Blade Technology Industries had now become a genuine behemoth, so unlike Umbrella Corporation, it did not have bases scattered all over the world.
World Serpent, however, was already beginning to spread its bases across the globe.
Zod Heath's research into symbiotes had achieved a breakthrough.
On top of that, since he already regarded Zoanoids as obsolete products, the mercenaries joining World Serpent no longer had to undergo modification into Zoanoids. Instead, each of them could receive a symbiote battle suit.
These symbiote battle suits were all mindless bio-weapons. Zod Heath had adjusted them into the form of the Guyver, though of course they were nowhere near as powerful as the real Guyver.
Still, once covered by a symbiote battle suit, these soldiers would gain physical abilities ten times beyond normal human limits. In other words, every single one of them could beat Captain America senseless.
Moreover, because of the symbiotes' unique properties, even if they were decapitated, they still would not die, unless their enemy used fire or sonic attacks.
For now, there was still no way to cultivate a symbiote battle suit that could resist those weaknesses. After all, among so many symbiotes, there had only been a single serum. It was easy to imagine just how difficult that kind of evolution would be.
Roar was terrified when it saw so many of these mindless so-called kin. In fact, it did not even know whether they could still be called kin anymore, because from those symbiote battle suits, it sensed traces of Lasher, Riot, and Phage. They felt more like hybrids.
Because Zod Heath lacked Krypton's biochemical biotechnology, he had no way of turning his bio-weapons into something as absurdly overpowered as the Guyver. But considering that the Guyver itself was made up of bio-boost cells, the real missing element was probably a programming issue. So after researching for a long time, Zod Heath had finally made the symbiote battle suits somewhat resemble the Guyver.
For example, the head laser.
That weapon alone had cost Zod Heath a full month of programming work. Even with the help of his super-brain and the all-purpose power of electromagnetism, it had still taken him an entire month just to create the head laser.
By converting the body's thermal energy into infrared laser beams and firing them outward, it could be used for attack.
As for stronger weapons like the chest particle cannon, high-frequency blades, gravity cannons, or high-frequency vibration orbs, he had managed to produce none of them.
After all, the Guyver armor itself was already black-tech beyond black-tech. Zod Heath had truly done his best.
During that same month, the Superhero Association and Blade Technology Industries' Spiderweb platform had launched a collaboration. Combined with what Zod Heath had said at the press conference a month earlier, this made many people stop hesitating and step forward to apply to the Superhero Association.
Zod Heath had not been idle either. Every so often, he would create weak Wolf-level and Tiger-level monsters to harass the whole of America. After all, he could not keep farming New York forever.
The Superhero Association had applied for an official website on Spiderweb. This site displayed superhero rankings and the incidents they had resolved. As a result, Spiderweb's traffic surged dramatically, and the site also included battle footage and videos.
On one hand, this was meant to let the public understand just how difficult it was for superheroes to uphold justice and save civilians. On the other, it was also meant to supervise the heroes' actions and prevent things like claiming credit through slaughter, falsifying deeds, or similar misconduct.
In this area, the Black Queen was also responsible for mobilizing part of the company's satellite resources for monitoring. Naturally, many fans gave these battle videos enthusiastic likes, believing this was the best possible approach because it allowed them to understand superheroes more clearly.
The superheroes also had their own personal homepages. On those pages, they could share their daily lives, photos, and other content, which attracted them enormous traffic and huge fan followings.
Take Ben Grimm, for example. After turning back into the Thing, he had lost his love life. But after the Superhero Association collaborated with Spiderweb, and after he resolved several monster incidents, he actually found a new romance.
Venom Eddie was the same. He also belonged to the type that did not mind exposing his real identity, and as a result, he gained quite a few conveniences and benefits.
Most importantly, the American government had tried very hard to win him over. Still, Eddie Venom was cautious enough not to accept their tempting terms.
"The Full Story of Spider-Gwen Taking Down the K Gang!"
"The Daily Life of Iron Man Tony Stark!"
"Super Strength Girl's Ranking Rises Again!"
All kinds of reports emerged one after another without end.
Countless people joined the discussion, all centered around the Superhero Association and its heroes.
At this moment, every member of the Superhero Association wore the same expression, a mix of genuine satisfaction and total disbelief.
In the past, even when they did good deeds without leaving their names behind, leaving behind only the hero's title, they were still fairly famous. People would recognize them.
But it had never been like this.
Not even Hollywood's hottest superstars were as popular as they were now. At this point, they were practically driving the entire world's biggest topics and trends.
Of course, the biggest reason was still that Zod kept manufacturing monsters, making more and more people realize that the power of superheroes was indispensable.
And once Dark Knight Zod began personally endorsing the Superhero Association, the image of heroes, which had originally felt somewhat distant and abstract, suddenly became grounded.
Ordinary people discovered that heroes were not actually so far away.
And just like that, they suddenly started liking them.
It was easy enough to understand. It was like meeting a celebrity you had always thought was impossibly distant, only to find that one day they chatted with you pleasantly face-to-face.
As long as you were not one of their haters, then even if you did not become a fan, you would still gain a lot more goodwill toward them.
Or maybe you would start bragging about the encounter to your friends, constantly embellishing and glorifying that celebrity, until before you knew it, you had become a fan yourself.
And heroes already had extremely positive images to begin with.
So after Zod's promotion, it naturally produced an extraordinarily good chemical reaction.
At the same time, there was another benefit even Zod Heath had not expected. Since the Superhero Association was a non-profit organization, and because it wanted to maintain its independence so it would not become like the Hero Association in One Punch Man, turning into bodyguards for the rich and tools for the powerful, it rejected all donations and investments. It had even refused Tony Stark's support. What a joke. Did Zod Heath look poor?
And yet because Blade Technology Industries was the one funding it, Urd later reported that the company had legally avoided a great deal of taxes. It earned a sterling reputation and avoided taxes at the same time. That was practically killing three birds with one stone.
The Superhero Association Headquarters building had been completed half a month ago. At present, it was the tallest skyscraper in New York City, shaped like an enormous pyramid.
"Are you ready?"
Inside a truck, the driver, who was lighting a cigarette with a match, received a phone call.
"Everything's ready."
After taking the call, the driver exhaled a long stream of smoke and answered.
"Then begin."
/-\
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