The Avengers Is Closing In

At ten o'clock that night, outside an apartment building in Flushing, Queens, New York, Jack stepped out of a taxi with a light gait, reeking of alcohol.

On his way upstairs, he ran into several familiar neighbors. After greeting them, Jack returned to his room.

A three-bedroom, two-living-room apartment.

A living room with a large sofa, an open kitchen, and an oval dining table.

One room held a bed, one was filled with miscellaneous items, and the remaining empty room had a concealed gun cabinet installed.

This was what Jack had achieved after struggling in the Marvel Universe for three years.

Thanks to the not-insignificant salary of a Level Six Agent at S.H.I.E.L.D., along with hazard pay for high-risk missions, Jack had managed to buy this home outright within three years.

Of course, a bigger reason was that the owner of the property, Old Man Wu, believed that a white male in a suit working for a government agency would help improve the rental rate or something.

That was why he had been willing to sell Jack a three-bedroom, two-living-room apartment at a low price.

As for the procedures involved in selling one of the rental units to Jack, there was no need to mention them. After all, S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn't let its former Manhattan District chief get investigated by the IRS.

Dropping onto the sofa, Jack let out a long breath. He had been busy outside for two whole weeks and finally had some time to rest.

Reluctantly, he got up and fetched a bottle of beer from the refrigerator.

Jack turned on the TV, drank, and prepared to watch a popular American drama on the premium channels.

But a breaking news report interrupted his next move.

"Breaking Iron Man news: Tony Stark was attacked by a mysterious individual in Monaco. The attacker used electrified whips and attempted to kill Iron Man..."

Watching the opening of Iron Man 2 play on television, Jack, who had been in the Marvel Universe for three years, still felt as though it was all surreal.

Once the report ended, Jack turned off the TV, no longer in the mood to watch any American dramas.

With a bottle of beer in hand, Jack began thinking about what he should do next.

Since Iron Man 2 had already begun, then once Captain America woke up and Thor's hammer landed, The Avengers would be starting soon enough.

As for me...

Hiss... Why do I always put myself in the protagonist lineup?

I'm a guy who wants to become Homelander. Why the hell do I care about this?

Am I seriously supposed to run a Chitauri raid dungeon with you people?

Putting The Avengers out of his mind, Jack decided that with fifteen days left, he had to quickly accumulate Evil Points. After all, leveling up to Level Two only required around one million Evil Points.

Even if he could not reach that number, he still needed to raise them a little.

Only by unlocking more skills could he do whatever he wanted with even greater freedom.

"Purple Sweet Potato... just you wait!"

"When you collect all the stones and come to Earth with the Infinity Gauntlet, I'll definitely chop your head off!"

After finishing the bottle of beer and setting his plans for the next fifteen days, Jack placed the bottle on the coffee table, took a shower, and finally went to bed.

The next day, May 16th, fourteen days remained until this month's settlement date.

Looking full of vigor, Jack took the subway to headquarters. As usual, he bought a burrito at the entrance, then headed inside like any other city office worker and squeezed into the elevator.

Jack had been showing his face frequently at internal public events lately, so he had become familiar to quite a few colleagues. He had previously handled high-risk missions out in the field, so very few people at headquarters, where the desk agents gathered, knew him.

But the words, "A S.H.I.E.L.D. agent never takes off his sunglasses," along with his rooftop brawl with Level Seven Agent Garrett, had vaguely given him the makings of a rising S.H.I.E.L.D. celebrity.

That was an extremely remarkable achievement within S.H.I.E.L.D.

After all, becoming a celebrity was not something one could achieve merely by being excellent in a particular field. It also required more exciting and shocking displays.

The last famous man had been Nick Fury.

Later, he became the current director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Of course, Jack only felt that more girls were throwing flirtatious looks his way today. Passing little notes had already turned into bolder face-to-face approaches.

As a result, Jack spent a full half hour standing in that elevator before finally escaping.

After shaking off the enthusiastic invitations for the evening, Jack entered his office and began eating the burrito, which had already gone somewhat cold.

"Today, I'm becoming the deputy director of the New York City branch. Headquarters probably won't assign me any missions for a while."

"How about making a big splash as a new official with a joint operation between several departments?"

"No, no, no. That would be cracking down on criminals. It would only make me look more righteous and deduct Evil Points..."

"But I can't exactly help the gangs either..."

Hiss... I've done the dirty-agent route before, though that was undercover work at the time. Should I make a covert plan to smuggle something through?

Jack had spent an entire day figuring out how Evil Points worked, and he had indeed come up with a few ideas of his own.

Before each month's settlement date, even if he drove his Evil Points down to negative one hundred million, as long as he recovered before settlement, he would not suffer any consequences.

So at a time like this, all he needed was a tiny bit of bold reverse thinking to obtain a massive number of Evil Points.

The most suitable target for Jack, with extremely low risk and the greatest returns, was Hell's Kitchen.

This enormous cancer of New York City was unavoidable for any illegal transaction.

Ordinary protagonists: We tolerate Hell's Kitchen's illegal activities and let them commit evil whenever they want! All the other law enforcement agencies are blind! I'm the only one with eyes!

Protagonists with normal brains: We first suppress them, then let them rise. We crack down on crime like mad, force them into increasingly dangerous methods, keep pushing them to take desperate risks, and trigger even larger-scale unrest!

There was naturally no need to say which one Jack would choose.

Although cracking down on Hell's Kitchen in the early stages would deduct quite a few Evil Points, those dangerous Hell's Kitchen gang members would definitely not sit still and wait to die. They would choose more extreme methods to resist.

Where there was conflict, there would be bloodshed. Where there was bloodshed, there would be harm. And in the end, there would be Evil Points.

So without even thinking, Jack picked up the phone and called Marian, telling her to come to his office. He had decided that the first of his three big moves as a new official would burn Hell's Kitchen!

"Heh, I wonder whether Kingpin, with that personality of his that refuses to let anyone bully him, will fly into a rage and make some major move."

"If he blows up half of Manhattan, I'll make a killing this time!"