High Tide 2.0

Ignoring her astonishment, Wu Yanzu gracefully squeezed in, his tall figure making the entire bread cart seem somewhat crowded.

"So..." Skye still couldn't process it all. "You, Homelander, Anthony Starr, the big boss of the Vought Corporation... why did you come to my 'doghouse'... to experience life?"

"I've come to see you, Skye," Wu Yanzu said bluntly. "I've read your 'High Tide Declaration.'"

"We will rise up and fight against those who conceal the truth..." he read aloud, word by word. "Well written, very inspiring."

"Ha." Skye chuckled self-deprecatingly. "So? Are you here to arrest me? Or to give me a ticket? I don't have the money to pay."

"I'll provide you with... a bigger stage."

Wu Yanzu stood up, his X-ray vision sweeping across the carriage.

"You're very talented, Skye. You can give S.H.I.E.L.D. a lot of trouble with this pile of... junk. You're a genius."

"But you are alone."

"And they," Wu Yanzu's voice deepened, "are an empire... an empire built on lies and secrets. You can't defeat them."

"This is none of your business," Skye said warily. "You're one of them, aren't you? You... the government's mascot."

"mascot?"

Wu Yanzu smiled.

He reached out and gently placed his hand on Skye's 17-inch laptop.

"Sizzle—"

Before Skye could react, the computer, along with all the hard drives inside, was instantly crushed into a flat disc.

"Oh, shit! My computer!!" Skye screamed. "You bastard! All my... is in there..."

"All...what? Evidence?" Wu Yanzu withdrew his hand, the smile disappearing from his handsome face.

Skye, you have no idea who you're playing games with.

He switched to "Best Actor" mode, and his voice began to deepen.

"I want to say, Skye... you're right."

Skye was stunned.

"What do you take me for?" Wu Yanzu gave a self-deprecating smile. "A clown packaged with capital? A... government lackey?"

Skye didn't speak, but her expression conveyed that meaning.

"That's how they see me too." Wu Yanzu looked "sad." "S.H.I.E.L.D.... Nick Fury... They don't trust me. They're afraid of me."

"They fear me as much as they fear you, Skye."

"Their people sent agents to pluck my hair, scrape my skin, and collect everything I had."

"They want to study me, Skye."

"They want to find my weakness! They want to put a collar on me! They want to lock me in a cage!"

"They..." Wu Yanzu looked at her with feigned grief and indignation, "They are afraid of me. Just like they... are afraid of you too."

"I..." Skye was stunned.

"What do you think S.H.I.E.L.D. is? Partners of justice?" Wu Yanzu sneered. "They're parasites, Skye. They're the biggest lie in this country."

"They monitor everyone. They monitor you, they monitor me, they monitor the president!"

"Haven't you been investigating your origins, Skye?"

These words struck Skye like a bolt of lightning.

"How...how did you know?!"

"I know far more than you can imagine," Wu Yanzu began his performance of "empathy."

"I know you're an orphan, and you've had a life of constant displacement since childhood. I know why you're so desperate to uncover the truth... because you're also searching for... the truth about yourself."

"You..." Skye's eyes reddened.

"S.H.I.E.L.D., they know." Wu Yanzu threw out the fatal bait. "They have your file, Skye. They know who your parents are, they know why you were abandoned. But they... will never tell you."

"Because you... to them, are just a threat. A superhuman who needs to be monitored."

"No...it's impossible..." Skye's voice trembled.

"Nothing is impossible." Wu Yanzu squatted down, looking directly into her eyes, his voice full of seduction.

"You and I, Skye, we are the same kind of people."

"We are all abandoned freaks. They use us, and they are also wary of us."

"And me," he laughed, "I'm fucking...fed up."

"..."

"Join me, Skye." Wu Yanzu extended his hand.

"Wow... my company. I can give you the world's fastest servers, I can give you military-grade satellite networks. I can give you... a real stage."

"Don't you want to know the truth?"

"I'll help you. You help me."

"Together... we'll uproot this damn S.H.I.E.L.D. We'll expose everything they hide in the shadows... all their dirty secrets... to the world."

"You..." Skye looked at his outstretched hand, then at his "sincere" eyes.

Does she hate S.H.I.E.L.D.? Yes, she does.

Does she want to know the truth? She's going crazy with desire.

And the man in front of her... was handing her C4 to blow everything up.

"...Why?" Skye looked up abruptly. "Why did you do this? You're...Homelander, you're a billionaire, you have everything."

"because……"

Wu Yanzu stepped forward and gently patted her shoulder.

"The world...needs the truth, doesn't it?"

She remained silent for three seconds.

"...Fuck! I did it!"

"But not for you, and not for Walter."

"I did it for... the truth."

"Of course," Wu Yanzu smiled. "We are... on the side of justice, aren't we?"

He elegantly opened a bottle of Wotler Energy Drink from the car, silently adding to himself: I am fucking justice!

"Ding! Gained 10000 special popularity points!"

……

The next day, Water International, Los Angeles branch.

Skye was ushered into an office that was more luxurious than all the places she had ever lived in her life combined.

Wu Yanzu pressed a button on the table.

The office walls slowly opened, revealing the most extravagant "war room" Skye had ever seen in her life.

An entire wall of servers, hundreds of monitors, and a holographic projection table.

"Your bread cart...it's so retro, I love retro stuff." Wu Yanzu's tone was full of enticement.

"But this is... Vought's global data center, quantum-encrypted. Here... you are God."

Skye's breathing quickened.

She walked over uncontrollably, as if on a pilgrimage.

For the next 72 hours, the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. intelligence system... went crazy.

A hacker group calling itself "Rising Tide 2.0" has begun dumping data on the internet.