Awareness

"New York’s best Super Hero is Iron Man, Mr. Bert Wang."

William was somewhat helpless at John’s swelling ego. He said, "John, don’t rush. This is only the beginning. You have to give me some time to work things out."

"One day, I’ll surpass Bert Wang. And that Angel? He’s just some rich kid. What’s so great about him?"

John said sourly. Warren not only had a perfect appearance, but also came from a wealthy family. To be honest, the more John thought about it, the more jealous and dissatisfied he became. Shouldn’t a guy like you stay home and enjoy yourself? Why come out and steal my popularity?

"I believe that day will come. John, what you need now is patience."

William persuaded him. If John worked hard enough, he might really surpass Angel Warren. As for Bert Wang… sorry, that was simply impossible. His fame, popularity, and social standing were far beyond anything John could compare to.

John pressed, "William, how long exactly do I have to wait?"

William said, "If the upcoming negotiations go smoothly, you’ll soon become a Super Police."

John’s eyes lit up. He hurriedly asked, "What negotiations?"

"Negotiations with several Fire Companies."

William said, "With you around, there’s no need for those Firefighters. I’m trying to persuade the Fire Companies to hand all firefighting duties over to you.

"Once this succeeds, we’ll not only make a great deal of money, but also gain the full support of those Fire Companies. When that happens, becoming a Super Police will be easy for you."

"With me around, there’s no need for those trash Firefighters."

John said smugly, "William, you have to make this work. Even if the price is a little lower, it doesn’t matter. Once I become a Super Police, we’ll definitely make even more money."

William was somewhat displeased by John’s tone, but naturally, he did not say so. He said, "I’ll do everything I can to make this happen. I need to get back to work now. Oh, and have your fun, but don’t take off your watch. The moment there’s a fire alarm, you must head out immediately."

John said, "Don’t worry. With a helicopter, I can get anywhere quickly if there’s a fire. How could a fire truck compare with a helicopter?"

"That’s good. It’s a pity Psylocke’s Green Goblin Glider isn’t for sale. Otherwise, I’d sell everything I own to buy you one."

William nodded and turned to leave. Feeling a little bored, John had his assistant arrange a meeting with a beautiful female fan. He wanted to have an in-depth exchange with her. As a celebrity, he could not be too aloof. He had to be approachable.

Learning to be good was difficult, but learning to be bad was truly all too easy.

Human Torch John had no idea that some people had been watching him all along. They were very pleased to see him fall.

Thanks to Wang Bert’s efforts, the mutants’ situation had been steadily improving. They had to interrupt that momentum, and Human Torch John was a very useful pawn.

"Inform those Fire Companies. Agree to William’s demands, lay off all the Firefighters, then have unions organize demonstrations and marches by the Firefighters against mutants."

"No problem. I’ll handle it. It’s a small matter."

"I’ll have my TV station and newspapers prepare to attack the mutants."

"Mutants should not exist in this world. Long live humanity."

"Long live humanity."

Half a month later, at the Universe Recycling Plant, more and more mutant prisoners were being sent in, and the dormitories were gradually becoming insufficient. The mutant prisoners could only squeeze several people into one room.

Other than that, everything else was fine. The prisoners could move freely within designated areas, and could even make calls and access the internet. Basically, other than being unable to leave the area, they were no different from other workers.

Even so, many prisoners still wanted to escape. Wade and the others never lacked entertainment.

Today, the repeat offender Fire Fist tried to escape again. Wade personally hung him from the flagpole and complained, "You really are a genius. You actually tried to dig a tunnel to escape. Do you think we’re blind?"

"I’ll definitely escape from here! You can’t stop me!"

Fire Fist roared. Wade asked, "So you can get out and burn those bastard Priests who bullied mutants to death?"

Fire Fist froze. "How do you know about those Priests?"

"You were so obsessed with it that I couldn’t help investigating. Honestly, if I were the old me, I’d have directly helped you burn those bastards to death."

Wade said, "Unfortunately, I’m different now. It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to do it myself. Otherwise, not only would I get into trouble, BOSS might get dragged down by me too."

At first, Wade had not wanted to become security Director, but now he had fallen in love with this stable job. Being a mercenary was exciting and fun, but life was uncertain and the pressure was enormous. That was why mercenaries could never hold onto their money.

Besides, only a stable job could support a complete family—Wade and his wife had already begun preparing to have a child.

As Fire Fist struggled, he shouted, "After all that, it’s still nonsense! Let me out. After I burn those guys to death, I’ll come back and turn myself in."

"That won’t do. If you do that, you’ll drag BOSS down."

Wade said, "Actually, I have a better way."

"With your IQ, what kind of plan could you possibly come up with? Ow!"

Fire Fist looked disdainful. Wade irritably smacked him. For some reason, he really got along with this brat. If it had been any other prisoner trying to escape every day, Wade would have buried them long ago.

"If you burn those Priests to death, no one will ever know their crimes. They’ll be buried in the ground with honor."

Wade said, "We should expose their crimes to the public and throw them in prison. That way, they’ll be utterly disgraced and suffer a fate worse than death."

Fire Fist roared, "Those cops didn’t believe a word I said! They even reported me to the Priests. That time, they almost beat me to death."

Wade said smugly, "Just because you can’t do it doesn’t mean others can’t. Psylocke and I are close. I’ll ask her for help. With a single word from her, those Priests will become rats crossing the street."

Fire Fist looked suspicious. "A loser like you knows Psylocke? Ow!"

Wade smacked Fire Fist on the head again. This damned kid was so annoying. Sure enough, daughters were better.

Wade muttered to himself, "Should I ask BOSS to help me have a daughter?"

Fire Fist stared at Wade in disbelief. "You’re actually going to give your wife to Bert Wang? You’re such scum!"

Wade flew into a rage. "Get lost! Do you think I’m that kind of person?"

"Obviously."

Fire Fist said. Wade was speechless. He jumped down from the flagpole and said, "Three days again this time. Also, I’ll have Storm come over and summon thunder and rain. Try not to get struck."

Fire Fist was horrified and hurriedly shouted, "Are you a demon?"

"You only figured that out now?"

Wade sneered. At that moment, a small motorcycle arrived outside. A young deliveryman holding a stack of pizzas shouted, "Who ordered pizza?"

"Did anyone order pizza?"

Wade looked around at the guards. They all shook their heads. They had a cafeteria, so there was no need to order pizza.

Just then, Doppelganger walked out of the dormitory and called, "I did."

As he spoke, Doppelganger walked outside, handed the pizza money to the deliveryman, and gave him an extra one hundred dollars as a tip.

"Thank you, sir."

The deliveryman was overjoyed. Customers this generous were rare. Normally, customers only tipped around ten dollars.

In America, delivery workers’ income consisted of wages and tips. If you did not tip, be careful they might spit in your pizza.

"You’re welcome. Keep up this speed next time."

Doppelganger nodded and carried the pizzas back. Wade said unhappily, "You’re pretty rich, huh? Not only are you eating pizza, you’re tipping that much too."

"Can’t be helped. I make a lot of money."

Doppelganger said arrogantly, "All your salaries combined don’t add up to mine."

The guards were furious, but they could not refute him, because he really did earn more than they did. It could not be helped—this guy had hundreds of duplicates, which was equivalent to working hundreds of jobs at once. Who could compete with that?

Doppelganger was also the only prisoner with a private room.

Doppelganger suddenly laughed. "Just kidding. Don’t be so angry. These pizzas are for you."

"That’s more like it."

The guards’ expressions eased somewhat as they stepped forward to take the pizzas. Wade said, "Hey, buddy, you already have enough privileges. You can’t get any more. If you do, BOSS will come after me."

Doppelganger said, "I’m not asking for privileges. I’ll be released soon, so I wanted to treat you all."

"You’ll be released soon?"

Not only were the guards stunned, even the prisoners stared over in disbelief. He had only been locked up for a little over a month. How was he already about to be released? Wade reminded him, "Doppelganger, without BOSS’s approval, no one is allowed to leave prison."

"BOSS will definitely approve it."

Doppelganger said proudly, "BOSS locked us up to prevent us from committing crimes again.

"The thing is, I can no longer possibly commit crimes. BOSS will definitely let me go, and he’ll even use me as an example in his publicity."

One guard asked, "Why won’t you commit crimes again?"

Doppelganger picked his nose and said arrogantly, "I make hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. Why would I have any reason to commit crimes?"

Everyone fell silent. That actually made a damn lot of sense. Making hundreds of thousands of dollars a month, he would not even have enough time to enjoy himself. Why would he have time for crime?

Wade asked, "Then why did you commit crimes before?"

"Before BOSS showed up, ordinary people were full of discrimination against mutants. I couldn’t even get a job, so all I could do was rob banks."

Doppelganger sighed. "Things are different now. With BOSS around, I’m not afraid of not finding work. In fact, BOSS is even willing to invest in me. Labor in America will only get more and more expensive. My duplication ability has a very profitable future."

Doppelganger added, "The old society turned mutants into prisoners. BOSS turns prisoners back into normal people."

Everyone nodded. There truly was no problem with letting someone like Doppelganger out. Still, why did it feel so irritating?

"I really want to beat you up."

Wade walked up to Doppelganger, looking displeased. Then his tone changed as he asked, "Does your future company still need funding? I can invest some."

"Pfft!"

All the guards booed Wade in unison. Even Fire Fist on the flagpole joined in. This guy was truly shameless.

"Sure. Once I’m out, we can discuss it properly."

Doppelganger laughed. Seeing his smug expression, the prisoners felt a mixture of envy, jealousy, and hatred.

At that moment, a prisoner with especially large eyes walked out and asked, "Doing something meritorious can reduce your sentence, right?"

"No. The key is whether you won’t commit crimes again in the future. Only if you meet that condition will BOSS let us leave. In fact, countless mutants want to join the Universe Recycling Company. BOSS doesn’t care about prisoners like us at all."

Doppelganger looked at the big-eyed prisoner and said, "Of course, if you do something meritorious, Wade and the others will definitely make things easier for you. After spending so much time together, you should know what Wade and the others are like."

"I don’t know what he’s like. I only know everyone here wants to beat him up. He nags more than my mom."

The big-eyed prisoner thought for a moment and said, "In that case, I want to apply to join the Security Team. Then you won’t have to worry about me committing crimes again."

The prisoners were stunned. "That works?"

Wade said, "You can’t join the Security Team just because you want to."

"My ability is very useful to you, and I’ll do something meritorious."

The big-eyed prisoner walked to Wade’s side and lowered his voice. "My ability is clairvoyance. There have been two groups of people watching this Recycling Plant from outside. They clearly mean no good."

"Really?"

Wade instinctively wanted to turn and look, but forcibly stopped himself to avoid alerting the enemy. He said, "Your ability really is useful. How about this? Help us deal with those two groups. Afterward, I’ll personally submit your application to BOSS."

The big-eyed prisoner said happily, "No problem. My crime was minor. BOSS will definitely approve it."

Wade asked curiously, "By the way, what crime did you commit? Your superpower doesn’t seem harmful."

The big-eyed prisoner said awkwardly, "I peeped on the governor’s daughter while she was bathing. Later, the governor found out and used his connections to throw me in prison."

"A true talent. Stay away from my house in the future, thanks."

Wade gave him a thumbs-up, then found Juggernaut and told him about the situation.

Juggernaut said excitedly, "I’ll crush them."

"Try to capture them alive. I want to know who’s behind them."

Wade said, "According to Clairvoyant, there’s only one person on the left hill, but one of his arms is made of metal, so he should be a mutant. He also has quite a few weapons on him.

"There are more than ten people on the right hill. They’ve been wearing Cloaks the whole time and look very strange. Which side do you want?"

"Give me the side with more people."

Juggernaut said, "It’s more fun when there are more people to fight."

Wade nodded. "Fine. Then I’ll go meet the metal bastard on the left hill. Juggernaut, be careful. Don’t scare them off."

Juggernaut said, "Don’t worry. I’m reckless, not stupid."

"So you know you’re reckless."

Wade complained. Juggernaut gave him the middle finger and secretly set out through the Backdoor with several guards.

"He really isn’t stupid."

Wade shook his head. He and Vomiting Boy pretended to return to New York, then turned midway toward the left hill.

On the left hill, a mysterious man with a metal left arm and a red-glowing left eye stared at the data on his laptop, his brows tightly furrowed.

The mysterious man had not acted because he could not deal with the teleportation Wang Bert had left behind. He did not want to complete his objective only to be trapped inside afterward. That would be terrible.

"Damn it, where did that Bert Wang come from? Why are his abilities so strange?"

The mysterious man could not help cursing. Just then, an alarm sounded from the computer. Someone was approaching the hill.

The mysterious man immediately assembled the sniper rifle from his bag. Then he moved to his chosen sniping position and examined the target through the sniper scope.

"That chatty security Director? Damn it, from so far away, how did they discover me?"

The mysterious man cursed inwardly. Then an idea struck him. Perhaps this was an opportunity—capture Wade and trade him for Fire Fist.