◇ I'll be dropping one bonus chapters for every 10 reviews.
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones. or 500 Collections
◇ You can read 90 chapter ahead on P@treon of which 10 are free Chapters. if you're interested: patreon.com/Heroicverse
------------------------------------------------
"Sorry to interrupt your argument."
At this moment, Starlight's voice came from in front of the entrance of a barn where hay was piled up, "I found an injured… uh, dead employee here. Come and confirm if he is Dr. Samir, the one with the virus technology?"
Victoria Neuman and Stan Edgar exchanged glances, then quickly walked into the barn.
They were met with a very strange sight: a middle-aged man in his thirties lay in the hay, covered in blood, with a gaping, bloody hole in his abdomen.
And above the hole, it looked as if someone or something had placed a makeshift chicken coop made of straw.
What was even more baffling was that there were two white eggs placed inside the chicken coop!
"WTF??"
Victoria Neuman looked confused, but after seeing the person's face, she breathed a long sigh of relief and shook her head, saying, "No, he is not Samir... but what the hell is this, is it someone's prank?"
Stan Edgar also walked closer at this moment, and after seeing the person's face clearly, he said indifferently, "He is just a lab assistant here!"
Starlight glanced at him, pointed to the large hole in the corpse's abdomen, and the two eggs, and said, "Could it be that they are injecting Compound V into the chickens here?"
However, this time Stan Edgar did not answer her question, but walked out on his own, "It seems we must hurry to find Samir... or his body!"
Bang—
Just then, an old bull suddenly broke through the wooden fence surrounding the farm, standing less than ten meters away from Stan Edgar and the two women, quietly watching their every move, and one of its front hooves was constantly pawing the ground, as if it could charge at any moment.
"Damn it."
Starlight immediately became alert and said to Stan Edgar, "Don't tell me this bull was also injected with Compound V?"
"Are You planning to use these animals against Homelander?"
"Don't ask me such questions." Stan Edgar stopped, cautiously moving back little by little, "I am only responsible for giving orders, how they are implemented is entirely up to these researchers to decide on their own."
Just as Victoria Neuman was considering whether to directly explode the bull's head opposite, three sheep suddenly swooped down from the sky, picked up the bull, which weighed at least two hundred kilograms, in front of them, flew into the air, and then brutally tore its body into several pieces.
Blood rained down like a curtain.
"This... this is absolutely insane!"
Seeing such a bloody scene, even Victoria Neuman couldn't help but curse, however, one of the super-powered sheep that successfully snatched a bull's leg, heard the sound and discovered their whereabouts.
So it immediately felt that the large bull's leg in its mouth was not as appealing, released the bull's leg, and roared as it swooped down towards the three of them.
And the other two super-powered sheep that were devouring flesh and blood were quickly attracted, and joined the chase of Stan Edgar and the two women.
"Run!!"
Victoria Neuman grabbed Stan Edgar's arm and rushed towards the barn a few dozen meters ahead.
Starlight also followed closely.
"Why don't You just shoot them in the head?" Stan Edgar, who wasn't good at running fast, asked breathlessly.
"Do You think I don't want to?"
Victoria Neuman said with some difficulty, "But I have to be able to lock onto their heads first, right?"
"If it were that easy to succeed, then why would I need to ask You for help... I would have already blown Homelander's head off myself!"
Immediately, the three of them narrowly rushed into the barn before the super-powered sheep caught up, and listening to the loud banging sounds constantly coming from the wooden door, the three of them couldn't help but breathe a long sigh of relief.
Fortunately, those guys couldn't break through the door for now!
However, at this moment, a slightly trembling voice suddenly came from behind a pile of hay, "Victoria, is that really You?"
Victoria Neuman turned her head and immediately showed a look of surprise, "Oh my god, Samir, it's great that You are okay!!"
The bespectacled man called Samir walked out from behind the hay pile with a look of self-reproach, then pointed to the male corpse on the ground that had been dead for a long time and said:
"I'm fine, but we seem to have messed up the experiment…"
"It's okay, as long as You are still alive." Victoria Neuman walked over and hugged the man tightly, saying softly:
"Also, Zoe is doing well, You don't have to worry about her safety."
"Thank goodness."
Samir breathed a long sigh of relief upon hearing this, as if a stone in his heart had finally fallen.
"Wait a minute, could he be Zoe's dad?"
Starlight looked at Stan Edgar with a confused expression, who, like an old farmer who had found his good cabbage being ruined by a pig, said with a dark face:
"Dr. Shah was once the top researcher at Vought R&D Center, but... this ungrateful guy stole my daughter's virginity behind my back!!"
"No, that's not how it is."
Victoria Neuman stood up to refute at this moment, "I was already 20 years old then, and I had already lost my virginity at a party two years ago... The point is, this doesn't seem like the right time to talk about such things, right?!"
Then, she looked at Samir, who had a guilty look in her arms, and asked softly, "What happened here, those super-powered sheep outside... oh no, to be precise, what's going on with those super-powered animals?"
The look of guilt on Samir's face became even stronger, and he lowered his head and said, "We were going to use a hamster to test the newly developed iterative virus before, so we injected it with a certain dose of Compound V."
"But who would have thought that after the drug took effect, it escaped our control... and made a mess of the entire laboratory, although we successfully escaped from there in the end, during this time, some Compound V was broken, and it is very likely that it has leaked into the farm's water circulation system now."
"Wait a minute, where is the virus?" Before Samir could finish, Starlight hurriedly asked, "Is the virus gone?"
"Most of it was accidentally destroyed when we escaped."
Samir reached into his embrace, took out a syringe, and handed it to Victoria Neuman, "So... this is the last one left."
Seeing this, Starlight quickly asked, "How strong is the transmission ability of this thing? Can we use it to defeat Homelander?"
"The transmission ability of this version of the virus is not very strong at the moment."
Samir adjusted his glasses and immediately explained to everyone, "And it can only be transmitted through these fixed routes: body fluids, saliva, blood, and *fluid."
Stan Edgar glanced at the syringe containing the virus and asked thoughtfully, "How long will it take to make a new virus?"
"This…"
Samir glanced at the corpse on the ground not far away and said with some difficulty, "At present, I am likely the only one left in the entire core team. If there is no one to help, it will take at least 2 to 3 months to remake the virus."
Upon hearing this, Stan Edgar couldn't help but frown, "So that means, if we want to use that corpse and the virus to infect those flying super-powered sheep outside, we will have to wait at least another 3 months before we have a chance to deal with Homelander?"
"No."
Starlight immediately refused, "I can't wait that long, Neuman and I can find a way to deal with those super-powered sheep outside... This virus is our trump card against Homelander, and it absolutely cannot be wasted on irrelevant matters!"
"Starlight is right, this virus is too precious."
Victoria Neuman strongly agreed, "At present, Homelander's full attention is focused on a new project called 'Metaverse', and he has no time to deal with other matters recently, which is exactly the best time for us to act!"
"So we absolutely cannot waste this opportunity."
At this moment, due to the hatred in their hearts, these two women who originally belonged to opposing camps temporarily reached a tacit cooperation relationship.
"But in that case, someone among us is likely to die from those super-powered sheep."
Stan Edgar questioned the two women's statements, "What's more, God knows if there are any other super-powered animals on this farm!"
"We are now trapped here, and no one knows how long this barn can hold off those animals…"
Everyone present fell silent.
Even Starlight couldn't refute Stan Edgar's words.
Because if they all died here, what would be the use of saving the last virus?
Just as Starlight and Victoria Neuman were about to compromise, they saw that Stan Edgar, who had just been questioning, suddenly showed a smug smile on his face, and then said:
"But fortunately, I know how to solve the current situation."
Damn it!
Please, can You speak without pausing for so long?
Stan Edgar slowly took out his phone, opened his contacts, found a number, and called it.
"It's me, I need the help of a small team now, I'm at…"
...
After a few dozen minutes.
Outside the barn, there was a sudden commotion of wild Beast roars and muffled thuds of heavy objects being struck. A moment later, someone outside the barn door said:
"Mr. Edgar, You can come out now, those mutated animals outside have all been dealt with by us."
Stan Edgar smiled smugly upon hearing this, then was the first to push the door open and walk out, followed closely by Victoria Neuman and Starlight.
As soon as they walked out of the barn, they were met by several young men and women who looked like college students standing outside the barn, and on the ground behind them, lay the corpses of super-powered animals that had been injected with Compound V.
Some were directly torn in half by immense force, some were burned to ashes by fire, and some had their entire bodies seemingly kneaded into a mass by some force, turning into a bloody mess…
"You did a good job."
Stan Edgar nodded in satisfaction, then took the initiative to explain to Victoria Neuman, who was about to ask something behind him:
"They are all students from Godolkin University (School for Superheroes), and also the cradle from which I continuously cultivate fresh blood for Vought Corporation!"
"Wait a minute, are You planning to use these students to deal with Homelander?"
Facing Victoria Neuman's question, Stan Edgar answered without hesitation, "Yes, otherwise You wouldn't simply think that You and Starlight alone, along with the virus in your hand, can easily take down The Seven led by Homelander, would You?"
Victoria Neuman and Starlight exchanged glances. The fact was just as Stan Edgar had said, they alone were completely unable to fight against Homelander, and it was even a big question whether they could defeat the other members of The Seven.
But now, with the help of Stan Edgar and this group of super-powered students, their chances of assassinating Homelander would undoubtedly greatly increase!
So, the two of them couldn't help but say in unison, "What do we do next?!"
...
Vought Corporation.
A large conference room was packed with people. Almost all the senior executives of Vought Corporation were gathered together, concentrating on listening to Homelander, who was sitting in the main seat, speak.
"May I ask everyone present, what was Vought Corporation's original intention in creating a great superhero like me?!"
How would we know why?
Upon hearing this, everyone's foreheads were covered in cold sweat, and their hearts were in their throats, because they were really unsure if this would be a 'fatal question'.
After all, the man in front of them could change his face faster than flipping a book.
Uh... Grandpa Homelander, as long as it can make us money, whatever You say it is, it is!
Seeing that no one stood up to answer for a long time, Ashley Barrett, the current CEO who was standing behind Homelander, but was in reality just a small assistant that Homelander had put in charge of handling trivial matters for him, couldn't help but show a nervous expression on her face.
She was afraid that everyone's reaction would anger Homelander, leading to a massacre in the conference room.
However, this time she guessed wrong. Homelander did not get angry, but slowly stood up, put his hands behind his back, and continued to speak while slowly pacing around the conference room:
"This country has now become so corrupt that even I cannot fully fix it…"