Chapter 2374: Psychic Assault (38)

In a cafe on the street corner, a strange figure wearing a black hoodie, a hood, and leather gloves in the middle of summer was intently reading a newspaper.

Ultron was trying to figure out what was going on in this universe through the news.

After watching for a while, Ultron had a general understanding. Simply put, a company called Extremis Biological Technology Co., Ltd. appeared out of nowhere, claiming that they had manufactured a serum that could make humans strong, intelligent, and beautiful.

Of course, by hacking into the files of the FBI and S. H. I. E. L. D., Ultron learned that this serum was called Extremis Virus, and someone had already tried to put this stuff into the tap water in Los Angeles to achieve the goal of controlling the public, and this person was Tony Stark.

However, just as the FBI and S. H. I. E. L. D. always did, although this case couldn't be considered solved by them, they put a lot of effort into covering up the news and hiding it from the public.

The mutations that occurred in Los Angeles at night and the so-called Extremis app were explained as hype by some internet celebrities. They just went to the gym and had plastic surgery. To satisfy their vanity and gain attention, they deliberately spread news about the virus. Those so-called poisoning news reports were all fake.

Anyway, no matter what happened, they could find a seemingly reasonable excuse to cover it up. This could be considered the specialty of traditional media. But the bad thing was that suddenly one day, these internet celebrities who were accused of hype collectively stood up and said that they were actually just taking advertisements.

Then Extremis Biological Technology Co., Ltd. entered people's field of vision. They claimed that there was indeed such a serum, but it couldn't be considered a virus; at most, it was a micro-adjustment serum, a new development in plastic surgery technology, similar to those photon whitening and skin rejuvenation treatments, just manifested in the form of a serum.

These internet celebrities boldly posted photos of themselves before and after plastic surgery. Honestly, it couldn't be considered a proper micro-adjustment; it could only be said to be a complete transformation.

They generously stated that they were indeed hyping before, but since they took the money, they had to advertise as widely as possible, and expressed that they didn't hesitate to release their ugly photos from before, which was just being professional, and it also helped hype their persona.

This did indeed attract a lot of attention, because almost all traditional media had been emphasizing during that period that these people were just having plastic surgery, and their sudden strength and beauty were due to plastic surgery, not some virus.

Now that the internet celebrities really said they were beautiful because of plastic surgery, then surely the vast majority of people would be curious about where they had it done.

And many of the original fans of these internet celebrities deduced from the timeline that their recovery period for changing their heads was terrifyingly short. Some looked crooked and ugly the day before, and the next day they immediately became handsome and beautiful. When did plastic surgery technology develop to this point?

Then the internet celebrities took the opportunity to promote the brand-new micro-adjustment technology. They stated that the Extremis serum was actually similar in principle to those whitening injections and Botox injections. Simply put, it was to adjust the state of facial fat and muscles through chemical means to achieve a result that better met public aesthetics.

However, the advantage of this injection was that it didn't need to be injected in parts. One shot could adjust the state of all facial muscles and fat, making aging skin tighter, skin more tender, and more lustrous. It could be called the culmination of various injections.

However, some of them who were reviewing under the banner of real reviews also emphasized that, just like all injections, there was an absorption period. After the serum was fully absorbed, the effect would weaken, and then it would need to be re-injected. They also posted photos of themselves gradually weakening from their peak state.

Clicking into the comment sections of these big internet celebrities, one could find that the vast majority of people didn't care about absorption at all. To put it bluntly, most of those who were interested in such topics had the intention of having plastic surgery, or had already had it.

Basically, as long as one knew a little about the plastic surgery circle, one would know that there was no plastic surgery project in this world that could be done once and for all. No matter how expensive or advanced, it wouldn't work. Besides relying on daily maintenance, one also had to do projects regularly to maintain the peak state, so this group of people accepted well the fact that injections had a time limit.

Generally, those who could consider such plastic surgery projects at least had some family background. Compared to how long the injections could last and how much money was needed, they cared more about how effective it was.

Of course, the effect of the Extremis serum didn't need to be discussed. It didn't even turn everyone into the same internet celebrity face, but according to the direction of your muscles and bones, one shot would turn you into someone who had both your own characteristics and was dozens of times more beautiful.

Many people didn't believe it, but as more and more internet celebrities appeared on camera to indicate that they had indeed benefited from the new technology, the wind of Extremis serum began to blow vigorously on the internet.

Also by hacking into the computers of law enforcement agencies, Ultron learned that the law enforcement agencies knew that the so-called Extremis serum was the Extremis virus, but what else could they do? Tell people that this stuff was actually a virus, and the plastic surgery statement was actually just a lie they made up to cover up the fact of poisoning?

Come on, when Stark was originally prosecuted, all charges related to poisoning suspicion were withdrawn. The trial result was just placed there. Although it hadn't been executed because Stark was missing, flipping the testimony now, where would the prosecutor's office put its face?

At the beginning, the FBI and S. H. I. E. L. D. spent a lot of effort to persuade the prosecutor's office to withdraw these charges, and they also cut off a lot of meat, just to make the fact that it was not poisoning solid. The words had already been said, could they swallow them back?

Soon another round of hype was set off. Some internet celebrities claimed that this serum could make people have a strong physique, an extremely intelligent brain, and even make people's attributes in all aspects have a great improvement.

Then soon a group of people stood up and said they were exaggerating, this was just a hype means created by the Extremis company. A group of people began to hammer another group of people, and then another group of people hammered the people who hammered people. All kinds of black history and fake news filled the sky.

In the end, the Extremis company finally stood up to refute the rumors, stating that our serum did have beauty effects, but the so-called improvement of cardiopulmonary function, improvement of IQ, and so on were completely rumors. They hoped that users would not hold unrealistic expectations for this.

And they sued several bloggers who exaggerated the propaganda, and claimed that these people were actually mouthpieces bought by some traditional medical beauty industries to smear the Extremis serum.

And these bloggers, in order to prove that they were not falsely advertising, requested professional testing institutions to conduct tests. The Extremis company also indicated that it was willing to cooperate. Just like this, the test results became news that attracted worldwide attention, and major media were scrambling to report it.

The final test results made the vast majority of people breathe a sigh of relief. The Extremis serum indeed only had beauty effects. Although the performance in plastic surgery was amazing, there were no overly exaggerated effects. All the talk about improving physical attributes and improving IQ was rumors.

Human psychology is very strange; although they always crave getting something for nothing—wanting powerful muscles without exercise and to retain vast knowledge without study—if such a serum were to suddenly fall from the sky, their reaction would surely be, "There are always treacherous people plotting against me."

But if the effect of this serum was not so exaggerated, or only performed well in one aspect, people's trust in this serum would significantly increase. If there were some harmless defects, it would be easier to gain the public's trust.

Accompanied by several rounds of hype, the Extremis serum had almost been confirmed as a new achievement in plastic surgery, a product of technological development, and even brought up a trend. If you felt that this stuff was unsafe, it was not believing in science, it was anti-intellectualism.

In fact, before the hype, the sales of Extremis serum were already gratifying. Just the internet celebrity bloggers who wanted to buy it back for review were countless. And after experiencing so many rounds of games, even if they didn't buy it, they had heard of it, so naturally, there were many buyers.

Very good, now Ultron knew what was going on with Stark not paying reasonable commission after taking Schiller's plan. What was the difference between this and the Immortal Factor plan? They were both eager to write Schiller's name on the cover of the project proposal.

However, he really had to find a way to find some trouble for this Stark. Ultron thought, and the moment this thought appeared in his mind, he felt that he must have been infected by Schiller.

But this actually had a basis. Last time he pretended to be Infinite Ultron, in order to ensure safety, he left a backup of his consciousness in Schiller's tower, and all his consciousness backups could transmit data to each other. He had reason to suspect that his thinking was infected by a virus named greed.

But no matter how he thought about it, taking someone else's plan to make a fortune without paying a reasonable commission was too much, Ultron thought. He must give this Stark some color to see.

Ultron thought for a moment and came up with a way to break the situation.

First, he still used his superb hacking technology, or simply restored the essence of his electronic life, directly accessed the network of law enforcement departments through thinking, and found a top-secret document.

This document actually stated the destruction records of the Extremis virus samples found when they searched Stark's industrial park on the West Coast after arresting Stark.

But Ultron didn't need to think to know that this stuff definitely hadn't been destroyed, but was hidden somewhere. Since he couldn't find any clues in the FBI's system, Ultron knew that the final top-secret information should be saved offline on some secure computer.

Such secure computers were generally arranged in secret bases, guarded by special people, and were completely offline, just to prevent being stolen by hackers.

This method could stop hackers, but it couldn't stop Ultron. He soon began to search for every possible trace in the wide-area network and finally found a military underwater base on the edge of New Jersey.

The process of real-world intrusion also went very smoothly. After all, Ultron wasn't a real human hacker; he was a robot equipped with an optical stealth system, combined with the manipulation of satellite monitoring, it was very easy to touch behind the guards and knock them out.

In the base, Ultron successfully found the original Extremis virus samples. Note that the Extremis virus here was the initial version, which could not only change people's appearance but also make people stronger and smarter.

And, as expected, the military had manufactured many replicas. They had already begun to use this virus to build enhanced human soldiers in batches.

Ultron swept away all the original Extremis virus and a huge amount of replicas, and then poured all of them into the chemical containers of the current Extremis serum production factory. ===== CHAPTER 2375 =====