Chapter 900: SUCCESSOR (4)

Phil’s plan had not only successfully fooled all the audience, but also the two large financial groups and the other three judges.

Phil being a mentor on a superhero talent show seemed like a spur-of-the-moment fun for a rich second-generation heir who had no other pursuits in life in the eyes of the public. It was not for fame or profit, and he had done his job well;

Phil had spent a lot of money on this variety show just to show off in front of the public. It did not pose any threat to them to the other large financial groups and mentors that cooperated with his performance.

The audience did not know that this program had a script, nor did they know that the sponsor behind this program was Phil himself. Naturally, they could not guess Phil’s true motive.

On the other hand, the financial group and the mentors knew that the program had a script. However, this script did not cause a scandal or cause any negative effects to the program. Instead, it brought about a lot of popularity. Therefore, they had no motive to leak this matter at the moment. That would be equivalent to slandering themselves.

Phil’s performance was like a prodigal on a whim to these people. He had spent two hundred million US dollars in order to create the image of a “professional in the field of superheroes” in front of the public. But so what? What was fake could not become real.

These people knew very well that Phil’s super performance was based on the script, so they did not think that Phil would really pose a threat to their own interests.

Thus, Phil’s first phase of the plan was a success.

He started lying low and waited patiently for the next stage.

Superheroes were hot topics in Hope City. In this city that was synomous with both heaven and hell, there would be murder, robbery, and other violent incidents every day. There would also be cases of superheroes successfully or failing to rescue hostages every day.

However, Phil had not made his move yet. His Twitter feed was back to normal. Every day, he would share his private jet, yachts, models, or photos with his fans at roadside shops.

However, his Twitter followers had increased by a lot compared to before. These fans had changed their view of him because of the ‘Successor’ talent show and had become genuine supporters.

Two months later.

There was a very bad kidnapping case in Hope City. A group of lawless criminals kidnapped the daughter of a rich businessman and asked for a huge ransom. Superheroes immediately went to her rescue, but the hostage was brutally killed. Moreover, while the superheroes killed a number of the criminals, most of them managed to flee because of the superheroes’ underestimation of the enemy’s strength.

The rich businessman’s daughter was kind and beautiful. The public had a very good impression of her.

Someone had taken a picture of the tragic scene of the crime scene. This little angel was lying in a pool of blood. Her limbs were tied up, her mouth was stuffed with cloth, and there were tears on her face. Her death was tragic but beautiful. It had also aroused unlimited sympathy from the public.

Thus, the three superheroes who participated in the rescue faced immense pressure from public opinion.

The public did not accept them pushing the blame away even though they had explained that the criminals’ goals did not seem to be for ransom and had no intention of releasing the hostage. Instead, they continued to pressure the Superhero Association to disqualify the three superheroes.

The power of these three superheroes fell drastically with the public’s doubts. The Superhero Association had no choice but to cut ties with them. They revoked the licenses of two of the superheroes while admitting their mistakes to the public. The other superhero was protected because his connections were strong enough. However, he also needed to reflect deeply, repent, and do a long period of volunteer work in front of the public to gradually appease the public’s anger.

The criminal who had killed the young daughter of the rich businessman had been shot dead on the spot. The other criminals who had been captured alive had only committed the crime of kidnapping and not murder. Thus, they were each sentenced to ten to dozens of years of punishment when some members of the jury objected. Only the leader of the criminals was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The people came to the streets and spontaneously offered flowers to this little angel to express their grief.

At that moment, Phil began to bombard all interest groups related to this incident on Twitter: Superheroes did not have enough intelligence and ability to deal with this incident; The Superhero Association did not see the shortcomings of these three superheroes’ abilities and misuse of their manpower; Superheroes did not have a clear estimate of the hidden risks in this city. They were only passively catching criminals, but they had never thought of solving the underlying problem that caused the high crime rate in Hope City…

Phil’s speech garnered support from the public.

The people’s emotions were in urgent need of an outlet to vent after this tragedy. Someone had to be responsible for this tragedy. It was obviously not enough for the three superheroes to take the blame.

What’s more, people had already accumulated a lot of resentment towards Hope City’s high crime rate. It was very easy to add fuel to the fire with Phil stepping forward.

If the Casanova Phil had commented on this incident a few months ago, most people would have thought that he was boasting shamelessly.

However, now, with the hot influence of ‘Successor’, many people viewed Phil as an industry insider who truly understood the problems of the superhero system.

What Phil said made sense since he was an industry insider who really understood these things.

Thus, the angry public vented their anger on the Superhero Association and other superheroes. They cursed angrily. Why did the Superhero Association send these three weaklings to rescue the hostages? Why didn’t they send stronger superheroes? Why didn’t the stronger superheroes take the initiative to carry out missions?

In fact, the Superhero Association only sent out superheroes of the same standard according to their crime level. They could not possibly send out the top superheroes just because of some kidnapping or robbery, right?

Everything was done according to the normal rules and procedures. However, the Superhero Association had a hard time explaining because the more they explained, the more it seemed like they were pushing the blame. It further confirmed their own incompetence.

The anger of the people had not subsided even though the Superhero Association repeatedly apologized. Many fans expressed on Phil’s twitter that they hoped that Phil could step out and do something within his capabilities. If Phil was in charge of this matter, the situation would definitely not have turned out this way.

On the other hand, Phil replied on Twitter that he had no intention of doing so. The previous tweet was also a display of his true feelings due to his righteous indignation. He emphasized that the Superhero Association was very successful when dealing with “most problems”. While they had made a “small but fatal” mistake this time, they were still trustworthy as long as they could seriously improve from this incident.

The fans also expressed their understanding of Phil. he was a billionaire who had his own company to manage after all. There was no reason for him to get involved in this mess. However, the fans still hoped that Phil would be able to comment more on matters related to superheroes in the future.

Phil reluctantly agreed to this request.

Thus, Phil began to review the incidents related to superheroes on Twitter. If the operation was successful, he would review the experience of this success in detail and praise the successful superheroes greatly. If the operation was a failure, he would also carefully review the lessons of this failure and violently attack the failed superheroes or the association itself.

Of course, these reviews were all created by his think tank team. He then edited them and posted them on his Twitter.

Such detailed, professional, easy to understand and very down-to-earth content gave Phil’s fans a strong sense of participation. They could see the details of all aspects of the operation from an omniscient point of view. At the same time, their admiration and trust for Phil deepened.

The superheroes were unhappy with Phil’s actions, but they could do nothing about it.

That was because what Phil said was very smart.

In most cases, he would criticize those down on their luck with the officials after the mission failed—these were superheroes who did not have many fans and made obvious mistakes;

In a small number of cases, he would be generous with his praise for the superheroes who had completed the mission and had more fans, winning the favor of these superhero fans;

Phil would criticize the Superhero Association under extremely rare circumstances. However, the Superhero Association was a huge business. It was impossible for them to really fight with Phil. What’s more, it would only generate more popularity for Phil if they really fought.