New York At four o'clock in the morning, the rain finally stopped.
The streets are full of stagnant water, reflecting colorful neon lights.
Old Qiao stood outside the window of a jewelry store and stared at the Winky glowing diamond necklace inside for a long time.
The appearance of his hands has completely changed. The palms that were originally rough and calloused are now covered with a thick layer of dark blue cuticle.
Just an hour ago, he picked up New Compound next to a pile of corpses.
These people probably fought over it, and ended up dead together.
He was so hungry that his stomach was cramping, and his sick wife and five-year-old daughter were waiting for him to bring bread back home.
Old Qiao heard rumors on the black market that this was a magic medicine that could change destiny, so he plunged it into his arm without hesitation.
The moment the power surged up, he really had the urge to smash the entire street.
He walked to the door of this jewelry store, and with just a wave of his hand, the glass, which was said to be bulletproof, would shatter like a biscuit.
The gold, silver and jewelry inside are enough for his wife to go to the best hospital for treatment, and enough for his daughter to never have to wear old clothes thrown away by others for the rest of her life.
Old Qiao slowly raised the mutated right hand.
But the second before he fell, he saw himself reflected in the glass showcase.
Although his hands became like monsters, his mind was still clear.
He recalled the way his daughter put her favorite rag doll into his arms before going out and told him to go home early.
If he smashed the glass and took the bloody money, how would he hug his daughter in the future?
If the police track him down, his wife and children will have to live in this quagmire as family members of a murderer.
"If I have the strength, I can earn hundreds of dollars a day by carrying containers at the dock."
Old Qiao suddenly put his hand down and let out a long breath.
He turned around and left the commercial street full of temptations with quick strides.
When passing by a 24-hour convenience store, he used the last few change in his pocket to buy a small strawberry cake.
It was a very crudely made cake, and the cream was a little hard, but he held it carefully in his arms as if he were holding the most precious treasure in the world.
It's almost dawn, and there's a touch of cool moisture in the air.
Old Qiao felt that his footsteps had never been so brisk, and he saw hope.
He felt that he could rely on this ability to support the family in an upright manner.
At this time, the top layers of Manhattan and Vought Tower are.
Madelyn is sitting at the desk, holding a cup of freshly brewed black coffee in his hand.
Real-time monitoring data from various neighborhoods are constantly beating on the big screen.
The chaos in the slums has reached its peak, and the scum at the bottom, who are used as free guinea pigs, are using the most barbaric way to show the world the terrifying destructive power of New Compound.
"Absolutely perfect."
Madelyn took a sip of coffee.
The police's firepower was completely useless in front of those monsters, and several blocks were completely paralyzed.
Early tomorrow morning, sort out these data and send them to Department of Defense, and the tens of billions of dollars of military orders will surely fall into Vought International's pocket.
As for the civilians and police officers who died, they were just a negligible numerical price in the company's financial report.
At this moment, the personal mobile phone placed on the table suddenly vibrated violently.
Madelyn frowned slightly, this is not a work number.
She put down her coffee cup and answered the phone.
"Ms. Madelyn, this is the Upper East Side Fifth Avenue police station branch."
The voice on the other end of the phone was filled with unconcealable panic.
"What's the matter?"
Madelyn's tone remained cold.
"I'm sorry to disturb you at this time. Your husband, Mr. David... had an accident."
Madelyn's heartbeat skipped a beat inexplicably. "David What's wrong? Isn't he sleeping in the villa?"
The policeman on the other end of the phone swallowed. "Half an hour ago, a mutant with a horn, Outsiders, broke into your villa and robbed it."
Madelyn stood up suddenly and overturned the coffee cup at hand, causing brown liquid to flow all over the table.
"Where's David!" Her voice became sharp.
"The other party stole the cash and watches from the safe. Mr. David tried to resist with a gun, but... his neck was broken on the spot. When we arrived, he had no vital signs."
The phone slipped from Madelyn's hand and hit the thick carpet with a muffled sound.
She fell on the chair like a puppet that had been drained of its strength, her face pale.
She spread those potions in the slums, thinking that the rats at the bottom would just bite each other in their own quagmire.
But she forgot that when mice suddenly turned into ferocious beasts that could tear apart steel, the first thing they would set their sights on would always be the wealthy areas that usually looked aloof and oozed fat.
This was a monster she released with her own hands, but in the end, she slapped her own home to pieces.
It's dawn outside the window, and the sunlight shines on Madelyn's stiff face, but it makes people feel no warmth at all.
On the other side of Brooklyn, Old Qiao had already reached the downstairs of his dilapidated apartment.
He stepped on the creaking wooden stairs, walked up to the third floor step by step, and opened the wooden door with peeling paint.
In the narrow room, my wife was sitting on the bedside wrapped in an old blanket and shedding tears.
Seeing Old Qiao pushing the door open, my wife stood up suddenly, her eyes red.
"Where have you been? It's so chaotic outside, with police cars blaring everywhere, I thought you..."
Before the wife had finished speaking, her five-year-old daughter ran out of the back room with her bare feet and hugged Old Qiao's thigh.
"Dad, you are back."
Old Qiao looked at his wife and daughter, his eyes suddenly turned red.
He quickly handed over the strawberry cake that had been protected all the way, with an extremely bright smile on his face.
"Don't cry. I'm back fine. I have good news for you. I've found a way out."
Old Qiao squatted down and gently wiped the saliva from the corner of his daughter's mouth with his mutated fingers that looked a little clumsy.
"I'm going to the dock today to find a job. With my current strength, we won't have to live in this kind of fearful and miserable life again. Next month, dad will change you to a room with a big window, okay?"
The wife stared blankly at Old Qiao's mutated hands. Although she was scared, seeing the longing and determination for the future in her husband's eyes, she still covered her mouth and nodded vigorously.
"Okay... as long as the family is safe, that's better than anything else."
The little girl cheered and unpacked the cake box clumsily.
The bright red strawberries still look so tempting against the low-quality cream.
Old Qiao looked at the smile on his daughter's face and felt that it was the most correct decision he made in his life that Jōnin didn't break the window last night.
He stood up and went to the sink to wash his face.
Suddenly, Old Qiao's body suddenly froze.
It was like a red-hot steel needle was stabbed into the back of his head without warning, directly penetrating through the entire brain.
With a "clang" sound, Old Qiao knocked over the plastic water basin next to it.
"Old Qiao? What's wrong with you?" The wife noticed something was wrong and ran over quickly.
Old Qiao turned his head and opened his mouth, wanting to tell his wife not to worry, he was just a little dizzy.
But he couldn't make any sound.
Dark red nosebleeds gushed out crazily along his nasal cavity like a faucet that couldn't be turned off, followed by his eyes and ears.
Old Qiao's eyes quickly faded.
His mutated arms could even lift a car, but at this moment he no longer had the strength to lift them up and touch his daughter.
"Dad?" The little girl held up a piece of cake with strawberries in her hand and looked blankly at her father who fell on the ground.
Old Qiao's huge body collapsed and hit the narrow floor heavily, never moving again.
The shrill cries instantly tore apart the tranquility of this dilapidated apartment.
The sunlight shone in through the gap in the window that was not closed tightly, and fell just on Old Qiao's increasingly cold face. He even retained the smile full of hope for the future just now.
[PS: Madelyn's husband is a private person, hehe]