Yes "VERSION" has to be in the POD. But it has not to be visible. The line consists actually of three parts, that commonally fall together, but need not. First the declaration: * or $ followed by any name that ends in "VERSION", second the activation consisting of a '=',which doesn't have to do anything with the declared variable, and third the perl code that assigns to the declared variable. This code can be anything, that fits on the line. Before and after these three parts can be anything, that makes sense, if compiled as perl. For instance

This document applies to Version
" X<< ";$myVERSION=join("",map{substr$_,0,-4+length}substr(q+ >>0.1.2X
+<< +,3)).join"",map{""}q< < >>
"
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