Chapter 141: A Triple Win

Howard initially thought Mei Mumv was merely a nouveau riche who had somehow managed to stumble into a fortune in Europe. However, as their conversation deepened, Howard was utterly astounded.

Many of his concepts and visions were simply beyond the comprehension of anyone in this era; they could not grasp even the slightest fraction of them. Yet this Mr. Mei not only understood them completely, but was also able to offer unique and insightful perspectives.

Take maglev trains, for instance, or single-person flight armor. More than once, Howard had been mocked by congressmen holding the purse strings and government appropriations for bringing up such fairy-tale topics. They called them unrealistic fantasies and demanded something practical—which, to put it bluntly, meant something useful in the current war.

After repeatedly presenting his ideas and invention directions using simple, idiotic descriptions that he believed even a pig could understand, and hitting a brick wall every single time, Howard had been forced to conclude that "geniuses are never understood by the mundane world."

He had never expected that right here, a partner who felt like a gift from the heavens would appear.

Howard was simply ecstatic.

Genius is lonely!

Finding a like-minded companion was the absolute height of bliss.

When he brought in a lawyer the next day and, under the joint witness of the bank and the attorney, signed the authorization letter, Howard genuinely began to regard Mei Mumv as a brother.

This was a partnership with which all three parties were overwhelmingly satisfied.

The bank obtained the gold they desired most. Under the impending gold standard policy, ten tons of gold was undeniably a colossal sum. With this gold, valued at over ten million and largely remaining untouched in their vaults, Chase Bank could issue significantly more loans and investments.

Following a whole day of discussions, Howard valued the entire company at four million dollars, and then sold a twenty-five percent stake to this Mr. Mei Strange for one million dollars, with all payments settled at the prevailing market price of gold.

In fact, the shrewd Howard did not sell off this batch of gold. Instead, following the advice of his accountant, he used this gold—along with the gold provided by Mei Mumv as a secondary guarantor—as collateral to borrow a full three million dollars from the bank.

In an instant, Stark Industries' capital chain became abundantly flush.

To the bank, Mei Mumv was the ultimate sucker.

Because by March 1942, the U.S. stock market had been in a prolonged bear market for a very, very long time. Stark Industries, with scarcely any marketable products to its name, was simply not worth four million.

Even Howard Stark himself felt a sense of embarrassment regarding this valuation, feeling that he had thoroughly taken advantage of Mr. Mei.

Meanwhile, the macro environment was disheartening, with bad news arriving from Europe almost every single day. Not just the stock market, but the entirety of the United States was shrouded in an atmosphere of panic.

Only Mei, a two-time transmigrator, knew the truth. Just one month after this timeframe, in April 1942, the U.S. stock market would kick off a forty-nine-month bull market, with equities surging by one hundred and fifty-eight percent.

America was actually one of the few nations that truly benefited from World War II. Sandwiched between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, its mainland remained virtually unscathed. In contrast, Germany, the economic powerhouse of the era, had already been reduced to rubble.

As for money, Mei Mumv didn't care about it at all.

He had long since casually purchased one hundred thousand dollars worth of broad-market index funds; he didn't need to do a thing except wait until 2018, when those funds would multiply five thousand one hundred times.

In fact, the only thing he truly had to believe in was that America would win this war.

He originally wanted to buy more, but the Securities and Exchange Commission only permitted him that much under the pretext of preventing him from disrupting market order. Put simply, they were afraid he would short the market...

As for where Mei Mumv's gold came from, many might ask:

When a Sorcerer Supreme who understood spatial teleportation cast aside his moral integrity and ventured into World War II to steal the German's gold, heaven forbid he would ever fail!

During World War II, the Germans had slaughtered countless Jews, occupied numerous nations, and sacked countless capitals. It could be said that every single pfennig of the German war chest was stained with blood.

Mei Mumv was merely acquiring a fraction of that ill-gotten wealth.

Compared to the joy of Howard and Chase Bank, Mei Mumv was the one truly laughing up his sleeve. Naturally, he knew that if he failed to survive the onslaught of Thanos in 2018, his death would render any amount of wealth nothing more than a pile of waste paper.

As someone with a strong instinct for survival, Mei Mumv had never intended to put all his eggs in one basket. Since he had made the trip to America, he naturally had to hitch the future Iron Man, Tony Stark, to his own chariot.

At this moment, Mei Mumv finally understood why Tony in 2016 had been so helpless whenever a certain Mr. Mei was mentioned—just imagine, the guy who was supposed to be your peer turns out to be your own father's best friend. Even more absurdly, Mr. Mei was also a shareholder of Stark Industries. Facing a situation where he was peers with someone yet forced a generation junior, Tony probably had unspoken curses choking in his throat.

Of course, as a shrewd investor, Mei Mumv had Howard add a clause: fifty years later, he and his designated agents would have unconditional access to Stark Industries' scientific research achievements sitting just one generation behind the bleeding edge. That was a shareholder perk.

Howard in 1942 could naturally never have imagined that someone could be so insidious, scheming against his son over six decades into the future. At this time, Howard was still a complete bachelor.

The market was ruthless; unless products were dumped into third-world countries, a generation-behind product possessed zero competitiveness on the open market and would inevitably be phased out. Seeing how generous Mei Mumv was, and since they were old-generation goods anyway, Howard didn't mind letting them go.

After Mei Mumv signed a commitment letter promising not to export Stark Industries' older-generation technology to Europe, Howard generously amended the clause to allow Mei Mumv to exercise this privilege starting immediately.

He had no idea whatsoever that he had been thoroughly fleeced by a seemingly benevolent transmigrator, and had inadvertently shafted his own son, Tony Stark.

All of that was a story for another day. Through his investment in Stark Industries, Mei Mumv also established his reputation as an investor on Wall Street.

A massive crowd of various characters—consisting of frauds and genuine self-proclaimed inventors alike—attempted to seek out Mei Mumv, the wealthy benefactor, hoping to squeeze out a fortune.

At this point, Mei Mumv made casual investments in a few companies he remembered from future generations before seeking out Howard once again.

"Are there any projects spearheaded by the military that require investment? I don't care whether it turns a profit, but I want to establish a connection with the military."

Howard wore an expression of sudden realization.

This was the standard playbook of American financial conglomerates. Pure profitability was merely a castle built on shifting sands, and nobody knew when that castle might collapse. Only by controlling, or possessing strong influence within the government, could one ensure that their wealth continued to appreciate and, at the very least, remain immune to inexplicable infringements.