Preparations for Otherworld Teleportation

The next afternoon, Teresa woke up looking utterly bewildered. She had no memory of what had happened the previous night, and the back of her head hurt terribly, as if someone had given her a vicious beating.

Meanwhile, Li Wei had already returned to New Jersey. He diligently completed his routine patrols and cooperated with Vought to film several promotional videos.

Any Superhero who had successfully graduated from Godolkin University was certainly a competent performer, and Li Wei was no exception. It did not take much of his time.

He was exceptionally excited now. After nearly ten hours of close contact, he had successfully acquired Teresa's superpower—Otherworld Teleportation.

What delighted him even more was that, with the energy he currently possessed, he already had enough for one teleportation!

However, he was in no hurry to act. There was still plenty of preparation to do beforehand.

He had no idea which world lay on the other side of the Portal. What if it was the hell of myth and legend, or some other world filled with numerous powerful evil beings? With his current strength, would he not simply be delivering himself into danger?

The Boys' World was not a world with particularly high power levels. Even Homelander, the strongest of them all, would find it far from easy to destroy a city.

More than ninety percent of ordinary Superheroes were merely neighborhood-level. They could not even demolish a single building.

If they were dropped into Gotham next door in DC, they would be played to death within days.

If they were sent to Marvel, they could probably compete with the likes of Daredevil, Elektra, or Iron Fist for scraps in a dump like Hell's Kitchen.

Then there was another issue: he needed enough energy in reserve to ensure that he could return to The Boys' World immediately in an emergency.

In fact, ever since he had successfully copied Starlight's superpower, he had been trying hard to purchase some small portable power supplies.

Starlight had to first draw electricity from her surroundings before she could maximize her strength.

There was certainly enough electricity for her to use in a city, but in rural outskirts, or extreme environments like deserts, she would be crippled by more than half.

If the world he visited turned out to be a post-apocalyptic wasteland or a primitive jungle with no electricity at all, would that not be even more baffling?

Li Wei did not want to make such a foolish mistake, so he needed to prepare in advance.

Unfortunately, since he could not use Vought's channels, progress had been limited. Those ordinary little gadgets that could only store a few hundred or a thousand watts might be enough for normal people, and could let an electric car travel thousands of kilometers, but they were still far from enough for him.

After considering it, Li Wei felt that he might still need to use Starlight as a breakthrough. He could have her make a request to Vought, then find an excuse to snag one for himself!

While he was at it, he also wanted to make some suitable weapons.

Weapons did not merely increase attack power; they were also extensions of the arm. If his enemies were particularly disgusting—for example, covered in pus or corrosive fluids—then weapons would come in handy.

He had his eye on a special material that was highly suitable for Superheroes: Chromium Carbide Alloy.

It had exceptional resistance to high temperatures, low temperatures, corrosion, and more. It also possessed a certain degree of energy ductility, making it perfect for him.

The only problem was that the stuff was extremely expensive. Prices easily ran into the millions or tens of millions. Even with the wealth he currently controlled, it was a heavy burden.

All his liquid funds were probably only enough to make an axe, a spear, or perhaps two swords.

Moreover, Vought would almost certainly not cover that kind of expense for him. After all, there was no need for such equipment when dealing with ordinary people.

If Li Wei openly said that he needed it to deal with Superheroes, that would be practically turning himself in.

There was no need to think about it. Li Wei was completely certain that Homelander, A-Train, and Vought were all watching his false identity as Gambit.

The former two wanted to find Kimiko's whereabouts, while the latter wanted to know exactly where he, someone not registered with Vought, had come from.

The moment he made such a special request, it would definitely arouse their suspicions.

So Vought definitely could not be allowed to pay for it. He would have to pay out of his own pocket.

Still, that gave him motivation to make money. These things were true money-devouring beasts.

Then there were uniforms and armor. Comparatively speaking, they were not especially expensive, and Vought already had highly mature manufacturing processes.

Veteran members of The Seven like Homelander and Queen Maeve had similar uniforms. Ordinary sniper rifles could not even scratch the surface, and even amid a hail of bullets, they did not have to worry about being shot naked.

As the protector of New Jersey, Li Wei's original uniform had also been a specially made Reinforced Shark-Proof Suit, capable of almost completely ignoring ordinary knives.

Li Wei had already spoken with Ashley and handed over his requirements, as well as the uniform's appearance and so on. Now he only had to wait.

Second, as New Jersey's protector, he could not leave for too long.

Moreover, he did not know how time passed in the world beyond the Portal. If it was the same, that would be fine, but if it differed, something might happen.

Unless he simply resigned, or became one of The Seven, even replacing Homelander.

But the latter was still rather difficult at present, while the former would not benefit his continued interactions with other Superheroes. That would not work either.

Finally, Li Wei needed to find time to investigate Teresa and see whether she was a bloodthirsty murderer.

Even if she could not use that special superpower now because she severely lacked energy, perhaps one day in the future, she might suddenly have an epiphany and be able to use it.

If she connected to other worlds and let in several evil beings like demons, that would be extremely bad for this world.

Although, judging from Teresa's current state, she would basically be unable to accumulate enough energy even if she lived for hundreds of years, and Li Wei did not particularly care whether ordinary Americans lived or died, it would be even better if he could find a once-and-for-all reason.

Unfortunately, this was not a suitable place to make a move. Otherwise, he could save himself a great deal of trouble.

By comparison, failing to obtain the TNT Twins' superpower was not much of a loss.

Compared to the current Seven, Payback had even more deadweights. The TNT Twins were typical deadweights: it took two people working together to activate their superpower, and its power was not even stronger than an ordinary grenade. Li Wei truly did not think much of it.

Just then, Li Wei felt the phone in his right pocket vibrate. It was the unregistered phone specially used to contact Hughie and the rest of the main cast. It looked like they had made another discovery.

But given Butcher's personality, if he was taking the initiative to contact him like this, he was definitely up to no good. Either he was preparing to screw him over, or he needed something from him!

After he answered, Hughie's effeminate voice immediately sounded.

"Sorry to disturb you, Gambit, but we need your help right now?"

"What kind of help? Hiding that girl has already driven me up the wall. I thought I would be hearing some good news." Li Wei deliberately put on a highly impatient tone.

Li Wei had always been fairly polite to Hughie before. This was the first time he had used such a tone, and Hughie was immediately at a loss.

But Butcher and the others beside him gave him encouraging looks, signaling for him to continue.

They had been investigating constantly lately, yet they had never uncovered any useful information. There was not even any record of Gambit within Vought.

Nor had any Superhero with similar abilities, attire, or a similar nickname been active anywhere else. It was as though he had deliberately revealed himself only around them, causing their investigation to hit a bottleneck.

Now, all they knew was that he was most likely somewhere in the south, based on the place where Hughie had dropped him off that day.

But they could not confirm whether that was a clue he had deliberately left for them in an attempt to confuse their thinking.

Given the intelligence he had displayed, that was absolutely possible.

Their investigation into Compound V was growing deeper, and they did not want an unknown mysterious Superhero lurking behind them any longer. So while they genuinely needed help, they also wanted to take this opportunity to uncover his true identity.

Hughie steadied himself slightly. "It's like this. We tracked down Ezekiel, but we currently can't get into his Diamond Club or meet with him privately. So we wanted to ask whether you could help us handle that?"

"Samaritan's Embrace was founded to raise charitable donations. The Diamond Club only costs fifteen thousand dollars to join. Can't you just pay?" Li Wei's voice carried obvious confusion and incomprehension.

Mother's Milk, who heard those words through the phone's speaker, hurriedly wrote them down. Fifteen thousand was not much money for Gambit, so he probably was not some poor third-rate Superhero.

Still, it was not an important clue. Of the more than two hundred Superheroes Vought had stationed across various states and counties, none of them would care about that amount of money. That did not even account for those born into wealthy families.

"Uh, that's our other problem. We don't have that much money on hand right now."

Li Wei could not help laughing. He roughly understood what they meant. They wanted to use a loan, bank account details, and similar methods to try to determine his true identity?

That sounded like something Butcher would come up with, but were they really treating him like an idiot?

His tone changed immediately. "Are you kidding me? Even if you don't have the money, don't you know how to submit a funding request to your superiors?"

Hughie was immediately bewildered. "Superiors? What superiors?"

Butcher felt that something was wrong. Damn it, did he know about that too?

"Fine, let me put it plainly. Didn't the CIA give you funding? Hmph. Just as you investigate me from the shadows, I naturally investigate you too."

"The CIA? But Gambit, we aren't working with the CIA."

Hughie remained completely confused, while Mother's Milk and Frenchie's gazes gradually shifted toward Butcher.

Gambit should not have said that casually, and they both knew about Butcher's connection to the CIA. He had an old flame there.

"Oh, I get it."

Li Wei suddenly spoke in a tone of realization. "So Butcher never told you that he's employed by the CIA's deputy director!"

"Haha, you'd better ask him clearly. Maybe he's embezzled a whole lot of your funding."

"Poor Hughie, you've been taking such huge risks running around with him. Don't tell me you haven't even been paid?"

"If that's the case, you might as well come work for me. I happen to need an errand boy!"

He hoped Butcher would focus all his energy on causing trouble for Homelander instead of trying to uncover his true identity. He did not yet possess the ability to deal with Homelander once and for all, and that was very troublesome.

Hughie's expression immediately turned extremely ugly. He truly had not received a single cent in wages, relying almost entirely on his meager savings.

Butcher did not even reimburse meal expenses. God knew how many hamburgers Hughie had eaten just to save money!

Mother's Milk and Frenchie did not say anything. They simply stared steadily at Butcher. They were not especially surprised; it was the sort of thing Butcher would do, though he was probably not simply embezzling money.

They both knew that Butcher had not decided to do this for money. He was doing it for his wife, to seek revenge against Homelander.

Butcher snatched the phone away. "Fine, I understand what you mean. So can we talk openly now? What exactly is your purpose?"

Here it comes. Li Wei had prepared for this long ago, so he answered without hesitation:

"If I said I wanted to be a real hero and uphold justice in the world, you probably wouldn't believe me."

"Then just assume I'm doing it to seize The Seven, or even Homelander's position!"

"And get one thing straight: I'm not your babysitter. Don't bother me over every little thing!"

This is an American comics story, not just The Boys. If there are any worlds you would like to visit next, abilities you want to obtain, beautiful women you want to encounter, or Superheroes you want to save, feel free to leave a comment under this chapter or in the book reviews. Thank you very much!