There were all kinds of paint jobs. One oil tycoon who was a huge anime fan even had each War Machine painted with a different waifu.
Of course, only they could play around like that. Others couldn't even dream of it.
The main reason was that private ownership of War Machines had now been restricted by new laws in various countries.
No way around it—if someone who owned a War Machine decided to go off the rails and commit a terrorist attack, even deploying an entire counter-terrorism unit wouldn't be enough to stop them.
You could own the weapons of a War Machine, but you couldn't own a War Machine itself.
Just like you could buy a gun to protect yourself and defend your rights, but you couldn't buy a bulletproof vest or helmet.
After the Decepticon appeared, it became even stricter. Governments demanded that Umbrella Corporation add a serial number to every Decepticon sold, so if something went wrong they could track the target directly by the number.
Logically speaking, even if there was a way around it, they should have denied it for the money.
But by now, Umbrella Corporation was rich as a nation, long past the stage of doing anything for money.
So, naturally, they agreed to the governments' demands.
"A single Decepticon can wipe out a country's entire air force—that was absolutely unthinkable before…"
"Yeah, Zoddhiss is a genius, no doubt. But he's also undeniably strengthened the air power of the whole world. Now even small countries have the guts to say no to us."
"Where are we supposed to cut this year's, next year's, and the year after's military budgets and funding? You have to realize, this is no longer an era where having nukes gives you the final say."
"The Decepticon has more than enough capability to intercept nuclear missiles. At Mach 9 speeds, even if the pilot can't react in time, the auxiliary AI can react and take over fine control."
Nuclear strike, nuclear deterrence, nuclear threat—these once-favorite tools of the United States and every nuclear power were now worthless.
World War III had also been indefinitely postponed by this move of Zoddhiss. At the very least, even the Russians and the Bald Eagle had no desire to start a fight. The arms race was already giving them a massive headache.
If war broke out now, it would all come down to how many War Machines your country had, how many Iron Mongers, and how many Decepticons. Conventional weapons, heavy weapons, strategic weapons—the moment the Decepticon appeared, they all became scrap metal.
"And that's how it's done. Funnel the whole world's resources into feeding a single corporation—America's favorite game."
Zoddhiss swirled his glass, the cola and ice cubes clinking crisply against the glass walls.
Uld was speechless. She was practically dying from overwork.
Normally, Umbrella Corporation could keep up with orders and deliveries, but not anymore. Now it had completely blown up.
Orders were practically scheduled ten years out.
Who knew if Zoddhiss would come out with an even better fourth-generation War Machine in ten years? And they actually placed orders ten years ahead—weren't they afraid they'd be obsolete by then?
But for small countries, they probably really didn't care. It wasn't the first time they'd picked up the scraps of the big powers.
By now, the major powers were completely helpless against Zoddhiss and his Umbrella Corporation. Over at S.W.O.R.D., if Zoddhiss wanted to resign, they probably wouldn't allow it.
Why resign? Is the salary not enough, or the funding? Here, the list—write whatever you want!
So Zoddhiss really did write it down: S.W.O.R.D. needed to order one thousand War Machines, five hundred Iron Mongers, and one hundred Decepticons.
Toward this behavior, the governments of various countries all took a doting attitude and tacitly approved.
What else could they do but tacitly approve? The whole world needed Zoddhiss now. Anthony Edward Stark, once thought to be his equal, had indeed created powerful Iron Man suits, but he refused to sell them, and they were so advanced that mass production was impossible.
Mainly because they were too expensive, even more than Zoddhiss's War Machines.
A War Machine was $400 million. An Iron Monger was $1.5 billion. A Decepticon was $3 billion.
At the very least, those prices matched their combat capability and military value.
Stark's Iron Man suits, on the other hand, were all luxury, high-spec, custom-made personal units. Even the earliest-developed nanotech armor, already phased out, probably cost at least five billion to make.
Screw that!
The latest Iron Man suit he was wearing right now was said to have cost over twenty billion. Only Stark himself could burn money like that without treating it as money.
Well, Zodd could do it too, but his Dark Knight armor hadn't really been updated in a long time. However, in the eyes of the outside world, it must be technology so advanced it was unimaginable. The difference was that since Zoddhiss wasn't a flamboyant person, his Dark Knight armor always had the same appearance, so you couldn't tell.
The key point was, aside from those who didn't know any better, even Stark thought so.
"Stark."
Zodd called Tony Stark over.
"What is it, Director?"
Tony Stark put on an air of being very busy.
"I have some suggestions for your suit. Would you like to hear them?"
"Suggestions for my suit?"
Tony raised an eyebrow.
"Let's hear them."
He got a bit serious.
"This is a symbiote, an alien lifeform. You can take it back and study it."
Zoddhiss brought out a case. Inside was a blob of amorphous matter furiously slamming against the glass.
"…"
Tony Stark was already mesmerized by the symbiote.
Without another word, he took the symbiote from Zodd's hands, intent on going back and studying it thoroughly.
Zodd looked forward to him developing a symbiote armor.
With that symbiote armor, even Thanos could be fought.
"But I guess it won't be a silver-white armor this time."
Zodd muttered to himself. He was still more used to the gold-and-red Iron Man; silver-white was too gaudy.
The symbiote he gave Tony Stark was Carnage, spawned from Venom's egg.
After observing Venom for so many years, it had finally laid an egg recently, but had fallen into a weakened state as a result.
After all, egg-laying causes a symbiote to weaken.
Since Carnage hadn't yet come into contact with a mentally ill person, its consciousness was still clean. If Tony Stark wore it, it would probably only amplify his arrogant side… which sounded pretty bad.
But the superheroes were basically used to Tony Stark's arrogance. Arrogance turning into conceit didn't seem like that big a deal.
At most, it would just make people want to punch him even more.
Besides, Tony Stark wouldn't wear it. He would just extract the base material from the symbiote to create his new armor.
This could already completely replace nanometal robots.
/-\
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