Mercenary

"He's on the third floor! Surround him!"

"Kill that son of a bitch!"

Five black men carrying rifles charged up the stairs first. Whether they saw anyone or not, they immediately sprayed the area ahead, creating an invisible wall of suppressive fire—otherwise known as trying to scare people.

Bang! Bang!

With five gunshots, all five men were struck in the head by bullets from nowhere and dropped dead on the spot. The deafening gunfire abruptly vanished.

The sudden silence told the other gunmen, who had been about to rush in, that those five were finished. They immediately retreated to the fourth floor, every one of them tensely aiming at the stairwell, ready to gun him down the instant he appeared.

Just as the group stared intently at the stairwell, a head appeared outside a distant window behind them. Meng Zu pushed off with both hands, leaped onto the ledge outside the window, and reached out to shove it.

"Damn, it's locked!" Meng Zu glanced at the gunmen watching the stairwell, then at the room's layout. He drew a Beretta from inside his jacket with his right hand and smashed the glass before him with his left arm.

The gunmen guarding the stairs immediately turned around at the sound behind them and saw Meng Zu already jumping in through the window. Bang! Bang! Bang! Meng Zu fired four shots in rapid succession, instantly blowing the heads off four gunmen. The others reacted and immediately returned fire.

After firing, Meng Zu threw himself forcefully to one side. Bullets struck the spot where he had just been standing. He did not dare stop, rolling twice across the floor before ducking behind a corner and disappearing from the gunmen's sight.

"Fuck!"

"Blow him up with grenades!"

As he spoke, one gunman pulled a grenade from behind his back, yanked the pin, and hurled it hard toward the corner. The others followed suit, pulling grenades from behind their backs and throwing them into the corner.

A series of explosions rang out. After waiting for a while and seeing no movement, the gunmen cautiously moved in to check whether Meng Zu had been blown to death.

Just as they were about to reach the corner, every light in the room suddenly went out. Their vision plunged into complete darkness. Then two flashes of fire lit up the dark, followed by a burst of extremely rapid gunfire that quickly stopped.

"Fuck, you bastards carry that many grenades around? Aren't you afraid a bullet will hit them and blow you up?" Meng Zu emerged in the moonlight streaming through the window. After confirming that none of the gunmen on the ground were alive, he headed toward a room.

Inside, a middle-aged black man with a scar on his face sat in a chair, controlling his breathing as he aimed a Desert Eagle at the wooden door. Bang! A gunshot rang out, and the man slumped weakly in his chair, a bloody hole appearing in his forehead.

Meng Zu pushed open the door and frowned as he walked up to the man. He took out his phone, turned on the flashlight, and shone it on the man's face. Without any lights, Meng Zu had trouble seeing his features clearly.

After confirming the man's identity, Meng Zu confirmed the mission's completion on his phone. As he scanned the room, he spotted a safe. To his surprise, it was not locked and opened with a pull. Seeing the thick stack of Franklins inside, he could not help smiling.

Meng Zu carried a large bag to the black sedan outside the main entrance, tossed it into the car, and made a call.

"This is Meng Zu."

"Yes, it's me. Please order twenty-seven fast-food meals to the Exploding Wolf Gang headquarters."

Meng Zu sat in the car and played on his phone. About half an hour later, two vans drove up and stopped at the entrance. Meng Zu put away his phone and got out.

Seven people climbed out of the vans. A middle-aged man in a hat gave Meng Zu a slight nod, then entered the building with the other six, carrying their tools.

After the seven people loaded all the bodies inside into the vehicles, Meng Zu walked up to the middle-aged man in the hat, took twelve gold coins from his pocket, and handed them over. "Thanks for your hard work."

The man accepted the coins and smiled. "Mr. Meng Zu is as polite as ever. Have a good night."

Meng Zu and the man drove away in different directions. About an hour later, Meng Zu arrived at a villa in Queens and parked the car in the garage. This was where he lived.

However, the car was now sky blue, and even its license plate had changed to a different number. Standing before the bathroom mirror, Meng Zu poured some water into his palm and vigorously rubbed his face. After about a minute, the skin on his face became wrinkled.

Meng Zu felt around behind his ear, then pinched a piece of skin and slowly peeled a thin human-skin mask from his face. His appearance was now vastly different from before. Originally, Meng Zu had looked like an ordinary Asian man in his thirties with a square face, the kind who would never stand out in a crowd. Of course, that was in China. In the United States, people tended to be face-blind toward Asians; unless they knew them personally, it was hard for them to remember an Asian they had only met once.

Now, Meng Zu looked like a young man of around twenty-three. He had a slightly oval face and was not particularly handsome, but his delicate features made him look younger than his actual age.

Meng Zu sprayed the peeled-off human-skin mask with a solution, stored it in a box, then placed the box and bottles inside a hidden compartment behind the medicine cabinet. He reached out and turned a wooden decoration on the cabinet four times. The medicine cabinet slid back into place on its own, completely concealing the hidden compartment behind it.

Sitting in the living room, Meng Zu ate pizza while watching TV. Only after the program ended did he turn off the television, take a shower, and return to bed.

Lying in bed, Meng Zu opened the system panel that only he could see.

Host: Meng Zu (Human)

Strength: 4 (Average adult human male: 1)

Speed: 4.3 (Average adult human male: 1)

Constitution: 3 (Average adult human male: 1)

Spirit: 6 (Average adult human male: 2)

Health: 150 (Average adult human: 50)

Energy: 60 (50+10)

Contract Points

Skills:

Basic Dynamic Vision (Passive): Improves the ability to capture, analyze, and perceive moving targets.

Basic Neural Reflex (Passive): Improves brain response and bodily control.

Basic Firearms (Passive): Improves firearm knowledge, familiarity with firearms, and firearm power.

Basic Stealth (Passive): Reduces one's presence in dimly lit areas, making one less likely to be noticed.

Basic Danger Sense (Passive): Detects impending danger.

Basic Combat (Passive): Grants highly proficient combat techniques.

Basic Disguise (Passive): Familiarity with disguise techniques; can deceive others by altering one's appearance.

Multifunctional Bullets (Active): Can give bullets one of the following properties: armor-piercing, explosive flame, freezing, holy light, or Mithril. Armor-piercing bullets (2 Energy each); explosive flame and freezing bullets (4 Energy each); holy light and Mithril bullets (5 Energy each).

Leap of Faith (Active): Jumping from a great height onto a soft surface causes no damage. Costs 10 Energy.

Teleportation (Active): Sets a teleportation point and teleports the user there. Costs 50 Energy within the same planet.

Clue Guidance (Active): For 5 minutes, points toward the target being tracked. Costs 20 Energy.

Items:

Mana-Recovery Ring (+10 Energy, restores 5 Energy per hour)

Resurrection Cross Necklace (Revives the wearer three seconds after death, restoring them to normal condition)

Red Potion x2 (Slightly restores physical condition), Blue Potion x3 (Restores 20 Energy)

Storage Space: 20 cubic meters. (Cannot store living creatures)

I have 1,023 Contract Points now. Luck was pretty good today. Should I try a ten-pull? Meng Zu muttered inwardly as he opened the mysterious shop and looked at the newly refreshed items. Yep, the prices were still as outrageously expensive as ever. He decided to rely on luck and draw instead.

Actions spoke louder than thoughts. Meng Zu sat up and opened the draw pool. The interface offered two choices: an ordinary draw that looked plain and dull, and an advanced draw that glittered with golden light. One ordinary draw cost 100 Contract Points, while one advanced draw cost 1,000 Contract Points.

So far, Meng Zu had only done three advanced draws. The first time, blessed by incredible luck, he had obtained Multifunctional Bullets. The second and third times, however, he had only received 1 point of Strength and 1 point of Spirit. That made Meng Zu realize that getting Multifunctional Bullets on his first draw had been absurdly lucky.

It took half a year of missions to save up 1,000 Contract Points. Normally, Meng Zu only accepted one mission a week, since most of his work involved killing.

Meng Zu tapped the ordinary ten-pull. In an instant, his 1,023 Contract Points dropped to just 23. A burst of light flickered, and ten small boxes appeared in the draw pool. The boxes opened automatically: three 0.1-point Strength rewards, two 0.1-point Spirit rewards, three 0.1-point Speed rewards, one 0.5-point Constitution reward, and a silver-white ring.

"Something good came out!?" Meng Zu immediately checked the ring. Vitality Ring (+1 Constitution, restores 5 Health per hour).

The ring immediately appeared in Meng Zu's palm. He put it on his left index finger. "After a whole year, another piece of equipment finally dropped. One restores mana, one restores health. I really got lucky today." Looking at the rings on his two index fingers, Meng Zu was overjoyed.

After directly using the other rewards, Meng Zu's panel became:

Host: Meng Zu (Human)

Strength: 4.3 (Average adult human male: 1)

Speed: 4.6 (Average adult human male: 1)

Constitution: 4.5 (Average adult human male: 1)

Spirit: 6.2 (Average adult human male: 2)

Health: 225 (Average adult human: 50)

Energy: 60 (50+10)

Contract Points: 23

After finishing all that, Meng Zu went to sleep in a cheerful mood. He dreamed of going to the reservoir with his childhood friends to catch crabs.

In truth, Meng Zu was somewhat special. He was not entirely a person of this world. He was one of countless transmigrators. In his previous life, he had been an ordinary person in China. One stormy night, he had been walking home with an umbrella when lightning struck. He did not know whether it was because he had done something wrong or because his pigeon-toed walk had looked too arrogant, but instead of striking the huge tree beside him, the lightning had hit him.

Nothing miraculous happened after Meng Zu was struck by lightning. He was not unharmed, nor did he become the Flash. He died on the spot. When he regained a little consciousness, he vaguely felt as if he were soaking in water. Then he emerged from the water into a bright place, where people around him spoke words he could not understand before he lost consciousness again.

When Meng Zu was twenty-four, he suddenly regained the memories of his previous life. After being struck by lightning, he had died and been reborn in this world, arriving in the United States. He did not know who his biological parents were. He had lived in an orphanage until a middle-aged Chinese man adopted him at the age of six.

The middle-aged man was named Zhang Jun, a freelance mercenary. Meng Zu had never been very interested in school, and his grades had been average. Because of his adoptive father, he had become more interested in firearms instead. Zhang Jun had naturally been willing to teach him. After all, in the free United States, gunfights happened every day, and knowing how to use firearms was useful—especially since Asians were not treated very kindly here. Meng Zu later learned that his biological parents had died in some chaos.

In 2005, Meng Zu graduated from college at twenty-two. After working at a company for a year, he resigned. Familiar with the mercenary trade because of his adoptive father, he entered the profession despite Zhang Jun's opposition. That same year, Zhang Jun died of cancer. Meng Zu was twenty-four, and on his birthday, he awakened the memories of his previous life while also activating the standard cheat ability of transmigrators: a system. At the time, Meng Zu had even complained that the system interface looked like the personal status screen of some cheap mobile game.

This was a Mercenary System. Whenever someone hired him, it could generate a mercenary mission, and completing the mission earned Contract Points. Originally, Meng Zu had not wanted to remain a mercenary. Mercenaries dealt with bullets all the time, and a little bad luck could send him to his death. But after integrating the memories of his twenty-some years in this world, he discovered that this world was dangerous.

This world had Captain America, Stark Industries, and Oscorp. There was also a familiar playboy who often appeared on TV and in gossip magazines: Tony Stark. It made Meng Zu feel as sick as if he had eaten shit.

Marvel—a world plagued by disasters. Whether it was the comic universe or the movie universe, ordinary people could die easily here. But seeing the familiar Tony Stark made Meng Zu lean more toward the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Though it was not as insanely dangerous as the comic universe, it was still dangerous enough, especially since a giant purple potato would eventually snap his fingers. After thinking it over, Meng Zu decided the only solution was to become stronger so he could protect himself.

After the system activated, Meng Zu received a beginner gift pack. Opening it gave him Storage Space, Teleportation, Clue Guidance, Leap of Faith, and the Resurrection Cross Necklace. At the same time, because of the Teleportation skill, the system granted him 50 Energy. Rather than a beginner gift pack, it was more like a survival gift pack. That was exactly why Meng Zu continued working as the mercenary he was familiar with.

Mercenaries did not receive jobs often, especially young freelance mercenaries like Meng Zu. He might only receive one job every month or two or three months. One day, Meng Zu discovered that there was actually a Continental Hotel in Manhattan, New York, leaving him utterly bewildered. Could the John Wick Universe also be part of the Marvel universe?

In 2008, Meng Zu drew the Basic Disguise skill. After giving it some thought and passing the Continental Hotel's assessment, he became a member. The Continental Hotel was a neutral assassin guild. It did not force assassins to take missions, but if they wanted the Continental Hotel's services, they needed gold coins. Those coins could only be earned by completing missions issued by the Continental Hotel.

Because the Continental Hotel was an assassin guild, every mission involved killing. Therefore, Meng Zu usually selected one to three missions each month. Once he chose them, the system automatically turned them into mercenary missions, allowing his Contract Points to steadily increase.

By obtaining skills and attribute points through draws to strengthen himself, Meng Zu's rating at the Continental Hotel also gradually rose.

Meng Zu had never figured out exactly what the Health value displayed by the system was for. During one mission, he had been shot in the leg. Other than his Health dropping, his movement had also become inconvenient because of the injury. It was not like a game where he could keep jumping around as long as his Health had not reached zero. If someone blew his head apart with a single shot, he would still die immediately. However, Meng Zu had discovered another use for Health: only after he had completely recovered would it return to full. When he was in a harmful environment he could not detect, his Health would also decline, giving him another way to sense danger.

Sometimes, Meng Zu complained that other transmigrators either joined the righteous side or had powerful backers to rely on, aside from their cheat abilities. He, on the other hand, was merely a mercenary with no background, walking the gray areas.