American Comics: Something's Wrong with This Superhero World

Chapter 45 Choosing a Villain

"It will take up a little of your training time. We've coordinated with the relevant departments and will soon be starting to promote your debut. You can choose a villain as your opponent."

In the morning, Ike found Xiao Xian carrying a bag of documents, opened the bag, and took out a stack of materials.

"A warm-up?" Xiao Xian took the documents with some confusion. The first document was a profile of a supervillain, Rhino Man. Xiao Xian recognized the supervillain, but he didn't recognize the contents of the document.

"A Russian, ten years of experience performing in Russian theaters, repeatedly playing supervillains, charging a million dollars per appearance? Is he an actor or a superpowered individual? Why wasn't there any mention of superpowers?"

"That's what actors are like. That bulletproof rhino suit is custom-made. He's actually just an ordinary person with good physical strength and the ability to endure hardship," Ike said matter-of-factly.

"I think the scene where bullets have no effect on him was quite visually impactful when filmed, and his Russian identity is also very suitable for playing a villain. Most importantly, the budget for hiring him was exactly the maximum budget the boss approved for you, so he is my top recommendation."

"..." He was, after all, a genuine superpowered individual, so how did he end up like those talentless, attention-seeking celebrities who relied on fabrication to attract attention? Xiao Xian's lips twitched as he said, "Can I look at something else?"

"Of course, you can stay here as long as you like, but you have to go to your acting class later, right? Is that okay?" Ike was naturally fine with it; lately, he had been focusing on Xiao Xian's debut.

"It's alright, Chevrolet is very easy to talk to." Unhurriedly flipping to the next document, Xiao Xian's lips twitched again when he saw the name of the second document, which clearly read "Vulture".

"This vulture is not bad either. Although he is a newcomer who has just debuted, his nickname is also very stupid, and he doesn't have much acting experience. He used to be just an ordinary electrical engineer. However, I think that although the bird wings he made himself are a bit stupid, they will be very photogenic. He is a potential super villain. Moreover, because he is a newcomer, the price is very cheap, so we can spend more of the budget on promotion and filming."

Seeing Xiao Xian carefully examining the information about the vulture, Ike explained it to him.

"How much would it cost to hire a newcomer like him? Electrical engineers don't earn cheap salaries, right? Why did he decide to play a supervillain?" Xiao Xian asked, quite puzzled.

"Right now, his price is $100,000 per show," Ike said. "His high price is mainly due to his wing equipment; a typical newbie wouldn't actually need to spend that much."

"Okay, that's definitely higher than being a regular electrical engineer."

Xiao Xian shrugged. Being able to make vulture wing suits means that vultures must be quite skilled, but it's also a question of how much effort they put into their work, given that they're so focused on researching such strange things. They might not even be as good as ordinary engineers in the eyes of their boss.

The key issue is that Vulture's research on this is completely pointless. This isn't an ordinary world; it's a superhero world, a DC/Marvel hybrid, and a version where everyone's a villain.

Stark's Mark Armor completely outclasses this thing. Iron Man here doesn't seem to have any awareness that only by possessing the Mark Armor can he prevent it from being used by evil. On the contrary, Xiao Xian thinks Iron Man's main purpose in being active is to promote his Mark Armor through live streaming.

Initially, the public had strong opinions about the Department of Defense spending a lot of money to purchase the Mark armor, feeling that it was a case of collusion between government and business. However, when Iron Man easily eliminated a bunch of terrorists and destroyed planes and tanks while wearing the Mark armor, these doubts disappeared. Instead, most people felt that it was worth the money.

Some even believe that the Ministry of Defense should buy fewer useless planes and tanks and use the budget to buy Mark armor, but Xiao Xian thinks that this is just a shill hired by Stark Industries.

As he scrolled down, Xiao Xian only saw a few familiar super villain faces. Most of the others were minor villains, the kind that weren't well-known, and Xiao Xian didn't recognize them.

"Hmm? This isn't an actor?" Xiao Xian flipped through the files, when suddenly one file caught his attention. He recognized the person: "Maroney? Isn't he a Gotham gang leader? What's he doing in New York?"

"Oh, this, it was commissioned to us by the IRS. This isn't an actor, it's a target. Maroney had a glorious past in Gotham, but he was ousted by Bruce Wayne and couldn't make it anymore. Those who resort to violence can't compete with those who use capital, let alone when capital also resorts to violence. Later, Maroney left Gotham and went to New York to make a living."

Ike glanced at the information Xiao Xian had selected and explained.

"However, Maroney clearly didn't understand the rules of New York. Although he had many friends and enough guns to successfully occupy a territory, he didn't pay taxes on his income from robbery, theft, and selling things, which attracted the attention of the IRS."

"Because he was powerful, ruthless, and had many friends, the IRS didn't want to confront him head-on, so they outsourced the mission to Superheroes Inc."

Ike glanced at Xiao Xiandao

"I don't recommend you take this mission. First, there are many other people involved, and even if you have regenerative superpowers, if you get hit by a tranquilizer gun or something and are imprisoned, we might not be able to bail you out. Second, he has many friends, and he supplies his friends with a lot of benefits every month and also helps his friends with things that his friends can't do. Capturing him will offend a lot of people. Just because Bruce Wayne can do something doesn't mean you can. You know what I mean?"

"Ordinary anesthetics won't work on me. But what's the highest rank his friend holds?"

Xiao Xian was somewhat tempted. He picked up Maroni's information and looked at it. Acting was indeed safe and risk-free, but if any of the directors, cinematographers, actors, or Osborn's staff accidentally let something slip, their image would collapse. If it was possible to play it real, it was naturally better to play it real.

At worst, Xiao Xian could plant a time bomb in his heart beforehand. Even if he was accidentally captured by the enemy, it wouldn't matter; he could just self-destruct and regenerate.

"Only Maroney himself knows this estimate. According to the company's intelligence, it's very high. Anyway, I'm not qualified to check. Back in the day, Maroney was a very influential figure in Gotham, and Gotham is America's darkest city. Nobody knows which powerful figures became friends with Maroney for their own evil desires, or who got caught red-handed."

Ike was afraid that Xiao Xian might impulsively choose Maronny. On the surface, the mission was with the IRS, but in reality, it might be a pretext used by powerful officials to kill someone, just like they did with Epstein. But the weapon had to be strong enough.

Iron Man, Batman, Green Arrow—the masters of capitalist countries can arrest Marloni at will without any consequences. Superman, who is outside the established order, is no problem either. But if it's Xiao Xian, a newcomer who has just started out and has no capital or background, those people might bring him to his doom, even if it's just to show their other lackeys or to prevent their workers from feeling disheartened.

"Then forget it." Upon hearing this, Xiao Xian had no intention of challenging Maroni's connections for the time being. If he were strong enough, he could ignore these things, but he was not developed enough yet, and Xiao Xian had no intention of sacrificing his life for the people of America.

(End of this chapter)