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It wasn't Kevin's fault for cursing; it was because this upgrade truly hurt.
It was as if someone had brutally kicked him in his most sensitive male area, and then that same pain was experienced by every inch of his skin simultaneously.
Kevin wasn't sure if the pain of being kicked in the groin was truly that bad, but he felt like he was going to die from the pain right now.
"Mm...? Kevin?! Are you alright?!"
Kevin's movements and cries woke Annie, who had been sleeping soundly.
As soon as she woke up, she opened her eyes to see Kevin writhing on the ground like a bent shrimp.
She quickly snapped out of her dazed slumber, rushed off the bed, ran to Kevin's side, and asked worriedly.
"N-Nothing... I just accidentally fell off the bed..."
Fortunately, the pain came and went quickly.
He had only felt intense pain when he upgraded his physique and when he fell off the bed.
By the time Kevin cried out and Annie woke up, the pain in Kevin's body had already dissipated.
By the time Annie ran to Kevin's side, Kevin was fine, aside from feeling a bit weak.
"Are you really okay?"
Annie was still a little uneasy; she looked Kevin up and down and asked worriedly.
Kevin tentatively stood up, sat on the bed, stretched a bit, and replied with a relaxed expression:
"Of course, I'm doing great now, uh..."
As he spoke, he looked at Annie.
At this moment, Annie was barely covered, and almost everything was visible to Kevin.
Kevin's gaze subconsciously drifted to certain inappropriate places, then he silently grabbed the blanket nearby to cover his lower body, his eyes shifting away from Annie.
"Annie... Ahem, I think it would be better if you put on some clothes first..."
Hearing Kevin say this, Annie also subconsciously looked down at herself.
In that instant, she also remembered what had happened before, immediately blushed, and instinctively picked up the clothes on the floor to cover her body.
But Annie didn't complain to Kevin; she just blushed and stammered, pointing towards the bathroom:
"Um... that... I'm going to take a shower..."
"Okay..."
The atmosphere was a bit awkward, and Kevin didn't know what to say, so he could only nod and say, "Okay."
Annie took her clothes and ran into the bathroom. Kevin leaned back on the bed, listening to the sound of water splashing from the bathroom, and thought for a moment, lost in thought.
However, when he saw his clothes on the floor, he got up again to get new clothes from the closet.
Annie, after getting drunk, was a bit... wild.
Under her Supe physique, Kevin's clothes were completely torn to shreds by her, and even Annie's own clothes became tattered.
He wondered what expression Annie would have when she came out of the shower and saw the clothes she had just taken in turned into a pile of rags.
Thinking this, to avoid embarrassing Annie, Kevin thoughtfully placed a set of his own clothes by the bathroom door.
These clothes might be a bit big for Annie, but they were fine for wearing at home.
And Annie might even look uniquely cute in them.
The so-called 'boyfriend shirt' was also a charming point.
Thinking of certain scenes, a smile unconsciously crept onto Kevin's face.
But he quickly shook his head to clear these images from his mind and turned to examine his improved physical attributes.
Kevin looked at his wrist, hesitated slightly, and gently placed his right hand on his left wrist as if taking a pulse, slowly stroking upwards, feeling the flow of blood inside.
He was trying to manipulate the blood beneath his skin.
Kevin could control his own blood; this was an ability gained after Water Manipulation was upgraded to LV4.
However, blood manipulation, for Kevin himself, was divided into external manipulation and internal manipulation.
External manipulation was when Kevin manipulated from a distance through the skin.
Internal manipulation was when Kevin controlled the blood within his body through a method similar to 'internal vision'.
Kevin could achieve complete control over his blood with internal manipulation, but with external manipulation through the skin, Kevin found it somewhat difficult.
That was when he had a Level 4 physique.
Now with a Level 5 physique, Kevin found that manipulating blood from within his body was still no problem.
The flow of blood, the coagulation of blood, could all be done with ease.
However, he couldn't control the blood flowing in the blood vessels through the skin.
He could feel the blood flowing inside, but he couldn't precisely control it.
If there was a wound, perhaps he could influence it externally using the wound as a medium, but if his body was intact, Kevin really had no way against a Supe with this physique.
He had this feeling when facing Homelander.
Therefore, conservatively estimated, a Level 5 physique should be similar to Homelander's physique; even if it's a bit weaker, it's at least on the level of Storm.
Unable to affect it with external manipulation, Kevin began to try internal manipulation.
Closing his eyes, feeling the blood flowing within his body, he tried to condense the blood in his left hand's veins and make it explode internally.
Then, one could see Kevin's left forearm, where the skin bulged, as if something had burrowed under Kevin's skin, wriggling and trying to break free from the confines of Kevin's skin.
The 'living thing' beneath the skin darted up, down, left, and right along Kevin's arm, trying to find a breakthrough, but in the end... nothing happened.
Level 4 Water Manipulation was not yet capable of turning blood into a lethal weapon, so it simply couldn't break through the internal defense of a Level 5 physique.
At least for Kevin's current physique, Level 4 Water Manipulation was a bit insufficient.
"Is Homelander's body strength roughly like this?"
Through experiments on his own body, Kevin temporarily understood his current body strength and the extent to which Water Manipulation could control blood.
Simply put, his defense should be comparable to Homelander's, and even Soldier Boy, who might appear in the future, he could probably contend with.
But in terms of attack power... Kevin's blood manipulation was still not very effective.
Ultimately, blood manipulation was just an extension of Water Manipulation. If Kevin's Water Manipulation was LV4, then his blood manipulation was probably only at LV2.
This level was comparable to the spin-off female lead, Mary.
It was fine for affecting ordinary humans and Supes with slightly weaker physiques.
But to deal with top-tier Supes like Homelander and Soldier Boy, it was far from enough.
Kevin couldn't even use blood to break open his own blood vessels.
"Ah... In that case, what should I do if I get appendicitis in the future? Will I just die of pain...?"
Suddenly, Kevin thought of a rather absurd question.
The question was, what should an invulnerable Supe do if they get appendicitis?
Kevin felt this question was quite profound and his thoughts began to wander.
But a series of vibrations interrupted Kevin's boundless thoughts, making him focus his attention on the pile of shredded fabric on the floor that used to be clothes.
Kevin's phone was buried inside.
Getting out of bed and digging his phone out of the pile of rags, Kevin looked at the caller ID and immediately felt a headache.
It was Madelyn's call.
Now Kevin finally remembered that he and Starlight seemed to have an event today.
His event with Starlight seemed quite important...
And now it was already dusk outside...
In that instant, the smile on Kevin's face froze. He suddenly felt like he was a student who had skipped class and been caught by the teacher.
This had nothing to do with strength or weakness; it was purely the guilt of doing something wrong.
Gritting his teeth, he answered the phone, Kevin was already prepared to face Madelyn's reprimand.
But to his surprise, Madelyn's tone on the other end of the phone was very calm:
"Where are you now?"
"...At home."
"Is Starlight with you too?"
"Uh..." Kevin glanced towards the bathroom and replied: "...She is with me."
"Good, I don't care what you two are doing right now, but before seven o'clock tonight, I want to see you both at the live broadcast of the Faith Expo, especially Starlight, do you hear me?"
"Boss, Starlight might tonight..."
Kevin was about to say that Starlight wasn't in a very good mood right now, and going to the Faith Expo at this time might cause a counterproductive effect on publicity.
But Madelyn didn't care about that. Starlight was the main character of this event, and even some of the audience members were Starlight's fans.
They didn't care about the Faith Expo, nor did they care about God or Jesus; they only cared about Starlight herself.
If Starlight didn't show up, angry fans on the internet wouldn't hold back their words.
"I don't want to hear any other answer. Just remember, before seven o'clock."
Madelyn finished speaking and hung up the phone.
And it was exactly then that Annie walked out of the bathroom, wrapped in a bath towel.
She seemed to have heard Kevin on the phone and asked:
"Was that Ms. Madelyn's call?"
"Yeah, she wants us to go to the Expo venue for an event tonight."
Kevin explained, then looked up and asked:
"Can you go? If you don't want to..."
"It's okay, I'm feeling much better now, so it's fine."
Annie exhaled and smiled at Kevin.
After venting to Kevin and drinking so much alcohol, and most importantly, spending an entire day being crazy with Kevin.
Annie felt that the things that had been bothering her no longer seemed so bothersome. She walked over and sat beside Kevin, smiling as she asked in return:
"You'll come with me anyway, right?"
"Of course..."
Meeting Annie's eyes, which were once again shining, Kevin answered subconsciously.
And looking at Annie like that, Kevin finally realized something.
Although things had progressed incredibly fast, he... seemed to have a girlfriend?
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