Of course, those one hundred thousand were not all symbiote suits and beast soldiers.
The majority of them were the Hydra forces that had been absorbed.
But Zodhis had already begun digesting that portion of Hydra. In North America, ninety percent of Hydra had already fallen under his control.
At the same time, the Hydra agents working inside S.H.I.E.L.D. had also brought Zodhis new intelligence. They had been ordered to keep watch over everyone and everything connected to Blade Technology Industries and the Superhero Association, trying to dig up any trace of evidence from within.
Zodhis was not surprised in the slightest that the Hydra faction within S.H.I.E.L.D. was investigating Blade Technology Industries and the Superhero Association.
After all, Heracles had now become a wanted criminal. His wanted status would not be made public, but behind the scenes, they were already hunting him down.
Ross, who had already become Secretary of State and was climbing even higher, had informed Zodhis of America's decision.
America had no intention of tolerating a boundary-crossing act like Heracles's. At any cost, they intended to stamp out any possibility of other superheroes following the same path.
Otherwise, what happened if today one superhero carried out "justice" and wiped out a capitalist's whole family, and tomorrow another superhero carried out "justice" and wiped out a politician's whole family?
After all, both politicians and capitalists knew exactly what kind of creatures they were.
So they were deeply worried that Heracles might influence how the superhero group as a whole viewed them.
Judging from the combat power superheroes had displayed, the military was simply no match for them.
The standard for a B-Class hero was the ability to ignore light firearms, whether by tanking them head-on or dodging them outright.
And at present, the Superhero Association already had more than a hundred B-Class heroes.
In order to prevent this rapidly expanding superhero population from developing the habit of turning against those above them, the United Nations, with the exception of China, had already decided to sanction Heracles. As for the charges, if they wanted to condemn him, they would always find an excuse.
Unfortunately for them, they had no idea that Heracles would never appear openly. He would only show up when needed, while under normal circumstances, Zodhis kept him at the undersea base.
In truth, the Heracles incident had brought more than just surveillance from Hydra within S.H.I.E.L.D.
Even Tony Stark had started probing around indirectly.
He suspected Heracles was some superhero who had never joined the Superhero Association, then had been sent by Zodhis to attack the Zandara Tribe.
For Zodhis, this kind of veiled probing only needed to pass once through his mind before he caught the meaning behind it. That was one advantage of super-brain processing speed. Even compared with geniuses, it effectively gave him several times more thinking time.
So naturally, Zodhis did not let even the slightest flaw slip through.
In the end, Tony Stark could only conclude that Heracles must have been some passing superhero who simply could not stomach what he saw.
However, the countries did not withdraw their surveillance of the Superhero Association because of that.
After the Heracles incident, they now wanted to conduct psychological evaluations on the superheroes who had already revealed themselves.
The Superhero Association itself actually had similar measures in place.
After all, there was already a psychological support team within the organization. Even though every superhero believed they had no need for counseling, Zodhis still insisted, under the excuse of leaving nothing to chance, that they all undergo psychological evaluation and counseling.
It could be said that what the Association had was far more detailed and professional than anything outside.
At the same time, in order to preserve secrecy, Zodhis had brainwashed the entire counseling team so they would never hand over the superheroes' psychological evaluations in exchange for money, power, or threats.
And Zodhis had no intention of doing what Batman did by creating contingency plans and countermeasures for every superhero.
That would only risk those plans being exploited by people with ulterior motives.
More importantly, the Superhero Association was itself part of Zodhis's plan to openly bring a portion of World Serpent's members into public use.
By turning World Serpent members into superheroes under the Superhero Association, then packaging them as hot-blooded young do-gooders from the lower strata of society who had never received elite education, it became perfectly reasonable for them to do almost anything.
And even if they did something outrageous, people would only see it as the personal act of an individual superhero, something unrelated to Zodhis or the Superhero Association as a whole.
Besides, that kind of individual heroism still had a huge market in America.
Among the current hundred-plus B-Class heroes, more than half were actually World Serpent people.
They were all "mutants" Zodhis had created himself.
To put it simply, he had activated their X-Gene.
But this batch of mutants was all defective stock, meaning they were sterile by design, and even their own DNA had been restricted to prevent it from being obtained and exploited by anyone with ulterior motives.
After all, this was only 2003.
Where were that many superheroes supposed to come from already?
It would not be until 2008 that superheroes would truly enter an explosive boom in numbers.
The only problem was that the Fantastic Four had appeared earlier than Iron Man.
That left Zodhis deeply confused about what universe he was actually in.
If this was the movie universe, then why had the Fantastic Four appeared?
But if this was the comics universe, then why was the Ancient One a bald woman?
That also meant Zodhis had no clue what plotlines would unfold next.
So all he could do was prepare against the smallest signs of danger and prevent trouble before it started.
That was also why World Serpent had recruited large numbers of mercenaries, retired soldiers, and disabled veterans.
These people were among the most combat-capable humans available.
After living on Krypton for many years, Zodhis still unconsciously selected people according to Kryptonian professional divisions.
As for researchers, the newly acquired Mr. Blue, also known as the Leader, had failed to display the kind of intelligence Zodhis wanted.
At most, he could only be considered a first-rate researcher.
As for Ivan Vanko and Anton Vanko, father and son, there was no need to say much about them.
Their weapons research and energy research had remained stuck in place the entire time, with not a shred of innovation. The only things they produced were weapons that were big, hard, sturdy, and durable, and that was the end of it.
Dr. Connors, the Lizard scientist, had also made no progress in biological research.
It could be said that World Serpent lacked the kind of truly formidable research personnel it needed.
Of course, by truly formidable researchers, Zodhis did not mean black-tech miracle workers like Reed Richards, whose inventions operated on pure "because I said so" logic, nor did he mean Tony Stark.
What Zodhis wanted were those seemingly ordinary researchers who could single-handedly support an entire organization.
Back on Krypton, people like that were everywhere.
Zodhis had once intended to bring that whole group with him to Earth.
...And then there was no then.
Thinking about it carefully, could it be that this very idea was why the corrective force of the DC world had exiled him into the Marvel Universe?
After all, with the sort of troublemaking ideas he had back then, he had nearly dragged over more than a thousand Kryptonians.
If that had actually succeeded, most of the villains in the DC world probably would not have survived at all.
Still, Zodhis's thoughts stirred again.
He felt that World Serpent was a name only suitable for use on Earth.
Once they stepped into the wider cosmos, they would need a new name.
A resounding name.
One like Thanos's Black Order.
/-\
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