Confronting Homelander

The day after signing the contract, Lu Heng moved into the Midtown Manhattan apartment provided by Vought.

It was 160 square meters, featuring floor-to-ceiling windows, a full suite of smart home appliances, and a view of Central Park.

The refrigerator was packed with organic food and imported beer, while the walk-in closet held three custom-tailored suits.

However, Lu Heng took the suit off after wearing it for only ten minutes.

He looked like an insurance salesman in a suit; his battle armor was much more pleasing to the eye.

At ten in the morning, his phone rang.

"Guardian, there is a routine meeting for The Seven this afternoon at three o'clock. You are welcome to sit in."

Madelyn called personally to inform him, though she paused for a moment.

"Homelander will be there, too."

"Fine."

Lu Heng hung up the phone.

At 2:45 PM, Lu Heng arrived early.

When the elevator doors opened, the hallway was empty, save for one person leaning against the wall.

Golden buzz cut, deep blue spandex battle suit, a star-spangled shield emblem on his chest, and a red cape draped down to his ankles.

Homelander.

He stood with his arms crossed, tilting his head as he watched Lu Heng step out of the elevator, a gentle smile plastered on his face.

That smile, when seen on television, could make American women scream for ten minutes straight.

But here in an empty hallway, it was nothing but threatening.

Lu Heng walked toward him, activating his bloodline perception.

Homelander's bio-electric signal was incredibly powerful, far surpassing A-Train, like a burning flare.

He was strong, indeed.

But that was as far as it went.

"So, you're the one... Guardian?" Homelander scrutinized Lu Heng's armor. "Interesting suit. It doesn't look like Vought's design style."

"It certainly doesn't."

"Oh? Then whose is it?"

"Alien technology."

Homelander's smile vanished.

Did this damn Asian think he was an idiot?

Homelander stared daggers at Lu Heng.

A sense of oppression washed over the area.

But Lu Heng seemed not to notice.

He was completely oblivious to Homelander's pressure; once he filtered out the aura, Homelander's threat level was no more intimidating than a dog sitting at the table.

"You aren't in Vought's files, but you are undoubtedly a superhuman. Are you some low-quality product churned out by an underground lab?"

Homelander spoke slowly, attempting to provoke Lu Heng.

If this had been on Viltrum, Homelander would have been reduced to a mist of blood long ago.

Viltrumites valued their honor above all else; such an insult would have likely made even the Conqueror stand up and take notice.

"Even if you had two brains, you couldn't fathom my origins. As for low-quality products... who is the real lab experiment here? You should know that better than I do!"

Lu Heng wasn't afraid of Homelander at all. Back at Level 1, he might have given him three points of respect.

But now that they were evenly matched, what was there to be afraid of?

If he truly possessed Homelander's power, he would be far more arrogant than the man himself.

Homelander was just too young; with such immense power, he was actually afraid of being bullied online?

"You're looking for death!"

Homelander's eyes began to glow, and a high-energy heat vision blast struck Lu Heng's chest instantly, giving him no time to react.

Heat vision.

Homelander's most iconic ability, with temperatures exceeding 1,500 degrees, capable of cutting through steel, melting concrete, and turning an ordinary person to ash in 0.3 seconds.

However, such a formidable force had no effect when it hit Lu Heng.

It was all blocked by his bio-force field.

Homelander increased his output, and the temperature in the hallway began to soar. The paint on the walls bubbled and peeled, and even the ceiling lights began to hum and vibrate from the intense heat.

It was indeed a bit hot!

However, this level of heat was roughly equivalent to a sauna for him. Homelander increasing the output of his heat vision was like pouring a couple more buckets of water onto the hot stones in a sauna room.

That was all it amounted to.

Lu Heng raised his head, looking at Homelander with an expressionless face.

"Brother, did you skip breakfast? Put some effort into it!"

Homelander's smile vanished completely.

The heat vision shifted from two beams into a thick, orange-white torrent; this was nearly his full-power output.

The bio-field on Lu Heng's chest showed signs of collapsing, which meant that under Homelander's all-out attack, he could indeed reach his physical body.

A Viltrumite's flesh was incredibly powerful, but given Lu Heng's combat instincts, he knew his own body would be breached by those two lasers.

He clenched his fist, the air was instantly sucked dry, and the wind pressure pulled Homelander toward him.

Lu Heng threw a punch!

With just that one punch, Homelander went flying.

"Hiss!"

Lu Heng didn't hold back. Although this punch sent Homelander flying, his own fist felt as if it had slammed into some kind of reinforced alloy, leaving his knuckles tingling and numb.

"What the hell!" Homelander crawled out of the wall, his suit torn open at the chest, revealing the skin beneath.

The surface of his skin, hard as alloy, was actually oozing a faint trace of blood.

There were even some bruises forming.

That damn Guardian... he could actually hurt him?

Homelander looked down at the bruises on his chest, his eyes darkening.

Since he could remember, no one had ever been able to leave a mark on him.

The highest-intensity weapon tests at Vought Laboratory only ever made him feel a little itchy.

And now, some Asian guy who dropped out of the sky had made him bleed with a single punch.

The corridor was eerily quiet.

The scorch marks on the walls were still sizzling, and debris continued to fall from the ceiling.

The two stared at each other from a dozen meters away, neither making a move.

Lu Heng shook his numb fist, silently assessing the situation.

Homelander's defense was tougher than he had anticipated. He had used about seventy percent of his strength in that punch; if it had been A-Train, he would have been reduced to a mist of blood, yet on Homelander, it only resulted in bruises and slight bleeding.

Conversely, Homelander's full-power heat vision had nearly torn through his bio-field.

It was truly a stalemate.

If they really fought to the death, it was hard to say who would win, but it would certainly be a long, drawn-out war of attrition.

If the battlefield were in the center of Manhattan, everything within a few kilometers would be leveled to the ground.

Homelander became cautious.

Before attending the meeting, Madelyn had told him everything, but he simply didn't believe there was a superhuman stronger than himself.

He had interpreted what Madelyn called a "test" as an attempt to eliminate him.

Vought didn't need a second Homelander!

But he hadn't expected the other party's abilities to be infinitely close to his own.

Lu Heng stared at Homelander, not expecting that in the next second, Homelander would do something unexpected.

He flashed a smile.

"Not bad. Your strength qualifies you to take on the task of sanctioning superhumans!"

"That was just a little test earlier, you don't mind, do you?"

Homelander held up a finger, pointed at the ceiling, and gave a "you know what I mean" expression.

"You know... the higher-ups still have their reservations about you, but my brother... I think you can work with us!"

Homelander straightened his torn suit, using his cape to cover the wounds on his chest.

His tone returned to a relaxed state.

"It's been a long time since anyone made me sweat."

Sweat?

Bleeding was more like it!

But Lu Heng wasn't going to call Homelander out; he had no intention of getting into a full-blown fight with him just yet.

A mutually destructive outcome was not what he wanted.

"You're not bad yourself!" Lu Heng shrugged in cooperation. "That heat vision is impressive; it almost scorched my skin!"

The two of them brought this probing exchange to a tacit conclusion.

The panel popped up silently with data.

[Key Character: Homelander]

[Emotional Shift: Anger → Shock → Fear → Forced Suppression]

[Ability Points Gained: +4,217]

Four thousand two hundred.

As expected of the most pivotal character in the entire series; a single bout of emotional volatility was worth hundreds of ordinary people.