455. Surprise.

This night was destined to be a sleepless one.

This wasn't just true for Starlight personally.

Each year, the number of casualties directly or indirectly caused by supers rises sharply. These individuals, wielding great power but unable to control it properly, pose an enormous threat to ordinary people, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

It's as if this world has fallen into a twisted, bizarre relationship.

The superheroes created by the Vought Corporation are revered like gods, praised and worshipped by countless people. Gradually, everyone's hearts undergo a profound change.

Mankind needs heroes, these gods to save them, to add some excitement to their otherwise dreadful lives. In other words, these superheroes serve as a form of spiritual solace for the common people.

And as heroes, they too need the "faith" of the ordinary people. Everyone understands that if they are not loved by the masses, if they don't have huge followings, they will be cast down from their pedestal and lose everything.

In such a distorted social structure, Alex couldn't imagine what kind of mindset the people here had to face their lives with.

Perhaps this is why this world was born in corruption.

A kind of indescribable despair.

Walking down the street, Alex kept thinking about Starlight.

The emergence of corruption seemed to be even easier than he had imagined, but at the same time, it wasn't that hard to eliminate either. The key lay in how it was born. It was a very difficult thing to define.

At first, Alex saw corruption as radiation descended from higher-level narrators, ripples from a horizontal fluctuation between the world and the barriers of reality.

However, after truly encountering the corruption, Alex changed his perspective. He could clearly feel the emotions flooding his mind, complex feelings that washed over his spirit like waves.

Now, Alex had a new hypothesis—choice.

Yes, choice.

When Emma first picked up the phone, although Alex didn't know what she was thinking, he speculated that she must have had some negative thoughts, which led to the birth of that energy.

But later, she didn't take any real action. Instead, she called him, choosing another path. This might be the main reason why the corruption suddenly disappeared.

The same thing happened with Starlight. When she humiliatedly crouched down and chose to submit to The Deep's feet, corruption was born and continued to spread.

If Alex hadn't intervened and altered the impending reality with false memories, that corruption would have likely fully formed. And at that point, its impact might have been beyond Alex's control.

"So, now the question is, how do I eliminate this so-called corruption?"

Alex murmured softly, letting out a quiet sigh.

If Miss Minutes were here, or Pietro, or even Sentinel, at least he wouldn't feel so isolated, with no one to talk to.

Just then, his phone suddenly rang.

Taking out the phone and seeing an unfamiliar number, Alex furrowed his brows slightly.

Not many people knew the original owner's phone number, and apart from Emma and the original's relatives, it was mostly old classmates and friends he didn't often contact.

The issue was, this phone wasn't the original's, but one that Alex had bought himself, a non-smartphone with a SIM card that had no personal information attached. There shouldn't be any calls from unknown numbers.

Quietly, Alex answered the call, not speaking immediately but waiting for the other person to speak first.

"Oi, my dear old friend."

A hoarse voice came from the receiver.

"Do you remember me?"

Raising an eyebrow, Alex immediately recognized the voice. "Butcher, what made you think of calling me?"

"Remember when we exchanged contact info? I recall you saying your dream was to become a real superhero, doing good deeds to punish the wicked," Butcher said.

"By the sound of it, you've found a new target?" Alex responded.

Since their last meeting, Alex and Butcher hadn't been in touch. Alex had secretly kept an eye on Butcher's actions and found that he had handled quite a few things on his own.

However, it seemed that Butcher had mostly been focused on gathering evidence of superhumans' crimes, so Alex didn't pay much attention to him, continuing his search for clues about the corruption.

Unexpectedly, after all this time, Butcher had suddenly called him.

Through their past interactions, Alex had gotten to know Butcher's personality well. The man was a paranoid, malicious individual who harbored intense hatred and animosity toward all superhumans.

Even towards himself, Butcher never truly trusted Alex, not even a fraction.

"To have you, of all people, come to me, it must be something big," Alex remarked.

"But you're my best buddy, so naturally, I'll prepare the biggest surprise for you," Butcher said with a chuckle. "How about it? Want to come join my little party?"

"Sure, book me a spot. Let's see if I'm close enough," Alex replied, turning and walking into a dark alley.

On the other side, in Butcher's safe house, Hughie was sitting on the floor, still shaken, his gaze fixed on the empty cage in front of him.

Although the steel cage appeared empty on the surface, Hughie knew all too well that it contained a "bomb" capable of destroying everyone.

"We can't stay here much longer," he said gravely. "You know, if Vought discovers that Translucent is missing, they'll use every resource to find him. We won't escape the eyes of the homeland."

Standing across from Butcher were two men, one large and one small. One was african-american man named MM (short for Mother's Milk), and the smaller one was a Frenchman named Serge, also known as "Frenchie."

They were once part of the same team, but after attack by Lamp Lighter, their group fractured. MM and Frenchie had a falling out and gone their separate ways, each leading their own lives. Now, due to the situation with Translucent, Butcher had no choice but to bring them back together.

"I'm talking to you! Didn't you hear me?" Frenchie shouted at Butcher. "You can't keep Translucent locked up here forever. If the homeland gets its eyes on him, we're all dead, especially after you killed Lyle. Vought is already in a state of emergency.

By the way, who were you just talking to on the phone?"

"I was calling the person who killed Lyle," Butcher said solemnly. "If we want to solve this, we need some special help."

"Huh?" Frenchie blinked, pointing at Hughie. "How come I didn't know you had so many friends? You're dragging this innocent kid into this?"

"I don't need you to lecture me, understand? Unless you can come up with a way to kill Translucent, you can just get the hell out of here," Butcher snapped, his face dark with frustration. Things weren't supposed to go this way.

Butcher had originally intended to use Hughie to get close to Vought. After the A-Train incident where Hughie's girlfriend was killed, Vought would definitely want to settle the matter by negotiating compensation, and they would probably try to get Hughie involved.

In this situation, Hughie was the only person Butcher could think of, apart from the mysterious "Crow," who could legally enter Vought.

So, Butcher reached out to Hughie, stirred up his hatred of superhumans, and hoped that while Hughie was inside Vought to negotiate the hush money, he could plant a bug inside the company.

At first, everything was going smoothly, but Butcher never expected that when Hughie went to retrieve the bug in the bathroom, he was caught by Translucent, a permanent fixture in that restroom.

Thus, Translucent took the bug, followed Hughie all the way back to his workplace, and if Butcher hadn't arrived in time, Hughie might have been crippled by Translucent.

In the end, the two of them managed to stun Translucent with electricity and transported him to the safe house.

But now, Translucent had become a hot potato, difficult to handle. Although Butcher had control over him for the moment, figuring out how to kill him was a problem none of them could solve.

"You know Translucent's skin is made of carbon-based material, right? It's tougher than anything else in the world. Even those terrorists couldn't destroy his skin with hot weapons! What do you expect me to do about it?" Frenchie said, his voice frantic. Translucent had already seen his face. If they didn't kill him, they were all dead.

"So, like I said, if you can't come up with a solution, get the hell out of here. I'm looking for someone more professional to handle this," Butcher said, opening a bottle of liquor and taking a long swig.

"Professional? Hah?"

Frenchie chuckled sarcastically, then nodded.

"Fine, fine, I swear if Vought tracks this guy's chip and finds us, I'll clear out your head before the homeland does."

"Of course you can. You can kick my head like a ball if you want, but it's too late for regrets now."

Butcher put the bottle down and spoke.

"So, I suggest you figure out how to kill Translucent quickly, because if you don't, we'll just have to pray that my people get here first, not the Seven."

.....

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456. The Expert.

457. Helping Each Other.

458. The Translucent's Breakdown.

459. Infiltrating the Sage Grove.

460. The Lamplighter and the Iceman!