Setback

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Black King's coughing immediately rang out from within the thick smoke. He might have been able to absorb energy, but unfortunately, he was not a range hood.

There was no way he could deal with those irritating gases.

Of course, as a powerful mutant, Black King's constitution was stronger than that of ordinary people. Thinking a few gas grenades could take him down was nothing but wishful thinking.

From the moment Rorschach had prepared the gas, he had never intended to use it against Black King. It was only meant to delay him, nothing more.

Even if the gas could not knock Black King out, it would still affect his movements.

While Black King was coughing, Rorschach and the others had already completely left the building.

When everyone turned back and saw that Black King had not chased after them, they all let out long sighs of relief.

Heaven knew, the pressure they had felt in front of Black King had been overwhelming.

"Rorschach, where did you get this stuff?"

Darwin could not help asking Rorschach. It was not like Rorschach had carried these things around while attending a party, was it?

"We'll talk once we're out of here!"

Rorschach brushed him off, then took out several more gas grenades and placed a few at each exit outside the building as well.

This ensured the "fog zone" spread as far as possible.

Only then could they delay Black King to the greatest extent.

"Out? Where are we going?" Angel asked helplessly.

"Let's get out of here first. This base has been exposed, so we have to leave immediately!" Rorschach said decisively.

"That's right, this place isn't safe anymore!"

Hank agreed from the side and pointed in a direction. "Everyone, follow me. I have a supply vehicle parked in Parking Lot C. If we squeeze in, it should fit us all..."

"There's no need for that."

Darwin shook his head, then walked directly toward several cars parked by the roadside and pulled out his key ring.

Besides keys, it also held several other "metal trinkets" that no one would normally pay attention to.

Darwin began using those tools to pick the lock of a Ford in front of him.

Voom!

Crash!

Banshee shattered the window of another car with a sonic blast. "Sorry, are you not done yet?"

Bang!

Crash!

On the other side, Rorschach had already smashed a car window with one punch. He said to Darwin, "Stop dawdling. You know how to hotwire a car, right? Get to it! The rest of you, if anyone has any tricks up their sleeve, now isn't the time to hold back."

Unfortunately, the method shown in movies—pulling out a few wires and rubbing them together to start the engine—looked simple, but it was not something just anyone could master.

Other than Darwin, no one possessed that kind of godlike skill.

In the end, Darwin started two cars one after the other. Everyone piled in, and they sped away from the place like mad.

Before long, both cars vanished into the night.

Only after the two cars had completely disappeared did Black King emerge from the thick white fog, bracing himself against a wall with one hand as he coughed loudly without stopping.

He was practically "weeping and snotting."

After Black King had adjusted his condition, he turned and looked around. Other than corpses scattered all over the ground, there was not a single person in sight.

All the mutants had already fled without leaving a single one behind.

Only then did Black King's expression turn exceptionally grim.

Not only had he lost two capable subordinates in this operation, he had failed to take even one mutant away. He had not even begun recruiting those mutants.

It was failure opening the door for failure's mother—failure all the way home.

Black King had never suffered such a setback before!

"Rorschach? That was his name, right?"

A few seconds later, Black King muttered those words.

His crushing defeat this time could be said to have been entirely thanks to that young mutant!

"Whew, we should be okay now, right?"

"How would I know? Just don't stop. Keep driving!"

"There's a railroad track ahead. If we keep going, it'll be a dead end!"

"How do you know that?"

"Buddy, I used to drive a taxi!"

Elsewhere.

Having completely left the base and arrived in an unknown small town, the mutants were still shaken.

They had been scared out of their wits inside the base, but thinking back on it now, they became even more frightened.

They knew very well what kind of organization the CIA was, yet everyone in the entire base had been killed!

Before this, aside from Hank, who had served as a technical consultant at the base, the others had all been inexperienced kids.

Everything that had happened today would become a nightmare for them for a long time to come.

"Okay, everyone, calm down. Just calm down."

Hank was older and more mature. He was the first to calm down, and he kept turning to look behind them. "I've been watching, and no cars are following us, so I think... we should be safe now."

Whew!

At that, everyone in the car finally let out long breaths of relief.

"Who the hell were those people?"

"Yeah, they seemed to be after us."

"What did they want from us?"

"I don't know, but I swear I never want to see that guy again for the rest of my life."

They were young people, after all. The pressure in their hearts had eased slightly, and they immediately began chattering away.

"Everyone, everyone! We can talk about that later. The problem right now is that I think we should find somewhere to discuss what to do next."

Darwin, who was driving up front, raised his voice several octaves and turned to remind the people behind him.

Mission complete. Congratulations, Host, you have received 300 Origin Points!

While everyone was arguing noisily, Rorschach received this notification from the system.

However, he concealed the joy in his heart well in front of the others and did not show anything.

Instead, he quietly entered the system panel and checked the relevant data.

Host: Rorschach

Age: 16

Speed: 61 meters/second

Strength: 15.2 tons

Constitution: 144 (average healthy adult male: 10)

Mental Power: 102 (average healthy adult male: 10)

Current Template: Homelander (Unlock Progress: 2%)

Abilities: X-ray Vision (Beginner), Super Hearing (Beginner), Flight (Locked), Heat Vision (Locked)

Origin Points: 300

Sure enough, the zero in the Origin Points field had become 300.

The Host has unused Origin Points. Use them immediately for enhancement?

Immediately afterward, the system panel displayed another prompt.

What was there to hesitate about?

"Enhance!"

Host: Rorschach

Age: 16

Speed: 85 meters/second

Strength: 39.2 tons

Constitution: 204 (average healthy adult male: 10)

Mental Power: 162 (average healthy adult male: 10)

Current Template: Homelander (Unlock Progress: 5%)

Abilities: X-ray Vision (Beginner), Super Hearing (Beginner), Flight (Locked), Heat Vision (Locked)

Origin Points: 0

At that same moment, the data on the system panel changed accordingly.

Every aspect of Rorschach's physical abilities had improved even more than before.