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"I will make you the President of the United States!"
"Do you agree?"
Victoria didn't know what to say. She wanted to become president of America, but she realized there would be a price.
"What is required of me?" She knew she was now in his hands.
"I don't want anything from you except that you obey my orders."
"First, I need a large amount of your pure blood—not mixed blood. There is a drone outside your window with a tank that can hold the required amount."
Victoria went to the window and discovered the advanced drone.
After a few minutes of waiting, the blood transfer was complete. Victoria could speed up the process by controlling her own blood.
"Are you Mr. Rogers?" Victoria asked, suspicious because such advanced technology was only available to that mysterious person who invented things ahead of his time.
Rogers did not reply to Victoria.
"Tomorrow, the President of the United States will die of a heart attack. There will be such an uproar that new elections will be held quickly, so America won't be left without a president."
When Victoria heard this, she became anxious. She understood the hidden implications. Rogers had hacked into the president's inner circle and taken control of the elites in America.
"At that moment, several people will appear to nominate you for the election. You must then apply for the presidency. You will see that more than eighty percent of Congress members will support you."
Victoria was terrified by Rogers' words. How could one person decide who becomes president and who doesn't? She knew she had to side with the winning side—the one that would ultimately prevail. So she decided to immediately abandon and betray Edgar.
"Yes, Mr. Rogers."
"Don't call me Rogers. Call me 'The Unknown.'"
"Yes, Mr. Unknown." Victoria didn't know why he chose that name, but she didn't care. Her mind was on how the president would die tomorrow, surrounded by heavy security.
Rogers ended the call and sat waiting for the drone carrying Victoria's blood. He planned to begin the process of inoculation and purification, altering the blood's composition while preserving "Compound V."
Rogers knew he had become overwhelmingly powerful, but he also knew time would become his enemy. So in the coming days, he decided to search for "Soldier Boy"—the little soldier living in a Russian laboratory—and begin searching for "Compound One" (the One) that makes a person immortal.
---
The next day
Rogers sat before his massive screen, surrounded by monitors. Some displayed the stadium where the race would be held. Others showed the White House from the inside, including its secret passages.
Rogers had hacked the White House on his very first day in this world.
He didn't care whether America survived or not, but he would exploit it until it became poor.
At the racetrack, the crowd was excited. Bets and arguments were flying.
Suddenly!
Homelander descended from the sky, and the excitement peaked.
A-Train and Shockwave entered the stadium and took their positions to start the race.
The moment the race began, A-Train and Shockwave vanished from their spots. The sound of them breaking the sound barrier echoed.
Time seemed to slow down for them due to their immense speed.
A-Train shot forward at incredible speed.
At first, Shockwave was neck and neck with A-Train. He looked to his right to see him…
But the moment he looked—
BOOM!!
A-Train exploded into a terrifying, rapid cloud of blood and flesh!
Shockwave couldn't process what had happened. They had been running at top speed. A-Train's blood splattered onto Shockwave's feet.
Less than two seconds had passed since the start. Shockwave felt a wetness on his foot, lost control, and veered off the track.
The path he swerved onto was lined with A-Train's fans!
Due to his immense speed, Shockwave plowed into the ordinary human fans. Limbs, heads, and blood flew into the air from the force of the impact.
Shockwave plowed through more than sixty people, their remains scattered across the stands.
He only stopped when his body slammed into the outer wall of the stadium.
The impact was so severe that all the muscles in his body were torn and dislocated.
Shockwave had no idea what had happened or how he ended up like this.
From the start of the race, barely two or three seconds had passed!
Pain flooded Shockwave's brain. Unable to bear it, he lost consciousness. He couldn't move anything except his eyes.
The crowd and everyone else had no idea what had just occurred. Due to A-Train's speed, they hadn't even realized his body had exploded like a vegetable, nor that Shockwave had killed over sixty people in an instant.
The only person who saw everything—from A-Train's body exploding to Shockwave dragging people to their deaths—was Homelander.
Homelander stood there, stunned. How could A-Train, whom he considered family, have exploded before anything even happened?
After ten seconds passed…
The crowd erupted in fear. Those near where Shockwave had crashed were frozen by the horrific sight—a river of blood flowing beneath their feet.
The racetrack was contaminated with scattered bloodstains. There was no trace of A-Train.
Chaos spread. People fled toward the exits.
The live broadcast of the race had already exceeded forty million viewers in a short time, and the number kept rising.
Butcher, Hughie, and Mother's Milk stood at a certain point, watching what had happened.
Hughie stood like a wooden plank, staring at the bloodstain that had been A-Train. His feelings were conflicted—happy that A-Train was dead, but regretting that he never got to say what he wanted to say to him.
Butcher, on the other hand, had a demonic smile. He knew that 'The Unknown' who had contacted them wasn't from Vought and didn't care about superheroes—he had the power to kill them.
Butcher decided to cooperate with him as much as possible. There weren't many people with that kind of audacity.
Meanwhile, Vought was working tirelessly to figure out what was happening and regain control as best they could.
The event was shocking. They had lost a member of The Seven. Having previously lost The Invisible Man, they now had only five heroes left.
The PR department struggled to contain the news and keep it from spreading.
But they failed—the live broadcast had already surpassed fifty million views!
---
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