#633 - Viper Gang Headquarters

The Serpent Gang's headquarters was a food factory. It hadn't been too badly affected when New York fell, so it had a relatively substantial food reserve. This might be why the Serpent Gang leader chose this place as their base.

Looking at the factory buildings in the distance, Yang Le realized he had arrived at his destination as the image overlapped with the Rock Python's memories of the headquarters.

Through the Martian's enhanced vision, he could see the entire food factory. The factory wasn't small, but the Serpent Gang had still deployed some manpower to patrol and stand guard outside the walls in every direction.

Although these patrolling lackeys looked quite professional, Yang Le could tell that they were just for show. However, getting these bums to act like they meant business was quite an achievement.

You have to understand that these guys who just loaf around have no ambition. Even their parents can't order them around, but the Serpent Gang leader can get them to patrol day after day willingly.

This proves that the Serpent Gang leader either has extreme charisma, exuding an aura of dominance that makes these lackeys bow down.

Or, the Serpent Gang leader is an extremely cruel villain, and these lackeys are forced into obedience by fear.

These two possibilities mean that the Serpent Gang leader could be one of two types of people: the first is an ambitious and capable overlord, and the second is a demon who sees human life as worthless.

Of course, it's also possible that Yang Le's analysis is completely wrong, and the Serpent Gang leader is just a superhuman who is good at using mind control abilities.

Unfortunately, Rock Python had some fear of the Serpent Gang leader, and he was also a new recruit to the Serpent Gang, so he didn't know much about the leader, only his code name and appearance.

However, this bit of information, as useless as it seems, is very important to Yang Le, because he can use his knowledge of American comics to figure out who he is.

Sure enough, the leader's appearance was very distinctive, and Yang Le recognized him almost immediately.

The cobra-head-like hat, combined with the uniform made to imitate its appearance, identified him as King Cobra, a member of the Serpent Gang.

However, in the main universe, King Cobra was just a fringe character in the Serpent Gang, a lackey among lackeys, only appearing in front of some street-level heroes. Any slightly stronger hero could easily defeat him.

Because his ability was so poor, similar to Spider-Man's, King Cobra was bitten by a highly radioactive snake. The venom didn't kill him, but instead gave him some abilities.

For example, snake-like flexibility. King Cobra can disassemble all of his joints at will, and his bones are extremely tough and almost indestructible. With strong muscle control and tough bones, he can really move like a snake.

Sounds good, but only his bones are tough. His muscles are only slightly stronger than ordinary people, not enough to deal with most superhumans.

If you are entangled by King Cobra and he tries to constrict you like a snake, you can break this move by attacking his muscles.

Even for some powerful characters, King Cobra's bones are not that strong. For example, the Martian Manhunter that Yang Le has transformed into can forcibly break his bones.

Just relying on these physical abilities is why King Cobra is so insignificant. Even with the addition of weapons that can fire poisonous bullets, it doesn't improve the character much.

But in this 9527 universe where everyone has been greatly enhanced, many concepts from the main universe do not apply. Being able to create a gang and subdue so many superhumans clearly shows that this universe's King Cobra has something unique.

And coincidentally, Yang Le is here to see his unique qualities. He wants to see if there is another external force intervening in this universe, dragging it away from its original trajectory.

With the abilities of invisibility and phasing, Yang Le swaggered into the food factory through the main entrance. These seemingly airtight defenses were like nothing to him.

Inside the food factory, there were many shacks built with various building materials, seemingly provided for the lackeys and ordinary humans stationed at the base.

After observation, Yang Le found that anyone who was a member of the Serpent Gang would wear a purple strip of cloth on their body, probably to indicate their identity. This matched Rock Python's memory.

Those who didn't wear purple strips were likely the slaves composed of ordinary humans in Rock Python's memory. These people were mostly old, weak, sick, or disobedient.

Most of these people were injured, some from being caught in accidents when New York fell, but most were whipped by the guards watching the slaves.

It seems that no matter what, humans will not lag behind in dominating their own kind, even in this situation, they have to distinguish between high and low.

Clicking his tongue, Yang Le felt that he should guide the Fantastic Four to come here and take a look, believing that they could solve the problem smoothly.

Yang Le didn't worry that Reed and the others would stand idly by. As long as they were normal people, they wouldn't want to stay in this ruin. Reed's restless brain would definitely think of a way to escape this prison.

But escaping the prison is just the beginning. The real difficulty is the prejudice of ordinary humans outside. Whether to become the next batch of mutants or break the current deadlock depends on Reed's little brain.

However, Reed always needs manpower, and these enslaved ordinary people are the best stepping stones. If used properly, they might be able to break the situation without any effort.

Yang Le silently used his mental abilities to reduce the guards' anger. Just a small modification could allow these ordinary people to have a peaceful day, provided they didn't cause any big news.

Silently doing a good deed, Yang Le turned and entered the food factory, to the main building set up by King Cobra. This was where Rock Python swore allegiance to the Serpent Gang.

In his memory, the Serpent Gang leaders had to come to the headquarters to report every three days. This was one of King Cobra's few requirements.

The other main requirement was their loyalty, and the rest were unimportant things. In this way, this King Cobra was very confident in his strength, otherwise he would not have given his subordinates this degree of freedom.