“Just wait, after this match, I’ll beat you to the ground, and now everything will be mine!”
Backstage, Homelander listened to the cheers of Derek’s name, which sounded rather grating to his ears, and clenched his fists.
After the cheers reached a climax, Madelyn timely spoke up once more.
[Now, please welcome our first champion of the day, undefeated through countless battles… Black Noir!]
Following Madelyn’s voice, a cold figure clad in a fully-wrapped black combat suit was the first to walk out from backstage into the arena.
The moment he made his entrance, the cheers for Black Noir finally faintly drowned out Derek’s name.
[And our second guest to be welcomed is our second champion, the super rookie who defeated nine contestants with the momentum of thunder, Derek!]
Rumble——————
A thunderclap echoed through the entire stadium, and a thick bolt of Purple Electricity violently struck the turf.
When the purple light of the thunder vanished, a tall figure brimming with confidence appeared in the arena.
“Derek! Derek! Derek!!!”
The next instant, the shouts for Black Noir completely vanished, turning entirely into the sole name of Derek.
The fanatical cheers were even more deafening than thunder!
“Be humble, be humble~”
Derek waved his hand with a hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth.
As expected, while the power of lightning might not necessarily be the strongest in terms of hard strength, it was definitely the absolute best for showing off!
And with Derek’s cool entrance style, the contestants who came up next were out of luck.
After taking the stage, they couldn’t even compare to Black Noir; they couldn’t even hear shouts of their hero codenames.
No matter who came up, the audience seats only shouted Derek’s name.
Until all five final winners of the day took the stage, a violin-driven BGM suddenly materialized out of thin air in the arena.
Clang clang clang clang, clang clang clang clang, clang clang clang clang——————
The first half of the BGM had a very fast tempo that got the blood pumping, while the second half’s tempo suddenly dropped, instilling a sense of oppression in people, as if a major boss was about to make an appearance!
Meanwhile, during the fast-paced first half of the BGM, Homelander flew high into the sky, breaking the sound barrier and leaving a striking, long white line across the sky!
Then, during the slow-paced second half of the BGM, Homelander, draped in the American flag, slowly descended from the heights above, just like a god descending to earth!
I have to admit, Vought’s publicity tactics really knew what they were doing. The source of this chapter is g.com.
Although Homelander hadn’t shown any practical performance prior to this, just this divine entrance paired with the highly oppressive BGM had already indirectly created an aura of Homelander’s formidable power for the audience!
Because of this, after a momentary silence in the stands, following Derek, another person’s name finally rang out!
“Homelander!”
“Homelander! Homelander! Homelander!!!”
As the first batch of Vought’s trolls planted in the crowd exerted their influence, the chanting of Homelander’s name spread across the entire stadium like a plague!
Landing slowly, Homelander listened to the cheers by his ears that were more than a hundred times louder than before in the lounge, grinning from ear to ear.
“Yes! Yes! That’s it!”
“Your adoration should belong to me in the first place, it all belongs to me, not that ungrateful Derek!”
Madelyn deliberately let Homelander bask in the ocean of cheers for a little longer before speaking up.
[Our protagonists, the five champions, and the Captain of The Seven, Homelander, have all arrived. Next is the official friendly sparring match, so let us once again give a round of applause to the contestants, thanking them for presenting us with this wonderful extra match, alright?]
Clatter clatter clatter——————
[I believe our contestants can also feel the passion of the audience, so please let our friendly match begin. Before that, a small reminder: during this friendly spar, please don’t be too violent, oh, after all, everyone might be teammates in The Seven in the future~]
With that, Madelyn’s voice vanished.
Meanwhile, the spotlights on the arena expanded from the six people on the field to illuminate the entire stadium!
The match officially begins!
Homelander put one hand on his hip, pointed the other hand at the five people including Derek, and said arrogantly, “All of you, come at me together!”
Hearing this, Derek raised an eyebrow, looked at Black Noir beside him, and asked, “Is this baby-bottle kid imitating what I said during the day?”
Black Noir: …
Trembling with fear, completely not daring to answer!
You two immortals are fighting, don’t drag a ‘mortal’ like me into it…
Fortunately, Black Noir’s character setting didn’t require him to speak, so he didn’t need to answer Derek’s words either.
“Hey, Derek, Black Noir, stop chatting you two guys, how about we team up to beat Homelander to the ground first?”
Seeing that Derek was still chatting with Black Noir beside him in this kind of setting, a big guy couldn’t help roaring.
He also successfully attracted Derek’s gaze.
Rumble——————
A thunderclap rang out.
A bolt of Purple Electricity descended from the sky, landing on the unprepared big guy.
And this big guy could fight his way from other groups to the champion position, indeed having some skills.
He didn’t instantly drop to the ground into an infant-like sleep like the nine people killed in seconds by Derek during the day.
Instead, he stood in place, wobbled twice, and then his charred, bulky body collapsed face-first onto the turf with a thud.
“What the fuck?”
Not to mention the other contestants, even Homelander wore a look of utter disbelief.
“Weren’t the five of you fighting me alone?”
“How come you started infighting before it even began?”
For the first time, Homelander felt that he could find someone so difficult to understand.
He completely couldn’t guess what Derek would do next!
Yet Derek looked completely indifferent, and was even mocking:
“You can’t even take a single hit from me; a teammate like this is worth less than a piece of shit, at least a piece of shit can disgust the enemy!”
Having said that, Derek pointed at the other people in the arena, and then pointed at Homelander: “You, you, and Black Noir, you guys go together and beat up Homelander!”
Black Noir and the other two looked at each other, both completely dumbfounded.
“Us, go fight Homelander?”
“Is this for real?”
In this match, all of them unanimously believed that Derek was the main powerhouse.
Now that Derek wasn’t making a move and instead let them go up, what difference was there from sending them to their deaths?
But the three of them looked at Derek, who had Purple Electricity flickering between his fingers and was grinning creepily at them, and then looked at the equally bewildered, green Homelander.
Between the obviously powerful Derek and Homelander of unknown strength, they still chose Homelander.
Even Black Noir, who knew Homelander’s strength, did the same.
Because he really didn’t want to face Derek’s face; it would make him remember that lost youth once more…