Night had fully cloaked the city, and Vought Tower blazed with neon. Yet beside the glamorous building lay a secluded alley, dark and damp.
The deathly silent alley was deserted. Only a set of casual clothes floated unsupported in the air, slowly moving down the passage without a body inside, a bizarre and absurd sight.
The clothes came to a steady stop before a heavy iron door deep in the alley. A suspended cuff shifted slightly and gently knocked on the door.
The narrow viewing slot in the center of the iron door was abruptly yanked open, revealing a bodyguard's solemn, wary face.
The bodyguard instinctively scanned outside. When his gaze landed on the unworn clothes floating in midair, his pupils suddenly contracted. His tense expression instantly crumbled, replaced at once by a fawning, respectful smile.
"Mr. Translucent! Please, come right in! Welcome to the club!"
He hurriedly pulled open the heavy iron door and bowed in invitation, respectfully ushering the invisible Solomon inside.
Solomon remained silent throughout, saying nothing as he walked steadily through the doorway while invisible.
This was Vought International's exclusive underground private nightclub, an extremely secret establishment closed to the public.
Almost all male supes were regulars here. With Vought's tacit approval, it served as a private venue exclusively for supes to indulge themselves.
Here, worldly rules and moral boundaries were all null and void.
An atmosphere of extravagant indulgence permeated every corner. All kinds of staff catering exclusively to supes' pleasure could be seen everywhere, along with large numbers of off-duty Vought supes partying without restraint, supervision, or concern.
Solomon's purpose in coming here was obvious: these supes.
As an ordinary supe with neither a name nor credentials, he had no right to enter this exclusive circle.
But with his invisibility ability, getting inside was as easy as coming home.
Of all the supes currently on record, Translucent alone possessed optical invisibility. No second supe with the same ability had ever appeared.
Precisely for that reason, whenever anyone within Vought saw an invisible person, they instinctively assumed it was Translucent and never questioned it further.
Past the entrance hall, the club's decadent, extravagant interior immediately came into view.
Dim, suggestive lights flickered and swayed, while restless music mingled with faint panting.
Directly ahead, two naked bodies were actually entwined in midair, utterly unrestrained.
A man reclined in the air, his body floating unsupported, with a woman pressed tightly against him. They completely disregarded the people passing around them, indulging without limit.
Solomon was inwardly speechless. His gaze quickly swept the room, leaving him increasingly dumbfounded.
Many men and women inside were completely naked, openly pleasuring themselves and entwining with one another. They had utterly abandoned all shame and worldly rules, freely surrendering themselves to this unsupervised realm of desire.
He truly could not understand how these people could act with such abandon, completely ignoring everyone around them.
As these thoughts passed through his mind, the entwined couple slowly descended to the floor.
Without the slightest hesitation, Solomon took advantage of their unpreparedness and strode forward, concentrating his strength into a punch that struck the levitation user precisely in the back of the head.
With a dull thud, the man's eyes rolled back, and he instantly collapsed unconscious.
"Ding. Supe defeated. Ability acquired: Levitation." Levitation: Allows the user to float in place up to three meters high.
Fuck!
An utterly worthless ability.
He had thought it would be a flight ability that allowed him to soar freely. Instead, it was merely floating in place, limited to a height of three meters.
Fortunately, the rewards for defeating him were not entirely useless. His strength, defense, and hearing all increased slightly, so he had gained something, and his attack had not been wasted.
The woman beside the man staggered back repeatedly in fright at the sudden turn of events, still badly shaken.
But when she saw only a set of floating clothes before her, with no person visible, she immediately realized that Translucent had struck.
The terror in her eyes instantly faded, replaced by feverish adoration. She stepped forward twice of her own accord, reaching her slender hand straight toward Solomon's invisible chest.
"Mr. Translucent! I'm your devoted fan. I'm ready to serve you anytime!"
As she spoke, she lightly pressed herself against him, her manner suggestive and frivolous.
A chill of revulsion ran through Solomon. Without the slightest mercy, he raised his hand and delivered a precise, vicious chop to her neck.
The woman's vision went black, and she crumpled to the floor, completely unconscious.
The rest of the revelers in the room all caught sight of the scene, yet not one dared speak up to stop him.
In their eyes, this was merely Translucent losing his temper on a whim.
As a member of the Seven, Translucent enjoyed absolute privileges in an underground establishment like this. No one dared provoke him or say a word. Everyone silently looked away, pretending they had seen nothing.
Solomon coldly surveyed the room, his gaze suddenly fixing on an ugly, balding middle-aged man in a corner.
The man was staring fixedly at him, his eyes full of shock, bewilderment, and disbelief, his expression distinctly out of place.
Solomon's brow furrowed, and wariness rose within him.
For some reason, that face looked familiar, but he could not recall the man's identity just then.
What put him even more on guard was that this man's shock was by no means an ordinary person's usual reaction to seeing Translucent.
What was he so shocked about?
Without betraying anything, Solomon walked steadily up to the middle-aged man.
The next second, the man suddenly spoke, his questioning tone carrying certainty:
"Who are you?"
The instant those words fell, Solomon was certain that this man most likely knew the truth of Translucent's death. He was by no means an ordinary low-ranking supe and was very likely one of Vought's higher-ups!
Yet Solomon could not for the life of him remember the man's name!
Without the slightest hesitation, Solomon unleashed a heavy punch, striking the man squarely in the face.
Before the middle-aged man could utter another word, the punch knocked him unconscious, and he slumped to the floor.
"Ding. Supe defeated: Shapeshifting Person. Ability acquired: Shapeshifting." Shapeshifting: Allows the user to perfectly assume the appearance, build, mannerisms, tone, and voice of anyone they have touched or seen, regardless of sex. The longer the transformation lasts, the greater the physical strain and mental pressure.
The instant he read the ability description, Solomon's eyes lit up, and he immediately remembered who this man was.
In the original plot, after Madelyn died, Homelander had coerced this man into taking Madelyn's form so he could vent his emotions. In the end, he had even been forced to transform into Homelander and died beneath the real Homelander's laser vision.
He quickly scanned the updated panel stats. Only his energy had increased by 0.1 points; his strength, defense, and speed were unchanged.
Like Splinter, these utility-type supes had physiques no different from ordinary people and could not provide substantial stat increases.
"What the fuck!"
A crude, furious roar suddenly erupted beside him, breaking the room's brief deathly silence.
A naked man, sticky all over and with an odd sheen to his skin, abruptly expanded from a tiny size, instantly returning to normal human dimensions and appearing beside Solomon.
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