Thunder Voice Pack

Smoke billowed, and the sound of gunfire and artillery rang incessantly in his ears.

The onslaught of modern weapons could not hurt Lu Zhao in the slightest.

Feeling the strength of Soldier Boy's body, Lu Zhao smiled in satisfaction.

Being bathed in a hail of bullets reminded him of those fragments of memory.

Now, even Lu Zhao could no longer tell who he was. If he was that young man who watched TV shows, he would never have fired a Chest Beam and killed so many people simply because he had inexplicably transmigrated.

Yet he had done it, and afterward, he had felt little guilt, as though human lives did not matter that much to him.

The memories of Soldier Boy, this body's original owner, had kept surfacing ever since he fired the Chest Beam.

Now, Lu Zhao seemed to have merged with Soldier Boy, and the way he acted was different from before.

"Since you tried to kill me first, you can't blame me for this." Lu Zhao's eyes gradually turned cold, and he strode forward...

Ten minutes later.

"Finally, some peace and quiet."

"Honestly, I didn't want to kill you either."

Lu Zhao spoke wistfully to the remains strewn across the ground.

[Ring-ring-ring. Host detected to have completed the mission. Distributing reward.]

The Old Popsicle System interrupted Lu Zhao's thoughts at an inopportune moment.

He could not help feeling a little anticipation.

The system was handing out a reward!

It should be a reward, right?

Lu Zhao was not entirely sure. Given this fucking system's habits, it might be cooking up something nasty.

Then again, as a veteran internet junkie, Lu Zhao had never seen a system give out a particularly shabby starter gift pack.

As he consoled himself, the system's voice sounded again.

[Congratulations, host. Obtained: Thunder Voice Pack. Installation complete.]

Lu Zhao froze. Thunder Voice Pack?

"What does that mean?" he opened his mouth to ask.

But as the words reached his lips, they automatically became, "You goddamn sissy system, what kind of fucking reward is this?"

Lu Zhao froze.

No way!

"Fuck you!" Another curse escaped his mouth uncontrollably.

The corner of Lu Zhao's eye twitched. So this so-called Thunder Voice Pack was Soldier Boy's outrageous way of talking.

What kind of reward was that?

"Bastard system, send me the fuck home!" Lu Zhao roared.

[Please remain calm, host. Transmigration is irreversible.]

At that, Lu Zhao's face turned livid with anger. "I'll take a pair of chopsticks and ****"

Only after he had spent a while cursing at the utterly unresponsive system did Lu Zhao accept this fact.

Thinking back to before his transmigration, he had been an office worker raised in an orphanage, with no friends. His only daily entertainment had been watching "The Boys."

But he had transmigrated into the show.

What did he have now?

Nothing but invincible destructive power, invincible defense, an endless lifespan, and the prestige of being one of the original Superheroes...

That actually sounded pretty good.

"Never mind, then." At that thought, Lu Zhao could not help smiling.

This setup was so much better than what he had before transmigrating.

As long as he played his cards right, wouldn't wealth and glory be within easy reach?

Not to mention that he had endless life to enjoy them.

He walked out of the base and looked at the sun on the horizon. It seemed incomparably bright.

A ditch beside the road reflected a ray of light into Lu Zhao's pale blue eyes.

Perhaps because he had merged with a transmigrator, Soldier Boy's originally green eyes had changed. He walked over to a puddle and saw a handsome, sharply chiseled face.

"Then, from today onward, I'm Soldier Boy."

By the time Soldier Boy walked out of the military base, it was nearly evening. The Russian authorities had long since learned of his escape, but tacitly left him alone.

They let this walking nightmare steal a set of clothes and board an international flight to New York.

[Ring-ring-ring. Host detected to be approaching New York. Old Popsicle System fully activated.]

[Current abilities:

Level 3: physical longevity

Level 5: nuclear chest blast, super healing

Level 7: super strength, super defense.

Unranked: speed (slightly slower than a shared bicycle), special abilities (such as laser eyes, shapeshifting, flight, etc.).

"So this is the system's assessment of my abilities?"

Soldier Boy muttered to himself. Looking at the level-three physical longevity, he asked, "Get your ass over here and explain, you homo system."

[Ring-ring-]

"What the fuck is that sound? You sound like a stupid bell. Change the notification sound."

The Old Popsicle System's notification had barely sounded before Soldier Boy rudely interrupted it.

He had put up with it long enough.

The Old Popsicle System seemed stunned by the abuse. It took quite a while before it appeared again.

[Ding. The longevity granted by original compound V is not equivalent to eternal life, so it can only be rated level three.]

As if afraid of being cursed at again, the Old Popsicle System spoke rapidly.

[System notice: as long as the host changes the original plot of The Boys, makes up for regrets, and corrects Homelander's broken personality, generous rewards can be obtained, including upgrades to existing abilities and the acquisition of special abilities.]

[Additionally, the host may attempt to change the fates of the other members of the Seven and build a true alliance of Superheroes.]

Redeem Homelander?

Soldier Boy leaned against the backrest, his brow furrowing.

Having an intimate knowledge of the plot of The Boys, he could sum Homelander up in one sentence: a bastard who deserved to die a thousand deaths.

But as the most fully fleshed-out character, he also had a pitiable side.

Simply put, he had never been loved.

The cold white of the laboratory walls had formed the entire backdrop of John's childhood-John being Homelander's real name.

From birth, he had been trapped in Vought International's underground cage, where unceasing lights shone on this child with godlike powers at all times.

As a perfect match for compound V, he was not a child in anyone's eyes, but a test subject.

Scorching temperatures of over a thousand degrees, all kinds of pressure tests in sealed pressure chambers, and assorted physical experiments...

He had never received the care a normal child should have received.

When he was hungry, there were only nutritional supplements.

When he cried, only that little blanket answered.

For Homelander, childhood had undoubtedly been a prolonged ordeal of lonely torture, with no one beside him.

Vought's psychologists had used suggestion, hypnosis, and even drugs to distort little John's understanding bit by bit and erode his humanity.

In the end, he had become an overgrown infant who could never mature psychologically. Starved of love, he used violence to establish absolute control, filling the perpetually unfillable void in his heart with other people's fear and awe.

So Soldier Boy felt some sympathy for him; if he had gone through everything Homelander had, he might not even have managed to become an onscreen hero the way Homelander had.

However, no matter how miserable his childhood had been, it could not change the fact that he was a psychopath.

Redeeming Homelander would be incredibly difficult, no easier than plucking the moon from the sky with his bare hands.

At that thought, Soldier Boy looked out the window, a confident smile appearing on that face handsome enough to qualify as a national treasure.

"But I'm Soldier Boy, after all. Homelander's father."

As for building a true alliance of Superheroes, Soldier Boy did not give it much thought. If the original members proved difficult to change, he would simply kill them all and bring in a new batch.