It came from the audience seated closely together at the back of the contestants’ lounge.
After the first person noticed Homelander appearing above the lounge and gasped, word quickly spread from person to person, and soon a large crowd of spectators near the lounge joined in cheering.
Interrupted by the audience like this, the jealousy that had just filled Homelander’s heart was instantly disrupted.
The red light in his eyes disappeared, returning once more to a clear blue.
As he looked at the audience cheering for him and listened to the voices shouting his name, an inexplicable feeling surged in his heart, one that was even more exhilarating than when he secretly peeked through the wall to watch Madelyn playing with herself!
This… Is this the feeling of all eyes being on him?
Is this what it feels like to be the center of the World?
This is simply fucking amazing!
It’s fucking better than drinking milk!
Homelander couldn’t help but open his arms, embracing the cheers coming from all directions in mid-air, indulging in this surging wave of human applause!
Hearing the commotion outside, Derek walked out of the lounge: …
“I thought I arrived early enough, but now it seems I’m still late…”
He had thought that appearing just as Homelander debuted would allow him to change Homelander’s perverted life.
Now it seemed, it was still too late…
“What?” Madelyn paused in surprise upon hearing this.
Derek casually said, “Nothing, I mean, Homelander’s reputation is already so resounding that I’m afraid I’m late and won’t be able to surpass him in fame~”
Hearing this, Madelyn smiled, “That’s not necessarily true. If Vought can package the first Homelander, it can package a second one. You might just be that second one~”
Hearing Madelyn dropping all pretense right in front of him, the corners of Derek’s mouth slowly curled up, “I thought you’d at least put on an act…”
Meeting Derek’s eyes, Madelyn’s smile remained unchanged, “With others, I naturally take things step by step, but with you, Derek, we are essentially the same kind of people. We are both businessmen, so there’s naturally no need for that false routine. We should be honest with each other, shouldn’t we?”
“That’s right, I like honesty.” Derek nodded slightly, his eyes filled with profound meaning.
Madelyn glanced at her watch, “Oh, I’m so sorry, Derek. The tryouts are about to begin, and I have to go. As Number 11, you’re in the second group, so you can go get ready to take the stage too. After the first group’s tryouts conclude, it will be your group’s turn.”
“Mm, see you later, Madelyn.” Derek nodded slightly.
Madelyn left.
Derek finally understood why there was only Number 11 left in the lounge just now, and no contestants before Number 11.
Because contestants Number 1 through 10 had already gone backstage to prepare for their stage entrance. Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
“See you later too, buddy…”
Derek took one last deep look at Homelander, who was still in mid-air enjoying the crowd’s cheers, then turned and walked toward the backstage entrance led by a staff member.
By the time Derek reached the backstage area, there were already 19 people inside.
Among them, 9 were people he had seen earlier in the lounge—meaning they would be his competitors shortly.
The other 10 unfamiliar people were the members of the first group scheduled to take the stage.
Among them, Derek also saw a familiar figure.
That was the contestant wearing the Number One badge on his chest, A-Train!
At this moment, compared to the TV series, A-Train was just like Homelander—just debuting and very young.
Beside him was an ordinary man, doing psychological preparation for A-Train.
Presumably, this was his righteous older brother from the TV series.
A-Train had also been influenced somewhat by his brother; after joining The Seven, his heart didn’t completely fall into corruption, retaining that last trace of kindness so that he could ultimately end his journey as a whitewashed hero.
Instead of being like that bastard merman The Deep, who from beginning to end, even unto death, maintained the disgusting personality of a sycophantic villain!
This was also why Derek found The Deep unappealing and bullied him upon their first meeting.
In the character of The Deep, he couldn’t see even a single glimmer of light!
In the first group, besides A-Train, Derek also saw another familiar figure.
That was Black Noir!
Derek was still somewhat surprised by this.
After all, Black Noir was a veteran Vought hero; he had thought Black Noir would be directly assigned into The Seven, not expecting him to come and participate in the tryouts as well.
In that case, there were already two future members of The Seven in the first group.
It seemed this tryout competition didn’t mean only one winner per group could become a member of The Seven.
Rather, it judged who was qualified to join The Seven based on their overall performance.
If your performance was outstanding enough, even if you lost, you still had a chance of being chosen by Vought.
Hm, quite reasonable.
After all, in a sports meet, you were very likely to encounter strong opponents early on and thus get eliminated.
[Good afternoon, distinguished guests and audience members. Welcome to the tryout site for The Seven, the newly formed superhero team by Vought. Here, everyone will witness the fairest, most just, and corruption-free strongest hero selection!]
[Then first, let us invite the Captain of The Seven, Homelander, to say a few words…]
[Hello everyone, I am Homelander. Welcome everyone…]
Listening to the lengthy speech outside, Derek leaned against the wall, almost falling asleep.
No matter which World or country it was, leaders giving speeches before taking the stage was truly an eternal constant…
[Without further ado, now let us invite the first group of contestants to take the stage!]
After who knows how long, the introductory speeches finally ended.
Amidst the cheers of the audience, the drowsy Derek snapped back to awareness.
He saw A-Train and the others from the first group walking toward the exit one after another.
As each person walked out, the stadium’s big screen would display the contestant’s superhero alias and ability information.
For example, A-Train, height 183, ability is speedster, speed can exceed the speed of sound!
Black Noir, height…
These contestants had all been carefully selected by Vought, so their superpowers were quite decent.
Every contestant who walked out would trigger a wave of cheers from the audience!
And these contestants, amid tens of thousands of cheers, gradually lost themselves, beginning to unknowingly fall into the fame trap deliberately crafted by Vought.
This also laid an important foreshadowing for their control by Vought in the future…
Vought’s tryouts were a no-holds-barred melee in groups of ten.
Apart from not allowing murder, there were no restrictions, allowing the contestants to maximize their abilities.
Exactly because of this, this superpower competition appeared exceptionally visually impactful.
From the very beginning of the competition, the ten contestants of the first group all displayed their respective superpowers, catching the eyes of all the spectators.
By the end of the first match, lasting a full half-hour, the cheers from the audience stand could practically be said to have never stopped!
And the person standing until the very end was someone both unexpected and entirely reasonable.
Black Noir!