Clothing Designs

"Is he lying?"

She asked Lin Mo.

"A fast heart rate doesn't necessarily mean someone is lying."

Lin Mo corrected her immediately.

"It could also be nervousness, fear, or physical discomfort."

"There are many things to consider."

Joanna nodded, only half-understanding.

She didn't truly grasp every method of judgment.

Yet she remembered one thing.

The words a person speaks might differ from their bodily reactions, the Vought logo could appear on a screen, and an official could announce a hero's death with a sorrowful voice.

Researchers could also tell her with expressionless faces that all experiments were for her own good, but beyond the sound of their voices, other information existed.

Once doubt took root, it was hard to uproot it completely.

In the Game Room, Joanna was still holding Lin Mo's wrist.

Looking at the darkened screen, Joanna suddenly asked, "If Vought is lying, can I choose not to listen?"

Lin Mo paused for a moment.

"That's up to you. Take that Soldier Boy on TV, for example—you don't know if he's truly dead, so you can choose to find the answer yourself. The answer you find on your own is ultimately more reassuring than someone else's."

It was the safest answer Lin Mo could give at the moment.

Joanna nodded gently.

"I understand."

She said.

"I'll watch to see if they're scared, if they're lying."

Lin Mo looked at her and said nothing more.

In the center of the screen, the Vought logo lingered quietly, its blue letters neat and steady, symbolizing the order and reliability the company wished to present to everyone.

Time was hard to perceive within the underground facility, especially for Joanna.

Here, one could not perceive the changing of the seasons, day and night; the lights always turned on according to a preset program, food arrived on schedule, and experiments repeated endlessly according to charts.

Only the growth of her body and the year markers occasionally changed on the walls could prove that time had not stopped.

1990.

Lin Mo was ten years old.

Six years had also passed since Soldier Boy's heroic sacrifice in the Vought news reports.

The child who once could only stand on tiptoe to reach the lower edge of the control panel could now look most research equipment straight in the eye.

His physical changes far exceeded those of ordinary peers, and his height increased rapidly. Lin Mo sometimes peeked at the researchers' reports—he was nearly one meter seven, much taller than Joanna.

Similarly, his strength, durability, and recovery abilities continued to improve.

Yet Vought still failed to accurately determine his upper limit, or rather, for a few years now, Vought had largely left him alone, drastically reducing even general experimental sampling and data recording.

His ten-year-old body was still young, but he had already preliminarily unlocked Kryptonian abilities, including heat vision and the power of flight.

However, he had never displayed these in front of Vought, or it would just be another pile of trouble.

The only pity was that he hadn't awakened his bioelectric field yet, but based on Lin Mo's calculations, after soaking up the sun for a few more years, he would practically awaken nearly all of his abilities.

He coveted the bioelectric field quite a bit; this was the fundamental difference between his and Joanna's abilities.

Of course, there was also Joanna, whom Lin Mo was quietly cultivating. Her strength was growing stronger too, though she still couldn't keep up with Lin Mo's growth rate. When it came to pure strength, Joanna was no longer his match.

The setup where Kryptonians grew stronger by soaking up the sun was simply too overpowered.

After all, Joanna had her own growth cap; around adulthood, she would become the Homelander of the original work, but progress would be difficult after that.

Now, her heat vision could steadily melt through composite alloys, and signs of flight capability were also beginning to emerge. There was a fundamental difference between a metahuman who could fly and one who couldn't.

During low-gravity training and high-speed movement tests, she often left the ground briefly.

He just wondered if she would bust out a Getsuga Tensho in the future.

Yet her understanding of the outside world was insufficiently mature.

Joanna knew the concepts of cities, countries, stores, and schools, but she had never truly lived among them.

The previous Homelander possessed a standardized smile, impeccable camera presence, and a thoroughly designed patriotic image.

Yet now, the person standing in that position was Joanna.

She was already entirely different from the Homelander in Lin Mo's memories.

Their genders were different, their upbringing was different, and their level of trust in Vought was completely different as well.

The original Homelander craved love from the company and the public.

But now, the only person Joanna truly needed remained always the same.

Lin Mo.

Vought understood this as well, which was why the company didn't attempt to completely sever the connection between the two.

Instead, they prepared to start incorporating Lin Mo into Joanna's training regimen.

When Joanna refused a lesson, Lin Mo was made to sit beside her; when she failed to master camera expression training, Lin Mo was asked to give feedback.

When she appeared too cold during public speaking practice, instructors even asked her to imagine that the people offstage were Lin Mo.

This actually yielded miraculous results. No matter what, Joanna didn't want to let Lin Mo down in front of him, so she studied very hard and progressed rapidly.

Yet Vought clearly didn't intend to wait until Joanna reached full adulthood to start shaping her public image.

They would shoot internal materials first, test audience reactions, and arrange limited government contact.

Then, step by step, they would push her toward the lenses, shaping the perfect Homelander image inch by inch.

Today's sun-bathing time ended. Humming a little tune, Lin Mo prepared to return to the seventh underground level of the bunker to find Joanna. Come to think of it, at this hour, Joanna should be studying knowledge regarding nations and etiquette.

Now, as Joanna grew older, the researchers had to relax their controls on her somewhat. The child was older, and previous mind-control tactics were no longer possible; Joanna had formed her own judgments on certain matters. If they maintained their previous attitude, the outcome might not end well.

Vogelbaum had said before that, given Homelander's strength, he could have left the research bunker long ago. The reason he didn't leave was still because he held a shred of familial attachment toward the bunker's researchers.

The metal elevator descended smoothly, arriving at the seventh underground level. As a crisp chime sounded, the thick elevator doors slowly slid open, and a damp, cool subterranean breeze washed over him.

This was the place Lin Mo had spent several years in, and he had long since figured out every corner. Without lingering, he walked straight toward Joanna's small classroom, which was where Joanna had agreed to meet him earlier.

Otherwise, he might as well just return to his little room to sleep.

Walking slowly forward along the narrow corridor paved with cold white light, he hadn't gone far before two voices separated by a wall clearly pierced through the thick concrete and alloy, landing precisely in his ears.

His super hearing was already taking shape; in fact, the entire bunker was under his surveillance.

The sound originated from the nearby Research Center, coming from the muffled conversation of two staff members.

"Start adding public speaking classes tomorrow."

"The image team has already arrived."

"What about the clothing designs?"

"Still being revised."

"The Board of Directors demands the American motif be highlighted: red, blue, and gold."

"Is the cape retained?"

"Of course it's retained."

So they were going to design an image for Joanna already? He was indeed looking forward to it a little. Lin Mo stopped in his tracks, his eyes piercing through multiple layers of walls to look at the two researchers in the Research Center, among whom was Vogelbaum.

After eavesdropping for a moment, Lin Mo lost interest. He withdrew his gaze, clicked his tongue lightly, and completely reined in his focused attention.

The rest was bound to be nothing more than clothing design requirements for Joanna or something similar. It was better to go find Joanna first; otherwise, she might throw a minor temper tantrum if she waited too long.

At her age, Joanna was nearing puberty, or perhaps her rebellious phase, and she had become even more clingy toward him. Still, there was nothing for it—who told him to take on this messy situation in the first place and claim he would raise Joanna? Now he finally knew how exhausting raising a child could be.