"It's Spider-Man!"
At a cross-shaped intersection, two elementary school students rushing across the street worried about being late ran into the road without checking traffic and cut in front of a bus. Just as they were about to be hit, they were saved by a red-and-blue figure.
Nearby pedestrians, witnessing the scene, cheered excitedly. They had seen a superhero save two children with their own eyes.
"It's Spider-Man!"
"Spider-Man, smile for us… uh, sorry, I forgot we can't see your smile. I mean… can I get your autograph? I'm your biggest fan, I even joined your fan club."
"Spider-Man, can I take a photo with you?"
It was the morning rush hour. Young white-collar workers and students made up most of the crowd, and they happened to be Spider-Man fans. Seeing a real superhero, they immediately surrounded him.
Fortunately, Peter Parker noticed the two students earlier. Otherwise, right after pulling them out from under the bus, he would have been injured by the crowd.
"Alright, photos are fine, but I still have something to do later."
Seeing so many people gathering, Peter Parker agreed. After taking several photos, he noticed more and more fans approaching and quickly called out, "Friends, time's about up. I have to go!"
As he spoke, his spider suit switched to a form dominated by blue with red patterned lines. Powerful thrust suddenly erupted from his feet, back, and palms, launching Peter Parker upward over a hundred meters. Then webs shot from his wrists as he swung away between the skyscrapers.
"That's Spider-Man's lightning agility! Wow, that's so fast!"
Some hardcore fans excitedly explained to others that Spider-Man had three different forms. His fans were even split into three factions, arguing internally that the form they liked was the strongest.
After leaving the crowd, an AI reminder sounded in Peter Parker's ear: "Mr. Parker, you have seven minutes left before your morning class. If you do not switch to the second form, you will be approximately three minutes late."
"Oh no… alright. Looks like I'll need to restock at the company again. Carter, help me file the request."
"Report submitted."
The next second, Peter Parker switched from his normal form to the Lightning Agility Type. Parts of the suit transformed via nanotech into thrusters, greatly increasing his speed. His peak speed within one second approached that of a swift, reaching one hundred meters per second.
The suit also had object-sensing capabilities. When approaching the next object at around fifteen meters, reverse buffering would activate, giving Peter Parker time to react. This had been tested in the lab; fifteen meters was his optimal reaction distance.
In his second state, Peter moved through New York's skyscrapers like a flash of lightning and quickly arrived at Columbia University without being late.
Since joining Future Biopharmaceuticals, Peter Parker felt his life had been steadily improving. As the first superhero of the Super Seven Team, he was also close to becoming a symbol of New York, even surpassing Iron Man in some people's eyes.
After all, Tony Stark would not wear a suit to save elementary school students. He had his own matters to attend to.
All special-effect drugs approved by Future Biopharmaceuticals were now in their final stages. Anyone with insight knew there was nothing wrong with these drugs; they were truly humanity's beacon of hope. Even if people behind the FDA tried to interfere, they could not find a proper excuse, or they would be crushed by backlash.
Once those drugs hit the market, Future Biopharmaceuticals would earn tens of billions of dollars in profit in the first year alone. Within five years, it would likely dominate the pharmaceutical field. Moreover, beyond those four special drugs, the company had announced several more targeting various illnesses.
Other pharmaceutical companies were both fearful and anxious, yet powerless against Future Biopharmaceuticals. Their only option was to impose restrictions through congressional legislation. Other underhanded methods had been tried, but by the next day, everyone involved—from planners to hired mercenaries—was found dead and delivered to the mastermind's bed, driving two people insane.
Those companies then abandoned other methods and focused on lobbying Congress. But why would the U.S. Congress offend Future Biopharmaceuticals for their sake? Moreover, New York State legislators, for reasons unknown, firmly defended Future Biopharmaceuticals in Congress, stripping the other pharmaceutical companies of their last resort.
"Ms. Maya, this is the quantity requested by pharmaceutical wholesalers in various regions, along with the production department's responses and recommendations. The tentative new drug launch event is scheduled for next week."
After efficiently summarizing her report, Natasha quickly received praise from her superior, Ms. Maya.
"Well done, Natasha. With your abilities, I believe you'll soon catch Lady Kaguya's attention. This was handled perfectly. Go ahead and notify everyone accordingly."
"Thank you for the compliment, Ms. Maya."
Natasha smiled slightly as she replied. She worked on the forty-seventh floor of the Future Tower. Although still far from the top floor, after being with the company for some time, she had learned certain things.
For example, her current floor already counted as executive offices. Ten floors above were reportedly reserved for the Super Seven Team. Although Future Biopharmaceuticals currently had only one Spider-Man, his reputation in New York was overwhelmingly prominent.
It was said that the planning department was developing Spider-Man's personal IP, which could generate over one hundred billion in market profits if successful.
"Natasha, handle this next. If you complete it, I'll recommend you to Lady Kaguya."
Ms. Maya handed Natasha a transfer document. Starting today, she would be responsible for recruitment planning for Future Industries, with an initial plan to hire three thousand people.
After reading the document, Natasha was unsure what the owner of Future Biopharmaceuticals planned to do, but at the very least, he intended to restart Stark Industries' weapons division.
However, she noticed something odd.
"Ms. Maya, I'm not sure if this is an omission, but it seems the Second Mechanical Factory has no hiring plan. Was something missed?"
The Second Mechanical Factory Natasha referred to was the largest missile production base of Stark Industries' weapons division, now renamed under Future Industries' numerical designation. Her observation was correct, because the Second Mechanical Factory was responsible for supplying technical equipment for superheroes. Not far from it was the site where Hyuga Mirai had planted the Divine Tree.
Natasha had been with the company for some time, yet had gathered no useful intelligence. To this day, she did not even know Spider-Man's true identity. But after seeing this recruitment plan, she suddenly felt she had a direction for investigation, rather than working herself to exhaustion without ever seeing the boss.
"There may be other plans. These documents were personally reviewed by Lady Kaguya and contain no issues. In fact, even if there were issues, they would have nothing to do with us."
Although Ms. Maya appreciated Natasha's thorough preparation, she still reminded her that all company documents were reviewed by CEO Kaguya, and errors were theoretically impossible.
"Is that so? I understand, Ms. Maya."
With that, Natasha went off to handle her tasks, but she had already resolved to have Fury investigate from other angles. Otherwise, she could work here until death and still never meet the mastermind behind it all.
Kamar-Taj
On the ranch beside Future Industries' Second Mechanical Factory, the moment after the Divine Tree was planted, the Ancient One sensed a change once more. Unlike the multiverse displacement from earlier, this felt like a massive change within their own timeline.
The Eye of Agamotto, also known as the Time Stone, allowed Kamar-Taj's sorcery to observe most future timelines and make corresponding choices.
Previously, most of what the Ancient One saw involved Strange saving Earth. But after sensing Earth's change this time, she used the Time Stone again and discovered that much of the future she had seen before had changed.
"Oh… so that's the cause."
Although what the Ancient One currently saw was only a sapling, in the future this tree would grow to thousands of meters tall and shorten Earth's lifespan by one-third.
She only managed to see Hyuga Mirai's appearance. Beyond that, the timeline became fragmented. She knew this meant the future was changing. If a timeline could not be fully displayed, it meant that at some point, what she wanted to see exceeded the scope of the Time Stone.
The Time Stone was one of the universe's fundamental origins. To surpass it meant that in the future, this universe would produce an existence capable of breaking beyond a single universe.
Holding the Eye of Agamotto for a long time, the Ancient One finally decided calmly, "Strange, the greatest Sorcerer Supreme… the future is in your hands."
While she was still alive, she would strive to fulfill her mission and responsibilities. The rest would be left to the next Sorcerer Supreme.
Moreover, that person's strength was no weaker than hers. Even with the Time Stone's power, she could not contend with him. A conflict between them would only bring disaster upon Earth, so it was better to let it go.
The Divine Tree was personally planted by Hyuga Mirai. Underground around it were sealing barriers and genjutsu effects, and over a hundred guards with police dogs patrolled the ranch. Their patrol was not to protect the Divine Tree, but to protect others. Anyone sneaking in out of curiosity would simply become fertilizer for the tree.
The Divine Tree's growth was tied to a planet's life energy. Earth's life energy was extremely abundant. In about three years, the tree would fully mature.
After arranging matters related to the Divine Tree, Hyuga Mirai made few other moves. He was mainly waiting for Loki to invade Earth as scripted. Once Loki obtained the Mind Stone, Mirai would have the initiative.
The creation of the Super Seven Team was also a spur-of-the-moment decision. Aside from personally recruiting Peter Parker, Mirai handed the remaining selections entirely to No. 18. Establishing the Super Seven Team would help peacefully collect the Tesseract. No. 18 had already prepared a human enhancement drug that could allow users to temporarily enter the second stage of a Curse Mark–like state for half an hour, with only brief weakness afterward.
This was the biggest trump card Future Biopharmaceuticals used to persuade Congress to establish the Super Seven Team: the super soldier program.
Bang!
The office door was forcefully pushed open. Only Tsunade would do something like this.
After opening the door, she saw Kurenai Yuhi lounging lazily on the sofa, coupled with the lingering scent in the room, and immediately knew what had just happened.
"Ugh… you two really are…"
Tsunade shook her head. Knowing she could not win an argument with Kurenai Yuhi, she dropped the topic and said directly to Hyuga Mirai, "I want to be the captain of the Super Seven Team."
"Huh? Tsunade, why would you think that?"
Hyuga Mirai asked in surprise. The Super Seven Team was meant to replace the Avengers and work for the company, but with Tsunade's strength and status, there was no need for her to be its captain.
Her power surpassed even gods, and she was also the boss lady of Future Biopharmaceuticals.
"And are you tired of gambling?"
"Not really, but lately I feel being a superhero sounds pretty interesting, so I want to experience it!"
"Experiencing it isn't impossible, but the team isn't fully recruited yet."
With Tsunade's strength and beauty, the title of a monstrous-strength princess was inevitable. However, Hyuga Mirai would personally design her outfit. He was a possessive man, and he had to protect his wife well.
After speaking, Hyuga Mirai pulled up the terminal to check the progress of forming the Super Seven Team.
"There are two more suitable candidates, but they haven't responded yet. Tsunade, do you want to personally recruit them?"
Seeing the information displayed on the terminal, Tsunade frowned slightly and asked to confirm, "Two kids? Only thirteen years old. Their abilities are good, but are they suitable to be superheroes?"
"More precisely, they're children who've experienced war. If this were the shinobi world, they might already be Chunin. I mean the old shinobi world, not the one after my reforms."
Hearing this, Tsunade chopped Hyuga Mirai on the head with her hand. "Stop bragging. Get to the point."
"Alright, alright. Bringing them in would be good for them too. Look at their expressions—even in ID photos they're full of hatred. Taking them in would help them. And if they don't agree, forget it. There's no real loss. We can always switch candidates."
After that, Hyuga Mirai pulled up another backup candidate. "What do you think about this big guy?"
On the terminal screen appeared a huge green brute smashing everything in sight. Tsunade immediately covered her head and asked helplessly, "Is that a superhero or a supervillain? Forget it, let's go with the first two."
(End of Chapter)
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