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"Heh heh, I don't know if these people will re-spawn, but grabbing a girl for some fun is definitely more exciting than just standing here like an idiot…"
As he spoke, a Mo Ren prisoner rushed towards a short-haired blonde woman opposite him, then knocked her to the ground with two punches, and began to roughly tear at her clothes.
The other prisoners all adopted a stance of watching the show. If this Mo Ren's criminal act was not stopped or punished, then they would officially begin their revelry!
The real World outside the Metaverse.
Upon seeing the Mo Ren prisoner's evil deeds, a group of reporters asked Homelander:
"Mr. Homelander, does Vought Corporation have any means to regulate the evil deeds of these prisoners who enter the Metaverse?"
"Yes, if they are allowed to act recklessly in the Metaverse, then their judgment and punishment will become meaningless, and it will be more like rewarding them."
"That's right, in this way, not only will the crime rate not decrease, but it will continue to rise…"
Facing the public's questions, Homelander was not angry, but instead smiled and explained: "Everyone, please rest assured, Vought Corporation has already made corresponding disciplinary plans."
"For those who do not actively participate in reform, we impose strict imprisonment measures until they truly repent."
As he spoke, he nodded again in The Wise Man's direction, whose hands moved quickly on the keyboard, as a long string of code was entered.
The Mo Ren prisoner who was committing evil on the street in the Metaverse only felt the scene in front of him flash rapidly. The next moment, he had returned to the prison he was just in, and was locked in a dark isolation room.
"Let me out!!"
"Bastard, I've already left the real World, why am I still locked in prison?"
"I refuse, I refuse, let me out…"
However, even if he screamed until his throat was hoarse, no one in the empty prison responded to him at all.
And this scene, in the eyes of the news reporters outside the Metaverse, won everyone's applause.
"That's great!"
"Well done, bad guys like that should be locked up."
"You truly live up to your name, Homelander…"
Listening to everyone's praise, the smile on Homelander's face grew even wider.
Because this was the result he wanted.
And this scene, with the live broadcast of major news media, will spread throughout New York, and even the entire America, in a very short time.
In this way, the resistance Vought Corporation will face when vigorously promoting the Metaverse project will be much smaller.
However, Homelander's true purpose was naturally not the nonsense he said to the camera about reducing crime rates and so on.
Instead, he wants to build his own Slaanesh Cult.
That's right, these prisoners who enter the Metaverse, and the ordinary people who will continuously pour into it in the future, as long as they gain even a trace of pleasure and joy in the Metaverse, they will be regarded as slaanesh's believers, thereby contributing a force to Homelander.
And this so-called Metaverse is actually not the virtual space advertised to the public, but a genuine Subspace… a false image formed by slaanesh using the 'six rings' surrounding the exclusive palace, the Palace of Pleasure.
The so-called Six Rings refer to the six areas divided according to different functions in the Palace of Pleasure.
They surround slaanesh's Palace of Pleasure, arranged in concentric circles.
This includes: the Ring of Greed, the Ring of Gluttony, the Ring of Debauchery, the Ring of Domination, the Ring of Vanity, and the Ring of Sloth!
Each ring is a microcosm of the strongest desires.
People attracted there will regard it as a true Heaven!
Before this, Homelander had been troubled by his inability to quickly 'develop subordinates'.
Until he met Dr. Alex Wesker, whose T-Fear Virus could transform human consciousness into digitized electrical signals for transmission.
This undoubtedly solved Homelander's technical problem of needing to send people into Subspace to gather numbers in a grand and proper manner, in front of the entire World!
It was precisely for this reason that he agreed to cooperate with Dr. Alex Wesker.
Although Dr. Alex Wesker repeatedly emphasized to him that subjects of the T-Fear Virus would be affected by negative emotions and undergo uncontrollable mutations.
But how could Homelander, as Slaanesh's Chosen, care about such a small matter?
Just kidding, don't you see who's covering me?
You wouldn't think that people who enter S-Sis's territory would still feel fear, would you?
Please, I think you should worry more about whether you'll be pleasured to death!
...
The subsequent testing process went smoothly. After the Mo Ren prisoner was put in solitary confinement, the other criminals immediately became much more obedient.
Then The Wise Man used the Administrator's authority to introduce them to the laws they needed to follow in the Metaverse.
As long as they did not violate these rules, they could enjoy a free life in the Metaverse, no different from that in the real World.
And their true bodies would endure the rest of their sentences for them in medical pods!
This was a huge boon for those prisoners.
Tell me, if there was a choice, who would still commit crimes?
The only drawback was that currently, the 'map' in the Metaverse only had New York lit up.
So they were temporarily unable to go anywhere outside of New York.
...
With the official release of the Metaverse, Vought Corporation's stock price soared like a Rocket in a short period, continuously climbing.
Homelander also became immensely popular, with both his approval rating and public favorability greatly increasing.
Every day, many people wanted to consult him about the Metaverse, including officials from various states and cities.
Homelander said: This time, it's truly a win-win, it's simply too satisfying!
But where there is joy, there is also sorrow.
This time, the one who was troubled was none other than Gwen, whose true identity had been exposed by Stan Edgar's subordinates. Compared to Peter Parker, who was not very well-known, her house had been surrounded by a large crowd of onlookers for several days.
Among them were ordinary people holding portraits wanting her autograph, gang members speaking ill of her, but more often, news reporters from various TV stations.
There were even several helicopters in the air conducting a full-coverage, live broadcast of her home.
What else could Gwen do?
Of course, she hid under the covers like a 'coward'!
"Bang bang bang—"
At this moment, there was a sudden rapid knocking sound on Gwen's door, and then a rough voice from outside began to announce its presence.
"Open the door, we are federal Agents."
"Hmm? Why would federal Agents come to my house? Do street heroes fall under the FBI's jurisdiction now?"
Although Gwen was puzzled, she still changed her clothes and opened the door. She was met by a group of middle-aged men in uniforms, who looked at her warily. Some of them, due to excessive tension, subconsciously reached for the pistols on their waists.
"Gwen Stacy, you are officially wanted for involvement in multiple homicide cases. We currently have an arrest warrant for you, and we hope you will cooperate with us and return to the station for investigation!"
The bearded man leading the team showed Gwen his FBI ID, and then showed her an arrest warrant.
However, the latter remained unmoved and immediately retorted without backing down: "Do you know the Fourth Amendment?"
"Of course."
"Then you should understand that this is an unreasonable detention!"
"Sorry, Ms. Stacy, if you want to explain, please come back to the station with us to explain…"
The bearded man leading the team said with a bad tone, "But if you want to resist, our orders are to shoot you on sight if you resist arrest!"
Seeing this, Gwen could only obediently follow them out of her home.
The journey was silent.
As Gwen was being taken to the FBI interrogation room, she unexpectedly ran into Peter Parker.
"Peter has nothing to do with these matters…"
But before she could finish speaking, she was forcefully interrupted by the Agent opposite, "We now have enough evidence to prove your direct involvement in several heinous murder incidents."
"We are all very curious, has killing become commonplace in Spider-Woman's illegal vigilante activities?"
The interrogation of Gwen and Peter Parker did not last long before they were bailed out by the luxurious legal teams sent by Vought Corporation and Osborn Group.
No wonder, America is a 'rule of law' society!
As long as there is money, no matter what kind of criminal can enjoy their rightful legal rights!
"Gwen, what should we do next?"
On the way to Osborn Group, Peter Parker asked cautiously.
Compared to the series of troubles he had caused by his identity and address being exposed, he was actually more concerned about his goddess's mood.
No wonder, he was just such a good person!
"I don't know either."
Gwen shook her head blankly, looked at the brightly lit streets outside the car window, and said lightly: "Or we don't have to do anything, just quietly wait for this wave of popularity to pass, and everything will return to peace?"
"What if… it never passes?" Peter Parker asked worriedly.
"Then it doesn't matter." Gwen turned to look at her friend, and said with extremely firm eyes: "Anyway, for me now, there's nothing left to lose!"
That's right.
Ever since her father died, there was nothing that could hold Gwen back.
Because she had lost the most precious fatherly love.
Even if the situation gets worse, even if more old enemies come knocking, what can it do to her?
At most, it's a fight to the death, right?
Who's afraid of whom!
"Gwen, did you submit your graduate application?" After a brief silence, Peter Parker seemed to feel that the previous topic was too heavy, so he changed the subject and said:
"I want to apply to MIT… um, do you want to come with me?"
"I think, maybe, we two will be admitted at the same time… Oh, plus Harry, he said he wants to come with us too."
However, Gwen was clearly not as optimistic as Peter Parker. She turned her head to look out the car window again, and said casually:
"Peter, although I really want to apply there, I'm afraid that given our current situation, no school would dare to accept us, right?"
"Besides… if we want to go to graduate school, we probably have to get scholarships, otherwise we simply can't afford such expensive tuition fees!"
"Uh…" Peter Parker scratched his head awkwardly. He really hadn't thought about scholarships before, because in his mind, getting a scholarship was a no-brainer, wasn't it?
So he quickly comforted her: "Don't worry, your academic performance is so good, and the school teachers speak highly of you. I'm sure getting a scholarship won't be difficult at all."
"Perhaps." Gwen didn't seem to care much about this, because if she wanted to, Vought Corporation could completely pay for her entire graduate and even doctoral studies, including all tuition and living expenses.
But she didn't want to do that.
Even joining The Seven was merely to better deal with S.H.I.E.L.D. and avoid being isolated and helpless.
"Peter."
Gwen suddenly said softly, "I want to ask you a question… After your identity was exposed, did you feel even a trace of relief?"
"This…"
Peter Parker was first stunned, clearly not expecting Gwen to ask such a question, but he thought carefully and honestly replied:
"Ever since I injected the Lizard Serum, I felt like my normal life had ended. Even though I still went to school and worked odd jobs every day for a long time, my mindset could no longer return to what it was before. I was constantly afraid that others would find out my true identity and mock me as a lizard monster…"
"But after my identity was exposed, when I learned that the matter was irreversible, my mood was no longer as heavy as before. That feeling was like a release… It's even not an exaggeration to describe it as a new lease on life!"
"Yes."
Gwen deeply empathized with this, just as Peter Parker had just said, before this, her biggest fear was her true identity being exposed.
But when it was truly exposed, she became less worried than before.
However, their lives have indeed become a mess because of this…
...
S.H.I.E.L.D..
"Director Fury, Spider-Woman has just been bailed out by Vought Corporation. Should we send someone to find a reason to re-arrest her?"
Maria Hill walked into Nick Fury's office and asked softly.