November 11th, Monday, second-floor double dormitory.
Ring-ring— Amidst the alarm, Wade woke up from bed, picked up his tablet, and floated into the bathroom.
"Damn it, two months have just drifted by. Let me check the daily news about Vought first." While brushing his teeth, he watched the tablet floating in front of him, scrolling automatically.
On the screen, Vought International had released a second emergency announcement, denying the recent scandals entirely and stating that they would pursue legal action against any behavior that infringed upon the company's property and reputation.
The second hot topic was that Mother and Standard had turned themselves in, unanimously confessing that the underground church experiments were entirely orchestrated by them; Homelander and Starlight had become righteous figures who bravely exposed the dark secrets and sacrificed their own for the greater good.
Mother and Standard were currently being held in joint custody by the FBI and Vought Corporation, facing hundreds of charges including illegal drug production, illegal human experimentation, violent coercion of Vought Corporation employees, mental manipulation of clergy to assist in experiments, illegal imprisonment, and the abuse of women and children...
'As expected, they really made those two the scapegoats.' Wade spat into the sink, looking depressed. 'The three elements of bullshit news: besides timeliness, it's neither objective nor accurate... In front of capital, it's just a ball that can be molded and crushed by anyone.'
The only consolation was that Hughie had linked and organized all of Mother and Standard's related activities with the business conducted by the Gospel Lutheran Church and blasted it all over the internet. With the detailed audio, video, and documentary evidence, there was no chance of them ever getting off the hook.
It was expected that the two would be abandoned by both Vought and the local church; they would rot in prison for the rest of their lives and could die accidentally at any moment.
Wade stood in front of the wardrobe, dressing himself in high spirits: 'Vought will definitely make them shut up forever, but before that, they're in for a real treat...'
He had only crippled Mother and Standard previously to let them enjoy the full package: total disgrace, astronomical compensation, rounds of interrogation and court trials, and rotting in jail for the rest of their lives.
For those aloof superhero idols who act high and mighty all day, death is the only relief, and he wouldn't let them have it that easy.
"Up so early to work out?" Jade rubbed her eyes from the opposite bed, asking in a daze.
"No, I'm going off-campus with my group to participate in that so-called 'X-Files' investigation." Wade picked up his backpack and flew toward the door. "I'm off!"
Jade immediately threw off her blanket, pressed her hands together, and begged, "I heard you can earn campus ranking points! Take me with you, buddy, I'm still outside the top two hundred."
Wade opened the door and said meaningfully, "Sure, our group only has sophomore Senior Cate and Jill. Come on."
"Shit! Those two plagues are both there? I can't handle that." Upon hearing this, Jade immediately covered herself with the blanket and waved her hands hurriedly. "Don't let the door hit you on the way out."
Wade held back his laughter. Ever since he paid Jade to anonymously deliver a letter last month, this kid had been terrified of Cate, fearing trouble... Add in Jill, his cousin who was never polite to him, and it was unbearable; it would be a miracle if he agreed.
"Don't blame me then." He spread his hands helplessly and closed the door.
From behind the door came Jade's teasing voice: "Good brother-in-law, keep it up! I'm waiting for you to make it big and pull me up with you."
At the school gate, the crowd was sparse. Jill stood by the walkway, holding two bulging brown paper bags, waving constantly at the sky: "Here, I'm here!"
Wade stopped in the air and pulled her up into the sky: "Let's go."
Jill opened the paper bags and dumped out all the piping hot steamed buns: "What's the rush? Cate hasn't even arrived yet!"
Wade activated a barrier, sucked the large meat buns floating in the air into his mouth, and mumbled, "She stayed up all night playing games yesterday and couldn't get up, so she told us to go ourselves."
"Alright then, fly a bit slower." Jill's eyes lit up when she heard this, and she fished a black folder out of her bag. "These are the file photocopies I just picked up from the office. We can read them on the way."
Beneath the high clouds, Wade leaned in next to her and quickly browsed the files: "Frequent unexplained deaths at the Veterans Home? What's there to investigate? Most veterans have post-war PTSD..."
"No!" Jill handed over the paper cup in her hand and interrupted, "The key is that there are no witnesses, no suspects, no clues whatsoever, and the causes of death are bizarre."
Wade took two sips of hot milk and silently complained: "If I wanted to, I have plenty of ways to do it, and you're about the same... There are plenty of people in our school who could do this."
Most students who could get into Godolkin University were either rich or powerful; either their parents were Supes, they were wealthy, or they were specially sponsored and cultivated by investors. The most ordinary ones were like him, who entered through assessments from containment and research institutions.
Most people had been socially conditioned from a young age and thought normally, mostly aiming to become superhero idols; very few would commit crimes and ruin their own futures. There were those who did illegal things on a whim, but they either ended up expelled or mysteriously disappeared.
He guessed that those who committed crimes were likely dealt with privately by Vought, and The Woods laboratory was one of the secret detention locations.
'Why would Vought arrange for the FBI to enter their own university and cooperate in investigating their own secrets?' Wade closed the folder, feeling baffled. 'Did Vought make a compromise with high-level government officials?'
Beside him, Jill chewed her food while pointing at the files: "Think about it, if those veterans didn't commit suicide due to mental issues, then someone is using superpowers to commit crimes. Couldn't we fight criminals then?"
Wade handed the hot milk back: "Fine, I'll let you steal the spotlight then, satisfied?"
He didn't need any campus ranking points or influence; he would rather pin it all on his accompanying teammates. Being an invisible sidekick was the safest.
Jill beamed and hugged his arm: "Yay! A couple of days ago, Cate and I fought drug dealers, and yesterday the news media was commending us. Our campus ranking went up by five or six places."
Wade munched on a croissant, lost in thought. He knew this was Vought's way of salvaging the company's reputation and creating a positive image for their Supes.
Everything has two sides. Vought's scheme was obvious, but they were actually doing good deeds. He couldn't just go and stir up trouble specifically to attack Vought.
He followed Vought-related news every day and found that Homelander, as the strongest Tier 4 Supe, topped the list in terms of the number and records of killing vicious criminal Supes.
Excluding the parts that were staged by Vought Corporation, relying on Homelander's illustrious reputation and bloody combat record was the only way to completely suppress those unruly and defiant Supes; he still had his purpose for existing.
Vought played this hand of fostering enemies to gain self-importance to perfection. Until someone could replace Homelander or he himself reached Tier 4, he really couldn't do anything about them. Those bigwigs in Congress must also be very wary of this, otherwise, they wouldn't be cooperating to hide most of the dirt on Vought even while possessing so much of it.
'Sigh... the road is long and arduous.' Wade closed the phone navigation, stopped in mid-air, and descended toward the building area below: "Jill, hurry up and wipe that grease off your mouth, we're almost there."
Jill quickly put away the floating files and trash, and pouted her greasy lips: "You wipe it for me."
Wade smiled without a word, reached out, and wiped across, shattering a large area of frosty grease stains.
Jill bit his arm in exasperation, muffled: "Ugh... seriously! Why didn't you use your mouth?"
"My lady, maybe take a look again." Wade pointed at the crowd below who were all looking up and taking pictures.
Jill immediately let go and hurriedly used the folder to cover her face: "Hmph, you should've said so earlier!"
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