American Comics: Something's Wrong with This Superhero World

Chapter 115: Physical damage is low, but mental damage is maxed out.

"Xiao Xian just publicly supported Superman in the incident of Superman cheating on his wife with a female teacher. Superman also publicly stated that he and Xiao Xian are good brothers and he is very grateful for Xiao Xian's support."

Nick Fury, wearing his signature trench coat, said sinisterly.

"As long as we release the news that Xiao Xian was killed by a monster and hype it up online, Superman will definitely come to help in order to protect his fans and public image."

Nick Fury drew inspiration from Osborne's previous actions. While Osborne's actions might have fooled others, they couldn't fool Nick Fury.

However, Nick Fury did not choose to tell Stark about this, for a simple reason: he hated Stark. This guy had called Nick Fury "One-Eyed Dragon" and "Blind Man" to his face more than once. If Stark hadn't been a major shareholder of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury would have had Tony killed long ago.

"I think it's worth a try."

One female legislator thought for a moment and said that as a legislator, she knew better than anyone how many unwilling things people would do for the sake of their public image. Basically, more than half of her job was to maintain her professional image, and her biggest crisis was also a crisis of public image.

If it weren't for her public image, she would have divorced her husband long ago and gone their separate ways. Of course, they still go their separate ways now, but every night she still has to go home and face that face she hates.

"Let's do it that way then, but what if Xiao Xian doesn't die?"

The male senator nodded in agreement, but he had doubts about Xiao Xian's death. When Spider-Man Peter Parker was first arrested, Xiao Xian seemed to have demonstrated the ability to transfer his body after death. This was information obtained from Peter Parker's brain during the human experiments on Spider-Man later.

Therefore, the bureau changed its targeted approach for Xiao Xian to anesthetizing and detaining him, instead of killing him and burying him in the ground.

Of course, only a few companies in New York and S.H.I.E.L.D. knew about this. After all, Xiao Xian was, in a sense, an artist signed with S.H.I.E.L.D., so this kind of information would not be told to forces such as Gotham and Midtown.

"If we lock him up before Superman arrives, we can deal with it once things have calmed down. But if Superman arrives after he's already here, are we just going to watch Pennywise wreak havoc on New York? We'll just broadcast the whole thing live and see if Superman still wants his hundreds of millions of fans," Nick Fury said confidently, playing the moral blackmail card.

"What?" In Metropolis, Superman stared blankly at the obituaries issued by Osborn and S.H.I.E.L.D. Xiao Xian had died for the people of New York, taking down the grotesque Joker with him?

Is this something Xiao Xian would do? And doesn't he have super regeneration?

"It seems to be true. Xiao Xian lured the clown monster into the magic circle and then activated the magic circle in an attempt to perish together with the clown. However, the clown did not die, but Xiao Xian was completely destroyed. It is said that everything in the magic circle will be destroyed, not even a single cell will be left. So this time, Xiao Xian may really not be able to super regenerate."

The female assistant explained that her intelligence source was Wayne Enterprises, and that S.H.I.E.L.D. and Osborn had both released relevant evidence.

"Another possibility is that strange things could be the cause of Xiao Xian's death. After all, strange things are quite bizarre."

"This guy wanted to make a name for himself, but he didn't expect the magic circle to destroy every single one of his cells. Even super regeneration couldn't save him, so he messed up, huh? Is he joking?"

Upon hearing this, Superman immediately guessed that if it were him, he would do all sorts of things for fame. Back then, he also watched the videotapes to gain fame, and afterwards he regretted it very much. Ghosts would crawl out of the TV every night, making it hard for Superman to sleep, and they even took away several of Superman's female companions.

Smashing the TV won't help; he can climb over cell phones and computer screens. Scrolling through fan comments and interacting with fans is a must-do for Superman every night before bed; he really can't give it up.

Superman also tried smashing his phone before going to sleep after scrolling through it, but Sadako still appeared that night, and it seemed to crawl out of his bed. Superman thought it would be better to let her crawl onto the TV, at least that way he wouldn't wake up in the middle of the night to find himself sleeping with a cold person in his arms.

Although the creature that crawls out can't cause any real harm to Superman, it's not much physical damage, but it's extremely psychological. Who could stand waking up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and seeing Sadako in their bed?

The key point is that Superman was happily scrolling through his phone reading fan comments when, under Sadako's influence, his phone screen went blank and played the contents of that old videotape.

Having learned from his own experience, Superman believed that Xiao Xian must have been dealing with the monster for the sake of his reputation. He said he didn't care about the ranking, but secretly he was dealing with the monster. Now he's backfiring.

These days, thanks to Xiao Xian's appeal and whitewashing, Superman has returned to second place on the most popular list. Originally, there was still a long gap between him and Xiao Xian, and Superman was worried about how to catch up. But then Xiao Xian suddenly died, and Superman became the number one most popular superhero again.

Of course, the living number one is a formidable opponent, a teammate with both struggle and cooperation, while the dead number one is purely a figurehead. Superman is very envious of Xiao Xian's fan base.

"Immediately have the best ghostwriter draft a heartfelt and lengthy memorial for Xiao Xian. Don't use a template; make it sound genuine. Also, have the cape from my new battle robe cut in half. Say it's to mourn Xiao Xian; he had family and such, you know. Prepare generous gifts and reporters for me. I want to visit him as soon as possible!"

Superman couldn't wait to tell his assistant that this was a great opportunity to put on a show. Xiao Xian had so many fans, and if he could absorb even 10% of them, he would be rolling in money. If it weren't for the fact that the culprit who caused Xiao Xian's death was a weirdo, Superman would have rushed to take revenge.

Although he was confident in his invincibility and that no monster could break through his defenses, Superman was still quite wary of such eerie beings.

"The ghostwriter is already on his way. I'll go cut the cape for the battle robe later. The family doesn't seem to have heard anything about it, but there are rallies in various places to mourn Xiao Xian. Many girls are crying their hearts out, and hundreds of people have already been hospitalized from crying," the female assistant replied.

"Great! Where are the largest gatherings?" Superman perked up immediately; this was a golden opportunity to win people's hearts.

"Of course it's New York, where Xiao Xian is most active. The boss asked me to write a script for you. If fans ask you to take revenge, just say this and shift the blame to S.H.I.E.L.D." The female assistant said, handing a slip of paper to Superman.

Superman glanced at the note

"Of course, Xiao Xian and I are very good friends, and I really want to avenge him, but S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secret base is S.H.I.E.L.D.'s top secret. Unless S.H.I.E.L.D. requests it, I neither know its location nor have the authority to go there."

"Moreover, I believe that with the strength of S.H.I.E.L.D., they will definitely be able to handle this incident properly. They are a professional intelligence agency that deals with strange events, spends hundreds of billions of dollars in military spending every year, and have a superhero team like the Avengers. They will definitely be able to defeat the strange."

"Unless S.H.I.E.L.D. completely abandons its shamelessness and forgoes next year's military budget, they certainly won't publicly request your assistance," the female assistant said. "Besides, the Avengers' headquarters are in New York. If this incident isn't handled properly, what right will the Avengers have to be ranked alongside your Justice League?"

(End of this chapter)