After wandering around outside for an entire afternoon, experiencing nearly all of his superpowers, Alex finally made his way back to Vought right around dinnertime.
It had to be said—counting even his previous life, this was probably the happiest day Alex had ever spent.
Going from an ordinary man to leaping straight into being a superpowered being—and one standing at the very pinnacle, no less.
The feeling was simply incredible!
If Ashley hadn’t called him, he probably would have wanted to keep experiencing it a while longer.
Returning to Vought Tower, the moment he stepped off the elevator onto the 99th floor, he saw Ashley standing by the elevator with a somewhat overweight middle-aged man, waiting for him.
“Sir, I’ve brought the person here for you.”
“Also, the PR department just pushed out the announcement about Starlight, the new member joining The Seven.
She’ll be facing the public for the first time at the shareholders’ meeting next Monday.”
“Do you have time to be a special guest?
If you’d rather not…”
“Special guest?”
Alex, who had been heading toward the lounge, suddenly stopped in his tracks.
“Y…
yes, sir.”
Ashley hastily reined herself in and replied to Alex.
Alex thought about it.
If he remembered correctly, this so-called shareholders’ meeting was when Starlight made her first appearance in the original work—and then got coerced by The Deep on the casting couch.
“Not interested.
Let The Deep go.”
Since he already knew certain things were going to happen, he might as well give them a push.
Starlight, who had just come out of the Teen League, was essentially much like Queen Maeve—when she first joined The Seven, she genuinely wanted, from the bottom of her heart, to be a superhero who upheld justice.
She was the kind of person who could be won over.
If he wanted to earn Hero Points, relying on himself alone definitely wouldn’t be enough.
He needed more companions and the help of others.
Queen Maeve was Alex’s first target; Starlight was the second.
“The Deep?”
“Understood, sir.
I’ll report your thoughts up the chain.”
“And while you’re at it, get me some dinner.
Oh, right—have you eaten?
If you haven’t, I wouldn’t mind if you joined—”
“Thank you for your kindness, sir, but I’ve already eaten.
If there’s nothing else, I’ll go prepare it for you right away.”
Eat dinner?
Ashley’s skin crawled.
Since when did the Homelander ever say things like that?
Even back when he’d been dating Queen Maeve, he’d never spoken such “considerate” words.
Out of instinctive dread, all Ashley wanted right now was to get as far away as possible from this exceedingly bizarre Homelander.
As for having dinner with him—that was utterly out of the question.
What kind of joke was that?
Just standing next to this guy made her so tense she wanted to throw up, having to constantly remind herself—and now eating dinner on top of that…
“Mm, go on, and be quick about it.
I’m a little hungry.”
Alex waved his hand dismissively as he spoke.
He understood full well that changing other people’s perception of him wasn’t something that could be accomplished in a short time.
But it didn’t matter anyway.
Whether their perception changed or not—none of that was important to him.
The only thing that truly mattered was one single thing: whether or not it could earn him enough Hero Points.
The reason the Homelander ended up with that season-five finale—
wasn’t because he was twisted, but because he wasn’t strong enough.
If DC’s Superman had shown up, then even if he were a hundred times more twisted, no one in this world would be able to do anything about him.
That being the case, the only thing that mattered to him was just one thing: to grow stronger.
Everything else simply wasn’t all that important.
Back in the lounge, Alex walked up to the refrigerator and casually pulled it open.
After flying around outside all afternoon, he was a little thirsty.
But the moment he opened it, Alex saw that, aside from the basic bottled water, there were also several small baby bottles filled to the brim with a milky-white liquid.
Looking at the baby bottles, the corner of Alex’s mouth twitched slightly.
He casually grabbed a bottle of water and tossed it to Doppelganger, then took one for himself and sat down in the chair by the floor-to-ceiling window.
“Have a seat.”
Alex smiled as he looked at the visibly uneasy Doppelganger.
“Mr.
Homelander, may I ask what you wanted to see me about?”
Because of the nature of his ability, Doppelganger—though not one of Vought Corporation’s publicly acknowledged superheroes—had nonetheless cooperated with them quite a bit.
Using his ability to transform into other people, he’d handled plenty of unsavory matters.
But being summoned by name by the Homelander himself was a first.
It made him more than a little nervous.
After all, as a half-insider, Doppelganger was hardly comparable to those ignorant masses outside—he’d heard plenty of rumors and gossip.
“It’s nothing troublesome.
I just want you to play the part of someone for me.”
As Alex spoke, he pressed a button on the desktop.
“Ashley, when you bring the dinner, remember to bring me a pack of cigarettes.”
Having said that, Alex turned to look at Doppelganger.
“Tonight, I’ll take you somewhere to meet the person you’re going to imitate.”
“What you need to do is imitate her well when I need it—without a single slip-up.
Understood?”
Hearing this, Doppelganger felt slightly relieved.
He might not be much good at other things, but when it came to imitation, that was no problem at all.
“As you command, Mr.
Homelander.
Whether it’s appearance or voice, I can guarantee I’ll be exactly identical to the target.
I absolutely won’t disappoint you.”
“And if you’re interested, perhaps I could find some other fun for you as well.”
“No matter who it is, as long as you let me get a look at them, I can imitate them…”
As Doppelganger spoke, his expression turned somewhat suggestive, dripping with innuendo.
Looking at Doppelganger’s oily appearance before him, Alex felt a touch of disgust.
This guy was a real piece of work too.
Back when he’d read the original work, this guy had not only transformed into Madelyn’s likeness to service the Homelander, but in the end had even put on black lace lingerie and transformed into the Homelander himself.
It was truly an eyesore—and now he was actually trying to pull the same routine on him.
“I don’t need that.”
Alex said flatly.
This guy wasn’t Mystique from X-Men—whatever else, she was at least a woman.
For a man like you to come and say such things to me—he wasn’t some double-ended plug.
“You needn’t worry, sir.
I mean I’ll absolutely keep my mouth shut and won’t leak a single word…”
Doppelganger grinned ingratiatingly.
He assumed the Homelander had reservations—after all, according to the rumors he’d heard, the man was supposed to be even more twisted than he’d imagined.
“I said.”
“I don’t need it.
Don’t ever let me hear you say these things to me again.”
Alex stared at him, enunciating each word.
A faint red glow flashed in his eyes, frightening Doppelganger so badly that cold sweat instantly broke out down his back.
He hurriedly waved his hands.
“Yes—yes, Mr.
Homelander, I promise I will absolutely never bring this up in front of you again…”
Just as Doppelganger was explaining himself, a knock sounded at the lounge door.