Chapter 103: Your Man Invited Me Along
What does this make her now? Lin Mo's carry-on luggage?
Yet Lin Mo's speed was absurdly fast, and Maeve hadn't even had the chance to complain a couple of times.
The surrounding scenery became completely blurred, and the cities, roads, and buildings before her eyes all turned into almost indistinguishable afterimages.
She had instinctively worried at first whether such a terrifying speed would tear her apart directly by the air.
But soon she found that completely wasn't the case; aside from clearly feeling herself moving at high speed, there weren't even many strong winds around.
It was as if an invisible layer of something was wrapping all of them inside.
Maeve was stunned for a moment, then immediately reacted.
This was Lin Mo's ability again?
She had now completely given up on guessing how many abilities this guy actually had; anyway, whenever she asked, there were always more.
In reality, it was indeed Lin Mo who actively deployed his Bio-field.
Joanna didn't mind; given her physical fitness, even if she flew against this kind of speed for a distance directly, it wouldn't cause any real problems.
But Maeve fell a bit short; although she now far surpassed ordinary superhumans.
But if Lin Mo really carried her flying at full speed without protection, whether she would get injured aside, the experience definitely wouldn't be very good, so Lin Mosimply protected her along the way.
As for Joanna, she didn't have the heart to think about these things at all right now.
Because she was tightly hugging Lin Mo, with both hands wrapped directly around his body, and her whole person almost completely pressed against his chest.
This was the first time Lin Mo had taken the initiative to hug and fly with her, although strictly speaking, they were handling serious business now.
And there was another person right beside them.
However... Joanna secretly raised her head and glanced at Lin Mo.
The corners of her mouth couldn't help curving up; could this also count as a date?
Flying high in the air, the two of them embracing, with New York right below them—howsoever she thought about it, it was quite romantic.
Then, with a sweep of her peripheral vision, she saw Maeve, who was being carried by the back of her collar by Lin Mo next to them.
The smile on Joanna's face faded a bit.
"Tsk, why is there still a third wheel? Had she known, she wouldn't have brought her along."
Maeve seemed to sense something and instinctively turned her head, colliding right into Joanna's line of sight.
"?"
"Seriously, why are you glaring at me?"
"It's not like I insisted on coming; your man invited me along!"
Of course, Maeve definitely wouldn't say those words out loud.
She didn't want to experience a free fall at several thousand meters in the air right now.
However, she didn't even have time to continue thinking before Lin Mo suddenly started descending.
"We've arrived."
"So fast?"
Maeve was stunned; she even doubted whether even ten seconds had passed since leaving Godolkin University.
The next instant, the figures of the three dropped from high altitude, without any earth-shattering impact, and not even a crack appeared on the ground.
Lin Mo landed very steadily on the roadside and then let go of his hand. Maeve finally stepped back onto the ground and immediately rushed to straighten her collar, which had been scrunched up from being carried.
Maeve's mood was quite complicated. It was her first time being carried flying in her life; although the experience was shocking, the posture was somewhat insulting.
"Next time,"
Maeve couldn't help speaking up.
"Can you hold me somewhere else when we go back?"
Lin Mo glanced at her.
"Like where?"
Maeve opened her mouth, suddenly realizing that this question seemed difficult to answer.
Arm? Waist? Joanna would probably be the first to disagree.
Leg? That was even weirder. After thinking for a long time, she could only choke out a sentence.
"Forget it."
"Let's just see about it later."
Joanna felt much better listening from the side. You know what's good for you.
Lin Mo ignored the two of them and looked at the building in front of him.
This was a hospital, not particularly large in scale, and even looked very ordinary from the outside, located in an inconspicuous area of New York.
There weren't many people around the vicinity either; otherwise, if some people saw him descending from the sky with two women to arrive here, who knows what would happen.
There was no Vought logo or related promotional materials at the entrance of this hospital. From the appearance, it was completely no different from an ordinary private hospital.
If Lin Mo hadn't chased all the way following that special scent,
I'm afraid no one would have thought that Thomas Godolkin, who had been dead for who knows how many years, would be hiding in such a place.
Maeve also looked up at the hospital gates and asked curiously,
"Here?"
Lin Mo nodded.
"Mhm."
Joanna was even more direct; she was a bit impatient now.
"Then let's go in and catch him."
Finished speaking, she prepared to walk inside.
Lin Mo immediately reached out and grabbed her.
"What's the rush? The guy can't run away."
This was indeed the truth. Given Thomas's original physical state, where even eating and drinking required someone else to feed him, how could he possibly run away?
Joanna then stopped, and at the exact same time they landed,
inside the hospital, within a certain floor's monitoring room,
a man wearing a white lab coat was originally lowering his head to organize documents.
The next second, his movements suddenly stopped.
A few seconds later, the man slowly raised his head, and his gaze had completely changed.
Thomas—or rather, the consciousness that had just been controlling Doug's body—had switched over to here.
He hurriedly looked up at the surveillance footage on the wall.
Then, his entire body completely stiffened.
On the screen, at the hospital entrance, Lin Mo was looking up at the security camera, with Joanna and Maeve standing beside him. Not knowing whether it was a coincidence,
Lin Mo suddenly wore a smile on his face, as if he were locking gazes with him across the camera.
At this instant, Thomas's composure, which had only just recovered not long ago, completely vanished.
"Seriously, you actually tracked me down?!"
Of course Lin Mo wasn't doing it by coincidence; he was looking at the camera and even specifically smiled at it.
Since Thomas liked hiding so much, he would let him know in advance that he had arrived.
Inside the hospital, Thomas controlled the white-coated man standing in the monitoring room, his face looking uglier than ever.
Now that Lin Mo had really come, he simply couldn't stop him.
Given the hospital's security, having those ordinary medical staff go block Lin Mo and Joanna had no meaning other than increasing casualties for no reason.
Furthermore, the people here didn't know what was truly hidden underground.
To conceal his own existence, Thomas never intended to let too many people touch the lowest level area from the very beginning.
Therefore, the three of Lin Mo walked all the way into the hospital.
It was basically unobstructed. The front desk nurse only glanced at them somewhat doubtfully, and before she even had time to ask if they were here for medical treatment,
Lin Mo had already taken Joanna and Maeve straight inside.
No one stopped them, there were no alarms, and not even a decent security guard appeared.
Instead, Maeve followed closely behind all the way, feeling more and more that something was wrong the further she walked.
"Isn't it too quiet?"
She couldn't help speaking up.
"We've already barged right in, how come not a single person is stopping us?"
Chapter 104: Being a Pendant
Joanna turned her head and gave her a blank look.
"Do you still expect someone to stop us?"
Maeve immediately stopped chattering; she just felt that this wasn't normal and didn't quite match the scenarios in certain superhero comic books, and she really wasn't hoping for people to come over and throw their lives away.
Lin Mo quickly led the three of them to find a metal door leading inside, too lazy to look for an access card as he reached out and pressed his hand against the alloy door.
With a gentle pull—
Snap!
The heavy metal door was directly and forcefully pried open, revealing a staircase leading to the underground entrance.
Maeve beside him twitched her eyelids at the sight, suddenly feeling that things like access clearances truly had no meaning to Lin Mo.
The group went all the way down, and the further down they went, the fewer sounds belonging to the hospital's normal operations there were.
Until finally, it became completely quiet.
After walking out of the staircase, what appeared before their eyes looked completely unlike a hospital anymore.
The metal walls gleamed with a cold light under the white light from the ceiling, with various sealed doors, surveillance cameras, and protective facilities that clearly exceeded the specifications of ordinary medical institutions emerging endlessly; this place looked more like a small research institute hidden beneath the hospital.
Yet strangely, there wasn't a single person here.
Maeve poked her head out to look left and right, her brow furrowing deeper and deeper.
"Wait, why is there no one here?"
She lowered her voice instinctively.
"Could there be some kind of trap?"
This kind of scene, no matter how one looked at it, was just too suitable for an ambush.
An underground research institute, completely deserted, and the real mastermind already knew in advance that they were coming—changing it to any normal person, they would have to suspect whether a bunch of things were prepared ahead waiting for them.
Lin Mo, on the other hand, appeared quite casual.
"No."
Maeve was stunned.
"No?"
"Mhm."
Lin Mo nodded.
"There wasn't many people here to begin with."
As he spoke, his gaze swept across the front.
Super Hearing and X-ray vision had long since completely enveloped the entire underground area.
Breathing, heartbeats, the sounds of equipment running, and even the subtle movements of liquids flowing in pipes, as well as the various instruments behind countless metal walls in his field of vision, were all crystal clear.
"Right now, apart from us here—"
"—there are only two living people."
Maeve instantly reacted: "Thomas?"
"And Mary."
Lin Mo said indifferently.
Maeve's gaze changed slightly; were they really here?
Lin Mo continued to walk forward.
"With Thomas's personality, do you think he would let many people know he is still alive? Let alone knowing where his true body is hidden."
Maeve thought about it, and it seemed to be true. This guy had even created a puppet with the identity of the dean; those who truly knew the secret probably didn't leave a single living soul behind.
Under such circumstances, it was naturally impossible for him to put a whole bunch of staff next to his true body.
Wasn't that planting landmines for himself?
Joanna, however, suddenly stopped in her tracks.
"Wait."
Her brow furrowed slightly, and her gaze directly pierced through the thick wall ahead.
X-ray vision activated, passing through a layer of metal, two layers of isolation facilities, and the pipes behind.
All of them disappeared from her field of vision, and then, she saw a person.
To be exact, an old man.
An old man whose condition looked extremely terrible and who didn't even have skin, lying inside some kind of large-scale life-support device.
Various pipelines were connected to his body, and his body had almost no normal movement.
If there weren't still vital signs on the equipment, Joannawould even doubt whether what was lying inside was a corpse.
She was stunned for a moment, and then her expression gradually turned strange.
"Lin Mo."
"Hmm?"
Joanna pointed at the wall in front.
"There's an old man inside, lying in something that looks like a coffin."
Maeve had a face full of question marks, speaking words she couldn't understand again.
A coffin?
Joanna took another serious look.
"And a bunch of tubes are plugged in."
"It looks..."
She thought for a moment and squeezed out a sentence:
"Like he's dying?"
Lin Mo couldn't help letting out a laugh. That was indeed correct, and the description was quite accurate.
Seeing his reaction, Joanna immediately understood.
"That is Thomas?"
Lin Mo nodded.
"Right."
Joanna carefully looked through the wall once more.
Afterward, the expression on her face became increasingly speechless.
No, seriously, just this?
Along the way, she had originally thought that this Thomas, who had been hidden for goodness knows how many years, would be some formidable figure.
As it turned out after all that fuss, his true body was just an old man lying in a life-support device, unable to even move on his own?
Joanna couldn't help pointing behind the wall.
"Him?"
"Mhm."
"It's him?"
"It's him."
Joanna was silent for two seconds, and then laughed out of sheer exasperation.
"He actually wants to control me?"
She truly couldn't understand a bit, not that she was looking down on disabled people.
It was mainly just—aren't you overestimating yourself a bit too much?
Joanna lowered her head to look at her own hands, then looked back at the old man behind the wall who probably needed someone else's help just to turn over.
No matter how she thought about it, it felt absurd.
"He can't even stand up, right?"
Lin Mo nodded.
"Pretty much."
Joanna was even more speechless.
"Then where does he get his confidence?"
"And he's still thinking about controlling me in the future?"
Lin Mo shrugged.
"Perhaps it's always good for people to have dreams."
Although this Thomas indeed had no chance of exercising control in the original work, if his appearance wasn't stopped, given the butterfly effect, it really might have been possible.
Maeve, on the other hand, listened quietly beside them without chiming in with a single word.
Forget it, she had completely figured things out by now.
What happened today far exceeded the business scope of her original investigation into forum public opinion.
Puppets, school founders who had been dead for many years, Mary, underground laboratories—it was completely normal that she didn't know about these now.
If she didn't know, then she didn't know; she would just obediently follow along.
Anyway, Lin Mo knew, and today she was just responsible for being a pendant, understanding as much as she could.
Come to think of it, encountering this kind of thing, she was even going to become a hero who resolved the old boss controlling the underground academy. Just thinking about it was exciting.
Although she didn't contribute much throughout the whole process, didn't Lin Mo bringing her along mean he recognized her as a teammate?
Thinking of this, Maeve even moved a little closer to Lin Mo, wanting to bask in the glory and hug his thighs.
Joanna noticed her movement and immediately looked over with vigilance.
Maeve's footsteps stopped instantly.
Fine, it was better to maintain some distance.
Meanwhile, Lin Mo had already arrived in front of that thick protective wall. Inside was the location where Thomas was hidden as pointed out by Joanna, and he had also seen it through X-ray vision.
He reached out and knocked on it.
Thud, thud.
The sound was muffled, clearly not an ordinary wall.
Maeve walked over at this time. She also wanted to do her part; a reinforced wall like this, if she put in some effort, she could still smash it open.
"Do you want me to smash it open directly?"
"No need."
Lin Mo shook his head slightly and refused directly. Relying on Maeve was out of the question; if it were up to her, it would probably waste quite a bit of time.
Seeing Lin Mo refuse, Maeve wasn't discouraged. Since the team leader had spoken, how dared she not listen?
Lin Mo then pointed at the wall and looked at Joanna.
"You do it."
Joanna's eyes lit up; it was finally her turn to take action.
"How should we do it? Should we break it directly?"
Chapter 105: Slapped to Death
Lin Mo gestured briefly with his hand.
"Along here."
"Cut it open, but don't hurt the old bastard inside. Don't let him die so painlessly."
"Oh."
Joanna nodded obediently.
The next second, her eyes quickly lit up with a crimson glow.
Sizzle—!
Two beams of scorching Heat Vision instantly landed on the protective wall. The thick metal structure quickly glowed red, then melted, with sparks constantly showering down.
Joanna controlled her vision, slowly moving it along the line Lin Mo had drawn.
Soon, a huge outline large enough for several people to pass through was completely cut out.
Lin Mo reached out and gave it a gentle push.
Boom!
The entire cut-out section of the wall collapsed inward.
As the gas dispersed, the room hidden behind the wall was finally fully exposed to the three of them.
In the center of the room, a massive life-support device was running quietly, with countless tubes and cables connected to it.
Inside the transparent chamber lay an old man who was aged, emaciated, and whose skin was so badly charred that it had almost completely lost its normal function.
Maeve subconsciously held her breath, her eyes unable to stop staring at the scene before her.
Joanna crossed her arms, sizing him up from head to toe.
Lin Mo stood at the very front, looking at the man who should have been dead for years.
Thomas Godolkin.
Finally, they met.
Lin Mo didn't finish him off right away. Instead, he stepped inside, with Joanna and Maeve naturally following.
The closer they got, the clearer the condition of the old man inside the life-support pod became.
One could only say—
Miserable.
Beyond miserable.
Almost no intact skin could be found on Thomas's body. Large areas of his skin were a charred, dark red color, and some parts had even completely necrotized.
His limbs were incredibly emaciated, and his chest rose and fell slightly with the operation of the ventilator. If the nearby monitors hadn't been displaying his vital signs, anyone would have believed it if they were told this was a corpse soaking in nutrient solution.
Maeve's eyelids twitched as she watched.
"This guy..."
"Is he really still alive?"
She really found it hard to connect this half-dead old man in front of her with the mastermind Lin Mo had described—the one who controlled all of Godolkin University and had orchestrated countless schemes underground.
This was it?
The big boss?
Maeve suddenly felt like the scenarios she had imagined earlier were a waste of emotion. She had originally thought that once they found the mastermind, there would be a big battle of some sort.
For example, the underground base would shake, various test subjects might rush out, and then the final boss would make a grand entrance.
The two sides would fight a world-shaking battle. Although she, Maeve, might not be of much help, she could still protect the students, and in the end, she and Lin Mowould successfully resolve the crisis as expected.
What a standard superhero script.
But now...
Maeve looked at Thomas, who resembled a mummy in the incubation pod, and didn't know what to say.
How were they supposed to fight this? Pull his oxygen plug? Wouldn't that be a bit like bullying an old man?
Just then, Maeve suddenly noticed something nearby.
"Huh?"
She turned her head; there was another door behind the life-support system.
And that area was clearly not just a simple equipment room. Although the door wasn't fully closed, a light could be seen shining inside through the gap.
Maeve stared for a couple of seconds, then looked at Lin Mo.
"I'm going to go check over there."
Lin Mo glanced over, naturally knowing what she would see.
"Go ahead."
Having received permission, Maeve immediately perked up.
Finally, she had something to do. After following Lin Moand Joanna down today, she had basically been acting as background decoration the entire time.
If she didn't find something to do soon, she would start to suspect whether she had just come along to make up the numbers.
Maeve immediately walked toward the adjacent room.
Meanwhile, Joanna could no longer contain herself.
She quickly walked over to the incubation pod, first looking down at Thomas inside, and then raised her hand.
Smash!
She shattered the transparent lid of the incubation pod with a single slap.
Shards of glass splattered to both sides with a clatter, and the gas used to sustain Thomas's life inside quickly leaked out.
Seeing this, Lin Mo's lips twitched. He definitely hadn't taught her to do that.
Yet Joanna didn't think there was anything wrong with it at all.
She reached out to clear away the remaining pieces of glass in her way and stared straight down at the old man inside.
"Hey."
"You're Thomas, right?"
"Wake up."
"I know you can hear me."
Joanna tapped the edge of the incubation pod.
Knock, knock.
"Aren't you supposed to be really powerful?"
"Godolkin University is all yours, that principal was also controlled by you, and so is this underground lab."
"Speak."
"What other conspiracies do you have?"
But Thomas, lying inside, remained completely still and did not respond.
Joanna narrowed her eyes. Giving her the silent treatment? How dare he ignore her.
"Playing dead?"
There was still no response, which immediately made her a bit annoyed.
Lin Mo had talked up this old geezer quite a bit along the way, specifically reminding her that she must not underestimate him. Yet now that she was standing right in front of him...
He wouldn't even utter a word?
Joanna leaned her hands on the edge of the incubation pod, pressing her body slightly forward.
"Couldn't you control other people before?"
"What's wrong?"
"In your pathetic state, do you still want to control me?"
"Come on, give it a try."
Lin Mo covered his face, somewhat speechless. This was indeed a bit like bullying a disabled elderly person.
Of course, considering what this disabled old man had done in the past, it didn't really matter.
Joanna continued to stare at him.
"Also, what on earth are those things in the school?"
"How many people did you kidnap? Are there any other labs?"
"Speak up."
"..."
Thomas still showed no reaction. Just as Joanna was starting to suspect whether this old bastard had been shocked to death by her slap earlier...
Inside the incubation pod, those eyes that had been closed all this time slowly opened.
Joanna's spirits immediately lifted, and she gave the incubation pod a shake.
"You're awake?"
"Then hurry up and talk."
Thomas's eyeballs rolled slowly, finally landing on her.
His lips trembled slightly, as if he wanted to say something.
But in the end... there was no sound at all.
"?"
Joanna waited for a few seconds.
"Well, say something."
Thomas moved his mouth again, but still, no sound came out.
The expression on Joanna's face gradually turned bizarre.
"Lin Mo."
"Is this old geezer mute?"
Before Lin Mo could answer, Maeve's voice suddenly came from the adjacent room.
"Lin Mo!"
"You guys, come look at this!"
Hearing the commotion, Joanna glanced back. Lin Moalready knew what it was, and the three of them soon gathered in the adjacent room.
The inside was much smaller than the outside, but the equipment was actually more sophisticated, with a large number of instruments running around a medical bed in the center of the room.
At this moment, Maeve was standing there, holding a baby in her arms.
A black baby girl, who looked like she had only been born not long ago.
The little one was wrapped in a soft blanket. Seemingly awakened by the noise outside just now, she was currently opening her eyes, staring blankly at Maeve who was holding her.
Maeve was clearly at a loss. She was still in a somewhat dazed state, and having never taken care of a child before, being suddenly made to hold a newborn baby was somewhat beyond her area of expertise.
"I saw her lying here all by herself as soon as I walked in."
Chapter 106: Not Very Pleasant to Look At
Maeve looked at Lin Mo.
"Who is this?"
Lin Mo looked at the baby in her arms, his gaze lingering for a moment.
As expected, this was Marie Moreau.
The future girl who could control blood and sense blood flow within the human body. In truth, her real ability was likely cellular manipulation; otherwise, how could she have repaired Thomas's body through mere hemokinesis, or pulled off the miraculous feat of resurrecting her sister later on?
Yet right now, she was just a tiny tot who couldn't even walk.
"Marie."
Lin Mo spoke.
"She is Marie Moreau."
Maeve paused, recalling Lin Mo questioning Thomasearlier.
"You know her?"
"A little."
Lin Mo didn't elaborate. On the other hand, Joanna, hearing Lin Mo name her directly, instantly grew interested.
"Her?"
She hurried over, wanting to take a look.
Maeve instinctively pulled the baby a little closer to her chest. Joanna's posture looked less like someone coming to see a child and more like someone examining a novel new toy.
Joanna didn't snatch the baby; she just looked down and stared at Marie for a while.
"The baby you mentioned earlier is right here."
"So there really is one."
She extended a finger and gently poked Marie's little cheek.
It was soft. Marie blinked.
Joanna became even more curious.
"But why is it a baby girl?"
Lin Mo looked at her.
"What's wrong with a baby girl?"
Joanna replied as if it were obvious,
"You made it sound so mysterious earlier. I thought it was something super impressive, but it's just this tiny thing."
As she spoke, she poked again.
Marie's little hand suddenly reached out and grabbed one of her fingers.
Joanna paused. She looked down; the little thing had grabbed on and wouldn't let go.
Joanna was suddenly even more intrigued.
"Lin Mo."
"Look, she's grabbing me."
"I see it."
"Does she recognize me?"
"How old do you think she is? Like hell she knows you."
"Then why didn't she grab Maeve?"
Maeve: "..."
She was holding her right now!
How could she grab her! But seeing Joanna take an interest in the baby, Maeve found it strangely fascinating.
The freshman at school that no one dared provoke, the monster who had sliced through a heavy reinforced wall with a mere glance just moments ago, was now spending ages examining a baby just because it grabbed her finger.
After teasing Marie for a bit, Joanna lost interest. For some reason, she felt... black skin didn't look very nice.
Of course, she wouldn't say that out loud. The main thing was that Lin Mo had brought up Marie before; anything Lin Mo remembered was bound to be useful.
Lin Mo keenly picked up on this. Joanna's subtle distaste might be related to the racial rhetoric propagated in Vought's underground facility. He could only remain neutral on this matter; deep down, he wasn't particularly fond of it either—not due to Vought's influence, but purely influenced by the Captain Guangzhou memes from his past life.
He could only pat Joanna on the shoulder.
"All right, settle down."
"We still have business to attend to."
Only then did Joanna remember that Thomas was still outside.
She looked back outside and sighed.
"The problem is, he won't talk."
"I asked him for ages, and all he does is keep his eyes open."
"I can't just communicate with him through eye contact, can I?"
Maeve walked out carrying Marie as well. Hearing this, her gaze fell once more on the old man inside the cultivation pod.
Lin Mo calmly explained,
"It's not that he doesn't want to talk, but that he can't."
"His injuries are too severe. His body was basically ruined long ago, and he's only survived until now by being kept on these life-support systems."
"His throat, vocal cords, and most of his bodily functions are severely damaged."
"Expecting him to speak on his own? That really is asking too much of him."
At those words, the air fell silent for a moment.
Joanna and Maeve looked at Thomas together, then turned to look at Lin Mo together.
Joanna's mouth twitched.
"So my questioning him all that time earlier...?"
"Yeah."
"Was completely in vain?"
"Pretty much."
"..."
Joanna's face darkened. Then why had that old bastard been staring at her the entire time?
She had thought he was acting deep and brooding; turns out he literally couldn't speak.
Maeve's expression grew odd as well.
"Then how did he control the school before? Surely he didn't manage it from here with just his eyes?"
Lin Mo chuckled.
"Of course he had a way."
"Otherwise, why do you think Doug was so obedient?"
Just as Maeve was about to ask,
*Ring, ring, ring—!*
Suddenly, the ringing of a telephone echoed in the room.
All three turned their heads simultaneously. The sound came from by the wall, where a landline telephone sat, ringing incessantly.
*Ring, ring.*
*Ring, ring.*
Maeve stared at the telephone, then glanced at Thomasinside the cultivation pod.
For some reason, she suddenly had a very strange feeling.
Joanna, on the other hand, frowned.
"Who's calling at a time like this?"
Lin Mo wasn't surprised at all; who else could it be in a place like this?
He strolled over leisurely and picked up the phone.
"Hello?"
The other end went quiet for two seconds.
Then, a voice they had heard not long ago came through.
"Lin Mo."
Maeve's expression shifted instantly, and Joannarecognized it right away too.
"Doug?"
Indeed, it was Doug's voice, except compared to before, the tone over the phone was completely different now.
Gone was the principal's usual composed cadence, and gone was his poise when facing students; all that remained was a forced-down, yet glaringly obvious, state of weakness and tension.
Lin Mo glanced at Thomas in the cultivation pod. Thomaswas also looking back at him with open eyes.
The man himself was lying just a few meters away, yet he had to borrow someone else's body to communicate with them over the phone.
Lin Mo almost felt like laughing.
"Thomas."
The line fell silent for a moment.
Then, that voice belonging to Doug slowly sounded.
"It's me."
Hearing this seemingly familiar voice, Joanna and Maeve both looked at the cultivation pod, then at the receiver in Lin Mo's hand.
The look on Joanna's face could no longer be described merely as speechless.
"So he's really lying right there making a phone call?"
Lin Mo corrected her with a solemn face,
"Strictly speaking, he's controlling someone else to use a phone."
Joanna couldn't help rolling her eyes. Was there any difference?
Maeve nearly lost her composure completely. She had previously felt that this mastermind behind the scenes held some air of mystery.
Now the mystery was gone, leaving only sheer absurdity.
The man was lying in a cultivation pod, controlling the principal, and having the principal phone someone standing just a few meters from his pod—no matter how one looked at it, the scene was utterly comical.
Meanwhile, Thomas on the line clearly had no interest in caring what they thought.
"Lin Mo."
"Between us..."
"There is no irreconcilable feud."
His very first sentence was a plea for survival.
Lin Mo raised a brow slightly. This was even more direct than he had anticipated; Thomas didn't even put up the bare minimum pretense.
"You've only been at Godolkin University for three days. I haven't harmed you, nor have I harmed Joanna. There is no conflict of interest between us."
Chapter 107: He Seems Quite Pitiful
"Everything about the school... is negotiable."
Hearing this, Joanna rolled her eyes. He was the mastermind just a moment ago, so why did he now look like he was on the verge of bankruptcy at the negotiating table?
Lin Mo didn't say anything, but Thomas on the other end of the phone was clearly growing more anxious.
The initiative was no longer in his hands, and his real body had been completely exposed.
Most importantly, there were the two people right in front of him.
One was Lin Mo, and the other was Joanna. Neither of them was someone he could handle right now.
He wasn't afraid of ordinary superheroes, or even Vought, because as long as he remained hidden in the shadows, he had room to maneuver.
But things were different now. Lin Mo was standing right in front of his life-support pod.
All Lin Mo had to do was stretch out a finger and pull out a tube, and he would be gone.
As for any ambition, it all had to be built on the most basic premise.
Staying alive.
Only by staying alive would he have the right to talk about the future.
"I can hand the school over to you."
Thomas continued over the phone.
"All experimental data, all funding channels, all hidden facilities."
"Including the connections I've built up over the years."
"Whatever you want to know, I can tell you."
Maeve's expression grew increasingly strange as she listened. Wasn't this surrender a bit too quick?
Joanna walked right up to Lin Mo's side and leaned in close to listen to the phone.
Thomas was still continuing on the other end.
"Just because you're working with Vought doesn't mean you truly trust Vought."
"I can help you. I know many of Vought's secrets."
"Even more than Edgar thinks."
"Even..."
He paused slightly, seemingly trying to think of what other bargaining chips he had to keep himself alive.
"If you need Godolkin University, I can make it stand completely on your side."
"All the superheroes trained here in the future can become your strength. Whether you want to become the core of The Seven or build your own power..."
"I can help you with all of it."
Lin Mo listened and suddenly smiled.
"You're quite flexible."
There was no denial on the other end of the phone.
"Only the living have the right to talk about dignity."
Very realistic, and very Thomas.
Lin Mo didn't find it strange. If someone who could drag such a body along to survive for so many years actually had an unyielding character...
He would have died long ago.
Thomas had managed to hold on until today not by any heroism, but by ambition and the purest fear of death.
"Lin Mo."
The voice on the phone even began to lower its posture further.
"There is no need for you to kill me."
"If you kill me, you will only get a corpse."
"Keep me alive."
"You can have the entirety of Godolkin. I will no longer target you, nor will I target Joanna."
"No."
Seemingly feeling that this wasn't enough, Thomasimmediately corrected himself.
"I can obey you, as long as you let me live."
"Any condition is negotiable."
The room fell silent for a moment. Maeve looked down at Marie in her arms, then at the old man in the incubation pod who was barely human anymore.
She suddenly understood a little why Lin Mo had been so calm from beginning to end.
Mastermind, controlling the academy, hidden boss—once Lin Mo actually stood before him, those identities didn't matter at all.
In this world, strength was all that mattered.
When the weak hid in the shadows, they could be masterminds, puppet masters, and decide the fates of many.
But when someone truly irresistible uncovered their hiding place and stood right in front of them, the so-called mastermind was nothing more than an old man afraid of death.
At this point, a thought suddenly popped into Maeve's mind.
He seems quite pitiful.
But then she thought of the underground laboratories, the people who had been captured, and why Marie was here.
She silently added another thought.
Pitiful as he was, he didn't deserve an ounce of sympathy.
Meanwhile, Lin Mo held the phone, looking at Thomas in the incubation pod, the smile on his face becoming more and more pronounced.
"Any condition is negotiable?"
The other side of the phone immediately replied.
"Yes."
"Any condition."
Lin Mo nodded slightly.
"Fine."
"Then let's have a good talk."
Hearing this, inside the incubation pod...
Thomas's extremely tense gaze finally relaxed slightly. However, he didn't know that the "talk" Lin Mo spoke of might not be the same thing as the negotiation he had in mind.
Lin Mo wasn't in a hurry to ask about the school first.
Since the man was right here and couldn't run away, he was actually quite interested in something else by comparison.
So, holding the phone, as if suddenly remembering something, he asked casually,
"By the way."
"The Odessa Project."
The other end of the phone instantly fell silent.
Lin Mo's eyes narrowed slightly.
He indeed knew. Lin Mo continued,
"Joanna, and Marie."
"How much do you know about them?"
Joanna, who had been listening listlessly on the side, suddenly raised her head.
"Hmm?"
Her interest was instantly piqued.
The Odessa Project.
Of course, this wasn't the first time she had heard this name.
Lin Mo had mentioned it to her before, and over the years, she had slowly learned some things herself.
Her abilities and her body were essentially related to Vought. She knew she was an experimental product, but she didn't know the exact details.
After all, the people who used to know about this were either already dead or nearly all dead.
The remaining data on Vought's side was also incomplete.
And now, this old geezer in front of her, who had lived for God knows how many years, looked like he knew a lot of inside information.
Joanna immediately leaned in a bit closer.
"You know about me?"
Inside the incubation pod, Thomas's eyes clearly flickered.
At the same time, over the phone, Doug's voice rang out almost without any hesitation.
"I do."
The reply came incredibly fast, for fear that Lin Mo would hang up the phone if he was even a second too slow.
To Thomas, Lin Mo being willing to ask questions was actually a good thing.
As long as he was willing to ask, it meant he still had value.
Having value meant he wouldn't have to die for the time being.
He had already begun to offer more information proactively.
"I know about the Odessa Project."
"And I know more about it than the vast majority of Vought's upper management."
Hearing this, Lin Mo wasn't particularly surprised.
As for Maeve, standing aside with Marie in her arms, her expression was starting to turn blank.
"The Odessa Project? What was that?"
Why did something she had absolutely never heard of suddenly pop up?
She looked first at Lin Mo, then at Joanna, and then down at the baby in her arms.
Why did it feel like the things these three were discussing suddenly belonged to a completely different world from hers?
Maeve couldn't help but ask,
"Wait."
"What on earth are you talking about?"
But no one answered her right away.
On the other end of the phone, Thomas continued as if clutching at a lifesaver:
"The Odessa Project was essentially one of Vought's most core human experimentation projects in its early days."
"The purpose was very simple."
"To create the ultimate superhuman in the truest sense."
Chapter 108: Not Born With It
Maeve's face showed even deeper confusion.
"Manufactured?"
"What do you mean?"
Thomas didn't stop. He continued speaking, "Vought discovered very early on that the stability of power development is closely related to the age at which subjects undergo experimentation."
"The younger the age, the higher the body's adaptability to the serum and subsequent modifications."
"Especially during infancy, which is the most ideal experimental stage."
Maeve froze.
"Experimental stage?"
"Infancy?"
She looked down at Marie in her arms, a vague and ominous guess already forming in her heart.
Thomas's voice continued.
"Most ordinary superheroes are just the results of basic trials: injecting the serum, observing changes, recording abilities, and filtering out valuable individuals."
"But the Odessa Project is different. From the very beginning, what the project pursued was not as simple as just creating superheroes."
"What they wanted to create were ultimate products that could be controlled, cultivated, and whose upper limits of power far exceeded ordinary superheroes."
"Stable, powerful, and ideally, absolutely loyal."
Hearing this, Lin Mo curved the corners of his mouth slightly.
The words "absolute loyalty" carried a hint of irony when applied to Joanna.
Joanna evidently thought of this as well, and she let out a soft snort.
"Then they failed miserably."
Lin Mo glanced at her.
"Indeed."
Joanna was satisfied.
Over on Thomas's end, he didn't dare stop.
"The failure rate in the early stages of the project was extremely high."
"The vast majority of test subjects failed to meet expectations; some died, some lost control of their abilities, and while others gained strong powers, their physical structures were unstable."
"And there were others with massive defects in their mental state."
Speaking of this, he paused slightly.
"Until the appearance of Joanna."
Joanna narrowed her eyes.
Maeve also instinctively tightened her embrace around Marie in her arms.
Over the phone, Thomas spoke slowly.
"Joanna."
"And Marie Moreau."
The room fell silent for a brief moment.
Joanna didn't have much of a reaction.
On the contrary, Maeve froze entirely, looking down at Marie in her arms.
"Her?"
"Yes."
Thomas didn't hesitate.
"She is also one of the important experimental subjects of the Odessa Project."
"And judging from the existing results, she is very successful."
Maeve looked down at the little one in her arms who couldn't even speak yet, her brain clearly struggling to process it.
"Successful? Successful at what? Isn't this just a baby?"
Meanwhile, Joanna had already crossed her arms.
"Then what about me?"
Thomas was silent for half a second.
"You are the most perfect achievement in that project."
There was little expression on Joanna's face.
Thomas continued, "At least at the present stage."
"No second test subject has reached your level; your overall qualities have almost no obvious shortcomings. Judging from the goals Vought initially set, you are the exact product they wanted to create."
Speaking of this, the other side of the phone seemed a bit emotional.
"An ultimate individual sufficient to tower above the vast majority of superheroes."
After hearing this, Joanna didn't have as big of a reaction as one might imagine.
She just let out an "oh."
"Pretty much."
Maeve abruptly looked at her.
"Pretty much?"
Joanna shrugged.
"I already knew a bit about it. Vought used me for experiments before."
"It's not like I had zero memories from when I was little, and Lin Mo told me some things later on anyway."
Therefore, for her, this matter really couldn't be considered a big deal.
She had long known that her birth wasn't normal, and she knew she wasn't some so-called chosen one.
As for whether she was an experimental product or not, the difference wasn't actually that big.
At least that's how Joanna saw it now.
She wasn't even very angry; if she really had to talk about resentment—
Of course it existed, but it hadn't reached the extent of wanting to slaughter everyone at Vought.
After all, no matter what, without those experiments, she might never have appeared in this world, nor would she have ever met Lin Mo.
What's more, the people who actually participated in that batch of experiments back then were mostly dead by now; of those still alive, very few remained.
Thinking of this, Joanna subconsciously looked at Lin Mo, who seemed to sense her gaze and gave her a comforting look.
Joanna wasn't so idle as to make herself half-dead with anger everyday over people from decades ago.
Besides, she was living quite well now.
With Lin Mo, with power, she could do whatever she wanted. If anyone dared to lock her up for research like before, she would uproot their research facility right down to the foundations.
Therefore, Joanna was just a little curious.
"Then why is she also considered one of the most perfect?"
She pointed at Marie in Maeve's arms.
Maeve suddenly felt like she was holding a hot potato. Putting it that way, this little girl must be amazing?
Thomas answered immediately.
"Because of her potential abilities. Marie's body has an extremely high adaptability to the serum."
"And her ability is not an enhancement of strength in the ordinary sense."
"Instead, it is control over blood. If developed to a high enough degree, she can directly affect other living beings through their blood."
"Inside the human body, the organs, the circulatory system—even causing destruction from within the body while the target is completely off guard."
Joanna's eyes lit up slightly.
"Sounds all right."
Lin Mo glanced at her. What did she mean by "all right"? An ability like this was inherently outrageous once developed.
Furthermore, Thomas was probably holding back; this girl's abilities likely went far beyond that.
But Maeve was completely in no mood to pay attention to this anymore.
Right now, her mind only contained those few sentences from earlier.
Experiments, serum, infants, manufacturing superheroes.
Finally, she seemed to realize something.
"Wait a minute."
Maeve's voice had completely changed.
"You mean... superheroes aren't born naturally?"
There was a brief silence on Thomas's end, as if he hadn't expected her not even to know this.
Lin Mo also glanced at her, only then remembering that Maeve at this point in time indeed didn't know.
Vought's external propaganda had always used a completely different narrative.
Things like divine choice, gifted descent, and special abilities innate to a tiny minority—anyway, they packaged it as sacredly as possible.
There were hardly any people who truly knew the truth about Compound V.
Maeve was still just a student and hadn't even entered The Seven yet; it was completely normal for her not to know.
Thomas said calmly, "Of course not."
Snap.
Maeve felt as if something had shattered inside her mind.
"Then..."
Her voice was somewhat parched as she questioned Thomas.
"The likes of us..."
"Are all of them?"
Thomas answered very directly, "The vast majority are."
"Vought manufactured superheroes through serum; some received injections in infancy, while others were in childhood, and parents often knew about it."
"They simply signed confidentiality agreements, after which Vought packaged them through religion, the media, and the superhero industry."
"Ultimately shaping all of you into a so-called special group of people born with powers."
Chapter 109: Isn't Having Powers Enough?
Maeve stood frozen in place, completely speechless, as if she had been struck right across the forehead with a club.
She had always believed that she possessed powers because she was different from ordinary people.
To put it exaggeratedly, when she was a child, she had genuinely believed that propaganda.
She believed this was a power bestowed by God, and that since she possessed abilities ordinary people lacked—
perhaps she should shoulder more responsibility. That was why she wanted to become a hero and entered Godolkin.
That was why she trained hard, climbed desperately upwards, and even dreamed of joining The Seven in the future.
But what about now?
Thomas told her.
There was no such thing as God or chosen ones; she had simply been injected with a certain serum when she was a child.
Then, with a bit of luck and without any accidents, she successfully awakened her powers. It was just that simple.
Maeve looked down at her hands, then at Marie Moreau in her arms, completely unsure of what expression to make for a moment.
"So..."
"Are we actually all just products?"
Thomas did not answer, but silence itself was already the answer.
The corners of Maeve's mouth twitched.
"This is just too..."
She suddenly felt like cursing, but for a moment, she didn't even know where to begin.
Were her powers fake? Well, she couldn't exactly say that.
Her strength was real, her body was real, and the fact that she could punch straight through a wall right now was also a fact.
But the problem was that her past understanding of her own identity had been almost entirely upended.
That feeling was like someone suddenly telling her that everything she had believed in for over a decade consisted entirely of advertising slogans fabricated by Vought.
Maeve stood there, completely dazed.
Joanna, on the other hand, was very calm, and even reached out to wave her hand in front of Maeve's eyes.
"Hey."
"Stunned?"
Maeve slowly raised her head.
"Aren't you shocked at all?"
"Why would I be shocked?"
Joanna looked at her strangely.
"Isn't having powers enough?"
"Does it matter how they came about?"
Maeve opened her mouth.
It mattered, didn't it?
Perhaps? That was her entire worldview!
But Joanna clearly couldn't understand her current thoughts; her logic had always been very simple.
Her powers were real, she was real, and Lin Mo was real—wasn't that enough?
As for how Vought had created her back then—
whatever, she didn't belong to Vought anymore, and whoever dared to come and capture her, she would smash them right into the wall.
Watching Maeve look as though her worldview had shattered into pieces, Lin Mo wasn't in a hurry to comfort her.
This kind of thing was something she just needed to digest on her own.
Knowing sooner or knowing later, she had to find out sooner or later.
Besides, letting her know now was much better than being fooled by Vought later using so-called heroic beliefs as a fool.
Furthermore, Lin Mo didn't have any particular aversion to acquiring powers by injecting Compound V. To give a simple example, wouldn't ordinary people in this world fantasize about becoming superheroes and gaining powerful abilities?
And when these ordinary people saw you superheroes shouting about inhumanity, injecting serum to make them freaks, what would ordinary people think? Wouldn't they have the thought: why didn't they inject it into me? If you don't want powers, I do!
So it was completely dual-faceted. If you didn't inject them when they were kids, they would blame you when they grew up; and if you injected them, they would blame you for experimenting on them.
Afterwards, those ordinary people would use this to make trouble, saying that now that they had grown up, the failure and mortality rate of the injection was too high, and that it was unfair.
On the other end of the phone, seeing that the group hadn't spoken for a long time, Thomas was clearly getting a bit restless.
"I know a lot more."
He spoke up on his own initiative.
"The Odessa Project is only a part of it—there are records of Vought's early experiments and the direction of Compound V's improvements."
"And there are some experimental projects that have not been made public to this day; I can tell you all about them."
Lin Mo looked down at the phone.
He really had to laugh; this old thing was truly afraid of death.
He had only asked one question, and the old man was already eager to confess the location of his ancestors' graves.
Still, that was fine too; it certainly saved trouble.
Lin Mo looked at Thomas in the incubation tank.
"Very good. It seems you are quite useful."
Hearing this, the look in Thomas's eyes as he lay in the incubation tank visibly relaxed a bit.
Useful. Right now, for him, those were probably the two best-sounding words in the world.
But the next second, Lin Mo added another sentence.
"However, you'd better not celebrate too early."
"Knowing a lot only proves that you are temporarily qualified to stay alive. As for whether you can ultimately survive, it depends on whether your confessions are thorough enough from now on."
The other end of the phone fell silent for a moment.
Then an answer came immediately.
"I understand."
Lin Mo nodded.
"Then let's continue, starting with Marie Moreau."
He glanced at the baby in Maeve's arms.
"Why did she appear here?"
"Who sent her here?"
"And—"
The smile on Lin Mo's face slowly faded.
"Just how many children like her does Vought still have hidden away?"
As Lin Mo's question fell, the room fell silent for a moment.
Thomas on the other end of the phone noticeably paused.
He did not answer immediately, which caused both Joannaand Maeve to look over, especially Joanna.
Although she appeared indifferent on the surface, she was actually somewhat curious.
If there really were other test subjects like her or Marie Moreau—
what would that mean?
It meant Vought had been manufacturing similar existences all these years.
And it meant... there might still be many people in this world who, just like her, had been treated as experimental subjects since birth.
However, Thomas's answer surprised them all a bit.
"None."
It was very straightforward, without any hesitation.
Lin Mo raised an eyebrow slightly.
"So certain?"
"Certain."
Thomas continued.
"At least within the scope of my knowledge, no."
"The Odessa Project has already ended."
"Strictly speaking, it was even abandoned many years ago."
Lin Mo didn't speak, but his gaze was already fixed on the old man in the incubation tank.
Thomas clearly knew what he meant.
"You don't believe it?"
"Normal."
"If I were you, I wouldn't easily believe someone who is willing to say anything right now just to stay alive."
This remark actually made Lin Mo chuckle; this old fellow was quite clear about his own position.
"Continue."
Thomas in the life-support tank took a deep breath.
Of course, this action was now mainly completed by life-support equipment.
"The Odessa Project was indeed originally created to produce the strongest superhuman."
"Joanna is the most successful product among them."
"So is Marie Moreau."
"But the problem is... the cost of this project was too high."
"The mortality rate was too high, and the failure rate was also too high. Vought later discovered that instead of cultivating a test subject from infancy with an unknown success rate, it was better to directly expand the application range of Compound V."
"This way, the cost was lower, the speed was faster, and it could screen out more valuable people."
Hearing this, Maeve finally understood why Vought later chose another path.
Mass-producing superheroes, no longer pursuing a so-called single perfect sample, but manufacturing commercial value with quantity.
Chapter 110: original compound v
Thomas continued, "After the Odessa Project, it was basically stopped, and the relevant personnel were evacuated one after another. Many of the people in charge of this project back then are already dead."
"Now, there are no more than a few people who know the complete contents."
Lin Mo nodded. This answer was well within his expectations; after all, if Vought really still had a batch of beings on the same level as Joanna—
Then this world would have been in chaos long ago. Why was Homelander so special? It was precisely because he was the only successful result of that era.
As for Marie Moreau, she felt more like a successful sample in another direction.
"What about Marie Moreau?"
Lin Mo asked.
"Why is she here?"
Thomas was silent for a moment.
Then he said, "Because I wanted to see how far she could ultimately grow."
Joanna frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"The end of the Odessa Project does not mean all research has ended,"
Thomas explained.
"Vought gave up on creating a second Joanna."
"But that doesn't mean they gave up on researching special superhumans. Marie Moreau's situation is very special; her adaptability to Compound V is extremely high."
"Her ability manifestations are also very rare, so I privately kept her research data."
"Even..."
He paused here.
"I secretly kept the experimental samples."
Maeve's expression instantly turned a bit ugly. She glanced at Marie Moreau in her arms—a newly born child, yet in the eyes of these people, she was merely a sample.
"So she is just your experimental subject?"
Maeve's voice was somewhat cold. The person on the other end of the phone did not deny it.
"Yes."
"But I didn't hurt her."
"At least not like other experiments."
Maeve sneered.
"Do you think this sentence is very convincing?"
Thomas fell silent, because even he himself knew—
It wasn't.
Lin Mo didn't comment; he just continued to ask.
"What about Joanna?"
"How much do you know?"
This time, Thomas answered faster.
"Not much."
Joanna was stunned.
"Not much?"
She had originally thought that this so-called Godolkinfounder would at least know a little bit about her own affairs.
As a result, he directly threw out a 'not much'.
Thomas explained, "Joanna's project was in a different direction from the one I was responsible for."
"I know she was an important achievement of the Odessa Project."
"I knew that barring any accidents, she was the final success, but the specific cultivation process, experimental data, and early leaders—"
"None of these were within my permission range. The person in charge of her also had a higher authority than mine."
Hearing this, Joanna's gaze dimmed, and she felt somewhat disappointed.
But a moment later, she returned to her previous emotional state.
After all, what she wanted to know most right now was not those experimental records from decades ago.
Instead...
She secretly glanced at Lin Mo.
Well, never mind.
With Lin Mo around, whether she knew those things or not didn't seem so important anymore.
At least now, she was no longer that little girl locked in a laboratory.
On the contrary, Lin Mo was thoughtful. This answer was also reasonable and roughly matched what he knew.
Although Thomas was the founder of Godolkin University, it was impossible for him to know all of Vought's true core secrets.
How could someone like Edgar allow everyone to master all the secrets?
"Fine."
Lin Mo nodded.
"I'll trust you for now."
Thomas clearly breathed a sigh of relief, but the next second, his heart jumped into his throat again.
Because he saw Lin Mo suddenly walking towards his cultivation tank.
Both Joanna and Maeve looked over.
"Lin Mo?"
Lin Mo didn't answer. Holding the phone, he stood next to the transparent tank and lowered his head to look at Thomas inside.
"However, there is one more question."
Thomas's gaze flickered slightly, pretending to be calm—anyway, his face couldn't make that many expressions anyway.
"What is it?"
Lin Mo reached out a hand and gently touched the life support pipelines in the cultivation tank.
Then, his gaze fell on Thomas's almost completely destroyed body.
"I think you shouldn't be able to live for that long."
Thomas in the cultivation tank was stunned for a moment.
The next second, Lin Mo even reached out directly.
Through the shattered cultivation tank, he gently touched his necrotic skin.
That tactile sensation made even Maeve beside them frown slightly. Although she didn't touch it, she still felt—
It was too miserable.
A normal person suffering this kind of injury would have died countless times over.
Yet Thomas managed to live until now.
And he lived for decades longer, or even more—this in itself was abnormal.
"Your body has seriously exceeded the limits of an ordinary person."
Lin Mo said slowly, wanting to force Thomas to voluntarily say what he wanted.
"Organ failure, tissue necrosis, nerve damage—an ordinary person would have died long ago."
"But you are still alive, which means there is something special about you."
Thomas fell silent.
A few seconds later, he seemed to understand what Lin Mo really wanted to ask.
"You want to know about the original compound v?"
Lin Mo smiled. This old fellow was indeed smart; he guessed it in a single sentence.
Maeve and Joanna looked over at the same time.
First-generation?
What was that again?
Thomas on the other end of the phone slowly said, "That name only appeared later."
"At the very beginning, we didn't have the distinction between the first-generation and improved versions."
"At that time, Compound V only had one version."
Lin Mo nodded.
"So?"
Thomas replied:
"I don't have it."
"You don't have it?"
Joanna was somewhat puzzled.
Thomas continued to explain, "In my era, what I came into contact with was the earliest research."
"But the real first-generation sample is not in my hands."
"Later, Vought continuously optimized Compound V, long replacing the previous ones. Even the one Marie Moreau received is the latest version."
"It is essentially different from the initial Compound V."
Lin Mo narrowed his eyes slightly.
He didn't have it?
It wasn't entirely unexpected. Thomas already had this stuff himself, and didn't need extra.
However, Thomas on the other end of the phone clearly thought of something else.
"Wait."
"Why are you asking this? Do you want to live longer?"
Lin Mo let out a light chuckle, his voice coming through the phone.
This reaction was already enough in Thomas's eyes.
He began to re-examine the man in front of him.
Lin Mo possessed powerful strength, far surpassing ordinary superhumans, and possibly even exceeding Joanna, but no matter how powerful life was, it should still have a lifespan limit.
Anyone with power would want more—more power, more time. This was human nature.
What Thomas didn't expect was that he had guessed half right.
Lin Mo was indeed interested in the original compound v.
But not for himself. His own lifespan didn't need this kind of thing at all; the level of life brought by Krypton bloodline was already something ordinary humans could never compare to.
What he really wanted was for Joanna to get it sooner.
This was also his plan after escaping from the Vought bunker, but when he came out, he was overwhelmed by the surprise of the system waking up, so it got delayed.
Although system energy points could also exchange for original compound v, that would be a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Besides, what could be obtained for free naturally wouldn't be bought with money.
But Thomas didn't know any of this.
He only knew that the man in front of him might also be a superhuman eager to break through the limits of life.
Therefore, wasn't this his opportunity?