Internet Age

At dawn.

A streak of orange appeared on the horizon, heralding pleasant weather for the day.

Before long, the orange grew brighter and brighter until the dazzling sunlight suddenly burst forth, illuminating the cloudless azure sky and spilling over a modern city—

Seattle.

As the industrial center of the northwestern United States, Seattle held a leading position in aerospace, computer software, biotechnology, medical equipment, and other fields. In 1990, its GDP had reached $414 billion, accounting for 7% of the United States' total output that year.

From the ubiquitous apartments, office buildings, and neatly planned neighborhoods and streets to the various underground infrastructure systems for water, gas, and electricity, Seattle's urban development was beyond compare.

Bathed in warm sunlight, the mist lingering inside and outside the city gradually dispersed, while traffic began to surge along the main roads from the suburbs into downtown.

Among that traffic was a convoy of seven black SUVs.

Escorted by four motorcycle patrol officers riding large-displacement bikes, the convoy moved unimpeded through the increasingly crowded streets and soon passed Seattle's landmark, the Space Needle.

Only, the tower's emblem bore a striking red "Λ."

The use of patrol officers to clear the way, the "Λ" logos printed on the corners of the SUV windows, and the fact that they had entered the city via Highway 5 from Tacoma International Airport all indicated that this was Sui Yang's private convoy.

Its destination was Atlas Headquarters, another landmark building just two kilometers from the Space Needle and standing a full four hundred meters tall.

This was Atlas's birthplace. Moreover, Atlas had always maintained "harmonious" relations with Seattle's officials and political factions...

Rather, the other side had no choice but to act friendly. Atlas's generous, no-strings-attached investments in infrastructure had put Seattle among the very best in quality of life across the United States and even the world—calling it number one would not have been an exaggeration.

It stood in stark contrast to New York, home to Vought International's headquarters, which was equally prosperous economically but where people constantly worried whether they would be robbed when stepping outside.

At that moment, inside the second SUV of the convoy.

"Alright... I understand. I'll let him know." Arthur, seated in the passenger seat, spoke into his earpiece as if talking to himself.

Then, the foremost member of Hunter Company turned slightly and asked the rear seat from the corner of his eye, "Boss, Mayor Harleden Bruce requests an appointment at two in the afternoon on July 15. He says he wants to discuss something in detail. What do you think...?"

"What topic?" Sui Yang reclined in the back seat without looking up, his gaze never leaving the paperback in his hands, titled The Absorbent Mind.

The book had been written by Dr. Maria Montessori of Italy and mainly discussed ideas such as "what teachers do" and "the environment can change children."

Though he was nearly a hundred and fifty years old, his knowledge of child-rearing was merely average, and most of it had come from his parents before he crossed over.

So whenever he had free time, he read books like this to make sure there had been no mistakes in how he educated Sanguinius and Roboute.

Not long ago, after the plane landed, Sui Yang had arranged for a squad of Hunters to take the two Primarchs out for some free time. Whether they went shopping or visited the zoo depended on their own choice.

In truth, whenever he had time, Sui Yang accompanied them personally. They watched gunfight movies, action movies, and horror films together. During a business trip north late last year, he had even teamed up with them and the Hunters for a "spectacular" snowball fight.

To avoid unnecessary trouble and attention, whenever they appeared in public, Sanguinius wore a specially made backpack to conceal his snow-white wings.

Arthur, completely unaware of what Sui Yang was thinking, answered, "He said it concerns the Superhero Security Act, but he insists on discussing it in person."

?

Only then did Sui Yang raise his head and close the book he had been reading halfway through.

The Superhero Security Act...

With the assistance Compound V had provided during World War II, along with certain private dealings that would never be voluntarily revealed, Vought had successfully gotten the federal leadership to sign an act—the Superhero Security Act.

Once the act was announced, the superheroes promoted and packaged by Vought became law enforcement units akin to police officers, with authority that even surpassed the police.

In principle, every city and town had at least one superhero to assist local police in fighting crime.

However, every state under federal rule possessed a certain, or even considerable, degree of autonomy. Each state was practically its own "country."

Thus, the Superhero Security Act was unpopular in the western and southern United States. After all, for a local government to sign a contract with Vought International and bring in a superhero to maintain public order, the starting price was no less than forty million dollars, with no upper limit.

More importantly, once the contract expired, it had to be renewed. Vought would then raise its prices on the spot, citing "a clear downward trend in crime rates" and claiming that "our product is highly effective."

At that point, most mayors and governors, for the sake of their own futures, to avoid crime rates "rebounding," and because of certain shady dealings, could only grit their teeth and pay up, falling into a vicious cycle.

In contrast, in the "plainspoken" American South, there was no need to expose Compound V. The locals already regarded superheroes as clowns, and the people there placed greater faith in the weapons in their own hands.

As for western towns, their relatively good public safety and regional differences meant that Vought International's "product sales" progressed rather slowly.

But as an ambitious arms dealer seeking to bypass Congress, directly interfere with the military, and even control the political scene, Vought naturally would not give up so easily.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, it had increasingly deployed shape-shifting or invisible superhumans for infiltration.

The simplest, yet most successful method was to have those superhumans sneak into homes, secretly photograph officials' illicit affairs, then use threats and inducements to force those officials to approve the contracts.

At this stage, Vought was not yet truly rampant, nor had it ever attempted to target cities belonging to major arms dealers, such as Seattle, Chicago, or Bethesda.

But since Seattle's mayor had proactively brought up the Superhero Security Act and wanted to discuss it in person, Sui Yang knew that the day Vought publicly unveiled Homelander was drawing near.

After a brief silence.

Noticing through the window that the convoy was about to reach its destination, Sui Yang lifted a hand to straighten his collar and said, "I'm busy on the 15th. The 16th will work."

"Alright, I'll let him know right away."

Screech—

As soon as Arthur finished speaking, a jolt ran through the vehicle.

The convoy had already stopped before the main entrance of the headquarters building.

He opened the door and got out.

Escorted by Arthur and a group of Hunters dressed in black suits, Sui Yang walked into the lobby of the headquarters building.

As one of Atlas's public faces, the place was laid with marble tiles polished clean enough to serve as mirrors. Its decor was simple and classical, while the front section had a ceiling height of forty-four meters. Its artistic openwork design also connected several floors.

"Boss..." Arthur asked again, puzzled. "It's just a launch event for a new phone with a camera that supposedly can move around and connect to the internet. Was it really necessary for you to rush back from Ghana personally?"

"..." Sui Yang started to speak, then stopped.

Perhaps realizing that he could not explain to Arthur what the 3G Network and the internet era ushered in by Atlas truly meant, he casually came up with an excuse.

"I just wanted to join the excitement."

"Fair enough. There's nothing interesting over in Africa. Before we go back, I need to buy more cigars for backup. It feels awful if I don't have something to chew on." Arthur believed him.

Everyone, I made some changes to the plot in Chapter Two. The protagonist never had any stillborn offspring, because he was in a turbulent period during his early development and could not settle down. Nor did he have the time to have offspring.

By the time he realized he was Immortal, he had already built the estate. Therefore, he would try to avoid spending long periods with any particular female companion, lest his identity be exposed.

And the protagonist would definitely educate the Primarchs in the "correct" manner, so it would not affect the later reading experience.

As for what some readers previously said, such as "the protagonist's stillborn child was dragged into Warhammer 40,000," the author can only say that when the protagonist was having romantic affairs, he did not know whether the female companions he had been with had become pregnant, much less whether any offspring had been born and died young. All he knew was that by the time the twentieth century began, none of those companions had come to him demanding that he repay his "romantic debts."

In short, everyone, feel free to imagine whatever you like. Hahaha.

The revised content is as follows:

Immortality.

That's right. His appearance seemed to have been frozen at twenty-five.

It was not as if he had never had female companions. In fact, he had had many romantic affairs during his "cowboy days."

But once he gradually came to understand his unusual constitution, he directly chose not to marry, reducing the chance of exposure. As a result, he had no opportunity to have biological offspring.

Fortunately, none of this caused him much distress. After all, Sui Yang wanted to unravel the mystery and find out why he had crossed over to this world, as well as where the voice in his mind had come from.

As for those who knew the secret of his "immortality," at first there had only been Arthur Morgan, the orphans he had adopted, and their direct descendants. They were also the foundation of Atlas's mercenaries.

(End of Chapter)