“Bro, what’s wrong?”
Seeing Derek looking a bit off while holding his number plate, Harry and Peter, who were waiting nearby, stepped forward to ask.
Derek didn’t say anything; he just casually tossed the number plate into Harry’s hand.
Harry took a closer look, and his eyes instantly widened.
“What the f*ck! Number 342? Are you kidding me? Doesn’t Vought only have 500 contestants in total after this preliminary screening?”
Peter was also puzzled.
“Yeah, and those 500 people are contestants from all over the world. How could so many people have already arrived at the venue and drawn their numbers? It doesn’t make sense!”
Their confusion was understandable.
After all, Earth is so big; flying to New York from outside the America takes about a day for most countries.
And this selection was only announced by Vought yesterday.
Logically, it shouldn’t be possible for so many contestants to arrive on the first day.
Derek only had to think about it for a moment to realize what was going on.
He sneered, “Heh, I bet out of those 500 people, Vought chose 400 local American Superhumans, and only 100 spots were allocated to other countries just for the ratings!”
This wasn’t just a wild guess on Derek’s part.
Along the way, everyone he saw at the venue spoke with authentic American accents from the North or South, with barely anyone speaking other languages.
Wasn’t that obvious enough?
“Holy crap, isn’t that a rigged game then?!” Harry’s face was full of disbelief, feeling a bit disillusioned by Vought.
Peter’s expression was much the same.
Both of them were in their early teens—around eighteen years old—an age where they still had infinite fantasies about superheroes.
Now, finding out that Vought, the only superhero company on Earth, was also corrupt behind the scenes, was truly hard for them to accept.
Seeing this, Derek shook his head.
You can’t even handle this much.
If you knew that most of the superheroes you usually see on TV are just packaged and marketed by Vought, wouldn’t your beliefs collapse entirely?
However, Derek didn’t directly expose this cruel truth to them.
Because starting today, now that he had arrived at Vought, a savior had arrived.
With him here, the hypocritical Vought would undergo a revolutionary change!
He wanted to build a team in this Universe that would truly be a Seven of superheroes, not just a Seven that only knew how to put on a show!
So the past didn’t matter anymore; what mattered was the future!
Of course, he still decided to keep Vought’s fine tradition of taking on sponsorships and making a small fortune!
As for number 342, who knew how many days he would have to wait?
He didn’t have that kind of patience…
So…
he planned to cut the line!
“Harry, Peter, you guys go to the family seating area first. I’m going to get ready to go on stage.”
Leaving them with those words, Derek walked away directly.
Leaving only Harry and Peter looking at each other in bewilderment.
“Isn’t my brother number 342? Will it even be his turn today?”
“I don’t know…”
…
After leaving Harry and Peter, Derek entered the contestants’ lounge.
Those inside were all scheduled to go on stage today, having drawn numbers in the top 50.
With 500 contestants in total, Vought planned to have 50 people compete each day.
Excluding the five rest days in between, the selection trials would last for 10 days.
As for what Derek wanted to do now, it was quite obvious.
He was going to swap number plates with someone!
Derek’s gaze swept unscrupulously across the number plates on the chests of the contestants.
50, 34, 21, 11…
Derek walked around the lounge and only saw number 11 at best.
There were none lower than that.
Therefore, Derek stopped browsing and headed straight toward the contestant wearing the number 11 plate.
And this person was someone Derek was actually quite familiar with.
It was our great Lord of The Seven Seas, the commander of all marine life, the version of Aquaman from the boys—The Deep!
Derek walked up to The Deep, who was wearing a green uniform.
Sitting on a chair, nervously shaking his legs while waiting to go on stage, The Deep felt a shadow loom over him and instinctively looked up.
Looking at the tall man standing in front of him, The Deep was sure he had never seen him before, so he asked in confusion, “Uh, bro, what do you want?”
“Fish-f*cker, swap your number plate with mine.”
In an almost commanding tone, Derek tossed his number 342 plate onto The Deep.
The Deep: ?
The Deep looked down in a daze at the number 324 plate that had landed on his lap, finding it utterly ridiculous!
“What the f*ck are you joking about? Swapping number 324 for my number 11? Why don’t you just disqualify me directly? Who the f*ck do you think you are? The CEO of Vought?!” This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
In a fit of rage, The Deep stood up abruptly, puffed out his chest, and slammed hard into Derek.
The moment The Deep stood up, a strong fishy odor washed over him.
Derek even noticed a sticky, unidentified liquid on the seat he had just occupied and on his butt!
“F*ck! Did you just have an orgy with an octopus and get your brains milked out? You smell like octopus slime all over!”
Derek really couldn’t help himself; pinching his nose, he took a few steps back with a look of pure disgust.
This time, Derek didn’t lower his voice at all.
It echoed through almost the entire lounge, instantly drawing everyone’s attention.
Their eyes unanimously turned to look at The Deep’s butt.
Feeling the strange looks from dozens of people, The Deep felt like he was a f*cking piece of takoyaki, about to burst into flames from shame and anger!
Clenching his fists, The Deep explained to the people around him, “This bastard is talking nonsense! He’s slandering me, he’s slandering me! I didn’t f*ck any fish, and I certainly didn’t get f*cked by an octopus!”
“Then what is that unidentified liquid sticking to your butt? Did Translucent take a transparent dump in your pants?”
“I didn’t expect you to not only love f*cking fish and getting f*cked by fish, but also love going gay!”
Derek crossed his arms, continuing to provoke him.
As soon as these words came out, the contestants who were just watching the drama couldn’t help but start pointing fingers at The Deep.
Their words and expressions were filled with absolute disgust for The Deep.
Words were like sharp swords, stabbing at The Deep from all directions, turning him into a porcupine fish.
This caused The Deep’s sanity to plummet rapidly, and his neck, face, and eyes all turned red!
“It’s all because of you, you bastard! I’m going to kill you!”
Using what little sanity he had left, The Deep locked his gaze onto the culprit, Derek.
His green fist, adorned with fin decorations, swung hard toward Derek’s handsome face, which irritated him just by looking at it!
Don’t let The Deep’s creepy and foolish appearance fool you; his stats were actually very high!
In the original work, a casual punch from The Deep could easily punch right through a person.
With full strength, he could even shatter stones!
But Derek, who had been trained by top martial arts masters hired by the Osborn Family since childhood, naturally possessed combat experience far beyond a self-taught Superhumans like The Deep.
In terms of strength, Derek, who had inherited Soldier Boy’s constitution, was someone The Deep couldn’t even hope to match!
So the very instant The Deep threw his punch, Derek had already anticipated its final landing spot and raised his hand to accurately catch the fist flying toward him!
Derek’s face was filled with utter disdain for The Deep.
“Fish-f*cker, your fist is as soft as a boneless eel. You’ve f*cking disappointed me!”