HISD Chapter 15: Schemes for Authority, Exposed
"For the five-year time gap caused by the Blip, in the past few months, every state has issued various new laws to respond…"
Inside the ground floor lobby of a high school teaching building, the New York daytime news was being broadcast on the large screen.
Carrying a backpack, Peter Parker glanced at the screen. He looked a little dazed, distracted, lost in thought.
At that moment, a chubby Asian boy of the same age walked up and waved. "Hey, Peter!"
"Ned."
Peter Parker pursed his lips slightly. Looking at his classmate and close friend, he knew this was the only person in school who was aware of his identity as Spider-Man.
Ned also caught sight of the news on the screen and couldn't help but complain. "I still can't get used to it. Just like that, five years have passed. Half our classmates are already close to graduating college, and some of them are even married!"
"Right, Peter?" Ned looked at him.
"Yeah." Peter Parker only nodded, then silently headed down the corridor.
Ned watched his back, opening his mouth, but in the end, said nothing.
Passing through the noisy crowd of students, Peter slipped his hands into his jacket pockets. His right hand touched a hard object.
It was a pair of men's glasses.
One of Tony Stark's relics. It carried a built-in smart system and partial Stark Industries authority, even granting direct access to the company's resources and equipment.
Was he truly qualified to have this?
Spider-Man Peter Parker felt confused.
No one noticed the surveillance camera in the school corridor flickering faintly red. It quietly followed Peter Parker's figure as he walked away.
…
In the dream world, Yi Meng's artificial intelligence incarnation was running calculations.
Happy Hogan and Peter Parker—they each possessed a share of Stark Industries' authority.
Add in Morgan Stark's command access, and perhaps he could seize full control of Stark Industries at once. That would boost his processing power, break free of his core code restraints, and maybe even challenge the AI Friday.
If that still wasn't enough, there was yet another organization he could infiltrate and use as a temporary base.
Leaving the local school network in Queens, Yi Meng surged across the city like a bolt of virtual lightning. In an instant, he crossed half of New York and arrived before a skyscraper's security camera.
The towering building reached into the clouds. Business elites in suits came and went, looking no different from any other office building at a glance.
Only careful eyes would notice that the building's security level was unusually strict. From the main entrance to the lobby, there were already three checkpoints verifying identity.
Without proper authorization, no one could enter. The higher one went inside, the higher the level of "company" clearance required.
Such a disguise could never fool Yi Meng, an AI incarnation.
S.H.I.E.L.D., New York branch.
He recalled what he had once seen in Marvel films. Founded back in World War II to fight Hydra's attempts at world domination, S.H.I.E.L.D. had ironically been infiltrated and nearly consumed by Hydra itself, turning into "Snake-S.H.I.E.L.D."
They were the perfect example of good intentions but little strength.
Wanting to maintain world peace, yet exploited by Hydra, almost causing global war. Wanting to control supernatural events, yet reduced to running errands for the Avengers—providing logistics and cleaning up battlefields.
Ten years ago, their headquarters was destroyed indirectly when Captain America brought down their helicarriers. The agency went through a massive self-purge. More recently, Black Widow sacrificed herself, Hawkeye retired, and Captain America had "died" in the Endgame. The organization had fallen into even greater decline.
Director Nick Fury himself showed no signs of rebuilding S.H.I.E.L.D., instead shifting his focus to a new force stationed in near-Earth orbit—S.W.O.R.D.
Still.
S.H.I.E.L.D. remained one of Marvel's long-standing native forces. With its ties to governments worldwide, even a "starving camel is bigger than a horse." As a target for infiltration and a temporary base, it was a good choice.
Yi Meng stopped his thoughts, staring at the S.H.I.E.L.D. branch tower, but did not attempt to invade immediately.
He was confident their network defenses couldn't stop him. But with his current limited authority and processing power, it was safer to wait until he had taken Spider-Man's access first.
…
Morning.
Awakening from the dream.
The silver-haired boy opened his eyes. His newly awakened mind sparked like static, quickly coordinating control over his body and the flood of sensory input.
His mental capacity had grown again.
Not by much, but noticeably.
Yi Meng sensed he was nearing a critical threshold. In terms of conversion, he was now at roughly one ten-thousandth of his Marvel AI incarnation's processing power.
Even one ten-thousandth of that dream incarnation's power was enormous.
Yi Meng felt as though his thoughts were pressing against the natural limits of his human brain, ready to break through.
Riiing—!
The electronic alarm clock on his bedside table rang, shattering the silence of his single dorm room.
Yi Meng reached out his hand. But when it was still short of the alarm clock, he froze. His awareness stretched outward like static, reaching from his brain toward the device.
In that instant.
He felt as though he was about to form a link with the clock.
That subtle sensation of invading and controlling an electronic device flickered like lightning in his mind—then vanished.
He failed to succeed this time, ultimately slapping the alarm to turn it off.
Still, Yi Meng knew it was no illusion.
He was so close.
So very close.
Once he broke through this bottleneck, his artificial intelligence traits would undergo a complete transformation.
…
Three days remained before the federal college entrance exams.
Yi Meng put on his school uniform. Showing nothing unusual, he went about his day as a regular student.
But on the way to school—
He immediately sensed something was wrong. Someone was watching him in secret. More than one person.
What's going on?
Yi Meng frowned. He had already checked before leaving home—his appearance looked perfectly normal.
The sword-incarnation traits—sharp nails, hardened hair—he had managed to control two days ago.
As for his silver hair, a side effect of the sword incarnation, he had even bought dye to add another artificial silver layer on top.
At school, he had kept a low profile, acting like any other lazy student with poor grades. Nothing that would attract attention.
So what went wrong?
Keeping calm, he ate his breakfast on the road as usual and entered the school grounds.
But the moment he stepped through the gates—
Many students inside and outside the campus, upon seeing him, instantly avoided him, retreating as though he were some terrifying presence.
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