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"Tsk tsk tsk, rest assured, Neuman, your daughter won't become an orphan..."
Homelander said with a gloating expression, "Because I've changed my mind. After you die, I'll send her to a group home, and then have someone arrange a new foster family for her!"
Victoria Neuman glared at Homelander with eyes wide in fury; she didn't believe he would be that kind!
Moreover, she didn't want her daughter calling anyone else 'mom'.
However, at this moment, besides letting out waves of painful wails, she was clearly powerless to argue any further.
The virus had already spread throughout her entire body.
She knew her death was imminent, but she was helpless against it.
Seemingly noticing the look of doubt on Victoria Neuman's face, Homelander, who was in a great mood, actually took the initiative to explain to her:
"Don't misunderstand, the reason I changed my mind about killing your daughter is simply because I thought there was no point in doing so..."
"What's more, now, your death has become a crucial part of my plan, so how could I lay a hand on your daughter?"
"But you don't need to be too sad, because you won't truly die."
Just as Victoria Neuman was feeling confused, Homelander suddenly raised a finger and pointed at the battle suit he was wearing, saying triumphantly:
"Soon, your face will be like theirs, forever bound to my battle suit... This way, maybe one day you can even meet your daughter again?!"
"How about it, don't you want to thank me for my magnanimity now?"
I want to thank your #￥%*&#...
Only then did Victoria Neuman notice that on both sides of the chest of the dark blue battle suit Homelander was wearing, there were strangely several distorted and deformed human faces.
And the owners of these faces, contorted in extreme pain, were none other than the superpowered students from Godolkin University whom her adoptive father, Stan Edgar, had previously found to help deal with Homelander.
But for some reason, now all of their faces had appeared on Homelander's battle suit... No, it should be said that they were imprisoned there!
What Victoria Neuman didn't know was that this Soul-Howling Armor and the Whip of Torment, simulated from the Stars and Stripes cape behind Homelander, were two brand new pieces of equipment specially blessed to Homelander by slaanesh!
"No... no!!"
Victoria Neuman let out one last shrill scream, and then her entire body quickly dissolved into a disgusting puddle of pus under the corrosion of the virus.
And upon seeing this scene, Stan Edgar also drew his last breath, and together with his adopted daughter, stepped hand in hand into the new World of the Subspace, jointly starting a completely new life as cattle and horses!
...
[Detectable souls, Subspace soul count +1, +1]
...
With the deaths of Stan Edgar and Victoria Neuman, this carefully planned hunting operation targeting Homelander officially ended in failure.
But the impact of this incident was far from over.
The first thing Homelander did after returning to Vought Corporation was to initiate an unprecedented purge.
For the executives and employees who had previously provided assistance to Stan Edgar, Homelander thoughtfully dispatched The Deep and Queen Maeve, whose injuries had not fully healed, to send them all to the Subspace for remolding.
A few days later.
At Wilson Grant Fisk's New York City mayoral inauguration ceremony, after Wilson Grant Fisk delivered a passionate and stirring speech, to the astonishment of the crowd, Homelander slowly ascended the stage.
"Thank you, Mayor Fisk, for the warm invitation."
Homelander smiled and nodded towards Kingpin, who had voluntarily yielded his position beside him, then looked at the dense crowd of reporters and citizens below and said loudly:
"I believe you all know why I am here without me having to say it..."
"First, I extend my deepest congratulations to Mr. Wilson Grant Fisk for successfully standing out among numerous candidates and being elected Mayor of New York City!"
"Second, I feel deep sorrow over the death of Councilwoman Victoria Neuman, the former head of the Bureau of Metahuman Affairs."
At this point, Homelander squeezed out an expression of sorrow and remembrance on his face, full of emotion, "She was a great American, an upright politician, and also a lovely friend... But three days ago, she was brutally murdered by an evil force led by A-Train."
"In response, I, on behalf of Vought Corporation, publicly state that we will now form a truly formidable superhero team to bring these evil, cunning murderers, hidden within Vought Corporation and the government, to justice!"
"Please rest assured, New York will be safe again, and America will be safe again..."
"Here, I want to specially say to the camera and to those who are colluding with A-Train, working hand in glove... No matter where you hide, domestically or abroad, my people will find you soon, and I will find you..."
"You are dead!!"
Clap clap clap--
Thunderous applause echoed throughout the venue.
Regardless of whether the people below the stage understood what Homelander had just said, they applauded first to save their lives!
And just as the crowd below the stage was applauding enthusiastically, Homelander suddenly waved his hand, signaling everyone to pause, and then continued into the microphone:
"There is also a third point, and it is the most important point today..."
"To curb the rising crime rate in New York and even America, and to prevent the recurrence of the Ravencroft Prison incident, Vought Corporation will soon officially release a virtual reality technology called The Metaverse."
"This technology can be used to massively liberate prison cells. All inmates serving sentences only need to upload their consciousness to The Metaverse, so that while their bodies serve their sentences, their consciousness can enjoy a new life in virtual reality, thereby awakening their yearning for a better life!"
"And after my consultation with Mayor Fisk, The Metaverse will prioritize serving New York City, and will then be further promoted in the next step. By then, it will officially encompass many fields closely related to people's daily lives, such as office work, healthcare, gaming, and education, maximizing the residents' happiness index..."
...
Inside a prison in New York.
In front of the live broadcast cameras of nearly a hundred cameras, several medical personnel, under the command of Dr. Alex Wesker, successfully injected the T-Fear Virus into the first batch of inmates who had entered the medical pods and were about to upload their consciousness to The Metaverse within a very short time.
"All vital signs are normal."
Although the inmates' data was clearly normal, Dr. Alex Wesker still secretly broke into a cold sweat.
However, she had no certainty whether these inmates injected with the T-Fear Virus would suddenly turn into irrational zombies in front of the cameras.
Because as long as the test subjects couldn't control the fear in their hearts, or their minds were affected by strong fear, the virus would infect their entire bodies in a very short time, causing mutation!
However, for Dr. Alex Wesker, what was truly terrifying was not these test subjects who could 'zombify' at any moment, but Homelander, who was standing behind, observing closely at this moment.
If she messed up today, then her head would probably be blown off by Homelander on the spot first.
Steadying herself, Dr. Alex Wesker ordered in a deep voice, "Prepare to upload consciousness, enable real-time shared transmission screen..."
As the command was given, the lids of dozens of medical pods slowly lowered, and then the consciousness and electrical signal transmission devices connected to the inmates' brains officially began to operate.
Homelander did not speak throughout the process, merely stood behind with his hands behind his back, quietly observing everything.
However, from a perspective undetectable by the naked eye, the purple rune symbolizing Slaanesh had already lit up on his forehead.
Also flashing with the Slaanesh rune were the medical pods that had just closed!
Soon, a picture suddenly appeared on the large screen in the center of the room, which had been completely black.
The scene in the picture was exactly the same as the room everyone was in now, the only difference being that there were no figures of the people present in the picture.
It was as if it were a unique mirror World of the physical World!
Soon, the doors of the dozens of medical pods in the picture opened, and then dozens of figures, identical in appearance, physique, and all other characteristics to the inmates who had just entered the medical pods, slowly walked out of the opened medical pods.
"WTF?!"
After seeing the situation before them, all the inmates were stunned.
"Huh? Why are we still in prison? Didn't those guys from Vought Corporation say they were going to upload our consciousness to some Metaverse?"
"Cut, you actually believed their nonsense? It's probably just a gimmick to fleece people..."
"I think so too. With current human technology, how could it be possible to separate human consciousness from the body?"
"Brothers, something seems a little off..."
At this moment, an inmate who had reacted, pointed to the empty space opposite, and said with a slightly trembling voice, "Those guys all seem to have disappeared. Do you think... could this already be that something called The Metaverse?"
"Huh?!"
Everyone was stunned upon hearing this, and one of the silent inmates looked at his body in confusion, "If this is really in The Metaverse, then I can only say that this modeling technology is way too awesome, right?"
"I can't even feel at all whether this body I have now is real or fake?"
In fact, it wasn't just him; from the complex expressions of surprise, confusion, and unease on the faces of the other inmates, it was not difficult to see that many of them were now having trouble distinguishing whether they were in the virtual World or the real World.
This undoubtedly proved the realism and powerful immersion of The Metaverse technology to the people outside the virtual World from a side perspective!
"Who cares, if we want to know if all this is real or fake, wouldn't we know by going out and seeing?"
As a White inmate spoke, the rest of the inmates walked out of the prison one after another. They passed through various checkpoints but never saw any prison guards.
They didn't even see the figures of other inmates.
Soon, these people successfully walked out of the prison gate, and looking at the familiar, empty street in front of them, one of them couldn't help but exclaim:
"WTF? What the hell, is this... is this really New York? Oh no, I mean, is this really New York in The Metaverse?!"
Clearly, no matter how powerful Homelander was, it would be impossible to turn a prison and the bustling New York into an empty 'ghost town' in such a short time.
Therefore, the best explanation at the moment was naturally... they were now already in The Metaverse!
"My God, I can't even tell if this is real or fake."
"Yeah, The Metaverse launched by Vought Corporation is too amazing, isn't it?"
"Wait a minute, so that means we're really going to spend our remaining sentences here?"
All the inmates' faces showed joy.
Compared to the cramped and boring cells, they naturally preferred the free and vast space they were in now.
And just as these inmates began to wander around, Homelander, outside The Metaverse, stood in front of the array of cameras and microphones, saying smugly:
"What everyone is seeing now is the most basic World view structure of The Metaverse. The scenes inside are exactly the same as reality, so the 'players' inside... that is, the inmates who are currently being tested, cannot detect the difference between virtual and reality at all. This is the powerful immersion of The Metaverse that I am most proud of!"
Next, Homelander said a lot of self-aggrandizing nonsense to the camera, and then nodded to The Wise Man behind him, "We can start the next phase of testing."
The Wise Man quickly entered a long string of activation codes on the computer, and then everyone saw on the large screen that countless humanoid figures suddenly appeared out of thin air on the previously empty streets of New York.
These figures, fixed in place, all began to move as if they had 'come alive' after The Wise Man pressed the 'Enter' key on the keyboard.
This scene not only shocked everyone present but also completely stunned the inmates inside The Metaverse.
"Wow, look, the NPCs have appeared..."
"Yeah, it must be that the guys 'outside' were afraid we'd get bored, so they specially put in some NPCs for us to pass the time."
"Do you think, if we kill these NPCs, will they respawn?"