The Boys: I Became The Soldier Boy

Chapter 39: Chapter 39: It Has to Be Novichok

Chapter 39: It Has to Be Novichok

The golden light that exploded in an instant erupted from the very center of his chest, as if a sun suppressed for forty years had finally torn through its shell. The radiance pierced through every single gap between the branches and leaves of the maple forest. The air began to vibrate, an immense energy on the verge of breaking free.

Mindstorm was the first in Payback to react. His pupils dilated wildly as he staggered back two steps, the back of his plaid shirt instantly soaked through with cold sweat.

"Run—!"

His voice cracked as he screamed, but it was already too late.

Centered on Benjamin, the golden shockwave blasted forward like a detonated miniature star. Around the nuclear blast, a visible ripple of distorted air expanded outward with devastating speed. The topsoil of the maple forest was ripped completely off the ground, dirt and gravel tumbling through midair alongside torn tree roots. A rusted pickup truck parked next to the trailer was launched into the air by the shockwave, flipping twice before slamming into the wall of an adjacent abandoned motel, bringing the structure crashing down.

Among the crowd, some who were furthest away managed to run, while others didn’t stand a chance. There were over thirty people present, and nearly half of them were directly caught in the shockwave. A significant portion of that half were mercenaries hired by Vought. They didn’t even have time to turn and run before being completely swallowed by the golden light. Once the radiance washed over them, they simply vanished.

Because the nuclear blast represented absolute destruction, anyone whose physical resilience and Super Defense were lacking was instantly vaporized. Those with sufficient Super Defense survived but lost their superpowers entirely—it was a devastatingly broken ability. Benjamin estimated that a target needed at least Super Defense Lv4 to avoid being turned to ash alongside the nuclear blast.

Having unleashed the blast, Benjamin felt a bit drained. Fortunately, likely due to his Nuclear Energy Blast being upgraded to Lv4, the exhaustion wasn’t overwhelming. Compared to the very first time he had triggered a nuclear explosion, he was in a hell of a lot better shape.

Benjamin scanned his surroundings. A few stragglers were still alive. They struggled to crawl to their feet, staring down at their hands with expressions full of bewilderment and terror. Some could no longer feel their powers. One tried to ignite a flame in his palm, but it remained completely empty. Another tried to activate a metallic layer over his skin, but his flesh remained entirely soft.

Their Compound V receptors had been scorched away by the nuclear radiation, and their superpowers were permanently wiped from their genetic code, reducing them to ordinary humans for the rest of their lives. Unless they took a fresh dose of Compound V, they would never possess powers again. Methodically, Benjamin walked around, stepping down to crush the skulls of these stripped Supes one by one.

Before long, Benjamin noticed that Crimson Countess had barely managed to escape the radius of the blast. She was sprawled behind a dislodged maple tree root, mud caking half her face, her mouth full of dirt and grass clippings. She lifted her head, taking in the devastation left in the wake of the shockwave—the overturned truck, the motionless Supes littered across the ground, and those who were having their heads crushed by Soldier Boy as he walked past. Then she caught sight of the golden afterglow slowly dissipating from Soldier Boy’s chest.

"Goddamn it..." Her voice trembled violently, completely consumed by fear. "It’s... it’s the lab—the Russian lab! They altered Soldier Boy’s powers!"

"Bingo. Now I’m going to blow your fucking head off."

Hearing this, Crimson Countess felt a jolt of pure panic as Soldier Boy lunged toward her. She instinctively made a calculated assessment: Soldier Boy didn’t possess super speed; his running pace had always been that of an ordinary man. He was just an old soldier. While her own mobility couldn’t match a top-tier speedster like A-Train, it was still far swifter than a regular human’s. She could outrun him. She had run away from him before...

But as she fled, Crimson Countess realized something was desperately wrong. Benjamin was gaining on her. In a straight sprint, Benjamin’s velocity was more than twice as fast as what she had witnessed with her own eyes forty years ago. While it was still nowhere near most Supes blessed with true super speed, for a veteran who used to be as sluggish as a mortal, this pace was completely unreasonable.

Shit, fuck, stay the hell away from me!

In the end, Crimson Countess couldn’t outrun him. Benjamin closed the distance and hurled a punch—not a pulled strike like his old hazing habits, but a blow that smashed straight through Crimson Countess’s face. Instantly, her nasal bone shattered, followed by her cheekbones, until the entire structure of her skull collapsed under the force of his fist. Her body flipped once in the air before crashing heavily into the mud, leaving absolutely nothing above her neckline.

In reality, as Soldier Boy’s ex-girlfriend, Crimson Countess logically shouldn’t have been subjected to his standard hazing, nor should she have harbored such deep resentment toward him. Unfortunately, according to the original Soldier Boy’s memories, he had caught Crimson Countess sleeping around behind his back with multiple partners, which was why he had targeted her with his toxic behavior in the first place. Honestly, where the hell did she get the nerve to resent him? It was a miracle he hadn’t beaten her to death back then. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm

At the edge of the maple forest, Mindstorm crouched behind a maple tree that had been blasted clean in half by the nuclear shockwave. Sweat poured down his face, leaving massive damp stains under the armpits of his plaid shirt. He had barely avoided being swept into that shockwave himself, entirely thanks to the fact that he had been standing the furthest away. He stared at Crimson Countess’s corpse, then watched Benjamin pull back his fist and stand upright, his lips trembling violently.

"Holy fuck..." His voice was raspy, as if murmuring to himself, but the remaining survivors around him caught every word. "Since when is Soldier Boy that fucking fast?"

Nobody answered him. But it was indeed the exact question on everyone’s mind. Historically, Soldier Boy’s single greatest shortcoming had been his speed; he could tank any attack, but his actual mobility was no better than a mortal’s. Now, that exact shortfall was being systematically patched right before their eyes. Though it was still slow compared to Supes blessed with true super speed, it was lightyears ahead of his former self. The Russian laboratory hadn’t killed him; it had made him infinitely more terrifying...

"Deploy the Novichok!" Mindstorm screamed.

Driven by pure terror, thick beads of sweat rolled down his temples. In a straight-up fight, every single one of them combined wouldn’t be enough to survive a lone assault from Soldier Boy. They had to use the Novichok. Right now, immediately.

Jolted by his screech, the dozen or so living stragglers snapped out of their stupor.

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A/N: Want to know what happens next? You can read up to 20 Chapters ahead on my p@tr~on:

[email protected]/ForgottenDaoist (@ = a, link is in my profile).