Waiting for the Rabbit

On the way, Li Wei unexpectedly ran into a third-tier Vought superhero.

After lighting up her entry in the Hero Compendium and gaining a 0.1-ton strength boost, he was delighted to discover that his system had upgraded!

After the upgrade, the system's abilities were further enhanced.

First, after staying in close contact with someone for a period of time, he might be able to see through the superpowers they possessed without needing to ask that question.

Second, he no longer needed to copy a superpower all at once.

He could copy for two hours today and three hours tomorrow, continuously accumulating progress until it reached 100%.

Of course, there were still certain restrictions. The interval could not exceed twenty-four hours; otherwise, once interrupted, he would have to start over.

Even so, this was undoubtedly a tremendous enhancement for him.

Theoretically, even if he relied solely on handshakes, he would eventually be able to copy every superhero's powers!

It did not take Li Wei long to find the shop without any trouble.

However, he did not go inside. Instead, he found a café nearby and began waiting for the rabbit to come to him. While he was at it, he chatted with some of the superheroes he had added as friends over the past few days and arranged times to meet.

Even fourth-tier superheroes who were so low-level they did not even qualify as third-tier could still light up the Hero Compendium and give him a 0.1-ton strength bonus. A mosquito leg was still meat, after all.

The person he was currently focusing on was a Muslim girl named Sivler Kincaid. She was a third-tier superhero, and because of her country of origin, Vought did not think highly of her at all.

She was unremarkable in every other respect, but she possessed an ability Li Wei desperately wanted—Mental Barrier. It could block other people's mind control, mental attacks, and the like.

Her other abilities were Telepathy and Psychic Remote Sensing. The former allowed her to communicate directly through her mind with people within a certain range, while the latter let her sense and control distant objects to some extent.

Unfortunately, as a third-tier superhero herself, her development of these abilities was painfully lacking.

At present, her Telepathy was roughly equivalent to a paper-cup telephone made from a string and two cups. Its maximum range was only a dozen meters or so, making it practically useless.

Her other two abilities were much the same. They sounded incredibly cool, but in reality, they were severely underpowered.

But in Li Wei's eyes, all three of her abilities had immense potential.

In The Boys' World, superheroes with psychic or mental abilities were known to be exceedingly rare. Excluding this Muslim girl, they could truly be counted on one hand, and only three were famous.

One of them was Mindstorm, a member of Payback. All he needed was a single glance into someone's eyes to put them into permanent sleep and turn them into a vegetable.

Of course, if there was no eye contact, or if his eyes were covered, he immediately turned into a complete idiot.

Next was Kate, the blonde woman who was still studying at Godolkin University. She could manipulate people's minds through touch and also hear other people's thoughts at close range.

In a sense, she could be considered a knockoff version of Marvel's Professor X.

Then there was Mr. Mesmer, another man capable of reading thoughts through contact. Compared to the others, his superpower was far more low-rent. He could only sense what the other person was thinking at that moment, and probing any deeper was extremely difficult.

But through writing books, making movies, and similar ventures, he had still made a fortune.

Li Wei was not afraid of enemies who were stronger or faster. As long as he had enough time, he was confident he could find a way to fight them, or even surpass them.

But anything involving mental power was rather insidious. He might get ambushed without even knowing when it happened, so he decided to deal with this Muslim girl first.

The current progress was going very smoothly. She came from a war-torn country and needed financial and material aid. Once Li Wei started throwing money around under the guise of being a rich second-generation heir, it was easy for him to win her favor.

The only problem was that Islamic law prohibited premarital sex and sex outside a legal marriage. She also did not believe Li Wei merely wanted to sleep innocently beside her rather than covet her body, causing the matter to reach a stalemate.

Li Wei was considering whether he should pretend to be gay in order to lower her guard.

Or perhaps he could simply reveal his true identity and guarantee it in Angel's name. She should be willing to believe him then.

In any case, he only needed to maintain close and intimate contact with her for a while. It was not as though he actually intended to sleep with her.

Next, he decided to obtain some levitation or flight abilities to improve his mobility.

Simple levitation or flight was not particularly rare, and superheroes who possessed them usually had no other standout traits. The process would not be especially difficult.

Hughie, meanwhile, was extremely busy. He first needed to rent a vehicle to ensure they could retreat immediately after capturing their target.

It also had to be rented anonymously, and they had to wear masks and such. Li Wei did not want their target tracing things back to Hughie and discovering his true identity.

Things were no longer like the original plot. Without Starlight protecting him, Hughie would very likely be killed on the spot by A-Train.

Although A-Train turned over a new leaf later in the story, the current A-Train was still like most Vought superheroes—a man who regarded human life as worthless.

Then there were miscellaneous chores, such as buying Kimiko a new outfit and preparing some food.

Considering Kimiko was Asian, Li Wei specifically had Hughie prepare Chinese food, Japanese cuisine, Korean kimchi, and more.

Of course, he knew Kimiko was a Japanese girl, but he had to keep up appearances.

Hughie might not be smart, but afterward, Butcher would definitely question him closely about everything that had happened. Li Wei did not want to casually reveal this detail, or there would surely be plenty of trouble later.

For Li Wei now, killing Butcher and the others would be easy, but that would be rather wasteful.

He needed them to fully unleash their talent for stirring up trouble, tying down Homelander and Vought's attention, and bringing Soldier Boy back from Bear Country. Only then could things be considered temporarily settled!

Thus, Li Wei waited leisurely for Kimiko's arrival in the air-conditioned café.

Hughie, on the other hand, ran all over the place. He even called Li Wei, Butcher, and the others for help several times before finally returning, drenched in sweat, to meet up with Li Wei again.

During that time, because of Li Wei's outfit, passersby and café patrons frequently asked to take photos with him, repeatedly claiming to be his fans.

What a joke. Other than Butcher, Hughie, and a few others, Li Wei had never revealed this persona to outsiders. He had no idea where these fake fans came from.

It could only be said that thanks to Vought's propaganda, the concept of superheroes had long since become deeply ingrained in people's hearts. Whether they recognized someone or not, seeing a person dressed like a superhero meant taking a picture first. Maybe they could use it as bragging material later.

If those miserable mutants from the neighboring Marvel universe saw this, would they not be driven mad with envy and jealousy?

After Hughie returned, Li Wei first thanked him sincerely, then took out money to reimburse his expenses.

Hughie had always been a poor loser. Since his girlfriend had been killed by A-Train, he had been running all over with Butcher without even having a job. There was no need to take advantage of him over such a small amount.

Besides, Li Wei was investing in the future.

After taking temporary Compound V later on, Hughie's superpower would be Teleportation, and he could bring other people with him.

Whether used for attacking or escaping, that ability was unquestionably absurdly powerful.

The price was just a little ridiculous: he and anyone he carried would be stripped completely naked one hundred percent of the time.

If they suddenly charged at an enemy naked, the situation would probably become extremely awkward.

If something like that really happened, Li Wei thought it would be best to kill the other party on the spot. Otherwise, if the enemy spread the story around, it would be far too humiliating.

His father also had Teleportation, only his was even more uncontrollable. After gaining the ability, he had killed a whole lot of people in one go.

But no matter what, abilities involving space were extraordinarily rare in the entire Boys universe. If possible, Li Wei truly did not want to miss out on it. Now was the perfect time to begin building goodwill.

Hughie was immediately pleasantly surprised and even somewhat at a loss, not knowing what to say for a moment.

In fact, neither he nor Butcher and the others had ever expected Gambit to pay for these expenses.

On top of that, Li Wei's previous actions had all been distinctly different from those of other superheroes.

When Li Wei casually ordered him coffee and food, then paid first and treated him, Hughie's favorability toward Li Wei shot straight up. He practically poured his heart out to Li Wei and looked ready to tell him his bank card password.

After he had eaten and drunk his fill, Li Wei's ears suddenly twitched. He keenly detected a faint disturbance coming from the street corner.

He immediately closed the chat window, grabbed his long staff, and stood up.

Hughie immediately rose with him in some panic. "Is she here?"

"That's right. Just stay here obediently, so you don't get accidentally hurt by her!"

Although Hughie's performance in the plot was utterly absurd—A-Train did not kill him, Soldier Boy did not kill him, and Homelander did not kill him—

Newman, the heavyweight female villain known as the Head-popper, even tried to play poker with him despite having a husband.

The shapeshifter outright took on Starlight's appearance and slept with him twenty times over ten days, trying out cosplay, uniforms, anal play, and everything else.

There were countless examples like that. He was practically the chosen one.

But after Li Wei arrived, this world had already begun to change. Li Wei could not be sure whether Kimiko might casually slash Hughie to death with one claw!