Betrayed from Behind

"Hands on your heads! Everyone, hands on your heads!!!"

"Found it! There's a bag of drugs hidden here!"

"Ha! Look what I found—heavy weapons! You are officially under arrest!"

There was no need to question S.H.I.E.L.D.'s efficiency. With Jack, the deputy director of the branch office, personally taking command, he joined forces with the DEA and raided a Hell's Kitchen stronghold in just two hours.

As for why they had not brought the NYPD—

Because they did not want to get knocked unconscious from behind at night, and too many of them had taken Hell's Kitchen's dirty money.

So Jack did not make things too difficult for them.

After taking down the first stronghold, Jack did not stop. Before the sun set, he had forcibly crippled a quarter of Hell's Kitchen, arrested several thousand gang members, and seized jewelry, weapons, drugs, and other illegal goods worth tens of billions.

In return, more than a dozen DEA agents died on the spot, three field agents were killed, over a dozen field agents were seriously wounded, and not a single vehicle in the entire raid unit remained more than sixty percent intact.

Jack, who had led from the front, had also been shot in multiple places. He went through five bulletproof vests in total.

Hell's Kitchen's fighting strength made Jack secretly click his tongue. This was just some background-level force. He had not even gone after Kingpin or The Hand yet, and they had already launched such a brutal counterattack against him.

The difference between being the tail of a phoenix and the head of a chicken...

Anyone capable of putting down roots in New York was no weakling.

Jack had never believed that before. During his various high-risk missions outside the city, he had encountered countless powerful enemies, but only today did he realize that New York was the toughest bone to chew.

Those gangs with the guts and strength to survive in New York possessed fighting power and a desire to fight several times greater than those outside!

As Jack received treatment while reviewing the damage report, he let out a long sigh. He had truly set Hell's Kitchen ablaze with this one.

Over a thousand gang members would be enough to keep the New York City police department and the courts busy for quite some time.

Jack put down the damage report. Seeing that his Evil Points had dropped to negative one million made him realize just how many good deeds he had done during today's raid.

It was at least equivalent to Hulk's ordinary level of destruction.

As for why it was only the ordinary level—

As everyone knew, Hulk had a brain and his own emotions. If he had been a mindless lunatic who only knew how to destroy, he never would have been recruited into The Avengers.

So although Hulk was hot-tempered, he absolutely did not demolish cities.

Yes, this was absolutely not a jab at Tony's Hulkbuster Armor, which should really have been renamed the Hulk-Raging Armor, complete with JARVIS's international express building-purchase service.

"Damn, this round of good deeds directly cost me a million Evil Points. If Kingpin and the others don't retaliate afterward, I'll be losing my shirt."

"To be safe, I still need to send Kingpin a message taunting him. I have to thoroughly piss him off and make him do something irrational."

Thinking this, Jack loudly called out to the people gathered around the bodies of their fallen colleagues and friends, mourning the dead. "Someone! Paint some words mocking Kingpin on that wall over there!"

"The harsher, the better!"

"We need to let that bald bastard Kingpin and his friends know!"

"S.H.I.E.L.D. never bows to evil!"

Jack's words instantly eased much of the grief in the air. They turned to look at the young man sitting at the back of the ambulance beneath the blood-red sunset. Though he had been shot several times, he still faced everything with a smile.

Their eyes moistened at the same time.

How many years had it been!

At last, S.H.I.E.L.D. had produced an anti-crime fighter!

Those big shots sitting high above only cared about world security, special situations, and S.H.I.E.L.D. itself. They never cared about what happened in New York City, right at their doorstep!

Now, a Level Six Agent, a newly appointed deputy director of the New York City branch office, had bravely stepped forward. He had led from the front and refused to retreat even after taking multiple bullets!

Quite a few old New Yorkers burst into tears on the spot.

With the NYPD proving unreliable, they had huddled together for warmth and fought tirelessly for New York City. Now, at last, someone from the middle and upper ranks had joined them.

This... this was truly not easy!

Moved by the justice in their hearts, everyone walked over to Jack and thanked him in unison.

They thanked him for making such an indelible contribution to justice in New York City on his very first day in office.

For a while, the scene entered the stage of "belated justice." Many began reminiscing about the past, sighing that the clouds had finally parted to reveal the sun.

Jack: "..."

"The host has stirred the sense of justice in everyone present. The prototype of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Anti-Crime Squad has emerged. Evil Points decreased by five hundred thousand."

Upon seeing that message, several veins bulged across Jack's forehead. No matter how carefully he calculated, he had never expected his actions to stir everyone's sense of justice!!!

A single anti-crime squad directly deducted five hundred thousand Evil Points?!

Are you fucking kidding me?!

How long would I have to work to earn that many Evil Points back!!!

You! That guy with the mustache! I took a bullet for you two hours ago, and this is how you stab me in the back?

And that bald bastard! When the grenade went off, I pulled you away, and this is how you fucking thank me?!

Jack furiously slammed his fist into the ambulance's rear door.

Afterward, everyone looked at him in confusion. Jack could only howl toward the sky with his heart bleeding inside. "I WILL NEVER COEXIST WITH EVIL!!!!!!"

Inspired, the others raised their fists and roared as well. "WE WILL NEVER COEXIST WITH EVIL!!!"

"You have united everyone once again. Evil Points decreased by one hundred thousand~"

That lighthearted sentence from the system instantly turned Jack's face the color of liver. Clutching his chest as his heart twisted in pain, he walked toward a less crowded corner.

He could not take it anymore!

Jack could not take it anymore!

Everything had clearly gone perfectly!

His strategy of suppressing first and raising later had proceeded smoothly, yet something went wrong at the end and somehow stirred everyone into sharing a common hatred for the enemy!

It directly led to the emergence of the prototype of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Anti-Crime Squad.

Jack felt as if someone had slapped him across the face twice, then mocked him mercilessly while they were at it.

With his back to the others, Jack felt that if this continued, he would drift farther and farther away from Homelander. He might even spend the rest of his life endlessly repaying his Evil Point debt.

"You all love stabbing me in the back as a group, huh?"

"Then I won't bring you along anymore. I'll work alone, all right?"

"I'll fucking do bad things in secret by myself. Tonight, I'll talk business with Kingpin, discuss with The Hand how to take over New York, and make sure I carry evil through to the end!"

To avoid being stabbed in the back by this bunch of bastards again, Jack made up his mind. Once today's operation ended, he would immediately start working alone and become a three-faced traitor from then on.

But when he regained his confidence and turned around, he saw that the wall he had pointed at earlier had already been covered in messages mocking Kingpin, written with paint and a fire truck ladder.

Looking at what those words were trying to convey to Kingpin, Jack felt that unless Kingpin had downed ten pounds of fake liquor in one go, he would never cooperate with him in any kind of dark alliance...