Through Pietro's introduction, Wanda and the others finally opened the doors to a new world.
They discovered that the internet wasn't as they had imagined. It wasn't about being more excellent—rather, you had to be unique, or, to put it more precisely, you had to be "alive" to attract followers.
Mutants naturally excelled at being "alive." While a normal human might merely bite a lighter and risk injury, mutants were different. Those with iron teeth and copper jaws not only chomped through lighters—they could munch through a radiator and leave it full of holes.
Several clever mutants had already started their accounts online, showcasing their daily lives. Some mutants, lingering between Epsilon and Delta Levels, harnessed their unique abilities to amass swathes of fans.
Take, for example, a mutant whose ability was his transparent skin and organs. His skin and organs resembled pale blue semi-transparent gelatin; only his skeleton was somewhat similar to that of a normal human. Beyond that, he had no other abilities.
According to him, from his childhood, he had been mocked and often physically attacked just so people could see his internal organs quiver. His parents abhorred him, considering him a monstrous freak and ousted him from home when he was very young.
Unable to access a good education and unable to find any decent job—he was even fired from a waiter job for frightening customers—he ended up homeless on the streets.
However, because his appearance was rather frightening, not many dared to bother him. People also steered clear of competing with him for food aid, and he managed to survive, wandering until his thirties.
At that time, while he was wandering the streets, he encountered a video blogger. The blogger capitalized on his bizarre appearance to become an internet sensation. In gratitude, the blogger bought him a phone and found him a warehouse to live in.
Then, the mutant began his video career. Initially, he experimented with various styles until he finally settled on street pranks, capitalizing on his creepy appearance to scare passersby. In no time, he became massively popular.
Later, he collaborated with some renowned magicians and video editors, participated in various Halloween shows, appeared on several talk shows, and even became a special guest at the Super Bowl.
He is now the mutant with the highest number of followers known on Tiktok, boasting over fifty million fans, second only in fame to two old men who have been in the news continuously for half a century.
Wanda and her team also noticed that this mutant had pinned several videos on his profile, mainly discussing how he fought his way to his current success, especially focusing on the bullying and discrimination he faced during his childhood.
Wanda was hesitant to click on the comments, fearing from past experiences that they might not be too friendly. A lot of them would probably say he deserved to be bullied for his terrifying looks—a narrative Wanda was all too familiar with.
Surprisingly, most comments turned out to be supportive, with many sharing their own experiences of bullying at school. Several asserted that being bullied had nothing to do with one's looks—if bullies wanted to target someone, they would do so regardless of how attractive they were.
Granted, some voices discriminated against mutants, but when Wanda looked at the replies, she found that the majority were harshly condemning those bigots.
At this moment, Wanda truly understood the importance of fighting for online discourse, as Shiller had suggested.
Those defending mutants in the comments might not have a genuine fondness for mutants; they perhaps just liked the blogger and could not stand seeing their idol maligned, thereby responding defensively.
But even so, when these people made decisions concerning mutants, they would remember their admired idol was one. This proved mutants weren't all ticking time bombs, societal disruptors, or as dangerously frightening as stereotypes suggested.
Countless generations of mutants had made enormous efforts to dismantle these stereotypes. Of course, it was probably best not to discuss with Magneto where these stereotypes originated.
In any case, no amount of media biased toward mutants had ever had as much impact as this one mutant influencer.
This realization struck Wanda that she and Jarvis had the complete capability to alter the public perception of mutants.
It wasn't that Wanda was overly confident about her own charm; rather, her husband was a robot, the strongest electronic life form in the world.
What did this imply? It meant that if he desired, he could instantaneously skyrocket the user numbers of any platform into the trillions, and behind each user could be dozens of bots. This was not just overwhelming—it was a deluge that would make even God think his apocalyptic flood was trivial.
The basic rule of viral effects is that the more popular something becomes, the more visibility it gets, and thus, the more popularity it gains.
So they didn't need to worry about how to accumulate initial followers at all, Jarvis's web army wasn't anything like those low-level "unmanned" accounts—they were high-tech androids with complete profiles who would even record their daily lives.
With such strong support behind her, why wouldn't Wanda go for it?
However, she did have one concern, which was that the sudden influx of bots would definitely be noticed by the software company.
It was only then that she discovered that Jarvis had actually started preparing a few years ago. He had covertly planted many such accounts in all the major video apps at a reasonable pace, and short-video apps were no exception—there was no need for last-minute scrambles.
Maybe true romance is when someone has already taken 9,999 steps, waiting just for you to take that final step.
Since Wanda was busy, Shiller went to find Peter and Gwen, who were playing video games in their room. They greeted him warmly and asked him to come in.
But Shiller felt like he was intruding on their private time, so he didn't go in. Peter greeted him with a wave at his camera, and Shiller said to the Peter in the camera, "You've been in such great shape lately. Once this video goes up, there will definitely be a crowd screaming for you."
Peter smiled shyly, his demeanor hardly different from when he was 16. Peter had always been the boy-next-door type—not particularly handsome, but possessing a certain inexplicable charm that made him likable to all sorts of people, which was quite rare.
Of course, Shiller didn't forget to bother Pikachu and Rocket Raccoon. Pikachu was an internet sensation, his extremely adorable appearance and Canadian-accented rap creating a striking contrast, winning him hundreds of thousands of fans online.
Rocket Raccoon usually surfed the cosmic internet, a vibrant and colorful place. Their Guardians of the Galaxy official website had over 200 million subscribers. While 200 million fans might be nothing on the cosmic internet, he still counted as a minor internet celebrity.
They used a universal language on the cosmic internet, a language compiled by the Three Great Empires to facilitate communication between civilizations. This language was quite simple, almost like English, easy enough to get the gist with a little study. Rocket Raccoon was the best at speaking this universal language among the Guardians of the Galaxy.
When Shiller interviewed him, he even had him speak a bit of it, which sounded in tone, speed, and accent more like German. However, Rocket Raccoon explained that it was essentially still an alphabetic language.
But its grammar sounded a bit like Chinese, as the spoken language didn't really have grammar, lacked tenses and cases, allowing speakers to express themselves however they wanted, focusing on spontaneity.
Shiller suggested that Rocket Raccoon start an account to teach humans the universal language online. Rocket Raccoon was actually interested, not so much in teaching but because it was profitable.
The Guardians of the Galaxy received grants from S.H.I.E.L.D., and Nick was quite generous in these matters. However, Star Lord and his crew burned through funds too quickly, always running out fast, which left Rocket wanting to dabble in his own collections but having no money to do so.
If he could become an internet celebrity on Earth and earn money, he could buy Earth's local products—Vibranium—and resell them in the cosmos, thus earning cosmic currency to collect his favorite mechanical limbs.
Shiller had intended to find Nick, but Nick had gone fishing with Eddie and Helen, so he had to wrap up the video recording.
He edited the footage casually and posted it online. Surprisingly, the video went viral, rocketing to the top of the trending list in less than an hour.
Shiller found it a bit strange since he had shot a purely straightforward vlog, only editing out the parts where he walked, with no artistic creativity involved. Could it really go viral? Was his path to becoming an internet celebrity too simple?
But little did he know, that was exactly what the audience longed for. Although fancy-dressed, backstabbing superhero banquets were interesting, people were always more fascinated by superheroes' private lives.
In Shiller's video, all the superheroes were either in workout clothes or pajamas, lounging around in a relaxed, sleepy manner. Wasn't this precisely the off-duty superhero scene they wanted to see?
Moreover, the less professional filming approach just emphasized how authentic the scene was, devoid of any staging. Fans of various superheroes found things to enjoy in the video and engaged in spirited discussions in the comments section.
Shiller also found comments about himself among the superhero fans' discussions, although they were still not very friendly. The most liked comment was, "Praying for the Doctor to grow a camera out of his head (hands clasped in prayer)."
So, my presence as an internet celebrity is just to capture the daily lives of superheroes for you?
Shiller replied with a few blush emojis below.