In front of the Daily Bugle building, Kara stopped her pace.
She looked up at this building that wasn’t particularly eye-catching but had a prominent enough sign, holding an ordinary digital camera in her hand—of course, that was only secondary; her real “shooting tool” was her Super Speed.
Walking into the lobby, the receptionist was a young girl painting her nails.
She didn’t even look up: “For job applications, go to the third floor and look for Robbie Robertson.
Do you have an appointment?” “No,” Kara smiled.
“But I have something they’ll definitely be interested in.” The girl finally looked up and sized her up—a white dress, a sweet appearance, but unfortunately wearing glasses, looking more like a college student than a paparazzi.
She curled her lip and pointed to the elevator: “Third floor, turn left.” The Editor-in-Chief’s office on the third floor.
Robbie Robertson was a serious-looking middle-aged man, currently frowning at a computer screen.
Hearing the knock, he didn’t look up: “Come in.” Kara pushed the door open and entered, gently placing a stack of printed photos on his desk.
Robbie glanced at them, and his eyebrows shot up instantly.
In the photos was a currently hot movie star in intimate contact with several people at a private party; another showed a politician known for his “happy family” image entering a special club late at night; there was even one capturing the moment a tech company CEO met secretly with a competitor in a garage.
These photos had clear angles and distinct details; even the subjects’ expressions were captured perfectly—they didn’t look like surreptitious shots at all, but rather like they were taken while standing right in front of the parties involved.
Robbie looked up, looking at Kara seriously for the first time: “How did you take these?” “I have my ways,” Kara said calmly.
“And I guarantee these are just samples.
If needed, I can provide similar ‘explosive material’ every week—not just celebrity gossip, but also business scandals, political secrets, and even…
certain more ‘unusual’ events.” Robbie leaned forward slightly, his gaze sharp: “What do you mean by ‘unusual’?” “For example…
the meeting between the Mayor of New York and Mr.
Fisk yesterday?” Kara said suggestively.
This morning’s news had downplayed the event, reporting that the mayor had attended a large corporate gathering yesterday.
Robbie was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly laughed: “You’re hired.
I want to see a consistent output.
Salary plus extra fees for manuscripts, and separate bonuses for exclusive scoops.
But remember—” his tone turned somber, “while the Daily Bugle loves sensational news, we never fabricate facts.
If you dare to fake anything, I’ll make sure you can’t survive in the New York media circle.” “No problem,” Kara nodded.
“Very well, give me your resume so I can register you.
The third empty office on the left is yours; you are now a columnist for the Daily Bugle.” Robbie leaned back in his chair.
Kara handed her resume to Robbie.
He glanced at it, appearing somewhat surprised: “Kara Danvers, State University of New York, hmm, standard enough, but 18 years old?
I thought you just had a youthful appearance.” “I skipped grades, nothing strange about it,” Kara said dismissively.
Kara felt there wasn’t much to say about those files fabricated by Kingpin’s gang.
…
Kara gave a few perfunctory words and went out to her own office.
It was much smaller than Robbie’s Editor-in-Chief office, but Kara didn’t care.
Providing the newspaper with a few photos every few days and throwing together some copy was an easy way to get paid; why not?
She pulled out a chair and sat down, starting to write copy for the other celebrity scoops she hadn’t given to Robbie.
This task took Kara all afternoon—after all, she had captured too much dirt using Super Speed that morning; giving the newspaper a portion periodically would be enough to last over half a year.
In the newspaper office, Kara did not use Super Speed, as she didn’t want to risk any exposure.
Before dinner, it was time to get off work.
The other reporters were packing up to go home, but Kara had to see Robbie one more time.
According to the employee handbook she’d skimmed that afternoon, a scoop for a columnist earned a bonus of at least ten thousand dollars, with manuscript fees after publication settled separately based on subscription volume.
Although today’s three scoops hadn’t been officially reported yet, the ten-thousand-dollar bonus per item could be collected.
Entering Robbie’s office, Kara gave a greeting.
Robbie looked up at her: “Here for the bonus?
It’s already prepared.” As he spoke, he took a check from a drawer, stamped it with the newspaper’s seal, and handed it to Kara.
Kara glanced at it; the amount was thirty thousand dollars, exactly right.
It seemed the Daily Bugle didn’t dare touch news related to the Kingpin either.
No one really dared to provoke the Underground Emperor of New York City casually.
With this thirty thousand dollars, Kara wouldn’t have to worry about her living situation for a long time.
She didn’t need to eat now; she was literally ‘full just by basking in the Sun.’ Once her food and housing were settled, Kara would have more time to explore the World of superhumans like Red Hood and the Hulk.
Walking out of the Daily Bugle, Kara rushed to the magic gathering location on the invitation.
Clearly, at this time, almost all the participants for Grandma Enya’s magic gathering had arrived.
After Kara arrived, she found a random seat and sat down.
Unsurprisingly, there were many Red Hood members at the venue, accounting for almost half.
The other half were basically various wizards, warlocks, rogue mages, and so on, and there were even beings that looked like werewolves.
Kara subtly questioned the people around her and found that this so-called “Grandma Enya” was a witch with a bit of a reputation in New York City and even the World.
It was said her ancestors were disciples of Kamar-Taj.
After a while, it was the start time written on the invitation.
A decrepit old woman stepped onto the podium and began to exchange pleasantries with the mages and warlocks in the room.
Kara used her X-ray vision and found the old woman had a piece of paper hidden in her clothes—a rubbing of strange runes.
Judging by the words she could understand, it was about a spell named “Vishanti.” Grandma Enya began to recite some incantations Kara didn’t understand, making Kara feel drowsy.
However, the others present listened with great interest.
Kara guessed that Grandma Enya was likely teaching some kind of magical knowledge; she just couldn’t understand it.
However, a man wearing a black hood in the audience caught Kara’s attention.
Not only was his attire strange, but he also wore an ancient-looking ring that required two fingers to wear, with strange runes inscribed on its surface.
In Kara’s view, the man seemed to be in extreme pain, as if something was about to burst out of his body.
Kara was somewhat alert; her X-ray vision couldn’t see through the man’s surface—a layer of black mist shrouded his insides.
It was magic.
Kara was starting to dislike magic.
With all the various super abilities she possessed, she was always at a loss when encountering magic.
Furthermore, Kara faintly sensed an extremely violent energy inside the man in the black robe; looking at his expression, it seemed that energy was about to make him explode.
Just as Kara wanted to go forward and examine the situation closely, a rude shove came from her side.
Immediately, Kara’s anger flared up—that fat warlock had actually pushed through the crowd arrogantly, his greasy hand nearly brushing against her waist, as he shouted with breath smelling of alcohol: “Move it, move it, you’re all in the way!” Kara quickly sidestepped to avoid him and turned to glare with displeasure at the stumbling fat warlock.
The other party was completely oblivious, instead narrowing his eyes, which were squeezed into slits by fat, and grinning at Kara: “Hey, pretty little girl, how about going for a drink with uncle after the gathering?
Uncle has some—” Before the fat warlock could finish his words, a deafening explosion suddenly erupted from ahead.
With Kara’s Super Hearing, the source of the explosion was exactly the direction of that strange man in the black robe.
Almost at the same instant, Kara entered her Super Speed State, but her perception clearly captured that the magical energy shockwave produced by the explosion was spreading incredibly fast; even with her speed, it was difficult to completely avoid.
More troublesome was that this shockwave clearly contained some kind of unstable magical property, making her afraid to head-on tank it recklessly.
In a flash, Kara’s gaze fell back in front of her—the fat warlock was still standing there crookedly, an annoying smirk on his face.
Without hesitation, Kara used her Super Speed to grab him and pull him in front of her; his fat, broad back perfectly and tightly blocked the direction from which the shockwave was coming.
The aftershocks of the explosion swept through in an instant, and wails immediately broke out across the venue.
Even with a meat shield for a buffer, Kara was still left dizzy from the shock.
She steadied herself and looked down; the fat warlock in front of her was already dead—his back along with a small portion of his skull had vanished in the impact.
Kara cursed inwardly; fortunately, she was sitting quite far away and had a scapegoat she could pull over to block for her, otherwise she estimated she would have been badly shaken by the blast.
Just as Kara wanted to push away the fat warlock’s corpse, a “sizzle” sound came.
Kara looked through the fat warlock’s corpse with her X-ray vision and saw a Bald woman walking out of a firework-like portal, also wearing one of those ancient rings on her hand.
She whispered: “Kaecilius…” Then, the Bald woman seemed to sense something.
With a wave of her hand, she shattered the space in front of her like a mirror and stepped inside to give chase.
Kara didn’t dare move at all now.
To her, this woman’s combat power was absolutely off the charts.
She could tear through space with her bare hands, something even Kara’s super strength couldn’t achieve.
This was clearly one of those super magic big shots.
With Kara’s current ultra-low magic resistance, she felt that if she faced the Bald woman, she might be torn apart just like the space from before.
After waiting for a while, in Kara’s perception, the surroundings seemed to have quieted down a lot, and even the sounds of wailing had decreased significantly.
She felt it should be safer, so she forcefully flung the fat warlock’s corpse off her, stood up, and shook her head, feeling much clearer.
Kara randomly picked up a dropped phone and dialed 911 emergency services.
Just as she was about to turn and leave this den of trouble, she stopped her pace.
She remembered when she first arrived at the gathering, she had seen through Grandma Enya’s clothes to those few items that looked like pages from a magic book.
Kara was very interested in that.
This Grandma Enya had previously acted like a magic instructor; it was very likely she possessed items similar to magic books.
Such items were extremely important to Kara, who currently knew nothing about magic.