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Hal thought Darian was talking nonsense.
He and Carol had long since broken up and were currently single, so a cuckold situation couldn't possibly lock onto him.
Taking a step back, even if Carol found someone else, it would be him cuckolding someone else; there was no way anyone else could cuckold him.
Hal skipped the topic and asked tentatively, "Then you came to find me tonight, may I ask what the matter is?"
Darian chuckled, "Although you are very 'green', I still think highly of you. Are you interested in joining our The Seven and saving the World together?"
"Join The Seven? Me?"
Hal was immediately startled.
The Seven, that was the hottest idol... superhero group at the moment, bar none.
The headlines of major media outlets were almost filled every day by members of The Seven, and the games related to them swept across the U.S. and even the World as soon as they were launched; their merchandise sold out, becoming a cultural symbol of this era.
Hal never dreamed that he, a superhero who had just debuted not long ago, would be invited to join such a team, and it was even Omni-Man, the founder of The Seven, who personally extended the invitation.
Darian nodded, "That's right, The Seven happens to have an empty spot."
Actually, whether there was an empty spot didn't matter at all; who stipulated that The Seven could only have seven people?
The Four Emperors have five members, after all.
Hal was still somewhat incredulous, his tone hesitant, "Am I really okay for it?"
Darian reached out and patted his shoulder, wearing an encouraging smile, "Be more confident. Although your strength is weak, you look silly, and your life and career are a mess, your background is impressive. As a member of the Green Lantern Corps, you are fully qualified to join The Seven."
Hal's mouth twitched.
After hearing that, he was even less confident.
Was this praising him, or stabbing him in the heart?
Hal was unconvinced, "Don't I have any other advantages?"
Darian didn't even think about it, blurting out, "Yes, your ex-girlfriend is beautiful."
"!!!!"
Hal's gaze immediately became alert as he stared at Darian.
He now suspected that it wasn't his ex-girlfriend who wanted to cuckold him, but that Darian wanted to give him a green hat.
Just at this moment, the Green Lantern ring on Hal's finger suddenly flashed rapidly, the light brightening and dimming, like some kind of alarm signal.
Hal looked down at the ring, looking confused, "What is this situation?"
Darian explained, "The Green Lantern ring has a built-in advanced artificial intelligence that can sense danger signals in the vicinity and automatically assign tasks to you."
Hal: "..."
No, am I the Green Lantern or are you the Green Lantern? How come you know more about it than I do?
Actually, this was all thanks to Wade.
Back then, Wade would catch Darian every few days and frantically rant about how terrible that Green Lantern movie was.
From the plot to the special effects, from the lines to Warner, he criticized it from beginning to end without leaving a shred of dignity, and even cursed the Canada actor who took the script, showing that he truly hated it.
Darian's ears were almost calloused from listening, so he naturally knew all the settings of the Green Lantern by heart.
Moreover, he not only knew the settings but also what would happen in the upcoming plot.
Before long, the great enemy of the Green Lantern Corps, the incarnation of fear, Parallax, would descend upon Earth and engage in a fierce battle with Hal, this Green Lantern intern.
Calling it fierce was being generous.
The actual situation was that Parallax chased Hal and spat a few times, Hal scraped Parallax a few times, and that was it.
Immediately after, Hal turned on taunt mode, maxing out Parallax's aggro, and the opponent foolishly chased him all the way to near the Sun, only for Parallax, because of its huge mass, to be firmly sucked in by the Sun's gravity.
In the end, Hal punched Parallax into the Sun, and a dignified big BOSS was swallowed by the flames like that, burned until not even a scrap remained.
Sun: Don't throw just any trash at me.
The whole process was as perfunctory as it could be, ending as if it were rushing to a show.
Darian wasn't sure if the Parallax in the game would be this silly too.
Just in case, he decided to follow Hal to take a look, and by the way, complete the dungeon quest.
In the suburbs, inside a secret research facility.
This was a laboratory directly under A.R.G.U.S., specifically used for studying a special alien corpse.
The owner of this alien corpse was none other than Hal's predecessor, the Green Lantern Abin Sur.
Not long after Hal got the ring, the A.R.G.U.S. team arrived at the scene and automatically looted Abin Sur's corpse and the opponent's spaceship.
This was America's territory; things that fell on this land naturally became their assets, which was only right and proper.
They immediately set up a special research group and invested in high-intensity analysis work.
This was the second alien life form discovered by humans after the Kryptonian incident. The higher-ups attached great importance to this and demanded that A.R.G.U.S. produce research results as soon as possible, preferably achieving substantial breakthroughs in weaponization and biotechnology.
During this period, Earth suffered from various major events in succession, with such high intensity that even the Military could only serve as background scenery.
The government was unwilling to pin all its hopes on that group of superhero and was secretly doing all sorts of things, just to build a powerful force completely under its own control.
This project was chaired by A.R.G.U.S. Director Amanda Waller, supervised by Senator Hammond of Coast City, and assigned a university Professor named Hector to perform the dissection.
Hector was an excellent scientist, which could be seen from his receding hairline.
But excellent as he was, he was far from being a top-tier scientist.
Hector was initially excited that such a major research project would come to him, but then he felt confused; why would a government research project choose him, a university Professor?
Therefore, he found Amanda Waller with his confusion.
Amanda Waller immediately stated that he was chosen because she valued his ability and talent, absolutely not because his surname was Hammond and he happened to share the same surname as Senator Hammond.
Hector understood instantly.
So all of this was operated behind the scenes by his father, who was a senator.
Not only was he not happy about this, but a surge of anger and resentment welled up in his heart.
Hector grew up under his father's long-term suppression, subjected to all kinds of gaslighting and emotional control, which caused his personality to become cowardly and twisted, and he only wanted to prove himself.
After being invited by A.R.G.U.S. to join the research project, he once thought that he had finally made it, only to find in the end that he was still living in his father's shadow.
Hector resented this to the extreme.
He secretly swore, "Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river, don't bully the young for being poor."
Yes, don't look at the fact that Hector looked older than his father; he was actually still a young man, a childhood playmate of Hal and Carol, and had admired Carol since he was little.
Unfortunately, Carol didn't like men whose foreheads would reflect light, so she turned and threw herself into Hal's arms, showing off their affection in front of him every day.
Although Hector was very unconvinced, Hal and Carol were a talented man and a beautiful woman, a match made in heaven; how could a monster like him oppose it? He could only silently retreat to the corner and silently bless this couple to break up soon.
If Hector were just an ordinary person, he would probably have to go through the standard process of "don't bully the middle-aged for being poor, don't bully the elderly for being poor, the dead are the most important," living a mediocre life and ending it sloppily.
However, while dissecting that purple alien corpse, he accidentally came into contact with a stream of yellow energy.
This yellow energy made his head incredibly big.
It was a big head in the literal sense; his entire head swelled until it was unrecognizable, becoming just like an alien.
Although he became ugly, he also became stronger.
He gained various special abilities, and at the same time, the negative emotions in his heart swelled as well.
But soon, Amanda Waller noticed Hector's abnormality and detected the special energy hidden in Abin Sur's body. She immediately sent a team to knock Hector down with tranquilizers and locked him inside the research institute.
Fortunately, Hector's employment environment did not change; he was still working inside the research institute.
Unfortunately, he went from being a researcher to the object of research.
When Hector woke up, he found himself firmly locked on the test bench, surrounded by researchers in white coats.
Hammond stood on the side, looking at Hector and soothing him, "Don't worry, they need to do a few checks, that's all. I'm doing this all for your own good."
Facts proved that whether in the East or the West, parents' rhetoric was about the same.
Hector immediately triggered.
He hated hearing this sentence the most in his life.
Under the intense emotional fluctuation, his eyes suddenly bloomed with yellow light, the surrounding instruments began to vibrate violently, and the alarm sounded sharply.
Everyone was stunned, standing there at a loss.
Only Amanda Waller, who was used to big scenes, reacted the fastest, shouting sternly, "Inject him with tranquilizers immediately!"
Several researchers then came back to their senses and immediately stepped forward to pin down the struggling Hector.
One of the researchers picked up a syringe, and just as the needle was about to pierce Hector's arm, an invisible force suddenly surged over. The syringe was forcibly torn from his palm and, in turn, stabbed into his own thigh, and he collapsed to the ground within a few seconds.
The other researchers were also blown away by this invisible force, slamming heavily into the surrounding instruments.
Immediately after, the restraints on Hector's limbs were all broken, and he leaped up, standing on the test bench.
He looked down at Hammond and Amanda Waller, a hideous smile appearing on his face.
"I'll give you three seconds, run."
Hammond and Amanda Waller did not hesitate and turned to run.
"——! Three!"
Hector smiled evilly, and an invisible telekinetic force slammed out, sending the two flying directly and crashing heavily to the ground.
Amanda Waller cursed in her heart.
And they call him a scientist; he can't even count. No wonder he had to use the back door to get in.
She quickly took a device from her arms and pressed it, then stood up and said to Hector, "Hector, calm down. We are helping you. You have been infected by an unknown alien substance, and we can cure you."
Hector said coldly, "I don't need to be cured; I feel better than ever now."
Amanda Waller said seriously, "The accident at the Ferris company party a few days ago must have been your doing. Your behavior has already constituted a crime."
"Now your best choice is to cooperate with me. Only I can protect you. Believe me, I won't lie to you."
"..."
"Whether you are lying to me or not, I can see for myself."
As Hector spoke, he thrust his left hand forward.
The next moment, Amanda Waller flew over uncontrollably, and he grabbed her head.
Hector narrowed his eyes, yellow light flowing in them, and said coldly, "You want me to join that so-called Suicide Squad of yours, implant nano-bombs in my body, and treat me as your slave? You call this cooperation?"
Amanda Waller's expression changed drastically.
Hector was absolutely right; she did indeed have her eye on Hector's ability and intended to have him join the new Suicide Squad she had formed.
Ever since the original Suicide Squad was poached by Darian, Amanda Waller had quickly prepared a new Suicide Squad and strictly forbade the new team from having any contact with Darian, lest they be wiped out by him again.
But she never expected that her thoughts would be seen through by Hector at a glance.
Obviously, this Hector also had the ability to read others' thoughts.
Now there was trouble.
Hector sneered and continued, "And don't think I don't know what you're plotting. You're stalling for time, waiting for your new Suicide Squad to come and support you, right?"
The muscles on Amanda Waller's face twitched a few times, her lips pressed tightly, and she said nothing.
Hector tilted his disproportionately large head, his tone full of disdain, "Just by relying on that new Suicide Squad you cobbled together, it's impossible to defeat me now."
Amanda Waller barely maintained her composure and said in a deep voice, "Even if the new Suicide Squad can't stop you, what about The Seven? Omni-Man is not someone you can provoke. Once you make a big deal out of this, he will definitely come to deal with it personally."
In order to stabilize Hector, she even went as far as to bring out that group of superhero.
However, Hector's negative emotions had been infinitely amplified by the yellow energy, and he was inflated to the extreme, putting no one in his eyes.
"Hahaha!"
Hector threw his head back and laughed, saying with a face full of disdain, "Just based on that Omni-Man, even if he appeared here right now, I would still…"
Boom!!
The ceiling suddenly exploded into a big hole.
Darian, wearing the ultron armor, descended from the sky, hovering steadily in mid-air, looking down at Hector below.
"Big-headed monster, you would still what?"
Hector opened his mouth, and the second half of his sentence was stuck in his throat.
He had read Amanda Waller's memories and knew many inside stories that ordinary people couldn't access, and he was very clear about how powerful the Omni-Man in front of him was.
For a newbie village BOSS like him to challenge a max-level hero like Darian, the outcome was imaginable.
He dared to be so arrogant just now, which was purely just bragging.
Hector broke into a cold sweat, and even the negative emotions in his heart were suppressed.
"I would still… I would still not have any resistance, because Omni-Man is my idol, and I am a partner of justice!"