Mind Barrier Acquired

After quickly checking her clothes, the young woman dressed as a Muslim—also Vought superhero Sivler Kincaid—looked at the masked young man before her with a complicated expression.

She had gone through so much mental preparation. In the end, only because of the generous support he had promised and the innocent disaster victims had she resolutely made up her mind.

Yet after she had been nervous for so long, he had slept pressed against her in the same bed all night and done nothing?

Seriously, was she really that unattractive?

But yesterday, he had kneaded her with such enthusiasm, like working dough. Even now, she could vaguely feel some pain in her chest!

Seeing her expression, Li Wei could not help laughing. "What? You were worried about what I might do before, and now you're annoyed that I didn't do anything?"

Then he deliberately looked her up and down. "If you think it's a shame, it's only eight in the morning. At worst, I can spend an hour or two satisfying your little wish."

For him, nearly everything had gone very smoothly these past few days.

The facts proved that Firecracker was very smart and obedient. She had not asked a single question she should not have, and she was unexpectedly suited to taking care of people.

Kimiko had also been very cooperative. Although Li Wei had said she could go out, she had stayed indoors obediently and practiced martial arts every day.

Then, after several tests from Li Wei, Kimiko had successfully begun teaching Firecracker martial arts.

Aside from her joke of a superpower and the physical enhancement common among third-tier superheroes, Firecracker's main means of attack was actually a pistol. She was practically the shame of superheroes.

Therefore, Kimiko's martial arts would be a tremendous help to her.

In return, Firecracker taught Kimiko how to use phones, computers, and similar things, along with some common knowledge about modern society and the English needed for daily communication.

Although many of Kimiko's behaviors did not match Li Wei's claim that she was merely a friend temporarily staying there to recover, Firecracker smartly chose to ignore it.

Li Wei bringing Kimiko to the villa and entrusting her to Firecracker's care was both a sign of trust and a test. She did not want to disappoint Li Wei!

As for Kimiko, she had been taken by the Flash Organization as a child and trained as a killer and assassin. She had not completely lost touch with modern society, but there were indeed many things she did not understand very well.

The Flash Organization mainly operated in Africa rather than America. Conditions there were far worse than here, and she had never had the chance to come into contact with many things. She happened to need this.

On top of that, Li Wei fed and housed her well. Her life was far better than when she had been experimented on or used as an assassin, so she had not caused any trouble.

Incidentally, Li Wei also cultivated some affection with Kimiko. Since he had read the answers in advance, he found this very easy to do.

Kimiko was practically like an adopted stray dog. She had looked fierce before, but that had only been a way of protecting herself.

After deciding that Li Wei was a good person, her attitude changed drastically.

And after washing up and dressing herself properly, while she could not be called a great beauty, she was rather pleasant to look at—a modest, delicate young woman.

Perhaps she could stand in front when there was trouble and lie in front when there was none?

But regardless, after changing her into a set of pretty clothes, even the protagonist group that had met her would probably find it difficult to recognize her at a glance after seeing her again.

Vought International, meanwhile, had fallen into complete chaos. First, Flight 37's rescue had failed, and the more than one hundred passengers aboard had all died.

Although Homelander had an idea and shifted the blame to the American government during a reporter interview, claiming that the government's refusal to let superheroes enter the military had greatly delayed Vought's intelligence, causing his rescue attempt to fail rather than any fault of Vought or himself.

But the government was not going to take the blame lying down. Naturally, they refused to accept such a scapegoat for no reason, and the two sides were now making the situation quite unpleasant over the matter.

Then there was Translucent's death, which ultimately could not be covered up. He had endorsements for quite a few movies, television dramas, advertisements, theme parks, and more, not to mention events like opening ceremonies and ribbon-cuttings.

Vought could make excuses when he did not appear for a day or two, but after vanishing for so many days at once, even an idiot would know something was wrong.

Left with no choice, Vought finally announced to the public that Translucent had died in the line of duty and prepared to hold a rather grand farewell ceremony for him, as if he had been a true hero.

On top of that, A-Train still had not found Kimiko's hiding place, putting both Homelander and A-Train in a very passive position.

Butcher had even called Li Wei yesterday. He said that after he had called to warn The Mesmerizer, A-Train had secretly sent her overseas instead.

It seemed the two really did share a deep bond, and A-Train might already have prepared for the worst.

With his speed, even if he could not afford to provoke Homelander, he could still afford to hide from him.

Still, everyone knew that unless he was driven to the final step, A-Train would never be willing to turn against Homelander.

As a superhero at Vought, he lived a life of luxury every day, adored by countless people.

If he offended Homelander, not only would he lose all of that, but he would also be hunted by Homelander and spend every day in fear.

Even an idiot knew which choice to make. Li Wei would never let his guard down because of this.

But this frustrating life of hiding and evading should not last much longer, because the protagonist group led by Butcher would keep causing trouble for Homelander.

Then there was Sivler Kincaid before him. After spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and donating a large amount of food and other supplies to her country,

he had finally gotten the chance to sleep beside her without exposing his identity and successfully obtained three of her abilities.

They were Mental Barrier, telepathy, and Psychic Remote Sensing—three superpowers related to the mind and spirit.

The only slight flaw was that the latter two had both been marked by the system as beginner-level, which meant their upper limits were very low.

Especially the latter two. Li Wei roughly estimated that with his current strength, even if he developed them to their limits, he could probably only communicate simply with others within a few hundred meters.

It seemed that Sivler Kincaid appearing so weak was not entirely because she herself was useless. A large part of the reason was that her luck was terrible.

Fortunately, the Mental Barrier he needed most had not disappointed him. It was intermediate-level.

With this ability, he could try to find time to visit Godolkin University and meet Kate, the blonde wild girl who was still a student and possibly the strongest psychic in The Boys' World.

Sivler rolled her eyes at him irritably. "Too late. You've lost that chance forever. Our deal ends here. When will the follow-up funds you promised arrive?"

As a third-tier superhero disliked by Vought and even severely marginalized by them, she could not get endorsements or anything like that and did not earn much in a year. Coupled with the fact that she had genuinely gotten along well with him, she had ultimately agreed to this somewhat absurd arrangement.

She had already prepared herself before, yet she had lost nothing. That made her greatly relieved, but also somewhat unwilling to accept it.

Li Wei did not press the matter further. He still had some respect for someone as rare among superheroes as a person who kept herself clean.

The superheroes in The Boys' World followed one rule: the greater the power, the stronger the desire, and the easier it was to indulge oneself. Those who kept themselves clean were truly few and far between.

The serum injected into Captain America in neighboring Marvel was said to amplify certain emotions, making the good better and the bad worse.

Li Wei strongly suspected that Compound V possessed a similar trait: it tried to turn everyone into supervillains and lunatics!

Under such circumstances, the rarity of truly kind superheroes became even more apparent.

That was why he had not done anything last night. He had merely indulged his hands for a while. At the very least, her figure was quite good, though it was completely hidden when she usually wore her long robe.

Of course, her looks and skin tone did not quite match his preferences either. Her skin was dark brown, which easily made him think of the Black people he hated most.

Unless she was a beautiful Black pearl like Marvel's Storm, ninety-nine percent of Black people were ugly in his eyes.

Rather than responding immediately, Li Wei casually operated his phone for a few moments before smiling and nodding. "Done."

At the same time, Sivler's phone rang. After quickly glancing at it, she finally relaxed completely. This would allow her to help many more civilians.

She said very seriously, "Thank you. Although I don't know why you're doing this, I'll tell those children that you were the one who helped them."

Li Wei hurriedly waved his hand. "Don't. This is only a transaction, so don't mix personal feelings into it. I especially don't want anyone else to know I was involved."

Gritting her teeth, Sivler spoke again. "If you have similar needs next time, you can contact me. I won't ask you to donate more."

Li Wei blinked. What did that mean? Had I kneaded feelings into her? Since when did I have some kind of charm superpower?

No, perhaps she had discovered something.

Before Li Wei could speak, Sivler continued, "You're a superhero too, aren't you? An ordinary person couldn't make my chest hurt so easily."

Just as I thought. Li Wei gave a chuckle. "Don't pry too deeply. The deal is over. We'll be strangers from now on. Just pretend I was never here. It's better for both of us."

How could she possibly pretend he had never come?

Silently grumbling to herself, Sivler gritted her teeth again and took several steps forward. "I don't know what you're worried about, but I'm still a Vought superhero. If you need my strength, I'm willing to help you a little."

Hearing that, Li Wei was somewhat surprised. He did not refuse again, merely pondering for a moment. "Have you considered the price? Have you considered who those opposed to me might be?"

Sivler answered instinctively, "As long as it isn't Vought, I don't care about anyone else."

Li Wei was not surprised. "Fine. In that case, work hard on practicing your superpowers. When I need you, I'll contact you. Now, I really have to leave."

He still had something extremely important to do today. Blue Hawk had reminded him about it time and again: the annual Boys' Summit was about to officially begin!