The frenzy in the square ignited the entire United States through the airwaves.
"Event of the year!"
"The Vought hero team, the Guardians of the new era!"
"Who is that girl with the pink hair? She's so cool! I'm in love with her!"
Newspaper headlines were seized, and the slow-motion footage of Vi punching through a saber was played on a loop on television.
The "V" logo became deeply bound to the images of Starlight, Guardian, and Vi, becoming a symbol of safety, hope, and... trendy violence.
Lynn looked at the report that the finance department had just submitted.
Everything was according to the script.
Just then, that familiar prompt sounded in his mind.
[Breaking Live Stream]
[Condition: Villain attacks a public place, the entire event is live-streamed, and heroes save civilians on camera]
[Comment: Heroism bursting with realism is always the best advertisement. You know this well and have presented the audience with a perfect immersive experience]
[Reward: One draw chance]
Oh, a pleasant surprise!
Lynn put down the report and leaned back into his soft boss chair.
This was what he truly looked forward to—dividends from the system.
"Start the draw."
A virtual roulette wheel appeared before his eyes.
Countless powerful, eerie, divine, and evil names spun within it.
The pointer spun rapidly and finally slowed to a stop before an aura of madness, chaos, and utter lack of logic.
The roulette wheel dissipated.
The office fell into a long silence.
The calmness on Lynn's face, usually one of calculated mastery, gave way to astonishment.
That card floated silently in Lynn's consciousness space.
On the card face was a back view of someone wearing a purple suit.
He tilted his head slightly, his pale skin and scarlet lips forming an eerie contrast.
Beneath his emerald green hair were a pair of eyes that could pierce through all disguises and look directly into the madness at the deepest part of human nature.
Joker.
A name, yet it represented a kind of disorder.
The "assets" under his command each had their own troubles.
Soldier Boy's arrogance needed to be corrected with violence.
Cheetah's untamable wildness needed to be suppressed with higher-level predator instincts.
Dr. Hannibal Lecter's elegant cruelty needed to be guided by the reins of "art" and "cuisine."
But Joker was different.
He didn't pursue money, power, or even death.
What he enjoyed was the process of watching the edifice of civilization collapse under a tiny match he had lit.
He was a piece of uncompilable virus code; once implanted, he would cause the entire system to crash in the most unpredictable way.
The current Vought Empire was like a precision instrument that had just been assembled and was running at high speed.
Every gear, every part, was still in the break-in period.
Throwing Joker into it?
The scene would be spectacular, but that wasn't what Lynn wanted.
"An interesting variable."
Lynn withdrew his thoughts.
"But now is not the time."
He made his decision.
This card would become his deepest trump card.
It would only be quietly drawn from the bottom of the deck on some future day.
For now, what he needed was order—a controllable market capable of generating stable profits.
Time is the greatest filter.
It washes away memories, changes landscapes, and turns the idols of one generation into a name in the textbooks of the next.
In these years, no more "achievements" were activated.
Lynn's empire entered a long period of silent expansion.
Vought Tower, underground laboratory.
Soldier Boy, Human Torch, Vi, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, Ada Wong, Selina Kyle...
All of the core "assets" under Lynn's command who were not undercover were standing here.
They watched as the enhanced serum, glowing with a faint blue light, was brought forward by a robotic arm.
"This is a gift."
Dr. Horton's voice carried a religious fervor.
"It will wash away the dust of mortality from you and bring your life forms to perfection."
"Time will leave no trace upon you."
Soldier Boy looked at the vial of liquid, his eyes complex.
He remembered the moment years ago when his dignity was crushed under Lynn's foot.
Over the years, he had remained a hero in the public eye, the eternal tough guy on the cover of Marlboro cigarettes.
But only he himself knew that he was just a weapon that had been polished until it gleamed.
Now, his Master was going to plate this weapon.
He did not resist and was the first to step onto the injection platform.
Vi was the last one.
She looked at the serum and curled her lip.
"Making such a fuss, isn't it just an injection?"
She lay down indifferently.
For her, never aging meant she could always use her fists to fight for justice.
As for loyalty?
That man gave her a stage where she could punch to her heart's content, and that was enough.
The late 1980s.
On the streets of New York, a young man wearing a "V-Style" flame series replica trench coat brushed past a punk youth wearing a jacket printed with Vi's fist logo.
On the giant screen in Times Square, the latest war blockbuster "Fist of Freedom," starring Soldier Boy, was playing.
In the movie, he stood alone in a foreign jungle, destroying an evil military Base with a star shield.
In the cinema, applause thundered.
People had long forgotten the quagmire and pain of that real war.
They only remembered the "correct memories" of heroic victory that Vought had written for them.
The "Justice Trio," composed of Starlight, Guardian, and Vi, remained the superhero team with the highest exposure.
Their daily routine consisted of appearing in various corners of the city under the "precise guidance" of the Vought security department, stopping "random" destruction events created by people like Xuan Tie, Soundwave, and Bloody Mary.
Xuan Tie had "broken out of prison" twelve times.
Each time, he would cause millions of dollars in property damage in Manhattan, only to be "strugglingly" subdued by Guardian and Vi.
People hated this invulnerable monster, yet they secretly looked forward to his next appearance.
Because that meant they would get to see another spectacular live-streamed hero show.
In Lynn's office, Motoko Kusanagi was reporting on a brand-new plan.
"Boss, according to Dr. Horton's latest report, the production line for compound v can now achieve mass production."
"We have selected Washington, Chicago, and Los Angeles as the first batch of pilot sites for super-powered communities."
"We will create a new batch of super-powered individuals with varying abilities who are not under our direct control, in the form of accidental leaks and random awakenings in these cities."
Lynn looked at the three marked cities on the holographic map.
"Very good."
Selling heroes and villains only in New York was too small a market.
He wanted the entire United States, and even the World, to see the "threat" and "value" of super-powered individuals.
When monsters were no longer a specialty of New York, when your neighbor or your colleague might suddenly breathe Fire or possess immense strength one day... only then would people willingly hand over their safety, their future, and even their wallets to the only company capable of "managing" and "defining" heroes.
The old script had been performed for too long.
It was time to change to a brand-new one for this World.
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