"Wait!! You planned to use this thod all along??? Why did you make read all those books????"
As Shiller was plugging an earpiece into Stark's ear, Stark kept squirming, protesting, "This is cheating, isn't it??? Damn it!! Stop doing that!! My ear! I've already mastered that stuff, I don't need..."
"You really thought you could learn in a few nights what I studied from college to PhD?"
"So you decided to beco a sideline coach all along!!! You deceiver! You clearly told that if I didn't learn this stuff, Stark Group would be dood!!!"
"That was just a macro perspective, I was right. One day you have to learn this stuff, so why not yesterday?" Shiller replied.
Ignoring Stark's dodging, Shiller still managed to plug an earpiece into Stark's ear, claiming, "Don't overreact, I'm just an off-court translator, it's pretty common, isn't it?"
Steve, standing by the side, interjected, "Actually, politicians do this all the ti. They have their staff behind them, and they wear these earpieces even during important interviews. Of course, these devices were a lot more expensive and rare back in my day. Only a select few important people could afford them..."
Stark fumbled forcefully with the earpiece in his ear, saying, "Damn it! Why did you portray such a bleak picture before? You gave so many books, I stayed up all night to morize them!"
"Exactly, if I hadn't done that, you would never have glanced at them in your entire life." Shiller replied,
"Alright, let's put that aside for now, but are you sure this will help?"
"Damn it... I should've thought of it earlier! You vampire doctor! If I had known earlier, I would never have used your outdated earpiece. I would've created a more advanced, whole set of eavesdropping systems..."
Pounding his forehead, Stark regretted, "Why didn't I think of this before! I could've left you to do this for ! I could've just been a parrot on stage, it doesn't matter if I don't know, as long as you do, right?!"
Stark was genuinely peeved at this point, not at Shiller, but at himself for not thinking of this workaround.
Of course, the fault lies with Shiller. When Stark approached him for a solution, he was in a dire state. anwhile, Shiller used a tone and a line of argunt that was so serious, it made Stark feel abnormal for being ignorant of the subject matter at hand.
Had Stark not been ignoring mundane affairs all this ti, he would've known that Obadiah had a whole think tank behind him. Stark Industries couldn't possibly be run solely by Obadiah.
Stark is a billionaire, it's okay if he didn't know all this stuff, as long as he has money, there will be plenty of people who do. If he had spent the ti he used to go through the books to hire an advisory team, he would've ford a dream team by now.
But Shiller misled him into thinking that he was paying the price for his past reckless behaviour, so he never thought about utilizing his imnse wealth and scientific research capabilities.
Forget about anything else, even if he had built an AI Face Analysis System, it would've probably been quicker than morizing the books.
"So this is psychology, isn't it?! You deceiver!!" Stark gritted his teeth, "You studied psychology, just to trap people in such dilemmas and milk them, didn't you?!!"
"Don't paint as an unethical quack."
"Aren't you an unethical quack?"
"May be a little unethical, but definitely not a quack."
"Mr. Stark, the car has arrived." Jarvis reminded him, "The eting will officially begin at 10:30, and you are expected to arrive at 10:20."
"Alright, alright, let's just leave it at that." Stark still seed a little nervous, "There's no other way."
Patting him on the shoulder, Shiller said, "Don't worry, once you get there, you'll realize you're not the only one."
Stark got in the car and soon arrived at the eting place. He was late, so most of the people had already taken their seats.
Glancing around, Stark realised that nearly everyone was wearing an earpiece. So were even blatantly video calling on the computer, where a whole group of people sat around a conference table on the screen, presenting the scene of another mini-eting.
Stark told Jarvis, "Deduct Shiller's consultation fees... Deduct all of them!!!!! I don't want to see his na on the annual financial report!!! That damn bastard tricked !!!!!"
Jarvis said, "The earpiece has been connected for thirteen minutes."
Shiller's voice rang in Stark's ear, "It's ok, you can deduct all the previous consultation fees, but this political consulting service is also chargeable, the price is 200,000 US dollars per minute..."
"Bullshit, you vampire doctor!"
"If you disagree, I will hang up imdiately."
"No! No no... Wait, I think we can still negotiate, 200,000 dollars is too expensive, but don't hang up just yet, the negotiation is about to start, what should I say?"
anwhile, back at the clinic, Peter and Steve sat in front of the table, listening to Stark's frantic voice. Steve was clearly gloating, while Peter felt a bit guilty. He said, "It seems a bit too expensive, Doctor, I think we should give him a discount..."
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