"Fuck! You goddamn coward! You filthy bitch!!"
Seeing Wind Butterfly flee the battle, fury surged through Cast Iron.
Yet in just that brief moment, he noticed that the five fingers gripped around his forehead—fingers that did not belong to him—were clamping down like a vise. Amid the agonizing screech of his metal plating, they sank inward bit by bit.
If this went on, his head would burst open.
Terror flooded Cast Iron's eyes. Casting everything else aside, he roared at the top of his lungs, thrashing with all his might to break free.
Qi Li withdrew his gaze from the direction Wind Butterfly had fled, cast a glance at the roaring Cast Iron, and kept his outstretched arm completely motionless.
He chuckled softly. "Roaring at the sky and igniting your inner cosmos to beat an enemy—that's a trope reserved for righteous protagonists. Why is a villain like you screaming your head off?"
Empowered by super strength and hyper-dense muscle, even if Cast Iron tore his throat raw screaming, breaking free from Qi Li's grip was impossible.
Still, this needed to end quickly.
"You're the fucking—" Hearing Qi Li's mockery, Cast Iron was blinded by rage. Dropping the roar, he was about to unleash a torrent of curses.
Yet before he could pin the word "villain" onto Qi Li's head, Qi Li abruptly released his grip.
Caught off guard, Cast Iron's massive bulk surged forward under the violent momentum.
Qi Li sidestepped and deftly stuck out a foot to trip him.
BANG!!
Cast Iron stumbled and slammed face-first into the dirt, gouging out a deep crater. He tumbled several times, plowing multiple furrows into the earth before finally grinding to a halt.
Before he could get back on his feet, Qi Li's combat boots appeared right in front of his eyes.
Cast Iron had no time to react.
First strike!
Qi Li clenched his fist, and carrying a ferocious concussive blast, drove it ruthlessly into Cast Iron's metal skull right where the dented handprint remained.
CRACK!
The impossibly hard metal plating on Cast Iron's skull instantly fractured into a web of cracks.
"Wait—" Cast Iron screamed in sheer panic.
Second strike!
CRACK! CRUNCH! CRACK!
The sheet of iron over Cast Iron's head shattered completely, and the eyeball closest to the impact burst outright.
"I surrender! I surrender!!" Tasting death on his tongue, the one-eyed Cast Iron begged frantically in abject terror.
Qi Li raised his right arm high, drew his elbow back, paused slightly at the plea, and brought his fist down once more.
Third strike!
BOOM!!
Cast Iron's head seemed to be crushed beneath tens of thousands of tons of solid iron, obliterating into dust and gore.
Qi Li casually wiped his bloodstained right hand on Cast Iron's clothes.
The mission target was eliminated.
Now, it was time to tie up loose ends.
He stood up, walked outside the villa, looked up at the pitch-black night sky, and with a booming roar, shot into the heavens.
High in the sky, Wind Butterfly flapped her wings violently, hurtling toward New York City.
Bronze had completely lost his mind—he was slaughtering every superhuman on sight!
She was no match for him whatsoever; her only hope was to reach Vought Tower and scream for help.
Faster! Even faster!!
With every flap of her wings, Wind Butterfly generated gusts of wind, riding the gale's thrust to slice through the sky at breakneck speed.
Even so, panic still lined her face. She kept glancing back over her shoulder, terrified that Bronze might suddenly catch up.
When Wind Butterfly looked back once more and saw the sky behind her empty, she was just about to breathe a sigh of relief.
Suddenly!
The gentle moonlight fell across the night, and a bronze sheen flashed in the corner of her returning vision.
In that instant, Wind Butterfly felt as though a vise had clamped around her heart.
Refusing to believe it, she looked back again.
Then, her entire body began to tremble violently.
Not only because Bronze had indeed caught up, but because he was moving like a phantom—closing the distance between them at terrifying speed without producing the slightest sound.
That meant only one thing: Bronze was faster than sound.
Before arriving in New York, Qi Li's flight speed hadn't reached the speed of sound.
Yet after these past days of "further study" in New York, flying at full throttle, he had already broken the sound barrier.
Wind Butterfly could not do that.
Despair washed over her face, yet she gritted her teeth and beat her wings with everything she had. A ferocious tornado materialized in an instant, churning violently toward Qi Li behind her.
Seizing the opening, she spread her wings again and climbed sharply into the clouds, hoping to conceal herself within the thick cover.
RUMBLE!!
The cataclysmic twister barreled forward, looking extraordinarily ferocious against the night.
Qi Li had no interest in colliding with it head-on. Deftly banking midair, he looped around the vortex and left the tornado behind to spin itself out.
Noticing the empty sky ahead, Qi Li swept his eyes toward the cloud layer above. His ears twitched; under the surveillance of super hearing, Wind Butterfly's real-time coordinates as she flew through the clouds were pinpointed with crystal clarity.
Leaving behind a conical shock ring of vapor, he accelerated in a flash.
Within moments, before Wind Butterfly inside the clouds could even react, a ghostly hand surged out right in front of her, tearing through the cloud vapor and locking onto her throat.
Wind Butterfly's momentum halted abruptly. In utter panic, she flapped the wings on her back desperately, but all was in vain.
She ran.
He pursued.
In the end, not even wings could grant her escape.
Wind Butterfly stared in sheer terror at Bronze, who had appeared out of nowhere and now held her fast. Struggling, she forced out what she thought he wanted to hear:
"Master! I surrender! From this day forward... I'll be your personal bitch! Your toilet! Whatever you want me to do, I'll do it!!"
As she spoke, she unfastened a hidden buckle.
In the blink of an eye, the provocative black leather outfit slipped off, exposing her pale, bare flesh as she offered Qi Li an ingratiating smile.
To be fair, Wind Butterfly had an attractive figure.
Qi Li, however, remained utterly unperturbed. "I'm not that desperate."
His fingers tightened.
Seeing this, Wind Butterfly knew hope was entirely gone, and raw resentment surged into her eyes.
With a look of sheer madness, she let out one final shriek: "Vought will avenge me!!"
A strange expression crossed Qi Li's face.
He felt a sudden urge to laugh.
Still, he was a good person at heart; he refrained from revealing the truth, sparing her the despair so she could pass in peace, believing she could wait for him in the underworld.
Then again, perhaps she actually believed she was headed to heaven.
CRACK.
Qi Li snapped Wind Butterfly's neck.
Her head lolled to the side, completely lifeless.
With that, all four members of the superhero team Suffering and Redemption had died by his hand.
Qi Li felt the four new powers within his body and channeled every single one into super defense.
All at once, he sensed that his super defense was undergoing a qualitative leap.
His skin, muscles, periosteum, internal organs—even the most vulnerable exposed parts such as his eyes, mouth, and groin—all seemed to be thoroughly renewed, becoming far more solid and resilient than ever before.
He didn't have a status panel like other people's golden fingers, nor a mechanical chime announcing that Super Defense had upgraded from Level 2 to Level 3.
Qi Li could only vaguely gauge the difference: back when Homelander had placed that warm, hospitable hand on his shoulder, Qi Li had kept a straight face, but a suffocating sense of threat had surged from the depths of his soul.
If that were to happen again now, that imminent sense of danger would undoubtedly be diminished by more than half.
Thank you, Vought.
In one single haul, it had granted him super hearing and triggered a qualitative leap in his super defense.
As a model employee, Qi Li would naturally repay the company's nurturing care.
Soon after, he brought Wind Butterfly's corpse back to the villa, reuniting her with her teammates. Then he pulled out his phone and dialed Stan Edgar.
The call connected.
Stan Edgar's calm, composed voice came through: "Bronze. I trust you bring me good news."
Qi Li reported in a brisk, cheerful tone, "Naturally, Mr. Edgar. The mission has been completed—well above quota."
Stan nodded with satisfaction. "Very good. I knew I wasn't mistaken about—wait."
Realizing something was off, he quickly asked, "Bronze, what do you mean by 'above quota'?"
Qi Li replied calmly, "Oh, it's like this. When I tracked down Cast Iron, he happened to be with his teammates. And they just happened to be throwing a depraved cult party..."
Having listened to the explanation, Stan took off his glasses, a slight ripple entering his voice. "So, you killed them all?"
Qi Li spoke with righteous conviction: "Cast Iron's scandal was already bad enough for Vought. If the entire team's depravities were exposed, the damage to Vought's reputation would be unthinkable. Vought is my home, and protecting it is up to all of us. So... yes, I killed them to nip the trouble in the bud for Vought."
Stan: "..."
Was Bronze truly doing this for Vought?
In Stan's eyes, the kid had simply gotten carried away by the thrill of the kill, lost in a rush of combat adrenaline.
Still, they were only inconsequential superhumans.
If Listening Ear, Card Burst, and Wind Butterfly truly were mixed up in Cast Iron's scandalous atrocities, then Bronze's actions were indeed a timely cut-loss measure for Vought.
On the whole, Stan was satisfied with Bronze's performance on his first off-the-books assignment.
Although he was not as obediently subservient as Black Noir, his extra liberties were directed solely at other superhumans, and his efficiency was ruthlessly clean.
Moreover, he was currently red-hot, bringing enormous profits to Vought.
Stan naturally had no reason to complain.
Regaining his composed demeanor, he said, "Well done, Bronze. You can head back now. A cleanup crew will arrive shortly to handle the scene."
Qi Li nodded and was about to politely wrap up the call.
"By the way," Stan added, "the company has recently been looking into producing a campus romance film. Your age is ideal, Bronze, so the male lead is yours. As for the female lead, I think Ms. Kate Dunlap would be a fine fit."
Effort yielded reward.
Stan was undeniably a man of propriety.
The fact that he chose Kate rather than the more commercially fitting Starlight proved it beyond doubt.
Pleased with this unexpected bonus, Qi Li accepted with a smile. "Then on Kate's behalf and my own, thank you, Mr. Edgar."
It had been a while since he last visited Godkin University to see Kate anyway.
The night was deep and quiet, nothing pressed on his schedule, and a battle had just concluded—the perfect time to bring this good news to Kate.
Along the way, he could take her—who had always been curious about the Super Seven—on a tour of Vought Tower tomorrow.
And unlock a new achievement on the ninety-ninth floor of Vought Tower.
With that thought in mind, Qi Li cast one final look at the bodies on the ground—three relatively intact, and one squashed beyond recognition. He bent his knees slightly, and with a booming thunderclap, took flight toward Godkin University.
Chapter 93