[Bounty: Help me protect someone! You just need to keep her safe. I can't watch Annie 24 hours a day, so I'm hoping someone strong enough can help me (Canary). Reward: 6,000 points!]
When Lu Wen landed, his foot came down on a patch of damp paper scraps.
He looked around. Several overturned trash cans lay piled at the mouth of the alley, colorful graffiti covered the walls, and the air smelled damp and greasy with cheap fast food.
Finally, his gaze settled on the tall, thin young white man before him.
"Were you the one who posted the mission asking someone to watch over Annie's safety?" Lu Wen asked, putting on a cold expression.
"Y-yes! My name's Hughie Campbell. You can call me Hughie," the young man said, his voice trembling slightly.
Hearing him give his name, Lu Wen thought, I guessed right!
When he first saw the request, he had suspected this might be the world of The Boys. Before transmigrating, he had just finished watching the plot of its fifth season, and that slapdash ending had left him utterly speechless.
Now that Hughie had given his name himself, Lu Wen was completely certain.
He just didn't know whether he could beat Homelander if they came up against each other! Probably not, though. He couldn't fly, had no laser eyes, and his chest cannon couldn't erase Compound V powers the way Soldier Boy's could.
Still, staying alive-and even giving Homelander a good beating-probably wouldn't be a problem.
"All right, Hughie! Tell me exactly what you want me to do." Lu Wen lifted his chin.
"Okay... wait! Can you prove how strong you are? If you can't protect yourself, I wouldn't feel comfortable letting you take this mission."
Seeing the slight suspicion in Hughie's eyes, Lu Wen wasn't angry. He even thought it was reasonable! Given Hughie's personality in the original story, it was no surprise he would say that.
Without wasting any more words, Lu Wen grabbed Hughie's shoulder and reached a fourth-floor rooftop with a thunderous leap!
Once on the roof, he held on to Hughie and raced across the rooftops. The speed trait from Black Panther really was remarkably agile. Within a few breaths, he had brought Hughie to a nearby park.
Held in his grip, Hughie saw everything blur around him, the wind shrieking in his ears. Before he could speak, however, everything stopped.
"Urgh!" Set down on the ground, Hughie couldn't help dry-heaving.
Lu Wen waited for him to catch his breath, raised a fist and waved it, then punched a block of marble decorating the park.
His fist instantly punched a hole through the stone!
Hughie stared at the large hole in shock. He knew the difference between punching through something and shattering it! His doubts about Lu Wen's strength vanished instantly.
With strength like that, even if he couldn't beat Homelander, he could protect himself-and protect Annie along the way.
"Well? Is this little bit of strength enough to meet your standards?" Having demonstrated his strength and, indirectly, his defense, Lu Wen posed the question to the somewhat dazed Hughie.
"Yes, yes! Absolutely," Hughie said excitedly.
"Then can you tell me how you saved up those six thousand points?" Lu Wen asked curiously.
He genuinely couldn't figure it out. How had Hughie managed to save up so many points on his own? Even Tobey's Spider-Man only had a little over four thousand!
"Oh, that..."
Hughie gave him the short version of what had happened.
Not long ago, while they were figuring out how to kill Storm, the system had suddenly approached him. It hadn't said much, only telling him that he could earn points by stopping superhuman crime!
Then they had been brought into the government fold, and he had become second-in-command at the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs. During that time, their bureau had reduced superhuman crime by sixty percent! That was how he had saved up over seven thousand points!
He hadn't told anyone about any of this, and the system wouldn't let him, either. This time, the situation was urgent, so he had put up a round number to try his luck!
After all, just a minute earlier, he had still been wondering whether this Void Market System was the product of something going wrong in his head.
"Badass!" After hearing him out, Lu Wen gave Hughie a thumbs-up.
Peter spent every damned day catching criminals in streets and alleys, and all he had earned was four thousand and some points.
Just how many superhuman criminals were there here? Enough to let Hughie earn over seven thousand points in such a short time!
As expected of The Boys universe. Committing crimes here was as casual as going to the bathroom.
And despite things being this shitty, no uncontrollable disaster had broken out. Ordinary people could still scrape by. He had to admit, Vought really was something.
Hughie suddenly glanced anxiously at the time, then explained the general situation to Lu Wen as quickly as he could, including Homelander's displeasure at Starlight becoming co-captain of The Seven, The Deep's return, and a whole series of things that put Starlight in a bad position.
Lu Wen frowned and interrupted Hughie's rambling.
"Stop! Couldn't you just tell me to find a way to protect Starlight in secret? You've been talking forever, and barely any of it was useful."
Hughie stared blankly at Lu Wen, then lowered his head slightly and said in a small, timid voice, "I'm sorry. I'm just too worried about Annie! And there's nothing I can do."
Lu Wen had some recollection of Hughie at this point in the story and didn't do anything to blame him. After all, he was a stranger, and a customer at that. There was no need to make a fuss.
"Then toughen up. Now go do what you need to do! You just checked the time, so you've still got something to do, right? Let's exchange contact information. I'll take you back first."
Lu Wen took out the phone Tony had given him and exchanged contact information with Hughie.
Tony had custom-built this phone. As long as a signal existed, regardless of the brand, its internal connection program could connect to it.
As for why it had that feature, it was probably a lingering effect of having crossed the desert alone back then, without a signal or navigation.
As everyone knew, Tony had always had that habit! Whenever he experienced anything that caused him even the slightest difficulty, he would later make something to address it.
Grabbing Hughie, Lu Wen took him back to the alley.
After hastily saying goodbye to Lu Wen, Hughie hurried back to meet up with Butcher and the others! Next, they were going to look for a weapon that might be able to kill Homelander!
But before that, he needed to borrow a little something from Mr. Butcher~
That... uh... damn it! I forgot to ask that guy's name.
But he was right. It's time I toughened up!
After sending Hughie off, Lu Wen began looking for Starlight using the address Hughie had given him.
"Kid! Hand over your money, or you'll regret it!"
Sure enough, in a world with a high crime rate, going out at night wasn't a good choice.
Speechless, Lu Wen turned to look at the gun pointed at his forehead. Holding it was a scruffy middle-aged white man, flicking a scarlet, forked tongue at him like a snake.
Clearly, this was one of Vought's test subjects. It just looked as though his injection of Compound V had only caused a tiny physical mutation.
People like this were usually considered defective products. They were lucky enough to survive, but had no value whatsoever and were generally left to fend for themselves.
Most superhuman crimes were committed by people like him.
With no outstanding powers and rejected by ordinary people, they ultimately fell into depravity. At the same time, other superhumans rejected them too. They were the sort who couldn't even get into a superhuman retirement home.
In the end, they eked out an existence as something neither human nor monster.
"What are you thinking about? Take this seriously, asshole! What's with that pitying look? You look down on me too, don't you?!"
In just that brief moment while Lu Wen was lost in thought, this sensitive superhuman robber's fragile heart had clearly been wounded!
His bloodshot gray eyes turned into vertical slits, and without the slightest hesitation, he pulled the trigger with the gun aimed at Lu Wen's head.
How dare he disregard him? He wanted the money, and he wanted his life too!
Bang!
"How is that possible?! You're a superhuman too?"
Seeing that Lu Wen's forehead didn't even have a scratch, the superhuman instantly came to his senses.
Although superhumans generally had physiques superior to humans, being able to take a bullet head-on was rare. Everyone who could do it was among the best!
I'm screwed. I've run into someone tough.
"Life's exhausting, isn't it? It's okay. I'll send you on your way! Consider it my thanks for that Boys-style welcome."
As his words fell, Lu Wen slammed both hands together against the man's head! Just like Purple Man, he got to experience having his head squeezed like a pimple.
Before you continue