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"Now, standing on the grandstand, is The Seven's most dazzling newcomer, Starlight! And beside her, is the Lord of The Seven Seas, The Deep!"
The host announced the appearance of The Seven's new member, Starlight, and The Seven's old member, The Deep.
Hughie, disguised as a reporter and hidden among the crowd, heard the name 'The Deep' in his ear and subconsciously looked towards the entrance of the venue, then withdrew his gaze.
He was not outside now, but standing in a passage inside the stadium venue, taking photos of the arriving guests along with some other online reporters.
Especially photos of The Seven members.
On the surface, he looked like an ordinary reporter.
But in reality, Hughie was there for Vought's Compound V.
Before killing Translucent, Hughie and his group learned from Translucent where A-Train frequently went, and there they met A-Train's girlfriend, Kimiko.
Through the surveillance placed in Kimiko's home, Hughie and other members of The Boys learned about something called 'Compound V'.
According to their speculation, A-Train must have injected Compound V on the day he ran over Hughie's girlfriend. This Compound V was like a stimulant, enhancing A-Train's abilities and making him lose control, which led to A-Train hitting and killing Hughie's girlfriend on the road.
Butcher, The Boys' current leader, believed that this Compound V must be extremely crucial to Vought.
And through the surveillance, the few of them also knew that to win today's competition, A-Train had Compound V on him, ready to inject at any time.
Hughie and the others' current goal was to get a complete sample of Compound V from A-Train for research.
Actually, Hughie and the others had originally wanted to find a breakthrough through Kimiko.
But for some unknown reason yesterday, A-Train personally sent Kimiko abroad to seek refuge, and this lead was completely cut off.
Now, everyone could only look for clues from A-Train, hoping to find Compound V in A-Train's backpack.
The person responsible for finding Compound V was Frenchie, a member of the team.
He was an expert in manufacturing various chemicals and weapons.
Butcher and another member of the team called Mother's Milk were responsible for keeping an eye on A-Train in the venue and reporting A-Train's situation via walkie-talkie at any time, so that Frenchie could be informed promptly when to act.
As for Hughie.
He was responsible for keeping watch outside A-Train's lounge to prevent anyone from entering the lounge while Frenchie was searching A-Train's backpack, thus discovering Frenchie's presence.
Everyone had clear responsibilities, which was also why Hughie couldn't be in the main venue and was only here.
The task of keeping watch was not easy; Hughie had to maintain his disguised reporter image on the surface while continuously monitoring the lounge to confirm its status.
Doing this for the first time, he was inevitably a bit nervous.
So nervous that he checked the lounge six times in a minute, making him seem completely abnormal.
"Hughie, you'd better calm down."
Butcher's reminder suddenly came through his earpiece.
Hughie whispered:
"I'm very calm!"
"Really? Then why is your breathing as loud as a prostitute having sex? Relax, man, you're not the one stealing, you just need to keep an eye on the lounge."
Butcher used his usual vulgar metaphors.
But strangely, Hughie actually calmed down a bit.
"OK, OK… Deep breath…"
Hughie composed himself, trying to appear less nervous.
After some more time, Butcher's voice came through his earpiece:
"Hughie, is anyone in the lounge now?"
"No, I'm sure."
Hughie looked towards the lounge, pretending to take a picture of A-Train's back with his camera, and said:
"A-Train just left the lounge and is heading to the venue. The lounge is completely empty now."
"Good, Frenchie, wait for my command. Once A-Train appears in the venue, act immediately."
"No problem."
Frenchie, who had been in the lounge's ventilation duct for a long time, responded in a low voice.
The operation was about to begin, and Hughie's heart beat faster.
Although Frenchie was the one actually doing the stealing, Hughie was still nervous.
Thoughts like whether they would be discovered, and if he would be killed by Homelander if they were discovered, constantly flashed through his mind.
"Alright, A-Train is in the venue, Frenchie!"
"Understood!"
A short while later, at Butcher's command, Frenchie immediately began to act.
Everyone was now watching A-Train's competition. The competition between A-Train and another speedster was sure to be short, but the various warm-ups and promotional periods before the competition were very long.
Frenchie had ample time to search A-Train's backpack and retrieve Compound V from it.
As long as there were no accidents.
That's right, as long as there were no accidents.
As Hughie was just thinking this, an accident appeared before his eyes.
The Deep, one of The Seven, for some unknown reason, left the stage and was walking towards the lounge.
… … …
Kevin walked leisurely towards the lounge, looking relieved, as if he was about to be freed.
Standing in front of the stage like a statue, maintaining a smile, especially when this smile had to last until the end of the competition, was not easy for anyone.
Not to mention the autograph session waiting for Kevin afterwards.
He couldn't get distracted or play with his phone midway. Kevin even once had the idea of getting off work early and going back to slack off.
But thankfully, Madelyn saved him.
Or rather, the deceased Translucent saved him.
Yesterday, when Kevin retrieved Translucent's remains, he conveniently threw the tracker inside him into the water.
According to normal procedures, the company should have tracked the tracker to find it and then completely confirmed Translucent's 'disappearance'.
But who would have thought that the tracker would be swallowed by some unknown deep-sea creature as bait, and then run around in the deep ocean?
This forced the company, which had located the tracker, to ask The Deep for help.
Of course, the tracker being swallowed by a fish was just Kevin's own guess; currently, the company was only curious why Translucent swam to such a distant place.
And swam so fast.
In any case, thanks to the deceased Translucent, Kevin was able to withdraw from this boring venue and do his own thing.
While searching for Translucent, it wouldn't be too much to also look for some treasures buried at the bottom of the sea, right?
Kevin was thinking this, just about to open the lounge door to go back and change, when suddenly he heard someone calling him:
"The Deep! Hey! The Deep!!"
"?"
A question mark slowly popped out above Kevin's head.
He turned his head in extreme surprise and saw Hughie Campbell looking at him uneasily, walking towards him.
"Hughie?"
Because of their previous experience drinking together, Kevin knew Hughie's name through normal means, so calling out his name now was not strange.
What he found strange was, what was Hughie doing here?
Searching through the original plot in his mind, Kevin subconsciously turned his head back to the lounge.
When he saw Frenchie climbing down a rope there, now hanging in mid-air, unable to go up or down.
Kevin instantly understood everything.
So that's it, it's this plot…
Looking at Frenchie in the room, Kevin now had two choices. One was to immediately arrest Frenchie as a thief to gain plot points.
However, simply arresting Frenchie didn't seem to change the plot much. Frenchie was very smart. If he said he was just an avid fan of A-Train and wanted to get A-Train's personal belongings or something, Vought wouldn't do anything to him.
He might not even go to jail and would be released, and instead, Kevin would offend The Boys and their group.
The other option was to ignore Frenchie's actions. Firstly, it would increase the favorability of The Boys' members, making it easier to cooperate with them in future plot involvements.
Secondly, after getting to know The Boys, if he ever had to do something shady in the future, he would have a clean hand to handle those matters.
After a brief thought, Kevin looked at Frenchie in the room, blinked, and then…
He quietly closed the door.
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