Beat Up A-Train

"This is your final warning!" A-Train lowered his body, dropping into a starting stance.

"Get lost, or I'll shatter your body!"

Lu Heng clapped his hands, his expression remarkably relaxed.

"You can certainly try."

A-Train moved.

He accelerated to his full capacity, exceeding three hundred miles per hour in less than a second; among The Seven, only Homelander could keep pace with him.

This time, he held nothing back, hurtling toward Lu Heng while shrouded in a sonic boom.

The asphalt road shattered instantly.

But under Lu Heng's supersonic reflexes, A-Train's pride and joy—his speed—looked like slow-motion playback.

He could even make out the micro-expressions on A-Train's face: anger, madness, and a trace of imperceptible fear.

Lu Heng raised his right hand, and the moment A-Train reached him, he swung it at supersonic speed.

A supersonic slap!

The timing was precise to the millisecond, landing squarely on A-Train's left cheek.

He had used less than ten percent of his sixty-two tons of force.

The sonic boom cracked like a whip.

A-Train's body traced an arc through the air, smashing through the door of a parked SUV and embedding himself into the vehicle's frame.

Due to the immense impact, the SUV was shoved over three meters away.

The car body looked like a crushed soda can.

The entire scene fell silent!

A full three minutes later, A-Train finally crawled out of the deformed wreckage.

The left side of his face was swollen high, blood streamed from the corner of his mouth, and he didn't even know where his front teeth had flown off to.

The stimulating effects of Compound V had essentially faded under the influence of that massive slap.

Lu Heng saw A-Train's eyes become visibly clearer.

Only then did A-Train take a serious look at Lu Heng: a dark gray battle robe, with runes of unknown meaning drawn on the chest, flickering with a dull golden light.

He wasn't any superhuman he knew.

A complete stranger!

"Who... who exactly are you?" A-Train's voice trembled.

Lu Heng walked slowly toward him.

The pressure brought by his bio-field weighed on A-Train's heart like a mountain.

The man known as the fastest in America was now like a dog with its tail stepped on, retreating continuously under Lu Heng's pressure.

"You asked me what I was just now."

"..."

"My name is Guardian!"

He crouched down to look A-Train in the eye.

"Remember this name; I shall be the Sword of Damocles hanging over the head of every superhuman!"

A-Train's lips quivered twice, but he didn't dare to make a sound.

Lu Heng stood up, the hundred or so people around them all stunned into silence.

A middle-aged man stood at the front of the crowd, his eyes wide.

"He... he actually hit A-Train?"

"The fastest man in The Seven was actually slapped into having no power to fight back?"

"And it was one slap! Just one slap!"

The numbers on the panel jumped frantically.

This time, it wasn't a small increase, but like a dam bursting.

+834 +1,247 +672 +1,893 +445 +2,156 +789 +1,034...

The emotions of the hundred-plus people at the scene reached a peak simultaneously—shock, worship, fear, hatred; every positive and negative emotion was present.

The live stream was even more exaggerated.

Over a hundred phones were broadcasting simultaneously, transmitting the scene in real-time to the screens of tens of millions of people, with comments flying by so fast they were impossible to read.

[Holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit!]

[He slapped A-Train????]

[No way, man, A-Train's speed is already fast enough, I didn't expect there to be an even greater master?]

[Guardian is awesome!!!!]

[Vought is stunned now, it really doesn't look like a script!]

[Don't jump to conclusions, upstairs. Maybe this is just a stunt Vought arranged to replace A-Train!]

[Can conspiracy theorists just get lost? Are you saying Vought would waste A-Train, who's worth over a billion dollars, just to make a nobody look good?]

[What if he's some rich kid?]

Ability points from the scene have been collected.

Emotional energy collected this time: +11,237

Current ability points: 24,075 / 100,000

Lu Heng took a deep breath.

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He had collected over ten thousand ability points in one go.

As expected, beating up The Seven and slapping them in the face was the most efficient way to farm points.

However, Lu Heng didn't indulge for too long; he knew that from this moment on, the nature of the situation had changed.

A few days ago, he was just acting as a vigilante and doing good deeds, which Vought could tolerate.

But today, he had slapped A-Train in the face in front of hundreds of live-streaming phones.

The image of The Seven had been damaged as a result.

Vought International would likely be unable to just observe from the sidelines anymore.

They would inevitably take action.

Lu Heng looked back to see Hughie and the other still standing there.

"You two."

"Get home quickly, don't stay here."

Hughie finally snapped out of it and stammered, "You... you're the one who came to buy the stereo yesterday... You really are Guardian, I knew I'd seen you somewhere before..."

"Let's talk another day."

Only then did Robin react, gripping Hughie's arm tightly. "Hughie... A-Train... he almost hit us..."

"I know... I know..."

Hughie pulled her back, comforting her while casting glances toward Lu Heng.

[Key Character: Hughie Campbell]

[Emotional Shift: Cognitive restructuring in progress]

[Ability points gained: +1,847]

Lu Heng didn't linger.

Just as he was speaking to Hughie, A-Train had already slipped away, utilizing the fastest speed of his life.

If a speedster really wants to run, they truly can't be stopped in the current chaos.

Forget it, let him run.

As long as the goal was achieved, it wasn't as if he had to kill A-Train.

A-Train still had his own life's highlight transformation ahead.

Lu Heng tapped his toes against the ground, shot into the sky, and quickly vanished from the Brooklyn skyline.

Twenty minutes later.

Vought International headquarters, 72nd floor.

Madelyn's office.

A tablet was playing that video, in high definition, from at least five different angles.

A gray figure descended from the sky.

He stopped A-Train's full-speed sprint with one hand.

He slapped the man into a car with a single strike.

It was as if he had done something completely trivial.

A provocation! This was a total provocation against Vought International and a display of utter disdain for The Seven!

"The Sword of Judgment hovering over the heads of all superhumans?"

Madelyn could almost imagine what would happen when Homelander heard that audio, and how his sensitive nerves would drive the situation!

Madelyn paused the video.

The analysts nearby didn't even dare to breathe.

"What's the view count?"

"...Eighteen minutes since release, the total view count across all platforms has already exceeded twenty million, and we expect it to hit one hundred million within the hour."

"What about public opinion?"

"It's completely out of control!" the analyst's voice trembled slightly. "The incident where A-Train nearly killed a bystander while speeding on Compound V has been dug up."

#ATrainAttemptedMurder is currently the number one trending topic in the United States on Twitter.

Every corner of public discourse is asking the same question: if A-Train is so corrupt, what about the rest of The Seven?

At this juncture, Vought has no way to trick the public into believing that the video of A-Train is an AI fabrication.

Madelyn's fingernails left a white mark scratched into the surface of the desk.

"What is the current public image of the Guardian?"

"He's being deified across the web. Currently, 97% of the feedback regarding him is positive, and there are even online petitions demanding he replace A-Train in The Seven."

"Bullshit! 'Deified across the web'? It's just the masses enjoying dragging an old god off his pedestal to prop up a new one!"

Madelyn was beside herself with rage. "They don't actually care about justice! They're just looking for an excuse to cash in on the traffic!"

"What about the mainstream media's stance?"

The analyst adjusted his glasses, his tone softening slightly. "So far, no mainstream media outlet has dared to report on it openly. They are maintaining a silent stance on the matter; it must be that Mr. Edgar has exerted his influence."

Madelyn picked up the phone and dialed a mysterious number.

There was no speech on the other end, only the sound of steady breathing.

Madelyn kept her voice very low, her phrasing extremely cautious.

"Mr. Edgar, I suggest we recall Homelander and nip this superhuman who challenges Vought's authority in the bud!"

"Foolish!"

The voice on the other end of the line was flat, yet every word uttered made Madelyn shrink back.

"Then... sir, should we..."

"Contact him. Negotiate terms. If you cannot even see the opportunity hidden behind this, then resign and step down!"

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