Since the downfall of the Spalletta family, Hogg Union officially took over Dek Street.
In three days, under the supervision of the accountants, they roughly took over the assets of the Spalletta family and recruited a wave of new members.
The number of Hogg Union members had successfully increased to fifty, doubling the territory they controlled.
"Not bad, expanding the influence one commands can indeed improve luck."
In the most luxurious mansion on Dek Street, Hardy sat on the sofa, appearing to be lost in thought, but in fact, he shifted his focus to the panel.
When he entered the DC world, the progress bar on the panel was at 17.3%, and later it slowly rose to 17.9% over time.
After gaining control of the Cole Gang, this data soared to 19.8% within two days.
It may seem insignificant, but in reality, the Cole Gang only controlled Hog Street, which was just an ordinary street in Gotham's slums.
There were countless streets like this in Gotham.
After the downfall of the Spalletta family, it rose to 20.8%.
"Still need to advance gradually, not too fast to avoid attracting the attention of Batman and his allies."
Hardy didn't fear Batman, but he avoided conflicts with Batman.
Even if Batman couldn't solve him, causing trouble for himself could easily affect his expansion.
Moreover, Hogg Union now needed to digest the assets of the Spalletta family, and the quality of these people didn't meet Hardy's standards.
"If that's the case, during this time, I should focus on learning knowledge, and also train these hooligans under me. They may not compare to regular troops, but at least they should look like the elite of a large gang."
Training a team was something Hardy had never done before, but he could simplify some techniques from the ninja school that didn't require chakra to teach.
He could also combine the military training methods of this world. He could ask Aman for help in this regard, or even hire some retired military officers to teach.
As for whether his subordinates would be dissatisfied...
Hardy believes they can do it.
Relying on the authority established by the black gold is completely sufficient. Later on, they will reward some members who perform well with bonuses. The combination of rewards and punishments is already enough.
After paying a portion of the more than 700,000 dollars left by the Sparletta family to the penguin people, tens of thousands were given out as bonuses to various subordinates. The remaining more than 500,000, along with protection fees from two streets and shop commissions, are enough to maintain the gang's training and normal operations. Any surplus will be saved for purchasing materials to upgrade the black gold in the future.
Thinking about this, Hardy picked up the mechanical study written by Selas Stone on the table.
...
...
"Wind Release: Air Current Wild Dance!"
Streams of air were swirling on the training ground of the puppet base, kicking up dust.
Hardy had already mastered this ninjutsu.
"Very good, next is the experiment. By accelerating the airflow into the pneumatic device based on the principle of the Air Current Wild Dance, and then using the principle of the Gale Palm to increase the pressure."
Hardy manipulated the fat puppet carefully.
He couldn't form hand seals now, so he couldn't directly use ninjutsu to compress the gas. However, he didn't need to fully release the ninjutsu. By conducting his wind chakra through chakra threads, he roughly replicated a part of the effects of two ninjutsu within a small range.
As long as the pneumatic device's charging speed and power could be slightly enhanced, it would be a success.
The airflow rushed into the air pump, rapidly compressed by the piston and the wind chakra, and finally released through the air valve.
Under high pressure, the internal energy rapidly transformed into mechanical energy, causing the puppet's fist to spring out in an instant, striking a huge rock.
As rocks shattered and dust filled the air, the commotion caught the attention of Scorpion in the adjacent room, who looked out the window.
"This guy's puppet has gained even more strength with the Puppet Great Strength Technique."
Scorpion glanced at Hardy for a moment, then turned back to continue modifying the Black Ant and Mountain Pepper Fish.
"The speed of gas aggregation has been reduced from 10.3 seconds to 7.4 seconds, power increase uncertain but should be considerable. Next time, consider teaching the avatar how to make a pressure gauge, put one in, and then calculate the changes in gas pressure using the formula."
Hardy walked around the fat puppet, carefully inspecting and modifying its design on the spot.
"After making the modifications, the puppet's rating did not increase. This only slightly enhanced the puppet's durability and control, the limit of improvement lies not in the puppet but in Hardy, the puppet user."
"The money for materials should be enough, with some left from before and a certain proportion of the rewards from the last S-rank mission. By the way, I can also upgrade the little boy."
The next day.
The last day of the vacation.
Through internal channels of the puppet army, Hardy easily purchased the materials needed in the warehouse and began upgrading the fat puppet and the little boy.
The transformation of the fat puppet proceeded step by step, while the transformation of the little boy was even simpler.
The design concept of this puppet itself was extreme, with all points added to speed except for necessary attack methods.
Therefore, deep modification was actually quite difficult because the main body of the little boy was made of extremely light materials, resulting in insufficient structural strength.
To modify it, either a complete overhaul from the inside out, almost equivalent to rebuilding a puppet, or minor adjustments and improvements, which would be very challenging to continue improving.
However, Hardy came up with an idea.
Springs.
This is a component used in many industrial machines and some puppets, acting on various mechanisms.
Hardy's goal was to install springs in the soles of the little boy's feet and leg joints, using chakra threads to manipulate the puppet's movements to store energy in the springs.
Since the little boy was light enough, there was no need to worry about the springs deforming and not recovering due to long-term pressure.
The only requirement was that the chosen metal must have both strength and toughness.
Fortunately, despite the poverty of Hidden Sand, the Wind Country's mineral resources were abundant, and with the presence of the Third Kazekage, a humanoid pulse detector, there were plenty of suitable metals in the puppet army's inventory.