"Don't take it too hard. I'd practiced Kung Fu and fought since I was little, so I naturally had a bit more experience than you. But I'd already changed my way of thinking. After all, in a world like this, relying solely on the body and hand-to-hand combat would only become less and less useful. Things were going to change, and we had to keep up with the times..."
Hong Fei chattered nonstop to Frank from the moment they got in the car until they got out, from the first floor to the seventh, barely pausing in between.
"By the way, you probably don't have a fixed place to stay right now, do you? Why not come live here? Someone in the building happens to be moving out, so I can give you a friendly price—thirty percent off! Absolutely friendly!"
As he spoke, Hong Fei took several jars of ointment from a cabinet, rolled up his sleeves, and prepared to get to work.
Frank suddenly frowned. "You prepared this in advance?"
Hong Fei lowered his head and replied carelessly, "Of course. Better safe than sorry. Don't you know your own temper?"
Frank avoided the ointment in Hong Fei's hand and said angrily, "What made you think so early on that you could beat me?"
Hong Fei looked up, blinked, and spread his hands.
Frank was immediately left speechless.
The result was already out. Wasn't it obvious?
But what Frank cared about was that before they had even fought, Hong Fei had already prepared medicine for his injuries. Didn't that mean Hong Fei had never regarded him as an opponent at all?
Hong Fei's eyes shifted, and he immediately added, "Oh, you misunderstood! I did prepare the medicine beforehand, but how could I have known whether it would be for you or for me? If I'd been the one to lose, wouldn't that still have counted as being prepared?"
Master Hong was fairly experienced. Since he needed something from Frank now, he naturally knew how to make his words sound pleasant. Frank also graciously took the out and said nothing further.
After applying ointment to his entire arm, Hong Fei stood up. "Once in the morning and once at night. You'll be fully healed in three days. Don't move it around during that time, and definitely don't exert force. Luckily, you still have your other hand, so daily life won't be a problem."
Frank sniffed his arm and caught a strong medicinal scent.
"What kind of deal do you want to make?"
"This is a bit complicated. It might even be dangerous."
"Heh!" Frank snorted disdainfully.
Hong Fei pointed at the coffee table in front of Frank. "There's a draft I wrote earlier in the black folder. You can take a look first."
In the bathroom, Hong Fei dried his hands. With a turn of his fingertips, the white card instantly appeared.
The portrait on the front of the card was Frank Castle.
Flipping the card over, Hong Fei saw several lines of text. A few seconds later, the corners of his mouth rose wildly.
Passive Skill Card: Wrath of Man (White) When you suffer severe injuries, attack and defense increase by 20% for 30 seconds. Afterward, speed decreases by 40% for 10 minutes.
Overall, this skill could not be called good. There was a considerable disparity between its positive and negative effects, as well as their durations.
But the key was that this was a Skill Card!
It was a brand-new discovery Hong Fei had never noticed during the past month.
And this card had dropped from Frank.
His thoughts raced. Before long, Hong Fei came to several conclusions.
First, Skill Cards could likely only drop from characters like Frank, those who could independently be called heroes or villains. Otherwise, he should have gained something when he taught so many people lessons before.
Second, Skill Cards were clearly divided into active and passive types, and they also came in different colors. The colors likely represented their ranks directly.
Third was a question: could one person only drop a single Skill Card, or could they drop multiple different Skill Cards? He could test that after Frank recovered.
Finally, Skill Cards could not be used immediately. They had to be equipped in a Card Slot first.
The first time he had touched this card, he had known that he possessed one and only one Skill Card Slot.
How could he obtain more Card Slots?
He did not know.
But regardless, the discovery of Skill Cards was tremendously exciting.
With only his Kung Fu and Shinigami Eye, there were still limits to what Hong Fei could do. With Skill Cards added to the equation, it was as though countless future paths without end had suddenly appeared before him.
In truth, Master Hong had always been somewhat anxious.
He had never been someone willing to place his hopes, or even his life, in someone else's hands.
Back then, his martial arts had been enough to protect him. Now, let alone one Master Hong, even a hundred more would not be enough.
Moreover, as a martial artist, even when playing games in his spare time, he had never forgotten his goal of becoming stronger. The Marvel Universe certainly contained countless dangers he would never have encountered before, but behind those layers of danger, weren't there also unprecedented opportunities?
Since that was the case, what else was there to say?
Roll up his sleeves and get to work!
Over the past month, he had explored his abilities and recalled all kinds of information. While beating up little gangsters as he did bad things, he also threw them outside police stations to do good things. While fleecing the gangs, he had also laid out quite a few short-term and long-term plans.
Finding and persuading Frank had been a temporary plan formed after seeing him escape from prison.
The matters for which he needed Frank's help next were the real short-term plan.
He put away the Skill Card, calmed his smile, and left the bathroom. The moment he appeared, he heard Frank's cold voice.
"I didn't expect you to want to become a terrorist."
"Hey, Frank, you can't say that!"
Hong Fei widened his eyes and hurriedly added, "The operation plan you saw is only the surface. I actually have deeper considerations."
Frank pointed at the television and said sarcastically, "Kidnapping an arms dealer can have deeper meaning?"
Tony Stark's speech was playing on the television.
Without even turning his head, Hong Fei continued, "Shallow! You only saw the kidnapping in the operation itself, but you didn't realize I was actually doing this to save him."
"Then why doesn't the operation plan say to send him directly back to New York? Why transport him somewhere else instead?"
As Hong Fei set the papers in the folder on fire, he said matter-of-factly, "That's simple. There's no such thing as a free lunch."
Frank thought of what had happened earlier, and his expression darkened further.
"You know, the early preparations for this plan require a great deal of money. To be honest, I've already applied for a loan. If I don't get any returns, I'll go bankrupt very soon. Then I might have no choice but to hand you over to the police for some reward money."
Frank said, "You really are straightforward."
"I've always been honest."
Next, Hong Fei directly explained the objective and mission requirements of the operation called "Saving the arms dealer" to Frank. Frank's outstanding military training and former intelligence network tangibly saved Hong Fei a great deal of trouble, especially the latter. The information he contributed on various merchants scattered across the world was something Hong Fei would have struggled to find quickly even if he had money to spend.
By the time night fell, Hong Fei looked at the rows of contact details before him with immense satisfaction.
"Frank, you're truly my right-hand man. Your value is worth at least one billion dollars!"
Frank gave a cold laugh. "I only hope you won't break your word when the time comes."
"Don't worry. Once the operation is over, I'll truthfully tell you everything about every gang Big Boss in New York."
"Good!" Frank paused before adding, "But I get the feeling you're not doing this for money at all, am I right?"
Hong Fei answered honestly, "Not exactly. Money is certainly one of my goals, but it isn't the whole goal. There are many things you can't do without money, and some things you can't do even with money. You need to grasp both with both hands, and both hands need to be strong. Understand?"
Frank stood up directly and changed the subject. "Where's my room?"
Hong Fei pointed him toward the second bedroom. Then he lowered his head to look at the strings of numbers Frank had written down. After thinking for a while, he picked up his phone and made a call.
As he made one call after another, the number of digits in his account balance began to shrink.
Three days later.
Hong Fei watched the bald man on his phone deliver an acceptance speech on Tony Stark's behalf. He looked up at Frank and said, "It's time for us to leave."
Frank gently moved his arm. There was no extra expression on his face as he merely nodded slightly.
After packing their things, the two took a taxi straight to the airport.
If everyone is interested, you can brainstorm by making posts about possible Skill Cards that story characters might drop. Skill Card color ranks, from low to high, are: white, green, blue, purple, orange.
The format is roughly as follows:
Active/Passive Skill Card: Skill Name (Color)
Character:
Skill Effect:
Before you continue