Be Polite

The next day, a repeatedly verified piece of news broke.

Stormfront, who had only recently joined The Seven and quickly amassed a large following, suddenly went into retirement. Vought International issued a two-thousand-word statement about it.

The message had only one point: Stormfront had chosen to leave the team for personal reasons, and Vought respected her decision.

The public's attention shifted. People around the world discussed it, speculated, and took glee in it.

Just look at who was left in The Seven now.

Homelander!

Queen Maeve!

Starlight!

Black Noir!

They might as well change the team's name to "Homelander and His Invisible Sidekicks, His Ex-Girlfriend, and His Current Girlfriend."

As far as the public knew, Homelander had openly admitted on a talk show that he and Starlight were dating.

So there was nothing wrong with putting it that way.

As for which lucky person would join The Seven, fill the vacant spot, and rise to fame overnight, that was a matter for later.

The public's attention had shifted to other hot topics, but Ryan's film crew continued to work in an orderly fashion.

Director Adam remained as dedicated as ever, as though he and the entire crew had suffered from amnesia about what had happened the day before.

During a break between scenes, Ryan saw Ashley hurrying over and immediately turned to get into the van.

Ashley hurried after him in her high heels.

As soon as the door closed, she took out a receipt. "Ryan, the university officially rejected the proposal for Cate to play a supporting role. Their written reason was that the pressure of her final exams was too great, and the school wouldn't allow one of its top five students to get distracted."

Ryan rubbed his chin. "There's definitely something wrong with this Cate."

"Yes, I think so too. The school had no reason to turn down your production."

Ashley nodded gravely in agreement, then said, "I'll look into Cate and confirm Mitchell's situation as soon as possible."

"Ryan, you should focus on filming. This movie—"

"It's because I don't want this movie to distract me that I need to confirm Mitchell's safety as soon as possible."

Ryan shook his head and sighed. "She got caught in the crossfire because she was doing a job for me. If I don't care about her safety and just leave her to fend for herself, who knows what Stan might do to her?"

"I..."

Hearing Ryan say that, Ashley felt both pleased and worried.

She was pleased that Ryan, this young master who seemed naive but was actually quite cunning, wasn't cut from the same cloth as Homelander.

At least when you worked for him, you didn't have to worry about being abandoned. He'd keep you in mind.

He cared this much even about someone as insignificant as Mitchell. If Ashley kept serving him diligently, surely she wouldn't have to lose any more hair?

Her worry was simple: she really didn't want Ryan putting himself in danger.

If anything happened to him—even if he only got a scratch—do you think Homelander wouldn't turn Godolkin University to ash when he found out?

Just imagining the consequences made Ashley's scalp tingle.

"Ryan..."

"All right, Ashley. You don't have to talk me out of it. Get me the basic information on the university, as well as Cate's abilities and her connections."

After giving his instructions, Ryan suddenly remembered something and asked, "By the way, Ashley, is Dad still going to do a hero rescue tonight?"

Ashley looked at Ryan and hesitantly nodded. "We can arrange one!"

"Good."

After saying that, Ryan sighed again. "It's not good if everything is fake. Maybe later I can take Dad to do some real rescues."

"Relax, relax. I know a rescue doesn't count if there's no media coverage!"

"But it's like getting tired of a big meal and switching to dessert. Maybe Dad would enjoy people's genuine gratitude and admiration too, right?"

Ashley said nothing, clearly unconvinced.

She assumed that, despite Ryan's shrewdness, he still had a child's naive side. His ideas were too idealistic.

Ryan didn't care what Ashley thought. This woman had already been assimilated by the world—or, more accurately, by Vought's rules.

There was no talking her out of it.

So he gave one last instruction. "Then set it up for tonight. Keep your phone handy in case I call. Oh, and arrange a rescue for Maeve too. Somewhere not too close to Godolkin University, but not too far either—close enough for her to get there within three minutes."

When he didn't need to summon Homelander, Queen Maeve was still a great asset.

Godolkin University had been founded in 1965 by Dr. Thomas Godolkin and Frederick Vought, the founder of Vought International.

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

The public knew it only as an elite academy that admitted only people with superpowers, a cradle for training the country's next generation of superheroes.

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

Beneath the night sky, the university still looked bright and impressive.

Hovering in midair, Ryan thought over the pages of confidential information about Godolkin University that Ashley had given him, and sighed again.

"It presents itself as a cradle for heroes, but its real purpose is to observe, experiment on, and control these naive young supes over the long term."

"That's so Vought!"

Ashley would never dare hide anything from him, so Ryan knew exactly what truths lurked behind the university's glittering facade.

The documents also mentioned that Godolkin University's budget had recently been sharply increased, supposedly to support the school's hero-training activities.

But Ashley had judged that the extra funding was probably for some unknown experiment.

Beneath the campus was a secret Vought laboratory called "the Woods," whose main research focus was on viruses.

That information and the name immediately reminded Ryan of a major storyline in the fourth season of The Boys: a supervirus capable of killing all supes.

Perhaps the plot of the fifth season, which he hadn't had time to watch, was connected to the virus.

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

"That gives me one more reason to sneak into Cate's room tonight."

At first, he hadn't made that connection at all. He genuinely hadn't even remembered which university Godolkin was.

Mostly, it was because too much time had passed. He remembered the major events, but the details had grown a little hazy.

He shook his head, temporarily setting those stray thoughts aside.

Ryan searched the area from the sky and soon found the student dormitory.

"Third floor, northeast corner... Yeah, it should be this room."

Floating outside the window, he peered into the room through the curtains. His Super Vision and Super Hearing instantly pulled his perspective inside, as if he were right there.

"Oh my God—!"

Was someone lying in wait in the room?

A piercing scream suddenly began hammering at his Super Hearing.

Then, a woman with flying blonde hair and tightly shut eyes delivered another unexpected blow to Ryan's Super Vision.

That completely stunned him.

The action had started too abruptly, and things were already so intense. Should he—should he interrupt them?

That seemed terribly impolite.