Sorcerer in the Marvel Universe

Acquisition really was an excellent solution.

Evenson had always believed that if a problem could be solved with money, then it wasn’t really a problem.

At least, that was easier to believe when the money belonged to the Eredar Twins.

He’d already come to terms with the fact that the sixty billion dollars in Umbrella’s accounts might as well have nothing to do with him. If he thought too hard about it, he’d never sleep again.

And really, why did you think acquisition had become the favorite weapon of capitalists around the world?

Why buy out a competitor instead of simply having them assassinated?

Was it because they feared the law?

Or perhaps they were worried about some cosmic principle of karma coming back to bite them?

Not a chance.

When money was involved, capitalists feared very little.

And they certainly knew how to count costs.

They could crush a rival’s stock price, send corporate spies into the company to sabotage operations, slash prices to steal market share, and employ countless other methods to drive the competition into the ground.

Then, after their rival finally surrendered, they would spend another fortune acquiring the entire company.

Sometimes they would even hand severance packages to laid-off employees just to make the takeover look respectable.

All of that cost money.

Enough money to hire dozens of desperate killers and have them take the blame for an assassination.

Enough to hire the best security firms in the world and dramatically increase their own protection.

And unlike an assassination, an acquisition could take months or even years if the other side refused to make mistakes.

For people who believed time was money, that was an enormous expense.

Yet corporations still preferred acquisition.

Why?

Because acquisition was ultimately more profitable.

Take Umbrella’s current situation.

Evenson could quietly eliminate every member of the competing organization. Nobody would discover what happened, and he wouldn’t have to worry about criminal charges.

But what would be the point?

Mature biotechnology was an extraordinarily valuable asset.

Destroying technology that advanced simply because its creators happened to be inconvenient would be an unforgivable waste.

Of course, Evenson could kill the scientists and force the secrets out of them first.

For a Warlock with considerable experience in pain and torture, extracting information wouldn’t exactly be difficult.

But technology was dead without the people who knew how to use it.

Suppose he took everything they knew and handed it to a completely new research team.

How long would it take those people to understand the technology, reproduce it, and develop it further?

How much money would be wasted along the way?

And advanced technology was never truly finished.

A cutting-edge field had to keep moving.

It needed constant research, refinement, experimentation, and new breakthroughs.

Who could do that better than the people who had invented it in the first place?

Innovation couldn’t simply be beaten out of someone.

Especially at the cutting edge of science, breakthroughs often required inspiration.

Evenson could kidnap an entire research team, lock them in a laboratory, and threaten them with every torture device in existence.

Would that make them invent something new?

Probably not.

He might actually beat the next great idea right out of their heads.

Creativity worked best when people wanted to create.

And, as everyone knew, a paycheck was generally more effective than a whip.

As for whether the scientists would resent Umbrella after a hostile acquisition and refuse to cooperate, Evenson wasn’t particularly worried about that either.

Scientists worked for reasons that varied from person to person.

Some wanted to uncover the secrets of nature.

Others wanted money, recognition, or both.

But regardless of their motivation, they needed resources to continue their work.

And nobody had infinite time or energy.

A brilliant scientist could dedicate himself to groundbreaking research, or he could personally manage an enormous corporation.

Doing both was considerably harder.

Even Tony Stark, one of the greatest scientific minds on Earth, needed Pepper Potts to handle the business side of his empire.

Scientists were usually not the owners of the companies funding their research.

They were employees.

They accepted money from someone else and used those resources to pursue their work.

And if the new owner could afford to buy their old company outright, that only proved one thing.

The new owner had more money.

Perhaps Umbrella would offer better salaries.

Perhaps it would provide better equipment and larger research budgets.

From the perspective of the scientists, a new employer wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

So the twins’ acquisition strategy made perfect sense.

Evenson agreed with it.

There was just one concern.

"But I heard these people are using the vice president’s influence to strengthen their position."

He frowned.

"Could that cause trouble when we try to acquire the company?"

Ross had already discovered that the vice president favored their competitor, so Evenson’s concern wasn’t unreasonable.

"It won’t."

Salorath shook her head.

There was a knowing glint in her eyes, the look of someone who understood human nature far too well.

"People are selfish. Someone in the vice president’s position won’t act recklessly unless there’s enough personal benefit to justify it."

Oleseth nodded.

"The reason the vice president favored them last time was simple. Their technology could restore his daughter’s leg."

Her smile was almost clinical.

"What he cares about is the technology. Not the people who happen to possess it."

"Exactly," Salorath said casually. "It doesn’t matter who fixes his daughter’s leg. Once we acquire the technology, we’ll do it ourselves."

She shrugged.

"We might even give him a discount."

"Then there’s nothing to worry about."

Evenson nodded.

The vice president wanted his daughter’s leg restored.

He didn’t necessarily care who performed the procedure.

Why would he go out of his way to protect the company that currently possessed the technology?

Even if he had developed a friendly relationship with its people, he couldn’t openly interfere in an ordinary commercial dispute.

For someone in his position, doing so would be a political scandal.

If the story became public, the opposition would tear him apart.

They could accuse him of corruption, abusing political power to benefit a private company, and every other ugly thing they could fit into a headline.

The media would have a field day.

So long as the vice president wanted to preserve his position and influence, he had every reason to stay out of the fight.

Unless, of course, his relationship with those people was exceptionally deep.

Or unless they offered him something valuable enough to make him willing to risk everything.

"Anyway..."

Evenson was about to continue when a sudden gust of wind tore through the valley.

Sand blasted across his face.

He immediately shut his mouth and covered it with one hand.

"Damn weather."

The Eredar Twins had originally positioned themselves behind a windbreak, but they had made the mistake of standing inside a valley.

The air currents twisted through the narrow passage, creating a violent vortex of sand.

The twins were caught in it as well.

They looked increasingly irritated.

Then Oleseth’s expression changed.

Her eyes narrowed.

She abruptly raised her staff and slammed its tip into the ground.

Her voice cut through the howling wind.

"What kind of filthy bastard is spying on us?"

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!