When Mutant Jack charged straight at him like a tank, Russell didn’t back down or dodge.
He wanted to feel firsthand just how powerful the mutated Jack really was.
Without knowing the exact strength of your opponent, you inevitably end up on the back foot in battle.
So even though it wasn’t the wisest choice, Russell bit the bullet and stood his ground.
When Mutant Jack’s massive right fist—thicker than Russell’s waist—came swinging toward him, Russell crossed his arms in front of his chest to block it head-on.
The moment Mutant Jack’s colossal right fist slammed into Russell’s arms, Russell felt as though he had been struck head-on by a high-speed train.
His feet left the ground, sliding backward uncontrollably.
It took him more than ten meters of skidding back to finally dissipate the momentum of Jack’s punch.
[Strength: A- or higher]
Though a fiery pain throbbed in his arms and his bones felt on the verge of fracturing, Russell didn’t pay it any mind.
Just as he had anticipated, Mutant Jack’s strength was indeed a full tier above his own.
According to the System’s evaluation, Russell’s Strength was rated B, while Alan and Hathaway in their transformed states reached B+.
Mutant Jack’s strength, however, was clearly on a whole other level, breaking into the A tier.
Though this was only Russell’s personal judgment, it shouldn’t deviate far from the System’s official rating.
Whether A- or a solid A, strength of this magnitude was not something Russell could head-on block.
While Russell quietly evaluated Mutant Jack’s strength tier, the Dionysium Factor within his body was working silently, repairing the damage its host had sustained.
In the blink of an eye, Russell’s arms fully recovered to their pre-injury state.
It was precisely because he possessed the Dionysium Factor as his trump card that Russell dared to engage Mutant Jack in a one-on-one duel.
Having gauged Mutant Jack’s raw force, Russell immediately scrapped any plan to clash head-on with him.
In the moments that followed, Russell did everything he could to evaluate Mutant Jack’s Constitution and Speed.
[Constitution: B+]
[Speed: C-]
Russell’s own Constitution was rated B, and his Speed was C.
As for speed, perhaps due to his massive size, Mutant Jack was actually a notch slower than Russell.
Now, Russell finally had a rough assessment of Mutant Jack’s overall abilities.
[Strength: A-] [Constitution: B+] [Speed: C-]
Factor in Mutant Jack’s combat skills and experience, and his overall combat power was likely around B+, whereas the System had evaluated Russell’s overall combat capability at B-.
A difference of two sub-tiers was still within the same general tier—it wasn’t an absolute, insurmountable gap.
Although Russell had originally developed the “DC Apostles” system himself, he couldn’t be entirely sure what form it had mutated into after his trans-world travel.
The only thing he was sure of was that the system’s underlying rules still seemed to follow his original code without major changes.
Therefore, any power evaluation the System could generate, he could estimate as well—one was an automated assessment, the other a manual one.
There would certainly be discrepancies between the two, but the margin of error wouldn’t be large.
After all, machine-calculated and manually estimated metrics differed slightly.
Having grasped the general scope of Mutant Jack’s capabilities, Russell finalized his strategy for the fight.
Leveraging his superior speed, he would execute focused, surgical strikes in tight spaces.
Regardless of whether an attack landed cleanly, he would retreat immediately, never risking reckless overcommitment.
With a clear tactical approach, the rest of the battle became far simpler.
Thus, in the eyes of Alan, Hathaway, and the onlookers, the fight between Russell and Mutant Jack turned into a cat-and-mouse game: Russell would dart in to land quick hit-and-run blows, while Mutant Jack chased him frantically across the arena.
Russell didn’t outright dislike this assassin-like playstyle, but he wasn’t particularly fond of it either.
The reason was simple: he lacked a lethal finisher capable of delivering a one-hit kill like a true assassin.
Though Russell’s attacks could cause pain to Mutant Jack, it was only pain; they were nowhere near enough to break Jack’s bones or cripple him.
“Looks like I have no choice but to use that move!”
Dodging a broad swing from Mutant Jack, Russell turned toward Alan and yelled, “Alan!
Throw that bald guy over here!”
Back when he was developing the DC Apostles game, Russell had created a mechanic called Destiny Points.
Destiny Points were the sole currency required to unlock the gacha lottery system, and acquiring them came with specific restrictions.
By altering one’s own destiny or the destiny of others, thereby creating a major ripple effect on the future, one could earn a certain number of Destiny Points.
However, up until the moment Russell transmigrated, the concept of Destiny Points had only been a rough design that was never fully fleshed out.
After all, Russell had inexplicably transmigrated during the game’s first closed beta test, leaving him no time to finalize the Destiny Point mechanics.
When he had first transmigrated and was on the verge of death, the DC Apostles system had been triggered prematurely, granting him one Destiny Point.
That single point had yielded the Dionysium Factor—his first and only Apostle reward to date.
And now, Russell was placing his hopes on the System’s Apostle rewards once more.
This was one of the key reasons he had brought Jasper Sitwell into the training ground.
“Bald buddy, don’t let me down!”
“You’re supposed to be someone important in the future.
Instead of dying uselessly down the road in some battle between Hydra and SHIELD, you might as well lend me a hand right now!”
“Whatever happens, I promise I’ll take good care of your family in the future!”
With these thoughts flashing through his mind, Russell caught Jasper, whom Alan had hurled through the air.
Jasper remained unconscious, which was just as well—at least he wouldn’t suffer much pain when he died.
Just as Russell dragged Jasper toward Mutant Jack, intending to sacrifice him to the monster to see if it would yield Destiny Points, the unconscious Jasper suddenly woke up.
“Soldier, what are you doing?”
“Unhand me!
I order you to release me right now!”
Sensing something terribly wrong as he stared at Russell’s resolute expression, Jasper began struggling wildly, desperate to break free from Russell’s grip.