I'm a hero in Marvel

Tony Stark's words are quite surprising because it is generally believed that he is the funder behind this organization. After all, the Illuminati was established at his initiative!

"Hey, hey, don't look at me like that! The Venus base project alone will cost me billions of dollars, not to mention the various subsequent expenses. Before, Pepper and I were already unhappy because of the new energy issue." Tony said as he patted his forehead.

"If I spent that much money without her consent and without giving her a clear explanation of where it was going, she would definitely quit. She is very important in my life!"

Does it sound like Tony is confessing his love to Pepper? Unfortunately, the heroine is not present at this time. However, Tony does think highly of Pepper.

Captain Rogers patted Tony on the shoulder after hearing what he said and said seriously, "You are right. This money should not be borne by you alone. My annual salary at SHIELD is about $400,000. After deducting daily expenses, I can donate it all. In addition, I recently signed a copyright income with a comic company. If there is any royalties, I can also take it out."

However, Captain Rogers's words raised his image. But obviously, this amount of money was far from enough to support the expenses of this plan. So Tony shook his head and said, "Captain, unless you can settle the lawsuit with the military and make them compensate you for your losses over the years, you can probably get more than 30 billion US dollars. With this money, we will have enough."

"But I have made my position clear. Regardless of the outcome of the lawsuit, the compensation will be used for charity." It seems that Captain Rogers really did not intend to use the military compensation.

"If the Venus base is launched, the mineral resources should be able to meet its own needs, and even have a surplus, which can make up for the funding gap here in the later stage. Even if we really need it, we can extract gold from the core of Venus." Li Jie put forward his suggestion, and Tony agreed.

"Yes, that is true when the Venus base is fully operational. But that is a matter for the future. Moreover, a large amount of Venusian minerals flowing into the Earth market will cause the Earth's resource industry to collapse and may make millions of people unemployed. This is not the result we want to see. Therefore, the minerals of Venus can only meet our own needs to a large extent and are not suitable for resource trading on Earth."

"Although the Venus base can indeed achieve self-sufficiency in the later stage, before that, we need a huge initial investment. This amount of money is an astronomical figure, I think you are all aware of it."

Li Jie looked at Tony and wondered where the generous Iron Man had gone. Now he was haggling over a "small" few hundred billion dollars.

He called hundreds of billions of dollars "small". It seems that this friend is not very sensitive to money.

"Have you considered finding some other wealthy superheroes to join us, just like the rich guys like Nite Owl in the comics joining the Illuminati?" Li Jie had to bring up this idea because he really couldn't find any other solution.

He glanced at Charles and it seemed that the professor was also a rich man, as could be seen from the fact that Xavier's School for Gifted People was actually built by renovating his ancestral home.

"Of course not." Tony waved his hand, denying Li Jie's idea: "I haven't found the right person yet who can directly invest to help us solve our current predicament. You know, what we are going to do is top secret. Before confirming a person's true character, I can't easily bring someone in."

Li Jie once considered letting Harry participate, but after listening to Tony's words, he gave up the idea. Thinking about it carefully, it was not appropriate for Harry to join. After all, the Osborne Group was not controlled by Harry alone, and large-scale fund transfers would likely cause him trouble.

So, the matter was dropped. Captain Rogers, who was watching quietly, couldn't help but sigh. Why did the current scene look so familiar? The dispute between Hawkeye and Deadpool over the $1 million debt was exactly the same: everyone was having a headache over a small sum of money.

Now that he has joined the Illuminati and has a world-class rich man by his side, he still cannot escape the trouble of financial problems. At this moment, Captain Rogers understood what "a penny can make a hero fail."

Charles and Hank were the only two people left who had not expressed their opinions, and everyone was waiting for their insights.

Hank pushed up his black-framed glasses and said, "In fact, Charles was very wealthy before. His family has accumulated wealth for him for a hundred years!"

When everyone heard this, they all became excited, thinking that this low-key bald guy might be the real invisible rich man?

"But..." Hank pushed his glasses again and changed the subject. "In recent years, Charles has almost exhausted his savings to maintain the operation of the mutant school. This mutant school is almost a charity. Even if students cannot afford the tuition, Charles will accept them."

So that's it! Charles is also a guy with a short of money now? The others present couldn't help but feel disappointed, because they originally thought that Charles could come up with a huge fortune.

"Yes, this school has almost cost me all my savings over the years. The operating funds in recent years have been mainly obtained from the sale of patents by Hank and I." Charles told the truth helplessly.

"Patent? What patent?" Tony immediately became interested when he heard the word patent. He knew that Hank and Charles should not be underestimated in scientific research. After all, they were able to create the first generation of invisible position technology in the 1960s. The patents in the hands of such technology giants might really help everyone get out of the current predicament.

"They are mainly patents for civilian technology, such as some additive liquids that can make internal combustion engines burn more completely, and some new structural designs for microcircuit boards." After Hank said this, Tony's interest instantly faded a lot.

These patents can indeed make money, but they are also easy to circumvent. If they are licensed at a low price, the actual profit will not be much. If you think about it carefully, the reason is obvious.

Charles' mutant school has always been the focus of the US government. If there were any weapons of mass destruction or similar black technology, the US government would have taken action long ago.

Hank, who didn't notice the subtle change on Tony's face, continued, "When the Osborn Group announced their limb regeneration medical plan, I had some ideas because Wolverine has a very strong self-recovery ability. I tried to extract the X gene from his body, hoping to develop a drug that can heal wounds quickly. Although it is unlikely to achieve limb regeneration, it has the effect of instant recovery for a large number of external injuries!"

Hank's words immediately captured everyone's heart. If his experiment was really successful, then the drug that could quickly heal trauma would be a remarkable invention.

Imagine those fatal traumatic incidents where patients often die from heavy bleeding on the way to the hospital. If such a drug exists, it will undoubtedly completely change the status quo of trauma treatment!

"What was the final result, Doctor?" Li Jie asked curiously about the final progress of Hank's research. In fact, everyone wanted to know.

"Well, it's only half successful." Hank shook his head and said, "Rapid wound healing agents have side effects. The principle is similar to the Osborn Group's limb regeneration plan, which relies on dividing cells to repair wounds. We know that there is an upper limit to the number of times human cells can divide. A large number of cell divisions will shorten lifespan."

"Also, the limb regeneration program requires an injection that can repair cells. My medicine cannot combine all of its functions into a single emergency medical kit." Hank said and shook his head again.

"So unless you are someone with super physical fitness like Captain Rogers, it is very dangerous for ordinary people to use this fast-healing potion, and they may die directly." It is really difficult to tell whether this is a matter of saving people or harming people.

"I tried to reduce the proportion of some of the ingredients in the drug to make it milder, and when I eliminated the terrible side effect, the effectiveness of the entire drug almost disappeared."

"So how much active ingredient is left in the drug now, Doctor? If the efficacy exceeds that of Yunnan Baiyao, then it actually still has certain practical value and commercial potential." Li Jie thought, as long as this drug still has some medicinal properties, even if the potency is not that strong, it can still bring benefits and make some money for the organization.

"Uh..." Hank looked a little embarrassed. "In fact, after eliminating all the side effects, the efficacy of this drug has been very poor. It has basically lost its ability to heal wounds."

Li Jie and the others were a little disappointed to hear Hank say this. Perhaps Hank didn't want everyone to think that he had accomplished nothing, so he quickly added: "In fact, there are still some uses left, such as promoting the rapid regeneration of damaged hair. I believe that if we continue to study it, there should be a breakthrough."

Although Tony was disappointed with Hank's words, he did not show it: "Okay, Doctor. Maybe we can collaborate on research in this area. Although I am not very proficient in the field of biology, but..." At this moment, Li Jie interrupted Tony's unfinished words.

"Wait!" Li Jie touched his chin and suddenly asked, "Doctor, what effect do you say your medicine has left?"

"The only thing left is to make the hair grow faster. What's wrong?" Dr. Hank looked at Li Jie puzzledly.

Li Jie clapped his hands vigorously several times, appearing extremely excited. Others looked at him puzzledly, not understanding why he was so happy.

After a while, Li Jie came back to his senses and saw the puzzled looks of the other four people. He immediately understood: it turned out that these four people were standing at such a high position that they ignored many trivial matters in the lives of ordinary people. Perhaps they just ignored the point he was thinking of.

So, Li Jie couldn't help but smile and cleared his throat: "Everyone, please listen to me!" Li Jie successfully attracted everyone's attention.

"Do you know approximately how much US dollars the total amount of food aid provided to Africa by the United Nations and countries around the world each year is worth?" Li Jie seemed to suddenly throw out a seemingly irrelevant question.

"It's about 15 billion US dollars, if you mean pure food aid, not including other material support." Tony Stark raised his eyebrows and answered Li Jie's question, but he didn't understand why Li Jie suddenly mentioned this.

"Do you know how much the world spends on hair loss treatment each year?" Li Jie asked with a smile: "More than 20 billion US dollars!"

"In this world, people's pursuit of beauty is endless! During the Age of Discovery, Parisian noble women invented body-shaping garments that were like torture instruments in order to have slim waists!" Li Jie said with high spirits.