Alex Had Always Worked Hard for His Dreams!

Alex fell silent.

Jack had actually been his high school classmate. Back in high school, he had been discriminated against and bullied by tall white students because he was small and skinny. Alex had casually stopped one violent incident where Jack was being bullied, displaying powerful Chinese kung fu as he took on ten people alone. From then on, Alex became someone Jack admired, and Jack followed his lead.

During those three years of high school, because Jack followed Alex's lead, he was never bullied again. And through Jack, Alex learned about the chaotic situation in Lower City, where gangs ran rampant.

Jack was a sly, timid, skinny Black guy. When Alex told him he would regularly teach him Chinese kung fu for self-defense and asked him to work as an informant, familiarize himself with Lower City, and help him unify the gangs there after he graduated from college—promising him all the good food and drink he could want—Jack, who had failed to get into college, eagerly agreed.

Jack figured that following Alex was better than selling milk tea or pushing a food cart to sell egg pancakes. Besides, he had been born in Lower City and was somewhat familiar with its chaos. Without overthinking it, he put up a few hundred dollars and joined a gang.

He firmly remembered Alex's advice: the most important thing in the gang world was loyalty. He tirelessly took bullets and blades for several gang bosses, yet his luck was absurdly good. Nothing serious ever happened to him, leaving only a few shallow scars, while every boss he followed was hacked to death by rival gangs one after another. Instead, he earned a fine reputation on the streets and made a name for himself in Lower City.

When it came to Jack, who didn't know he was a man of unwavering loyalty? He would take a knife to the ribs for friends, brothers, and bosses alike. His loyalty soared to the heavens.

Alex had intended to consolidate the gangs of Lower City so it would be easier for him to gather intelligence and handle other matters. The reason he had managed to accumulate over ten million dollars and build his own underground base was largely due to his cooperation with Jack. They had robbed gangsters of their money and destroyed quite a few gangs.

But Alex truly hadn't expected Jack to develop so quickly. Was Jack really that suited to the gang life?

Alex's initial plan had been to first enter the legitimate world, take control of the underworld, and make both sides flourish. Then he would withdraw from the legitimate side and use his Brotherhood connections in Central City to make money in business, earn mountains of dollars, build a conglomerate, live it up every night, and, after gaining invincible Money Power, do whatever he wanted—like building a giant robot and flying it everywhere. Alex had always worked hard for his dreams!

He just hadn't expected Jack to fit so perfectly into the gang world. He had been directly elected gang boss and was about to lead his men into a fight against Lower City's third-largest gang. If he won, his future would truly be limitless...

After thinking it over for a moment, Alex felt that letting Jack become a gang boss had been a strategic mistake. Although Jack had been pushed into the position partly because the people supported him, it was also possible that others had used him as a target and shoved him forward to die.

Alex could not spare the attention for him for the time being. If Jack truly got into a gang war, then amid the hail of bullets, with only the kung fu Alex had taught him, he would most likely be shot full of holes.

Alex immediately told Jack to keep the gang steady and not make any rash moves for now. In a few days, if he still had not caught The Multiplicity and established himself at the police station, he would directly become a superhero, clear out the gang's rivals for him, and either kill the Crimson Angels' higher-ups or send them to prison, allowing Jack to lead the gang.

"All right... Boss, I'll wait for you..." Jack replied unwillingly. Without Alex backing him, he did not even dare casually leave gang headquarters to go to a nightclub and play hip-hop. He was afraid another gang would stab him in an ambush.

He really missed the days when he had only been a minor boss, when he could casually go DJ at nightclubs and play hip-hop. Back then, no one had wanted to stab him.

Things were different now. He was too conspicuous.

Being the boss was really stressful!

After ending the call, Alex frowned. He pinched the bridge of his nose between his index finger and thumb, narrowed his eyes, and let out a breath. Why did it feel like everything was going wrong today? First, Al Swan had scared off The Multiplicity, causing him to fail his first assignment on the very first day of work. Then Jack suddenly told him he had become a gang boss. Neither the legitimate side nor the underworld was flourishing at all.

Next, Alex contacted his other two informants. Calling them informants was perhaps an exaggeration—they were just like Jack, people who saw Alex as their backer and wanted to make something of themselves. Those two were quite capable, more capable than Jack, but their luck was clearly worse than Jack's, who had never sought anything. The two of them only controlled one or two streets each. In the most chaotic places, it was difficult to rise up, and sometimes their gangs were even wiped out, forcing them to flee...

After telling them to keep an eye out in Lower City for Danton Black's whereabouts, Alex stopped paying attention to them.

A few minutes later, Alex's phone began ringing one call after another. His adoptive father Bert and the police chief both knew Alex had beaten up Al Swan. Bert fiercely chewed Alex out, then finally snorted and said, "Good beating!" before hanging up.

The police chief had learned the full story from the information department. He said it had been his own failure to properly manage his subordinates and stated that Al Swan would be demoted after this incident. Such a matter at the police station was truly disheartening. After venting his anger, he asked worriedly, "Can you still catch The Multiplicity?"

Recovering the jewelry would certainly ease the pressure from City Hall and the National Bank, but as long as they failed to catch this superpowered criminal, he would still be capable of committing the same kind of crime again. Sooner or later, the police department would lose the trust of Central City's people because of him.

"I still have a method. I need to try it, but it will take a few days to set up." Alex thought for a moment. There was indeed another way to capture The Multiplicity. He could not allow his first assignment after taking office to be ruined like this.

"Good, Alex. We're counting on you this time." The chief's tone was exceptionally gentle, and he promised that no other bastards would interfere this time.

After hanging up on the chief, Alex began putting his plan into action.

"Skynet, find the files on Danton Black and Martin Stein. I need every recording, video, and visual file related to Martin Stein."

Skynet was the artificial intelligence Alex had once worked with several computer geniuses to create. However, it had not truly become an artificial intelligence. It had no mind or capacity for thought and could only carry out certain information-search tasks for Alex.

As for Martin Stein, he was one of Firestorm's two merged halves. When the nuclear facility exploded, Danton Black became The Multiplicity, while Martin Stein merged with a student and would become Firestorm.

Alex had not yet seen Firestorm appear, and Martin Stein had also been listed as missing by the police.

He needed to set a trap and lure The Multiplicity out.

Half an hour later, Skynet found the information Alex needed one by one based on material available online. The name Skynet sounded impressive, but it only had the ability to search publicly available information on the internet. It had absolutely no hacking ability and was far too rigid. Thus, Alex had always used Skynet as a search engine to look up public online information.

At the same time, he used his own hacking skills to break into Stagg Industries and access Martin Stein's personal information, uncovering a great deal of material that even Skynet had failed to find.

He found the connection between Martin Stein and Danton Black.

Before the nuclear power plant explosion, Martin Stein had reported Danton Black to the police for stealing blueprints and selling experimental equipment. Later, for reasons unknown, Stagg Industries withdrew the charges against Danton Black.

However, Martin Stein and Danton Black had already had serious disagreements within the company. After Martin Stein called the police, they had become irreconcilable enemies.

Alex searched for every video of Martin Stein, including childhood photographs, pictures of him chasing girls in high school, footage of his college graduation, countless award videos, videos of him teaching public university classes, and experimental footage from Stagg Industries. Every word and action, the pace and tone of his speech, the spacing of his footsteps, his health reports, his reactions to high triglyceride levels, and his habitual gestures were deeply imprinted in Alex's mind.

He stayed up all night, immersed in studying a middle-aged man and imitating Martin Stein's behavior, tone, and habits.

Until morning came.

The system said faintly, "Congratulations, you completed the mission!"