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Chapter 179 - Going Big

Wesker was very capable.

That trait came from the memories Zod had given him, which shaped his personality.

Zod had always felt that molding someone's personality, thought patterns, and behavior through memories was deeply wrong. If you could just alter memories, you could change everything about a person.

Unlike Esdeath, Tifa, and Android 18, Wesker and Ada Wong came into existence after Zodhis already possessed the Phoenix Force, the power of birthing future life. So when they were created, they automatically gained that same future life birth power from the Phoenix Force, going straight from unregistered anomalies to native-born products.

In other words, they were beings born from the Marvel universe.

Zod wasn't sure what differences that distinction would bring, but he remained cautious and had the Black Queen monitor Wesker and Ada Wong around the clock.

Compared to Gin, Wesker was clearly more capable and more decisive. After he showed up, the atmosphere inside Umbrella Corporation grew considerably tenser.

Even Zod thought Wesker was a genuine talent, not just skilled at killing but also at management.

"So I need to get my hands on the Mind Stone and Soul Stone as soon as possible. These two stones pose the biggest threat to me."

Zod pondered it. With both the Phoenix Force and the Shenron Force at his disposal, the Mind Stone and Soul Stone wouldn't have much effect on him personally, but they would have a huge effect on his figurines and subordinates.

They could make them turn traitor at any moment.

In contrast, the Time Stone and Space Stone were nothing to fear. Zod had already learned to use electromagnetic force and gravity to reverse-engineer the strong nuclear force and weak nuclear force. With the four fundamental forces in his grasp, countering the Time Stone and Space Stone wasn't hard.

What's more, Zodhis felt that if he simply abandoned his steadfast adherence to scientific truth, he could now manifest a Grand Unified Field.

The problem was, letting go like that wasn't easy. It would shake the very self-cognition Zodhis had built.

Perhaps in the act of letting go, he would end up observing himself and turn into "Schrödinger's cat."

Or maybe by observing himself, he'd enter a quantum state and become "Doctor Manhattan." Who knew.

What to do? The pressure was on. Stop being human and become a god outright, a quantum god.

But Zod considered himself a man of earthly desires. Giving up his figurine girls was out of the question, so Doctor Manhattan or whatever, forget it.

Anyway, he was a Super Kryptonian. Natural growth would let him surpass the multiverse level. No rush.

As for the remaining Reality Stone and Power Stone, the Reality Stone might be a bit tricky. True when false, false when true, very hard to pin down.

And the Power Stone? Please. What could possibly compare to a Kryptonian in strength?

It was 2005, three years before the true birth of Iron Man.

By this time, however, the Sword Bureau already governed the entire globe, drawing talents from all over the world.

At the same time, Zod had taken total control of all Hydra factions in North America.

In the vampire department, he had nearly exterminated them across North and South America, to the point that Blade complained he was out of a job.

Luckily, Zod quickly recommended him to go kill vampires elsewhere.

If you don't keep culling them, they multiply back in no time.

Beyond that, Umbrella Corporation successfully landed on the moon. The first batch of Umbrella personnel, carried by a lunar rocket, would establish a moon base.

While the outside world marveled at Umbrella's technological might and scrambled to get a piece of the action, Zodhis had actually already set foot on Mars.

Still, the moon landing and the lunar base prompted hints from multiple nations aimed at Umbrella.

After all, with bizarre individuals emerging on Earth without end, politicians, capitalists, and bureaucrats were no fools. They wanted to live on the moon, far from the dangers of Earth.

So, for the publicly announced ten thousand residential slots on the lunar base, they were willing to pay.

"A hundred million dollars per slot. Have these people lost their minds?"

Urd couldn't understand. In her eyes, Umbrella was developing so fast that a base for ten thousand was just the beginning. In another two or three years, there'd probably be a city on the moon.

Why so desperate?

It wasn't like tickets to Noah's Ark.

"To them, these are exactly tickets to Noah's Ark. Don't forget, there's still the threat of those bizarre individuals on Earth," Zod said calmly.

However, while he could understand their mindset, Zod felt he couldn't let these people get too comfortable.

What Urd saw were offers of a hundred million per slot; privately, Zodhis received a request from a financial conglomerate's bigwig.

Ten tons of gold, plus one hundred super-sized, top-grade diamonds, and six billion dollars, in exchange for ten slots.

All of that was nothing in Zodhis's eyes.

And then, of all things, a drug lord wanted slots. Twenty of them, offering two billion dollars per slot.

Zodhis recognized this drug lord. He was the next target Zodhis had planned to strike.

An outrageously massive kingpin. Over ninety percent of the drugs produced annually in South America and Southeast Asia had to pass through this man to be sold. Even the notorious American cartels, when they had such needs, relied on his assistance.

No one knew exactly how much money he had made from trafficking.

According to insiders, two years ago Interpol seized thirty billion in drug money from an international bank, and that amount was less than one-fiftieth of his total assets.

"Honestly, all kinds of unsavory characters are crawling out of the woodwork."

Zodhis rubbed his temples and decided to go big. He'd let everyone know: the universe is not safe. It's far more dangerous than Earth.

New York, a city that had endured all sorts of catastrophes and still stood strong. Yet the insurance companies in this prosperous city had mostly gone bankrupt.

New insurers chose to wait and see, afraid to underwrite new policies right away.

"Sir, you're going to want to look at this!"

The Sword Bureau's satellite had detected an anomaly and immediately reported it to Executive Deputy Director Nick Fury.

The reasoning was simple: the Director was busy twenty-four hours a day, developing the lunar base, researching weapons and tech against bizarre individuals. Ordinary folks like them shouldn't bother him too often.

Outer space. A white point of light plunged into the atmosphere, friction heating it into a fiery red meteor hurtling toward the ground.

"What is that?"

Nick Fury found it strange.

"Its flight trajectory isn't affected by Earth's gravity. It has to be a man-made object!"

Even if Fury wasn't an expert in the field, he knew exactly what a man-made object implied.

"You mean… aliens?"

/-\ 

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