Encounter Battle

You had proactively triggered an Encounter Battle event.

Event Name: Steel Riot: Nighttime Sniping.

Description: Some fool had interrupted your social activity. You would not easily let off an opponent who tried to attack you.

Event Requirement: Deal with the sniper.

Event Start!

Information flashed rapidly across his vision, but Azu paid it no mind. He had already spotted the sniper.

The man was crouched on a skyscraper rooftop. Sensing Azu's approach, he decisively sprang up, turned, and ran.

Only then did Azu see clearly that, like the bank robber from before, this guy wore Battle Armor similar to Iron Man's.

His armor was much more compact, though. It gave him tremendous momentum as he ran, and within a few strides, he had crossed the rooftop and leaped into the air.

As he jumped off the building, the sniper turned around, raised his long-barreled rifle at Azu, and fired.

Blue light flashed across the sniper rifle's casing. Then, silently, a bullet struck Azu at incredible speed.

It deformed on impact and fell away.

Azu narrowed his eyes slightly. His eyes lit up, and two dark crimson beams shot downward.

The sniper seemed to have anticipated that Azu would use Laser Eyes. He raised an arm ahead of time, and a black line shot out from his wrist armor.

It was a grappling hook.

The alloy cable anchored itself to a building across the street, allowing the sniper to swing across the road like Spider-Man and descend toward the outer wall of another building.

But just then, the sniper saw Azu's figure rapidly enlarge in the building's windows. Then came a bang, and his world immediately spun.

After his Laser Eyes missed, Azu accelerated through the air and slammed into him, sending ripples through the air and smashing the sniper into an office.

Watching the armored sniper tumble across the office, Azu smiled, flashed inside, and grabbed his shoulder.

Suddenly, the back of the sniper's armor lit up fiercely, erupting with white light that forced Azu to close his eyes.

A flash grenade!

When he opened his eyes again, the sniper had already jumped out the window.

Azu smashed through the window and saw the sniper clinging to the outer wall like a frog, sliding downward. He smiled, suddenly dove after him, and threw a punch.

Bang!

On the street, pedestrians suddenly heard a tremendous crash overhead. They looked up to see something fall from the building and slam into a car, punching a hole straight through it.

Then the car door flew off, and an armored figure burst from inside, running frantically down the street.

The armor was dented in many places and crackled with electrical sparks. It looked badly damaged.

Yet its wearer still moved with incredible speed. He grabbed a passerby, extended a gleaming short blade from his right wrist armor, and held it against the man's neck. Then a voice, clearly distorted by a voice changer, rang out. "Don't come any closer, Homelander!"

"Unless you want to get him killed!"

Cries and screams immediately erupted from the street. People scrambled to flee, hiding in nearby convenience stores and other shops.

Azu did not hurry down. Instead, he simply sat on the rooftop, curious to see what trick that guy was trying to pull.

An iron man had suddenly fallen from the sky and taken a civilian hostage. The 911 Emergency Line was immediately flooded with calls.

The police were fairly efficient as well. Before long, several patrol cars arrived and surrounded the iron man.

A Sheriff pointed his gun at the iron man and shouted, "Put down your weapon!"

The iron man shouted, "All of you, get lost! I want to see Homelander! Get that coward out here!"

The Sheriff looked utterly confused. "Has anyone seen Homelander?"

Everyone shook their heads.

So the Sheriff said, "I can help you contact Seven Tower, but you have to release the hostage."

The iron man roared, "Homelander, stop hiding! I know you're nearby, so get out here!"

"If you don't come out, I'll kill him!"

The passerby immediately screamed, "Don't kill me! Don't kill me!"

The Sheriff hurriedly tried to calm him down. "Calm down. We can talk this out."

"I said I want to see Homelander!" Two small machine guns suddenly rose from the iron man's shoulder armor, then rattled off a burst of bullets at the police cars.

The police jumped in fright, and several officers reflexively opened fire at the iron man.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Amid the gunfire, sparks burst from the iron man's faceplate as bullets struck him squarely in the face. Startled, his hand trembled, and the sharp blade instantly slit the passerby's throat.

"Damn it."

Seeing the hostage clutch his neck and fall to his knees, the iron man made a snap decision, turned, and ran.

The armor's power was tremendous, allowing him to cover ten meters in a single stride. In the blink of an eye, he had reached the street corner.

Just as he was about to turn onto another street, the police heard a tearing sound overhead. With a whoosh, the wind ripped several officers' hats off.

Then they saw a blue blur streak toward the intersection and crash viciously into the iron man.

The iron man was sent flying, smashing through a fire hydrant. A column of water immediately shot up from the road.

Above that column of water, a Stars and Stripes cape was lifted and fluttered by the evening breeze.

"Homelander!"

"Homelander is here!"

"Long live Homelander!"

People rushed out of the shops, whistling and cheering.

Amid the crowd's cheers, Azu pounced expressionlessly at the iron man. He reached out and gripped hard, driving his fingers into the armor before squeezing. The chest plate immediately warped, sparks jumping from within.

Azu grabbed the iron man, who was leaning against the base of a building, and shot upward, grinding him repeatedly against the building's surface. Countless chunks of debris hammered against the iron man's helmet, leaving the wearer inside seeing stars.

Whoosh!

Azu shot into the sky.

He tore through the clouds.

He reached an altitude of a thousand meters.

Then he brutally ripped off the man's faceplate and tore away pieces of metal armor, revealing a Black man before Azu.

The corner of Azu's mouth curled up. "All right. Tell me, who are you?"

"Where did you get this armor?"

At a thousand meters in the air, it was obvious that the Black man was probably not a Super.

Without the protection of his armor, he immediately began breathing heavily, yet he still gave Azu the middle finger.

"Go to hell, Homelander."

"Trash like you doesn't deserve to live in this world."

Azu shrugged. "Maybe. But unfortunately, you're the one who's going to die now."

"Can you fly?"

With that, he let go.

A scream rapidly faded into the distance.

Azu simply hovered high in the air. After a moment, information appeared before his eyes.

You had successfully resolved this event.

This event's disaster level assessment: E

Reward for a "Successful" evaluation: Dim Proficiency Essence ×22

New items had been added to your shop.

Then more proficiency information appeared.

Laser Eyes +1: 28/30

Steel Body +1: Proficiency 17/30

Self-Healing +1: 2/30

Flight +1: 13/30

Your Super Speed proficiency had reached its limit and had now upgraded to Super Speed +1.

Super Speed +1: Speed +100%.

Your Super Strength proficiency had reached its limit and had now upgraded to Super Strength +1.

Super Strength +1: Base strength increased by 75%. Attacks were accompanied by Secondary Impact, with Secondary Impact dealing 70% of the previous attack's damage. (Note: Secondary Impact only affected physical attacks.)

Your shop had been updated with a new item.