Chapter 900 - SUCCESSOR (4) (1/2)

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…