"You still want the little I own?"
Homelander's face was filled with contempt. To him, the bet Sebastian proposed was nothing short of laughable.
"Oh?"
Sebastian casually flipped the chicken wing in his hand. Homelander's attitude didn't annoy him—instead, it piqued his interest. He could tell this man had his eyes on something else entirely.
"So," Sebastian asked lightly, "what do you want instead?"
"We'll talk about that later~"
Homelander narrowed his eyes and glanced sideways at the congressman standing nearby. Then his expression hardened instantly.
"Who the hell are you?" he barked coldly. "Why are you still standing there like an idiot? Didn't you hear what the Captain just said?"
"This is our decision. Do your job and get out."
The congressman visibly trembled.
Sweat poured down his forehead as he nodded frantically.
"Y-Yes… yes, sir!"
He fled like a startled rabbit.
Facing Homelander felt like standing before a lion. Just the pressure alone made his legs weak.
As he ran, regret flooded his heart.
Why did I hesitate earlier?
The Captain already made it clear—why did I have to say more?
He thanked his luck that Sebastian was far more restrained.
If it had been Homelander alone, he was certain he'd have been reduced to a bloodstain on the spot.
From that day on, the congressman swore to himself:
Never be alone in a room with those two again.
When the Superhero Council officially announced that its first Speaker would be elected through a global popular vote, and that the position would rotate every ten years, the news exploded like a nuclear bomb.
The entire metropolis erupted.
Approval ratings skyrocketed to an almost absurd 99.9%.
Sebastian and Homelander became unquestionable national symbols overnight.
Perhaps because of the bet, Homelander threw himself into the campaign with almost manic enthusiasm—flying across cities, appearing in rallies, personally canvassing votes.
In stark contrast, Sebastian stayed locked in his room day after day.
No speeches.
No appearances.
No statements.
What made it even more infuriating was that Sebastian had lined the entire room with zinc, completely cutting off all surveillance.
Homelander knew it.
That bastard was definitely plotting something.
And that realization only drove him harder.
As voting day approached, tens of thousands of ballots flooded into the Superhero Council from around the world.
The counting process was broadcast live.
The atmosphere was suffocating.
The vote counts rose side by side—neck and neck—like two race cars screaming down the same track, neither willing to slow down.
Homelander stared at the screen, jaw clenched, eyes burning.
Sebastian, on the other hand, looked completely indifferent.
His gaze was unfocused.
His thoughts were elsewhere.
Because at that very moment, Sebastian's attention was fixed on something far more important.
Compound V.
With the cyber dimension fully integrated, every networked system in this world was now open to him.
And at last, the deepest secret of Compound V revealed itself.
To Sebastian's surprise, its power did not originate from alien remains or celestial beings—as he had once suspected.
Instead, it came from a strange form of radiation.
A radiant energy that emitted a brilliant golden light.
This discovery traced back to a chance encounter during an early atomic experiment conducted by Frederick Vought.
Under normal conditions, this radiation was so faint it was nearly impossible to detect—by machines or by the naked eye.
But when artificially concentrated…
It became blinding.
And terrifying.
This radiation carried immense power. It violently shattered human genetic sequences and forcibly rewrote them, triggering extreme mutations.
The results were catastrophic.
Subjects became bloodthirsty.
Emotionally unstable.
Mentally degraded.
Worse still, the mutations often manifested physically.
Bodies twisted.
Flesh deformed.
Organs grew chaotically.
Most subjects either collapsed into grotesque masses crushed by their own weight—or rotted alive from uncontrolled cellular decay.
In an attempt to tame this power, Frederick Vought obsessed over one goal:
Control the mutation.
After countless failures, he finally succeeded.
He developed a stabilizing compound—one capable of neutralizing the radiation's violent unpredictability.
That compound was Compound V.
It allowed the radiation to modify genes relatively safely, granting enhanced physiques—and, in rare cases, extraordinary superpowers.
But even then, the risks were immense.
The success rate was a mere 0.5%.
The rest died.
Still, Frederick Vought pressed on.
Backed by the resources of wartime Germany, he had access to limitless "test subjects." Through relentless experimentation, refinement, and mass data accumulation, Compound V was perfected.
The first successful subject…
Was his wife.
She gained power.
Longevity.
Stability.
Frederick was ecstatic.
But soon, he encountered a devastating limitation.
Compound V worked best on children.
Adults, already genetically stable, rejected the compound far more violently.
And that realization would go on to shape the world of superheroes forever.
Behind the roaring cheers of the election hall…
Behind the smiling faces and shining symbols of justice…
Sebastian finally understood the truth.
The foundation of this world's "heroes"
was built on radiation, blood, and probability.
And now that truth—
Was firmly in his grasp.
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