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The one who had suddenly appeared before Cathy and blocked the bullet for her was, of course, Richard transformed into Nexus.

When Cathy had stood in the office excitedly describing the details of the smuggling case to him, Richard had vaguely anticipated that she might stumble into trouble too big for her to handle. Sure enough, if he had not followed behind to keep an eye on her, this little intern reporter might well have met her end on the spot.

In truth, Richard had not needed to transform to deal with a few small-time thugs like these. He could have crushed them with his physical abilities alone. The problem was that he would have needed to cover his face with a cloth or something to hide his identity, and just thinking about it felt so lame. So he figured it was more convenient to transform directly. Besides, maintaining a human-sized body did not consume much energy anyway.

Richard had always found this young reporter Cathy quite likable. She was full of passion, loved her work, often volunteered to pull all-nighters, and chased stories more eagerly than anyone else. She was just still a little too green and lacking in experience, but Richard saw her as the newspaper's future Pulitzer Prize contender. With proper training, she might even become an ace reporter like Lois Lane next door, the so-called "reporter heroine."

What she lacked most right now was an opportunity, a chance.

So Richard decided he might as well hand her a big story while he was at it.

The thugs were all stunned, and their boss was clearly somewhat intimidated as well. But in front of all his underlings, there was no way a boss like him could show weakness. The weapon in his hand seemed to give him a bit more courage.

"You wanna die?"

Without a second thought, the boss repeatedly pulled the trigger. Muzzle flashes burst one after another as bullets ricocheted off Ultraman's steel-like body. One fragment flew off and, rather unfortunately, struck one of the underlings in the leg. The man screamed, blood streaming from his leg as he clutched the wound and groaned on the ground.

The magazine was empty, yet his opponent still stood there unharmed.

Richard reached out and grabbed the barrel of the gun. With a slight squeeze of one hand, he crushed it into a lump of scorching scrap metal.

Now the boss was truly panicking. Stammering, he said, "Y-you... what the hell are you?"

"Uh... Boss," one of the underlings beside him quietly reminded him, "I think this guy might be that 'Ultraman' the papers have been talking about?"

"What?" The boss froze. That name sounded kind of familiar. Come to think of it, he really had heard people mention it today...

The boss suddenly remembered something, and his entire face turned white.

Holy shit, was this the giant who had punched that monster wreaking havoc in New York straight into the floor so hard they could not even dig it back out?

How the hell were they supposed to fight that?

Nope, no fighting this. They surrendered.

But another underling whispered, "But I heard Ultraman was a giant. Why did he shrink?"

"Who knows? Maybe he can grow big or small."

"Go to hell. I can grow long or short too..."

The boss gritted his teeth, a vicious glint flashing through his eyes. He whipped out a gleaming dagger and pointed it at Richard. "I don't know who you are, and I don't care! Let me tell you, I'm the famous kingpin of this street, known as 'Copperhead.' Wanna know how I got that nickname? Then let me tell you..."

Richard extended his right hand and lightly flicked the boss on the forehead with his middle finger.

Didn't know, wasn't interested, didn't care.

In that instant, the boss shot backward like a cannonball, smashing through a stack of wooden crates piled in the corner. He was buried beneath a heap of splinters and did not move again.

Just one flick.

The underlings all turned pale as paper, standing rooted to the spot like wooden stakes. They did not even dare breathe loudly, practically chanting in their hearts, You can't see me, you can't see me.

Could this be the legendary annihilation with a flick of the finger?

Click.

Richard heard the sound of a camera shutter. Turning around, he saw Cathy cautiously taking pictures with her phone. When she saw him turn back, Cathy was so startled that she retreated two steps, her heart pounding. After all, she could not be sure whether this "Ultraman" was friend or foe. What if he hated being photographed?

Richard was very satisfied. Very good. She had not been scared stupid and still remembered her duty. This girl really was something.

The girls who had previously been locked in the crates also poked their heads out from behind cover one by one, watching the situation with trembling, bright eyes. Cathy had already picked the locks that confined them, and Richard had scared these criminals so badly they did not dare make a peep. Logically, they were free now, but no one dared leave.

Then Richard heard something.

Even when untransformed, Richard's five senses, enhanced by the power of light, far surpassed those of ordinary people. In his transformed state, his senses were boosted even further. No movement in the surrounding area could escape his notice.

Clearly, there were more Green Snake Gang members here than just these few. There was one outside the warehouse.

The thug outside had initially just been sitting in the car waiting for his companions. But after waiting forever without anyone returning, and hearing several gunshots from inside the warehouse, he realized something might be wrong.

Even so, before he reached the warehouse entrance, he had never imagined what he was about to see.

The thug was nearly scared out of his wits. He turned and fled desperately back to the car—thank goodness he had not turned off the engine when he got out. He floored the accelerator, the vehicle barreling through the wooden crates stacked in the open space as it sped toward the road.

One hand gripping the steering wheel, the thug frantically pulled out his phone with the other and dialed a number. "Hello? Boss? It's Danny. I'm at Warehouse No. 42... What? No, it's not that the girls escaped, it's that... You'll never believe what happened here..."

Before he could finish, a silver blur descended from above. Ultraman landed vertically before the hood, pressing one palm into it. The metal hood instantly warped and twisted under the tremendous force. The front of the car stopped dead, but the rear was flung high into the air by inertia. The entire vehicle flipped several times through the air before crashing heavily to the ground, its body badly mangled and one tire flying off. It had become a heap of scrap metal.

Cathy chased after him with her phone recording, and at the sight of this, her little mouth immediately formed an O.

She felt that she might truly have been ignorant. In all her life, this was the first time she had seen someone stop a car with their bare hands anywhere outside a movie...

Problem solved. Richard gave Cathy one last look, then did not linger. He leaped into the air, like a silver meteor vanishing into the night sky.

Cathy held up her phone and gazed at the sky, unwilling to lower the camera even after that figure had become a tiny black dot and disappeared beyond the horizon.

After a long while, she broke into an uncontrollable smile.

She knew that she had her first headline.