Chapter 183: Madman's Journey (59)_1

"Dark secrets, they are secret weapons that quickly close the gap between you and others, but at the same time, they are risky double-edged swords. Most people who expose their real dark secrets to others will only obtain the opposite effect. However, if used correctly, they can be a killer technique for early psychological manipulation."

All eyes turned to Nick. Not everyone wanted to manipulate others mentally, but no one wanted to be manipulated. By attending this lecture, they hoped to heighten their guard.

"Establish a dominant position in others' hearts, causing unconscious dependency on your side. The key is to have them accept you from their hearts, but not just your strengths and superior aspects."

"The admiration for strength is an inherent human emotion. People will prefer others' positives and accept negatives merely because they are willing to tolerate due to the positives."

"Generally, people recognize each other's shortcomings, either conflicting with morality or personality. Most of the time, they are aware but can endure."

"However, psychological manipulation aims not to make others accept your shortcomings, but to convince them that you don't have any. They should earnestly believe that they are strengths, not weaknesses."

"To accomplish this, how you introduce your flawn is crucial. If your first impression is extremely distasteful, altering this perception afterwards will not be easy."

"I mentioned that disguising strengths as weaknesses is a way, but not the most elegant one, especially when facing intelligent people. They can easily figure out that you are only boasting by pretending to have a disadvantage."

"To deal with this type of people, you can only use real flaws, ones so shocking, even entirely unacceptable. That means once they accept it, they'll be trapped."

"So Shiller said he's a serial killer?" Eddie asked, pondering, "This is clearly a flaw that neither Tony nor any normal person can accept."

"Yes, but his way of revealing it was very skillful," Nick raised a corner of his mouth and continued, "he linked this distasteful flaw with his dark past."

"To put it simply, 'Although I am a serial killer, there are reasons. Even though I am a villain in the traditional sense, there are people worse than me. Even though I can kill without blinking, I still have my pitiful moments.'

"Coming up with reasons to justify one's evil deeds could form an entire discipline. Especially convincing in the mouths of those cunning psychopaths. Even if they were the kind of devils who could cheer up by choking sparrows soon after birth, they would tell others that all this was because they were abused and discriminated against just to manipulate them."

"Let's assume," Nick stretched out a hand and spread out his fingers in front of him, "that what Shiller said about his past is true, do you feel that this experience shaped him?"

"It's not improbable," Tony shrugged, "If the part about human experiments is also true, how can we deny that abuse dramatically changed his temperament?"

"That's why I'm saying, Tony, he's deceiving people like you," Nick pointed a finger at Tony, looking at him from the corner of his eyes, "Never again complain about the three hundred million U.S. Dollars therapy fee you pay per quarter, it's what you deserve."

"No one shaped Shiller, he shaped himself," Nick spread out his hands, "His tremendous talent could have saved him from most tragedies, he had a choice, but he didn't take it."

"Indeed, the environment has a certain influence on a person's character; long-term abuse could potentially reshape someone's personality. Psychopaths might have tragic pasts, but it doesn't change the fact that when given a choice, they sidestepped the right path and chose to become perpetrators."

"And their way of selecting targets is precisely by exploiting others' sympathy, choosing those who resonate with them, understand them, and voluntarily excuse them."

Nick pointed his finger around at the people present, "Just like you guys, the superheroes. Your extensive sympathy is an excellent breeding ground that makes all psychological abusers wake up laughing from their dreams."

"The world is too crazy," Tony began, "So you either become a victim or a perpetrator, are there no other choices?"

"The only thing you can do once you realize that the other party might be a psychopath is to run away as fast as you can without looking back."

"Unfortunately..." Nick sighed lightly, "Tony of this universe started running late. The moment Tony heard about Shiller's tragic past and started reflecting on what's wrong with his country, he could no longer run away."

"Speaking of which, it seems like Erik also wanted to reveal his dark history, right? " Natasha recalled, "He mentioned Wakanda while on the run. That must have been a past he didn't want to remember."

"As I said, he made Tony pour all his intense emotions onto Pepper, so how could he expect Tony to have enough sympathy to listen to his story?"

Getting up from behind the bar, T'Challa finally sat opposite Eddie, placing a glass of wine in front of him before taking a sip of his non-alcoholic beverage, "To my perception, Erik is a somewhat contradictory person, incredibly ambitious, but never able to let go of his pride."

"He wished everyone would revolve around him, reacting according to his expectations. And if they didn't, resentment would arise."

"The same is true this time," Nick snapped his fingers and said, "Erik clearly hopes that Tony would actively inquire about his background, show concern for him, and help him resolve issues at all costs."

"He thinks that since he risked his life to save Tony, Tony owes him and should do whatever he wants. So, he let his guard down, convinced that he has the absolute advantage in this relationship. However, his lax attitude and lack of attention to detail will eventually bring him a lot of trouble."

In the office of the Stark Group, Obadiah looked grimly at Erik who had just turned and left. He picked up the phone handset and told Pepper, "Fire the security director, we are going to parachute a new director over."

Pepper's angry roar came from the other end of the phone, but Obadiah calmly and even indifferently said, "I know he's been with the company for ten years. But he saved Tony's life. Isn't he qualified for the director's position?"

"Tell the security team to be respectful of him. His backer is our most brilliant scientist, Tony Stark."

On the other end, Pepper, stifled with frustration, hung up the phone. She was angry and worried, not understanding why Obadiah and Tony got back on good terms after his visit.

After thinking for a while in her office, she decided to ask Stark. But at that moment, a security officer in uniform rushed in through the door and shouted at Pepper, "Miss Pepper, there has been a serious argument in the security director's office. It seems a stranger intruded."

Pepper held her aching head. She was delayed for a while and hadn't informed the security department about the new arrival, and Erik had already caused a disturbance in the director's office.

Pepper rushed to handle the trouble without taking the time to inquire Stark's opinion. She was full of suspicion towards Obadiah and was dissatisfied with his arrangement.

She even suspected that Erik was working for Obadiah. Perhaps Obadiah wanted to gradually erode Tony's power via Erik, but since Tony had no objections, Pepper couldn't take it upon herself to intervene.

But Pepper wasn't someone to mess with, either. She had been working at Stark Group for many years and was very familiar with the entire company's personnel system.

Not willing to replace the old security director, Pepper made a grand gesture and sent Erik to the inspectorate department.

The inspectorate department, also known as the supervision department, is a typical department in large companies. Their primary responsibility is to ensure that everyone in the department follows rules and procedures. They are also responsible for resolving internal company conflicts.

It may sound like a powerful role, but in reality, no one wants this job. It's common knowledge that no large company can operate strictly according to rules and regulations, without which the company simply cannot survive. Most leaders strategically turn a blind eye over certain matters as long as the overall direction of the company is beneficial.

But knowing they are guilty, people annoyed by the sight of supervisors, make this department the most excluded in the company.

The leader of the supervision department must be a diplomat, appeasing conflicts everywhere. Only then, in times of factional struggles, can everyone give him some respect, resolving major issues into minor ones and minor ones into nothing. That's the only way to survive in the company.

So, anyone parachuted into such a position can hardly do the job. Let alone mediate internal company conflicts, they can't even figure out the power dynamics and vested interests. Few days into the job and already annoying people, they might as well pack their bags.

About three days later, in his lab, Stark had completed the prototype of the first-generation battle armor. To differentiate it from the previously developed drones, he didn't name his battle suit but referred to it as Mark II.

While he was finishing up on the battle armor, Pepper harriedly pulled him out of the lab with her, and waiting for Stark was a conference room full of shareholders yelling their lungs out.

Stark, who had been staying up for two nights, was already dizzy. He didn't understand for a good ten minutes after entering the room. It turned out that the original documents of the important business agreement had been lost. All departments were passing the buck, none of them willing to look for it.

The deadline for the project was closing in, but the legal documents were lost. Naturally, this would affect the series of commercial arrangements that were to follow. The investors and directors connected to this matter were all anxious. The problem kept growing, like a snowball. As a last resort, Obadiah had no choice but to call Stark.

Stark didn't have the patience to deal with these things, and wanted to dismiss all the directors. But after a thorough inquiry, he found out that the trouble was actually caused by conflicts between the inspectorate and security departments. Both of them were not doing their jobs, and as a result, the documents couldn't be found.

Upon further questioning, it turned out that the security department was trying to request whistleblower files from the inspectorate. For some unknown reason, an argument started. Erik lost his temper and beat up the security director, who was now in the hospital. The entire department was in a state of disarray. No matter whom they urged, it was useless.

Pepper, in front of Stark, called in the warring parties from the security and inspectorate departments and gave them a good scolding. With Obadiah helping on the side, placating the shareholders, a hot mess of people fussed for a whole day before Stark was finally let go at night.

However, the problem still had to be resolved. Stark, always one to get straight to the point, asked Erik to come to his office. Erik spent half an hour complaining about how unreasonable the security director was, to which Stark had to listen.

Yet he tried his best to calm him down, "Don't get worked up yet. You're going to encounter some unfamiliarity with the new role. The work in the security and inspectorate departments is complicated and probably not suitable for you."

"Obadiah told me earlier that we have started resource cooperation with some countries in Africa. Why don't you join this project? The personnel relationships are not so complicated there, and it will be easier for you to adjust."