Peter: My Back

Seven minutes later, in Chinatown, the New York police finally arrived.

On high alert, the lead officer cautiously entered the courtyard through the damaged gate.

Then they saw five or six corpses in the residence, each killed in a single blow, along with a headless male corpse lying at the doorway.

Seeing that most of the room was splattered with red-and-white chunks of flesh, all the officers who witnessed the scene sucked in a breath.

At the very center of the room, an S formed from blood blatantly announced its presence.

Beside the bloodstains lay the intact corpse of Li Shu, the gang leader, with only most of the back of his head having been forcibly ground away.

After an investigation, they found that all dozen or so people in the residence had died, from top to bottom. The entire crime had taken no more than two minutes. Killing them had been easier than slaughtering chickens.

"Contact headquarters immediately. The leader of the Red Bell Association was killed in his home. Surveillance footage confirms that the killer is the same person responsible for the other two gang massacres last night."

Morgan, the precinct chief, said with a grave expression, "Unlike the other targets, this was a hunt. The targets are the underworld bosses of all New York."

"A reasonable deduction is that the killer's face may have been disfigured by a gang, causing him to develop a bone-deep hatred for the entire underworld. After gaining power, he began taking revenge on them without hesitation."

Inside the club, Bai Ye gently patted the tightened skin on his face as it returned to normal.

After taking down Li Shu's gang, he had returned here. During the healing process for the skin on his face, he discovered that the true qi within his body also aided recovery, saving him roughly one-tenth of the healing time.

Although Li Shu is dead, I still can't stop. I've already wiped out three gangs. From now on, I'll do one a day and kill four more gang leaders to send down with them, making it a nice round number, Bai Ye thought.

After all, he could not possibly stop killing after dealing with Li Shu. It was just that, with the main target taken care of, he no longer needed to rush so much with the next killings.

Bai Ye had actually wanted to deal with Li Shu after the fourth or fifth gang, but his disguise's target was far too obvious. He was afraid Li Shu would simply go into hiding by then.

Of course, an even more absurd possibility was that Li Shu might use his past dealings with Bai Ye to threaten him into protecting him.

But New York's underworld is probably already on edge. If I make another move, I might run into mutants or something. That could be troublesome, Bai Ye worried.

With that concern in mind, Bai Ye picked up the one-ton iron weight in his hands again and began training. Right now, improving himself was the only proper path.

As he focused on his training, Smith arrived at the gym shortly before three in the afternoon. He picked up a Steel Rod and began striking Bai Ye's back, blow after blow landing against Bai Ye's skin.

Name: Bai Ye

Lifespan: 18/700

Strength: 1.7+0.2

Constitution: 1.7+0.2

Spirit: 1.6+

Charm: 1.4+

Unused Attribute Points: 0.2

By five in the afternoon, Bai Ye looked at the 0.1 increase each in Strength and Constitution and compared them to his physical condition when his actual Strength had just reached 1.8.

The reason his attributes could improve so quickly now was entirely due to the 0.2 Attribute Points added to them.

At Bai Ye's normal training speed, the time needed for every additional 0.1 should theoretically only increase. But those two extra Attribute Points did not affect the experience bar and only increased the damage he dealt when grinding. That made his leveling speed feel as though he had used a multiple-experience card. It simply would not stop.

I can now easily lift 3.4 tons with one arm. Judging by Strength alone, the difference between 1.8 and 1.9 should be around 0.7 tons. It really is more than the increase from 1.7 to 1.8, but not by much.

So the Strength increases on this Stat Panel probably follow an arithmetic sequence, Bai Ye guessed.

Checking the time, Bai Ye turned to Smith and said, "It's five o'clock. You can go home."

"Resting this early today?" Smith asked in confusion.

"I have something to do today. I'm meeting a friend. You can rest early, but come earlier tomorrow. I can teach you martial arts," Bai Ye explained.

"Tomorrow? All right, I'll come tomorrow morning," Smith said excitedly before leaving with a broad grin.

Watching Smith happily grin like an idiot, Bai Ye helplessly shook his head. This guy had no understanding of martial arts at all. He was probably still under the misconception that ten days or half a month of training could make him as strong as Bai Ye.

With Smith's aptitude, which was at most 1.2, he could only cultivate a trace of internal energy every half hour. Without a year or so, he should not even think about seeing any results.

There was a way to raise him to a level where he could help Bai Ye: directly empower him with internal energy.

According to Gentleman Sword's account in the records, empowering someone with internal energy of the same origin would result in nearly twenty percent loss. In other words, if Bai Ye transferred twenty years of internal energy, only sixteen years' worth would remain in the other person's body.

Then, using Smith as a ready-made living advertisement would greatly increase the value of the Purple Mist Divine Skill trade a month from now. This was a common martial art that could be rapidly mastered as long as everyone worked for Bai Ye.

As for a short-term method of training resistance to blows, he already had a target: Peter Parker, before he became Spider-Man.

As for the long term? He had already asked Smith to contact manufacturers of stamping machines and try to produce an A-Class stamping machine that met both his strength and speed requirements. But it would take at least ten days to half a month, and he could not waste that time.

While thinking, Bai Ye took a phone from the pocket of the clothes on a nearby rack. After turning it on, he found Peter's number and called.

After several rings, the call connected. Before Peter could say anything, Bai Ye said, "Peter, do you have time right now?"

"Bai, what do you want? I just hurt my back from a fall. I might need some time to rest," Peter said, clutching his back on a street corner.

He had just tested his web-shooting ability atop a tall building, then made a mistake and fell off. He had landed directly on his back and was now a little winded.

"Oh, really?" Bai Ye's lips curled upward as he held the phone. "I found a job here that pays at least twenty thousand dollars a month, and you can work it part-time after school. Are you sure you don't want to consider it?"

"Twenty thousand a month?!! Bai, where are you? I'll come over right now," Peter Parker asked without the slightest hesitation, trusting Bai Ye completely.

"It's not far from my house, at Meinz Fitness Club. Check how far away it is. You can take a taxi here, and I'll reimburse the fare."

"Meinz Fitness Club? Got it. I'll be there within half an hour." Peter hung up, stretched, and felt the bones in his back crack. It seemed to be a little better.

A part-time job that pays twenty thousand a month... what kind of work could it be? And I still haven't asked Bai about the bank robbery, Peter Parker thought, shaking his head. Then he picked a direction and ran toward the address Bai Ye had given him.

As for taking a taxi? Forget it. Even though Bai Ye had said he would reimburse him, Peter's family circumstances still made him instinctively frugal. With his current physical abilities, as long as he ran a little faster, reaching the destination within half an hour would be easy.