"Alright!"
Homelander followed Edgar reluctantly. As soon as he stepped outside, he noticed the driver waiting at the door.
"Bye-bye!"
Xiao's family came out to see them off.
"Lady Theresa… can I come back and play again?"
Before Homelander got in the car, he looked at Theresa with hesitant eagerness.
"You're always welcome to play with Sebastian."
Theresa answered with a gentle smile.
"Thank you!"
Homelander immediately hopped into the car, looking forward to the next visit—his face practically glowing.
Xiao: …Emmm???
You little brat… don't tell me you've developed a crush on my mom?
Xiao's expression turned dark instantly. He understood the… questionable XP tendencies common among his countrymen in that other world. But absolutely no way was he going to allow Homelander to develop any improper thoughts. Godmother fantasies? Not happening. If he dared step out of line, Xiao would make sure the kid learned the true meaning of brutality.
Luckily, this Homelander was only thirteen, freshly out of the lab—far from the degenerate monster he'd become in the original timeline. Had it been the future, fully-formed Homelander, Xiao would've been forced to bury him somehow. But for now… he could still try to educate him.
With that decision made, Xiao resolved to stay up late tonight drafting a training plan for Homelander—starting with the ninth-grade ideological and political science textbook.
Ideological foundations are the core of social science, and social science is the backbone of civilization. It's where wisdom accumulates and society evolves.
The consequences of not understanding social science?
Look no further than Thanos.
He possessed interstellar-level warships capable of annihilating half the universe… yet the way he fought still belonged to primitive feudal nomadic tribes. His "tactics" were to form a neat line, fire every weapon straight forward, and when the passion surged—charge in with a sword and start hacking wildly. Everything was brute force and barbarism.
If not for the high-tech toys they carried, Xiao would have thought their entire civilization was still stuck in the Stone Age.
Facing any normal civilization of the same technological level, Thanos's army probably wouldn't even see the enemy before being wiped out.
Modern warfare, by contrast, is an art—elegant, precise, and devastating.
Just like in Xiao's previous life, when America dismantled Iraq's million-strong military with surgical precision.
Iraq had the industrial capability to manufacture similar technology, but its thinking was stuck in the last century. Social science lagged behind, strategic understanding stagnated.
A million troops were reduced to headless flies before America's soldiers even saw a real battlefield.
The same principle applied to Homelander.
He possessed enough raw power to crush everything, and his strength continually grew. But his heart never matured. His soul never left the lab he was born in.
In the end, he became an overgrown child—violent, easily agitated, mentally unstable. To cope, he even fabricated a second cruel personality to make decisions for him when he was helpless.
The fundamental issue?
No one ever taught him what "self," "humanity," or "values" meant.
He had no independent personality—just a slave driven by desire.
Eventually, he would be devoured by those desires.
This was the real reason Homelander feared public backlash: it was all he had left. If even that disappeared, he would have nothing.
Thus—even with the power to destroy everything—he was still manipulated like a toy by ordinary humans.
Real strength is not being able to do whatever you want, but choosing not to when you don't want to.
Homelander never learned that.
But truly, it wasn't his fault.
This was exactly the type of "hero" Vought wanted—stupid, lust-driven, emotionally unstable giant babies.
They used money, fame, and indulgence to bind heroes tightly, extracting maximum profit.
So every hero in the world of The Boys has two faces:
In public: tall, righteous, noble symbols of justiceIn private: reckless, violent, depraved, addicted to pleasure—like demons crawling out of hell
But the real source of all this corruption…
had never been the superhumans themselves.
It was Vought, the company that controlled them all.
This was an essential stage in becoming a "superhero."
Even if a hero originally joined with noble ideals, Vought constantly probed and tested their limits, manipulating them step by step.
Because Vought's executives were ordinary humans—they needed leverage. Handholds. Dirt that could drag a hero off their pedestal at any moment.
If a superhero tried to resist, Vought would use that leverage to force compliance. Otherwise, the hero would lose everything.
Thus a group of ordinary corporate executives controlled every superhuman—and even supervillains dared not appear.
You have to understand: the number of superhumans in The Boys is dozens of times that in Marvel or DC.
Yet every single one of them wants to be a "hero" to earn money from movies and merchandise.
In Marvel or DC, even low-tier supers know they can open a storefront and live comfortably without corporate control. But in The Boys, every superhuman willingly jumps into Vought's system.
This is the logical maze Vought designed to trap them all.
Some clever heroes and mortals eventually discover the trap… but what can they do?
The top-tier supers are all Vought's people.
Their power is overwhelming. No one dares say a word.
It's not like dissent has never happened before.
But anyone who said the wrong thing?
Their words might be spoken in the morning…
but by afternoon, the person would already be gone.
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