Daniel and Carol spent the entire afternoon in Central Park.
The two of them wandered through nearly every corner of the park, enjoying themselves immensely.
By evening, they headed to Times Square.
Unfortunately, they had barely taken a few steps into the area before turning around and leaving with awkward expressions.
What the hell was this version of Times Square?
And what was with all those young women standing in rows along the street?
Daniel was still a minor.
He didn’t understand anything... absolutely nothing.
The phrase "a mixed bag of good and bad" had probably been invented for places like this.
At first, Carol had been curious about why so many women were lingering outside.
Then she watched several men casually lead those women into nearby buildings.
A few seconds later, realization dawned on her.
Everything suddenly made sense.
Her face instantly turned red.
"Oh, wow, Daniel."
She looked at him with disbelief.
"You actually brought me here?"
Daniel felt incredibly wronged.
He genuinely hadn’t known what Times Square was like during this era.
Susan had recommended it.
And in his memories from his previous life, Times Square was one of New York’s most famous landmarks.
So he’d naturally wanted to visit it.
How was he supposed to know it would be like this?
The whole situation was painfully awkward.
To be fair, Susan had never actually been there herself.
She had only heard about it from other people.
What she’d heard was that Times Square was exciting.
Especially at night.
Apparently, it was supposed to be a lot of fun.
...
On the way back, Carol spent the entire journey lecturing Daniel.
Daniel repeatedly explained that he had no idea what kind of place it was.
Carol refused to listen.
What a joke.
Opportunities to educate her little brother didn’t come around often.
Why would she waste such a precious chance?
Whether Daniel was innocent or not wasn’t important.
The important thing was that she finally had a legitimate excuse to lecture him.
As the older sister, she had to maintain her authority.
After all, it was natural.
Daniel endured the endless barrage of criticism until they found a taxi.
The moment the driver heard the location of their hotel, he immediately refused.
No matter what they said, he wasn’t willing to drive into that neighborhood.
In the end, they compromised.
The taxi dropped them off in the nearest safe district, and they walked the rest of the way.
By the time they got out, the sky was completely dark.
Soon, they arrived at the same street corner where they had been stopped the previous night.
"Daniel."
Carol glanced around.
"Do you think those two guys from yesterday might be waiting here again?"
"I have got no idea."
Daniel answered casually.
They were just small time thugs.
He couldn’t care less.
...
Treze felt that he had the worst luck in the world.
Yesterday, someone had informed him that two wealthy looking outsiders had arrived in Hell’s Kitchen.
Coincidentally, money had been tight lately.
So he’d invited his buddy Pablo to make some quick cash.
The two had waited along the route the tourists were expected to take.
The targets had indeed appeared.
Unfortunately, that was a big mistake as not only had they lost their weapons, but they’d also ended up getting knocked out with a single tap.
The experience had been humiliating.
Afterward, the pair had drowned their frustrations in alcohol at a local bar.
While drunk, Pablo had spent the entire evening complaining.
Unfortunately, several gang members sitting nearby overheard everything.
Curious, they questioned him about the incident.
Once they learned what had happened, they immediately began pounding their chests and declaring that they would avenge him.
After all, how could members of their gang be attacked like this?
Of course, the truth was much less impressive.
Their gang was tiny, so they needed to stick together to protect each other.
If they were successful criminals, they wouldn’t have been resorting to street robberies in the first place.
Nevertheless, they managed to gather around a dozen people and camp out at the same corner from yesterday.
They waited from dusk until nightfall.
Everyone was bored out of their minds.
Truthfully, Treze didn’t want revenge at all.
Something about Daniel had felt wrong.
The way he’d casually taken their weapons.
The way he’d acted without any fear.
Treze couldn’t shake the feeling that Daniel wasn’t normal.
And that feeling only grew stronger with time.
A sense of impending doom lingered in the back of his mind.
Then someone suddenly shouted.
"Hey! They’re here!"
Everyone immediately turned.
Sure enough, Daniel and Carol had just rounded the corner.
The moment Daniel saw the group, he instantly recognized the two familiar faces from the night before.
A grin appeared on his face.
"Oh, hello there."
He waved cheerfully.
"We meet again."
He genuinely looked happy.
To Daniel, the situation was amusing.
At this point, he considered himself invincible.
No gang.
No organization.
No ordinary group of people could threaten him anymore.
When he first awakened his abilities at the age of five, his only goal had been to live a quiet and peaceful life.
But ten years had passed.
As his strength increased, his mentality had gradually changed as well.
What was the point of having extraordinary power if nobody knew about it?
Daniel wasn’t arrogant enough to abuse his strength.
He wasn’t interested in becoming some tyrant.
But he did enjoy showing off a little.
He wanted people to notice.
To be impressed, to realize how extraordinary he was.
That was a very ordinary human desire.
Yesterday’s punch had partly been motivated by curiosity.
He wanted to see whether those two idiots would come back for revenge.
And now they actually had.
That made the whole thing even funnier.
Pablo stepped forward.
This time, his confidence had returned.
"Enough talking."
He pointed proudly at the men behind him.
"See these guys? They’re all my brothers."
(A.N: I really wanted to use another word here hehe...)
His grin widened.
"Yesterday, you thrashed us bad and buddy today you are gonna pay a huge price for that."
"Otherwise, you’re not leaving this street on your two legs."
Daniel smiled.
"You want me to repay it?"
"That’s right."
Pablo crossed his arms.
"And hand over all your money while you’re at it."
"My brothers need money to drink."
Then he sneered.
"Don’t even think about resisting."
He pointed toward several hidden weapons.
"We’ve got enough guns here to turn you into Swiss cheese."
The grin on his face became even uglier.
"If you’re smart, you’ll do as I say, also get on your knees..."
.....
".... Beg for mercy and maybe then I’ll let you go." He continued
Pablo was feeling fantastic, as revenge was finally within his reach.
Yesterday, Daniel had looked them straight in the eye and calmly knocked them out, which had left their body in immense pain.
The memory still haunted him.
Now he finally had the chance to return the favor.
Just imagining it made him laugh.
"Hahaha!"
Daniel looked at him.
"You want me to kneel too?"
The smile on Daniel’s face never changed.
At that moment, Pablo felt something was wrong.
’Why is he smiling exactly like yesterday?’
’Why isn’t he scared?’
’There are more than ten of us this time!’
A ridiculous thought suddenly appeared in his mind.
’Can he actually fight all of us?’
’No way...’
’Right?’
Despite how absurd it sounded, Pablo found himself believing it more and more.
"Stop wasting time!"
One of the gang members beside him shouted impatiently.
"Didn’t you hear what he said?"
Daniel nodded repeatedly.
"Okay, okay."
"I’ll do it."
His smile somehow became even wider.
"But just to be clear..."
"You guys are the ones asking for this, right?"
"What kind of stupid question is that?" someone replied.
The instant those words left his mouth.
Daniel vanished.
In less than a second, he shot directly into the crowd.
Then he returned to his original position.
Everything happened so fast that nobody could react.
Daniel casually pointed at the ground.
"Look."
Everyone followed his gaze.
Five handguns lay neatly at his feet.
The gang members instinctively checked their waists.
Their weapons were gone.
All of them.
Daniel tilted his head.
"Huh."
"I thought you said there were 6 or 7 guns."
He looked genuinely confused.
"Why could I only find five?"
There was complete silence, as the entire gang stared at him.
Then they stared at the pile of guns.
Then they stared at him again.
One second later...
Everyone turned and ran, as pure survival instinct took over.
"Stop."
Daniel raised his voice.
Treze stopped.
Pablo stopped.
The remaining eight people ignored him and kept sprinting.
Daniel sighed.
Then he accelerated, his body became a blur.
Within two seconds, every fleeing gang member had been dragged back and thrown into a pile.
The tough-guy attitudes disappeared instantly.
"Please forgive us!"
"I’m sorry!"
"Please don’t kill me!"
"We won’t do it again!"
Loud shouting erupted from every direction.
"Quiet."
Daniel spoke calmly.
The crowd immediately fell silent.
Daniel looked around.
"The two who stayed put..."
He pointed at Pablo and Treze.
"...Just light punch for you two."
Then he looked at everyone else.
"As for the ones who tried to run..."
His smile returned.
"...You will be beaten to pulp."
The group turned pale and Treze nearly burst into tears.
"No, please no!"
He shook his head frantically.
"We would never bother you again!"
Daniel didn’t care for any of that and gave the group the beating that they deserved.
The sound of hard punches immediately filled the street, as one after other each gang member was beaten black and blue, and thrown out.
.....
"Now... if any of you still want revenge, I’ll be staying around here for the next few days."
"You already know where to find me."
His white teeth flashed in the darkness.
"I welcome you to try again."
Meanwhile, Carol stood nearby watching the entire spectacle as though she were enjoying a stage performance.
She was completely entertained, a remarkably fearless woman.
Once everything was over, Daniel collected all the weapons from the ground.
"All of this is confiscated."
The gang members who laid across the ground didn’t dare object.
At this point, they just wanted to go home and find their mothers.
Life on the streets was terrifying and now they wanted out.
A few minutes later, Daniel stopped beside a garbage bin.
In front of everyone’s horrified eyes, he casually grabbed the five handguns and squeezed them together.
Metal groaned and twisted as the guns were crushed into a single lump of scrap metal.
Then he tossed the ball into the trash.
After that, he and Carol continued walking.
Before long, they arrived back at the hotel.