V5 and the First Stage of Steel Body

Lin Mo's heart skipped a beat.

It couldn't be that much of a coincidence, could it?

He had only just arrived in this world, and the first people to find him were from Vought Corporation?

What kind of spawn point was this?!

Everyone knew a child raised by ordinary people could become Superman, but a child raised by Vought would only become Homelander.

"And he's an Asian baby boy."

The man holding Lin Mo looked around, then back down at his face.

"Poor kid. Let's take him back first."

"Give him a full examination."

"He might be useful to Vought."

Lin Mo was wrapped in a heavy waterproof cloth and carried into the car.

Before the door closed, Lin Mo took one last look at the sky, barely visible behind the dark clouds.

The sun had just risen.

But the thick clouds blocked its light, leaving precious little to reach him.

The car drove away from the wasteland.

Lin Mo did not struggle. In his current state, even if Vought had not found him, he would have ended up in a hospital, a police station, or an orphanage.

Compared with an entirely unknown environment, going to Vought had at least one advantage.

He knew what kind of company it was, what it was researching, and what it feared losing most.

As long as Vought considered him valuable, it would not let him die easily.

As for later...

Once he grew up and soaked up enough sunlight, there was no telling who would be studying whom.

The car eventually entered a heavily guarded building.

The man carried Lin Mo into an elevator, which descended.

Basement level one.

Basement level three.

Basement level six.

The elevator still did not stop.

Lin Mo immediately realized this was no ordinary hospital. Sure enough, Vought had no intention of letting him go. He had been clinging to a sliver of hope, but now... he could only laugh bitterly.

This was one of Vought's secret underground research facilities.

White lights passed overhead. Staff in lab coats took him and placed him in a transparent incubator.

Blood draw.

Temperature check.

Brainwave scan.

The tests began in rapid succession.

All Lin Mo could do was act like an ordinary baby, crying a few times whenever someone approached.

A few hours later, a researcher with graying hair stood outside the observation window, reading the preliminary report in his hand.

"His cellular structure is strange."

"It resembles a human's, but it isn't quite the same."

"His cells are far more active than a normal infant's, and his genetic sequence contains a large number of unidentifiable structures."

Another researcher asked:

"Should we report it?"

"No need."

The gray-haired lead researcher smiled faintly and looked up at Lin Mo in the incubator.

"Run a drug compatibility test first."

"As it happens, V5 needs a new Experimental Sample."

Lin Mo's heart sank at the mention of "V5."

Compound V.

He had no idea which generation of experimental formula Vought was developing. If this was Original Compound V, its mortality rate for ordinary people was terrifyingly high.

The transparent incubator opened, and a syringe filled with blue liquid slowly drew near.

As Lin Mo stared at the needle, he felt a powerful sense of danger for the first time.

He did not have a Steel Body yet.

At least, it had not truly awakened.

Nor did he know what Compound V would do inside a Kryptonian's body.

Would it merge with him?

Be rejected?

Cause his genes to collapse?

Or kill him outright?

The needle pierced his tender arm, and the cold blue liquid entered his vein bit by bit.

Outside the observation window, everyone waited for the result.

Lin Mo stared at the pale light overhead, one thought filling his mind.

He had only just arrived in this world. He could not die from the first injection.

For now, he had no choice but to trust his Kryptonian physiology.

A strange, tingling warmth spread through his arm. The moment the blue liquid entered his vein, it felt as though his whole arm had been immersed in a hot spring.

Because he knew the story, he understood that Compound V was not simply a drug that strengthened muscles.

It was trying to invade cells, rewrite genes, and forcibly change a living being's natural evolutionary path.

That was how it gave ordinary people superpowers.

If Lin Mo had the body of an ordinary human infant, what happened next would be entirely up to luck.

He might awaken a power, suffer a physical mutation, or die as his genes collapsed.

But his body did not contain only human genes.

When V5 tried to reach his Kryptonian cells, it forcibly awakened a defense mechanism dormant deep within his genes.

It was like a crew of workers armed with hammers and chisels trying to remodel a spaceship far beyond their comprehension.

The moment the blue drug entered his cells, it was identified as a foreign substance.

His Kryptonian genes neither accepted the modification nor fused with V5.

They simply broke down the Compound V, consumed it, and converted it into basic energy his body could use.

The strange sensation from the V5 injection quickly faded.

In its place came a warmth spreading from deep inside his body.

The stellar energy within him, previously so faint it was almost nonexistent, was briefly activated by the drug.

His bone density began to increase, and subtle changes appeared in his muscle fibers.

His skin cells bound together, forming a biological structure far more stable than human tissue.

Lin Mo could clearly feel himself becoming tougher.

His body was changing on a fundamental level. His flesh remained soft, and his skin still felt like a baby's to the touch.

But beneath that skin, every cell seemed locked together by an invisible force.

His Steel Body had awakened.

It was only the most rudimentary, incomplete form, but it was real.

Outside the observation window, the researchers watched the instruments closely.

"Heart rate rising."

"Body temperature up by 0.7 degrees Celsius."

"Increased brain activity."

"No tissue necrosis."

"No obvious mutation, either."

A few minutes later, every reading stabilized again.

Lin Mo lay in the incubator. He breathed no fire, did not float, and showed no visible sign of anything unusual.

The researcher keeping the records frowned.

"No powers manifested."

"Possibly an ineffective response."

"Continue observation."

"If there's no change within twenty-four hours, move him to the failed-sample protocol."

The failed-sample protocol.

Lin Mo did not need to know the details to guess what it meant.

If an ordinary infant failed an experiment, he might still be sent to another institution.

But Lin Mo was no ordinary infant. His cellular structure had already caught Vought's attention.

If the company decided he had no value as a subject, it was unlikely to send him to an orphanage. More likely, it would dissect him for a thorough study.

Vought would never allow a special sample it could not understand to leave the laboratory.

So he had to demonstrate his value, but not too much of it.

Right now, he had only just awakened a rudimentary defense. His strength and speed had not improved noticeably.

Even if he displayed everything he could do, he would be no more than a somewhat tougher baby.

Besides, the unknown was his greatest protection.

If Vought discovered that sunlight could let him grow without limit, the company would do everything it could to keep him locked underground forever.

So he needed to give Vought an answer it could understand.

The V5 test had to count as a success.

It had given the infant Lin Mo powerful defenses, but produced no other, more dangerous or uncontrollable effects.

That was the conclusion Vought would be most willing to believe.