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Homelander, in the end, gripped Kevin's shoulder with considerable force.
If it had been an ordinary person, their shoulder would likely have been crushed already.
But thankfully, Kevin's physique was good; while certainly not comparable to Homelander or Maeve, he should at least be on par with Starlight Annie.
Though Homelander's strength was great, it at most only caused Kevin's shoulder to swell and redden.
This minor injury, under Kevin's Accelerated Self-Healing skill, would return to normal in just a moment.
From this perspective, Homelander, despite his menacing appearance, seemed to have no intention of killing Kevin, at least not for now.
He probably just wanted to come over and give Kevin a warning, to let him know who was truly in charge within The Seven.
However, he didn't expect to hit a wall with Kevin; not only did Kevin have leverage over him, but he also possessed strength far exceeding his past capabilities.
Perhaps still not on par with Homelander, but enough to make Homelander wary.
Now Kevin could freely sense the blood flow within Homelander's body, and as his skill level increased, he would be able to control the blood within Homelander's body.
Controlling blood could cause internal damage to a person; even with Homelander's powerful physique, thick flesh, and abundant blood, he certainly wouldn't be able to withstand Kevin's internal destruction.
Of course, this was assuming Kevin's LV5 Water Manipulation could cause damage to Homelander.
Previously, Kevin decided to save skill points to improve himself first, so he didn't touch the remaining nine skill points, keeping them all.
At this rate, after meeting Kimiko tomorrow, or visiting the survivors of the hijacking incident, his skills should slowly increase, and it wouldn't be long before he accumulated sixteen skill points.
Kevin would then be able to upgrade one of his LV4 skills to LV5.
However, Kevin was still finding it difficult to decide whether to improve his physique or Water Manipulation.
Improving his physique should give Kevin a physique comparable to Homelander's, at least making him more resistant to damage.
As for Water Manipulation, although it hasn't yet unlocked a potential magic-extended skill, the sheer control over water is enough to make this skill Kevin's primary offensive method.
One for attack, one for defense.
They say the best defense is offense, but Kevin inwardly leaned more towards maxing out his physique first.
But there was no use thinking so much now; whether it was physique or Water Manipulation, he currently had no skill points to upgrade them.
Therefore, Kevin just thought for a moment, then stopped overthinking, and turned to Annie:
"You worked hard just now, it's alright now, let's go back."
"…What did you just say to Homelander?"
Confirming Kevin was unharmed, Annie asked the question on her mind.
When Kevin mentioned Compound V, his voice was only audible to Homelander; Annie hadn't heard clearly, so she was very curious about what method Kevin used to make Homelander back down and leave.
In response, Kevin pulled out his prepared answer:
"It's about Vought's CEO; Homelander fears him the most."
"Mr. Edgar?"
"Yes, I can't say much about the other things, but in short…"
Kevin took a deep breath and slowly said:
"From now on, don't worry too much about Homelander. If he comes to trouble you, just come find me."
Kevin said earnestly.
These words represented Kevin's decision to stand against Homelander.
There was no other way; Homelander was not an easy entity to deal with.
Although Kevin had previously thought that as long as he appeased Homelander, he should be fine.
But after today's events, Kevin realized.
No matter how much he had sided with him before, and regardless of whether Kevin had any intention of opposing Homelander, as long as Homelander perceived Kevin as a threat, then conflicts between the two would surely be frequent from now on.
Simply avoiding and flattering were no longer viable.
Kevin did want to lie flat, but he wasn't the type of person who would do nothing even when others were bullying him to his face.
So, from now on, Kevin planned to first build his own strength within The Seven.
Starlight Annie was Kevin's first target to win over.
Hmm, even if Kevin didn't say anything, Annie would unconditionally stand by Kevin's side anyway.
Kevin's words, somehow, touched a chord in Annie's heart.
Her gaze towards Kevin became even brighter, as if she had used her superpower.
Being stared at by Annie's shining gaze, Kevin felt a little uncomfortable and casually found an excuse to end the topic:
"Ahem, anyway, that's how things are. If there's nothing else, I'll be leaving now."
"Okay, oh, don't forget about tomorrow."
As he was leaving, Annie reminded him again.
Kevin paused slightly, then quickly reacted:
"Tomorrow? Oh, buying Catholic religious items, right? I remember, call me tomorrow."
After a hurried conversation with Annie, Kevin returned home to rest.
The night passed without incident.
The next morning, Kevin was woken up by his alarm as usual.
He first fed his pet fish in the tank as always, then began to organize his schedule for the day.
In the morning, both he and Annie had things to do.
Kevin had to visit the survivors of the hijacking incident, partly to cooperate with Vought for publicity, and partly to gain new skill points through these people.
Currently, Kevin was only one skill point away from being able to activate a Level 5 skill; honestly, he was a bit impatient.
The afternoon was free, so he could go out with Annie.
However, this situation was uncertain.
With Kevin's current popularity, there might be new announcements in the afternoon.
He arrived at the company for work, completed his routine publicity work, and the Condolences work for the survivors, and by then, it was already noon.
Although Kevin still had a movie to film, due to his heroic act of saving the plane, he had to focus on promoting this event recently, so the movie's filming had to be postponed.
Moreover, the movie script seemed to be undergoing revisions; he heard that the screenwriter got inspiration from this hijacking incident and wanted to slightly change the plot of the middle section.
Therefore, filming was temporarily suspended, and reshooting would have to wait for some time.
After work at noon, confirming there were no other plans for the afternoon, Kevin decided to leave Vought Tower.
However, before leaving the building, Kevin encountered someone on the way.
One of The Seven members, A-Train.
A-Train seemed to be deep in thought about something; he walked past Kevin without noticing his presence, his expression quite dazed.
Until Kevin called out to him.
"Hey, A-Train."
"!"
A-Train's steps suddenly halted. The moment Kevin called out to him, he seemed to have thought of something, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead, and he stiffly turned to look at Kevin:
"Uh, hi, Deep."
A-Train's reaction was very obvious; Kevin could feel many controllable water sources appearing on his body surface.
This made Kevin's smile a bit brighter. He walked up to A-Train and raised his hand to pat his shoulder:
"Speaking of which, it's been a while since we last met. How have you been recently?"
"I'm alright. Is there something you need?"
"Don't be so nervous."
Kevin kneaded A-Train's shoulder, just as Homelander had kneaded his shoulder yesterday, and said faintly:
"I just want to know, you didn't tell anyone about what happened that day, did you?"
"I…I…"
Kevin's question was not unexpected by A-Train.
When A-Train saw Kevin appear safe and sound today, he knew that Homelander hadn't truly made Kevin feel 'scared' yesterday.
Instead, it was he who had revealed Kevin's rescue of Kimiko, and Kevin had found out about it.
Thinking of Kevin's improved abilities, A-Train immediately stammered, unable to speak, and more and more sweat beads appeared on his body.
A-Train wondered if it was his imagination.
The moment Kevin placed his hand on his shoulder, he felt the water he had just drunk churning in his stomach.
A-Train was too nervous to speak, and Kevin, sensing the fear emanating from A-Train, smiled even more brightly:
"Alright, I believe you're not someone who would betray a brother. Homelander must have found out about this by accident somewhere."
"I'm sorry, Deep, I… I didn't mean to tell…"
"I told you not to be so nervous, look at you, you're sweating."
Kevin looked genuinely concerned, even thoughtfully taking out a tissue and handing it to A-Train.
But as soon as A-Train took the tissue, Kevin whispered:
"I don't care what you told Homelander, but I don't want this to happen again next time, okay?"
"…."
"Go on, I think you probably have a lot of things to deal with."
After warning A-Train, Kevin no longer bothered this guy who had been threatened by both himself and Homelander, leaving his side and entering The Seven's exclusive elevator.
Leaning against the elevator, as it descended, Kevin pondered for a moment.
After a while, he suddenly took out his phone and dialed Ashley's number:
"Ashley, it's me, The Deep. You should have Shockwave's contact information, right? Give me his number; I need to talk to him about something."
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