Nick Fury stared at the video footage with a grim expression.
This intelligence had been rushed into his hands half an hour ago. It recorded the entire process of that black Hulk-like creature destroying the Zandara Tribe.
After several photographs that looked like scenes from a battlefield, what followed was the shattered remains of Zandara Tower. Right now, all of Benghazi, even Libya itself, had descended into total chaos. While the Zandara Tribe had existed, all of Benghazi had survived under its shadow, but now that the tribe had been wiped out, there was nothing left to say.
Of course everyone was going to fight over the territory the Zandara Tribe had left behind!
What gave Nick Fury a headache was that black Hulk. This matter had already alarmed the upper echelons of the five great powers. If it really had anything to do with Zodhis, then that meant he had already crossed the line in a very serious way.
And the reason S.H.I.E.L.D. had obtained this intelligence was because every country wanted him to find out whether this matter was connected to Zodhis.
Of course, it was not just S.H.I.E.L.D. investigating. Any of the five great powers that had the capability were conducting their own inquiries as well. America had already sent out both the CIA and FBI.
Over on the Russian side, Leviathan had also begun moving, while China's Spear Bureau had yet to make any visible move.
As for Britain and France, there was no need to say more.
Naturally, Nick Fury had no intention of giving up on the investigation. What troubled him was that this investigation might very well turn up nothing at all.
Because there was no record whatsoever of this black Hulk appearing within the Superhero Association. As for registration files and the like, Zodhis could simply refuse the investigation on the grounds of commercial confidentiality.
In America, that reason was practically an untouchable shield. After all, Zodhis really did operate the Superhero Association as a company, with superheroes serving as its flagship products.
Merchandise, figurines, movies, comics, an entire industrial chain. On top of that, superheroes actually existed in reality, which had led to superhero movies nearly dominating Hollywood lately, earning so much money that the film industry was red with envy.
After all, it was hard not to envy a special effects movie with a production budget of one billion dollars making five billion at the box office and still climbing.
Most importantly, Zodhis had also launched a Marvel Cinematic Universe series, classifying all superheroes under that umbrella, which had sparked enormous fan interest. No one had any idea that Zodhis was simply copying real-world plots wholesale.
Meanwhile, Zodhis had also acquired the DC Comics company, deleted the pre-planned Superman material, and then vigorously supported the editors in creating other superheroes, building a DC superhero universe of its own.
With both major superhero brands in his hands, if Zodhis said something was a trade secret, Nick Fury truly could not do much about it.
Otherwise, it would easily stir up the displeasure of the capitalists.
If that whole mess had never happened, Agent Romanoff would still be working at Blade Technology Industries right now, and having her investigate would have made things much easier.
Why had he lost his head back then?
Nick Fury sighed, regretting his impulsive decision at the time. In the end, not only had Zodhis dealt with the situation cleanly and decisively, he had also cost Fury an agent he had painstakingly planted.
After Heracles wiped out the Zandara Tribe, Zodhis teleported back with him to the base located deep beneath the Pacific Ocean.
At present, all of World Serpent's land bases had already been fully converted into underground and undersea facilities. After producing Sentinel robots, all manpower engineering had become Sentinel robot engineering, and the construction speed had also accelerated considerably.
World Serpent now possessed more than fifty undersea bases. In order to guard against seabed quakes, volcanic eruptions, or some enormous sea monster suddenly appearing, every one of those bases had been built with shells made from atomic alloy, enough to withstand immense ocean pressure, natural disasters, and all kinds of attacks.
Of course, they also had to keep an eye on the Atlanteans beneath the sea.
Atlantis was an ancient civilization. Together with the civilization of Lemuria, it had existed on Earth ten thousand years ago, only to sink beneath the cataclysmic flood one after another.
The Atlanteans regarded themselves as the descendants of the God of the Sea and held a deep reverence for the ocean. They had not gone extinct. Instead, they had miraculously preserved a spark of civilization and continued their legacy in the depths of the Atlantic.
To speak of the true history of Atlantis, one had to start with the Celestials.
Those cosmic overlords descended upon Earth for the second time. Their first descent had been four billion years ago. During that second arrival, they modified certain primitive humans, and the X-Gene Zodhis had discovered had evolved from that very event.
Those primitive humans altered by the Celestials were divided into three camps: Eternals, Deviants, and humans.
The Eternals were akin to new gods. They studied the absorption and conversion of cosmic energy, possessed extremely long lifespans, and were almost immortal.
They once established three cities on Earth: the Arctic City in Siberia, the undersea city in the Pacific, and Olympia in Greece, where they were once worshipped as gods by the Greeks themselves.
After several migrations, conflict broke out among them once, and the leader of the Eternals, Zuras, exiled his brother A'lars into space.
That same A'lars later became the father of the mad Titan Thanos, chairman of the so-called cosmic family planning committee.
By relying on his extraordinary abilities and vigorous life force, he rebuilt a homeland on Titan and formed what became the Titan Eternals.
If one truly traced the bloodline all the way back, then humanity on Earth and Thanos were, in a sense, somewhat related.
Standing opposite the Eternals were the Deviants.
They built cities on land and developed genetic engineering, with Lemuria as their capital, in an attempt to dominate the entire planet. Thus they formed the civilization of Lemuria, which existed in the same era as Atlantis.
The mutation rate among the Deviants was extremely high, and their descendants bore no resemblance to their parents at all.
The only thing they had in common was that none of them were the same.
The Deviants were fiercely hostile toward all lifeforms, and that also caused Lemurian civilization to be highly aggressive, making enemies on all sides.
Their destruction came in 16,000 BC.
During the Celestials' second descent upon Earth, they destroyed the Deviants' capital, Lemuria.
At the same time, the movement of continental plates was triggered, and Atlantis was dragged down as collateral, sinking into the Atlantic Ocean.
Of this incomparably ancient history, perhaps only Kamar-Taj retained a few fragmented records. After all, Kamar-Taj had not been especially powerful in those days either.
And while Atlantis's true home lay in the Atlantic, they still had to prevent the Atlanteans from discovering World Serpent's bases in the Pacific. Fortunately, Zodhis was no weak and helpless researcher like he had once been on Krypton. He merely altered the surrounding magnetic fields a little, and those bases ceased to exist within Atlantean perception. Even if they pressed their naked eyes right up against them, they still would not be able to see a thing.
As for World Serpent's underground bases spread across the globe, their number had already reached one hundred.
In 2003, the number of World Serpent members surpassed one hundred thousand.
/-\
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