To avoid future trouble, when Morris Chow knocked Tanaka Jiuji down, he casually clipped him on the head.
He didn’t dare use too much force—only about ten percent of his strength.
As for why he used only ten percent, simple: he knew his own strength.
Any harder, and Tanaka’s brains would have splattered across the pavement.
Ten percent proved just right.
Tanaka stopped breathing before he even hit the ground, leaving only a dent in his skull.
As for the aftermath, Morris left Da Mi behind to keep watch for a while, while he himself had already returned home.
To prevent any complications, Morris transferred all the cash from the briefcase into his backpack halfway home.
He didn’t rush to dump the briefcase either, planning to find an opportunity to destroy it later.
As for how he felt about killing someone just now, honestly, it was only a mild discomfort.
On the way back, Morris analyzed the reasons in his mind and came up with three main points.
First, he was a regressor.
Having died once in his past life, his psychological resilience was far greater than that of an ordinary person.
Second, he had vast killing experience.
Well, meaning monsters and enemy players in the game.
It was a virtual reality game packed with humanoid creatures; he had killed uncounted numbers inside.
Third, the target he killed was a Little Japan guy.
No explanation needed for that one.
All in all, Morris had completed his first kill in the Marvel world, though with his power level, taking down a regular guy hardly seemed worth bragging about.
By the time Morris got home, Daisy and Jessica had logged out of the game and were sitting on the bed waiting for him.
Morris didn’t waste time talking; he went straight to delegating tasks.
He tossed the paper files to Daisy, who was waiting, and had her check for anything useful.
Jessica, meanwhile, was pulled down onto the floor by Morris to help count all the cash from the backpack.
The briefcase snatched from Tanaka Jiuji held exactly one million US dollars—not quite as much as he’d imagined.
On second thought, it made sense.
For a monthly deal run by a small gang, a million dollars was no small sum.
What he and Jessica were counting now was the cash taken from the two safes in Tanaka’s house.
In the hidden safe, there was six hundred thousand in large-denomination US bills. New chapters come out on novelping.com first.
A bit tricky, but fortunately, the serial numbers weren’t sequential.
The money in the visible safe was slightly less than expected, only a little over fifty-six thousand US dollars, mostly in small bills—very easy to spend.
As for the gold bars, Morris didn’t pull them out.
The cash should be enough for the short term.
Gold bars held their value well, so Morris had no plans to touch them for now.
By the time the two finished counting, Daisy was still working on the computer, the flash drive plugged into the desktop tower.
Seeing this, Morris and Jessica naturally started organizing the documents.
Over half of these files were various collateral deeds—another revenue source for this minor branch of The Hand: loan sharking.
Glancing through them, most were junkies from Flushing and the surrounding areas.
Having lived here for eighteen years, Morris knew what kind of scum most of these people were.
Many of these loan documents were illegal and practically useless to Morris.
The rest were property deeds and title certificates.
Whether they were useful, Morris didn’t know yet; Daisy could look into them once she was free.
But Morris didn’t hold out much hope for those.
Finally, there was a small box.
Opening it revealed several pieces of fine jewelry and two high-end wristwatches.
Not bad, should be worth something.
Morris set them on the nightstand, waiting until the computer was free to look up their value.
As for cell phones, Marvel in 2005 wasn’t much more technologically advanced than 2005 in his past life—at least in terms of civilian tech.
At that moment, Daisy stopped what she was doing and wrapped her arms around Morris in excitement, locking her legs right around his waist!
“Morris, we’re rich!
Heh heh…”
After a bout of excited giggles, Daisy stripped herself stark naked, and then…
An hour later, Jessica gave Daisy a slightly resentful look.
*You were the one who lit the fire, so why did I end up taking most of the heat?*
“What’s the situation?
Can you tell us now?!”
Morris didn’t mind either way; he had enjoyed himself immensely.
“The flash drive had an account on it!
I’ve already transferred all the money into another account—a full thirty million!
Morris, didn’t you want to invest overseas? Get faster updates on g.com.
This money isn’t really suitable to spend in the United States, so I can open a Hong Kong bank account for you online and transfer the cash over!”
Daisy finally revealed the cause of her earlier excitement.
Simple enough: even with Morris’s reasonably well-off family, their entire net worth didn’t come close to that amount!
That Little Japan mob boss sure dropped a massive pile of loot!
Hearing this, Morris was thrilled as well.
With these thirty million US dollars, his plan to invest in China could finally get off the ground.
China in 2005 was pretty much identical to his past life.
Morris knew this so clearly because this was Flushing; with plenty of Chinese Americans and Chinese nationals around, gathering news from back home wasn’t difficult.
In this era, going back to ride the real estate boom for a few years, building up seed capital, investing in real industries, and ideally finding a way to secure a Chinese citizen ID card…
*Tsk, tsk, tsk.* Whenever he wanted to mess around in the main plot, he could come kick up a storm in New York; when he didn’t, he could retreat to China and live like a multi-millionaire tycoon.
The thought alone was pure bliss!
Thus, Daisy didn’t get a wink of sleep that night.
Under his excited direction, she first set up the Hong Kong account, then dug up all kinds of online materials about Chinese foreign investment policies.
They stayed busy until the next morning, skipping even their daily game dungeon runs.
Fortunately, their gear for the current patch was almost fully upgraded, so missing a day or two made no difference.
In the morning, Da Mi returned home without them noticing.
If the big cat hadn’t come over begging for food, Morris would have almost forgotten he’d assigned it a task.
Retrieving a tiny device from Da Mi’s neck, Morris fast-forwarded through the recorded footage of what happened next.
With the cash stolen and their boss dead, the gunmen had stood around bewildered for a good while.
Then, a low-level Hand boss arrived carrying a large bag of “goods.” Since they were all Little Japan, there was a clear hierarchy.
Finding their footing, the gunmen recounted everything to the Hand commander.
The small-time boss couldn’t make the call either—without the cash, the drugs couldn’t move—so he pulled out his phone to report higher up.
In their conversation, Morris caught the term “empowered individuals.” Luckily, there was no mention of “mutants,” which eased Morris’s mind a bit.
This movie universe seemed relatively pure without too many crossover elements, making it much safer for someone with Morris’s current strength.
Having received no further orders from Morris after those people left, Da Mi had simply stayed put.
The remaining footage was dull—nothing beyond the occasional passing street punk.
Just as Morris was about to close the video, several figures burst into the frame…