Facing a Drug Dealer's Gunfire, He Froze on the Spot-Then Suddenly Used Lingbo Weibu

Manhattan was the most prosperous area in the world, without a doubt. It was New York's smallest borough and also its most densely populated. Within that small area were many landmarks known around the world, such as Wall Street, the Empire State Building, Broadway and Times Square. Of course, there was also Chinatown, one of many found all over the world.

Chinatown was in Lower Manhattan, with Brooklyn just across the Manhattan Bridge and Queens a little farther north. Xia Yu decided to begin his superhero career in Brooklyn and Queens, mainly because he felt it would be easy to expose his identity too close to home. He wasn't strong enough yet, so it was better to keep a low profile for now. It would be troublesome if someone followed him, too. Brooklyn and Queens weren't too far away, but a river separated them from home, making it easier to take a roundabout route if someone really did follow him.

Xia Yu went to Brooklyn first, because that friendly neighborhood hero in Queens was still little! The stories in Marvel movies generally took place around the time the films were released, except for Captain America, which was set during World War II. Avengers: Endgame also started in the present before jumping forward five years.

Spider-Man appeared in Captain America 3, a movie released in 2016, when Peter Parker was only thirteen. Xia Yu had transmigrated in August 2007, so by that calculation, Spider-Man was only four and could barely run properly! Xia Yu might as well walk around Brooklyn and see Captain America's hometown.

With his combat-mode minimap open, Xia Yu strolled through the streets of Brooklyn, looking at girls and peering into the alleys on either side to see whether one might be the one where Captain America had been beaten up in the movie.

The minimap was convenient. In combat mode, whenever a crime occurred within a kilometer, it marked the criminals with red dots, so all Xia Yu had to do now was stroll around with his radar.

Eager to try his skills, Xia Yu had been walking for a long time when a red dot finally appeared on the map. It wasn't far away, just inside an alley up ahead. He hurried over and activated one-click outfit change the moment he entered. Dressed in black armor and a headpiece from the Cangyun Sect in JX3, with a mask as well, he looked somewhat mysterious and imposing under the dim light.

A lowlife street dealer was making a drug deal with someone in the alley. The guy buying the drugs was probably going through withdrawal. The moment he received a packet of white powder, he couldn't wait to squat down and start using it. He didn't even react when Xia Yu came in. The dealer, on the other hand, reacted quickly. As soon as he heard footsteps, he pulled out a gun and pointed it at Xia Yu!

"Who are you? Oh, that's a really nice outfit. Did you just come from a party? What do you want?" the dealer asked, a little surprised when he got a good look at Xia Yu.

Given Xia Yu's experience as a civilian who had grown up in a peaceful environment and had only been working for a few years since graduation, the first time someone pointed a gun at him, he was shamefully dumbstruck. He really was dumbstruck. Special forces-level physical abilities, fighting mastery, Lingbo Weibu, being a superhero—he forgot all of it. He had gone in full of confidence, planning to teach a robber or car thief or someone like that a lesson, but he hadn't expected to be unable to move from the moment someone pulled a gun on him. He didn't even hear the dealer speaking to him.

"Hey, man, didn't you hear me asking you a question? Get out of here, or I'll shoot!" the dealer warned him again.

Xia Yu still didn't react. His mind had gone completely blank!

But from the dealer's perspective, he was selling drugs late at night when some guy in armor suddenly walked in, looking like trouble. Even with a gun pointed at him, the guy didn't answer any questions and just stared coldly at him. He had to be either trying to take over his turf or rob another criminal.

"Man, if you don't say something, I'm really going to shoot!" By the time the dealer finished speaking, Xia Yu had actually begun to come to his senses, but he hadn't had time to react.

Bang!

The dealer had fired without hesitation, and the shot was aimed straight at Xia Yu's head.

The instant the dealer fired, Xia Yu's body suddenly moved. He dodged the shot with a sidestep, then turned and smoothly crossed the roughly ten meters between them, arriving right in front of the dealer. By then, the dealer had just recovered enough to fire a second shot. Xia Yu stepped forward and to the right, then turned and was already behind him.

As the second shot rang out, Xia Yu's right hand chopped down hard just below the back of the dealer's head.

Smack! The dealer fell to the ground.

The whole process had taken less than three seconds at most.

Phew... Xia Yu let out a long breath. He felt that his back was soaked. What had just happened was purely his body's instinctive response to danger, just like when you were watching TV and someone suddenly slapped at your hand with a knife: whether they hit it or not, you would instinctively dodge. But if the person had trained, their instinctive response might be to strike back directly.

That was why, for many martial artists, years of practice did more than exercise the body. They turned every move into muscle instinct. What Xia Yu had just displayed was that kind of instinct—the instinct of Lingbo Weibu and fighting mastery. The system's loading process didn't just teach him the skills.

"Congratulations, Master, on capturing one drug dealer. Points awarded: 20." Tmall's voice rang out.

"Only 20 points? He was a drug dealer, and he had a gun. He nearly shot me dead, and I only get 20 points?" Xia Yu was a little angry. As he spoke, he glanced at the unconscious dealer, still shaken.

"He was only a minor street dealer, and a gun poses no threat to your Lingbo Weibu, Master. Street crimes like this are only for you to practice on. I hope you adapt as soon as possible," Tmall said, still without any inflection.

Xia Yu had actually already figured it out. The low Points reward was inevitable, and he had also been given Lingbo Weibu in advance. It seemed it was meant to let him practice.

In an instant, Xia Yu understood two things. First was the problem with his own mindset. He had suddenly transmigrated into the world of a movie and been given such a huge cheat right from the start, so he had begun to treat it a little like a game.

Second, because this was a movie world, the stories in the movies were all far too high-level: Iron Man, Captain America, S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra, alien invasions. The stories he had watched before had all been about saving the world. He had gotten too caught up in the protagonists' perspective and underestimated ordinary people.

There was nothing really blameworthy about that. It was like when we watched films and shows or read novels: the protagonists dealt with princes and emperors, and the least important people were imperial princes and high-ranking officials of the six ministries. If a county magistrate or prefect suddenly appeared, readers would look down on them. But from another angle, prefects and county magistrates were the equivalent of the top officials in today's counties or prefecture-level cities. Ordinary people like us would never normally even get to meet such figures. That was Xia Yu's current reader mentality, or rather, his gaming mentality.

All of that had just been shattered by the dealer's handgun. Everything in the movies was reality to Xia Yu. If not for the skills the system had given him, a street dealer with a small handgun could have killed him without him even knowing how he died. Thinking of the crises he would face in the future, Xia Yu set his mindset straight for the first time.

Once he had recovered, Xia Yu remained composed and calm. After asking the system and learning that the police would arrive soon to handle things, he put the dealer's handgun and the cash he was carrying into his storage ring. Ignoring the drooling drug user slumped on the ground, he activated Lingbo Weibu and quickly disappeared into the darkness at the other end of the alley!