After a busy day at work, Matt Murdock returned to his shabby apartment. He did not turn on the lights, set aside the cane he usually used to guide himself, and walked straight into the living room to sit on the sofa.
In the silent darkness, Matt's senses became even sharper. Unlike other blind people, he did not have to feel his way forward cautiously, afraid of tripping over obstacles. His heightened senses allowed the blind lawyer to see a different kind of world.
Matt had been abandoned by his mother as a child and raised by his father, a boxer. Later, his father refused to throw a fight for the mob and paid for it with his life, leaving young Matt an orphan with no one to care for him.
In an accident, radioactive material splashed into young Matt's eyes, blinding him but enhancing his other senses. Later, under the harsh training of a blind martial arts master, he learned to control his superhuman senses and developed extraordinary agility and combat skills, becoming a powerful fighter.
Matt grew up in an orphanage. From an early age, he understood that people needed rules to restrain their behavior, so he resolved to study law and, after much effort, was admitted to Columbia University. After earning his doctorate in law and graduating, he suddenly realized that the law was merely a tool manipulated by the wealthy and powerful. Enraged, he donned the red devil suit and became Hell's Kitchen's Daredevil, using violence to uphold justice.
"Kingpin is actually dead?" Matt, sitting in the living room, still found it hard to believe.
Using his identity as a lawyer, he had investigated Kingpin, the hidden ruler of Hell's Kitchen, and discovered that his real identity was Wilson Fisk, the famous real estate tycoon.
This mob boss, who had packaged himself as a real estate magnate and social celebrity, had secretly conducted all kinds of illegal business—drug smuggling, arms dealing, and even forcibly evicting residents and seizing land through illegal means. He was utterly vile, a massive cancer festering in Hell's Kitchen!
Matt had once become Daredevil and tried to send the mob boss, whose hands were stained with the blood of innocents, to a police cell. Unfortunately, reality once again shattered his naive hopes.
At least half the police force had been bought off by him. Even the mayor and the local prosecutor chatted and laughed with him. Not only Hell's Kitchen, but all of New York lay under Kingpin's dark influence.
Just when Matt had fallen into complete despair, the Black Emperor, who had lurked in the shadows and ruled New York's underworld, suddenly died just like that!
When he learned the news from a Braille newspaper, he could barely believe it. According to the police's official statement, New York's famous real estate tycoon, Mr. Wilson Fisk, had been attacked by a group of terrorists on the night of the sixteenth and tragically killed.
It all felt far too unreal!
Matt knew how terrifying Kingpin's strength was. He had fought that massive bald man and his bodyguard Bullseye before, and had been completely unable to fight back. He had nearly died at the mob boss's hands, if Punisher had not suddenly appeared and saved him.
Yet such a terrifyingly powerful pair had actually died in an attack?!
It made no sense, nor did it have any logic behind it.
"Frank... why are you at my home?"
His thoughts in turmoil, Matt suddenly seemed to hear an unusual sound and immediately spoke.
"You're as sharp as ever, Matt."
A tall, burly man climbed in through the window from the fire escape. He wore a black T-shirt emblazoned with a skull and was armed from head to toe, like a walking arsenal.
"I thought you'd already left Hell's Kitchen." Though Matt could not see, his other senses could fully replace the function of his eyes.
The burly man known as Punisher chuckled. "I have no desire to leave this chaotic place. Only Hell's Kitchen has so many scum, thugs, and robbers!"
Matt frowned deeply. He did not agree with Punisher's method of showing no mercy toward any criminal. It was too brutal and too extreme.
"Hey, big-shot lawyer, did you know? That bastard Kingpin is dead!" Punisher's tone carried a trace of regret. "Someone actually beat me to it. That damned fat man had always been one of my targets."
"Tell me why you're here, Frank. You wouldn't come looking for me without a reason."
Matt asked directly. Punisher, the man who made criminals tremble in fear, was not someone who came around for casual conversation.
"Heh heh..." Punisher gave a low laugh. Looking at Daredevil sitting in the darkness, he said, "Matt, haven't you noticed anything strange?"
"Hm?"
"Hell's Kitchen has changed! This sinful place filled with drug dealers, gangs, hippie punks, and street thugs is changing. With Kingpin's death, everything has become different!"
Punisher removed bullets from a magazine, then loaded them back in one by one. In the darkness, a trace of gravity appeared on the burly man's face.
This man, even more savage and violent than criminals, revealed everything he had discovered. "I've been watching Kingpin's gangs for a long time. They had always done business with The Hand in Japan—human trafficking and drug dealing. They used children as containers to transport drugs and carried out smuggling operations in secret."
"Tonight, I was planning to go there and destroy that smuggling factory by myself. But when I arrived, I found it completely empty. I caught one of the gang leaders and forced him to tell me where the children were. Guess what answer I got?"
Matt remained silent. Since his audience was not playing along, Punisher could only continue alone. "That gang leader, whose arm I broke, said that Kingpin's drug business and smuggling operations had all stopped. Someone had handed those shady illegal businesses over to The Hand and The Russians."
"Hahahaha! Isn't it hilarious? After Kingpin died, his men actually turned over a new leaf!" Punisher laughed mockingly.
"Someone manipulated all of this?"
Matt pondered it. Kingpin's death was not that simple, and what Frank had said only made everything even more incomprehensible.
"I'm very interested in the one who killed Kingpin. I really want to know what he's trying to do. Reform Hell's Kitchen?!" Punisher clenched his pistol, a vicious smile curling across his lips.
"Frank, you'd better calm down. Anyone capable of killing Kingpin is definitely not someone to provoke."
Matt cautioned him. Because his family had been slaughtered by gangsters, Frank was filled with hostility and hatred toward all criminals. He never showed mercy, and the gangs he targeted often did not leave behind a single survivor.
"Save your preaching, big-shot lawyer. If you still believed in the law, why did you become Daredevil? Those rich bastards and evil gangs only need to afford a high-powered legal team, and they can exploit every loophole in the law to escape punishment... The law's fairness and justice? Bullshit!"
Punisher was indignant. He abruptly stood, his burly body like a small mountain. "Since the law cannot punish those bastards, then I can do it for it—in a far crueler way!"
Matt said nothing. His heart had always been filled with conflict. He had once believed that the law could bring criminals to justice, but reality was often cruel. Just as Frank had said, in the hands of the wealthy and the gangs, the law became nothing more than empty words on paper.
"...You're too extreme, Frank," Matt said weakly.
"Someone is planning a massive conspiracy! Matt, Hell's Kitchen will soon face a complete transformation. When that time comes, we'll all have to make a choice."
Punisher left with a cold laugh. Looking at Daredevil curled up on the sofa, a trace of disdain flashed through his heart. If he did not possess a resolute and powerful heart, then why wear that red devil suit at all?
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