After a peaceful day, Lynn finally welcomed his favorite weekend. Now that he didn't need to operate the fried chicken shop, he could finally walk freely on the streets of New York in broad daylight.
Blade seemed to have completed his interim goals and hadn't contacted him much recently, resulting in a significant reduction in Lynn's side income.
"I wonder if Deacon is dead yet."
Lynn didn't bring Jekyll with him, leaving him at Midtown High. Occasionally he wanted to explore on his own and experience the street scenes of the Big Apple.
The crowds in New York seemed to be pushed by some invisible force, hardly ever stopping. Everyone walked quickly, perhaps because this was the Manhattan district?
Lynn's leisurely stroll made him stand out as somewhat incongruous.
Just as Lynn turned into the next block, a man walked straight toward him. Lynn intuitively turned into a small alley at the edge of the street.
The man followed him in.
"Suit and tie—judging from appearances alone, he's just an ordinary office worker like any other."
But Lynn saw other details. This guy had deliberately chosen oversized clothes that completely draped over his body.
Still, Lynn could tell from his shoulder width that this fellow's physical condition was quite extraordinary.
At least he wasn't like the typical salaried workers you'd find everywhere in the big city. After all, mere fitness wouldn't make his briefcase require both hands to lift.
When the number of people around noticeably decreased, Lynn quickly extended his ability behind him.
A purple spiritual energy entity condensed into a wall, blocking the tongue of flame that erupted from the man's gun barrel.
Lynn had tested his physical strength before. As a human, it was decent, but certainly not capable of withstanding 5.56 caliber bullets like his beast soldiers.
The ordinary people around screamed and scattered in all directions.
The bullets deflected by the force field scattered in various directions, hitting several unfortunate civilians.
Fortunately, these stray bullets weren't fatal. Getting shot in the limbs was more common in New York than animal bites.
The attacking mercenary failed in his first strike and witnessed Lynn's superpower, but showed no sign of retreat. After all, his mission was to kill Lynn.
He wouldn't leave without completing his mission.
The Purple Man's mental control had a unique crudeness amid its precision—he couldn't fine-tune the details.
As the Zincarian mercenary began to switch his magazine, Lynn struck decisively. Spiritual energy tentacles crawled out from beneath the mercenary's feet.
They quickly wrapped around his torso.
The unexpected attack gave the mercenary no chance to dodge. He was fixed in place and swiftly disarmed by Lynn.
Lynn walked over and examined his satchel.
As expected, inside was a modified projectile launcher that wouldn't have passed security checks in certain countries in his previous life.
Setting aside the somewhat comical satchel, Lynn began brainwashing the man. He had no intention of releasing the Purple Man's mental control.
This guy needed to complete his mission, and afterward, he would certainly return to his base. Lynn only needed a minor modification to make this fellow believe he had completed his mission.
He should have done this from the beginning.
"Lack of experience. I'll need to pay attention to this in the future. You can't extract much information from a dead man's brain."
Judging from the fact that the first batch of mercenaries had their own base, the Purple Man probably wouldn't treat these Zincarian mercenaries as disposable assets to be used only once.
Lynn reached toward a nearby garbage can, and purple spiritual energy tentacles quickly retrieved a bag of trash from it.
The brainwashing was completed quickly. The mercenary looked around in confusion, then accepted the garbage bag from Lynn's hand.
"Your mission is complete. Go back now."
"Yes, boss."
"And take this garbage with you."
The mercenary walked out of the alley in a daze. Lynn's brainwashing was quite crude but effective. After all, he hadn't had many opportunities to use his mind control abilities.
Practicing on Tom or Jekyll made little sense. The brains of those two had already been poked into a tangled mess by him.
Although they appeared to be normal people with independent thinking abilities, their thoughts had actually shattered into fragments.
They were more like soulless biological machines.
Though considering that these fellows were vampires, perhaps they had already lost their souls. After all, they still couldn't look into mirrors made with silver elements, even though they could now walk in sunlight.
Lynn followed behind the Zincarian mercenary while examining the ID he had lifted from him.
—Wild Beast Battle Team
These four words made Lynn nod. Indeed, only the Silver Mink Mercenary Group would have such a broad range of business. But considering that their employer was the Purple Man, they had certainly made a losing deal this time.
"They even lost their lives."
While following the Zincarian mercenary, Lynn also paid attention to the news on the large screens that wasted electricity 24 hours a day, now broadcasting news that served as after-dinner conversation topics for the American people.
Among them were segments of Lynn verbally abusing the Purple Man.
However, publicity came and went quickly. A small disappearance case wasn't particularly remarkable.
Especially when there was a friendly neighborhood hero performing acts of justice everywhere, this world had too many big news stories.
Lynn's publicity didn't even last three days.
The media was more interested in bigger news—Tony Stark had been attacked and was still missing.
Lynn pondered for a moment and decided to find the Purple Man first. He didn't want to get involved in the Stark family's business. Jekyll and Tom were only junior-level beast soldiers, not quite ready to deal with Stark Industries' most advanced weapons.
Jekyll's qualities were better, but without basic equipment support, Lynn couldn't proceed with the next steps of operation.
His crude laboratory couldn't complete higher-level debugging.
When the dust settled, going to Stark Tower to grab some things might be a good idea.
After exiting the subway and walking several blocks, Lynn finally followed the Zincarian mercenary to Hell's Kitchen.
As expected and logical.
In the cesspool of New York, the worst place was Manhattan, and worse than Manhattan was this area composed of eight blocks—the west side of Midtown, Hell's Kitchen.
But at least this place had its own order.
Lynn followed behind him and came unhindered to a building.
Old, broken, and giving off a terrible impression of "keep out," the small stalls at the entrance casually displayed some products, most of which were clearly for adults only at first glance. As for how many contraband items were in the back, only the shopkeeper knew.
Lynn entered the elevator with the Zincarian mercenary, joined by a group of very punk-styled gang members.
This scene made Lynn feel like he was back in 1990s New York.
Very cool.
Of course, Lynn wasn't here to experience a movie scene.
The mercenary opened a door, and the next second, all five people in the room turned their heads toward him.
They also hadn't forgotten to ready their weapons.
All kinds of firearms were present. After confirming the newcomer, these mercenaries also breathed a sigh of relief.
"Hey, Krone, why are you only back now? It's just a high school teacher..."
Before the unfortunate fellow could finish speaking, Lynn had already walked in.
These guys didn't have much chance to fight back. Spiritual energy tentacles had firmly controlled everyone, giving them almost no possibility of escape.
The mercenaries glared at him, but they weren't Cyclops, so looks couldn't kill. Considering their current unfortunate situation, they probably couldn't even make Lynn feel afraid.
"Now, I wish you all pleasant dreams."
Next, the spiritual energy tentacles connected to the backs of their heads. Lynn was trying a gentler brainwashing method, not as crude as directly using spiritual energy tentacles as before.
"It's somewhat difficult. Human consciousness and the brain are indeed quite troublesome areas, so interesting even under the influence of superpowers.
Reshaping and controlling their brains is simple, but to perform this kind of delicate manipulation with my ability and still allow them to find themselves afterward is clearly challenging.
But it's worth trying.
After all, mental abilities are quite important things."
Delicate mental operations were quite time-consuming, and Lynn rather envied the Purple Man's type of mental control that could take effect with just a sentence.
Although it was somewhat ordinary, it was quite simple and easy to use.
However, Lynn still completed his plan and didn't feel particularly tired. It seemed that controlling these few mercenaries simultaneously was far from reaching his limit.
"Larov, do what you were doing before. Pretend I don't exist in this room."
"Yes, boss Sidis."
Lynn nodded, standing by the window looking at the murky, chaotic district outside. Night was falling soon, and Hell's Kitchen occasionally transmitted sounds of firecrackers and all kinds of wailing.
But those were unrelated to Lynn.
At least for now.
Lynn called over a mercenary and had him clean up the bedroom full of masculine characteristics. He lay down, turned on the TV, and began to kill time with the news.
The host was chattering endlessly, promoting the "universal" values that had been given to him from above, values that all citizens could access from childhood to adulthood.
Of course, Lynn had no interest in those values, especially as he noticed recent news about superhumans.
"Some people have already been confirmed to possess some... peculiar superpowers. We still know little about them at present.
But according to informed sources, these superhumans appear to have caused a certain degree of damage.
Authorities have issued warnings that if you discover these suspected superhumans, please report to the authorities as soon as possible. They are not normal humans...
They need to be contained and controlled..."
Lynn wasn't interested in continuing to listen to what followed, but from the information, it seemed that at least the American government was no longer intending to hide the existence of mutants. A small group of people had already caused trouble.
Perhaps some resistance fighters had already caused damage, so the authorities were preparing public opinion. These media outlets, as mouthpieces, naturally wouldn't say anything positive.
"Crappy job..."
Lynn was actually very curious about what essential difference there was between mutants and other superhumans in this place where superpowers were everywhere.
But evidently, the big shots in America didn't think this way, at least most people didn't. There might have been deliberate guidance from other forces.
"Art needs to be logical, reality doesn't have to be logical, but the real world certainly has reasons. Nothing happens without cause—some butterfly must be flapping its wings somewhere.
This trend can't come from nowhere. There must be someone pushing the mutant issue behind the scenes."
Lynn's thoughts were wandering, but no matter how much he speculated now, it didn't matter. He was just an ordinary mutant (perhaps) with some cleverness.
But certainly not a supervillain who could influence world affairs.
At least not yet.
Just as Lynn was about to change the channel, no longer wanting to listen to the host saying things he himself didn't believe, he sensed something.
A very special life energy was approaching. Lynn sat up, purple spiritual energy winding around his body, enveloping his form, then gradually fading away to form an invisible barrier.
If an ordinary person looked over, they would see his head encased in an ever-shifting mass of spiritual energy, burning like purple flames, almost impossible to see through and painful to their eyes.
He could guess—the Purple Man had come.
"Although I'm not entirely clear whether the Purple Man's mind control in this world relies on chemical substances or simply his superpower,
In any case, my ability can counteract it, which is good. Otherwise, failing at the end would be too absurd."
He sat on the bed, quietly waiting for his prey to arrive.
At the same time, he heard footsteps outside the corridor. The pace wasn't orderly, probably just two people. It seemed the Purple Man indeed liked Jessica Jones.
So much that he took the girl wherever he went.
Even more perverted.
Lynn stood up with some discomfort. Although he might joke that small ones were cute too, jokes aside, Lynn couldn't admire such excessively depraved tastes.
The door opened, and Kilgrave, who had just arrived at the doorway with a smile on his face, suddenly changed expression.
He grabbed Jessica Jones, who was standing beside him dressed in carefully selected designer clothing like a middle school student, and began to turn and leave.
"Catch them, don't harm the girl."
Lynn kicked open the door, not understanding how the Purple Man had spotted something wrong.
Suddenly he looked at Krone and instantly understood some things. This guy probably shouldn't have been here.
Several mercenaries filed out and quickly saw the Purple Man in the elevator saying something to a group of gang members. Immediately, those people raised their weapons.
But the Zincarian mercenaries reacted faster. The two sides, under the mental control of the two men, immediately opened fire on each other in the narrow corridor.
Hearing the gunfight outside, Lynn naturally had no intention of pursuing through the elevator.
Two fingers pressed against his temples, seemingly searching for Jessica and the Purple Man's location. After a few seconds, he had a result. The Purple Man's special life energy was very distinctive, and fortunately, the elevator wasn't fast.
Lynn casually picked up a walking stick from the room and shattered the venetian blinds, looking at the somewhat high floor.
"Hope this little test works."
With that, Lynn leaped down.
Purple spiritual energy gathered under his feet, forming clouds and mist. A large amount of spiritual energy flickered with smoke clouds and light purple electric arcs, this force twisting the effect that gravity should have produced.
Lynn landed steadily, confirmed the Purple Man's escape route again, and set off in pursuit.