The Mesmerizer

Li Wei certainly wasn't going to help dispose of the bodies, but Butcher and his crew looked like they'd done this plenty of times—each one more practiced than the last. Before The Mesmerizer beside them could even piece together what was happening, the corpses and bloodstains had already vanished without a trace.

Li Wei, meanwhile, was appreciating The Mesmerizer's figure. Say what you will, her ability wasn't much to write home about, and her face was at best passably pretty, but there was a reason she'd managed to latch onto A-Train of The Seven—she had a damn fine body.

Oh, and there was another specialty: she was really good at sucking toes, a service she regularly provided for A-Train.

He couldn't help wondering what her ancestors, once proud farm owners, would think if they could see her now, servicing the descendant of their former tools like this.

The Mesmerizer, for her part, was mortified. The whole situation—seducing a civilian as a superhero, killing someone, doing drugs, getting caught red-handed—was hitting her with wave after wave of intense stimulation.

It was enough to rapidly cool down her drug-overexcited brain.

But even so, all she could do was watch these strangers move around, completely at a loss for what to do herself.

Still, she wasn't stupid enough to forget her manners. She turned to thank Li Wei.

She'd never heard the name Gambit before, had no idea what his powers were, but since he was a fellow Vought superhero, he was her only hope.

Then she noticed that this so-called Gambit, while talking to her, was clearly distracted—his gaze kept drifting down to her chest.

That gave The Mesmerizer a little surge of pride. How else had a third-rate superhero like her landed A-Train, one of The Seven, if not for her killer body?

A bold idea immediately took shape in her mind. Maybe, just maybe, she'd found a way out of her current predicament.

She hesitated for a moment, though. She was A-Train's girlfriend; they knew everything about each other. But this Gambit was someone she'd never heard of before, and she couldn't quite swallow her pride.

Li Wei, acting as if he hadn't noticed a thing, kept staring at her figure.

In truth, he wasn't that desperate. He wasn't that thirsty—especially after having tasted Firecracker and Starlight, The Mesmerizer was just an appetizer. This was actually a deliberate strategy.

Codename: The Mesmerizer Type: Agile Special Ability 1: Regenerating Bone Blades—can grow a bone blade from under each wrist, strength comparable to standard alloy. If a blade is broken or shattered, can expend energy to regenerate a new, intact blade. If no longer needed, can retract it into the gap between the radius and ulna, slightly strengthening the arm while stored. Fully replicable, estimated 3 minutes of continuous contact required. Special Ability 2: Intermediate Combat—fully replicable, estimated 3 seconds of continuous contact required.

The Mesmerizer's abilities weren't anything impressive, so the required time was short. That Intermediate Combat probably wasn't anything special either—after all, Starlight's Master-level Dance needed 9 seconds.

And in his past life, Li Wei had been a bit of a gaming nerd. Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, Master—that was a pretty standard tier system.

But without a good reason, how was she going to stay in close contact with him for three full minutes? Not to mention he still had to ask that question.

Right now, he was deliberately putting on this act just to give The Mesmerizer an opening. The question was whether she'd take it.

Even if she didn't, it didn't really matter. Li Wei wasn't all that interested in this ability anyway.

As luck would have it, just then the big screen lit up. The Mesmerizer's lover, A-Train, was chatting away, saying he was too busy for romance and was still single.

Her face instantly turned ashen. She'd been wanting him to talk to Vought's Vice President Madelyn and make their relationship official for a while now.

But A-Train had always put it off, and now he was flat-out claiming to be single in public. He clearly had no intention of ever going public.

To The Mesmerizer, that was a brutal betrayal.

And it wasn't just a blow to her feelings—it was a major setback for her comeback plans.

She was so broke she couldn't even pay rent. She'd been hoping to ride A-Train's fame for a chance at a comeback, and now that was all gone.

Gritting her teeth, the hesitation she'd felt earlier vanished. She stepped forward, wrapped her arms around one of Li Wei's, and said, "Gambit, this was really just an accident. I know I messed up, and I'll do everything I can to make it right—but I need your help!"

As she spoke, she made sure to press and rub her assets against him.

Li Wei deliberately tried to pull his arm away, but when he found her grip tight, he didn't resist further. He just stiffened up a little and said, his voice a bit hoarse, "You... what are you saying? You just killed someone."

Seeing his reaction, The Mesmerizer felt a surge of secret delight. She'd guessed right.

She kept rubbing against him, putting on a pitiful tone. "I admit I made a mistake, but those people weren't exactly saints either."

"They snuck into my house days in advance, pretending to offer a free internet upgrade, and planted cameras everywhere. That's a serious invasion of my privacy—they must have seen everything!"

"I even suspect my landlord showing up today to collect rent was on their orders!"

Li Wei couldn't help thinking, Well, damn. Looks like The Mesmerizer isn't just a pretty face—she's got some brains after all.

"Is that so? Bastards. Then... what do you want me to do?"

Hearing that, The Mesmerizer's joy only grew. She knew her plan was more than halfway there.

But she didn't let it show completely on her face. First, she laid on some flattery for Li Wei, then said, "Once they're done with the bodies, they're definitely going to use this to blackmail me into doing things I don't want to."

"If you can keep them from forcing my hand, I'll be more than grateful!"

Li Wei pretended to hesitate for a moment, as if thinking it over. "But... are we friends?"

The question was a bit out of nowhere, but The Mesmerizer didn't overthink it. She figured this was just Gambit's personality—he didn't like helping just anyone, only friends.

She nodded without hesitation. "Of course. We're both superheroes. We can be friends. Or even... closer."

Since the room was empty now, The Mesmerizer's right hand slid downward.

But Li Wei let out a dry cough and shifted slightly to the side, not letting her succeed.

Even after capturing Starlight, his defenses were already quite formidable, but he still didn't want to leave his vital points in someone else's hands—even if she probably couldn't break through his defenses and wouldn't suddenly go crazy, he wasn't willing to gamble.

The Mesmerizer froze, momentarily unsure what to do, watching Gambit with a hint of unease as he seemed lost in thought.

Only when the three minutes were up and Li Wei had successfully copied her superpower did he let out a sigh.

"I can help you, but now I have a question too: where exactly did your Compound V come from?"

To be fair, her Intermediate Combat had some merit. If before Li Wei had relied purely on his strength and speed advantage to handle ordinary robbers and thugs, now he could practice some actual routines.

And it wasn't just punches and kicks—it included dodging, parrying, and a whole series of techniques.

Fighting street punks might not show much difference, but when going up against other supers of the same level, it would definitely prove its value.

In Li Wei's view, the weaknesses of this world's supers were far too many.

Even ignoring their moral and intellectual flaws, as well as their strong defenses but weak attacks, they were also severely lacking in combat experience against peers.

Even Homelander, at the very top of the power scale, mostly just relied on Heat Vision and wild haymakers, crushing opponents through raw stats.

If he couldn't steamroll them, his combat results were often far from satisfactory.

While Li Wei was doing his best to develop his own superpower, the one thing that required the most time to accumulate—combat skills—he could simply copy and paste.

This made Li Wei eagerly anticipate what level of martial arts he could get from Kimiko, an assassin trained by The Flash's organization, and Queen Maeve, the strongest fighter among The Seven.

The Mesmerizer froze again. She had deliberately avoided this question because she simply couldn't answer it!

Li Wei sighed once more, pulling his arm back. Now that the copy was successful, her usefulness had dropped significantly.

"If you can't be open and honest about all this, it'll be hard for me to help you much."

In truth, the Mesmerizer had even less intel than he did. He already knew Compound V came from some noodle shop in Chinatown—he just needed her to say it out loud.

Other than that, what use was the Mesmerizer? Sucking his toes?

On the other side, Butcher, who had just finished stuffing a corpse into the trunk, couldn't help but chuckle. "Hughie, how about you tell us about this Gambit guy now? How do you two know each other?"

Hughie scratched his head. "Actually, I wouldn't say we know each other. We've only met once."

He explained quickly. After hearing it, Frenchie grinned. "He sounds like a real superhero. Did he grow up reading comics?"

Mother's Milk frowned, and Butcher looked thoughtful. If that was the case, maybe he was worth using.

When they killed Translucent earlier, they had fully realized just how hard these supers were to put down.

Sure, Frenchie had killed a few supers before, but those third-rate ones were nothing compared to the difficulty of killing Translucent.

And their ultimate target was Homelander. If they could use other supers' hands to do the job, it might be a lot easier.

But he still needed to investigate thoroughly. Right now, they knew nothing about the guy, and his appearance today was way too convenient!