Jinger

It was already past one in the afternoon when they left Wall Street. Signing all kinds of contracts and completing the necessary procedures had taken up quite a bit of time. Yuri drove around aimlessly until he found a self-service restaurant that looked fairly large. Under the server's horrified gaze, he single-handedly refreshed the selection of meat dishes thirteen times in a row. Then, with the owner bowing and scraping, he was sent out the door with coupons for several other buffet restaurants.

As he drove aimlessly around the streets, many things he saw had already surfaced in his memories. Even so, seeing them with his own eyes still left him marveling at the speed of human evolution. From apes that ate raw meat and drank blood to civilized people dressed in fine clothes, they had accomplished it in a mere few tens of thousands of years. The growth of the souls beneath their frail bodies had been even faster. No wonder the Blip of only half the population had awakened the Celestial buried at the core of the Earth.

As he drove, his attention was suddenly caught by a poster plastered across the outer wall of a movie theater: Jinger, star of Shadow Warrior: Time Journey, would arrive in New York on the twenty-fourth of this month!

"Heh."

Yuri took out his phone and glanced at it. His golden eyes gleamed with anticipation. "What a coincidence, Jinger. I was just planning to go to Bollywood to find you..."

Jinger: One of the Eternals who descended to Earth. He could fire incredibly powerful energy blasts from his fingers. After briefly charging, he could also rub his hands together to create a massive energy sphere with power comparable to an artillery shell. He had a high attack frequency and a wide attack range, and often hid behind Phastos's iron fortress to unleash sustained fire, causing considerable damage to the Mutants back then.

After sealing or killing all the Mutants, the ten-member Eternals team announced its disbandment. Jinger wandered the world and unexpectedly became obsessed with acting and filmmaking. Because of the Eternals' ageless nature, he had no choice but to single-handedly establish an entire family line. By this generation, he should already be the great-great-grandson of that original version of himself.

Yuri quickly browsed through the memories in his mind. He wished he could teleport back to the shop immediately and search online for Jinger's exact whereabouts. At least twenty percent of the Mutants' blood debt lay on that man's head. Now that he had come to Yuri's territory, Yuri would kill him no matter what.

After taking a deep breath to calm the agitation in his heart, he wrenched the steering wheel around and stepped on the accelerator, driving toward the shop.

When he pushed open the shop door, the first thing Yuri saw was five humanoid Mutants standing in a neat row, each holding a stack of papers covered in writing. Vanax stood at the front and proudly extended the three sheets in her hands, complaining in an indescribable accent, "Boss~ Why did you take so long to come back? We finished the plan before lunch, and we've been waiting all afternoon for you to come back and approve it~"

Yuri ignored her. As he passed the five of them, he took each copy of their Search for Our Comrades plan. Then he nodded at Yinsen, of whom only two eyes hidden behind a book were visible above the counter. Hurrying upstairs, he said, "The five of you, come with me. There's something extremely important I need to tell you."

The five of Shack exchanged glances. Although their hearts were full of questions, they followed him without saying a word.

Behind the counter, Yinsen lowered his book and rubbed his gleaming forehead. He had deliberately borrowed several books next door today about company management and personnel allocation, but after reading this long, he had only gotten through a few dozen pages. He envied the quintet's ability to learn so intensely that he even felt somewhat inferior. Pushing his glasses back up from the tip of his nose, he shook his head and sighed sincerely, "I'm getting old..."

The third floor of the shop.

Yuri quickly turned on the computer. Under the gazes of Shack and the others, he opened a search engine and entered the keywords "Bollywood," "Shadow Warrior," "Jinger," and "schedule." A poster featuring a massive motorcycle appeared on the screen. Yuri clicked the image and enlarged it, then rotated his chair 180 degrees amid the increasingly heavy breathing behind him, turning to face the five of them.

Looking at their eyes, which were filled with hatred, he nodded in satisfaction. "After wiping us all out, the Eternals blended into human society and went into hiding. I've already killed their leader, Ajak; Phastos, their intellectual; Druig, their Mind Control expert; and Makkari, their speedster. And the person you're looking at is Jinger, the sharpshooter hiding within human society!"

"Over the endless years of the past, he caused immeasurable harm to our race. Tens of thousands of our comrades died at the hands of this despicable coward, who only knew how to hide inside his tortoise shell and launch sneak attacks. Our numbers may be small now, but with my help, all of you have improved a hundred or a thousand times over your sealed state. Whether in recovery, soul strength, speed, or the powerful weapons I now control, you're all strong enough to face the remaining six Eternals head-on, one-on-one."

"Boss."

The most steady of them, Shack, spoke first this time. His voice trembled slightly with excitement, and every muscle in his body spasmed and quivered uncontrollably. "Where is he? I can't wait to kill him!"

Upon hearing this, Yuri gave him a vicious headbutt. Grabbing the ear of Shack, who was built like a bear, he dragged the man—whose reason had been overwhelmed by emotion—to the computer screen. "Where, where? Do I have to explain everything to you? Can't you see the huge words on the screen?"

Shack gritted his teeth as he read the information on the screen: "According to reports, Jinger will arrive in New York on the evening of the twenty-fourth. After staying one night at the Shalina Hotel, he will begin promoting his new work, Shadow Warrior: Time Journey, at the plaza in front of the hotel at eight the next morning."

"I see it, I see it."

Although Shack was in great pain, he absolutely did not dare pull free of Yuri's right hand, which was gripping his ear. He could only beg ingratiatingly, "Boss, I was wrong. I really see it now."

"Hmph!"

Thanks to the Mutants' powerful physiques, Yuri's violent tug on Shack's ear did not tear off that dispensable appendage. Instead, the tremendous force transmitted through it dragged his entire body into the wall panel behind him with a heavy crash.

The other four—Vanax and the rest—paid no attention to Shack's sorry state. Each of them stared intently at Yuri, waiting for his next order.

"Today is the twenty-fourth."

Yuri glanced at Shack, who stood hunched and shrinking at the end of the line. Shack immediately lowered his right hand, which had been rubbing his ear, and assumed an attentive posture.

"As the saying goes, haste makes waste. We definitely can't carry out our revenge against Jinger before he enters the hotel. Although we'd certainly be able to accomplish our goal, the impact would be too great and wouldn't fit our principle of keeping a low profile. So my plan is to postpone your plan to study Daredevil's crime-fighting methods tonight. After midnight, we'll infiltrate the hotel and kill Jinger with lightning speed!"

Seeing that no one objected, he ordered Cheetah, whose overall performance had been the best, "Go to Hell's Kitchen and find the Murdock Law Firm. Tell Matthew that you'll be doing Partners of Justice with him tomorrow night instead."

After thinking it over and finding no oversights, he had the other four adjust their conditions while he began preparing the weapons and equipment for tonight's revenge operation.