Rebirth in Black Robes

Staring at the unfamiliar ceiling, Li Wei couldn't help but sink into a chain of thoughts.

How did a Qidian writer who couldn't even scrape together a full-attendance bonus end up transmigrating into the world of The Boys after just falling asleep?

And on top of that, his soul had been asleep for eighteen years. Every time he recalled the stupid things he'd done back then, he cringed so hard he wanted to dig a hole.

Those things—now that he thought about them—most were pretty satisfying, but far from perfect, and sometimes downright petty.

For instance, seeing so many homeless people taking dumps on the streets, he created an app specifically for reporting feces.

Then he had investors send out dedicated poop-scoopers to clean up, charging the city government fees, coordinating to tidy up the city's image. He even got praised by the school for it.

But because there was just too much crap on New York's streets, the app crashed God knows how many times within two weeks of launch. The investors couldn't take it anymore and had to bow out.

Of course, he didn't lose a dime—he actually made a killing.

Another example: he copied Momo and Tantan from his past life and created a "Punch-Punch" app, letting bored people arrange real-life fistfights.

He even teamed up with a friend, changed their appearances, and beat the hell out of quite a few black guys.

Whether any died, he didn't know. When he left, they were all still alive.

Even if they died later, it could've been for other reasons, right?

As for the rest—using his superpowers to piss on some little Japanese guys' heads, and so on—there were countless incidents.

That's right, he was actually a superpowered person too. Or rather, in this world, he should be called a superhero.

Since 1965, Vought International had been training superheroes.

They'd inject babies with Compound V to mass-produce superpowered individuals.

Then came training and testing. Those with useless powers or who couldn't be controlled were often secretly executed or used as lab rats.

No helping it—exactly what ability each person awakened was completely random, like pulling a blind box.

Li Wei got lucky. Even though his soul hadn't truly awakened, some subconscious influence still affected him.

Add in maybe a transmigrator's hidden talent and his mixed-Asian heritage, his grades—whether in math, geography, history, brand marketing, or performing arts—were all pretty solid.

So last year, at 18, he graduated smoothly from Godolkin University and, with the top score at Lamp Lighter Academy for Fighting Evil, landed a government contract and signed with Vought. He was considered a rising star.

You see, the government only had about five slots a year for genuine superheroes. The rest, even with powers, mostly ended up singing, dancing, rapping, playing basketball, or selling products for Vought.

From that angle, they weren't much different from internet influencers in his past life—just with more strength.

Now Li Wei was the guardian of New Jersey. Small as it was, with New York State to the north, the economy couldn't be that bad. His signing bonus alone was in the millions annually.

When he had free time, he'd shoot a movie or take on endorsements. Even though Vought was so heartless that less than half a percent of the earnings actually reached Li Wei, the base was big enough that the money rolled in fast. Way better than his past life.

The stuff he'd done before—satisfying as it was—also caused social order problems and dragged in innocent bystanders.

Before truly awakening, Li Wei probably didn't care much. Superheroes in this world generally had rock-bottom morals. They didn't feel much guilt over accidentally injuring or killing ordinary people.

The government even gave them a "damage rate." It varied by state, but basically sat between 3% and 5%.

Meaning, if a hundred people were on-site during a superhero operation, casualties ideally shouldn't exceed five.

When living people turned into cold numbers, you couldn't expect superheroes to take it seriously.

Even if they exceeded it, no big deal. Vought's PR department would handle it—claim the dead were junkies or criminals, donate some money locally, and it was usually settled.

As for his codename, it was a bit awkward too: Angel. A superhero who didn't even exist in the original The Boys comics. But his abilities were pretty solid.

Ability 1: Extremely tough. Basically all body parts were immune to standard handgun or submachine gun fire, with matching strength, endurance, and regeneration.

Strength was around five tons—enough to toss a regular car around for fun.

Ability 2: Immune to common diseases and toxins. Standard for supers in this world. Regular drugs barely affected them, so plenty of them went looking for stronger kicks.

Ability 3: Fire light bullets. Power roughly equal to a sniper rifle, no cooldown, but needed a charge-up time.

Overall, fine for bullying ordinary people and third-rate supers. Against anyone with a real name, basically useless.

Unlike Marvel or DC next door, all the supers in The Boys were drug-made. Their basic ability was body enhancement, mostly with weak offense and strong defense.

Most could ignore handguns. Stronger ones could ignore submachine guns. Top-tier supers—like Starlight, one of the later Seven, or the hidden boss Head-popper—could ignore a Barrett.

It would hurt, and they couldn't avoid the impact, but first-rate supers might not even bleed.

As for the strongest—Maeve, Stormfront, Homelander, Soldier Boy—no need to mention them. They were all bus-smashing, tank-crushing powerhouses.

Of course, compared to DC or Marvel, aside from a handful of top-tier guys like Homelander, 99% of supers were just street-level.

In Marvel, they'd be at best Daredevil, Iron Fist, or Luke Cage—just with better defense.

Ability 4: Condense an Armor of Light on his body, boosting defense and reducing impact. After activating, he could basically ignore a heavy sniper and not get knocked back by it.

This ability was why Li Wei could be New Jersey's guardian.

Ability 5: Condense Light Wings behind his back. Purely decorative. Couldn't glide or fly, only used for illumination.

That last point was why the Vatican had breathed a huge sigh of relief. If Angel were Asian, what then? Would God possibly be a girl or a black person?

But now, after his soul truly awakened, that might start to change. Because Li Wei had gained a special ability.

It was called the Hero Codex System. After a bit of fiddling, Li Wei preferred to call it the "Make Friends and Get Stronger" system.

When he came into contact with someone of sufficient power, he could try to befriend them and ask: "Are we friends?"

As long as he received an affirmative answer, he could successfully light up the Hero Compendium based on that person. At that point, he could freely choose and copy one of their attributes—including but not limited to strength, physique, agility, defense, and superpowers.

As for whether the other party was sincere or insincere, in the eyes of his cheat, it didn't matter.

So even an enemy could theoretically have their abilities copied by Li Wei.

Moreover, if the target possessed multiple abilities, after copying one, he could proceed to copy a second.

However, since the system was still in its early stages, it did have certain limitations.

First, it required Li Wei to maintain continuous contact with the target for a period of time, allowing the system to analyze and copy. The longer the contact, the faster the analysis.

Second, copying abilities consumed a large amount of his energy. The basic rule was that the stronger the target and the more powerful their ability, the greater the consumption.

Depending on the ability, the time required also varied. The basic principle was that the more powerful the ability, the longer it took.

If the gap in strength between the two parties was too large, it might result in an incomplete copy—a watered-down version of the ability—or nothing at all.

But if Li Wei grew stronger later, he could choose to copy again without needing to ask that question.

Of course, the system could be upgraded. As he successfully copied more times, these limitations might gradually be lifted.

Finally, the target had to be superior to Li Wei in some aspect for copying to be possible. Otherwise, simply lighting up the Hero Compendium would only grant him an extremely minor all-around enhancement.

The strength boost was about 0.1 tons, and the other attributes—agility and so on—were roughly on the same level.

Even so, Li Wei was overjoyed.

Similar to most Western works, the superheroes in The Boys—once they gained their abilities at a certain level of power—basically stayed at that level for life.

They only declined due to old age, physical deterioration, or lack of training. They never improved, at most compensating through combat techniques or the like.

And aside from Homelander, most superheroes only had one ability beyond basic physical enhancement.

Given enough time, he would become the only superhero capable of continuously improving his abilities without any weaknesses.

After all, Vought International had already deployed two to three hundred superheroes across various states and counties. Others—those who promoted Vought's products, performed, and were nominally superheroes but were essentially no different from celebrities or influencers—numbered more than double that.

But according to the system, all of them could light up the Hero Compendium. Even if each only contributed 0.1 tons, the total from over a thousand people would be considerable.

When that time came, Li Wei would protect his Earth well!