"Goddammit."
Marcus Lee, once a three-time Academy Award–winning actor and now a bankrupt drunk, crushed the last cheap beer can in his hand.
The empty can clattered off the edge of the rooftop and landed on a balcony below, earning him a furious shout from someone living there.
Forty-four stories above the ground, the night wind was sharp and icy. It stung his cheeks until they went numb.
Bankrupt. Blacklisted. Hated across the entire internet.
The people he trusted most, including the woman he loved, Stella Liu, had betrayed him.
In a single night, Marcus fell from the glittering sky straight into the gutter.
He threw back his head and let out a broken laugh, the kind that came from a man who had lost everything.
He had been an actor, and not just any actor. He was one of the best.
He understood audiences. He understood producers.
He even thought he understood the industry.
He used to believe he was a player in the game.
Only later did he realize he was always just the easiest piece to sacrifice.
Of course he knew he had been framed.
But there was no evidence. And Stella, the woman he had turned into a superstar, had covered her tracks flawlessly.
"Go to hell," he muttered. "Every last one of you."
He grabbed the bottle beside him and took a long, burning drink.
"Go to hell!" he screamed into the wind, eyes trembling with drunken fury.
At that moment, a bright streak of light crossed the sky.
Marcus froze.
A meteor.
A falling star.
Stella.
His lips twisted into a bitter smile as he stared at the streaking light.
He unbuckled his belt in one reckless motion.
"Screw it."
He looked straight up at the glowing streak above him.
"Screw you, meteor! And screw you too, Stella Liu!"
The storm wind whipped around him as he screamed like a man who had already fallen past rock bottom.
"Come on! Kill me if you want! I'll do whatever the hell I want!"
But then something impossible happened.
The fading meteor… stopped.
It stopped in midair, almost as if insulted by his taunts.
Then it jerked downward at a violent angle and plunged toward him, blazing like a missile locked onto its target.
"What the…"
His drunken haze vanished instantly.
His crazed smile froze. His pupils reflected the growing fireball streaking toward him.
He did not even have time to pull up his zipper.
"This was a joke… Wait…"
Boom.
No scream. No last words.
The meteor obliterated Marcus in an instant.
Not even ashes remained.
And then
Marcus's eyes snapped open.
"What the hell?"
He looked down at himself.
He was floating in midair.
Before him stood an enormous, pristine skyscraper. Its glass wall reflected a man.
Tall. Muscular. Handsome. Twenty-five or twenty-six at most.
Perfectly styled blond hair. A tight blue suit.
Golden eagle emblems shone on his shoulders.
An American flag cape billowed behind him in the wind.
Marcus stared for three full seconds.
He flexed his fingers.
The man in the reflection flexed his.
He forced a smile.
The reflection returned a flawless, almost unsettlingly perfect grin.
"Wait…"
"Did I… turn into Superman? No… not quite."
The expression. The posture. The aura.
A familiar name exploded in his mind.
"Holy crap. The Homelander?!"
He had crossed worlds?
Into a knockoff Superman universe?
"Did I end up in The Boys? Seriously?!"
The thought of all the gore and exploding bodies made his scalp tingle.
"So where am I? Vought Tower? Am I about to run into Butcher?"
Before he could finish the thought, the sky ripped open with a deafening roar.
A massive wormhole glowed above the city.
Alien soldiers poured out riding sleek flying sleds, firing energy blasts that turned the streets into a battlefield.
Yellow taxis flipped. People screamed and ran for their lives.
A massive creature larger than a train barreled through the portal. Armored from head to toe, it slammed into the side of a tower, sending glass and steel raining down.
Marcus descended slowly until his boots touched the rooftop edge, his cape snapping behind him in the wind.
He looked down at the chaos.
A furious green giant swung a police car like a weapon and smashed alien soldiers aside.
"Hulk smash!"
Nearby, a man with a hood and a star-shaped shield directed panicked civilians out of danger.
"Hold this block! Push them to the west!"
A red-haired woman in a sleek black suit flipped onto an alien skimmer and took out the pilot with a precise strike.
On another rooftop, a tech-equipped archer released a razor-sharp arrow.
Farther away, a red and gold armored figure fired bright repulsor blasts at two enormous Leviathan beasts.
Marcus blinked.
"Oh… shit."
This was not The Boys.
He looked up at the gigantic wormhole and the monstrous Leviathans emerging from it.
"This is… the Avengers. The Battle of New York."
A synthetic voice suddenly echoed in his mind.
Superstar System active. Connecting to host… connection successful.
System Overview: This is a fame-based enhancement system. Popularity is power. The more famous you are, the stronger you become.
Current Template: The Homelander (Basic Version)
Abilities: Super strength, steel-hard body, enhanced stamina, super speed, heat vision, X-ray vision, enhanced hearing, flight.
Current Popularity: 0
Current Reputation: None
Note: When a region reaches Superstar Rank, all attribute gains from that region become permanent.
Beginner Mission: Perfect Debut. Become the center of attention during the Battle of New York.
Reward: Unlock exclusive Homelander suit. Indestructible.
The greater the fame, the greater the power.
Marcus repeated the last line quietly.
He glanced down at his plain blue suit, then at the burning city below.
A grin slowly crept across his face.
A quiet chuckle escaped him.
Then another.
And soon he was laughing uncontrollably.
This system understood him. Completely.
He craved power. Fame. A spotlight brighter than any movie set.
And this world, this cinematic battlefield, was offering him everything he ever wanted.
Marcus spread his arms and laughed as the sky burned.
"Superstar System," he whispered, "you really get me."