"Last warning!" A-Train lowered his body into a sprinter's stance.
"Get out of the way, or I'll smash you to pieces!"
Lu Heng clapped his hands, looking completely relaxed.
"Go ahead. Try."
A-Train moved.
He accelerated with all his might, reaching over three hundred miles per hour in less than a second. In The Seven, only Homelander could keep up with him.
This time, he went all out, hurtling toward Lu Heng with a sonic boom in his wake.
The asphalt shattered instantly.
But with Lu Heng's supersonic reflexes, A-Train's vaunted speed looked like a slow-motion replay.
He could even make out the subtle expressions on A-Train's face: anger, madness, and a trace of barely perceptible fear.
Lu Heng raised his right hand and swung at supersonic speed the instant A-Train reached him.
A supersonic slap!
His timing was precise to the millisecond. His palm landed squarely on A-Train's left cheek.
Lu Heng had sixty-two tons of strength, but he used less than a tenth of it.
The air cracked like a whip.
A-Train's body traced an arc through the air, smashed through the door of a parked SUV by the roadside, and wound up embedded in the vehicle.
The impact shoved the SUV more than three meters across the road.
Its body looked like a crushed soda can.
The whole crowd fell silent!
Three full minutes passed before A-Train climbed out of the mangled vehicle.
The left side of his face was badly swollen, blood streamed from the corner of his mouth, and even his front teeth had gone flying somewhere.
The rush from Compound V had all but worn off after that mighty slap.
Lu Heng watched A-Train's eyes visibly clear.
Only then did A-Train take a proper look at Lu Heng: a dark gray battle suit, mysterious runes across his chest, and dark golden light flickering over it.
He wasn't any supe A-Train recognized.
A complete stranger!
"Y-you... who are you?" A-Train's voice trembled.
Lu Heng walked toward him at an unhurried pace.
The pressure of his biofield weighed on A-Train's heart like a mountain.
The man hailed as the fastest in America now looked like a dog with its tail pinned underfoot, backing away under Lu Heng's approach.
"You asked what the hell I was."
"..."
"My name is Guardian!"
He crouched down to meet A-Train's eyes.
"Remember that name. I'll be the Sword of Damocles hanging over every supe's head!"
A-Train's lips quivered, but he didn't dare say a word.
Lu Heng stood up. The hundreds of people around them were all frozen in shock.
A middle-aged man at the front of the crowd stared wide-eyed.
"H-he actually hit A-Train?"
"The fastest man in The Seven got beaten without a chance to fight back?"
"And it was one slap! Just one!"
The numbers on the panel began climbing wildly.
They weren't ticking up a little at a time. They were surging like floodwaters bursting through a dam.
+834 +1,247 +672 +1,893 +445 +2,156 +789 +1,034...
The emotions of the hundred-plus people at the scene all reached a peak at once: shock, admiration, fear, hatred—all kinds of positive and negative feelings.
The livestreams online were even crazier.
Hundreds of phones started streaming at once, broadcasting the scene in real time to tens of millions of screens. Comments flew 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 already fast as hell. Who knew there was someone even stronger?]
[Guardian is freaking awesome!!!!]
[Vought must be freaking out now. Guess this really wasn't staged!]
[Don't jump to conclusions. Maybe this is Vought's plan to replace A-Train!]
[Can the conspiracy theorists give it a rest? You think Vought would ruin A-Train, a supe worth over a billion dollars, just to make some nobody look good?]
[What if he's some rich kid?]
The panel finished collecting ability points.
Emotions collected at the scene this time: +11,237
Current ability points: 24,075 / 100,000
Lu Heng took a deep breath.
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He'd collected more than ten thousand ability points in one go.
As expected, beating up The Seven in public and slapping them was the fastest way to farm points.
But Lu Heng didn't bask in it for long. He knew that from this moment on, things had changed.
In the past few days, he'd just been fighting for justice and doing good deeds. Vought could tolerate that.
But today, with more than a hundred phones livestreaming, he'd slapped A-Train right in the face in front of everyone.
It had damaged The Seven's image, too.
Vought International could hardly keep observing from the sidelines.
They would definitely take action.
Lu Heng turned and saw Hughie and Robin still standing where they were.
"You two."
"Go home. Don't stay here."
Hughie finally came to his senses and stammered, "Y-you're the guy who came to buy speakers yesterday... You really are Guardian. I knew I'd seen you somewhere..."
"We'll talk another time."
Only then did Robin react. She clutched Hughie's arm tightly. "Hughie... A-Train... He almost hit us..."
"I know... I know..."
Hughie led her away, soothing her as he went, while glancing back at Lu Heng.
[Key character · Hughie Campbell]
[Emotional upheaval: perception reshaping in progress]
[Ability points gained: +1,847]
Lu Heng didn't linger.
While he was talking to Hughie, A-Train had already slipped away, moving faster than he ever had in his life.
If a speedster really wanted to run, the chaos made it impossible to stop him.
Whatever. Let him go.
He'd accomplished what he came for. It wasn't as if he had to kill A-Train.
A-Train still had his own turning point ahead.
Lu Heng pushed off the ground with his toes and shot into the sky, quickly disappearing from view over Brooklyn.
Twenty minutes later.
Vought International headquarters, seventy-second floor.
Madelyn's office.
The video was playing on a tablet, crystal clear and captured from at least five different angles.
A gray figure dropped from the sky.
He stopped A-Train's full-speed charge with one hand.
Then he slapped him into a car.
As if he'd done something utterly trivial.
A provocation! This was a direct challenge to Vought International and a show of contempt for The Seven!
"'The Sword of Judgment hanging over every supe's head'?"
Madelyn could practically imagine what Homelander's sensitive nerves would make of this when he heard it—and where that might lead.
Madelyn paused the video.
The analyst beside her didn't dare breathe too loudly.
"How many views?"
"...It's been eighteen minutes since it was posted. The combined view count across all platforms has topped twenty million, and it's expected to hit a hundred million within an hour."
"What about public opinion?"
"It's completely out of control!" The analyst's voice shook a little. "People dug up the fact that A-Train was high on drugs and speeding when he nearly killed a civilian.
"#A-TrainNearlyKilledSomeone is already the top trending topic in America on Twitter.
"Everyone's asking the same question: if A-Train's dirty, what about the rest of The Seven?"
At a time like this, Vought couldn't fool the public by claiming that the video of A-Train was an AI fake.
Madelyn's fingernail drew a white line across the desk.
"What kind of image does Guardian have right now?"
"He's a legend across the internet. So far, 97% of online comments about him are positive. People are even petitioning online for him to replace A-Train in The Seven."
"Bullshit! A legend across the internet? The public just loves dragging the old gods off their pedestals and putting up a new god in their place!"
Madelyn was furious. "They're not doing this because they care about justice! They're just trying to cash in on the traffic!"
"What's the reaction from the mainstream media?"
The analyst adjusted his glasses, his tone a little calmer. "So far, not one mainstream outlet has dared report on it publicly. They're keeping quiet. Mr. Edgar must have pulled some strings!"
Madelyn picked up the phone and dialed a mysterious number.
The person on the other end didn't speak. Only steady breathing came through.
Madelyn lowered her voice, choosing her words with extreme care.
"Mr. Edgar, I recommend recalling Homelander and eliminating this supe who's challenging Vought's authority before he becomes a bigger threat!"
"Foolish!"
The voice on the other end was calm, but every word made Madelyn shrink back.
"Then... sir, what should we..."
"Get in touch with him. Negotiate. If you can't see the opportunity here, then resign!"
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