What Is a Plan?

Over the next week, Li Wei remained extremely busy.

Besides his daily patrols around New Jersey and cooperating with Vought on commercials, he also had to train his various superpowers, familiarize himself with The Mesmerizer's fighting techniques, and truly turn them into his own strength.

There was also Firecracker. After she had completely submitted, Li Wei paid her a little more attention and decided to get her a bit more exposure going forward, tossing her a few treats. The cost was negligible to him anyway.

At the same time, he assigned her a task: buy a house somewhere secluded in the suburbs.

Firecracker mistakenly believed that Li Wei was doing this because he intended to be with her for the long term.

In reality, Li Wei was simply preparing ahead for Mute Wolf Girl—Kimiko.

Her existence was tied to A-Train and Homelander's secret experiment. She couldn't just show herself in public.

Li Wei needed her abilities, and even needed her herself, so naturally, he had to arrange a place for her to settle down.

In the original plot, Firecracker had once become Homelander's "wet nurse." If necessary, temporarily looking after Kimiko shouldn't be much of a problem.

Li Wei didn't explain anything, though. He let Firecracker keep misunderstanding. It would make her work harder.

Whenever he had time, he continued screening Vought's Superheroes, looking for those whose abilities would be easy for him to acquire, who were nearby, and who suited him best.

After obtaining Starlight's Super Defense, ninety-nine percent of Superheroes had become utterly unimpressive by comparison.

The results were pretty good. He successfully made contact with several Superheroes, not as Angel, but as a wealthy second-generation heir worth tens of millions.

Thanks to The Boys' success, along with all the compensation from Vought and New Jersey, he still had over ten million sitting in his bank account even without counting the value of his stocks. This disguise carried no risk of exposure whatsoever.

Honestly, if he revealed his true identity, his efficiency would certainly rise dramatically. But he didn't want to attract too much attention.

Maintaining good relationships with other Superheroes was something most Superheroes did. But trying to become friends with every single one of them would be a little too conspicuous.

Lastly, he had to juggle Starlight and Firecracker. Li Wei didn't know whether Starlight had noticed something, but she actually asked him what kind of relationship they had now.

Li Wei managed to brush it off. His approach was simple: no rejection, no responsibility. That was adapting to the local customs, wasn't it?

After dealing with a few thugs during another routine patrol and fulfilling part of his duty as the New Jersey Guardian, Li Wei's phone rang in his pocket.

The moment he saw the name on the screen, Li Wei couldn't help but smile. It was Hughie.

If nothing unexpected had happened, they had probably found where Mute Wolf Girl—Kimiko—was being held and screwed things up.

Seriously, when he watched The Boys in his previous life, he had complained more than once about the protagonist group. No planning beforehand, chaotic improvisation when things happened. It was only because they lived in The Boys, where everyone's intelligence was questionable, that they stood out among the idiots and seemed barely competent.

If they had been dropped into DC's Gotham, their corpses would probably have been rotting in the sewers and crawling with maggots within three days!

Complaints aside, Li Wei immediately prepared to head for New York.

New Jersey was still some distance from New York, and there was traffic at midday, so it took him a while to arrive.

When he got there, Hughie's face was long and miserable. He had clearly just been chewed out. He looked unwilling to admit defeat, yet too cowardly to openly resist.

That was because he had contacted Li Wei on his own without getting the others' approval.

But what choice did he have? When they tracked down their target, a mute woman had first snapped the neck of a fully armed guard with her bare hands, then disemboweled another guard, terrifying the third so badly that he shot himself.

With all the abilities she had displayed, she was definitely someone only a Superhero could possess. Hughie could only place his hopes on Gambit.

Frenchie and Mother's Milk also seemed to be at each other's throats. They had probably just had another argument.

Butcher, on the other hand, was still all smiles. "Welcome, Gambit. Sorry to trouble you again."

Despite his words, Butcher's suspicion and wariness were the strongest of them all.

A few days ago, he had asked one of his former lovers, Susan, the CIA's current deputy director, to investigate. The result was that there was no Gambit at all, as if the man had appeared out of thin air.

But that was impossible. Every one of Vought's Superheroes was registered and documented, even those who didn't even qualify as third-rate, because they had to make money for Vought.

There were only two explanations now:

First, he was an independent Superhero Vought had never discovered, and he intended to operate alone like Superman or Batman in the comics.

Second, he was using a false identity and deliberately concealing the truth!

Even though Gambit had seemed very righteous before, Butcher strongly suspected the latter.

But there was nothing he could do. Hughie had already called him without permission. Butcher couldn't exactly send him away halfway through, and they did need his strength now, so they could only roll with it.

Besides, they could use this matter to test Gambit or earn his trust. That depended on what he did next.

Li Wei first nodded at Hughie, then deliberately sniffed lightly and frowned. "At least three people's blood. What have you done this time?"

Butcher spread his hands. "We found Compound V. It was already in a syringe at the time. We suspect A-Train delivered it there to experiment on an imprisoned Asian woman."

"As for the blood..."

Butcher's gaze swept across Frenchie. It was Frenchie who had disobeyed orders and released her without authorization, creating this mess.

But Butcher didn't let Frenchie speak. Instead, his gaze finally settled on Hughie. Though he didn't yet know why, he had keenly noticed that the Superhero calling himself Gambit seemed to have a particular fondness for Hughie.

"Little Hughie, as the witness, why don't you explain things to our savior?"

"Can you stop calling me that? I'm six feet tall, you know."

Muttering a few complaints like some timid submissive, Hughie rapidly explained what had happened.

It was roughly the same as the plot Li Wei had seen in his previous life. He couldn't help narrowing his eyes slightly. "Their experiment was to create Superheroes?"

Butcher shrugged. "And it looks like they've achieved a certain degree of success."

Li Wei took a deep breath. "If A-Train and Vought really are behind this, then Superheroes everywhere will soon go mad searching for her. Yet you called me instead. Should I admire your courage, or thank you for your trust?"

Without waiting for anyone to answer, he continued, "Once you catch that woman, have you thought about what you'll do with her? Keep her locked up, or something else?"

"And what happened here will probably reach A-Train soon. Have you considered what will happen to our informant, The Mesmerizer? Will A-Train silence her permanently?"

Butcher and the others exchanged looks, suddenly at a loss for words, because they really hadn't considered any of that.

They had only thought about catching her and getting leverage over A-Train.

For Butcher, there was another reason: he wanted to find Compound V. With that physical evidence, he could go to his former lover Susan and seek help and funding from the CIA.

As for whether The Mesmerizer lived or died, Butcher didn't really care.

Ever since Homelander had slept with his wife, Butcher had stubbornly believed that every Superhero deserved to die. The Mesmerizer no longer had any value to him.

Well, the Gambit before him could perhaps be considered a temporary exception. He still had some use.

Even though he had expected it, seeing their reaction still left Li Wei somewhat speechless.

Butcher's ultimate goal was to kill Homelander, yet they treated such a dangerous mission like children playing house!

Aside from Hughie, who was completely useless, the other three called themselves elite agents and elite killers. Yet whenever something actually happened, they still had to rely on protagonist luck and on whether they or their opponents were more stupid!

Fortunately, Li Wei only wanted to maintain some connection with them. That way, when Butcher and Hughie temporarily gained superpowers through temporary Compound V later on, he would have a chance to try copying them.

He had no intention of being their long-term teammate. Otherwise, they would piss him off to death sooner or later.

"Did that woman have any special belongings with her? Jewelry, cosmetics, designer clothes, anything like that?"

Frenchie's eyes flickered at that. He had indeed found something, and more than one thing.

Li Wei noticed it and decisively held out his hand. "Time is tight. We need to find her as quickly as possible, then move her somewhere safe."

After glancing at Butcher and seeing him nod, Frenchie took out a small bottle. "There was this little thing. But when I found it, it was covered in a thick layer of dust. It probably hasn't been used in a long time."

Li Wei took it, inspected it briefly, then opened the cap and gave it a light sniff. "It has the faint scent of the hallucinogen LSD. It may have faded over time, but this thing is at least four hundred days old."

Butcher immediately frowned. Frenchie hadn't noticed such an important clue before?

Frenchie instantly looked a little embarrassed. He had only focused on the brand printed on it, then on tracking down the woman's location. He really hadn't opened it to inspect it closely.

And he actually had another clue: an address written on it. The Compound V they had found had been mailed there.

He had originally considered that the key lead, so he had carelessly overlooked this little thing.

Butcher didn't press the matter now. He merely cleared his throat. "OI, the situation is obvious now. That imprisoned Asian woman was probably drugged unconscious by someone she knew. Judging from her earlier behavior, she is very likely to seek revenge."

"All we need to do next is find where this little bottle came from, and we may be able to ambush her in advance!"

Li Wei snorted. "Then let me see what you're capable of. Will A-Train get to her first, or will you find her first?"