"Shit!"
Jack Banks, once a Triple-Gold film emperor, now a bankrupt drunk, fiercely crushed the last can of cheap beer.
The can spun, falling from the edge of the rooftop, disappearing into the traffic below.
This was forty-four stories high. The evening wind was bitterly cold, making his cheeks feel slightly numb.
Bankruptcy, blacklisting, and being completely hated online.
He had been set up by the team he trusted most and the woman he trusted most, Lily Rivers.
Overnight, he had fallen from the clouds into the mud.
"Hah hah hah hah hah!"
Jack Banks laughed hysterically.
He used to be an actor, the top tier.
He knew what the audience liked, and he knew what the capital needed.
He thought he was the player, only to discover in the end that he was just a piece most easily discarded.
Of course, he knew he was framed, but he couldn't find any evidence.
Lily Rivers, the woman he had personally made famous and who had then personally destroyed him, had done it too cleanly.
"Die..." he muttered to himself, "Everyone go to hell!"
He grabbed the liquor bottle and took a fierce gulp.
"Everyone go to hell—!" He roared maniacally!
Just then, a brilliant shooting star streaked across the night sky.
Jack Banks froze.
Shooting star... Lily...
Staring wide-eyed at the shooting star, he revealed a twisted smile.
He yanked open his fly.
"Screw you!"
He aimed at the light streaking across the sky.
"Screw your shooting star! Screw you, Lily Rivers!"
Screaming almost insanely, he released his madness into the fierce rooftop wind.
"Come on! Kill me! Bitch! Hahahaha—!! I'll do whatever I damn please!"
Suddenly, a bizarre thing happened.
The shooting star, which should have disappeared into the sky within seconds, seemed enraged by his "provocation."
It... it damn well stopped.
Making a sharp turn, dragging blazing flames, it shot straight down towards Jack Banks's head like a targeted intercontinental missile!
"What... the hell?"
The alcohol instantly left Jack Banks's system.
The madness on his face froze, his pupils reflecting the growing, brightening fireball.
He didn't even have time to zip up.
"Just kidding... it, it can't be this serious..."
Boom—!!!
There were no screams, no final words.
At the moment of impact, Jack Banks was instantly vaporized.
Not even a speck of ash remained.
...
The next second.
Jack Banks suddenly opened his eyes. "What the heck?"
He looked down at himself.
He found himself floating in mid-air, facing a skyscraper with an incredibly exaggerated design, its massive glass curtain wall as smooth as a mirror.
Reflected in the mirror was a "person."
A tall, muscular, handsome young man.
He had perfectly combed blonde hair, and was wearing a blue spandex suit.
On his shoulders were exaggerated golden eagle-shaped epaulets, and a star-spangled banner cape was slowly fluttering behind him.
"..." Jack Banks was silent for three seconds.
He tried moving a finger.
The person in the mirror also moved a finger.
Then he tried to grin.
The person in the mirror also displayed a brilliant, perfect smile.
"Uh..."
"I... I became Superman? No, wait..."
This image, this face.
Jack Banks's mind raced, instantly locking onto a familiar name.
"Shit... Homelander?!"
I transmigrated? And into that knock-off Superman from The Boys?!
"I transmigrated to The Boys universe?!"
Thinking of that perverse world where people's heads constantly exploded and gore and viscera were everywhere, Jack Banks's scalp tingled.
"So where am I now? Vought Tower? Facing Butcher and his 'Boys' right from the start?"
He nervously looked around.
Boom—!!!
A deafening explosion interrupted his thoughts.
He abruptly looked up.
In the sky, a giant wormhole glowing with an eerie blue light was suspended above the city.
Countless grotesque alien warriors on hovercrafts poured out, their energy weapons spraying lethal beams, turning the bustling city into a hellscape.
On the streets, yellow taxis were overturned, and pedestrians screamed and scattered.
A massive, metal-armored Leviathan, longer than a train, roared out of the wormhole. Its huge body smashed into the side of a building, causing glass and steel to rain down.
"..."
Jack Banks slowly descended, his feet gently touching the edge of a rooftop. The star-spangled cape whipped and billowed behind him.
He looked down.
On the street below.
An angry green giant was grabbing a police car and smashing it fiercely into a Chitauri soldier.
"Hulk—smash!!"
Not far away, a man wearing a mask and holding a star-spangled circular shield was directing police to evacuate civilians.
"Hold this street! Lead them to the west!"
A red-haired woman in a black bodysuit deftly leaped onto a Chitauri hovercraft and took out the pilot with the electric stunners on her wrists.
A man with a bow and arrow was "taking names" precisely with various high-tech arrows from another rooftop.
Further away, a red and gold armored suit, was tangling with two Leviathans in the air, his palm repulsor beams firing constantly.
"...Fuck." The English word slipped out.
Jack Banks finally realized a problem more serious than transmigrating into The Boys.
"This isn't The Boys..."
He looked at the huge wormhole in the sky and the big green brute wrestling with a Leviathan.
"This is? The Avengers? ...The Battle of New York?!"
A voice sounded without warning.
"Superstar Popularity System" Activated... Initiating host binding... Binding successful!
System Introduction: This is a system based on 'Persona.' Popularity is your strength! The higher the popularity, the greater the ability!
Current Character Template: Homelander (Basic Version)
Abilities: Super Strength, Invulnerability (Version Benefit), Super Durability, Super Speed, Heat Vision, X-Ray Vision, Super Hearing, Flight.
Current Popularity Value: 0
Current Popularity Level: Unknown
Tip: When the Regional Level is upgraded to 'Superstar,' the abilities gained in that region will be permanent.
Novice Mission: 'The Perfect Debut.' Please become the focus of attention in the Battle of New York.
Mission Reward: Unlock 'Homelander' Exclusive Uniform, Indestructible.
...
"The higher the popularity, the greater the ability..."
Jack Banks repeated the words in a low voice. He looked down at his plain blue spandex suit, then at the war-torn battlefield below.
Suddenly, he smiled.
"Haha..." Then, the laughter grew louder, more unrestrained.
"Hahahahahahahaha!!"
He craved power, craved money, and craved the attention of everyone.
"Ha, haha, hahahahaha!"
This was simply... perfect!
"Superstar Popularity...? System, you really... know me too well."