Early in the morning, Starlight, dressed in her superhero costume, entered Vought Tower looking tired..
It seemed she hadn’t slept well.
No, she really hadn’t slept well.
Ever since The Deep left yesterday, Starlight started wandering aimlessly around the 99th floor of Vought Tower, a floor accessible only to The Seven.
First, she ran into Queen Maeve, the only other female superhero who was part of The Seven.
Initially, Starlight wanted to ask Queen Maeve for an autograph and tell her she used to be her favorite.
In her childhood, it was Queen Maeve’s heroic act of saving a school bus full of students that solidified her resolve to become a superhero.
However, Queen Maeve had no intention of welcoming Starlight.
It seemed she had just finished work, gave Starlight a perfunctory reply, and ignored her.
For the first time, Starlight felt some disappointment in her idols, realizing that in their private lives they weren’t as great as she had imagined.
And it was even harder for Starlight to accept this when she saw a completely naked Translucent in the restroom.
Even though the restroom was unisex, and even though Translucent had to strip to use his power, the fact that he was so blatantly peeping in the restroom still made Starlight very angry.
Starlight wanted to teach Translucent a lesson, but seeing Queen Maeve walk in and act as if Translucent’s presence was nothing unusual, she realized this wasn’t the first time Translucent had done something like this.
What was even more horrifying was that the members of The Seven turned a blind eye to it.
At that moment, Starlight finally understood what The Deep meant when he said, “The Seven isn’t as great as you imagine.” It wasn’t a consolation; it was a statement of fact.
Starlight had a hard time falling asleep that night.
A young girl who came to The Seven with dreams, thinking she could fight shoulder to shoulder with the heroes she once admired, ended up discovering that the heroes she once looked up to were not as wonderful as she thought.
The Deep gave the impression of a slacking corporate employee, Queen Maeve seemed cold and indifferent to everything, and Translucent was a peeping pervert.
The three heroes Starlight had met were already like this, so what would the rest be like?
Starlight was a bit lost, even doubting if she made the right decision.
But having finally joined The Seven, Starlight wasn’t going to just give up.
It didn’t matter that the heroes differed from her fantasies; she just needed to do her job well and become an excellent superhero.
Yes, she just needed to do her best.
Thinking this, Starlight cheered herself up and entered the building, and then…
Walking past an office, she heard the angry voice of Ashley, the Director of Talent Relations.
“Unbelievable!
I really can’t imagine you did this!” Ashley looked very angry and was yelling at someone.
Starlight swore she didn’t want to eavesdrop, but the office door wasn’t closed tightly, and through the crack, she could see what was happening inside.
Inside the room, Ashley was holding a report, rubbing her hair in frustration, and standing in front of her was The Deep, who had left work on time yesterday.
What happened?
Starlight got curious and leaned in to listen.
Faced with Ashley’s anger, The Deep actually remained very calm.
He even casually poured himself a cup of coffee and said.
“Calm down, Ashley.
Isn’t the result great?
The victims of human trafficking were saved, and there are fewer of those damn criminals in New York.
Although it was my fault for not notifying the company’s PR department and the camera crew in advance, I didn’t have time to let you know at that moment…” “Oh, yeah?
You think so?
Have you ever thought about what would happen if a video of you killing those gangsters on the boat was caught on camera?
And what if someone edited it and posted it online?!” “I know, which is why I am admitting my mistake, right?
Uh…
can you just deduct it from my salary?
Though I think my situation yesterday counts as overtime…” The Deep flopped onto the sofa and spoke with complete indifference.
Seeing this, Ashley stared at The Deep with wide eyes, as if seeing him for the first time, her gaze full of disbelief.
“You…
how could you…” “What is wrong with me?
Is there a problem?” The Deep finished his coffee and threw his hands up to question Ashley.
Through the conversation, Starlight also understood what had happened.
Late last night, The Deep encountered a human trafficking crime and then, without notifying the company, unilaterally resolved it.
The word unilaterally was Ashley’s term, not Starlight’s own opinion.
Hearing the whole story, Starlight’s heart, which had been somewhat disillusioned by yesterday’s events, came alive again.
Although The Deep seemed not to care, he was still secretly doing what a superhero should do.
No matter what the company said, the most important thing is to do the right thing, isn’t that enough?
Honestly, if circumstances permitted, Starlight would have loved to run in and tell The Deep, “You did the right thing,” to encourage him.
But unfortunately, Starlight didn’t want to ruin her reputation in the eyes of others by being an eavesdropper.
Taking advantage of the fact that the conversation in the room was coming to an end, Starlight quietly walked past the office door.
The conversation between them in the room did indeed stop, but the reason wasn’t that Ashley had suppressed her anger, but because Madelyn called Ashley, saying she wanted The Deep to come upstairs.
She needed to discuss something with The Deep.
When her boss spoke, Ashley could only suppress her anger and told The Deep.
“Miss Madelyn wants to see you.
You can explain everything to her yourself.” “No problem, I will head up right now.” Kevin replied with a smile, placed the empty disposable paper cup on the table, and before leaving, gave Ashley a very kind piece of advice.
“By the way, Ashley, you had better not get angry too often; otherwise, your hair will fall out.” ‘?’ After Kevin teased her one last time, he left the office before Ashley could get angry again.
After dealing with the gang members last night, Kevin went to the police station along with the victims of human trafficking.
However, because The Deep was a superhero and had the backing of Vought International, he was quickly released from the police station and even received praise and cheers from the officers inside.
At that time, Kevin truly felt that being a superhero was pretty great.
He liked hearing people support him.
But unfortunately, what Kevin did, although completely right, was not recognized by the company.
The reason was that Kevin did not notify the company in advance, and…
he killed a lot of people.
For superheroes, killing was actually a very common occurrence.
Homelander, Queen Maeve, and A-Train had also killed quite a few people in the process of preventing crimes.
But the point was that the killings happened under the lenses of cameras set up by Vought International, and within the scripts already prepared by that same company.
Yesterday, however, Kevin had no script and no cameras, and in that situation, he killed a group of gang members in front of a group of people who were victims of human trafficking and didn’t speak English.
This could be a major or a minor issue; if someone with ulterior motives used this to create a scandal, a good deed could very likely turn into a disaster.
Yesterday’s events could also become a stain on The Deep’s reputation.
This was the real reason for Ashley’s anger.
After all, she was the Director of Talent Relations, and if something really went wrong, the responsibility would fall on her as well.