Barry decided to stay and help Kevin.
Kevin was genuinely touched, but to be honest, he would have preferred Barry to go back.
Because Kevin's methods were different from Barry's, if Barry continued to stay, Kevin would have to restrain himself in his actions, both for Barry's feelings and to avoid damaging his image in Barry's eyes.
From this perspective, Kevin might be like Homelander, someone with a public image to maintain, not wanting to lose face in front of others.
Moreover, while Barry's speed was fast, perhaps he was the fastest person in this world, but his temperament was clearly not suited for participating in the major events of the The Boys world.
Despite his strong abilities, with that mindset, it felt like he might be ambushed by someone, perhaps a certain butcher… After all, Barry was just an ordinary person when he wasn't using the Speed Force.
However, since Barry offered to help, Kevin found it hard to refuse.
Besides, in the future, returning to Kevin's original world might require Barry's help.
After two seconds of contemplating these thoughts, Kevin smiled at Barry and said, "Then thank you. But before you help, I need to prepare a suitable identity for you."
Since he was going to live in this world for a long time, he needed to prepare an identity that allowed him to move freely.
A-Train could handle this matter.
Anyway, looking at him, he seemed to be planning to cling to Kevin's thigh for now.
This also aligned with his fickle personality.
After confirming that Barry had recovered his abilities, Kevin turned to A-Train and asked, "What did you find out today?"
"Deep was killed, and it had nothing to do with us. He and Maeve were discussing how to deal with Homelander, and Homelander overheard them, which is why Homelander acted against Deep."
"Anything else?"
"They said Starlight defected and want me to find her. If I find Starlight, I can return to The Seven."
A-Train recounted everything that happened at today's meeting to Kevin.
Kevin processed the information, but his brow furrowed even more.
Deep and Maeve dealing with Homelander – if Kevin remembered correctly, this event occurred in the latter two episodes of Season 2.
Maeve, unable to tolerate Homelander's oppression, wanted Deep to help her find the black box of the crashed plane. Deep didn't find the black box but instead found a portable camera.
The camera contained footage of the situation on the plane, which was the fact that Homelander abandoned the passengers on the plane.
At the end of Season 2, Maeve relied on this footage to force Homelander to spare The Boys.
At the same time, she also used this footage to make Homelander prove to Starlight and The Boys that they were the righteous ones, completely branding Stormfront as a villain.
There should have been no problems here; no matter what, Homelander couldn't have attacked Deep, much less killed him.
A-Train thought there was no issue, at least Homelander's reason was plausible.
But Kevin, who knew the original story, understood that there were huge problems here!
Something Kevin didn't know must have happened to Homelander!
However…
Did this have anything to do with Kevin?
Kevin pondered for a long time, feeling that he didn't need to overly concern himself with what was happening in this world.
After all, this world was not Kevin's universe.
Just as he initially thought, his current goal was to have Hughie send him back to his original universe. As for matters of parallel universes, they had nothing to do with him.
But it was still the old saying, since he was already here…
He had to do something to gain some skill points, right?
Kevin sat on the sofa, legs crossed, thinking for a long time, then suddenly looked at A-Train and asked, "You want to return to The Seven?"
A-Train seemed to not quite understand the meaning of Kevin's question. His eyes flickered, and after a moment of hesitation, he nodded and said, "Yes, I don't know what I'm like in your world, but now… I'm at a dead end."
A-Train was truly at a dead end.
Unlike Deep, who still had some savings, A-Train was currently burdened with high debts.
A seven-figure debt left A-Train with no other way out.
Once he left The Seven, not to mention others, that massive debt alone could crush him!
So he had to stay in The Seven, and for that, A-Train was willing to do anything.
"Very good. You want to return to The Seven, and I can help you, but before that, you have to help us first, and get two suitable identities."
"You plan to help me find Starlight?"
"Do you really think that if you find Starlight, they will let you return to The Seven? A-Train, don't you understand yet? The reason they abandoned you isn't because of anything you did, but simply because you lost your value.
"A member of The Seven who cannot create profit for Vought is useless. So don't fantasize that they will fulfill their promise to you. I can guarantee that even if they allow you to return to The Seven, your status will greatly decline in the future, and you will never be able to earn as much money as before."
"…"
"A-Train, you need to understand one thing: you don't necessarily want The Seven because you want to stay in The Seven; you stay in The Seven because you want to make money.
"And in terms of making money, I… can help you."
Kevin accurately grasped A-Train's current psychological state, like a devil leading someone astray, skillfully tempting him.
"I… what do I need to do?"
A-Train was indeed swayed.
He thought of Homelander's disregard for him, and his current predicament, and the scales in his heart tilted towards Kevin.
"Didn't I say? First, prepare two suitable identities for us, and then…"
Kevin spread his palms: "I'll help you make money."
…
A-Train, if nothing else, was at least a qualified tool.
As long as he didn't betray them, as a speedster, he was much more useful than Barry.
Kevin somewhat regretted getting rid of A-Train so early in his own world, but on second thought, Kevin at that time had no other choice.
At that time, he was weaker than Homelander, and if he didn't eliminate unstable factors like A-Train, Kevin would not have reached his current position.
A-Train, swayed by Kevin, began to half-heartedly search for Starlight.
Kevin took advantage of this free time to organize his next steps.
First, there was the issue of the skill tree.
The skill tree, after advancing to [Ocean Lord], continued to extend upwards, but the subsequent professions had not yet appeared, still a golden mass, as if brewing something.
There was no prompt, no indication of how Kevin could 'hatch' the contents, nor any other advancement paths for Kevin.
Kevin had originally thought that after becoming an [Ocean Lord], a requirement for a third profession, the [Sea God's Emissary] that Kevin had not previously encountered, would appear.
That is, the so-called 'third profession,' similar to the second profession, [Ocean Mage].
But unexpectedly, there was none, leaving Kevin completely unsure of what to do next.
This was like the main quest progress being stuck, and the system not providing any hints.
It was frustrating.
But there was nothing he could do.
The only thing Kevin could do now was to allocate his existing skill points to other skills that had not been allocated before.
And…
Tentatively create new magic.
The new skill, [Lord's Magic Reasoning], granted Kevin the ability to create his own magic.
After a period of research, Kevin indeed created a skill similar to the Rings of Raggadorr through the Marvel magic system.
That is, the small circular discs that every Kamar Taj mage possessed.
The disc created through his own magic had a blue base, and the material of the disc was not water as Kevin had imagined, but another type of blue energy.
Kevin was very familiar with this blue energy; every time he cast a spell, similar energy would appear in Kevin's body.
It was just that Kevin hadn't actively categorized it before. Now, if he were to categorize it… Kevin believed it was 'mana'.
His own mana.
The source of the mana came from [Water Element Control], which was the skill after [Water Manipulation] was upgraded.
It not only granted Kevin the power to control water but also provided Kevin with a large amount of mana with each level increase.
Any water-related control Kevin used was this mana.
Originally, Kevin hadn't realized this, always using it as an instinct. It wasn't until he activated the [Lord's Magic Reasoning] skill that Kevin truly became aware of the existence of mana.
After all, to create new magic, one must understand the nature of mana.
Otherwise, everything would be empty talk.
Would being able to sense mana make Kevin weaker?
Kevin, who used to use his abilities instinctively, seemed to be able to use water control magic indefinitely. If he knew about the existence of mana and understood his total mana, he might become hesitant in controlling magic.
In that case, Kevin could indeed become weaker.
But in reality, Kevin wasn't worried about this at all. Rather, by sensing mana and the ways to restore it, Kevin could be even more reckless than before.
Previously, when Kevin controlled water flow, it was purely based on a feeling. He would do as much as he felt he could do.
But he didn't dare to control it too excessively, because at that time, although he couldn't precisely sense the existence of mana, he could feel the weakness caused by a large amount of mana loss.
Of course, Kevin had never actually become weak because of it, but that feeling was indeed present.
However, he couldn't use this feeling of weakness to determine his limits.
This could easily lead to Kevin unknowingly overdrawing his mana and even his life force.
Therefore, he actually didn't dare to fully unleash larger-scale magic before.
But now, with mana precisely quantified, Kevin didn't have to worry about unknowingly running out of mana and starting to consume his life force.
He could freely control his mana.
And precisely control mana to achieve the maximum effect with the smallest amount of mana.
This was an overall enhancement of Kevin's strength.
Incidentally, when Kevin was bored, he once digitized his mana.
He used the mana required to create a basketball-sized Water Ball as a standard unit and calculated that his total mana was approximately fifty million.
Fifty million MP, in some games, would probably be close to max level.
But Kevin's Water Element Control was only level five, with levels six and seven still above it.
He truly didn't know how much mana a max-level [Water Element Control] would bring Kevin.
The emergence of mana allowed Kevin to create more magic, and it was from this stage that Kevin gradually moved beyond merely controlling water and began to explore other magical domains.