"Dr. Connors, these are the live vampires you requested."
The beast-soldier at the front spoke in a flat, emotionless tone.
Once the beast-soldiers were brainwashed, there wasn't much left in them that resembled emotion. Zod had even been contacting the future Abomination, Emil Blonsky, planning to lure him over and turn him into a beast-soldier as well.
Connors was practically buzzing with excitement. If he could secure vampire genetics, he might be able to integrate them into the Super Beast Serum.
Zod paid close attention to the project—after all, any deployment of beast-soldiers required his approval. There was no way he'd be left out of the loop.
After Dr. Connors collected samples from a hundred vampires, Zod's curiosity finally led him to join the research himself.
"Interesting… vampires are less of a genetic species and more of a viral mutation…"
Zod examined the strand of vampire DNA he'd personally analyzed. No wonder in Blade III the vampires had managed to develop a technologically engineered strain—the Reapers—that weren't vulnerable to silver. According to the comics, vampires all originated from Dracula, but who could tell whether this universe followed the films or the comics?
Still, the vampire virus made for an excellent carrier. The second generation of the Super Beast Serum finally had a place to begin.
The next step would be repeated genetic recombination to find the optimal solution.
"War Machine units sold so far: one hundred," Urd reported.
"One hundred? That's four billion USD, isn't it?"
Zod nodded, pleased.
"It's not that straightforward, boss. After subtracting material costs, labor, energy consumption, and the taxes we owe the IRS…"
Urd's voice remained calm.
Zod blinked. He really had forgotten about the infamous IRS.
Ah… in that case, the actual profit wasn't as high as it sounded.
Fortunately, the U.S. had already deployed War Machine units in the Middle East and enjoyed the benefits firsthand. Although Zod used steel-alloy armor, his alloy wasn't anything like ordinary industrial steel—it was far stronger. With their stars-and-stripes paint jobs, three War Machine units had swept through a terrorist organization backed by a hostile faction in the region.
No American casualties, no costly wartime losses, no uncertainty about whether their investment would pay off. Even heavy weapons wielded by the terrorists couldn't scratch the steel, gunproof, explosionproof War Machine exosuits.
"The United States will continue to combat terrorism worldwide. We will not tolerate any form of terror!"
Footage recorded by the War Machines' onboard cameras, properly edited, became the latest broadcast of America's "righteous anti-terror operation."
Clean. Efficient. Overwhelming. The War Machine units crushed terrorist groups with unprecedented force, to the delight of the public—though the U.S. leadership hardly cared about public opinion in the first place.
Still, the "righteous anti-terror operation" had triggered precisely the chain reaction Zod had hoped for.
The Wall Street tycoons adored this outcome. The conglomerates adored it. Overnight, everyone fell in love with War Machine.
A super-soldier capable of taking on a hundred foes—could Captain America achieve that so flawlessly?
Never.
In hindsight, who on earth had approved pouring hundreds of billions—if not trillions—into the Super Soldier Serum project? Decades of investment with nothing to show for it. If all that money had been saved and used to purchase War Machines instead, America could have ruled the world by now.
Sure, the project had produced something—a certain big green monster. But that monster was uncontrollable.
Uncontrollable meant failure. None of it compared to War Machine's efficiency and precision.
After being hit repeatedly, the terrorists finally realized how terrifying War Machine truly was. Even anti-tank penetrators were useless—the suits simply dodged them.
With anti-radar coating, thermal-lock disruption, and laser-guidance resistance, War Machine operated in battles that were completely one-sided.
Unless Tony Stark had another burst of genius and developed even more advanced weapons, nothing would change.
But right now Stark was too distracted trying to build his own Iron Man suit. He had zero interest in keeping up with geopolitics.
Predictably, terrorists eventually tried to purchase War Machines from Blade Tech Industries. After all, even Stark Industries had produced its share of insider leaks selling weapons to them—surely Blade Tech wouldn't turn down free money delivered to their door?
And Zod didn't care who bought weapons. Once you were in the arms business, pretending to be principled was like pretending a brothel could hang a chastity plaque on its door.
Even though human rights activists were already attacking him, calling him a butcher worse than Tony Stark, claiming War Machine only accelerated human slaughter and even accusing him of crimes against humanity.
For these "slanders," Blade Tech's diplomatic office, PR department, and legal teams handled everything swiftly. In America, where money greased every wheel, dissenting voices vanished almost overnight. Blade Tech was at its peak—how could it tolerate ghastly troublemakers dragging it down?
Stimulated by America's actions, the "bear" wasted no time and placed an order for 180 War Machine units. The "rabbit" didn't need as many—only a hundred.
"So the U.S. really did call in Stark Industries and Hammer Industries to retrofit their War Machines."
Watching the edited "anti-terror" footage, Zod noticed the stars-and-stripes War Machines were now loaded with an entire arsenal—practically walking weapon depots.
At this rate, how was he supposed to sell War Machine Mark II?
His original plan was simple: slap some extra weapons on Mark II and make easy money. But the buyers weren't fools—they could install their own upgrades. Worse, Stark Industries' weapon packages already surpassed the loadout Zod had planned for Mark II.
Now he had to adjust the design.
"Honestly… why are they so smart?"
Zod sighed. He really didn't want to improve War Machine's performance any further.
Fortunately, good news kept pouring in. Britain and several other nations that had been hesitating finally made up their minds after watching America's "righteous anti-terror operation." Impressed by War Machine's performance, they placed national-level orders. A few units per country was no problem—War Machine didn't require satellite guidance or complicated systems. With a built-in AI to assist the pilot, even a monkey could operate it.
"Our revenue has exceeded two hundred billion dollars, boss!"
Urd delivered the news with barely restrained excitement. Zod wasn't surprised. Although Stark Industries only reached the two-hundred-billion mark after the rise of clean energy, Blade Tech Industries had surpassed it in record time.
Even he had to admit—this felt unbelievable.
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