Gwen Stacy

As the saying went, endure a moment and the storm would pass; take a step back, and the more you thought about it, the angrier you got.

If someone provoked you and you didn't hit back, they would only think you were a pushover and keep bullying you.

Especially in a dog-eat-dog society like America, it was better to make people fear you than respect you.

Fear was far better than respect.

Li Chen left Ram and Rem to clean up the mess and headed straight out.

The address the White Queen had given him was a large hotel, an establishment the Hand operated in Los Angeles.

He couldn't exactly show up in his Superman Suit, or all of America would be shaken by tomorrow.

So he had to slip in quietly, no guns blazing.

Li Chen still flew straight there, arriving outside the hotel in an instant.

He landed in an alley and happened to see two black guys bullying a white girl.

"Get lost!"

Li Chen elegantly put on his Superman Glasses, then shouted.

To his surprise, the two black guys pulled out pistols and aimed them at him. "Yellow skin? Mind your own business."

Under their astonished gazes, Li Chen crushed the pistols in his hands.

"Get lost!"

This time, Li Chen didn't need to raise his voice much. The two black guys were instantly scared shitless.

They had been in a gang for a long time, but they had never seen anyone scarier than Li Chen.

Was he even human?

"Thank you."

After being rescued, the shy white girl thanked Li Chen.

Li Chen waved a hand. "Get back quickly. Don't stay outside at night."

The girl had blonde hair. She thanked Li Chen and said, "I came to Los Angeles with a friend for fun. I only came down to buy some water. I didn't expect it to be so dangerous."

"Oh, where are you from?"

"New York."

How did that saying go again? If you loved someone, send them to New York, because it was heaven. If you hated someone, send them to New York, because it was hell.

But in truth, Los Angeles, the City of Angels, was no better than New York.

Every year, countless young men and women came here with the "American dream," hoping to become famous overnight. In the end, they left this place of shattered dreams dejected and covered in scars.

Los Angeles also had a great many gangs, each with its own territory. Outsiders who came here could easily get robbed.

The girl had simply been unlucky.

The two chatted as they walked out of the alley. By the light of the streetlamps, he could see that the girl had a somewhat "rebellious" look: she had an eyebrow piercing, and her hair wasn't entirely blonde; the ends were a little pink.

Of course, she was indeed very pretty and sweet-looking.

Then they discovered they were headed to the same place: the hotel.

"I'm staying here. What are you going there for?"

"To find someone."

Li Chen answered casually with a smile.

But security at the hotel was tight. There were armed guards at both the entrance and the exit.

When the guards saw them approach, they immediately stopped Li Chen. "Sir, do you have an invitation?"

To his surprise, the girl beside him took his arm and said, "He's my boyfriend. We're going back to our room to rest."

The guard glanced at the affectionate pair and finally stepped aside.

Once they were inside, Li Chen said quietly, "Thank you."

"I should be thanking you for saving me."

She winked at Li Chen. "Oh, right, my name is Gwen Stacy. What's yours?"

"You can call me Li."

Li Chen exchanged names with her, then took another look at her.

She was the famous Gwen Stacy.

He wondered how old Peter Parker was.

"You should get back and rest."

Li Chen didn't say much more to her, his mind on his own affairs.

Gwen Stacy nodded and entered the elevator. She looked at Li Chen and opened her mouth.

But before she could say anything, the elevator doors closed.

"Damn it, I didn't ask for his contact information."

Gwen Stacy was full of regret.

There was something called the suspension bridge effect: in a tense, exciting environment, people could easily mistake physical reactions such as a racing heart for feelings of attraction toward someone nearby.

Simply put, the environment made you nervous, but you thought the person beside you was making your heart race.

That was why a hero saving a beauty so often led to her offering herself to him.

Of course, looks mattered too. Li Chen's looks were fairly good, so Gwen Stacy's heart fluttered, and she naturally fell for him.

Even after she returned to her room, Gwen Stacy's heart was still racing. She said to her friend, "Jane, you have no idea what I just went through."

Li Chen turned his gaze downward.

The hotel was no ordinary place. Like most establishments in America, it had a large casino beneath it.

Li Chen found the passage and went straight down.

The casino was much livelier than the floors above. White-collar workers in suits and ties roared wildly, waitresses dressed as bunny girls moved among them, and dealers whose clothes were cut so low they looked ready to fall off smiled as they dealt cards.

The lights were dazzling, and there was everything one could want to eat, drink, and have fun with. The exits, meanwhile, were "hidden," making people forget to leave for a while, unless they had lost even their underwear.

Li Chen had only one word to describe the place: "madness."

He saw some gambling addicts looking excited, while the people beside them were filled with despair.

Heaven and hell lay a single thought apart.

But Li Chen felt no sympathy, only contempt. Gambling addicts deserved a miserable death.

He calmly continued searching for his target.

Places like this were usually tied to gangs, because they needed the threat of force to guard against troublemakers.

So there were enforcers in every corner who looked like they could fight.

Li Chen took a look and confirmed that they were ninjas from the Hand.

The ninjas went out when they had assignments and guarded establishments when they didn't.

Li Chen didn't even know where to begin criticizing that.

He asked a bunny girl for a drink, then used Super Hearing.

Every noisy sound poured into his mind, and he slowly picked out the useful information.

Soon, he found the keywords.

"I wonder how it's going. They just need to teach that Chinese kid a lesson."

"Don't worry, Morita-san. With the Hand on the job, teaching a Chinese man without a single bodyguard a lesson couldn't be easier."

"Haha, he's naive too. How can you get by in America without private bodyguards?"

Hideo Morita laughed heartily. His bodyguards had been provided by the Hand, and he had been perfectly safe so far.

Li Chen was certain those two idiots were talking about him.

He immediately headed for the passage to the side.

It seemed clubs like this all liked to have hidden rooms of this sort. Unsurprisingly, there were ninjas guarding the door.

The moment they saw him, the two ninjas became alert.

Li Chen didn't look drunk, and a normal person wouldn't come over this way.

"Stop!"

The two ninjas shouted at once.

But Li Chen reached them in an instant, punching one in the stomach and driving his knee straight into the other.

KO!

Against ordinary people, he didn't even need two moves!