The Beginning of the Story

"I offer my deepest condolences to Robin Ward's family."

Li Wei, who had been testing his abilities one by one, turned his head and saw a Black man in a blue-and-white uniform on the big screen, absentmindedly reading from a script.

Clearly, he did not care all that much, just like when many superheroes accidentally killed civilians.

Li Wei immediately realized that he had arrived right at the beginning of The Boys' storyline.

A-Train, one of The Seven, had taken drugs and lost control of his speed, smashing the male lead Hughie's girlfriend Robin into a pile of flesh, leaving only her arms behind.

Could he do something at this point? The answer was yes.

At this time, A-Train, one of The Seven, had ostensibly retired, but was actually doing dirty work for Vought.

Vought International therefore needed a replacement and had been holding nationwide competitions and auditions for a long time. They were now basically nearing the end.

According to the plot, the chosen candidate would be Iowa's sweetheart, Starlight.

Her power was to absorb electricity and emit light, while her eyes lit up like floodlights when she climaxed.

Since he could also emit light, he could totally use his seniority to sweet-talk her!

Then there was A-Train's girlfriend, The Mesmerizer. She was a retired third-rate superhero. These superheroes all believed in living for the moment, partying and spending wildly whenever they had money.

As a result, after retiring, she had not saved anything at all. Not only did she live in a shabby little apartment, she even had to sell her looks to her landlord just to delay paying rent.

A-Train also did not want to make their relationship public. Seeing her once a week on average was already pretty good, which left her quite lonely most of the time.

Li Wei figured that with his looks, plus a few benefits for her, then some excuse to practice martial arts together, he should be able to obtain her superpower with ease.

Although New Jersey was not entirely his territory, and he was only responsible for the state capital, Trenton, while other people handled the counties below it,

because he was Asian and represented a considerable number of potential customers, coupled with his outstanding appearance and especially photogenic face on film, he was undeniably a strong second-tier superhero, all right?

At Vought International's annual conference last year, he had sat in the third row, which was quite close to the front.

Unfortunately, The Mesmerizer's power was weak. She could only grow two sharp bone spikes from her wrists. Even if he acquired it, it would not mean much unless he wanted to cosplay Wolverine. Sadly, Marvel comics did not exist in this world; there was only DC.

Then there was Mute Wolf Girl, Kimiko, from the original protagonist group. She had essentially inherited Wolverine's healing ability. Where was she being held for experiments right now?

It seemed to be the basement of some grocery store in Chinatown?

Seriously, he had watched the show back then, but eighteen whole years had passed. Even though he was a superhero, he only remembered parts of the main plot. The details had nearly all faded away.

Still, Homelander stood behind Kimiko, so he definitely could not act rashly. Did he have to rely on the protagonist group?

Thinking of that made Li Wei feel rather annoyed.

Excluding Starlight, there were five people in the protagonist group.

Hughie had originally just been a clerk at a roadside shop, so no one should have expected too much from him.

After going through numerous events later on, his improvement had been obvious to all, and many people considered him the conscience and moral bottom line of The Boys.

Butcher—Billy Butcher—would stop at nothing to achieve his goals. Lying and selling out teammates were everyday occurrences for him.

He was also a cuckolded bastard. To protect the little brat his wife had conceived through cheating, he had actually given up on taking revenge against Homelander.

What was even more outrageous was that he had cheated first. His wife had only offered herself to Homelander in the end because she wanted revenge on him and genuinely admired Homelander to some extent.

So from the very beginning, the person he should have hated most was himself.

Of course, aside from Li Wei, an outside observer, Butcher was still completely in the dark. He had no idea that his wife was alive and had borne Homelander a son.

Homelander had not expected that he would hit the mark in one shot either. Butcher's wife was still being hidden by Vought International in some secret location.

Before this, every superhero in the world had been created through Compound V. Homelander's son alone had been born naturally, and the significance of that was completely different from ordinary things.

Furthermore, because his catchphrase was "OI," Butcher had also been called the "OI Hero" in Li Wei's previous life.

Frenchie was bisexual, a killer, and an addict. He showed no mercy to anyone, whether elderly, young, women, or children. He had even wiped out entire families before sleeping with the survivors many times.

Uh, or perhaps being slept with. Either way, considering all the crimes he had committed, it would not be a pity if he died ten times over.

Then there was Mute Wolf Girl. She had once belonged to an extremist organization called The Flash. From the time she was barely in her teens, she had been trained through extremely brutal methods. Her survival had come at the cost of at least dozens of companions she had personally killed.

After completing her training, she had done even more dirty work. Otherwise, how could The Flash have been called an extremist organization?

Yet after being rescued, she diligently worked for Butcher without pay. An assassin who had lived in darkness all her life also longed for light and warmth.

Later, she and Frenchie seemed to have something like a platonic romance, but Frenchie would rather fool around with men than seek her out. Who knew whether it was because of insecurity or something else.

Of course, it might also have been related to her ability. She possessed Super Healing. Even injuries such as having her head blown apart or a leg cut off could not truly kill her, and she would recover in an extremely short time.

Then theoretically, despite still being a girl, she clearly could not accommodate any ordinary man, because that area might heal at high speed as well. Given superheroes' physical constitutions, an ordinary person would probably be severed outright, right?

Lastly, there was Mother's Milk, known for short as MM. Although Li Wei did not particularly like him, he had to admit that he might be the most reliable person on the team.

But in a world with superheroes, ordinary people had no protagonist's plot armor. Even the aftermath of battles would have been enough to kill him many times over.

Just as he was thinking about it, Li Wei heard footsteps outside the door, followed by a booming voice. "Hey, buddy, it's getting dark. Time for our daily appointment to beat up The Boys!"

Li Wei thought, I was just muttering about him, and now he's come knocking.

He immediately smiled and opened the door. Outside stood a white man wearing a helmet despite the blazing heat, looking none too bright.

Seeing the Light Wings Li Wei had summoned for his experiments, the man grinned. "Buddy, checking out your big wings again? Too bad you're Asian. Otherwise, even if you couldn't fly, the Vatican would be going crazy over you."

These days, even the Vatican had political correctness.

Previously, a woman named Faith, who had angel wings, had been deliberately suppressed. She had not even managed to get government contracts and had to make money for Vought by singing and taking odd performance gigs everywhere. Calling her a third-rate superhero would have been praise.

By comparison, Li Wei's situation was infinitely better because he was strong enough.

But if they had been white, both of them might have had a chance to become one of The Seven by now!

Li Wei smiled. "Correction: I'm Chinese American, and I have always been proud of it."

The other man was Blue Hawk, the other person responsible for New Jersey alongside him, as well as Li Wei's former schoolmate.

In truth, their relationship had not been particularly harmonious at first. Blue Hawk had originally ruled New Jersey with absolute authority, but then Li Wei arrived and took his position.

Blue Hawk could not openly defy Vought International's orders, but he was extremely unhappy about it. He had caused trouble several times, both openly and behind the scenes, so Li Wei gave him a physical lesson. That had completely turned them into enemies.

But they soon discovered that they shared a hobby: beating up Black people whenever they had nothing better to do.

The emergence of The Boys had also greatly increased Blue Hawk's success rate with entrapment. When he learned that The Boys had been developed by Li Wei, that Li Wei still owned a considerable number of shares, and that a Vought International subsidiary seemed to be involved behind the scenes, Blue Hawk immediately went from hater to fan and became Li Wei's die-hard friend.

Or perhaps it was more accurate to call him a bad influence. Things like urinating on people were hard to say how much had been Li Wei's own idea and how much had been encouraged by Blue Hawk.

Blue Hawk had even invited him to group sex parties and smoking weed several times. With superheroes' physical constitutions, those things were basically like alcohol, with side effects that could almost be ignored. All they had to do was enjoy themselves.

But Li Wei had never accepted.

As a Chinese American, even though he had grown up in an orphanage and had not awakened the memories of his previous life, he still had his own principles and boundaries.

Blue Hawk was slightly embarrassed but said nothing. In America, whenever racial disputes were involved, it was better to speak less.

He also understood very well why Li Wei was so insistent. The category of Asians was broad, and Japanese Americans, Korean Americans, and Chinese Americans did not get along with one another at all.

Just as he was about to spend some money to make up for his careless remark, he saw Li Wei ask solemnly, "Blue Hawk, are we friends?"