Sin City

New York City, north, Bronx, in an abandoned park.

Two Black men in hip-hop clothes were beating a Mexican woman.

"You lowly old Latina bitch, we told you to hand over your wallet and you dared resist? We'll teach you a lesson today!"

Just as the two were having a great time beating her, a sharp whistling sound suddenly came from afar, making them instinctively look up.

But the next second, a question mark appeared in both their minds:

"What. The. Fuck?"

What did they see?

They saw what seemed to be a black dot in the distant sky slowly growing larger. As it drew closer, they realized that black dot was actually a tree trunk at least a meter thick in diameter.

That alone would have been one thing, but the key was that there was actually someone standing on that huge tree?

A person stood on a tree trunk, flying through the sky. The two rubbed their eyes, convinced they must have been too sleepy before leaving home and were now hallucinating.

Yet they soon realized it was not an illusion at all.

Because with a tremendous boom, the tree trunk plunged straight into the lawn roughly ten meters away from them.

The person standing on the trunk had jumped off in advance, performing a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree flip in the air like a gymnast before landing steadily on the ground.

The dirt thrown up when the trunk struck the lawn splattered across their faces, painfully real.

"The calculations were correct. The landing error was under five meters. Perfect!"

Looking around, Hawking nodded in satisfaction.

During the previous vacation, he had specifically come to scout out the Bronx. This abandoned park was the best landing spot he had found, since few people lived nearby and it was less likely to be noticed.

New York had five boroughs in total: the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island.

Manhattan was a famous wealthy district and the symbol of New York City. The headquarters of many major corporations were located in Manhattan, such as Tony Stark's Stark Industries.

East of Manhattan, separated from it by the East River, was Queens.

Queens was the largest of New York's five boroughs by area, had the second-largest population, and ranked behind only Manhattan economically. It was also home to several well-known companies, such as Oscorp.

Bordering Queens to the south was Brooklyn, the most populous borough in New York and the birthplace of Captain America Steve Rogers.

Of course, there was no Captain America in this universe, only Captain Carter.

At the southernmost end of New York was Staten Island. It had the smallest population and was relatively far away, practically an island in the sea with rather nice coastal scenery.

Finally, there was the Bronx, where Hawking currently was. It bordered Manhattan and lay at the northernmost edge of New York City.

Mutant School had been built in the suburbs north of the Bronx, while Oleg and Elena worked and lived near the border between the Bronx and the suburbs, at a company owned by Professor X's family.

Hawking had often heard that the most dangerous place in New York was Hell's Kitchen in Manhattan, the place where Daredevil frequently appeared.

But after three years of learning about the city, Hawking had discovered that while Hell's Kitchen was indeed dangerous, it was only a few blocks. When it came to the sheer number of crimes, the Bronx was the true champion.

Hell's Kitchen was merely Manhattan's slum, while the Bronx was New York's slum.

Because most of New York's African American and Latino residents lived in this borough, the Bronx's crime rate ranked among the highest in the entire United States, even the world.

The southern part of the Bronx in particular was famously chaotic, comparable to Sin City in a video game.

Naturally, this became Hawking's first choice for earning Justice Points. It was close to the school and had a high crime rate.

"Is this... a good start?"

After landing in style, Hawking quickly spotted the two Black men standing there in shock with a handbag in hand, as well as the middle-aged woman lying on the ground with a bruised and swollen face.

With cheerful steps, he walked up to the two men.

"My friendly suggestion is that you return her handbag."

"Fuck you!"

The two Black men exchanged a glance, then actually pulled daggers from their pockets and stabbed toward Hawking's stomach.

That surprised him somewhat. He had thought they would be frightened after seeing what had just happened, but he had not expected them to be so bold.

He had only occasionally come here during vacations to survey the terrain. Though he knew something about the crime situation here, it had only come from newspapers and hearsay.

He did not know that those Thugs who had lived at the bottom of society here all their lives, living day to day and liable to die in a gutter at any moment, had long developed mindsets unlike ordinary people.

In their eyes, Hawking was somewhat unbelievable, but so what? If he dared tell them to return spoils that could be used to buy drugs, he would first have to answer to the knives in their hands.

More importantly, Hawking did not have a gun. In their eyes, guns were the only truly intimidating weapons they could understand.

Compared with these Thugs, those higher-ups who had fought their way into comfortable lives valued their own lives much more.

"Then don't blame me."

He reached out and caught the wrists holding the knives with lightning speed, then forcefully bent them upward.

Crack!

As two bones snapped, the two Black men let out miserable screams.

He had never shown mercy to anyone who wanted to take his life.

Besides, there were no reporters or other people here. There was no need to put on a show, so he did not need to hold back.

"Get out of here."

He kicked both Black men in the stomach, sending them sprawling to the ground vomiting blood, then picked up the handbag and tossed it to the middle-aged woman who had just struggled to her feet.

"Thank you!"

The middle-aged woman grabbed her handbag, thanked him, and immediately ran away, terrified that whatever happened next might drag her into it.

Hawking did not mind. His goal was Justice Points, not gratitude.

"Poor bastards!"

He searched the two Black men and found less than twenty dollars, which irritated him slightly.

The school provided food and lodging, so he naturally felt embarrassed about asking Oleg and Elena for too much spending money.

He pocketed the twenty dollars and ignored the two unconscious Black men. After a few leaps, Hawking vanished from the park and arrived on the roof of a six-story building on a nearby street.

"Flavius!"

He cast the Transfiguration Charm on his tracksuit, which instantly transformed into a domineering set of golden armor. He picked up a fallen leaf drifting in the wind, turned it into a golden helmet, and placed it over his head.

Since he intended to establish the image of a Super Hero, he definitely needed a distinctive outfit.

The more flashy and handsome he looked, the more he could attract the public's attention and earn more people's admiration. Even wearing a helmet was not to reduce trouble, but to create an air of mystery.

That way, when his identity was finally revealed, it would be explosive enough.

Everything he did was not only to earn Justice Points. More importantly, it was to lay the groundwork for the future Super Hero International Company.

He was not childish enough to simply show off and act cool.