An Accidental Encounter in the Elevator

Stan Edgar, the Vought CEO, the ultimate overseer of all Vought superhero operations.

When a boss-level figure like him personally called with an invitation, Li Wei naturally couldn't afford to snub him.

After spending a bit of time, Li Wei arrived at Vought Tower and prepared to take the elevator to the ninety-ninth floor.

Even though a crowd was lined up at the elevator doors, the moment they saw Li Wei, they all voluntarily made way, and no one tried to ride with him.

Experiencing this for the first time, Li Wei couldn't help but marvel inwardly—Vought really trained its employees well.

Or was it Homelander?

Just as the elevator doors were about to close, a sharp shout came from outside: "Wait!"

In less than a breath, with a gust of wind, a strikingly heroic woman dressed as an Amazon warrior dashed inside.

Li Wei took the initiative to greet her with a smile: "Hey, Queen Maeve."

Starlight Annie had formally introduced them before. As the second-strongest member of The Seven after Homelander, Maeve possessed several abilities that Li Wei found highly intriguing.

More crucially, according to his system, none of these abilities seemed to involve any special superpowers, so the time needed to copy them wasn't long!

Code: Queen Maeve

Type: Power Type

Special Ability 1: Super Strength—can exert up to 20-65 tons of force, influenced by physique and other factors. Fully copyable, estimated continuous contact required: 13 minutes.

Special Ability 2: Super Defense—can ignore standard truck collisions and ordinary bomb explosions, with strong resistance to energy attacks. Fully copyable, estimated continuous contact required: 11 minutes.

Special Ability 3: Super Agility—can overcome gravity through rapid running, enabling wall-running. Possesses exceptional jumping ability, balance, reflexes, perception, and body coordination. Fully copyable, estimated continuous contact required: 10 minutes.

Special Ability 4: Martial Arts Master (Queen Maeve)—proficient in nearly all conventional cold weapons and hand-to-hand combat, especially throwing and swordsmanship. Fully copyable, estimated continuous contact required: 12 minutes.

Special Ability 5: Drunken Fury—greatly increases alcohol tolerance, making it harder to get drunk. When truly drunk, may enter a berserk state, temporarily boosting strength at the cost of reduced thinking ability and body coordination. Fully copyable, estimated continuous contact required: 1 minute.

Special Ability 6: Path of Alcohol Abstinence—accumulates special power through prolonged abstinence and continuous training. When actively activated, temporarily boosts strength and explosive power. The longer the abstinence, the greater the boost and duration, up to 50 tons of force. Interruption or activation resets the accumulation. Fully copyable, estimated continuous contact required: 3 minutes.

Special Ability 7: Intermediate Horsemanship—fully copyable, estimated continuous contact required: 3 seconds.

All these abilities combined would take only about half an hour. Li Wei figured if he could find a chance to hook up with her, the time would be more than enough!

But even a Queen Maeve like this was still full of wariness toward Homelander, which spoke volumes about how terrifying his true power was.

According to Vought's public boasts, Homelander could ignore all modern attacks, including nuclear bombs.

Though that was an exaggeration, Li Wei figured Homelander could probably throw around a few hundred tons of force with his arms.

Maeve smiled: "Hey, Li Wei, just call me Maggie. Here to see Starlight again?"

She had a pretty good impression of him, not just because Starlight Annie had sung his praises in her ear.

But also because, after multiple observations, she'd basically confirmed that Li Wei was somewhat like Annie—they both still harbored illusions about the special identity of superheroes and were willing to work for it.

Among the morally bankrupt superheroes, that was so rare it reminded her of her own past.

She couldn't be a true hero anymore, but she was glad to see such a unique pair emerge.

That was also why she was willing to look out for Starlight in many ways.

Beyond that, she was a little curious.

She'd once chatted privately with Annie and heard her say that Li Wei was incredibly intense in that department—so intense that even Annie, a fellow superhero, could barely handle it. Annie was practically stuffed like a cream puff.

She really couldn't imagine a woman losing to a man in that area.

When she'd been with Homelander, she hadn't felt anything she couldn't take. Was Li Wei stronger than Homelander?

If Li Wei could hear Maeve's thoughts right now, he might laugh and tell her that this was a special application of his superpower.

Since he could stimulate cell proliferation to heal wounds, he could also drastically speed up the regeneration and maturation of his little swimmers to ensure he never ran dry!

The side effect was that those swimmers entered an overload state, making them unable to impregnate a woman.

To Li Wei, that was hardly a downside.

With his system, he could fully anticipate that he'd end up in close contact with many beautiful and powerful women in the future, and he didn't want to knock them all up.

Li Wei chuckled and shook his head: "Maggie, you guessed wrong this time."

Queen Maeve's real name was Margaret Maggie Shaw, but at Vought, everyone just called her Queen Maeve. Only a handful of people were qualified to call her Maggie.

As for Margaret—sorry, not a single person had done that yet, not even Homelander.

So Li Wei felt a bit flattered at the moment.

Still smiling, Li Wei gestured for her to look at the elevator buttons.

Following his gaze, Maeve was taken aback: "Mr. Edgar is looking for you? Why?"

Then she immediately realized her mistake: "Oh, Li Wei, sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

Edgar had been a hands-off boss for years, rarely dealing with superhero affairs. Even Homelander only saw him a few times a year.

Word was that Edgar had planned to hand Vought over to Madelyn completely and retire, but Madelyn's unexpected murder had thrown his plans into chaos.

But regardless, the fact that Edgar was summoning Li Wei privately now meant it had to be something extremely important or confidential—perhaps related to the new candidate for The Seven?

Although Vought had publicly announced a fair, just, and open selection process for all superheroes across the United States, everyone in the know understood it was just a ruse for fools. If Edgar was set on making Li Wei a member of The Seven, no one else's opinion mattered.

"It's fine, Maggie. If it's you, I'm willing to tell you everything."

"I heard there's a new restaurant nearby. Do you have time tonight?"

Maeve was stunned again. She wasn't naive enough to miss his subtext, especially with Li Wei looking at her with such tender affection.

While she felt a flicker of pride in her own irresistible charm, there was also a forbidden thrill, like sneaking around. Still, Maeve decisively refused—she didn't want to betray her newly made friend.

"No, I think you should take Annie instead."

"Is that so? What a pity. As for Annie..."

Li Wei deliberately let out a heavy sigh, his face full of conflict and reluctance.

This immediately piqued Maeve's curiosity: "What's wrong? Trouble between you two?"

Since the place they were heading to was eighty or ninety stories high, they had plenty of time to chat here.

Li Wei began to vent: "To be honest, she's too naive in many ways—naive to the point of foolishness."

"And we're not really a couple. I never confessed to her. I thought that night was just hormones messing with us."

Then he shifted his tone, staring intently at her: "Compared to a girl like her, I prefer mature women like you, Maggie."

If judged solely on looks, Maeve was just an average beauty, but combined with her status and superpowers, her appeal to Li Wei skyrocketed.

And that was his honest truth—Firecracker and Blue Hawk could vouch for him.

Faced with such a sincere confession, plus the thrill of taboo, Maeve began to waver.

She'd had a girlfriend before, but under Homelander's threats, she'd broken it off. Since then, she hadn't sought a partner, only occasionally fooling around with some muscular gym trainers.

But the gap between ordinary people and a top-tier superhero like her was painfully obvious—she'd never been fully satisfied.

And here was someone even Starlight couldn't handle—that held a strong allure for her.

Yet after a brief hesitation, she still decided to refuse.

She'd barely had any friends before, and now that she'd just become friends with Starlight, she didn't want to betray her like this, even if Li Wei claimed they weren't really a couple.

But before she could voice her refusal, Li Wei, already anticipating her reaction, pressed on.

"Besides, I can tell you what Edgar and I talk about later. It's not about The Seven—aren't you curious?"

Maeve wavered again. When it came to Edgar, she was indeed very curious.

After a few seconds of deep thought, she nodded slightly: "Fine, since you're so insistent, I'll agree. But let's be clear—it's just a meal. I don't want Starlight to misunderstand."

Li Wei readily agreed: "Of course, just a meal!"