White Horse Nightclub

In the alley:

About five minutes after Mo Zhen disappeared,

A girl in a dark purple Gothic dress landed lightly in the cluttered dead end, her violet eyes surveying her surroundings.

"Strange... the magic fluctuations were just here."

The newcomer was the magical girl Nightingale.

After school, she had sensed the surge of magic while looking for food at a nearby café. Mistaking it for a familiar causing trouble, she had transformed and come to investigate.

"But..."

Her gaze fell on an arm hastily buried under some trash. A flame tattoo on it stood out.

"Someone from the Crimson Flame Gang?"

Nightingale took out her phone, snapped a picture, and reported it to the Ministry of Magic, first establishing which faction was involved-in other words, leaving a record of her work.

Superheroes and magical girls usually had their own separate duties and generally did not interfere with one another.

For example, superheroes dealt with supervillains, while magical girls handled incidents involving magical beasts and witches.

Without authorization, they did not interfere unless necessary.

Suddenly, Nightingale frowned. Beside a bicycle someone had tossed aside in the alley, she picked up a meal card in a leather holder.

On the back of the holder were the words... high school division, Mo Zhen?

Nightingale's heart tightened. Without his meal card, what would he eat? Ahem, no, no, the question was where he had gone!

Meanwhile.

Mo Zhen's consciousness gradually returned. When he opened his eyes, he found himself in a nightclub changing room.

Several other boys around his age were nearby. They all looked young, but they were quite handsome.

"Oi! You, the temp over there! Stop standing around and get changed! Which agency sent you? Do you still want to get paid or not? The big boss will be here soon, so hurry it up!"

The nightclub manager shouted, urging him on.

[Random event: "Ripper"]

[Description: White Horse Nightclub is a gathering place for criminal organizations and the territory of the financial group backing the Crimson Flame Gang. People from all walks of life gather here, and its business is acting as a middleman.

Tonight, they will host a Colossus Company executive and an unsigned superhero interested in joining Colossus Company at the nightclub.

The latter's true identity is "Ripper," a supervillain once notorious in England.

Meanwhile, acting on a tip from an informant, the Pacific State United Government has also set its sights on him and is preparing a raid tonight. The superhero in charge of this operation is code-named "Scarlet Spider."]

[Ripper: A supervillain formerly active on the New European Continent. Threat level: "C+." He later fled to Taiping Prefecture, where he went straight under the alias "Edward."]

[Mission: Kill "Ripper."]

[Reward: Unknown.]

"Can I take on a C+?"

Mo Zhen was not very confident, but now that he was here, he could only play it by ear. If things really went badly, he could always pack up and run.

Still, judging by the mission description, he might be able to wait until the superhero code-named Scarlet Spider and Ripper had both suffered heavy injuries, then step in and claim the kill.

In the superhero ranking system, the gap between C and D was no small difference. The former had an overwhelming advantage in every respect.

At present, he merely possessed a vast amount of magic, but his magic output efficiency was not high. He was a very ordinary ordinary person.

Ambushing and instantly killing a C+ would not be easy.

"I'll see how things go."

The last to get changed, Mo Zhen left the changing room.

"You, you, and you. You few, go greet the guests at the entrance." The manager immediately picked out Mo Zhen and several of the best-looking temps.

He put them in charge of greeting guests at the entrance.

Mo Zhen stood by the entrance, lost in thought.

[Beginner mission 2: How can a witch destined to reign over the world remain unknown? Raise your reputation to "Making a Name."]

[Current reputation: "Little Known"]

[Mission reward: Trait · Sukuna-Level Magic Output Efficiency.]

I wonder if I can finish the second beginner mission at the same time, but the condition's a little difficult. The real question is, where am I supposed to farm reputation?

He thought.

The beginner mission reward was clearly meant to go with the "Malevolent Shrine" he had gotten from the beginner gift pack.

But the mission condition troubled Mo Zhen. The protagonist witch in the game could gain reputation directly through two kinds of actions: "doing evil" and "saving people."

After all, it was just a line of data.

But in reality, neither was so easy to accomplish.

Inside the nightclub, the music never stopped.

All of a sudden, the manager came to the entrance with a broad smile.

Before long, a sports car slowly pulled up on the street. The door opened, and a blond man in a suit stepped out.

He was tall, clearly over 1.9 meters, with the build of a model. He looked like a knight from England, all dressed up and respectable.

"Mr. Edward! Welcome to Tianhe!"

The nightclub manager had been informed in advance that the gentleman before him was the new superhero Colossus Company was about to sign.

In both looks and strength, he was a strong contender for the Hero 100.

The "Hero 100" referred to the 100 most influential superhero stocks on the Taiping Prefecture stock market.

The leader among them was naturally Colossus Company's chief superhero, Peacemaker, whose personal company's market value had already surpassed 1.8 trillion US dollars.

This was not only a symbol of his strength, but also representative of the commercial side of superhumans.

Close behind him in second place was the A+ superhero Red Owl, renowned for his "no-kill principle," with a personal market value of 1.5 trillion US dollars.

In third place was the A+ superhero Snowplow, whose abilities were super speed and absolute zero. He was known as the fastest superhuman in the world, with a personal market value of one trillion.

Back to the matter at hand.

As far as Mo Zhen knew from public information, Peacemaker was the only superhero whose threat level had reached the S+ rating assigned by the Superhero Association.

Below that, A+ was the ceiling, and there were very few at that level.

Therefore, barring any surprises, the C+ Edward had the looks and strength to make it into the Hero 100 with Colossus Company marketing him.

Although he would be somewhere in the middle of the pack, that was enough to earn him a seat at the table and let him harvest investors and capital institutions worldwide.

After all, the vast majority of superhumans had combat power on the level of street punks.

A C+ threat level meant Edward already had the ability to control and threaten an entire district or county.

"Mr. Tang Wenjie, welcome to you too!"

The nightclub manager was all smiles.

An Asian man in a suit and glasses had gotten out of the car with Edward. He was about as tall as the other man.

He was handsome, with well-proportioned features, and looked like a cultured scoundrel.

Tang Wenjie: A senior executive in the superhero division of Colossus Company in Taiping Prefecture. Though just an ordinary person, he held power of life and death over hundreds of billions of US dollars.

A single word from Tang Wenjie could decide the career of a middle- or lower-tier superhero.

"Please, after you, Mr. Edward."

Tang Wenjie adjusted his glasses, his tone somewhat cool.

Edward smiled, wariness of the man hidden in his eyes. "I hope we have fun today, my dear Tang."

The nightclub manager nodded repeatedly. "Mr. Tang, everything you ordered is ready. Every one of the newly hired temps is good-looking, and I've already spoken to them."

Hearing this, Mo Zhen asked the boy beside him, "What did he tell us again?"

The boy beside him gave him a surprised look, then lowered his voice.

"You forgot? Mr. Tang said beforehand that whoever makes Mr. Edward happy tonight can earn a hundred thousand in one night! And that's in US dollars!"

As he spoke, he looked at Mo Zhen with a hint of envy. "Though I don't think I have a chance tonight."

Mo Zhen blinked in confusion.

But he soon understood what the boy's look meant.

"Welcome to White Horse Nightclub!"

The temps, lined up in two rows, bowed at a forty-five-degree angle to welcome Edward and his party.

As soon as Edward entered the nightclub, his gaze shifted and landed on Mo Zhen. There was no helping it; the boy was simply too eye-catching.

The black-haired, blue-eyed boy had delicate features, and his shirt and vest made him look youthful and neat.

Most important was his bearing.

His youthful air was striking without being vulgar. Compared with the flirtatious types beside him, he stood out by a mile.

For a moment, he reminded Edward of the unattainable love of his high school days. Unfortunately, Edward had killed that person with his own hands.

He subconsciously licked the corner of his mouth, a hint of interest in his eyes, and reached out to put an arm around Mo Zhen's shoulders.

"You're not bad. Come to my private room."

"Oh, right, those few too."

As he spoke, he raised a hand and casually picked out a few others who were relatively pleasing to the eye. None were as good-looking as the one beside him, but they would do for setting the mood.

Mo Zhen: "..."

Although he disliked stereotypes, he still had to say it...

You fucking British gay bastard!

I'll kill every last one of you later.

Three minutes later.

Inside the most luxurious private room in White Horse Nightclub, Mo Zhen raised a hand and lit Edward's cigar.

"Hey, darling, what's your name?"

Edward held the expensive Cuban cigar in one hand, lowered his head, and blew all the smoke into Mo Zhen's face.

The more he looked at those baby-blue eyes, the more he liked them.

"Me? Cough, cough..."

Mo Zhen choked and turned his head, coughing. "I... my name is Lan Meng."

He made up a name on the spot, one from a very old comic. In any case, people working at nightclubs generally did not give their real names.

"Lan Meng? Does that mean a dream as blue as the sky? What a lovely name." Edward smiled. "Are you from Huaguo?"

As he spoke, he gently rested his right hand on the boy's shoulder.

So cute...

"Yes..."

Mo Zhen smiled as he got up and went to the wine cabinet to fetch a drink.

Seeing this, Edward grew even more excited.

He was in no hurry, because he loved watching the process of people being won over by money.

The change in their attitude, from barely giving him the time of day to calling him boss with every other breath, amused him greatly.

Superhero Scarlet Spider, where are you? Did you fall asleep on the way?

Meanwhile, Mo Zhen was frantically urging the superhero to show up and thinking about his chance to make a move.

Ripper was different from the low-level witch he had faced before. He was a genuinely dangerous person, and the risk of attacking him head-on before he was injured was too great.

More importantly, Mo Zhen could feel that Ripper was cautious to a frightening degree.

He looked relaxed and languid, but in truth, his entire body was on guard.

Come to think of it, a wanted criminal like Ripper, who had been on the run for years without ever being caught, naturally would not let his guard down in a place as dangerous as a nightclub.

After all, anyone who liked movies and television knew that in a superhero setting, letting your guard down in a place like a nightclub came with a mortality rate comparable to the Normandy landings.

Because he lacked a trait that increased his maximum output efficiency, Mo Zhen was not sure whether he could kill Ripper instantly.

If he failed and the man fought back, things would get difficult, and his identity as a magical girl would inevitably be exposed.