American comics: From Hogwarts to God on Earth

Chapter 328 The Alley.avi

When the other person said Butcher's name, Butcher felt like his head was about to explode. His breathing even stopped. He instinctively drew his gun, pointed it at the other person, and Butcher's finger was already on the trigger, but in the end, he did not fire.

How did this obese man know his name?

As he thought this, he backed away—and indeed, even Butcher himself didn't realize he was backing away until the sound of an ordinary person accidentally falling to the ground while fleeing brought him back to his senses, and a sense of shame instantly overwhelmed Butcher.

He finally made up his mind to pull the trigger, but his finger encountered an astonishing resistance, as if he were pressing a solid rock instead of a pistol trigger.

"Who are you?!" Butcher growled through gritted teeth, while the fat man simply smiled, his lips not moving, but his voice went straight into Butcher's mind.

"Who am I? Haven't you been looking for me?"

Butcher clenched his jaw, his teeth almost breaking. He realized that the man before him was the monster who had killed six superhumans, but he was definitely not Joseph; Butcher wasn't that stupid.

Under duress from the man in front of him, Butcher had no choice but to go with him into an alley.

The first to speak out was naturally Rune, who had transformed into an obese person using shapeshifting magic: "We can cooperate, my friend. You are dissatisfied with those damned superpowered individuals and want to kill them, while I also want to cleanse the scum among these superpowered individuals. We are not mortal enemies; we can even cooperate."

"Cooperation?" Butcher sneered. "You're reading my mind, you know everything about me, but I know nothing about you. Is this what you call cooperation?"

"A silver tongue won't give you an advantage in this negotiation, Butcher." Rune shook his head; in his perception, Butcher's thoughts were as clear as a torch in the dark.

Butcher had tried his best to empty his mind, but fear, confusion and joy still filled his heart. As a mortal, Butcher could not completely empty his mind for a long time, so he finally chose to give up this futile resistance.

"What do you want me to do?"

Rune laughed. This man was too persistent. He was willing to pay any price to kill more superpowered people, so he was sure that Butcher would eventually agree to his proposal: "It's simple. Provide me with information and addresses of superpowered people, and I will selectively kill those so-called superpowered people."

"Selectivity?"

"Of course." Rune's expression quickly turned cold: "Even if the superpowered community degenerates, there are still some members who are willing to become heroes and do their best to help humanity. I will not kill such superpowered individuals unless absolutely necessary. That is my bottom line."

He walked up to Butcher and said gently, yet terrifyingly, "If I find out that you hunted down those superhumans I let go, and they didn't do anything wrong—"

Rune didn't continue. Butcher was a smart man; he knew what he had to do.

Although Butcher is one of the main characters in The Boys, the work itself is a deconstruction of traditional superhero comics. Don't be fooled by the fact that the Seven are not good people, and the members of The Boys are not exactly positive characters. There are no traditional heroes in this work, only people who have been alienated by Vought International, fan culture, and other factors.

Rune doesn’t believe Butcher will give up hunting down superpowered people, just as Butcher doesn’t believe that the superpowered people Rune has let go are good people.

Butcher knew he had no choice and nodded: "But we don't have the right to know the addresses of some superhumans."

"Then go investigate, Butcher, I trust you."

Butcher has received training in infiltration, surveillance, and counter-reconnaissance behind enemy lines. In the show, he can even accurately track the movements of the Invisible Man and implement capture plans by analyzing the security rotation patterns of the Vought Organization. Moreover, because of his long-term research on superpowered individuals, he can even predict their behavior patterns. What Rune is most satisfied with is Butcher's interrogation skills. He can always accurately grasp the weaknesses of the person being interrogated and target them accordingly.

"Alright," Butcher said with a sneer, "I happen to have traces of the first Seven, A-Train, and the Invisible Man. Do you need them?"

His provocation was riddled with flaws in front of Rune, who could read minds. Rune could even see that Butcher was actually trying to get back at him and embarrass him by making a fool of himself. But what Butcher didn't know was that if he hadn't appeared, Rune might already be fighting with A-Train and the Invisible Man.

In Rune's mind, the train engine and the invisible man weren't a big threat to Clark, since neither of them could fly. But just in case, it was better to kill them.

"Okay, where are they?"

Rune's decisiveness made Butcher hesitate. He was genuinely angry with Rune, but he still hoped Rune would kill more superhumans. What if he couldn't defeat him? "Are you sure you want to know?" Butcher asked.

Rune nodded. "Perhaps you could seek backup? Before that, those two idiots should be at the police station, right?"

Butcher started pacing back and forth, wanting to curse. What was this idiot thinking? Those were the original Seven! They were still Homelander's right-hand men. Even if Rune could kill those two bastards, Homelander himself would definitely get involved. And with Homelander's influence, the entire city would become his eyes and ears. This guy who claimed to be cleaning up the scum of superpowered beings would definitely be exposed.

"No, no, no, you have to listen to me first, do you understand?" Butcher tried to persuade Rune not to court death: "You simply cannot fight against Homelander and all those superpowered freaks he has created. Even if you only count the superpowered individuals chosen from the execution day, that number definitely exceeds three hundred. Do you know what that means?"

He looked around before whispering, "There are over three hundred superhumans capable of killing a Terminator in a one-on-one fight. Even if each of them spat, it would be enough to kill you, you understand? And that's just an understatement!"

Rune nodded noncommittally. If it weren't for the desire to avoid revealing too many of their methods, these so-called three hundred superhumans would be nothing more than lambs to the slaughter, even Homelander would be no different.

Butcher took Rune's nod as agreement, and grinned maliciously at him: "Although a frontal assault is tantamount to suicide, empires always crumble from within, don't they?"