BOOM!
A thunderous impact shook the enormous villa as a reinforced wall shattered apart, chunks of masonry flying across the room.
“Armament Haki really is ridiculous.” Calvin looked down at his right hand.
His palm had turned pitch-black, gleaming with a metallic sheen.
Around it, the air seemed to distort faintly as an invisible current flowed outward.
He had barely put any force into that palm strike, yet the wall had been blown apart instantly.
The black coating was Hardening, one of the fundamental applications of Armament Haki.
It drastically increased both offensive and defensive power and could also be applied to weapons.
With this, Calvin would never have to worry about being caught without something durable enough to fight with again.
The invisible force flowing around his hand was another advanced application of Armament Haki—Ryuo.
Instead of merely striking the surface, the Haki could penetrate into a target and destroy it from within.
In game terms, it was basically armor penetration.
With Armament Haki added to his arsenal, Calvin’s close-combat ability had jumped several levels at once, and his personal survivability had improved just as dramatically.
A moment later, something else appeared beside an undamaged section of wall.
A metallic arm materialized directly inside the structure.
Crack!
The wall split apart as the arm forced its way outward.
This was the Third Hand.
Calvin had already experimented with it several times.
The metal limb could appear anywhere within five meters of his body, including inside solid objects.
He could already think of several extremely unpleasant ways to use that against an enemy.
After dismissing both the Third Hand and his Haki, Calvin produced an octagonal stone from his inventory.
A blue horse was engraved across its surface.
The Horse Talisman.
Calvin aimed it at the ruined wall.
Blue light burst from the talisman and washed over the damaged structure.
Then something incredible happened.
Fragments of stone and plaster scattered across the floor began rising into the air.
Piece by piece, they flew back toward the hole as though time itself were reversing.
Within seconds, the wall had been completely restored.
There was no crack.
No missing stone.
Nothing to suggest Calvin had ever destroyed it.
“Okay, you might actually be the most ridiculous reward I’ve gotten so far.” Calvin stared at the Horse Talisman in admiration.
“With this repair ability, I could become the greatest handyman on Earth.” He paused.
“Or the greatest doctor.” The Horse Talisman could cure illnesses, expel harmful external influences, and repair physical damage.
With it, most ordinary injuries would no longer matter.
Calvin could simply restore the damage almost instantly.
More importantly…
He no longer had to pretend to be a miracle doctor.
Now he actually was one.
No more worrying about exhaustion, organ failure, or Tony Stark destroying himself through sheer dedication to terrible lifestyle choices.
After this latest round of missions, Calvin had become absurdly well-rounded.
Close combat.
Ranged combat.
Magic.
Healing.
Buffs.
Defense.
Utility.
He was basically a warrior, marksman, mage, healer, and support class rolled into one character.
His ability to keep himself alive had multiplied several times over.
Calvin found that deeply reassuring.
So he made the only reasonable decision.
Get some sleep.
Then wake up and start grinding again.
After feeding the mysterious creature egg its daily drop of blood, Calvin crawled into bed and slept beautifully.
…
One night several days later, Calvin wandered through the streets of Queens searching for his next daily mission.
Before joining S.H.I.E.L.D.
and gaining reliable access to side-story missions, this had been his usual method of triggering quests.
If someone hired him, he completed the job.
If nobody had work available, he simply wandered through different neighborhoods as a vigilante and looked for crimes in progress.
Whenever a victim noticed someone intervening, they would usually cry out for help.
And just like that— Daily mission.
This method had provided a substantial portion of Calvin’s EXP and item rewards during his first few months with the system.
There was certainly no shortage of opportunities.
New York’s crime rate in this universe was absurd.
Sometimes Calvin genuinely wondered whether Gotham had secretly outsourced half its criminals here.
The so-called greatest city in the world felt more like the world capital of getting mugged after dark.
Hell’s Kitchen was somewhat different.
Ordinary people there had enough common sense to avoid the streets at night whenever possible, leaving most evening violence to gangs shooting at one another.
After several months of vigilante work, Calvin had already accumulated something of an urban legend around himself.
Yet nobody knew what he actually looked like.
That was not because Calvin had mastered some incredible art of disguise.
It was entirely because of one system item.
[Item: Censored Mask] [Effect: While wearing this mask, other people are only able to perceive the lower half of the wearer’s face.] The item’s origins were questionable.
Its effectiveness was not.
Add a hood and face covering on top of the supernatural censorship effect, and Calvin looked less like a person than a glitch in reality.
That was one of the main reasons neither Kingpin nor the Hand had managed to identify him.
S.H.I.E.L.D.
had only succeeded because Calvin had performed several impossible feats before obtaining the mask.
In retrospect, that had worked out rather well.
Without S.H.I.E.L.D.
discovering him, Calvin would never have gained access to so many profitable missions or leveled this quickly.
He moved across the rooftops with the natural wind flowing around him, leaping easily from building to building.
It did not take long before he spotted something happening near the mouth of an alley.
A young man dressed in oversized streetwear was brandishing a knife and forcing a frightened woman deeper into the alley.
The situation did not require much interpretation.
“Hey, man.” Calvin dropped down nearby.
“Mind if I say something?” The attacker turned around.
He saw a tall man wearing a hood and face covering, with the upper half of his features hidden by something that seemed impossible to focus on.
For some reason, instead of recognizing danger, the idiot grinned.
“Yo, you want in too?” He jerked his head toward the terrified woman.
“Help me keep her quiet.
I go first, then you.” A system notification appeared.
[Hostile NPC has issued you a mission.] [Objective: Help the attacker force the young woman deeper into the alley.] [Reward: EXP +200.] Calvin stared at the interface.
“…?” What the hell?
The perpetrator could issue missions too?
Before he could finish processing that revelation, the woman cried out through tears.
“Please!
Help me!
I have money—I’ll pay you!” Another notification immediately appeared.
[Young Woman has issued you a mission.] [Objective: Protect the young woman from harm.] [Reward: EXP +200.] Calvin’s eyebrows rose.
“Well, that’s new.” Both sides of the same crime had triggered separate missions.
Which one should he accept?
The answer was obvious.
Why choose?
Calvin wanted both.
He walked forward with an easy smile.
“Sure, man.” The attacker relaxed.
Calvin nodded appreciatively at his ridiculous outfit.
“Nice look, by the way.” The man puffed up proudly.
“Damn right.
Didn’t pay a cent for any of it.” He grinned.
“Next time I’ll show you where to get some.” “Sounds great.” Together, they moved farther into the alley, forcing the woman toward the deepest section where the surrounding buildings blocked almost all visibility from the street.
If someone committed a crime here, screaming probably would not bring help quickly enough.
The young woman clearly understood that.
Tears streamed down her face as her legs finally gave out and she collapsed to the pavement, sobbing.
The attacker became even more excited.
He immediately started fumbling with his pants, although the absurd number of layers he was wearing made the process embarrassingly difficult.
Then Calvin heard the notification he had been waiting for.
A grin appeared beneath his mask.
“Need some help with that?” The man turned toward him in astonishment.
His expression looked almost touched.
“Man, you’re a real brother.” He gave Calvin a thumbs-up.
“Yeah, help me out.” “Sure.” Calvin stepped closer with a pleasant smile.
“I’ll help you make sure you never need those again.” His leg snapped upward.
WHAM!
The kick landed directly between the man’s legs.
Several layers of clothing offered absolutely no protection against Calvin’s strength.
Fabric tore apart.
The attacker’s eyes rolled backward as an inhuman scream ripped from his throat.
“AAAAAAAGH!” His entire body convulsed.
He collapsed almost immediately, curled in on himself, then went completely limp.
Calvin looked toward the stunned woman still sitting on the ground.
“Well?” He pointed toward the alley entrance.
“Go.” She scrambled to her feet.
“Thank you!
Thank you so much!” Then she ran toward the street without looking back.
BANG!
A gunshot suddenly cracked through the night.
Calvin turned his head.
The shot had not come from this alley, nor had it been aimed at the fleeing woman.
It came from another street nearby.
His eyebrows rose.
“Busy night.” He sounded almost pleased.
Calvin lightly pushed off the ground and landed on top of the wall.
A few effortless leaps carried him over the rooftops, his figure disappearing into the darkness.
Within moments, he reached the source of the gunshot.
Then he stopped.
A middle-aged man lay collapsed in a spreading pool of blood, his breathing already becoming frighteningly weak.
Calvin recognized him immediately.
There was no mistaking that face.
The wounded man’s name was…
Ben Parker.