Tek Knight's Invitation

Blue Hawk chuckled. Not only was he not embarrassed in the slightest, he was even vaguely proud. Not just anyone could drive a tank, and She-Beast had said she was very satisfied!

Seeing that Li Wei did not want to talk much more, he hurriedly stopped him. "Wait, Li Wei. Just like you said before, I deliberately showed racial discrimination against black people several times in public, and Tek Knight contacted me today."

"He invited me to visit his Tek Cave. I repeated what you taught me, and now he wants to invite both of us!"

Li Wei perked up as well. "Nice, brother. You did a good job!"

Tek Knight was a second-tier Superhero. In Li Wei's eyes, he was something like a knockoff Iron Man plus Batman.

He himself had not received much physical enhancement, only improvements to abilities such as his sense of smell, perception, and touch.

By observing the frequency of a target's heartbeat and breathing, he could determine with great accuracy whether they were lying or deliberately concealing something. Coupled with an intellect that ranked among the best of all Superheroes, this made him a highly qualified detective.

His Tek Cave was very similar to Batman's Batcave, and he also had a butler and an assistant, so Li Wei considered him a knockoff Batman.

His combat ability was not weak either, because it was said that he had, by sheer coincidence, obtained a meteorite that had fallen from the sky.

He successfully used a special material from the meteorite to forge a high-tech suit of armor—the Tek Suit—and equipped it with weapons such as electric guns and flamethrowers. It could also fly at high altitudes at speeds exceeding two hundred kilometers per hour.

Although the information Li Wei had looked up showed that the Tek Suit did not carry any advanced AI system, only ordinary computer programs, it still barely counted as a knockoff Iron Man suit.

Since the Tek Suit's main material came from the special substance in that fallen meteorite and could not be replicated at all, and since his family itself was extremely influential and Vought had also provided him with a certain degree of cover, the American government gradually gave up after its attempts to demand it had failed.

Li Wei was not particularly interested in the Tek Suit's combat capabilities. According to the wealth of information he had found online, the Tek Suit had decent straight-line speed but was quite lacking in maneuverability. It had even been shot down by a shoulder-fired RPG before.

So from that point on, Tek Knight had mothballed and downplayed the suit, appearing more often as a detective.

But that did not mean the Tek Suit had no value. Li Wei was very interested in its Energy Source!

Although Starlight had already made a request to Vought, he needed to make preparations on multiple fronts.

As it happened, Tek Knight, Li Wei, and Blue Hawk shared one trait—or rather, one hobby: discriminating against black people!

Compared to the latter two, Tek Knight's racism could be called a family tradition.

As early as eleven generations ago, his ancestors had made a fortune by capturing black people. Even now, his family still owned the largest number of private prisons in all of America.

Moreover, the related industries had long since matured: arrest, imprisonment, reform—a complete one-stop service.

After the reform was complete, they would release those black people, capture them again after a while, and keep repeating the process to make money.

Quite a few prisons also charged cell occupancy fees, making prisoners pay to stay imprisoned.

Many people even ended up buried in debt from serving time, leaving them with no choice but to go out and shoplift, after which they would repeat the entire cycle all over again.

Add to that the under-the-table trade in blood and organs that existed in every prison in America, and making money was practically inevitable.

With money and history, Tek Knight's family naturally had many truly important figures as friends.

Li Wei estimated that Tek Knight's circle of friends probably controlled more than one-third of America's GDP.

He might not be able to put someone in the presidency, but if he did not want someone to become president, his chances of succeeding would undoubtedly be very high.

If Li Wei could build a good relationship with Tek Knight, it would also greatly benefit his future.

He was not merely content with becoming New Jersey's protector or one of The Seven.

Only by becoming a Vought shareholder, or even its president, could he truly be said to have crossed class lines!

Just as Li Wei and Blue Hawk were discussing which day they should visit the Tek Cave and whether they should bring a few black people as gifts, Homelander was holding a meeting for The Seven in Vought Tower.

Ah, no. Ever since Translucent had been killed, they were temporarily The Six.

After tearing into everyone except Black Noir one by one, Homelander finally gave his summary.

"Everyone, I already know what caused this series of recent events. The enemy is already at our doorstep, yet you are still this lax. You have truly disappointed me."

With a wave of his hand, several photos appeared on the large screen.

At the front was naturally that guy who still had not been identified, who had been using Vought's name to swindle people while calling himself Gambit.

Then there were Butcher, Mother's Milk, Frenchie, and Hughie.

After the children's hospital was attacked yesterday, Homelander had personally gone to review the surveillance footage. One of them, a man who looked like a typical Englishman, gave him a very familiar feeling. He was certain that this was absolutely not the first time he had seen him.

After rapidly searching his memories, he recalled a meeting from many years ago.

The man's wife—Becca—had once shared a wonderful night with him.

And during his numerous recent public appearances, the man had occasionally shown up as well, filled with anger and hatred every time.

Homelander had not cared in the slightest back then, but now, guided by a man's intuition, he immediately realized that the man had come for revenge.

There was only one thing he had yet to figure out. How many damn years had it been? What had this guy been doing all this time?

Besides, his wife had come to him willingly back then. Was the guy really going to hold onto it for this long?

He felt that there had to be more hidden truths behind the matter, though he did not yet know what they were.

But that did not stop him from bringing out the other intelligence first. Following the trail, he had discovered some interesting things.

The others, however, were completely baffled. They did not know any of the people in those photos, and A-Train was no exception.

Because from beginning to end, he had never considered that fatal hit-and-run to be a big deal. Naturally, he had not gone out of his way to remember who the dead woman's boyfriend was. Every Vought Superhero got one death quota, okay?

It was only when Homelander said that they were the ones who had killed Translucent and coerced The Mesmerizer, Ezekiel, and several other Superheroes that A-Train and the others gradually realized the seriousness of the matter.

Yet they still exchanged confused looks, having no idea what the other side's motive was for doing all this.

Murdering Vought's Superheroes in an organized, planned manner—how was that any different from suicide?

Only Starlight vaguely sensed that this might have something to do with Li Wei, who was investigating Compound V.

But after what had happened yesterday, she had realized the secrets hidden beneath Vought's Superheroes. This matter was far too significant; she did not dare reveal any flaw in front of Homelander.

So she merely asked in confusion, "But what would their motive be?"

This time, she was not pretending. She really was deeply confused.

"Good question!"

Homelander was fairly satisfied with Starlight, this newcomer. Mainly because she was stupid enough to genuinely hold on to some heroic dream, and she admired him quite a bit. She was very obedient.

But he was somewhat dissatisfied with Angel, the boyfriend Vought had been pairing with Starlight.

He had met the guy several times at Vought Tower. On the surface, Angel had been very polite, claiming to be his loyal fan, and his expressions had been rather exaggerated.

But in reality, after seeing him, Angel's heartbeat and breathing had not changed in the slightest. He was obviously a fake fan!

He had neither admiration nor fear, leaving Homelander temporarily unable to figure out what he was really about.

But that had nothing to do with the matter at hand. Homelander turned to A-Train. "A-Train, you explain!"

"Me?"

A-Train looked completely baffled. Sure, those people had gone to The Mesmerizer's home, so they were clearly after him.

But even now, he could not figure out how they had learned that Compound V was connected to him. He was nothing more than an errand runner!

Homelander chuckled. "Your little brain still hasn't caught up?"

He pointed at the screen. "How about now?"

The next instant, a photo of A-Train shaking hands with Hughie appeared on the big screen, with Ashley and the others listed beside it as witnesses. A-Train finally remembered.

That photo had been displayed on both Vought's and his personal homepage for quite some time!

"Oh, shit, I know this guy!"

"You did turn his girlfriend into mush. It makes sense you'd remember him."

Homelander looked rather pleased at that moment. Every time he dealt with these people, he felt the thrill of crushing them intellectually.

A-Train grew even angrier. "I remember now. They went to The Mesmerizer's house before too. This Hughie has a serious grudge against me!"

Seeing Queen Maeve, The Deep, and Starlight all turn more serious, Homelander nodded in satisfaction.

"Good. Now we all know what needs to be done. We need to catch these murderers and avenge Translucent!"

"Next, I'll handle Butcher."

"Black Noir, continue tracking down that Frenchie."

"The Deep, you'll handle Mother's Milk. Intelligence says he has a wife and daughter. Hmm, quite a happy family."

The Deep hurriedly nodded, indicating that he understood what he needed to do.

Previously, he had outsmarted himself by handing Madelyn evidence that Flight 37 had been attacked by Heat Vision. Homelander had been furious, and he had to do everything he could to make up for it!

Then, before Homelander could continue, A-Train and Starlight both raised their hands like elementary school students.

Homelander was somewhat surprised. "Starlight, you first."

"I... I want to help too. I'll take any assignment!"

At first, Starlight had wanted to say that she would investigate Gambit, but she quickly realized that would be far too abrupt and could easily expose her true objective.

Although Homelander had always acted like a gentleman, after Translucent, The Deep, and A-Train had each revealed their dark sides, she could not be sure whether Homelander was the same. Maybe he was simply better at hiding it.

She did not want to casually say something that would ultimately implicate Gambit, who might be Li Wei.

If he really was Gambit, then he must have had his reasons for doing what he did!

Yesterday, she had already temporarily broken up with Li Wei because of her own stupidity. She did not want the two of them to drift further apart. Better to do less than make another mistake!

Seeing Starlight display such loyalty, Homelander became even more satisfied.

"Very good. Then you'll investigate Gambit. Find out where that clown came from, daring to impersonate one of Vought's Superheroes. But our priority is the four ordinary people who killed Translucent."

Since Compound V was involved, as well as the fact that he had been doing all this behind Vought's back, he did not want to appear overly concerned about it.

Then A-Train hurriedly added that he would handle Hughie. The information just displayed showed that Hughie also had a father.

Then everyone's eyes settled on Queen Maeve. Everyone else had an assignment—surely she could not be the only one slacking off?

Maeve thought for a moment before finally looking at Starlight. Out of some feminine instinct, she felt that Starlight was slightly unusual today, even though she had concealed it very well.

"Then I'll help Starlight."

Homelander nodded with a soft laugh. "Very good. Girls helping girls. Then let's all get moving. I hope to hear everyone's good news soon!"