Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

The Miti CVN-144 carrier, originally the resting lounge for officers on the bridge, was now occupied by the film crews of three stars.

"Phoenix" Phoenix, "Thornbird" Roger, and "Thunderbird" Margaret, although technically part of Miti's Homeland Strategic Bureau, were also actively involved by the Superhero Alliance in the commercial promotion of the entire event.

The so-called commercial promotion is actually very simple at its core: exposure.

While the public's attention was on them, they aimed to expose themselves as much as possible to boost the popularity of the superheroes and then monetize the merchandise — after all, once this battle was over and the hot topic period had passed, any publicity efforts would be half as effective.

During a break in the shooting, the three sat on chairs nearby. Phoenix cracked open two cans of beer and handed one to Thornbird. Thunderbird lit up a slim cigarette.

"Have you seen the intel on our opponents this time?" Thornbird asked as he took the beer.

"No." "Haven't." Phoenix and Thunderbird answered simultaneously.

Thornbird was somewhat rendered speechless and continued to ask:

"Should we study it tonight?"

"Can't make it, I have an interview tonight," Thunderbird said.

"Don't be so serious," Phoenix said in a relaxed tone, "we just need to win."

It was because of the worry about not being able to win that studying the opponent's intel was necessary!

Thornbird really wanted to persuade them further, but ultimately held back.
Your adventure continues at empire

He was of English nationality, a Mancunian, with a disposition leaning towards dourness, melancholy, and seriousness; "Phoenix" originated from the Mediterranean island of Corfu, reflecting the Mediterranean's characteristic laid-back and disorganized nature; "Thunderbird" Margaret hailed from Helsinki in Northern Europe, careless and yet another extreme...

Without established team leadership, it was actually very hard for the three of them to reach a consensus through communication.

Of course, it was a brainwave of the Superhero Alliance's business managers to deliberately bring three such disparate Transcendents together, something about "character diversification."

In Thornbird's opinion, the idea was downright stupid. After all, he was a wizard, with a fighting style leaning more towards control, stealth, and surprise — but Phoenix and Thunderbird both favored a head-on confrontation style. Even though they were indeed powerful, they simply were not willing to coordinate with him on the battlefield.

Brash and stealthy just don't mix!

Thornbird silently left the officer's lounge and along the way saw many other "superheroes," working with their respective agent teams on filming. The entire upper bridge was like a moving "Hollywood," a giant star-making base, where everyone focused on traffic and fame, with no one truly caring about victory.

...Can we really win against the Rikoku Cultivators with this?

Of course, it wouldn't matter if they didn't win; they could just blame it on Sulu being too weak afterward.

In the end, the original purpose of establishing the Superhero Alliance was not for victory, but for commercial operations and accumulating wealth, to form an unbreakable community of interests between the superheroes and Miti entrepreneurs — just a replication of their military-industrial complex strategies.

Thornbird's mood grew increasingly bleak until he arrived at the end of the corridor and saw two Asian Transcendents in conversation, speaking an incomprehensible gibberish to him.

But what they held in their hands were tarot cards, familiar to the European Transcendents, seemingly engaged in divining the fortunes of this battle.

Unobtrusively narrowing his eyes, Thornbird carefully observed the cards drawn by the other party, quietly activating his own mystical intuition.

The first card was The Magician, upright. It hinted that the Western camp was about to face a completely unknown challenge from the Rikoku Cultivators, and it also symbolized innovation, freedom, and the pursuit of power.

Then the second card was... The Tower, upright. There was something terribly frightening in the Mysterious Realm this time; sudden destruction, immense danger, and a path to ruin.

The two Asian Transcendents visibly panicked, quickly drawing a third tarot card.

Wheel of Fortune, reversed. A tough struggle, complicated changes, life and death uncertain, also not a good sign.

The other trembled as they were about to draw a fourth card but were stopped by their companion's hand.

The two chattered for a while and then slowly put the three tarot cards back into the deck.

Thornbird forcefully closed his eyes, exhaled a long breath of stale air to calm the tension brought on by the adrenaline rush.

Time to scrap the original plan and prioritize survival above all for this battle...

When he opened his eyes again, he found that the two Asians had disappeared.

————————

Though his heart was not in his work, Father Yan was still a state-owned enterprise employee and thus recently forced himself to go to his job.

The lunch break had just ended, and he was sitting in front of his computer examining blueprints when he suddenly heard whispering discussions arise around him.

Gossip was a daily routine in state-owned enterprises, a taste not to be missed. So Father Yan grabbed a cup of tea, clutching the scalding disposable paper cup, attempting to join the group engaged in gossip.

However, to his surprise, the colleagues who had been chatting, upon seeing Father Yan coming over with his tea, immediately stopped their conversation and, with smiling faces, said:

"Yan Worker, fancy a cup of tea?"

"Hmm." Father Yan looked puzzled. If I don't drink tea, what am I supposed to do with this cup of water?

"Yan Worker, my relative sent me a tin of tea leaves, and I can't finish it all. How about I give it to you?"

"Oh, that's really too kind..."

"It's nothing, I've got plenty," said the colleague, going to get the tea leaves. Just then, someone handed him a cigarette, saying,

"Here."

Father Yan didn't refuse this time because the person offering the cigarette was the deputy director.

After a round of puffing and billowing smoke, the deputy director sighed and said,

"Yan Worker, your son has made something of himself."

"Oh, it's nothing much." Father Yan chuckled and shook his head. "He's been disobedient since he was little, and no amount of spanking worked. Eventually, I just let him be."

"That's what's called a 'late bloomer'!" a colleague joked, laughing. "Whether you discipline him or not, suddenly, one day, he becomes successful. He's really soared!"

Everyone laughed.

After the chat, Father Yan took the tea leaves given by his colleague and returned to his seat, feeling inexplicably puzzled. He frowned, sensing that something was off.

If they were trying to flatter me, that wouldn't seem quite right either. But why was there a noticeably warmer attitude towards me today?

Father Yan discreetly opened his computer browser, ready to look up news related to his son.

He found the top trending topic, clicked into it, and immediately frowned, leaning away from the screen.

Because his son's memes had gone viral. There were all sorts of jokes written about him, stuff like "Sulu monkeys, head on a spike," and "Warm up a cup of wine, come back for a drink after we're done with the South Sea"... Father Yan's scalp tingled as he read. A fifty-year-old man couldn't understand the meaning behind these memes at all.

But he finally understood what was happening. It seemed his son had boasted in front of the camera, in front of the entire nation.

Did the public believe him? Most certainly not, because what he claimed to be fighting wasn't just Sulu, but Sulu + Miti + Southeast Allied Forces. If it was only Sulu, there wouldn't be any need for bragging; Sulu would likely surrender on its own.

As for Miti superheroes, it could only be said that Miti's military strength had been number one in the world for many years, and its formidable reputation was deeply rooted in the hearts of people from all nations. Even though Rikoku now has four complete aircraft carrier groups, that's just one-third of what Miti has.

If you ask everyone who they hope would win, of course, they'd say they hope the Rikoku Cultivator wins. But if you ask who they think can win, well...

Father Yan wasn't any sort of military expert, and the more he read, the more anxious he became.

But anxious or not, the trait of a middle-aged man is to be resigned to his fate. After all, his son was grown up, and if the higher-ups wanted him to go to war, there was nothing to be done. Just let it be.

Father Yan closed the browser, put on his reading glasses, and continued to look over the blueprints. Suddenly, his phone rang.

It was his wife calling.

"Nantian!" As soon as he answered the phone, Mother Yan's voice rang out, "When you get off work, don't come home right away. There are reporters all over the entrance to our building!"

She wasn't lying, because reporters had indeed surrounded the Yan family's residential building, and the homeowners' group chat was exploding—all discussing the situation.

In theory, Yan Yu's home address shouldn't have been so easy to locate since the Privy Council had only made his name public, and there were so many people with the same name and surname in the world—who knew which "Yan Yu" it was?

But coincidentally, when Yan Yu signed the recruitment agreement back in the day, the Zhendong Army conducted a family background check and discovered that Father Yan was a state enterprise worker. They called his workplace's leadership to better manage parental cooperation, aiming to improve recruitment success rates.

When Father Yan's workplace director received a call from the military, he was secretly surprised: Engineer Yan's son is being recruited by the military as a special forces soldier? The director then took note of it.

Now, when the Privy Council made the battle team's roster public, the director saw, goodness gracious, that Engineer Yan's son was about to go off to war for the country! Coincidentally, the director's wife was also a well-known anchor at the local TV station, and that's how the information leaked.

While Rikoku reporters may not be as unscrupulous as their international counterparts, banging on your front door like mad, they still uphold a basic level of professionalism. The captain of the battle team, Yan Yu, has gone overseas, and we can't interview him, so how about we interview his family instead?

The entire nation wants to know about "Yan Yu" as such a huge traffic hotspot, how could they not dig into it?

And most importantly, the superiors never said not to!

The news reached Li Weiguo, and the commander-in-chief, the old man, immediately flew into a rage.

Who authorized them to do this?

Our soldiers are off fighting abroad, and you go and harass their families, huh?

Everyone get the hell out of here!