A remote town fifty kilometers north of Quantico.
Hawk had looked over the terrain around Quantico on satellite maps, so he roughly knew how to drive there after leaving the airport.
So when the young Black man drove the vehicle away from Hawk's expected route just now, Hawk grew suspicious.
His memory had always been good, and after awakening his Cosmo, it had undergone a qualitative leap as well.
After getting out of the car, Hawk looked around.
Remote.
Muddy.
Hmm.
It was a good place for robbery, murder, and burying bodies. No wonder the young Black man had driven here.
Hawk thought to himself.
Behind him.
The young Black man in the car was bruised and battered, but his life was not in danger. He was still screaming.
Hawk had not killed him.
At least, not yet.
A moment later.
Hawk turned around, opened the car door, grabbed the wailing young Black man inside with one hand, and tossed him onto the dirt road, which was muddy from the recent rain.
Thud!
After hitting the ground, the young Black man felt dizzy and disoriented. But driven by his instinct to survive, he quickly scrambled up, knelt before Hawk, and pleaded in a trembling voice, "Please, don't kill me. Please, don't kill me. I know I was wrong."
Hawk looked at the young Black man before him, who was now as miserable as he had been arrogant moments ago.
His voice was cold.
"You don't know you were wrong. You only know you're about to die."
"..."
The young Black man's body stiffened, and his pleading became even more trembling.
Hawk narrowed his eyes. "Give me one reason not to kill you."
The young Black man froze slightly.
The next second.
He raised his bruised and swollen face toward Hawk, his voice hurried as he searched for a chance to survive.
"Take my car. My money too. Right, I have money. You can have my money too."
"Not enough. If I kill you, your car and money will still be mine."
Hawk shook his head expressionlessly.
"Think again!"
"...You can't kill me. If you kill me, you'll be wanted too. As long as you don't kill me, don't worry, I promise I won't tell anyone about this. Please, don't kill me."
The young Black man spoke hurriedly, his eyes filled with an endless desire to live.
Hearing that, Hawk glanced at him and lowered his gaze in thought.
He seemed to be considering how credible those words were.
When the young Black man kneeling before him saw Hawk's eyes move away from him, joy surged in his heart.
While continuing to beg in a pathetic voice, the young Black man carefully moved his right hand toward the small of his back.
The next second.
"Yah!"
The young Black man drew a folding knife from his waist with his right hand, let out a strange cry, then suddenly lunged up with a ferocious expression. Gripping the folding knife, he charged at Hawk. "Die!"
The instant Hawk raised his eyes, his gaze turned icy. He slapped him directly.
Thump, thump, thump!
In an instant, the young Black man's head began spinning rapidly as if it had been wound up.
Faster and faster.
Tighter and tighter.
Until...
Rip!
His neck, twisted into a knot and no longer able to hold, tore apart at the base of his throat.
Splat, splat, splat!
Thud, thud, thud!
Hawk lowered his gaze again and looked at the head that had rolled to his feet, its face still frozen in a ferocious expression. A mocking smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"I really was going to let you go."
"What a pity."
"Your kind's racial inferiority runs too deep."
"You fear power, not virtue!"
"I gave you the one chance in this life when I might have softened my heart, but you thought I was afraid."
"Heh!"
As Hawk thought this, his gaze fell on the headless corpse, which was still spurting blood after losing the plug that had been its head.
He had not lied. He had truly been considering letting the young Black man go.
Not only because he had business to attend to here and did not want killing this young Black man to create complications that would affect his plans.
There was an even more important reason.
A bottom line.
Just as Hawk had said before, once a bottom line was broken, even he could not imagine what he might become in the future.
Killing was like a valve.
Once that valve was opened, life would no longer be revered.
This was especially true for a transmigrator like him, who already possessed flexible moral boundaries.
The Chitauri Soldiers from before were different.
After all, Hawk had seen the Chitauri Soldiers' true forms. They might have resembled humanoids, but at their core, they were insects.
Humans would not feel guilty for killing insects, and Hawk would not grant his principles or bottom line to a group of evolved bugs either.
But this young Black man before him was different.
In fact, it was just as Hawk had expected.
Although this was Hawk's first time killing a person in the truest sense, as he looked at the headless corpse spurting blood before him, he felt no discomfort at all. He did not even have the slightest emotional reaction.
No.
There was one.
This did not seem any different from killing a Chitauri.
Hawk thought to himself and subconsciously closed his eyes.
He had not considered closing that valve again.
Everything happened either zero times or countless times.
Now that the valve of killing had been opened, whether he wanted it or not, at least from today onward, killing would no longer be something he rejected.
With that thought settled.
Hawk turned around and no longer looked at the head lying in the mud or the headless corpse nearby, still spraying blood. After opening the car door and getting in, he looked up at the azure sky, then ducked into the vehicle, stepped on the gas, and drove away from the small road.
He had no interest in digging a hole for the young Black man or anything like that.
The valve of killing had already been opened and could no longer be shut. Since that was the case, whether the young Black man's corpse was discovered or not was no longer a problem for him.
Killing one was still killing.
Then killing one more, or however many more, was merely a matter of numbers.
But...
"Killing is permissible."
"Bloodlust is not."
"A true strong man always keeps a humble heart."
Hawk silently thought to himself. After driving the taxi out of the remote path, he merely glanced around before finding the correct road and heading toward Quantico, which was still some distance away.
He simply did not have a driver's license in this life. That did not mean he could not drive.
As Hawk's vehicle left the small road, which rarely saw passersby even under normal circumstances, it gradually returned to its usual silence and isolation.
About half an hour later.
Footsteps once again broke the silence of the remote path.
Then came a second set, and a third.
Very soon.
Three men wearing sunglasses arrived on the path, their gazes falling on the head in the mud and the headless corpse that was no longer spurting blood.
Before you continue