’t react for a moment.

"I mean, teach whatever you know; just call the course ’Alchemy’. But I’ll make it an elective, open to whoever’s interested. How about that?"

"You really had a breakthrough." Stark said incredulously, "Aren’t you afraid I’ll lead your genius seeds astray?"

"Hmph." Strange snorted, saying nothing.

Previously, he indeed didn’t want Stark to meddle in magical matters, let alone teach students at the school, because most little wizards couldn’t multitask. Strange also believed that only focus could lead to excellence, and he didn’t want Stark’s theories interfering with the students’ thinking.

But times changed, and now the school was full of Batmen, who not only could multitask but manage four, five, or six tasks simultaneously, as if every cell in their bodies was a brain cell.

The lecture notes submitted by the professors showed that the Batmen’s learning progression was incredibly fast. The stuff they learned would soon be exhausted. If they weren’t allowed to multitask, they might have nothing to learn after just a month.

Not to mention the chaos that unemployed Batmen could wreak, it would be quite embarrassing if there was nothing left to teach after a single month. Strange didn’t agree to let Batman come over just to teach magic for free; he also wanted to showcase the advantages of his universe, as well as his strength, paving the way for his future leadership position in the Human Alliance. If this was all there was, wouldn’t that make them the laughingstock of the multiverse?

Stark’s set of theories, although contrary to mysticism, aligned perfectly with Batman’s way of thinking. Putting them together for discussion could not be better.