Chapter 1815 - Deal, and Joining the Fun

However, the governor didn’t dare make a sound.

After achieving his initial goal, he was even more glad that he didn’t have the strength to flip a table.

Although the deal this time cost him a lot, he had made contact with the bigshot who sold everything.

The existence of this bigshot wasn’t an absolute secret in the upper echelons of the world.

There were many people at the top who wanted to make deals with the bigshot, but couldn’t even find the door.

That was especially the case for the Asian region – Luke didn’t dare go to China, the Japanese market wasn’t too big, and he wasn’t keen on crossing the Pacific Ocean.

But since the other party had delivered themself to his door this time, things were simple.

Japan would send over whatever he wanted to the United States, and Luke didn’t have to come himself.

After that, the Japanese government stopped putting on a show of currying favor with the Bat Squad, which did nothing to dampen the Bat Squad’s popularity among the people.

Firstly, it was troublesome and unnecessary for the government. Secondly, if the government suddenly changed its attitude, it would be a big problem if it caused a misunderstanding with the bigshot.

The bigshot had said that the purge had been on an unavoidably large scale because there were too many Parasites. In the future, the government could send him classified information related to the Parasites, and the Bat Squad would take action for free.

Also, these Parasites would only be taken care of in certain locations, and basically wouldn’t draw the attention of ordinary citizens.

The Japanese government wasn’t unhappy.

The Bat Squad was still beating up people in New York every day. Did the American government say anything? Did NYPD say anything? No.

Superheroes whom the American authorities couldn’t do anything about were willing to give Japan a heads-up. There was nothing to complain about.

It wasn’t like the Bat Squad needed law enforcement approval, plus the law enforcement agencies might not even know that they were taking action. What was the point of being unhappy?

Since I can’t resist, I’ll just lie down.

The government had already quietly completed the deal, while the public TV stations were already working overtime and starting to produce cartoons.

Many artists received priority orders to create comics related to the Bat Squad.

All they had to do was buy the copyright from the rescue foundation.

On the third day, the foundation sent a public letter to the Japanese government saying that it would help the people who had suffered losses in this battle.

The government tactfully had a few TV stations report the good news.

For a moment, the Japanese people’s good impression of the Bat Squad skyrocketed.

Luke had no choice.

He was the one who had started this operation, and while not many ordinary people had been implicated, there had been a lot of property damage.

He didn’t have to worry about losses during battle, but if they reached a certain number and he didn’t make up for them in the aftermath when he had the means to, the system would issue a warning.

What surprised him was that the system’s faith value skyrocketed three days after the battle, and the faith value he obtained every day was 30% higher than before.

From this, it was clear that the people of Tokyo had a good impression of him.

In comparison, the faith value provided by America and Europe wasn’t much.

There were 450 million people in America, 600 million in Europe, and just 150 million in Japan.

The daily faith output from Japan was actually one third of the total.

Because of the distance, Luke spent most of his time in Europe and America, where the people benefited the most.

Even at a conservative estimate, faith value in Europe and America was at least five times lower than in Japan.

Luke decided that he had to come visit Japan regularly in the future.

It didn’t have to be for a big event, but it definitely had to be on TV so that public enthusiasm never dropped.

…

The members of the Bat Squad left one after another.

They had been in Japan for more than ten days, and spent the last three days helping Luke clean up the occasional Parasite here and there.

Thankfully, they had 100 agents from New SHIELD this time. The androids just needed to set out while the team members waited in the safe house to go online.

With Luke monitoring the situation, New SHIELD was a lot more reliable in carrying out key roles.

The low-end equipment which Phil had gotten from Luke had become standard equipment for core SHIELD members.

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Coupled with a low-end bulletproof vest, a semi-A.I. combat helmet, and various firearms and non-lethal weapons, their combat ability was more than ten times better.

After all, it was ‘low-end’ equipment only in the bigshot’s eyes.

For Phil’s sake, this gear was only slightly more expensive than the manufacturing costs.

For example, an F22 cost over 100 million dollars to make. Factoring in the cost of the materials, it had to sell for at least 200 million in order for the suppliers not to cough up blood.

Luke, on the other hand, didn’t charge any material or processing costs at all.

If SHIELD bought the same things from an American supplier, it would already be good if they could get them at just two or three times the price.

As for attempts to secretly resell the equipment, Luke and Phil made use of the opportunity to weed out people.

How could Luke not put in a backdoor for the things he made?

Anyone who had an eye on this equipment pretty much became a signal transmitter.

New SHIELD wasn’t short of funds. The bigshot set high prices for people and items related to superpowers, at millions or tens of millions.

When the old SHIELD fell from power, the Hydra camp which had nothing to do with Pierce took most of the superhumans away.

The rest were either caught by other agencies or became “classified assets” of other branches.

New SHIELD simply abandoned trapping and studying superhumans. If they could be killed, they would be killed. If they were caught, they were transferred to the bigshot in an exchange.

For example, the bigshot had estimated that the total value of the hundreds of Parasites caught this time was 100 million. It was an even split, so New SHIELD could get 50 million.

Thus, Phil had enough confidence to give the agents new and better things.

Few would turn traitor for money, and these few would very quickly be sent to heaven along with their contractors.

With money, equipment and core members, Phil firmly controlled New SHIELD.

…

It was early December, and Luke and Selina had just returned from Sapporo.

Unexpectedly, that high school boy, Ueno, had disappeared, and was never seen again.

He was the only one who had four Parasites on his body, and could be considered the one regret from this cleanup operation.

Luke didn’t think too much of it. Bad guys always jumped out on their own sooner or later.

Since they couldn’t find Ueno, he fulfilled his promise and took Selina to the hot spring on the mountainside.

When they returned to Tokyo after that, they didn’t leave immediately. Instead, they went to a large cosplay event in Ikebukuro.

This was an event that had been put together at the last minute and had only been promoted two days beforehand.

When two people and one dog arrived at Ikebukuro, it had become a sea of odd-looking humans.

The members of the Bat Squad had been using androids a few days ago, which had also been fitted with matching armor.

Thus, all sorts of cosplay could be seen on the streets, from Black Cat and Big Dipper to the little turtles and Lady Deathstrike.

Black Cat was the most cosplayed since this number one female superhero and Batman’s loyal partner was too famous.