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The process of transfusing Luke's blood went smoothly.
During this time, neither Luke nor Sam woke up; they both remained soundly asleep until the experiment concluded, meaning Kate didn't have to hypnotize them again.
Once the transfusion was finished, Dr. Cardosa sent Sam back, while Brink had someone take Luke back to his original dorm room.
With Kate's hypnosis, Luke wouldn't remember what happened during his time in The Woods, nor would he even remember what The Woods was; he would continue his life at the university as usual.
At most, he would be surprised by his improved abilities, but he wouldn't overthink it.
At least for now.
But this wasn't a long-term solution.
Three years later, when Luke was in his fourth year, he would likely recall some memories of The Woods, then be tormented by them, and ultimately, in his agony, kill his mentor Brink.
He would also self-destruct in public.
However, that was three years away, so Kevin didn't need to think that far ahead yet.
More than that, Kevin was concerned about something else.
Brink took Luke back, and Indira took Kate home; from now on, Kate would temporarily stay at Indira's house until she entered Godolkin University.
The Woods was temporarily empty, with only Kevin and Cardosa remaining in management.
Kevin glanced at the skill point he gained from meeting Kate, thought for a moment, then turned to find Dr. Cardosa.
"Dr. Cardosa."
"Oh? Kevin, you're still here, is something wrong?"
Kevin found Cardosa in front of the door to Sam's room.
He was currently settling Sam into the room and had just closed the door when he saw Kevin.
Glancing at the partition door that enclosed Sam, Kevin asked, puzzled:
"Didn't you say you'd send him back in a few days?"
Sam currently didn't belong to The Woods; he wasn't an experiment subject of The Woods.
At his family's request, he actually resided in a hospital that supervised Supes.
On the surface, it was said to be for treating Sam's mental issues, but in reality, experiments were being conducted on Sam's body.
However, this wouldn't be told to Luke, much less to Sam's family.
Therefore, the existence of The Woods couldn't be known by Sam or his family.
Originally, without Kate, Sam would have to stay in The Woods for a long time until it was confirmed he wouldn't blab before he could be sent back.
But now that Kate was here, they only needed to erase Sam's memories from his time in The Woods to send him back to the original sanatorium.
Actually, according to Brink's idea, it would be best for Luke to believe Sam was dead, which would allow for better cultivation of Luke in the future.
However, creating a 'death accident' for Sam wasn't easy, and Kate had just joined; this kind-hearted young girl definitely wouldn't help separate the two brothers.
So, after the blood transfusion, Sam had to be sent back to his original place and couldn't be kept here.
"We'll observe his body for two days, and once we confirm that the blood loss won't have any adverse effects on him, we can send him back."
Cardosa explained.
Kevin nodded.
In short, they were afraid Sam's body would have problems, which would affect Luke's growth.
Understanding Cardosa's meaning, Kevin stopped asking about that and began to inquire about the matter he cared about:
"Dr. Cardosa, there's something I'd like to ask you."
"What? Go ahead."
"If one encounters a Supe who can read and control minds, how can one prevent them from reading one's thoughts?"
Kevin asked the crucial question.
Cardosa froze, subconsciously looking past Kevin in the direction Indira and Kate had left.
Only after realizing that the two had already left The Woods and were not here did Cardosa ask in return:
"Is it because of Kate?"
"Exactly, I hate it when others read my thoughts."
Kevin said without reservation.
He wasn't genuinely worried about others seeing his inner thoughts; after all, his outward behavior and inner thoughts were generally consistent, so even if someone did see his mind, it wouldn't be a big deal.
But there was one thing Kevin absolutely could not let anyone know.
That was his identity as a transmigrator and the existence of his cheat.
His transmigrator identity allowed Kevin to know what would happen in the future of this world, which was his advantage.
The existence of the skill tree golden finger was Kevin's capital for survival in this world, and he absolutely couldn't tell anyone about it.
Therefore, no matter who it was, Kevin couldn't let them know these two things.
Actually, under normal circumstances, no one would know Kevin's inner thoughts.
But this world had superpowers.
There were quite a few Supes with mind-reading and mind-control abilities.
Mezmer, the mind-reader who appeared in the first season, the Mind Storm in the third season, and Kate in the spin-off, were all examples.
Even stretching it, the Titan Knight in the spin-off who could read micro-expressions and see through psychological activities also counted.
And there was also that 'dickhead' guy.
Kevin was indeed physically strong, but mentally, he couldn't defend against these pervasive mind-reading superpowers.
This was something Kevin only thought of after meeting Kate.
The skill tree currently had no means of protecting against mind control, so Kevin needed to find a way to protect against it.
Cardosa understood Kevin's thoughts, and he seemed quite troubled:
"This... is a bit difficult."
"You can make a drug to suppress her ability, but you can't prevent mental intrusion?"
"These two are different. The drug that suppresses her ability targets the Compound V flowing in her blood. By reacting the drug with Compound V, I create an obstacle to her using her ability.
"Through this, I can weaken Kate's ability, but what we're talking about now is using external means to prevent such Supes from invading thoughts... I really can't do that. I haven't even figured out the principle of Kate's ability yet, unless..."
Cardosa hesitated here.
Kevin waited, signaling him to continue.
Cardosa hesitated for a moment and said:
...unless you are willing to let me conduct research on that girl. Perhaps I can find a way to counter her ability."
"Is that so? Then forget it."
Hearing Cardosa say that, Kevin knew he probably couldn't rely on him.
To obtain a method of protecting his thoughts, Kevin needed to find a way himself.
As for researching Kate...
Kevin currently didn't have such a cruel idea.
After all, Kate was still an innocent girl right now, even if in the future she might develop ideas similar to Magneto's, like Supe supremacy and wanting to kill all humans, that was still a matter for the future.
Kevin couldn't treat her cruelly for something she hadn't done yet.
Moreover, even if Kevin were truly heartless to that extent, Indira and Professor Brink would certainly not allow Kevin to do so.
Kate's ability was more useful than imagined; with Kate, they could do more things.
"I wonder if future skills will include a superpower to prevent mind-reading."
Since scientific means couldn't achieve the goal for now, Kevin turned his attention to metaphysics.
Many of the current skills in the skill tree were just basic skills. Kevin believed that the skill tree after job advancement was the true face of this golden finger.
After confirming a profession and advancing, the skill tree would definitely gain many different functions.
Among these functions, there might be a solution to Kevin's problem.
However, given the current situation, a magic-oriented job like Ocean Mage should be more likely to have skills that provide mental protection.
But Kevin preferred The Deep Fighter.
"I just don't know if there's a way to get all professions at once... Should I try to exploit a bug?"
Back home, Kevin once again studied his skill tree.
Kevin didn't know the origin of the skill tree, but he assumed it was derived from some game. That game somehow merged with Kevin, eventually forming its current appearance.
Kevin even suspected that his transmigration might be related to this game.
And since it was a game, there might be bugs.
Exploiting bugs to obtain things that wouldn't normally exist in the system was an old tradition for players. Kevin now wanted to exploit a bug to see if he could advance in multiple jobs simultaneously.
For example, activating two lines at the same time, pressing something at the exact moment of job advancement...
Maybe it would work?
Forget it, this was his golden finger, it was better not to mess around with it. If he broke it, he'd have nowhere to cry later.
After thinking for a while, Kevin still abandoned this very creative idea.
The means to protect against mind-readers might not exist in this world, but that didn't mean they didn't exist in other worlds.
After Kevin advanced, he would be sent to a dedicated mission world by the skill tree. If that world was a magic world, Kevin might be able to obtain what he wanted there.
He might even gain more.
So, going in circles, it ultimately came back to job advancement.
Kevin looked at the skill tree, at the single skill point, and pondered.
Currently, the prerequisites for the The Deep Fighter path were unlocked. After this, Kevin only needed to gather enough skill points to directly begin job advancement.
A Level 5 physique, not inferior to Homelander's, would be enough for Kevin to adapt to any complex environment.
And if nothing unexpected happened, Kevin's job advancement should be related to the ocean. After all, it was The Deep Fighter; how could it work without the ocean?
If he was underwater, Kevin would be even more confident.
He just didn't know how many days the job advancement would take.
If Kevin was going to advance, he needed to make preparations beforehand.
"I still need three more skill points for job advancement... During this time, I'll go to The Woods a few more times, talk to Kate and Luke, and perhaps get into some fights. That should be enough."
Perhaps because The Deep didn't participate in the Gen V storyline in the original work, Kevin now had a chance to gain skill points every time he went to Godolkin University and met these protagonists from the original work.
Today, witnessing Luke's blood transfusion process firsthand and meeting Kate, the skill tree generously added one point.
After this, he just needed to interact with them more, and acquiring the remaining three skill points shouldn't be too difficult.
Also... if there were no surprises, something else that would earn Kevin skill points should happen soon.
Buzz—Buzz—
Just as Kevin had this thought, his phone vibrated with an incoming call.
It was Ashley calling.
"Hello?"
"Hello! Deep... The Deep! It's bad! You and Starlight need to come to The Seven's meeting room immediately! Homelander is waiting for you!"
Ashley said urgently on the other end of the phone.
Kevin narrowed his eyes slightly, asking in confusion:
"What happened?"
"Madelyn... Madelyn is missing!!!"
Ashley screamed in terror on the phone.
Listening to Ashley's terrified voice, Kevin was first stunned, but then a smile slowly spread across his lips.
Speak of the devil, Kevin was just wondering when this event that could earn him skill points would happen, and now Ashley called to say Madelyn was missing.
This was undoubtedly Butcher's doing; he just didn't know how he managed it.
He didn't expect Butcher to act so quickly.
Hanging up the phone, Kevin sincerely praised Butcher in his heart.
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