Do You Know Who I Am?

Was Lu Heng a blond fetishist? No, he simply appreciated beauty.

He liked every beautiful girl equally.

Still, he explained Cate and Jordan's backgrounds to Starlight.

Only then did Starlight cheer up again.

After that, Lu Heng received a phone call.

It was from Vought's upper management. Stan Edgar had personally called to invite him to have a cup of coffee in the top-floor office at three that afternoon.

"Not going. I'm busy."

Lu Heng decisively hung up.

He was going to have fun at home with Starlight that afternoon—watch movies, eat snacks, and get to know each other inside and out.

"Mr. Guardian, this is Edgar's order!"

"Do you know who he is?"

"No superhuman at Vought would dare defy—"

Edgar's secretary spoke with a hint of sternness, but before he could finish...

"Then do you know who I am? Tomorrow, I'm going to blow your head off!"

After Lu Heng said that, the secretary still did not take it seriously.

"Mr. Edgar will be waiting for you at three this afternoon. If you don't come, bear the consequences yourself."

Starlight listened anxiously beside him.

Edgar was the one in power at Vought. No one dared provoke him, yet Lu Heng treated Edgar's invitation as if it were nothing.

No one would have believed it, no matter who they were.

"Th-That's not good, is it? We're both superhumans signed with Vought."

Lu Heng did not care in the slightest. He picked Annie up and carried her into the bathroom.

Ten minutes later, the room's lights began to flicker.

Three hours later, the entire building lost power again.

At three in the afternoon, Edgar accepted the coffee his secretary had prepared and waited for his guest with impeccable elegance. Three ten. Three twenty. Three thirty.

"Sir, I... I clearly informed Guardian that he was supposed to come at three this afternoon..." The secretary looked panicked.

She had not expected Guardian to actually dare not show up.

"I'll call him myself."

Edgar dialed the number.

Beep... beep beep...

The phone began to ring.

Lu Heng rolled over, reached for the phone, and gestured for Starlight to continue.

"Guardian, this is Edgar."

"Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh..."

The sounds from the other end of the line made even the man who had controlled Vought for decades unable to stop a vein from twitching on his forehead.

"Guardian, we had an agreement. When I need you, I expect you to come immediately." Edgar loosened his tie and quickly adjusted to the situation.

Guardian really was cut from the same cloth as those trash superhumans.

Once they had money, they could be corrupted with ease.

Lu Heng directly tossed his phone behind Starlight, then turned the tables.

The lights in several nearby buildings began to flicker as well.

The call disconnected.

Lu Heng frowned and opened his panel.

Edgar's personality was far too steady. Even something like this could not cause his emotions to fluctuate much.

Forget it. No point thinking about it.

Time to get down to business.

On the third day.

Lu Heng finally arrived late. The moment he entered, Ashley Barrett was already waiting for him in the lobby.

"The boss is waiting for you. Oh, my ancestor, you actually dared leave the big boss hanging like this!" The wage slave forced a bitter smile.

Edgar carried far more weight than Madelyn. Even though she had replaced Madelyn, she did not dare offend the real big boss.

But she also did not dare anger Lu Heng. He was the biggest backer she had at the company.

Honest Ashley Barrett continued to maintain her impossible position, caught between two sides.

"What are you afraid of? It's not like he'll use Laser Eyes like Homelander and blow your head apart in two shots."

Lu Heng looked utterly unconcerned.

Ashley Barrett did not dare offer any opinion, because Homelander was also waiting in the lobby.

When Homelander saw Lu Heng enter, he immediately greeted him with a smile.

He had originally thought Lu Heng simply was not afraid of him. He had not expected him to dare leave Edgar hanging too!

That was just... fucking awesome!

Could superhumans really be this bold?

"Oh, Homelander."

Lu Heng casually greeted him.

Seeing how casual Lu Heng was, Homelander was not angry. Instead, he was delighted.

Only friends could be this casual around him, right?

"Brother, Edgar's waiting for you. I don't like him much either, but you should still think about The Seven!"

Homelander was still speaking up for Edgar.

Lu Heng looked like he was disappointed in him. "I'm not trying to criticize you, Homelander, but why don't you dare take Edgar on?"

Homelander did not dare say anything.

He walked alongside Ashley Barrett, his heartbeat involuntarily speeding up.

Whenever he thought of Edgar, he felt a weakness that made him unable to resist, as though it were simply in his nature.

No matter how badass a son was, he was born afraid of his father.

Top floor.

Edgar's office.

Ashley Barrett opened the door, and Lu Heng flew in cross-legged.

Edgar did not even look up. He was reading a document, with his female secretary standing beside him.

Lu Heng did not look at Edgar either. Instead, he stared at the secretary. "Were you the one who called me yesterday?"

The secretary's expression stiffened.

Faced with a superhuman who dared leave the big boss waiting, she no longer dared act arrogantly.

Because he really might blow her head off.

"Y-Yes... it was me!"

"You've got some nerve. You dared order me around?"

"That was my order." Edgar spoke without looking up.

Lu Heng did not respond. Instead, he floated over to the secretary.

"Do you know who I am?"

"Y-You... you're Guardian."

The secretary's voice trembled.

"Then you should know that I'm one of the strongest superhumans on Earth. Who gave you the courage to speak to me like that?"

A red glow flickered in Lu Heng's eyes.

At such close range, the secretary could feel the terrifying heat scorching her face.

Sweat began to seep from her face, and her makeup started to run.

"I... I... I didn't mean to..."

Relying on Edgar's authority, the secretary had long been used to throwing her weight around inside Vought. She did not dare order Homelander about, but she barked orders at the other superhumans.

Everyone in Vought knew she was Edgar's lackey.

"If you kill her, you will betray the justice you uphold."

Edgar finally set down the document and looked directly at Lu Heng.

His heartbeat fluctuated slightly, but not by much.

"Every inch of capitalism's flesh is steeped in sin, and capitalism's dogs are no more innocent."

Light burst from Lu Heng's eyes.

The secretary let out a cry and collapsed to the floor in fright.

The smell of urine wafted up from beneath her.

Of course, Lu Heng had no interest in killing an innocent person.

After all, he was no demon. As an ambitious young man who had set his ideals free on New Year's Eve, he still possessed basic moral boundaries.

"All right, now you can tell me why you wanted to see me."

Edgar stared at Lu Heng for a full minute, then pointed to the chair opposite him.

"Guardian, have a seat."

A cup of coffee had already been placed on the desk.

Lu Heng walked to Edgar's mini-fridge and took out a bottle of cola.

"I'll drink this."

Edgar did not concern himself with such details. Instead, he pushed a document toward Lu Heng.

"Do you know about Vought International's department?"

"Not much. It seems to be the superhuman division responsible for overseas markets."

Edgar leaned back in his chair, clasping his hands together and completely ignoring the secretary who had collapsed beside him in terror.

"To be precise, our foreign operations are responsible for selling superhuman militarization programs to governments around the world."

"But the situation in some regions is more complicated. It cannot be solved with money alone."

Lu Heng opened the folder.

The first page was a satellite photograph.

The Middle East, a desert region along the border between Syria and Iraq.

A red circle had been marked on the image. Inside was what appeared to be an ordinary stretch of desert, but thermal imaging showed massive underground structures.

The second page was a file.

Codename: Sandstorm

Real Name: Farid al-Rashid

Age: 41

Nationality: Iraqi

Ability: Geological manipulation. He can control all soil, rock, and sand within a five-hundred-meter radius, turning them into weapons or defensive barriers. Additional abilities include creating earthquakes, generating sandstorms, and shaping underground spaces.

Threat Level: S

Judging from the ability description alone, this was a very powerful superhuman.

Lu Heng continued reading.

The background information in the file was interesting.

Farid was born in Baghdad in 1983. In 2003, America invaded Iraq. That same year, Vought International's department launched a secret project in the Middle East, which they called "Desert Shield."