Struck by Lightning into The Boys Universe
"That's it?"
On the computer screen, the ending credits slowly rolled.
In the pitch-black room, the only light source came from the monitor.
Lin Mo sat in his chair, still pinching a nearly empty can of cola in his hand. The expression on his face was exceptionally bizarre, as if he had just swallowed a whole housefly alive.
He had spent an entire night binge-watching the final season of The Boys in one go.
Then, he got an ending that could not be said to be completely unacceptable, but rather made him desperately want to mail a blade to the writers.
"What the fuck!"
"Homelander messed around for so many years, and in the end he just gets written off in such a depressing way?"
"And Vought Corporation, a company that even dares to sell Superheroes as commodities, actually managed to last until the very end..."
Finally, Lin Mo put down the empty can and remained silent for a long time before accepting this fact, but he still couldn't help continuing to rant.
"What the hell! Refund."
"Production crew, how do you face us viewers? If Homelander really existed, he'd probably slice you up first."
"Homelander, you died a miserable death!"
Thunder rolled outside the window.
Carried away by his rant, Lin Mo simply stood up and spread his arms toward the window.
"If I were Homelander, I would've done a better job than them no matter where I went!"
Crack—
A dazzling white light suddenly tore through the night sky.
Lin Mo didn't even see clearly what had happened.
He only felt the world before his eyes instantly flooded by lightning, followed by an inconceivably close explosion ringing in his ears.
A fierce numbness exploded along his body.
Before his consciousness vanished, only one final thought remained in his mind.
He would never stand by the window and make grand oaths ever again.
Boom!
The sound of thunder seemed to still echo in his ears.
Cold rainwater battered his face.
Lin Mo struggled to open his eyes, but what he saw was not the ceiling of a hospital, nor was it the chandelier he had used for years in his own home.
What he saw was a sky covered by dark clouds, pitch black.
Dense raindrops fell from high above, every single droplet appearing abnormally huge in his vision.
He wanted to raise his hand to block them, only to find that his arms were absurdly short, and his five fingers were small and soft—looking nothing like what an adult should have.
"Ah..."
Lin Mo wanted to speak.
All that came from his throat was a weak cry.
What was going on?
His brain went briefly blank.
Immediately after, a large amount of chaotic information flooded into his consciousness.
His body had shrunk, he couldn't control his limbs, his vision was blurry, and his speech function was close to zero.
Coldness, hunger, and a sense of suffocation struck all at once.
He had turned into a baby.
To be more precise, a newborn baby who couldn't even manage to roll over.
At the same time, a pungent, filthy odor drifted over from beside him. Lin Mo struggled to turn his head, only to find a pile of garbage right next to him.
Lin Mo was lying right in the middle of that scorched and foul-smelling pile of garbage.
Instantly, he realized that he seemed to be an abandoned infant.
Are you kidding me, bro? This is literally a catastrophic opening.
What should he do now? No parents, no swaddling clothes for warmth. He would definitely not survive tonight due to hunger and hypothermia.
Before Lin Mo had time to continue analyzing, a cold mechanical voice suddenly rang in his mind like the music of the heavens.
[Host consciousness recovery detected.]
[Cross-world deployment complete.]
[Target world locked.]
[World Number: THE BOYS.]
Lin Mo's mind went blank again, but the shock was quickly washed away by the joy of having just acquired a system.
The Boys? This world?
The very world he had just been complaining about?
No way, did it skew off again? This world was hardly friendly to ordinary people; in a place where super-powered lunatics were as common as dogs, he might get his head blown off by Homelander and liquidated any day now.
Yet once the complaints subsided, he still had to see how the system would perform. Lin Mo silently placed his last shred of hope on the system, seeing that under the current circumstances, gaining the power of self-preservation in this world was inseparable from the Vought Corporation.
Even if he were lucky enough to catch Vought's eye, get injected with V5, and miraculously survive, he would still have to deal with the Vought Corporation when he grew up. Altogether, this world was a dead end.
What was more, in this realistic version of the Vought world, Homelander was not so easily plot-killed.
Before Lin Mo could finish pondering, the system's voice pulled his thoughts back once more.
[Newborn carrier construction complete.]
[Bloodline template loaded successfully.]
[Current Bloodline: Kryptonian.]
[Template reference object: Kal-El.]
[Host is in infancy, physical bearing capacity is limited, and most bloodline abilities are temporarily sealed.]
[Abilities will gradually unlock along with physiological growth and the accumulation of yellow star energy.]
A string of prompts made Lin Mo almost forget to cry.
A Kryptonian! It didn't skew off!
I love you, system!
And a Kryptonian Bloodline constructed with Superman Kal-El as the reference.
Nice, system, you really are dependable. I forgive you for bringing me into The Boys.
Next, Lin Mo tried to mobilize the power within his body.
Yet reality dealt him another heavy blow: no Super Hearing, no Heat Vision, no X-ray vision.
And certainly not the terrifying strength to punch through the Earth with a single blow.
He could not even fully control his own arms.
The only thing he could feel was that deep within his body seemed to lie an extremely vast and empty region.
It was like a huge furnace that had not yet been charged.
The furnace body had already been built, but inside there was only a tiny, faint spark.
He indeed possessed a Kryptonian body, but right now he was merely a Kryptonian infant who had never basked in the sun.
Never mind Homelander; even if a stray dog came along, it might carry him off.
"Waaa..."
Reality soon forced Lin Mo to cry again.
This time it was no disguise.
The rain was freezing, and the infant's body temperature was dropping rapidly.
He did not know where he had been dropped, nor whether the system had arranged so-called newbie protection.
Fortunately, he now possessed this Kryptonian Bloodline, making him much stronger than an ordinary baby, and his adaptability was vastly improved.
It was just a pity it was night now; as long as he made it through tonight, tomorrow as soon as the sun shone he could revive at full health. Although he was still losing health at the moment, there was ultimately a chance to survive.
[Basic drop-off mission complete.]
[World adaptation program initiated.]
[System energy insufficient, about to enter hibernation.]
Hearing the voice in his mind, Lin Mo was startled.
Wait a minute.
At least give a world map first!
Or a birth certificate would do!
[During hibernation, the system will cease the vast majority of functions.]
[After the host reaches specific conditions, the system may reawaken.]
[Please survive on your own, Host.]
The mechanical voice grew fainter and fainter.
Lin Mo called out frantically, but received no response.
This system dumped him here, gave him a temporarily unusable Kryptonian body, and then prepared to log off directly?
At least leave an instruction manual!
However, the system offered no explanation.
The light in his mind quickly dimmed, leaving behind only a blurred interface that was almost imperceptible.
Just then, the sound of a car engine came through the rain curtain.
Two beams of light pierced the darkness, illuminating this remote area of the city.
A black sedan stopped not far away.
The car door opened, and a man wearing a dark raincoat stepped out.
"I'm going to take a leak, be right back."
Humming a tune while unbuckling his belt, the man in dark clothes walked toward the pile of garbage where Lin Mo was located.
Naturally, Lin Mo also sensed someone walking in his direction. He instantly realized this was an opportunity and decided to just go for it. With nothing to lose, Lin Mo immediately began to wail loudly, attempting to use his voice to draw the man over.
The man walked up to the garbage depression and suddenly stopped. Even through the rain, he heard the familiar sound of crying coming from the garbage bags ahead.
He was one of the research executives at Vought Corporation, primarily researching Compound V. In recent years, his research had made breakthroughs, leading them to deduce that the earlier Compound V was injected into an infant, the more powerful the abilities gained in adulthood would be.
Therefore, they had been dealing with infants constantly lately, and naturally, he was familiar with this sound.
He quickly approached and successfully discovered Lin Mo from a pile of trash.
"Oh, God, there's a baby here."
Lin Mo was lifted from the garbage pile by him. The man did not mind the foul odor on Lin Mo, instead examining Lin Mo's face closely. After being picked up, Lin Mo stopped crying, yet he was trying hard to identify the logo on the man's chest.
Rainwater slid down the badge holder of the man in front of him.
At the very top of the identification card was printed a blue and white corporate logo.
Below it was an English word extremely familiar to Lin Mo.
VOUGHT.
Vought.