A new chapter is up.
Come in, get comfortable, and let’s see what kind of trouble waits this time ❤️ ✦ Still…
Just as the mood reached its highest point and the distance between them kept shrinking, Gwen apologized and slipped away to the restroom.
Then she vanished for half an hour.
The interruption was so abrupt that Mason almost heard a director somewhere off-camera yelling cut.
“Something happened?” Mason frowned.
He did not think Gwen had run off to avoid the bill.
He realized something else.
Given the timing, and given who Gwen was…
She had not gone off to play superhero, had she?
Mason’s mouth twitched.
The possibility felt uncomfortably high.
“Red Queen, check Gwen’s location.” “Yes, Master.” “The network grid over New York is in place.
Accessing city surveillance now.” [Information comparison complete.] [Searching for target traces…] Mason touched the Bluetooth earpiece at his ear.
The voice inside belonged to the Red Queen’s virtual intelligence.
Her true body was already roaming through the network; the earpiece was only the visible disguise.
Otherwise, talking to himself in public would have looked a little too strange.
“Target trace found.” “Locking position now.” His phone lit up.
The screen quickly jumped to a nearby security feed.
The image was dim, probably from the corner of an old street.
Beside a wide wall of graffiti, someone in a Spider-Woman jacket leaned against the bricks.
The skintight suit beneath the hoodie outlined Gwen’s proud figure far too well, while the hooded outer layer tried and failed to hide her identity.
It was clearly the girl who had disappeared.
Several men lay scattered across the ground around her.
In front of her stood a group of hard-faced men.
More kept stepping out of the shadows, slowly closing the circle.
The moment the gang members appeared, Gwen’s back went tight.
Her nerves clearly sharpened.
Because they were armed.
Dark gun barrels carried a very simple kind of threat in the modern world.
“So something did happen.” Mason clicked his tongue and understood the situation at a glance.
She had run into real gangsters during the earliest stage of her superhero career.
Her skills were still rough, and now she had been surrounded.
Ordinary street punks would not be carrying that much military-grade hardware.
This was an organized gang.
Gwen was in trouble.
“Being a superhero really does come with occupational hazards.” Mason clicked his tongue again, but his body was already rising from his seat.
For the record, he was not doing this out of noble chivalry.
His hands were just itching.
He was a little too hungry for a fight.
Letting a fresh batch of walking punching bags get away would have been a waste.
“Red Queen, lock Gwen’s position.” “Yes, Master.” A cluster of glowing points appeared across Mason’s glasses, along with a miniature map of the surrounding streets.
The Red Queen’s voice guided him through the earpiece.
…
“So this is the place?” A dark shape dropped from above.
It was Mason.
After leaving through the restaurant’s back door and avoiding the crowd, he had started moving with Rokushiki: Soru.
At that speed, he was little more than an afterimage.
Ordinary pedestrians could not catch him with the naked eye.
They only felt a cool wind brush past, and New York gained one more urban legend.
Before long, Mason reached the location.
He had even taken the time to borrow a jacket along the way, just to cover his identity.
“Hm?” “Still feels like something is missing.” Before stepping out, Mason quietly turned the power inside his body.
Rokushiki Secret Art: Life Return.
It was a physical art that pushed bodily control to the extreme, pouring will into flesh and letting the user freely manipulate organs, skin, hair, and the rest of the body.
Muscle rose beneath his clothes.
His bones stretched upward.
In moments, Mason’s build changed into that of a towering man more than two meters tall.
Under the system’s hundredfold amplification, he had not received only the basic Rokushiki.
He had mastered the deeper secrets as well, including the technique known as a divine skill: Life Return.
Besides its powerful recovery, it was first-rate for disguises.
Tap.
Mason stepped out from the corner and crossed into the crowd in one stride.
The gang members tightening the circle only saw a blur.
Then a figure was standing in front of them, blocking their way.
“Who the hell are you?” “Gulp…” Mason’s tower-like frame pressed down on them.
The men who preyed on the weak and cowered before the strong swallowed hard.
“Me?” “Just a hero for fun.” Mason answered casually.
In that moment, maybe he understood a certain bald hero’s state of mind.
The careless calm made Gwen, trapped inside the circle, turn her head.
A strange light flashed through her eyes.
“A hero?
Some damn hero!” “This has nothing to do with you.
Get lost, or we kill you too.” The gangsters shouted threats, but no matter how loud they were, the fear underneath showed through.
Then their weapons gave them confidence again.
They had guns.
With guns in hand, what was there to fear?
Even superheroes stopped when bullets started flying.
No matter how strong a body was, could it beat a gun?
For a beat, the alley seemed to go still.
Then the gangsters felt brave again.
Their courage came back, and with it came the swagger.
“Heh.
Trying to save the pretty girl?
Maybe check what you can actually do first.” “Times changed.
A fighter loses to a gun.
Big muscles don’t mean a damn thing.” “Since he wants to die so badly, give him what he wants.” “I don’t like his face.
Ruin it first, then kill him.” “A man and a woman dead here, one of them a superhero?
Tomorrow’s headlines are going to explode.” “If she were that kind of pretty, maybe the boys could have some fun before…” Their words grew uglier.
Their grins turned more feral by the second.
“Disgusting.” Gwen’s jaw tightened.
Mason, however, remained perfectly calm.
His expression never shifted.
In his eyes, they were already dead.
Who wasted emotion on corpses?
“Rokushiki: Soru.” Mason’s body blurred at extreme speed.
“Rokushiki: Shigan.” Mason drove one finger forward.
Condensed force focused at the point of impact and punched straight through flesh.
“Careful!
Something’s wrong with him!” “Open fire!
Aim at him and shoot!” “Take him down first.
He’s more dangerous!” “Suppressing fire!
Now!” Cries of alarm rang out as the gang finally reacted.
Bullets sprayed wildly.
A Gatling gun even spat blue fire, and someone in the rear dragged out a shoulder-fired rocket launcher.
It was impressively excessive.
Unfortunately, none of it mattered.
“Rankyaku: White Thunder.” Black Widow had received the basic Rokushiki.
Mason had received every derived technique as well.
Hundredfold amplification was not just a line on a panel.
CREATORS’ THOUGHTS AuroraVale Thank you for reading.
I hope this chapter pulled you a little deeper into the story.
Stay close, because things are only getting more interesting.