Superman from the comics: Starting with the Black Robe

Chapter 27 Non-Performing Assets

Joey was somewhat surprised by the Invisible Man's death, because as far as he knew, there were no supervillains in this world. At least before the arrival of Sangoku, the "superheroes" of this world could be said to have no extremely deadly external threats.

But the deaths of the strongest superhumans are not entirely unbelievable; Joey even personally killed one of them early this morning.

Homelander was clearly furious, as he saw himself as the leader of the Seven, and the direct deaths of the Seven members were a direct provocation to him.

The death of the Invisible Man is worthless, but the face of the Homelander is extremely valuable.

Perhaps a trace of fear is mixed in the deep emotions of the people of our motherland.

If even a near-immortal superhuman like the Invisible Man was unknowingly torn to pieces, who can guarantee that other superhumans will be safe?

But Joey didn't care at all. He ignored Homelander's outburst and went straight to Ashley's office.

"Aishili, has anyone come to the company to see me or contacted me recently?!"

"What?"

Joey's question overloaded Ashley's brain; what normal person would pay attention to that?

Joey is a member of the Seven, the most famous superhero team on Earth. The number of obsessive fans trying to see him every day could stretch from Long Island to Manhattan!

Joey could have waited until Ashley left her workstation and then, as before, used his internal network access to steal what he wanted, but he didn't have that patience now.

"Get out of your seat right now! Right now!"

Seeing the other person's ferocious expression and eyes that were similar to those of Homelander when he was angry, Ashley, who had been reprimanded, quickly stood up and gave up her seat.

Joey went through the visitor records one by one, but realized after finishing that it was all in vain.

Those who are recorded in visitor logs are all big shots like politicians and lawmakers; no one would bother to remember the name of a Kansas country girl who claims to know Superman.

But for a superhuman girl whose physical abilities can withstand being hit on the head to send a text message for help, it likely means she's involved in some kind of superhuman affair.

Joey then began searching through the superhuman files registered in the Vought Archives, but there weren't many new files since he had peeked at them before. So he turned to look at Ashley:

"Are all of Vought's superhuman files stored in this system?"

Ashley didn't want to speak up, because these files weren't something people like Joey should have access to.

But looking into Joey's eyes, which were already burning with anger, and remembering Homelander's past arrogance, she suddenly lost the courage to resist.

"There's... there's still a bunch of files I haven't had time to enter into the system, it's just..."

Before Ashley could finish speaking, Joey's eyes swept across the drawer and he saw the new documents hidden in the drawer compartment. He reached out and crushed the keyhole on the drawer, pulled out the documents, and instantly found the information he wanted.

A personnel file that was just completed a few days ago lists Laurie Lemon as the potential successor to SilverAsh, the G-Men member.

"Your HR department is utterly incompetent. Are you just sitting around doing nothing at work? Such important data, and you didn't even enter it into the system?"

Joey left with only this criticism before leaping out of the window and flying away from Water Tower, leaving Ashley standing there dumbfounded, unable to react in time.

The reason I haven't had time to enter it is because I've been busy cleaning up all sorts of messes done by you super-born bastards every day!

The frustrated worker was so angry at the sudden criticism that her head was spinning. Ashley really wanted to shout out her feelings and teach these bastards a lesson.

But the thought of super hearing forced them to swallow their anger and keep their words to themselves.

~~~~

On the other side, Starlight was hurriedly changing her clothes, throwing aside everything from pajamas to underwear, and putting on a brand new set of blood-free clothes.

At this moment, most of her exposed skin was still stained with mottled blood, but she just forced herself to put her clothes on because she needed to use her precious time to escape.

Even though the person in the mirror who had just tried to kill her had been cut in half at the waist with the help of an unknown person, Starlight's sixth sense told her that things were far from simple.

The feeling of being spied on continued to irritate her nerves. Starlight couldn't care less about cleaning herself up or dealing with the corpse; she had to escape this hellish place immediately.

correct!

Starlight grabbed her phone and called Stan Edgar. What was happening here was beyond her control; this was the first time Starlight had ever witnessed a murder committed by a superhuman.

The call connected, and Stan Edgar's calm, unwavering voice came from the other end: "Go ahead."

Upon hearing this calm voice, Starlight immediately felt much more relaxed and was about to report to him about her encounter with a superhuman.

After all, as the head of Vought International, Stan had control over all the superhumans, so he could definitely help him escape the pursuit.

They control all superhumans...

Xingguang suddenly felt like she had figured out a key point, and without saying a word, she crushed the phone in her hand to pieces.

Hearing the sudden busy tone on the other end of the phone, and with the message from Honghe Security a few minutes earlier, Stan had already guessed how things were going.

Starlight survived the attack but was traumatized. She misjudged the situation and placed herself on the list of untrustworthy parties.

This is the consequence of sending a somewhat clever but not-so-clever layman on a secret mission. She thought she had uncovered part of the truth, but in reality, she hadn't seen the whole picture at all.

There is no connection between myself and Starlight in any sense; she is neither my hand nor my trump card.

Stan just tentatively threw her out, waiting for the G-Men to be forced to make a big enough commotion.

The problem now is that the results have been too good. Before Starlight's investigation has progressed to a potentially fatal level, the other side has already become so desperate that they have started to strike.

However, it doesn't matter to Xingguang anymore. It would be more to her liking for her to disappear without a trace right now, because she was lucky enough to get another good hand.

This card, if used properly, could potentially resolve the internal factionalism within the Water Company.

In fact, before this card was even activated, one of the hilltops had already collapsed.

Stan Edgar was different from Madeleine. Madeleine was a manager who rose through the ranks during the Homelander era, which was the post-Cold War era, America's golden age.

Like the United States, the Vought Corporation chose to adapt to the times, concealing most of its deadly claws and focusing on the exchange of interests and political compromises, donning the cloak of "civilization".

This is exactly Madeleine's style of doing things.

Stan Edgar, on the other hand, was more... primitive compared to Madeleine.

The era in which he ran his company was one of fierce competition.

Helping the authorities overthrow Third World regimes, massacring former colonial resistance organizations, detaining and assassinating political leaders, assisting Langley in supporting local reactionary armed groups, and smuggling drugs into the country were all commonplace for him.

Compromise and mutual benefit are merely appearances; violence and coercion are the underlying logic of power operation.

Storm was initially a problem she couldn't solve on her own, but G-Men was different.

After decades of reckless development by Professor G, the internal conflicts within the G-Men have accumulated to the point of self-destruction.

Madeline is still limited by her own thinking, and is still trying to gradually restrain Godotkin in order to completely bring the G-Men under Vought's control.

Stan Edgar had lost patience; what he wanted was complete annihilation.

Water Corporation is about to enter a new phase, and all the old bad assets should be eliminated as much as possible.