There was a hullabaloo throughout the Alliance of Strongholds.
After the Wang Consortium successfully took over all of the Kong Consortium’s strongholds, only one stronghold situated along the east coast still remained under the Kong Consortium’s control. Everyone was guessing when the Wang Consortium would take over this stronghold as well.
At first, everyone felt the war in the North would definitely affect everyone that resided there.
But in fact, after the Wang Consortium took over those strongholds, they immediately distributed relief food to all the residents. Then they quickly rebuilt the Public Order Division and installed surveillance cameras in the various strongholds. Immediately after, the artificial intelligence took over judicial management.
These strongholds were completely unregulated at the beginning, and the residents who remained behind were subjected to the abuse of evildoers and gang members. When the Wang Consortium arrived, the entire stronghold suddenly regained order, and the residents who were initially scolding the Wang Consortium started speaking of them in good light.
Actually, this was all normal. Whoever could ensure the people had a good life would win the support of the majority.
As for the conflicts between those at the top, what did that have anything to do with them?
It was not only the Kong Consortium’s strongholds that had been taken over but the Pyro Company’s strongholds as well. The Pyro Company’s current forces were no longer capable of contending with the Wang Consortium, so it was only a matter of time before they were annexed.
Before the discussion of the Wang Consortium’s total war against the Kong Consortium and the Pyro Company had died down, a fierce verbal exchange between the Zhou Consortium and the Northwest Army erupted again. This excited all of the onlookers once again.
It was not that this verbal sparring was more intense than the Wang Consortium’s total war, but that the statements made by Zhang Xiaoman and the Great Hoodwinker were simply too explosive.
The Zhou Consortium spokesperson had just issued a condemnation when the Great Hoodwinker said, “There’s no need to stand on ceremony. It’s what we should have done.”
To be honest, the common folk had never seen a rebuttal like the Northwest’s official stance before.
However, with the Zhou Consortium’s assassination of Jiang Xu, everyone was on the side of the Northwest Army and watched the Zhou Consortium get mocked.
After all, if the Zhou Consortium dared to assassinate Jiang Xu, they should be punished accordingly for it. Perhaps the Zhou Consortium did not expect the assassination would lead to such a painful lesson.
In just one day, the deaths of the Zhou Consortium’s top three figureheads also showed everyone just how powerful supernatural beings were in this era of the “Rise of Gods.”
Some people even marked this event as a new milestone in the world of supernatural beings. It symbolized that the era of the Rise of Gods had come to an end and was now officially entering the “Era of the Gods.”
Without the word “rise,” it signaled that the gods had already risen.
Correspondingly, everyone started to get even more curious. Just how many supernatural beings were there in the world now? Which organizations did they work for? Just how powerful were they? And what events had they been involved in?
At this moment, a documentary about the world of supernatural beings, directed by Mu Wan’ge, started promoting itself. The theme for the trailers was: “We have personally experienced the battles between superhumans, and we’d like to show everyone how wonderful the real world of superhumans is. We’ve had the opportunity to tag along with the future commander of the Northwest, and he’ll make a special appearance at the end of the movie in the post-credits scene.”
As such, even before the movie was screened in the Alliance of Strongholds, it started receiving wide-ranging expectations. Mu Wan’ge was currently stationed in Luoyang City. On the second day of the movie’s promotions, the door to Mu Wan’ge’s studio was trampled down by investors. It was truly a spectacular sight.
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The investors offered to invest a lot of money, so Mu Wan’ge’s movie had already made back its production budget before it even started screening.
He registered a new company and incorporated the movie under the entity as an asset. Then he sold 5% of its shares to Company A for an extremely high price, and 6% shares to Company B. In the end, he sold the shares to more than a dozen companies. With 30% shares remaining under Mu Wan’ge’s name, Mu Wan’ge had already made a profit. Furthermore, the profits utterly exceeded his expectations.
This was a normal practice in the film industry, and it was like this since before The Cataclysm.
The investors attended an early screening of the movie. It was indeed very well made and covered a lot of supernatural beings, including the complete events of the cave-in at East Lake and the escape from Stronghold 74 before it was destroyed.
And the fact that the well-known female singer, Li Ran, was participating in the film was also an attractive selling point.
But actually, a lot of the investors were here for the post-credits scene that featured the future commander of the Northwest. In the end, everyone realized the post-credits scene only showed the back of Ren Xiaosu as he led everyone out of Stronghold 74 when it was about to be destroyed.
The investors were speechless. “You didn’t even manage to get a frontal shot of him?”
Mu Wan’ge held his teacup up and said calmly, “If I managed to film it, this movie would definitely have been destroyed. Do you all understand what I mean? It’s already good enough that we got those shots.”
An investor suddenly said, “I saw in the movie that you and the Northwest’s future commander seemed to have gone to Stronghold 74 together. Li Ran was in the same group as well, so does that mean that something’s going on between Li Ran and this future commander?”
The investors immediately perked up. This was a huge talking point. If it was handled well, it would definitely bring in a lot of benefits.
To them, gossip was equivalent to profit!
However, Mu Wan’ge shook his head. “No, it’s not what you all think. I feel that the future commander doesn’t really like Li Ran and even despises her a little. As you all know, the future commander’s maid is a very powerful superhuman…”
It was also at this moment that a rankings publication that rated supernatural beings and was said to have originated from the mob started appearing in the various strongholds and was put on sale.
The selling price was not expensive either. It only cost about a yuan per copy, around the same price as a newspaper, so it was something everyone could afford to buy.
The rankings publication had appeared very suddenly, and it seemed like the other party had prepared the distribution channel in advance as though it was planned.
Someone bought it and read it. There were a total of a 100 superhumans featured in the publication. Furthermore, the rank order was footnoted in a striking font: “Rankings are listed from strongest to the weakest, with a minority of the listings assessed as groups.”
First place was shockingly Li Shentan and Si Liren. The reason for their grouped ranking was very simple. These two superhumans were inseparable, so their overall strength had to be assessed based on their combined powers.
Then examples of Li Shentan’s deeds, such as his huge impact on the war in the Southwest, were listed. By manipulating a full combat brigade, he was able to instantly disrupt the order and stability of a consortium.
Many people were truly convinced that superhumans like them had made it to the top of the rankings. After all, the name of the Demon Whisperer was well-known throughout the Central Plains since long ago. Furthermore, as an iconic figure of the era of the Rise of Gods, it was only natural that he would make it onto the rankings.
In second place was Chen Wudi. Among the examples of Chen Wudi’s achievements was his final state of awakening in the Li Consortium’s stronghold. Someone had previously estimated that Chen Wudi’s final form at that time would be enough to take on the entire army of an organization.
It was just a pity that this peak individual combat strength was only a flash in the pan.
In third place were Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin.