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After allocating all the skill points, Kevin felt a wave of emptiness as he stared at the plus sign that wouldn't light up.
How to put it, after maxing out his skills, Kevin didn't feel anything particularly special, but he vaguely sensed that he had indeed become a tiny bit stronger.
It was… a bit subtle.
However, no matter what, Kevin wouldn't be so foolish as to stab himself to test his physique and self-healing ability.
He could, however, try out the other two abilities.
First, Shape Shift.
After Kevin used it, the gills on his chest, which had been a headache, indeed disappeared.
Standing in front of the mirror, Kevin looked at his eight-pack abs with great satisfaction.
Although he had lost money, he had gained a healthy body, which seemed pretty good.
Then came Water Manipulation.
Well, this ability wasn't as powerful as Kevin had imagined; perhaps it was only at level two, so Kevin could at most create water currents to form a few arrows or a few Water Balls.
The power… was roughly comparable to a crossbow bolt, but that was it.
One could only say it was barely adequate.
"The skill points are allocated, so the current problem is… how do I get new skill points?"
After admiring his current body, Kevin stroked his stubbled chin, deep in thought.
As he stroked, he frowned again, then thought for a moment, ran to the bathroom, picked up a razor, and shaved off all the stubble on his chin.
"Doesn't this look much handsomer? I really don't know what the old Deep thought; he looks dashing when clean-shaven, yet he insisted on keeping that stupid-looking stubble…"
Looking at the handsome young man in the mirror, Kevin complained internally.
He wondered if the original Deep didn't want to steal the protagonist's thunder?
But the problem was, the protagonist in the original work wasn't handsome either.
He couldn't figure it out.
Buzz—Buzz—
Just as he finished with the skill points and tidied up his appearance, Kevin's phone vibrated with a buzzing sound.
He instinctively picked up the phone placed next to the washbasin and chose to answer:
"Hello?"
"Deep! What in the world are you doing!?!?"
"???"
What did I do?
Kevin, who had just answered the phone and was immediately yelled at, was momentarily bewildered.
Just as he was about to speak, the female voice on the other end of the line lowered her voice and said:
"Did you oversleep!? Did you forget what day it is today! The reporters are already here! Our new girl is also on her way! And you, who are supposed to welcome the new recruit, are still dawdling at home!?"
"Uh… Madelyn, let me explain…"
"I don't need an explanation! Ten minutes! I want you to get to the site immediately! Otherwise, I'll have A-Train host this handover ceremony!"
Click.
The call was instantly hung up, and it was then that Kevin remembered what he had to do today.
"...Uh, today seems to be Starlight's first day joining The Seven… I actually forgot about this."
Through his memories, Kevin finally recalled that today was the day Starlight joined The Seven in the original work.
It was also the day the original member of The Seven, Lamplighter, officially retired.
However, Lamplighter was not present; this retirement ceremony and the new recruit handover ceremony were both to be handled by Deep.
According to the schedule, Deep should have already arrived at the venue by now to rehearse the pre-prepared speech.
But instead…
Kevin, who had just transmigrated, had actually forgotten about this matter.
"This can't be blamed on me; anyone with a golden finger would need some time to research it first, uh… speaking of which, that's not the problem right now…"
Kevin looked at himself in the mirror, then at the fine stubble shaved off on the razor, and suddenly felt a bad premonition.
Before, he had thought that Deep simply didn't bother to groom himself, which was why he had such stupid-looking stubble on his chin.
But now that he thought about it, Vought, the company behind The Seven, wouldn't neglect the image of their Superheroes.
This meant that Deep's image was 'carefully' designed by Vought.
And now, Kevin had completely ruined that 'carefully' designed image.
"Uh… they… should be able to accept my new image, right?"
Looking at himself in the mirror, several times more handsome, Kevin felt a little uncertain.
What should he do when he ruined the image arranged by the company's higher-ups on his first day of work after transmigrating?
Waiting online, it's quite urgent.
…
Throwing her phone onto the table, Madelyn, the Vice President of Vought, let out a long sigh and asked Ashley, her assistant beside her:
"Where is that young girl now?"
"I just spoke to her on the phone; she's almost here."
"When she arrives, first send her to the makeup room, then arrange for her to meet Deep, and also, extend the opening of the ceremony a bit, play more promotional videos, and try to make the time longer."
"I understand; I'll go arrange it now."
Ashley nodded repeatedly, picked up her briefcase, and turned to leave Madelyn's room to arrange the upcoming matters.
After Ashley left, Madelyn gently rubbed her temples, relieving her mental fatigue.
But despite appearing very tired, she wasn't actually angry with Deep.
Having managed the Superhero department for so long, Madelyn was already accustomed to the unpunctuality of these Superheroes.
Things like Deep being late, while not frequent, had happened a few times occasionally.
However, usually it was due to conflicting schedules that were difficult to rearrange; she just didn't know what the situation was with Deep today.
Madelyn quite approved of Deep.
Not because of his abilities, but because among The Seven, he was the most hassle-free person besides Black Noir and Queen Maeve.
Compared to Lamplighter, who had once burned the grandson of an FBI agent, A-Train, who had just run over someone, and Translucent, who was addicted to peeping, Deep, who merely liked to chat with aquatic animals, had virtually no flaws.
As for Homelander…
Madelyn didn't want to comment much.
After thinking through the current members of The Seven in her mind, Madelyn began to think about what would happen after Starlight joined The Seven.
Lamplighter's retirement was inevitable; he had been increasingly out of form in the past two years, and his popularity in The Seven had become the lowest, even falling behind Black Noir, so his voluntary request for retirement was reasonable.
It just so happened that after his retirement, a nice young girl took his place.
Starlight, Annie January, a new Superhero who harbored dreams of being a Superhero, full of the vitality and spirit a young girl should have.
This made Madelyn think of Queen Maeve in the past.
She recalled that when Queen Maeve was recruited, she was also like Starlight, positive about everything and fully enthusiastic about her work as a Superhero.
…She didn't know when, but she had become an old hand just going through the motions, and besides the necessary work arranged by the company, she didn't care about anything else.
Knock, knock, knock—
As Madelyn was deep in thought, someone knocked on the door of her room.
She casually said "Come in" to the outside, and the person outside pushed the door open, followed by Deep's voice:
"Ahem, um, Madelyn, is there anything you need me to do?"
Deep's tone seemed a bit off, but Madelyn didn't pay attention.
She picked up the prepared speech manuscript and said:
"You finally arrived. Quickly memorize this script, then go meet the new girl… WTF!? What's wrong with you!?"
Madelyn looked up as she spoke, and upon seeing Deep's current appearance, she couldn't help but blurt out a curse.
Deep was still wearing the dark green scale Superhero suit the company had designed for him, and his physique hadn't changed.
But when her gaze focused on his face, a quite obvious difference could be seen.
His chin, which originally had stubble, was now clean-shaven, with not a single beard hair left.
And this was the reason Madelyn cursed.
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