A group of people excitedly discussed the wedding details for an entire afternoon in a mansion nestled in the mountains, finalizing most of the arrangements. They would then spend roughly a month renovating before starting rehearsals.
Rehearsing for a collective wedding was unavoidable due to the numerous details that needed polishing. Even one rehearsal wouldn't be enough; it would take at least a dozen back-and-forth runs to ensure a perfect wedding presentation.
By the time the discussion ended, it was already late, and everyone decided to stay the night in the mansion. The house wasn't built on-site but rather was a luxury home Stark's transportation robots had moved from Los Angeles. It came fully equipped with all facilities and plenty of supplies for daily life.
The mansion was built upon a mountainside, high enough to overlook the forest and sea. Shiller hadn't forgotten about his blogging life and filmed a beautiful sunset with the mountain at his back and the sea in front on the mansion's balcony.
Immediately, sharp-eyed fans realized that this looked like Stark's Los Angeles mansion, yet the geographical location seemed off. Knowing that Stark planned to hold his wedding on a small island, they speculated whether Stark had just moved the house there.
All Shiller could say was that the netizens understood Tony Stark all too well. He was surprised to see the original Los Angeles house sitting on the small island, while the netizens seemed utterly unsurprised, thinking something like, "I just knew Stark would do something like this."
Fans were commenting on the video of the scenery, requesting more of the superheroes' daily lives—it was an offer too good to refuse.
Shiller wasn't on Eddie's level, where two expressions could be cut into a dozen shots with all sorts of speculative chains of reasoning for cause and effect. He wasn't made for editing, so he just started recording with his phone.
He first took his phone back to the mansion's hall, where people had dispersed. Carter was vomiting in the kitchen again, with Steve beside her, watching.
Holding up his phone, Shiller approached and Steve, noticing the filming, raised his eyebrows and said, "Sorry, but I'm not in the mood to show my Shield and signature moves right now; Sasha is feeling terrible."
"Didn't she take the placebo the Doctor prescribed?"
"She did, but it didn't help," Steve sighed. "We went to the doctor Steven recommended this morning; it was his first time encountering such a condition, so he could only suggest we see a psychiatrist."
"I'm sorry I couldn't help."
"Don't be sorry… your hypnosis at least gave me a good night's sleep… ugh…" Carter simultaneously apologized and vomited.
"Okay, I'll leave you two alone."
Shiller, still filming, moved through the hall and spotted Stark and Pepper standing at the bottom of the staircase, apparently talking about something.
Walking over, Shiller was immediately noticed by Stark filming, so he waved him away. But Shiller insisted, moving closer with his phone and asking Stark, "Isn't this Mr. Iron Man? Would you like to say hello to my fans?"
Stark gave a look of disdain, then said, "Your fans aren't even half as many as mine…"
"Really? You have ten million followers on TikTok?"
"Ten million?!!" Stark exclaimed. "Weren't you just verified? You've got ten million followers in one day?!"
"Isn't that what happens when your Butler is a mega influencer with forty million followers? How many do you have on TikTok? Over twenty million?"
"I have a hundred million on Facebook!"
"Facebook? Are you a caveman?"
Stark was about to burst with irritation and before he could verbally attack certain short video apps, Pepper pulled him aside, smiled gracefully at the camera, and said, "Tony hasn't really settled into TikTok yet. We don't know how many followers he has there, but if it's a lot, we might consider it."
Afterward, she playfully winked. Shiller turned the camera back to Stark, who had finally managed to compose his expression, and after coughing twice, said, "Well, if my fans are eagerly anticipating, then of course I also…"
"Wait." Shiller interrupted. "What do you mean he hasn't really joined?"
Stark got irritated at the mention. "That damn app actually let an imposter get verified! Even after I reported it and had the verification canceled, there are still a bunch of idiots who think he's the real deal!"
Shiller was startled; he checked his own follow list and indeed there was an Iron Man with over two million fans; he had thought that was Stark.
Showing his phone to Stark, he asked, "So this isn't you?"
"How are you following this imposter, too?!" Stark exclaimed, almost jumping with frustration.
"This isn't me! It's some damn Filipino! He's taken some videos of my Mecha that anyone can find online and is posting them as exclusive content to impersonate me. I've been suing him for months, but he's still updating!"
Shiller suddenly felt guilty because he hadn't realized it was fake either, and judging by the flamboyant display of Mecha videos on his homepage, this person had obviously studied psychology thoroughly; it was just the type of content Stark would post.
"Alright, Tony, calm down," Pepper gently soothed. "The lawsuit will be settled soon, but I think you should also get a verified account, don't you?"
"But this damn app doesn't differentiate between real and fake! I asked them to ban the account, but they won't even do it! I refuse to…"
Again, Pepper tugged at him and said, "The fans are innocent; they're just eager to see your new Mecha, which is why they follow the imposter…"
"What new Mecha? That's all outdated equipment from three years ago! My latest series of Mechas are made of Melted Steel Vibranium Alloy…"
"Has your 'Rebel' experiment been successful?"
"What Rebel? It's the 'Execution of Justice'!"
"You really went with that name, careful or Loki might strike you down with Mjölnir."
"He wouldn't dare, this is lightning-proof." Stark said proudly, "You all don't understand what this Mecha means, it might be the limit of what metal in the cosmos can achieve, even the Three Great Empires might not have this technology..."
Stark rattled off a lot of technical jargon, and after that, Shiller turned the camera back to Pepper, who shook her head helplessly and said, "Alright, I'll persuade him to not be so neurotic, hopefully, everyone can give him some time, he should be setting up an account soon."
"So let's welcome Iron Man then."
Shiller went upstairs where he knocked on the door of the first guest room, which was opened by Erica, who was dressed in pajamas and her hair was still dripping wet from a shower.
"Am I disturbing you?" asked Shiller.
"Of course not, Matt's working. He's taken on a pretty tricky case recently, do you want to come in?"
"No, it's fine, send him my regards, by the way, do you guys have an account?"
"Matt has his own, he's currently answering some legal questions online, a lot of people like him, especially after they find out he's blind."
"He really is admirable, but so are you, ma'am."
"I'm not that into being in front of the camera, and more importantly, I'm now working on some diplomatic matters with Steve, and that really isn't suitable for filming."
Shiller actually didn't know what Erica was up to, but he knew she couldn't just be a full-time housewife. Erica's mention of it reminded him that she was actually the daughter of a diplomat, having been exposed to it from a young age, and now she seemed to have returned to her roots.
"Well then, good night, ma'am."
"Wait, are you making a video?"
"Yes, my fans said they wanted to see the daily lives of superheroes, so I'm filming it for them."
"You're lucky to have fans like yours, but when you go next door later, knock softly, Wanda must have just put little Morgan to sleep."
"Thanks for the heads-up, good night."
Shiller walked to another door and didn't knock, but simply coughed softly twice, knowing Jarvis would hear.
What he didn't expect was for Wanda to come to the door, holding a phone engaged in a video call. Shiller glimpsed green hair flashing across the video, knowing it must be Polaris.
This was peculiar; the sisters rarely got along, capable of not calling each other even while living in separate star systems—why suddenly video call?
Wanda turned the video towards him, and Polaris greeted Shiller. Shiller roughly made out the silhouette of Magneto in the background.
That was even more surprising. If Wanda and Polaris were just incompatible, they, added with Magneto, were almost enemies. The sight of the three of them sharing a screen for more than a minute without a fight was extraordinary.
It wasn't until Jarvis chimed in that Shiller learned that the Lancer family was gathered for a family meeting, mainly to discuss Shiller's prior suggestion, which was to help Mutants gain an advantage in online public opinion.
Actually it was mostly Wanda speaking, while the other two listened, and later Quicksilver joined as well.
Pietro's personality differed from everyone in his family; he and Peter were alike and good friends, which made Magneto suspect whether Pietro was actually his son—Pietro talked a mile a minute.
Truth be told, Pietro had a deeper understanding of the internet than the others and also had an account. He didn't post much, just occasionally filming the ground while walking and mumbling, and even that garnered him tens of thousands of followers.
This puzzled the rest of the family trio.
But Pietro's conclusion made sense; he pointed out that this platform was the hottest short video app globally, with a vast user base. "As long as you have your own style, you'll find viewers for pretty much anything; the audience is never the problem."
He cited an example of a Mutant he followed once, a Delta Level who could set his hair on fire, with flames of different colors each day.
After setting up an account, he simply posted daily videos of his flaming hair, very short clips, just showing his hair changing from blue flames to purple flames.
That account managed to gather 300,000 followers, and he even landed advertisements.
It just proves that with enough variety, anything's possible. With billions of humans on Earth, every niche market is substantial.
Because on the same path as the fire-haired guy was another who could make his hands glow, posting similar daily content about his glowing hands, with nearly the same audience—scoring shampoo ads for one, and the other getting glove ads, a case of Sleeping Dragon and Rising Phoenix.
The contrast was a Beta Level Mutant with the ability to speak Beast Language who couldn't fix on a niche, flipping between family pet consultation and survival in the wild, resulting in a stagnant follower count around ten thousand, eventually resorting to working in a pet store.