Osborn Bio-Industry Tower

The next day.

Hawk got up early. After getting dressed, slinging his shoulder bag over his back, and taking the documents Mrs. Snow had given him, he headed out to catch the subway.

He had originally planned to take the bus.

As everyone knew,

New York City's subway was hard to put into words.

Unfortunately, Hawk discovered there was no direct bus from his new apartment to Osborn Bio-Industry Tower. If he took the bus, he would have to transfer three times.

When he did the math, he figured he might as well take the subway.

At the very least, if you had no morals, you could ride the subway for free.

In short,

you could hop the turnstiles at subway stations. And even if you did not fare-dodge, the total fare was still cheaper than taking the bus.

So Hawk simply decided to take the subway.

Only...

the moment he got on, he regretted it.

It stank!

All sorts of colorful odors surged at him from every direction, making Hawk shut off his sense of smell with lightning speed.

But it would have been one thing if the smell were the only problem.

There were plenty of weirdos putting on a show inside the carriage too.

A hippie clutching a guitar howled like a dying animal, fantasizing that one day he would become a great musician.

And not far away, a Black woman built like a tank from every conceivable angle had a golden python coiled around her neck.

God knew how she had brought that thing inside.

But that was not the point.

As everyone knew, if someone made a list of the places in New York City with the most pickpockets, subway cars would definitely rank high on it.

Sure enough, a dark-skinned young man in a hooded cap set his sights on Hawk.

His instincts told him Hawk was a subway newbie.

A so-called subway newbie was someone who rarely rode the subway and did not understand how dangerous subway cars could be or how unpredictable people were.

Such passengers might not be wealthy, but they were absolutely the easiest prey. That was why their fellow thieves had labeled them subway newbies.

Very soon,

the young man pretended to adjust his earbuds. Nodding his head and humming to himself, he moved behind Hawk.

The next second,

as his right hand dropped from his earbuds, a folding knife flashed into his hand, ready to slash open Hawk's shoulder bag.

Just then,

Hawk, who had his back to him, suddenly seemed to lose his balance. He stumbled and lurched several steps backward.

The young man behind Hawk, who had been about to make his move, had not expected this. The handle of the folding knife he had just taken out, before he could even adjust his grip, was struck by Hawk and sent the blade spinning around. With a wet squelch, it pierced straight through his wrist.

"Aah!"

The young man immediately let out a miserable scream. His eyes went wide as he sucked in a sharp breath and stared at the folding knife embedded in his wrist.

Blood dripped from the wound onto the subway floor, splat, splat.

The people around them were startled by his scream. Then, after seeing the dark skin of the young man whose wrist had been pierced, they quickly looked away.

The subway had just reached a station.

The passengers around them all rose and left the carriage as if by prior agreement.

No one cried out.

No one cared. No one stepped forward to ask whether he needed medical assistance.

Hawk also followed the crowd off the train.

From beginning to end, he never turned around to look at the young man even once.

After leaving the carriage, Hawk felt one, two, three venomous gazes boring into his back from behind him, and the corner of his mouth lifted slightly.

He had already been merciful enough.

If this had not been a subway, but some remote wilderness or an alley without cameras, he would have scattered the ashes of that young man who had tried to steal from him.

Could he not see that Hawk was dressed head to toe in cheap street-stall clothes worth less than fifty dollars combined?

Hawk was already this poor, and the bastard still wanted to steal from him?

Was there no justice?

Was there no law?

Was there...

"Gwen?"

After leaving the subway station, Hawk was still irritated about nearly encountering a pickpocket on the train, feeling as though the matter had not sat right with him. Then he spotted Gwen standing not far away beneath Osborn Bio-Industry Tower, seemingly waiting for someone.

Gwen, who had been looking around at the entrance, suddenly caught sight of Hawk across the street. Her eyes lit up at once, and she raised her right hand, quickly waving at him.

Was she waiting for me?

Hawk paused slightly, then quickly crossed the street during a gap in traffic.

The Battle of New York had happened half a month ago. Now, after half a month had passed, Manhattan no longer even bore traces of the alien invasion that had taken place there.

That was the power of money.

The Battle of New York had ended in the morning, and repairs on the damaged buildings in Manhattan, especially on Wall Street, had begun at noon.

At the time, Osborn Bio-Industry Tower's exterior had also suffered severe damage.

But now, who could tell that Osborn's industrial tower had once been pierced through by the Chitauri during the Battle of New York?

Hawk looked up at Osborn Bio-Industry Tower, which rose into the clouds just like Stark Industries Tower five blocks away. Then he lowered his gaze to Gwen, who seemed to have been waiting for him at the entrance.

"Were you waiting for me?"

"Of course."

Unlike the outfits she wore at school, Gwen had tied her hair into a high ponytail today and wore the standard white lab coat of a researcher. She smiled. "If I didn't wait here, how would I uncover your secret?"

Hawk was briefly speechless and shook his head.

"I don't have any secrets."

"No, you do. And I'll find them."

Gwen said this with a solemn expression. Then her serious little face returned to a smile as she said to Hawk, "All right, I'm done teasing you. Mrs. Snow called me this morning. She forgot that you don't have a phone, and you don't have an Osborn access card yet. She was worried you would not even be able to get through Osborn's front doors, so she specifically called me and asked me to bring you in to find that..."

Gwen paused here and looked at Hawk. "By the way, what was the name of the person you were looking for again?"

"Max Dillon!"

Hawk gave the name of the future supervillain Electro, currently an inconspicuous engineer.

Gwen's expression cleared.

"Right, him. Come on, I'll take you to the Bio-Electrical Engineering Department."

"Okay."

Hawk did not refuse.

Gwen then slipped both hands into her pockets, flicked her ponytail, and turned around with a carefree swagger. She led Hawk to the card-access gate, then said a few words to the security guard beside it after they entered.

The security guard glanced at Hawk in the direction Gwen pointed, then nodded and manually opened the gate.

After Hawk came through, Gwen thanked the guard.

Before long,

Gwen expertly led Hawk to the Bio-Electrical Engineering Department on the first floor of the annex building.