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Homelander acted quickly.
Upon learning what was happening online, he ignored whatever Ashley said to him, immediately left the set, went to Kevin's office, and made a demand:
"You have to deal with this as soon as possible! Do you know how much my follower count has dropped?! Nine point five!! Nine point five!!!"
In front of Kevin, Homelander roared hysterically like a child who had lost his toy.
These past few days, he had already been greatly annoyed by Stormfront gradually replacing him as the center, and now this upsetting incident had occurred.
Homelander didn't know what he had done wrong; he had clearly eliminated a Super Villain for those damned bastards.
So what if he accidentally killed an ordinary person? What's the big deal?
If that Super Villain had remained alive, more than just one ordinary person would have died!
Why should they protest against him!
Why should he be treated like a demon just because of such a small matter!
Moreover, isn't it common for Superheroes to accidentally injure ordinary people while performing 'official duties'?
Even the deceased A-Train once ran over and killed someone!
Why did A-Train not receive much public condemnation, while Homelander was being called a villain by netizens?
What angered Homelander even more was that, in the face of the online public outcry, Kevin's suggestion was to 'make no comment' and wait for the storm to pass?!
What kind of plan is that?
Is Kevin going to sideline him as soon as he became CEO!?
This was where Homelander's anger lay; he was unwilling to simply back down and let things be. If he did nothing, his follower count would further decline.
It would be lower than Stormfront and Kevin!
With his follower count below Kevin's, Homelander was still relatively calm.
Because Kevin confirmed that he would withdraw from The Seven, his current follower count was only temporary. Once Kevin completely withdrew from The Seven and moved from the front to behind the scenes, his follower count would gradually decrease.
Homelander was still the most shining star in The Seven.
But below Stormfront, Homelander absolutely could not tolerate it.
Because this guy would stay in The Seven forever!
If she continued like this, she would probably become the de facto leader of The Seven, replacing his Homelander's position!!
Even because of this incident, the calls for Stormfront to become the leader of The Seven on the internet were growing louder, so how could Homelander endure such a thing happening.
That's why he was so furious now, far more agitated than his portrayal in the same time period in the original plot.
"The public relations department is responding; I believe it won't be long before this matter gradually subsides."
In stark contrast to Homelander's attitude, Kevin's expression was very calm. He smiled as he looked at Homelander, as if this matter was not a big deal at all.
Kevin's attitude, on the contrary, made Homelander even angrier.
He came before Kevin and directly questioned him:
"Is this how you handle things? Do you know that doing this will let that bitch Stormfront ride all over me! Or are you really planning to replace the leader of The Seven?"
"How could that be? You have always been the leader of The Seven, I can guarantee that. It's just... I'm currently working on another plan, so I can't let the current situation escalate, do you understand?"
"What... what plan?"
Seeing Kevin's confident demeanor, Homelander's anger instantly dissipated. He frowned slightly and asked.
Kevin pulled out the drawer beneath the table, took out a prepared plan, and tossed it to Homelander.
Homelander picked up the plan, read through it for a while, and then suddenly looked up and asked:
"'Hero Association'?"
"You should have seen the specific plan. I intend to reduce the number of Superheroes and then gather the remaining Superheroes to establish a Hero Association exclusively for Vought."
"...Is there any difference between this and The Seven?"
"The difference is... The Seven will still be under the jurisdiction of the America government, but the Hero Association... is a global association. If the association is successfully established, then in the future, no one will stop you from doing any crime-fighting on Earth."
Kevin smiled, stood up, walked over to Homelander, and whispered to him:
"Think about it, if the Hero Association is established, then as the association's president, you will have the power to go anywhere in the world to fight crime without being constrained by anyone. At that time... your follower count will be much, much higher than it is now."
"...Wait, you mean, I'll be the president?"
Homelander understood the key point, turned his head, and asked in surprise.
Kevin replied as a matter of course:
"Of course, besides you, the leader of The Seven, who else is qualified to be the president of the Hero Association?"
"But... I thought you..."
"By that time, I probably won't be a Superhero anymore. Maybe I'll be qualified to join the Hero Association, but I won't be able to become the president.
"Moreover, I still have to manage Vought, so I really don't have the energy to handle the Hero Association's matters. Therefore, the position of president can only be yours, and only you can be the president of the association."
Kevin said with 'regret', and seemed to place extremely high hopes on Homelander.
Homelander was captivated by Kevin's plan, envisioning the future Kevin described.
And at this moment, Kevin continued:
"So, during this period, you need to be quiet, understand? Don't do anything... attention, anything that could make you lose support."
"But... the online public opinion about this matter..."
"I'll handle it. We're in this together, Homelander. I'll help you take care of everything, and you just need to calm down for a while. Can you do that?"
"..."
With Kevin having said all that, what more could Homelander say?
It wasn't that Vought wasn't dealing with Homelander's issue; it was that the situation at this stage had come too quickly, and public relations also required time.
And Kevin's plan currently couldn't afford any mistakes. Therefore, even if Homelander was anxious watching his follower count continuously drop, he had no choice but to temporarily listen to Kevin, calm down for a while, and then discuss it after the storm passed.
In the end, Homelander was so taken in by Kevin's grand promises that he stopped worrying about his follower count and turned back to the set to continue filming The Seven movie.
After Homelander left and Kevin was sure he wasn't paying attention anymore, he called Neuman:
"Continue the protests. The bigger this gets, the better, understand?"
"Okay, I understand. But sir... won't this cause losses for Vought?"
"You don't need to worry about that. You just need to do your own job and gain political capital for yourself. The rest, you don't need to concern yourself with."
"...Alright, sir."
Neuman hung up the phone after responding.
Kevin's gaze fell on the plan on the table, and the corners of his mouth curved slightly upward.
The plan to establish a Hero Association was, of course, real. If not, how else could he get those top Superheroes on his side?
Even the part about the Hero Association not needing to obey the commands of various governments and directly conducting rescue operations in certain areas was not a lie.
Because the Hero Association was modeled after 'Justice League' or 'Avengers,' true hero teams, primarily dealing with global crises.
Superpowered criminals, high-tech criminals, and even aliens were all within the scope of the Hero Association's jurisdiction.
However, Kevin never said that the heroes who formed the Hero Association would necessarily be those at the very top.
Kevin would only make them believe that they would be selected into the Hero Association and continue to make huge profits as heroes, just like before.
Only in this way would the Superheroes help him, and Homelander would also help him.
And after all of this stabilized, that would be Kevin's time to deal with them.
"Boiling a frog slowly... I wonder how many frogs will manage to jump out then."
By the time all Supes realized something was wrong, Kevin had already achieved his goal.
It's just unknown how many people would still be able to become Kevin's opponents by then.
...
Kevin's plan was gradually being implemented.
The first thing to do after becoming CEO was to issue a statement regarding Compound V and also meet with the Secretary of State to delay their original plan of selectively injecting Compound V into certain military personnel.
Regarding the statement about Compound V, that was easy enough to handle.
With Edgar leaving the group's senior management, no one would care if Kevin shifted some of the blame onto him.
Besides, Madelyn had been taking the blame for this before, so now, by including Edgar, the public would quickly accept it.
The problem lay with the Secretary of State.
When Edgar was in office, researching Temporary Compound V for military use was something they had agreed upon. Now, if Kevin wanted to renege, he would not only have to pay a large breach of contract fee but also face legal liabilities.
If Kevin were just by himself, he could simply ignore everything and tough it out.
Let the State Department try to act against him, and then see who would be more hurt in the end.
But unfortunately, Kevin was now the CEO of Vought and responsible for many people, so he couldn't be so casual.
So the current strategy there was to stall as much as possible, and wait until Kevin's plan was completed after some time, then figure out how to deal with the trouble from the State Department.
And just as all of this was proceeding in an orderly fashion, an uninvited guest arrived at Kevin's office.
Stormfront, surprisingly, came knocking without an invitation.
"Not bad, you actually dared to go after Edgar. You've certainly impressed me."
The first thing Stormfront said to Kevin upon arriving was this.
It was clear that Stormfront had already figured out that Edgar's abnormal departure was Kevin's doing.
Kevin didn't deny it. He sat quite casually, with his feet propped on the desk in front of him, and looked up at Stormfront, asking:
"What do you want from me? I told you, I'm not interested in your ideas, and you'd best not bother me."
"Not interested?" Stormfront walked over to Kevin upon hearing this. She sat on Kevin's desk, looking at him with a smile:
"If you're really not interested, then what's with your Hero Association plan?"
"..." Hearing Stormfront mention this, Kevin looked up at her, "Homelander told you? I didn't realize your relationship was that good, that he'd even tell you about a plan that's only in the proposal stage."
"Heh heh, don't be angry. I just promised to help him deal with his recent little troubles, and that's why he told me all this. In fact, our relationship isn't much different from before."
Stormfront said, her gaze towards Kevin meaningful:
"After all, the person I admire isn't Homelander."
Kevin: "..."
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