Wu Chen stepped out of the alley and walked through the streets of Hell's Kitchen, maintaining Minato Namikaze's appearance as he strolled along unhurriedly.
He was trying to come across a 'Random Mission.'
A 'Random Mission' meant waiting for someone to ask for help, then accepting their request as a mission.
He couldn't very well grab a random person and say, "I'll help you get something done, and you pay me for it~" or something like that!
That would be far too uncool, and too deliberate.
So Wu Chen had spent the whole night thinking up a way to 'accept Random Missions.'
As long as the place he was in was chaotic enough, someone was bound to come asking for help.
Still, to be fair, when it came to accepting missions, Konoha's mission hall was the best.
There, whatever kind of mission you wanted, you could find it.
Without Konoha's mission hall, accepting missions was really inconvenient.
"Hey! You, kid in the weird outfit!"
Instead of finding a 'Random Mission,' however, trouble came looking for him.
A bald man blocked Wu Chen's path.
He was a white man, two meters tall and broad and brawny, with a fleshy face that made him look downright fierce.
"Can I help you?" Wu Chen asked pleasantly when the man stopped him.
He had come out this time precisely to look for trouble.
Finding missions, accepting them, and then completing them—wasn't that just looking for trouble?
Of course, if he didn't take a cent in the process, then it absolutely was.
So he had long been prepared for a stranger to stop him.
Wu Chen spoke politely, but the man seemed to think he was an easy target. He reached out, grabbed Wu Chen by the collar, and said viciously, "You've been wandering around here. Are you looking for me?"
"Hmm?" Wu Chen didn't understand. He glanced at the bald man's hand gripping his collar. "Could you let go of me before we talk?"
"Haha! Bald John's up to no good again. This'll be a good show! I bet five seconds!"
"Five seconds? You're giving this pretty boy too much credit. I bet he'll beg for mercy before it even starts."
"I bet three seconds!"
"Place your bets, place your bets!"
When the people around them saw this, none of them called the police or stepped in to help. Instead, they all gloated over his misfortune.
Clearly, these guys were all cut from the same cloth.
Hearing Wu Chen's words, Bald John grinned. "Kid, looks like you really were looking for me, and you came to give me money, right?"
Now Wu Chen understood. "Robbery?"
"No, no, no~ How can you call it robbery?" Bald John's breath hit Wu Chen's face, making him frown. "Didn't I just say it? You came to give me money."
"Let me think. You should be giving me a thousand dollars, right?"
As he spoke, he raised his other, free hand and waved his fist, as big as a cooking pot, in front of Wu Chen.
"I don't want to hear you say no. Otherwise, I might get angry, and my fist might land on you before I can stop it."
Seeing this, Wu Chen didn't answer. Instead, he turned and looked around at the people nearby.
"So you're all scum!"
"!!!" Bald John flew into a rage. "Kid, what did you say?!"
As he spoke, his fist was about to come down on Wu Chen.
Just then, a little boy suddenly shouted from nearby, "Stop bullying him! I called the police!"
Bald John stopped and turned to look.
Wu Chen also withdrew the hand he had been preparing to form a Rasengan with and looked over.
It was a brown-haired boy of about ten. He was clutching a phone and mustering his courage to shout, "Let him go!"
"Hahahaha!!!" Everyone, Bald John included, burst out laughing.
Still holding Wu Chen, Bald John walked up to the boy and bent down. "Little guy, don't tell me you don't know that the New York police don't respond to calls in this area?"
"Ah!" The boy was clearly frightened. "But the police officer just said he'd be here right away..."
"He lied to you! They'll only come after it's all over and clean up the mess! Hahahaha!!"
At once, the people around them were amused and burst into unrestrained laughter.
Seeing this, Peter Parker, only eleven years old, turned ashen. Though he was young, he knew full well what he would face.
After offending a thug like this, the best he could hope for was to be beaten half to death and robbed of his money.
If things got any worse, he hardly dared imagine what might happen to him.
He had only gone out to buy something, and the shop in this neighborhood happened to have it, so he had come over to buy it. He hadn't expected to run into something like this.
He had possessed a strong sense of justice since he was little, so of course he wouldn't just stand by.
But he wasn't stupid either. Rather than rushing straight in, he had called the police.
He hadn't expected the police to ignore this area!!
Wh-what am I going to do?!
Looking at the somewhat panicked boy, Wu Chen felt it was time to act.
Such a brave and kindhearted child had put himself in danger to help him, and Wu Chen liked him very much.
In that case, of course he had to protect him.
So Wu Chen raised his hand, gripped the wrist of the hand Bald John was holding his collar with, and slowly began to apply pressure.