Today was the seventh day after the establishment of the Hero Association was announced, and it was the first day the Association opened its doors for hero recruitment.
Despite having anticipated the scale of the turnout and pre-recruiting a large number of staff, the Association was still somewhat overwhelmed on this day. Everyone was busy running around.
As night fell, the Hero Association Headquarters, bustling all day, gradually quieted down.
Tap-tap-tap!
Miss Fujiwara, wearing thick-soled high heels and carrying a pile of reports, rode the elevator to the top floor of the Hero Association Headquarters with a rhythmic pace.
The top floor of the 36-story Hero Association Headquarters was Aomori's exclusive floor. For ease of management, he had treated it as his second home, living and working there. Important items from his house and base in Z-City had already been moved here.
In the room designated as the Hero Association Chairman's office, Miss Fujiwara saw Aomori buried in piles of documents, showing no sign of fatigue.
"Chairman Aomori, the results for the first day of hero recruitment are ready," Miss Fujiwara's voice was gentle as water.
"Speak," Aomori said without looking up, his fingers flying across the computer keyboard.
Miss Fujiwara's cheeks visibly puffed out, but she eventually deflated them with a soft sigh. She spoke formally, "A total of 2,671 individuals completed all tests today. After eliminating those with impure motives, weak resolve, or substandard physical fitness, 808 individuals met our minimum standards."
She paused slightly, then continued, "Among them, 7 people achieved a score of 10,000 or more in the Personal Ability Demonstration test. They are Flashy Flash, Superalloy Darkshine, Drive Knight, Mysterious Mask, Tanktop Master, Zeburou, and Puri-Puri Prisoner. There are 147 individuals with scores between 1,000 and 10,000, and 654 with scores below 1,000."
So many heavy hitters showed up on the first day?
But the two strongest are still missing.
Should I personally go and invite them?
While contemplating this, Aomori looked up and said to Miss Fujiwara, "Excellent. How is the funding donation from Agoni-san coming along?"
"It is being gradually transferred to our accounts, and is expected to be fully deposited within a week."
"Good. This funding must be entirely used for facility construction and equipment procurement. You can consult with Child Emperor for the specifics."
"Understood."
"That's all for now. You should go rest. Thank you for your hard work."
"It's no trouble. But Aomori, you don't really have to do all this work yourself," Miss Fujiwara said meaningfully.
"I know," Aomori looked straight into her eyes. "Everything is difficult at the start. I need to sort things out myself before I can hand them over to you all to manage."
His main focus remained on his personal strength; the Hero Association was merely a boost. Aomori would not reverse the order of his priorities.
"That's good. You should get some rest too."
"Mhm."
Miss Fujiwara placed the neatly organized files of the provisional heroes on the desk, swayed her hips, and left.
Withdrawing his gaze from her departing figure, Aomori picked up the stack of files and began to review them carefully.
He finished going through the individuals' files in about ten minutes. In addition to the few people already mentioned, he saw familiar faces like Pig God, Mumen Rider, and Smile Man. He pulled out the files of a few dozen who possessed decent strength and grouped them together.
Among the top ten, only Flashy Flash and Darkshine's scores exceeded 100,000, but he didn't rule out the possibility that the third-ranked Drive Knight was holding back his true power.
In Aomori's memory, Drive Knight was a mysterious figure whose strength and personal information were deeply hidden. There was even a chance he was a mole.
Could the fourth-ranked Mysterious Mask be Sweet Mask? Was his strength already this high? Had he started his Monsterization early?
The sixth-ranked Zeburou was Bomb's top disciple, and perhaps due to Bomb's influence, he had chosen the path of a hero this time.
In the middle ranks, many names Aomori didn't recognize appeared. A large portion of them chose to join the Hero Association due to Aomori's influence.
Of the original S-Class Heroes who had not yet entered his view, only Blast, Metal Knight, and Zombieman remained. Blast was likely with Tatsumaki, and given his decades-long dedication to hero activities, there was a high probability he would show up himself. Zombieman was inherently cautious and would likely only appear after observing and deeming the association safe.
Aomori wasn't worried about those two. The one he was truly concerned about was Metal Knight, or rather, Dr. Bofoi, who adhered to a strictly self-reliant heroism.
Dr. Bofoi was not passionate about hero activities; most of what he did was aimed at testing the performance of his own weapons. Always hiding in the shadows to develop his military strength, he never trusted others, firmly believing that he alone was the ultimate savior.
Consuming the most resources and contributing the least effort, doesn't that sound like an ADC (Attack Damage Carry) who only farms and never rotates back to defend?
For such a person, Aomori felt it was best to keep him close to prevent him from developing fully and then handing the advantage to the enemy, benefiting others for free.
Unfortunately, Dr. Bofoi was deeply hidden, and Aomori had yet to find his residence. Otherwise, he would have paid him a visit and given him a dose of Kotoamatsukami a long time ago.
No, Kotoamatsukami was a joke; Aomori's hypnotism wasn't that powerful. At most, he could give a psychological suggestion, making Aomori appear as an ally.
The effect would be even weaker on people with firm resolve.
However, the combined efforts of Aomori and Darkrai were more than enough to handle ordinary humans.
The high-ranking officials of the City-State Alliance government and certain financial groups attempting to seize control had also been "persuaded" by Aomori, becoming his loyal allies.
Thanks to this, the development of the Hero Association was so smooth.
The 808 provisional heroes who met the standard could all be retained; Aomori's Hero Association could afford them.
Looking at the thick stack of hero files before him, Aomori looked forward to the day of their debut performance before the public.
After handling a few more documents, he stretched, left the office, and took the elevator down one floor.
This floor was the Research and Development Center. Child Emperor's workspace.
When he reached the boy's lab, Child Emperor looked flustered, seemingly trying to cover something up.
Could Child Emperor be secretly developing some sort of secret weapon?
"Ehehe, Aomori, why are you here?"
"I came to ask you if you want to become a certified hero, or if you're content with just being the Hero Association's Head of Research and Development."
"Do you even need to ask? I definitely want to be a hero! My combat power is significantly stronger than the average person, you know."
"Alright, then." Having received his answer, Aomori turned and left.
"That scared me." Child Emperor pulled open a partition door and said to the dog-headed robot inside, "Good thing he didn't see it. This time, I'm going to give him a huge surprise!"
The dog-headed robot's eyes blinked, seeming to respond to Child Emperor's words.
…
Five days later, the Hero Association's first general recruitment concluded. Future recruitment drives would be fixed to the first day of every month.
After layers of screening, a total of 1,561 individuals were finally selected as the first batch of heroes. They were scheduled to gather for orientation training three days later.
Zombieman was among these individuals, having participated in the recruitment on the final day, but Blast and Tatsumaki were still nowhere to be seen.
"This won't do, Chairman Aomori," Mr. Oomoto, as the Head of the Hero Association's Public Relations Department, reported this issue to Aomori. "Blast-san's reputation in the hero world is very high, and so is Tatsumaki-san's. She even saved you once. If the two of them don't join our Hero Association, it will be a significant blow to our prestige."
In fact, Mr. Oomoto had already devised a plan to heavily publicize the association using the names of Blast and Tatsumaki, but since he still hadn't seen them, he urgently came to Aomori.
"I understand. I'll handle it."
Aomori decided to take matters into his own hands and personally seek out the legendary strongest hero, Blast.
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You can read the ahead chapter on Patr-eon if you're interested: p-atre-on.c-om/Overgod [Just remove the hyphen to access normally]