"I heard you were looking for me?"
A low voice sounded in his ear, causing Drake's heart, which had been hanging in suspense, to finally sink into despair.
But Drake was no pushover. Once he confirmed someone was behind him, a ruthless look flashed in his eyes, and he turned around, pulling the trigger in a rapid succession of 'bang bang' shots!
Then... Clatter——
To Drake's utter astonishment, the pistol in his hand, its magazine not yet empty, fell involuntarily to the ground.
It wasn't just because the shots he fired hit the opponent without even breaking the silver-gray battle suit, making the bullets completely useless.
It was also because as he turned his head, he saw the elite squad he had brought to hijack the entire New York University. At this moment, they were like fruit on a large tree, skewered in mid-air by silver-gray 'branches,' all of which were connected to a tall 'trunk'!
That 'trunk' hung with his subordinates—wasn't it the very 'Spider Monarch' who had been missing for two months, and whom he had resented so intensely just a minute ago?!
But now, facing Spider Monarch face-to-face, Drake realized that in front of this person, he didn't even have the courage to feel resentment; his heart was already filled with terror!
How was he supposed to play this?!
In the short time he had turned to say a few words to Gwen, his subordinates had been silently wiped out?
And he hadn't heard a single sound?
He and the opponent were simply not on the same level of existence!
At this moment, Drake regretted it.
He regretted provoking the Spider Family!
No! It should be said he regretted not expecting Spider Monarch to be able to return after two months and underestimating the opponent's strength!
But no matter how much Drake regretted it now, it was already too late.
Ryan reached his fingers toward Drake, his broad palm covering Drake's face, grabbing him by the face and lifting him up.
Then, like a demon god with dozens of teru teru bozu hanging behind him, he walked up to Gwen: "What did he just say he wanted to do to you?"
Gwen looked at Ryan with the corpses hanging behind him. She didn't feel the fear others had, as if looking at a tree of death; instead, her eyes were sparkling as if she were looking at a Christmas tree:
"He planned to kill me in a public live stream to make the Spider Family understand the price of offending him."
Ryan nodded and said indifferently: "Very well, then open the live stream. I'll grant his wish."
Hearing this, as if the many teru teru bozu hanging behind Ryan had taken effect, Gwen looked at the group of teachers and students squatting in the Indoor Basketball Court, who were tightly covering their mouths, not daring to make a sound for fear Ryan would skewer them as well. A highly infectious, sunny smile appeared on her face:
"Excuse me, teachers or students, does anyone know how to operate this equipment? I'll be in charge of the camera, but I need someone to help me operate the equipment. Is anyone willing to volunteer?"
Perhaps Gwen's smile diluted the terrifying slaughter Ryan had brought upon his arrival, for a hand actually went up from the group of teachers and students squatting on the ground.
"I... I can..."
Gwen looked at the raised hand, her smile brightening even more: "Ned Leeds, I remember you. A genius student from the Computer Science Department. With your help, nothing will go wrong. Please."
Under everyone's admiring gazes, Ned stood up with weak legs, almost crawling to the equipment console.
If he hadn't known that Spider Monarch was his good friend Peter's cousin and if he weren't a fan of the Spider Family himself, Ned wouldn't have dared to stand up at a time like this.
As for how Ned knew Peter's identity, that was something that happened during the two months Ryan was away.
While he was gone, besides this major event affecting all of New York, quite a few other small incidents and changes had occurred.
But that's a conversation for later... Anyway, knowing Spider Monarch's true identity, Ned managed to overcome the fear in his heart, his hands flying across the keyboard to operate the equipment.
In just one minute, Ned gave Ryan an 'OK' gesture: "Mr. Spider Monarch, it's ready. I've connected to the multi-platform live stream rooms these guys set up in advance."
"And that guy even did some pre-hype. The title of the stream is... uh, 'Revealing the True Identities of All Spider Family Members'?"
"The total number of viewers across all platforms has already reached ten million. Shall we start the stream now?"
Hearing Ned's words, Ryan glanced at Drake, who was still struggling frantically in his hand, and sneered: "Heh, you've prepared quite thoroughly. Trying to cause trouble for the Spider Family through public opinion?"
"But you seem to have forgotten that this trick only causes trouble for those poor Superheroes. Behind the current Spider Family is a capital family just like yours!"
Why did Tony expose his identity as Iron Man and suffer no consequences, even causing Stark Industries' stock price to rise significantly?
It's because in this World, unless your superpowers are strong enough to destroy the World, they cannot compete with money power!
This World is ultimately ruled by the money power of capital!
From the moment Parker Industries was established, the Spider Family became part of the capital circle, rather than some grassroots mutant Superheroes!
Even if the Spider Family's true identities were fully exposed now, it wouldn't actually have much of an impact on them.
At most, their exposure would increase significantly when living under their other true identities.
Watching Drake, whose pupils dilated as he realized this after hearing these words, Ryan continued to destroy his spirit:
"And you clearly forgot an even more important thing: there are levels to capital. You shouldn't have crossed Parker Industries. So after today, not only will you die miserably, but your Life Foundation will also cease to exist!"
After speaking, ignoring the reaction of Drake, who couldn't respond at all with his face covered, Ryan looked at Ned: "Start the stream."
Ned didn't dare hesitate and immediately opened the live stream on all platforms.
The tens of millions of viewers waiting on various platforms were hit with a shocking opening the moment the stream started!
The screen showed a 'peacock' with its tail spread, but instead of colorful feathers, fresh corpses were hanging from its tail feathers!
Just as the various platforms were about to cut the feed, Ryan's indifferent voice appeared in all the live stream rooms: "Whichever platform dares to close the stream, the next ones hanging up here will be all of your platform's top executives."
How to successfully threaten all moderators with a single sentence.
In this era where system moderation wasn't yet that advanced and relied mostly on manual moderation, as soon as Ryan said this, the moderators who were prepared to force-close the stream didn't dare move.