It came from the audience packed tightly together at the back of the contestants’ lounge.
The second one person spotted Homelander floating above the lounge and gasped, the word spread person to person.
Within seconds a whole crowd of spectators near the lounge joined in the cheering.
The sudden noise from the audience completely shattered the jealousy that had just been boiling inside Homelander.
The red glow in his eyes vanished.
They went back to clear blue.
He looked down at the people screaming his name and soaking up every cheer.
An inexplicable feeling hit him hard—something even more intense than the times he had secretly peeked through the wall to watch Madelyn play with herself.
This… is this what it feels like when every single eye is locked on you?
Is this what it feels like to be the absolute center of the world?
This is fucking amazing!
This is better than drinking milk!
Homelander threw his arms wide open in mid-air, soaking up the cheers pouring in from every direction, completely lost in the roar of the crowd.
Hearing the noise outside, Dean walked out of the lounge.
“I thought I got here early enough, but looks like I’m still late…” He had planned to show up right when Homelander made his public debut so he could still change that perverted life path.
Turns out he was already too late.
“What?” Madelyn paused, surprised.
Dean answered casually, “Nothing.
Just means Homelander’s name is already so big I’m afraid I showed up too late to ever outshine him~” Madelyn smiled.
“Not necessarily.
If Vought can package the first Homelander, it can package a second one.
You might just be that second Homelander~” Hearing her drop every last bit of pretense right in front of him, the corner of Dean’s mouth slowly curled up.
“I thought you’d at least put on an act for a while…” Madelyn met his eyes, smile never fading.
“With other people I naturally take things step by step.
But with you, Dean, we’re the same kind of people.
We’re both businessmen.
There’s no need for the usual false routine.
We should just be honest with each other, right?” “That’s right.
I like honesty.” Dean nodded slightly, eyes full of meaning.
Madelyn checked her watch.
“Oh, I’m so sorry, Dean.
The tryouts are about to start and I have to go.
As number 11 you’re in the second group, so you should head backstage and get ready too.
Once the first group finishes it’ll be your turn.” “Mm.
See you later, Madelyn.” Dean gave a small nod.
Madelyn left.
Dean finally understood why the lounge had only gone down to number 11 earlier and none of the lower numbers were around.
Contestants one through ten had already been taken backstage to prepare for their entrance.
“See you later too, buddy…” Dean took one last long look at Homelander still floating up there, bathing in the crowd’s cheers, then turned and followed a staff member toward the backstage entrance.
By the time Dean reached the backstage area there were already nineteen people inside.
Nine of them were faces he had seen earlier in the lounge—meaning they would be his direct competitors soon.
The other ten were strangers, the members of the first group scheduled to go on stage first.
Among those ten, Dean also spotted a familiar figure.
That was the contestant wearing the number one badge on his chest—A-Train.
Right now, compared to the version on the show, A-Train was just like Homelander: freshly debuted and still very young.
Beside him stood an ordinary man giving A-Train some last-minute psychological pep talk.
Presumably that was his righteous older brother from the series.
A-Train had clearly been influenced by that brother.
After joining The Seven his heart never fully sank into complete corruption.
He kept that last scrap of kindness, which was why he eventually got the whitewashed hero ending instead of staying a pure piece of shit.
Unlike that bastard merman The Deep, who from start to finish—even on his deathbed—kept the exact same disgusting, ass-kissing villain looser personality.
‘Noooo’ That was exactly why Dean found The Deep so repulsive and decided to bully him the second they met.
In The Deep’s entire character there was not a single glimmer of light.
Besides A-Train, Dean spotted another familiar face in the first group.
Black Noir.
That one actually surprised him a little.
Black Noir was already a veteran Vought hero.
Dean had assumed he would just get handed a spot on The Seven.
He never expected the guy to show up and go through the tryouts like everyone else.
So the first group already had two future members of The Seven.
Looks like these tryouts were not a simple “one winner per group gets in” system.
They judged overall performance.
If you put on a strong enough show, even a loss still left you a shot at getting picked by Vought.
Hm.
Pretty reasonable.
Way better than the usual sports-meet format where you could draw a monster early and get eliminated on the spot.
[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 selection of the strongest heroes!] [Now, 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 endless speech outside, Dean leaned against the wall and almost dozed off.
No matter which world you were in, leaders giving long-ass speeches before anything actually started was a universal constant… [Without further ado, now let us invite the first group of contestants to take the stage!] After what felt like forever the speeches finally ended.
Amid the roar of the crowd the half-asleep Dean snapped back to attention.
He watched A-Train and the rest of the first group file toward the exit one by one.
Every time someone stepped out, the giant stadium screen flashed their superhero alias and power info.
A-Train, height 183 cm, position speedster, top speed exceeds the speed of sound!
Black Noir, height… These contestants had all been carefully screened by Vought, so their powers were solid.
Every single one who walked out triggered a fresh round of cheers from the stands.
And under those tens of thousands of voices, the contestants slowly started losing themselves, unknowingly falling into the fame trap Vought had carefully built for them.
That little moment was already laying important groundwork for how easily Vought would control them later… Vought’s tryouts were a no-holds-barred free-for-all in groups of ten.
The only rule was no killing.
Everything else was fair game so the contestants could go all-out and show every scrap of what they could do.
Because of that, the power clashes looked insanely flashy and brutal.
From the very first second the ten contestants of the first group started throwing their powers around, the entire audience was glued to the action.
By the time the first match finally ended after a full half-hour, the cheers from the stands had barely paused once.
And the person left standing at the very end was both unexpected and completely expected.
Black Noir.