Because I'm Bad, I'm Popular

Mindy Macready, codenamed Hit-Girl, is a terrifyingly fierce little loli who can take on over twenty armed gangsters by herself.

At first, when Li Congxin heard her name from the system prompt, he didn't react immediately.

It wasn't until he sifted through the candidates who could provide triple-digit Impression Points in a single encounter that he found inspiration in Kick-Ass.

Wasn't this little girl the female lead from Kick-Ass, the one whose strength far surpassed the male lead's – Hit-Girl?

Facing Hit-Girl's attack, even the current Li Congxin didn't dare to be careless.

Unable to dodge backward while sitting on the sofa, Li Congxin could only lean slightly to the side, evading Mindy's direct stab. At the same time, his right hand flashed with lightning speed, flicking upwards. His fingertips grazed the little loli's wrist, causing her arm to go numb. She immediately lost her grip on the butterfly knife, which Li Congxin snatched away.

With a successful strike, Li Congxin feinted with his left hand in front of Hit-Girl, easily forcing her back.

While Hit-Girl's strength was not bad, she was, after all, still a child and had not undergone any mutations. All her strength came from hard training. At most, she was somewhere between 0.4 and 0.5 Gu strength, no more.

Such strength was no problem for ordinary people, but facing Li Congxin, who possessed 1 Gu of combat power, she was simply outmatched.

Casually flipping the butterfly knife in various ways, Li Congxin looked at Mindy with a half-smile and asked, "What grudge or enmity do we have that you would attack me?"

"Hmph!" Mindy retorted defiantly, "I was just underestimating you. Let's fight outside again. If I win, you'll give me back my butterfly knife!"

"No need to fight, I concede." Li Congxin casually put away the butterfly knife, tossed it back to Mindy, and raised his hands in a gesture of surrender.

Mindlessly catching the butterfly knife, Mindy frowned and asked, "Why don't you dare to accept my challenge? Uncle Marcus told me you've studied martial arts, and you're very good at it!"

Li Congxin replied with mock seriousness, "On the first day I started learning martial arts, my master told me there are four types of people you absolutely cannot provoke when you're out in the world."

"Priests, pastors, women, and children."

"And you, being a little girl, cover two of those categories. Of course, I wouldn't dare to oppose you."

Li Congxin's words left Mindy stunned.

What kind of absurd theory was this? Why had she never heard that clergy, women, and children were so dangerous?

Received Impression Points +666 from Mindy Macready!

"Alright, Mindy, stop messing around. And Clark, come over for dinner!" Marcus's voice stopped Mindy from further challenging Li Congxin. The two exchanged a look and could only obediently go to the living room for dinner.

During the meal, Li Congxin presented his birthday gift, a Patek Philippe watch worth $160,000. However, Marcus reprimanded him, saying he shouldn't squander their parents' savings like that.

Hearing Marcus's reminder, Li Congxin suddenly remembered that the original owner of this body's parents had left him an inheritance in a bank safe, in addition to Martha's Gym.

With a wry smile, Li Congxin patiently explained that he hadn't touched the inheritance yet and that this watch was bought with a fraction of his manuscript fees.

Marcus then smiled again and expressed his sincere gratitude to Li Congxin.

During the subsequent conversation, Li Congxin finally understood the relationship between Hit-Girl and Marcus.

It turned out that Hit-Girl's father, Damon Macready, and Marcus were once the Vigilante Duo, feared by criminals. However, Damon was later framed and imprisoned by the mob, and his wife died during childbirth in grief, leaving only Mindy in swaddling clothes. Marcus raised her.

Years later, Damon was released from prison and took Mindy away, at which point Marcus lost his guardianship over Mindy.

In other words...

"I'm the one who was adopted recently?"

Received Impression Points +15 from Marcus Williams!

Received Impression Points +234 from Mindy Macready!

Your focus has clearly shifted!

With Li Congxin's life returning to normal, his studies, martial arts, physical fitness, grasp of Quantum Mechanics, and novel progress were all steadily improving at a stable pace.

However, as his strength increased, Li Congxin also vaguely felt that his physical fitness was approaching the limits of the human body. If he couldn't find a way to break through, his achievements might be very limited throughout his life.

Meanwhile, Old Pi was completely unmotivated regarding the research on the Super Soldier Serum. In his words, Howard spent half his life just to barely succeed in developing it, and it was still a knock-off version far less stable than the original.

Asking him to research a finished product from a blood sample of this knock-off within a short period was an impossible task!

One day, after finishing his sparring session with Yi Long, Li Congxin took a hot shower, changed into clean clothes, and had just walked into the villa's living room when he heard Hope's complaining voice.

"Kick-Ass again! Have the television stations in New York been completely dominated by this clown? Every entertainment program is about Kick-Ass, Kick-Ass. Isn't it annoying!"

With a sense of curiosity, Li Congxin walked over and sat down on the sofa, maintaining a polite distance from Hope. He then casually asked, "What has upset our young lady?"

"It's still that Kick-Ass?" Hope said impatiently, "Ever since that video of him getting beaten went viral, all the TV shows are talking about him. I even see imitators dressed in green everywhere I go on the street. It's a total aesthetic fatigue!"

Li Congxin chuckled at this and comforted her, "Calm down, this guy is actually our classmate."

"Who?"

"Dave Lizewski. The one who swapped seats with you on your first day of transferring."

"It's him?" Hope frowned, "With his skill level, why is he trying to be heroic? Is he Kick-Ass or Get-Kicked-Ass? If you put on a costume and went out to fight crime, you'd definitely be more popular than him!"

Li Congxin shook his head, "Impossible."

Seeing her confused expression, Li Congxin countered with a question, "Do you know why he became popular?"

Hope shook her head blankly.

Li Congxin replied with great certainty, "Because he's trash!"

"What?"

Hope clearly didn't understand why someone who sucked could become popular. That logic didn't seem to make sense.

"Clark's right," Old Pi said, walking down from the lab upstairs. "It's precisely because he lacks skill that society encourages his spirit of fighting bad guys. If Clark were to step in and defeat the villains in a few moves, it might be fine once or twice. But if it happened often, people would inevitably question the purpose of the police's existence."

"That would put the police in a very awkward position. Even to alleviate pressure, law enforcement officers would spare no effort in slandering him. Furthermore, it could even create instability in the social structure, and the media's evaluation of him would be mixed."

"So, Clark's conclusion is spot on. The real reason Kick-Ass became popular is precisely because he's bad at it!"

Casting a look of approval at Li Congxin, Old Pi chuckled, "But that rookie's spotlight is about to be overshadowed by you. Did you know you've already successfully stolen the headline from that Playboy at Stark's place?"

As he spoke, Old Pi proudly tossed a newspaper onto the coffee table in front of them.