Be Polite

The next day, a piece of news that had been repeatedly verified exploded.

Stormfront, who had parachuted into The Seven not long ago and quickly gathered a large fan base, suddenly retired. Vought International released a two-thousand-word essay regarding this.

The main point was simple: Stormfront chose to leave the team for personal reasons, and Vought respected her wishes.

Public attention was diverted, and the whole world was busy discussing, speculating, and gloating.

Look at who was left in The Seven now?

Homelander!

Queen Maeve!

Starlight!

Black Noir!

Perhaps they should just change the name; how about "Homelander and His Invisible Minions, Plus His Ex-Girlfriend and Current Girlfriend"?

In the public eye, Homelander had publicly admitted in an interview that he was dating Starlight.

So, calling it that was absolutely spot on.

As for which lucky person would be able to join The Seven and skyrocket to fame while filling the vacancy, that was a matter for later.

While social hot topics were being shifted, Ryan's film crew continued to operate in an orderly fashion.

Director Adam remained professional, as if he and the entire crew had collectively developed amnesia regarding what happened yesterday.

During a break in filming, Ryan saw Ashley rushing over and immediately turned to board his trailer.

Ashley clicked her high heels as she hurried to catch up.

Once the door closed, she immediately pulled out a receipt. "Ryan, the university officially rejected the proposal for Cate to play a supporting role. The written reason is that the pressure of final exams is too high, and the school does not allow top-five students to be distracted."

Ryan rubbed his chin. "There must be something wrong with this Cate."

"Yes, I think so too. There's no reason for the school to reject your crew."

Ashley nodded in agreement with a serious expression, then immediately added, "I will investigate this Cate thoroughly and confirm Mitchell's situation as soon as possible."

"Ryan, you just focus on filming. This movie..."

"It's precisely because of this movie that I don't want to be distracted, which is why I need to confirm Mitchell's safety as soon as possible."

Ryan shook his head and sighed. "After all, she was caught in the crossfire while working for me. If I don't care about her safety and leave her to fend for herself, who knows how Stan will deal with her."

"This..."

Upon hearing Ryan say this, Ashley felt both happy and worried.

What made her happy was that although this little ancestor of hers seemed innocent but was actually cunning, he wasn't part of Homelander's camp.

Working for him meant, at the very least, having no worries, as he would keep you in his heart.

After all, if he could be this concerned about a small fry like Mitchell, as long as she served him well in the future, would she ever have to worry about losing more hair?

The worry was simple: she really didn't want Ryan to take any risks.

If something happened, even a scratch, believe it or not, Homelander would turn the entire Godolkin University to ash once he found out.

Thinking of such consequences made Ashley's scalp tingle.

"Ryan..."

"Alright, Ashley, you don't need to persuade me. Later, give me the basic information on the university, as well as Cate's abilities and her network."

After giving the order, Ryan suddenly remembered something and asked, "By the way, Ashley, is Dad going to perform a hero rescue tonight?"

Ashley looked at Ryan's eyes and nodded hesitantly. "It's possible!"

"That's good."

After saying that simply, Ryan sighed again. "It's not good to always be fake. Perhaps in the future, I can drag Dad along to do some real rescues."

"Relax, I know that a rescue without media exposure isn't a successful one!"

"But just think of it as having a dessert after getting tired of a heavy meal. Maybe Dad will also come to enjoy people's sincere gratitude and worship, who knows, right?"

Ashley didn't say anything, clearly unconvinced.

She only assumed that although Ryan was calculating, he still had the innocence of a child, and his ideas were too idealistic.

Ryan didn't care what Ashley thought; this person had already been assimilated by this world—no, to be precise, by Vought's rules.

She couldn't be persuaded.

So, he gave one final instruction: "Then let's set it for tonight. You wait for my call. Oh, right, also arrange a rescue for Maeve. Somewhere not too far or too close to Godolkin University, just somewhere she can reach within three minutes."

When there was no need to summon Azu, Queen Maeve was still quite reliable.

Godolkin University, established in 1965 by Dr. Thomas Godolkin and Vought International founder Frederick Vought.

The school's motto was: What kind of supe are you?

The public's only impression of it was that it was an elite hero academy that only recruited superpowered individuals, a cradle for cultivating the next generation of superheroes for the country.

Household names like Queen Maeve, A-Train, and The Deep had all graduated from here.

Under the night sky, the academy remained bright and glamorous.

Hovering in mid-air, Ryan sighed again as the files Ashley had given him regarding the true nature of Godolkin University flashed through his mind.

Packaged to the outside world as a cradle for heroes, its true purpose is the long-term observation, experimentation, and control of these naive young supes.

That is just so Vought!

Ashley would never dare to hide anything from him, so Ryan was very clear about the truths hidden beneath the academy's shining halo.

The files also mentioned that Godolkin University's budget had recently seen a massive increase, ostensibly to support the school's hero training activities.

However, Ashley's assessment in the files suggested that the funding increase was likely for some unknown experiment.

This was because hidden beneath the university campus was a secret Vought International experimental facility known as "The Woods," which focused primarily on viral research.

It was this file and that name that immediately reminded Ryan of a crucial plotline from the fourth season of The Boys: a super-virus capable of killing all supes.

Perhaps the plot of the fifth season, which he hadn't managed to watch, was related to this virus.

Could Azu have been killed by the virus in the end?

Well, now I have one more reason to pay Cate a visit tonight.

At first, he had never made the connection, and he truly hadn't realized which school Godolkin University was.

It was mainly because too much time had passed; he remembered the major turning points, but the details had become somewhat blurry.

He shook his head, pushing these distracting thoughts aside for the moment.

Ryan scanned the area from high above and quickly located the student dormitories.

"Third floor, northeast corner... yeah, this should be the one."

He hovered outside the window and peered into the room, which was obscured by curtains. His Super Vision and Super Hearing instantly pulled his perspective inside as if he were there in person.

"Oh my god--!!"

Was there an ambush in the room?

A sharp scream suddenly began to assault his Super Hearing with intense force.

Then, a woman with flowing blonde hair and eyes squeezed shut unexpectedly dealt a heavy blow to Ryan's Super Vision.

This caught Ryan completely off guard.

The battle had started so abruptly, and the situation was so intense—should he, should he interrupt?

It seemed like it would be very rude.