Kingpin

"Who are you?! Who sent you to watch me?!"

Dilos gripped the man's throat with one hand and demanded fiercely. Yet, even with his windpipe constricted, the man showed no intention of speaking. Instead, his muscles tensed as he tried to open his mouth to bite down on something.

Seeing this, how could Dilos let him succeed? His hand, locked around the man's neck, moved with lightning speed to clamp onto the man's jaw, then twisted with force.

Crack. The man's jawbone was dislocated. He hung there with his mouth agape, unable to bite down. Through the open mouth, Dilos saw that one of the man's teeth had been hollowed out, containing a small, spherical object the size of a tooth.

"Cyanide?"

Dilos curled his lip. He couldn't imagine who would go to such lengths. By all accounts, he was just a nobody right now; was it really necessary to use such extreme measures to monitor a small fry?

Dilos's sharp eyes scanned the black-haired brute, who was struggling incessantly but remained pinned by Dilos's immense arm strength.

Although the man looked to be in his thirties, his body showed no signs of aging; rather, he appeared quite robust. Judging by the force of his struggle, his strength was nearly double that of an average person.

Feeling a sense of unease, Dilos lifted the brute with one hand and lightly brushed his cervical spine and the back of his head with the other, simultaneously channeling a burst of An Jin into his body.

In an instant, the brute's vision went black, and he lost consciousness.

After releasing his mental energy and sensing that no one else was within dozens of meters, Dilos propped the man up. He then focused his mental energy into a needle-like spike and thrust it into the mental light-cluster within the man's mind. Since the man was already unconscious, Dilos encountered little resistance as his mental energy entered the cluster.

Dilos closed his eyes, sensing everything within the man's mental light-cluster, searching for the memories he needed.

Although it was easier to enter the mental cluster while the man was unconscious, the memories within became somewhat chaotic in that state. Dilos had to search patiently to find what he was looking for.

As Dilos sifted through the memories bit by bit, he finally understood what this man did. Jay Peek, a member of the American Mafia, specialized in tracking and evasion. His direct superior was William Fisk.

William Fisk—the name sounded imposing, but there were plenty of people in America with the same name. However, this name was followed by another alias, one that no one else would ever dare use.

Kingpin.

As the biggest crime lord in America, based on the images from his past life's movies and comics, this villainous boss—who controlled 40% of the crime in the United States—had made enemies with a slew of superheroes. Spider-Man, Punisher, X-Men, Daredevil, Fantastic Four...

Dilos didn't know what the Kingpin was like in this world, but even if his influence wasn't as strong as in the movies and comics, it wouldn't be weak either.

Finding this information wasn't enough; Dilos continued to explore. This time, however, he felt depressed; the subsequent memories he uncovered were mostly of the man robbing, smuggling, and committing sexual assault...

Although those depraved images flashed by in a blur, Dilos still felt a wave of nausea. He suppressed the urge to torture this piece of human trash until he wished for death before crushing his skull with a single punch, and instead forced his mental energy to explore the man's memories more roughly.

As Dilos's mental energy violently searched the brute's mind, the man began to convulse and foam at the mouth. Finally, just before the brute was about to suffer brain death from Dilos's intrusion, Dilos found what he needed.

It turned out the man wasn't there to monitor him, but rather Dr. Connors and his interns. He had just happened to be monitoring Dilos as well. It was only when he noticed Dilos's eyes following his movements that he realized something was wrong and tried to flee.

He had intended to contact his superior after escaping, but the moment he tried, he realized Dilos had already caught up, forcing him to abandon the attempt to focus on running.

As for why this gangster wasn't using a gun? It turned out it had fallen from his waistband while he was trying to escape through the building's exterior pipes, and because Dilos had caught up so quickly, he hadn't had time to retrieve it.

"Looks like my luck isn't too bad."

Dilos smirked, but just in case the man had been wearing a miniature camera that had captured him, Dilos used the perspective function of his glasses to scan the guy's body thoroughly.

After finding no suspicious surveillance equipment, Dilos looked at the brute groaning in pain on the ground and revealed a cruel grin.

He wouldn't show any mercy to someone like this.

Three days later, in the lobby of Fisk Enterprises in New York.

A somewhat bloated, bald white man asked the group of men in various suits standing before him:

"Can anyone tell me who did this?"

Although the bald man's voice sounded devoid of emotion, those familiar with him could sense the rage and murderous intent within. Facing his interrogation, the men kept their heads low, afraid to answer, terrified of provoking the man before them.

The bald man pointed a chubby finger at a video showing a brute engulfed in flames, screaming incessantly. "Who had the guts to kill my man, and then use Peek's phone to record a video and send me a threat?"

"If this bastard hadn't sent this threatening video, I wouldn't even have known Peek had been dead for three days!"

The bald man's voice suddenly rose, sounding like thunder that left the group before him momentarily dizzy. Seeing their fearful expressions, he lowered his voice.

"Do you know who did it? Was it a mutant? S.H.I.E.L.D.? Another faction? Or some self-righteous hero? Ster, you're in charge of these things—did you find nothing?"

A black-haired man with a full beard and a suit stepped forward, looking fearful. "Nothing at all. We only know that the person destroyed all the street cameras, including those in the alley where Peek died. So many cameras were destroyed across several districts that we can't even determine which area the perpetrator came from."

Hearing this, the bald man frowned and looked at an elderly man in his fifties with silver hair. The latter curled his lip. "It's unclear who it was. The person was masked and wrapped up tightly. They even broke into the police station and destroyed the surveillance backups. The police station is in an uproar because of it."

"Useless!" The bald man slammed his cane against the floor, causing the group to instinctively step back. The bald man continued, "Keep a low profile for a while, but you must increase manpower and find out who did this! Anyone who dares touch my people, I will make them wish they were dead!"