Your Life Is Mine Now

Nick Fury sent a message: "Hill, add Homelander to Project Insight. I want to know what brand of toothpaste this Anthony Starr uses... when he brushes his teeth."

After leaving, Homelander did not immediately return to his apartment.

He circled above the city.

Everywhere he went, he could hear his own name.

The giant screens in Times Square kept replaying footage of him lifting the nuclear missile, charging into the portal, and ultimately saving those hundreds of children.

"...Tonight, we witnessed a miracle! A mysterious hero calling himself 'Homelander' has saved Manhattan!"

"...Sources claim that Homelander's true identity may be Anthony Starr, a Columbia University student who vanished in a shipwreck a year ago?!"

"...Though the Avengers are powerful, Homelander was the true MVP tonight! He turned the tide all by himself!"

"...Oh my God, he's so handsome! I want to have his babies!!"

"Ding! Popularity gained: +120!"

"Ding! Popularity gained: +88!"

"Ding! Popularity gained: +205!"

Though the system notifications were no longer exploding upward like before, they continued to tick steadily, endlessly rising.

He landed at an intersection, and the crowd immediately swarmed around him, shouting his name.

He smiled and shook their hands, embraced the crying civilians, and kissed the children on their foreheads.

"Don't be afraid. It's all over."

"With me here, New York is safe."

He enjoyed it all, every single adoring gaze.

At that moment, the giant screen in Times Square was broadcasting the news.

"...We interrupt this broadcast with a discovery made by our reporter amid the ruins of the battlefield..."

A reporter stood before a half-collapsed luxury apartment building.

"Right here, at the height of the fighting, a nine-year-old girl named Kate was trapped inside. Her father... tragically died."

The camera shifted to the little girl.

She was frail, wrapped in a blanket, her face covered in dust. Yet an unusual light shimmered in her large eyes.

The reporter handed her the microphone. "Child, were you afraid at the time?"

Little Kate nodded, then shook her head.

"I... I thought I was going to die. An alien... it wanted to kill me..."

"What happened?"

Kate's eyes lit up. "It... it was Homelander! He... he flew down from the sky and used... the light shooting out of his eyes! With one zzzt! That bad guy got cut in half!"

"He saved you?"

"Mhm!" Kate nodded vigorously. "He... he was so tall. He smiled at me, then... then flew away! To save even more people!"

In the footage, Kate tightly clutched a half-charred... Superman comic book.

"He... is a real hero."

Wu Yanzu did not hear that little interlude.

Only after basking in the cheers for a full hour did he finally free himself from the enthusiastic crowd and fly toward the apartment address S.H.I.E.L.D. had given him.

The apartment was near Columbia University.

He landed on the fire escape and swept the place with his X-ray vision.

"Empty. Covered in dust."

He pushed the door open.

A long-sealed scent washed over him.

This was "Anthony Starr's" home.

A guitar, a basketball, scattered textbooks, and... a photograph.

In the picture, "Anthony Starr" had his arms around his parents, smiling without a care in the world.

"Anthony... Anthony..." Wu Yanzu picked up the frame and looked at the identical face in the mirror.

"Your life really was... pathetic."

He casually tossed the frame aside.

"But it doesn't matter..."

He walked to the window, pulled open the curtains, and looked down at the city he had just saved.

"Your life is mine now."

The next month was the most comfortable period of Wu Yanzu's life.

In his previous life, despite being a Best Actor who fought desperately and schemed against others, he had still been nothing more than a plaything of capital.

But now, he was capital itself.

Starr Group was an established New York conglomerate involved in real estate, energy, and biotechnology.

Anthony's parents, Edward and Martha, had both died in a plane crash three years earlier, leaving their enormous estate, along with a trust fund, to their only son.

Now, this heir who had "returned from the dead" had come back as the hero Homelander. The sheer drama of it was enough to make it into textbooks.

The Starr family's penthouse duplex in Manhattan's Upper East Side.

It occupied three entire floors and came with its own helipad and outdoor swimming pool.

Wu Yanzu stood before the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows, gazing down at Central Park bathed in the morning light. He wore only an expensive silk robe and held a glass of priceless Romanée-Conti.

"Now this is what the fuck you call living," he murmured.

A few days earlier, Starr Group's legal team and the trust fund executors had lined up to meet him.

"Mr. Anthony... these are the documents for your parents' after-tax inheritance. Since your identity was deregistered not long ago, you'll need to sign here again..."

Rustle, rustle, rustle—his body's instinctive, natural handwriting.

From that day onward, Wu Yanzu officially took control of everything this body could inherit—tens of billions of dollars in personal assets and absolute controlling interest in a conglomerate.

"System, I feel... fantastic right now." He flashed a brilliant smile at his reflection in the floor-to-ceiling window.

Current Popularity: 7,982,301

Global Popularity Rank: Rising to Fame

Ability Enhancements: Steel Body (Planetary Level), Heat Vision (4000°C), Super Speed (Mach 15)...

"Not enough." Wu Yanzu narrowed his eyes.

The benefits from the Battle of New York were nearly exhausted.

The growth of his popularity had shifted from an "explosion" to a "trickle."

As a Best Actor in his previous life, he understood hype better than anyone.

Without a steady stream of work and exposure, audiences would quickly forget you. Popularity was the kind of thing that either advanced or declined.

"Looks like it's time to get to work."

He set down his coffee cup.

The next second, the red-and-blue uniform with its star-spangled cape had already covered his body.

For the next half month, New York's residents had their eyes opened.

What the fuck was "a sense of security"?

This was a sense of security!

"Look! It's Homelander!"

"Oh my God, he's here again!"

Midtown Manhattan.

An out-of-control bus was screeching toward the sidewalk, its driver clearly unconscious.

Pedestrians scattered in terror.

At that critical moment, a red-and-blue figure appeared before the bus as if teleporting.

There was no fancy technique involved.

Wu Yanzu simply stood there and extended one hand.

Bang—!!!