Kate stood close by, her voice trembling. Jordan was beside her, her legs beginning to give way.
"Jordan?"
Kate reached out to grab Jordan. In her female form, tears streamed uncontrollably from Jordan's eyes.
This... was so incredible!
"Kate, I want the Guardian!"
Kate: "???"
The beams continued for several minutes. Lu Heng finally stopped using his power and slowly floated above the edge of the huge crater.
His cool, imposing figure stood with the vast desert behind him, his cape fluttering in the wind. The V-shaped rune shimmered with light.
The sunset bathed him in its glow, making him look like a god.
Lu Heng slowly turned around. The red glow in his eyes gradually faded, and he spoke calmly to the camera.
"Mission accomplished. Farid has been killed, and all the terrorist bases have been destroyed."
"I am the Guardian."
"I'm not a champion of justice! I am justice itself!"
Vought Tower.
Homelander's expression was no longer as calm as before.
Lu Heng had stolen the spotlight on an unprecedented scale. He could imagine how warmly the Guardian would be welcomed back home.
His popularity could surpass Homelander's in an instant. One man had just stolen all the limelight from The Seven.
And he wasn't even a member of The Seven!
Starlight couldn't get through to Lu Heng. When she returned to the office, she saw the Guardian's Omega Beams instantly demolishing the terrorist bunker.
"Fuck Jesus!"
Annie cried out without thinking.
Edgar turned around and silently raised the Guardian's internal threat rating from A to SSS.
Even Homelander was only rated A.
Edgar's female secretary wet herself again.
She deserved to die!
How dare she order the Guardian around?
Meanwhile.
The Pentagon.
A satellite recording was rushed to the National Security Advisor's desk.
The footage showed the same events as Vought's livestream, but the satellite's perspective was even more shocking. It captured the entire sequence.
Lu Heng stomped through the surface, and his Omega Beams melted an entire underground city.
Deep inside the White House, the president watched the recording too.
"Where did the Middle East get a nuclear weapon?"
"Could the Russians have illegally exported it to them?"
"Quick, hold a press conference! We'll condemn this in the strongest terms!"
The Secretary of Defense's voice was dry. He swallowed hard twice before speaking. "Sir, that destruction wasn't caused by a nuclear weapon. It was a superhuman."
President: "???"
The president's expression said it all: Are you fucking kidding me?
"Could it be Homelander, from Vought International?"
"Get Edgar on the phone! What the hell is he trying to do?"
"I told him to kill Farid. I meant to make the man disappear quietly, not do it in such a high-profile way!"
The president flew into a rage.
What was Edgar trying to do, show off his strength?
Did he think he could still get away with this in America?
"Uh, Mr. President, you've got it wrong. Homelander wasn't responsible for the destruction." The Secretary of Defense wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"Not Homelander?" The president finally caught on. "Has Vought introduced a third-generation superhuman?"
"I... I'm not sure. But the one responsible for the destruction is a superhuman called the Guardian."
The Secretary of Defense played the latter half of the video. On the screen, a dark figure hovered above the edge of the huge crater.
He slowly turned around, the red glow in his eyes still burning fiercely, like two stars with immense destructive power.
"His destructive power..."
"According to our preliminary assessment," the Secretary of Defense said, opening the report, "the energy output of this attack was more than thirty times that of a GBU-57 bunker buster."
"The GBU-57 is our most powerful conventional bunker-busting weapon currently in service. It can penetrate sixty meters of reinforced concrete."
"But this man used only his Heat Vision to penetrate two hundred meters of natural rock and melt all the underground space within a one-kilometer radius."
"The attack lasted several minutes. If he turned this ability on a city—"
The Secretary of Defense didn't finish, but everyone in the war room understood what he meant.
The president leaned back in his chair.
"Get me Edgar."
Over with Lu Heng.
A prompt appeared on the panel.
[Side Quest Complete: Desert Storm] [Target Killed: Sandstorm (S-Rank)] [Additional Targets Killed: Superhuman Guards ×3] [Quest Rewards: Ability Points ×15,000] [Bonus Objective Complete: Team Members Cate and Jordan Survived] [Bonus Reward: Ability Points ×3,000] [Global Livestream Bonus: Audience Emotional High ×2.4] [Additional Ability Points Earned: +8,600] [Key Character Cate—Emotional Shift: Faith] [Ability Points Earned: +4,892] [Key Character Jordan Li—Emotional Shift: Absolute Submission] [Ability Points Earned: +4,107] Current Ability Points: 55,055 / 250,000
Lu Heng looked at the panel.
He'd earned nearly fifty thousand ability points from a single trip to the Middle East.
On the way back.
Cate clung to Lu Heng's arm, softly rubbing against it.
Jordan did the same, deliberately changing into her female form.
But Lu Heng couldn't muster the slightest interest in her.
Viltrumites liked strong women, even if they were in the Viltrumite Position, but they couldn't possibly fall for a hermaphrodite.
"Guardian," Jordan called out over the wind.
"Hmm?"
"I want to stay at your place tonight. With Starlight, if that's okay."
Lu Heng's face darkened. "If you say one more word, I'll throw you off right here. You can turn to ash on the spot!"
Jordan fell silent.
Cate didn't dare bring up the subject at all. She was a superhuman, sure, but her body wasn't nearly as tough as Jordan's.
She'd die!
She'd definitely die!
A minute later.
The rooftop helipad at Vought Tower.
The three of them landed safely. Homelander was already waiting on the roof. The moment Lu Heng touched down, he warmly grabbed him by the shoulders.
"My good bro, you really stole the show today!"
Homelander didn't mean a word of it.
But Lu Heng clearly wasn't someone he could push around, so Homelander felt a certain respect for him.
Jealous, yet respectful.
"Homelander!! Even Homelander came out to greet us in person!!!"
Jordan and Cate were thrilled.
Their idols back when they were students had been The Seven.
Now they were meeting Homelander face-to-face. They couldn't have been more excited.
"Oh, the Guardian's subordinates are actually my fans?" Homelander's attention shifted to the two of them again.
"Yeah, we're your fans! Could we take a picture together? We haven't even taken a picture with the Guardian yet!!"
They haven't even taken a picture with the Guardian?
Hearing that, Homelander's jealousy eased a little.
So even the Guardian wasn't everyone's favorite!
"Although the Guardian is powerful, you two were brave enough to stand up to superhumans stronger than yourselves. That's amazing!"
"You're the real heroes!"
"Because true heroes dare to face adversity head-on!"
Before you continue