Starting with Naruto, I'll become stronger through my own efforts.

Chapter 407 The Second Phase of Xia Zuo's Rescue of Gotham

General Zod was killed by Superman, and Shazor was very satisfied.

This would make it impossible for Superman to integrate into the Kryptonians, become one of them, or even become their leader.

Of course, Shazo also killed several Kryptonians, but that's okay.

It was the Kryptonians who came to Earth and launched a war of aggression.

As an Earthling, Shazo had no problem killing a few Kryptonians during the rebellion, and even the Kryptonian Fiora had no right to say he did anything wrong.

In the original, normal course of events, it wouldn't matter whether Superman killed Zod or not, because all the other Kryptonians were dead.

But now that Shazo has stopped Superman from destroying the Kryptonian spaceship at the cost of burning off one of his hands, thus preserving the Kryptonian reproduction system, this issue has become very important.

"So, you mean you want us Kryptonians to follow you, a human from Earth?"

Fiora glared fiercely at Shazo, struggling to suppress her anger, and loudly questioned, "Don't you think this is absurd?"

Xia Zuo, still wearing the stolen NASA spacesuit, laughed and retorted, "Then tell me where's the absurdity?"

Fiora opened her mouth, as if to say, "You killed my husband," but then remembered that it was Karl who did it.

She wanted to say that you killed two of our soldiers, but then she realized that was even more inappropriate. She was the aggressor, and being killed was simply a sign of her incompetence.

Finally, she thought of telling him he wasn't qualified, but then she realized that she herself had become a defeated aggressor because of this Earthling in front of her.

As a result, Fiora opened his mouth for a long time, but couldn't say a word.

Not only her, but also Sergeant Apollo, Chief Scientist Valettomé, and Political Officer Clinton Hicks were speechless.

Xia Zuo laughed loudly, "Besides, I am all alone on Earth and have no power whatsoever. That is the best reason for you to follow me. Don't worry about me dividing and disintegrating the Kryptonians and swallowing you up piece by piece."

"To be precise, it's me who has integrated into your society. Not only do you use me as a shield for Krypton's migration to Earth, but you also try to undermine me."

"Of course, trying to sideline me is risky, because I'm a madman and might kill indiscriminately, hahaha."

Fiora looked up and asked as calmly as possible, "What do you plan to do with us?"

Xia Zuo rested his elbows on the table, crossed his hands to support his chin, and, mimicking Gendo Ikari, said in a deep voice, "You need to split into two groups."

"Some of them will pilot the spaceship and hide on the far side of the moon; the rest will come with me to live in Gotham City."

"The two groups of people need to rotate frequently to gradually adapt to the Earth's environment."

"The Kryptonians hidden on Earth are responsible for breeding Kryptonian children, while the Kryptonians living in Gotham are responsible for building factories, producing Kryptonian technology products, and earning various living resources."

Xia Zuo laughed and said, "With your strong physical abilities, you must consume more resources and energy. Reproducing also requires a huge amount of resources, which can all be obtained by purchasing them."

Upon hearing about having children, all the Kryptonians' eyes lit up.

Apollo asked impatiently, "Can you help us obtain the Central Codex?"

Xia Zuo laughed and said, "Superman, ah, that is, the Karl you are talking about, is a very, very kind person, and also a person with a very high moral standard."

"As long as you don't do the evil things he considers to be, such as murder, robbery, or destroying the ecosystem, he will definitely help you on his own initiative, and he will not complain even if he gets injured in the process."

Fuora stared in disbelief: "You mean—"

"Hahaha, you guessed right!" Xia Zuo's solemn act could no longer be maintained. He slammed his fist on the table and laughed loudly, "If General Zod gets Superman and leaves, for example, to go to Mars to terraform the environment, Superman will wholeheartedly help you, even at the cost of his life."

"And there will be no war between us."

Shazo pointed at Fiora, but addressed all the Kryptonians: "Your current state is entirely your own fault!"

"Genetic modification gives Kryptonians an extremely high lower limit, but it also limits your upper limit and severely destroys your ability to survive."

"For any race, the obstacle to survival is not weakness or ignorance, but arrogance!"

"The Kryptonian Council's leaders arrogantly believed they could conquer nature and perfectly control Krypton, so they destroyed Krypton."

"General Zod arrogantly believed that he could defeat the corrupt council, but he hastily launched a coup and lost the chance to save Krypton."

"Jor'el was equally arrogant, believing he could save Kryptonian civilization. He committed theft and thus missed his chance to save Kryptonian civilization as well."

"General Zod came to Earth, arrogantly regarding humans as insects, and wanted to change Earth's environment without a second thought. As a result, he triggered this war, lost his life, and almost destroyed the last hope of the Kryptonian civilization."

"Kryptonians! Do you really think that with your arrogant and unrestrained behavior, and your weak civilization, Kryptonian civilization has any future?"

Xia Zuo's words silenced all the Kryptonians.

Throughout Krypton's thousands of years of history, they have gone from one failure to another, with each wrong choice giving rise to an even more outrageous mistake.

Since the Kryptonian civilization passed its peak, it has only suffered defeats over the past few thousand years, with little to show for its efforts.

In fact, if they hadn't been utterly defeated and their pride hadn't been shattered by Xia Zuo, these Kryptonians would never have admitted it now.

For example, Sergeant Apollo still doesn't quite respect Shazo, and his eyes are full of provocation.

Xia Zuo was too lazy to pay attention to this big guy at this point. Although he was really, really tall, he was not as valuable as Fuola.

After all, this Kryptonian female general is powerful, very beautiful, and has the added advantage of being a widow, which suits Xia Zuo's taste perfectly.

When a madman has ideals and goals to achieve, he also needs to cultivate power, and there is no better person to exploit than the leader of a widow.

Ultimately, Fiora was persuaded, and the Kryptonians accepted Shazor's suggestion, deciding to send half of their people to join Shazor's ranks.

Fiora's final question was: "Shazo, do you have land to settle us?"

Shazo's answer was: "Wherever my forests reach, that is my land."

The battle between Zod and Superman was so intense that the collateral damage destroyed most of Gotham City, but the forest of Shazor, which the Gothamites called "Fantastic," suffered little damage.

A Superman who gets blasted away is more terrifying than any cannonball. He can knock down a skyscraper in one hit because the building's structure is rigid but not strong enough, so Superman can destroy it in an instant.

Of course, no rigid material can be considered strong in the face of Superman and General Zod.

But Xia Zuo's Wood Release Forest is different.

Since being attacked by the Mother of Bombs, the trees in the Wood Release Forest have shown insufficient strength. Xia Zuo has put a lot of effort into changing the structure of the tree trunks, appropriately reducing the strength of the wood, but greatly increasing the flexibility of the forest.

These trees, which require ten people to encircle, are incredibly sturdy to ordinary people, but when faced with the immense strength of Superman and Zod, they exhibit a flexibility no less than that of a bamboo forest.

Whether it's Superman or Zod, if they're thrown into the forest of Shazor, the trees will use their own bending to dissipate the impact and then bounce them off, preventing the force they carry from being released.

If it weren't for the heat vision attack, the entire forest wouldn't have suffered any damage at all.

Even if a tree is set ablaze by heat vision, the tree-people in the forest will immediately awaken, extinguish the flames, and heal the tree's wounds.

The forest created by Wood Release not only protected itself, but also sheltered countless Gotham citizens.

During that great battle, everyone who was able to enter the forest received its protection.

Aside from accidentally falling and getting injured, none of them were affected by the Kryptonian battle.

Shazor's forest sheltered at least 30 Gotham citizens, earning astonishing gratitude and adoration.

Several major landowners in Gotham City simply gave away the land occupied by the forest to Shazor free of charge.

In exchange, they received Xia Zuo's permission to build a villa in this magical forest and enjoy the protection of a six-meter-tall tree spirit for free.

The ingenious ideas of several large landowners caused a sensation, and countless wealthy people followed suit, resulting in Xia Zuo owning more and more land, which he planted with trees without hesitation.

That's why Xia Zuo could confidently say, "I have plenty of land, and it's perfectly safe."

The Kryptonians moved to the "Vantastic" forest and built futuristic Kryptonian-style buildings on a clearing in the forest that Shazo had given up.

At Shazo's request, the Kryptonians lowered their technological level and began producing high-performance solid-state batteries and solid-state memory.

Because of its superior technology, Xia Zuo's business quickly gained a reputation, earning a large amount of cash and acquiring a vast amount of resources.

These supplies were secretly transported to the far side of the moon, and the Kryptonian base in the underground cavern began to operate, breeding new Kryptonians as planned.

Shazo wasn't exaggerating; he easily convinced Superman.

Superman personally went to the moon and confirmed that the Kryptonians had no plans to harm Earth, so he happily decided to offer help.

He disregarded the risks and lay down on the operating table, allowing Valetome to cut open his body and remove the central codex hidden within him.

The Kryptonian spaceship's reproductive system, the central code storing the genetic data of hundreds of billions of Kryptonians, massive amounts of organic matter from Earth, and the inexhaustible helium-3 energy source on the Moon.

With all the conditions met, a new generation of Kryptonians was born in an endless stream, and the withered tree of Kryptonian civilization finally sprouted new buds.

Time flies, and more than three months have passed in a flash.

Metropolis and Gotham City, which were severely damaged in the war, have largely recovered, while New York City, which did not suffer much damage, remains in a state of disrepair.

There was no other way; Metropolis has a superhero. He single-handedly cleared all the construction debris, filled in the sinkholes and fissures, and completed almost all the post-disaster cleanup work.

-

The reconstruction of the metropolis required no upfront investment, making it a hot commodity and attracting significant capital investment, resulting in rapid construction.

The situation in Gotham City is a bit different. Bruce Wayne, a capitalist with a "conscience," is spending lavishly on relief and reconstruction efforts.

Of course, as a normal rather than excessively greedy capitalist, his Wayne Group also took the opportunity to reap the assets and profits that it had not previously occupied.

Wayne Enterprises' assets have expanded once again, and Bruce Wayne's control over Gotham City has deepened.

However, Gotham did not become Wayne Enterprises' property because the Shazor Corporation rose to prominence and became a superpower that rivaled Wayne Enterprises.

With Kryptonian technology selling like hotcakes, Shazor became wealthy and began the second phase of his mission to save Gotham.

First, they went on a land-buying spree, and then turned all of it into parks.

Apart from the trees and plants that Xia Zuo planted himself, all other buildings, roads, and pipelines were handed over to the newly established construction company.

Xia Zuo operates the company according to the model of Dongda City Investment Group, which is a completely money-losing group that relies entirely on the profits of Krypton Technology Industry.

These construction companies spent a lot of money hiring a large number of workers and undertook 80% of the reconstruction work in Gotham City.

The Xiazuo Group essentially took on the government's work, and by offering generous salaries, it won over the people and built its reputation.

With a good reputation, Xia Zuo began to venture into the retail industry. He adopted Donglai's low-profit, high-volume sales model and distributed 90% of the profits as bonuses to his employees, creating a highly competitive business model.

In just three months, Xia Zuo transformed from a madman into a tycoon employing hundreds of thousands of people. His greatest asset wasn't even money, but the hearts of 300 million Gotham City citizens.

With such a large number of people in his hands, mayors, councilors, prosecutors, and judges all become toys in Xia Zuo's hands. He can easily bring any one of them down.

If Xia Zuo wants a dog to be mayor, he can simply wait until the next election season.

Looking at it from another angle, you'll find that the Shazor Corporation is not a conglomerate in the traditional sense, but rather the de facto government of Gotham City.

The Xiazuo Group is not actually very wealthy, with total assets of less than 40 billion, but it rivals the Wayne Group, whose total assets are as high as 3000 billion, by virtue of its control over the government.

However, there are risks involved in doing so.

The Xiazuo Group's business model was so popular with the lower classes that it naturally aroused the dissatisfaction of many powerful figures.

There have been many such people in the United States in the past, such as the Black Panther Party and many presidents. They either committed suicide after being shot eight times in the back, or they had wild ideas in public.

But who has the ability to kill Xia Zuo without worrying about the madman's revenge?

Therefore, Shazam was able to proceed with the plan to save Gotham City with peace of mind.

But his good days were cut short when Superman suddenly showed up at his door, saying, "General Zod's body is missing."

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