In a café on a street corner, a strange figure in a black hoodie, hood pulled up, and leather gloves despite the summer heat sat studying a newspaper intently.
Ultron was trying to figure out what exactly was going on in this universe through the news.
After reading for a while, Ultron gained a rough understanding. Put simply, a company called Extremis Biotechnology Company had appeared out of nowhere, claiming to have created a drug that could make people stronger, smarter, and more beautiful.
Of course, after hacking into the records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and S.H.I.E.L.D., Ultron learned that this drug was called the Extremis Virus. Someone had once attempted to dump it into Los Angeles's water supply to control the public, and that person was Tony Stark.
But, as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and S.H.I.E.L.D. always did, while they could not exactly claim to have solved the case, they had put tremendous effort into suppressing the news and keeping the public in the dark.
Certain mutations that had occurred in Los Angeles, along with the so-called Extremis App, were explained away as publicity stunts by influencers. They had merely worked out and undergone cosmetic surgery. To satisfy their vanity and draw attention, they had deliberately spread rumors about a virus. The supposed poisoning reports were all fake.
No matter what happened, they could always find a seemingly reasonable excuse to cover it up. That was traditional media's specialty. But then, one day, all the influencers accused of staging publicity stunts came forward together and said they had merely accepted sponsorships.
That was when Extremis Biotechnology Company entered the public eye. They claimed that such a drug did exist, but it was not a virus. At most, it was a fine-tuning agent, a new development in