Support me and be 30 chapters ahead of webnovel:
patreon.com/Draco_
For every 5 Patreon memberships I receive, I'll release 15 chapters all at once. Your support means a lot to me.
*****
"Give me another ten!"
"How did I miss again?"
"Damn it! It was so close! Give me another twenty!"
"Argh! Why is it always just a tiny bit off?!"
Gwen was so angry she was on the verge of transforming.
Every single time, it was just a hair's breadth away. The unwillingness to accept defeat, the regret, and the resulting anger and impatience felt like a kitten scratching at her heart—painful yet itching for more.
She took a deep breath and slammed her money down. "Give me another ten... no, make it thirty!"
She refused to believe that if she threw them all at once, not a single one would land!
"You got it!"
The bearded boss responded loudly, counting out thirty rings and handing them to Gwen. As he took her money, his eyebrows curved with delight.
Ever since he had traveled to China, tried this game out of curiosity, and lost money on it, he had brought the concept back with him. He quickly discovered he had unlocked a password to wealth.
It was incredibly profitable.
Just look—in this short amount of time, he had already made a hundred bucks off Gwen alone.
The bearded boss looked at the surrounding crowd, especially those eager to give it a try, and practically saw a field of leeks waiting to be harvested.
Calculating today's earnings, the boss chuckled to himself.
"Behold my ultimate ring toss technique!"
Gwen let out a low shout and threw all the rings in her hand at once.
Clatter!
It was like a sudden rainstorm.
Gwen's eyes widened, tracking the landing spots of the rings.
But...
"Ahhh! How is there not even one?!"
Gwen roared through gritted teeth.
The bearded boss looked regretful as he sighed at Gwen. "Little girl, your luck is just too bad. Look..."
He pointed to a ring in the furthest row.
"That one was so close."
The ring was hanging diagonally off the ear of a toy.
Gwen took a deep breath and suddenly put on a pitiful expression. "Boss, can't you just count that as a win?"
"That isn't up to me, it's up to the ring!"
The bearded boss sighed, picked up a small gift closest to Gwen, and handed it to her. "For the sake of you supporting my business so much, I'll give you a consolation prize."
Gwen stared at the grinning, cheeky rabbit doll. She felt like it was mocking her.
"Heh, hehehe!"
Gwen laughed with her head down like a maniac, a cluster of blue flames flickering in her eyes.
With so many people around, she couldn't transform, but she could certainly use a portion of her powers.
"Give me ten!"
Just then, a familiar voice rang out.
The flames in Gwen's eyes vanished instantly. She looked up to see Mike and the others behind her and asked in surprise, "What are you guys doing here?"
"Little Lamb wasn't interested in the turtle race, so we came to find you," Mike said with a smile. He handed Little Lamb, who was calling out for his big sister, over to Gwen, then reached out to the boss. "Ten rings."
"Coming right up!"
The bearded boss beamed.
Heh, hehe.
Another person here to give him money!
Mike took the ten rings handed to him.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Mike threw all the rings in his hand.
But... not a single one landed!
Seeing this, the boss grinned widely.
Like father, like daughter—they were both his Gods of Wealth!
Gwen looked at the scene in disbelief.
That's impossible!
With Dad's abilities...
She turned to look at Mike, and upon noticing the amusement in his eyes, realization dawned on her.
Was he doing it on purpose?
"Wow, this is pretty hard!" Mike shook his head.
"You almost had it. Want to try again?"
The bearded boss tempted Mike.
Such clumsy customers were hard to find.
"True!" Mike nodded. He glanced at the boss's stall and grinned. "Then give me another hundred!"
He had calculated it perfectly; there were exactly one hundred items on the stall.
"Dad! Go for it!" Gwen cheered, pumping her fist with feigned grief and indignation.
"Go, go!" Little Lamb mimicked Gwen, waving his small hands.
Watching the father and daughter begin their performance, Raven cast a pitying glance at the boss.
In the next second, Mike began his show.
The rings in his hand flew out in a continuous stream—swish, swish, swish! The boss's face, however, looked as if he were being slapped repeatedly. It grew uglier and uglier until, by the end, he looked like he was about to vomit blood.
"All done!"
Mike patted the boss on the shoulder and said with a distressed expression, "Oh my, I'm so sorry. My luck seems to be quite good today."
Luck?
Only a ghost would believe that was luck!
Looking at the smiling Mike, the boss felt like he was seeing a grinning demon.
He wanted to cry but had no tears. He even had the urge to run away.
But seeing the crowd that had already encircled his stall, the boss could only wear a bitter expression and force a smile as he brought all the prizes over to Mike.
Toys, snacks, expensive red wine, and various handicrafts...
Looking at the mountain of gifts piled up in front of her, Gwen laughed happily. She handed a toy car to Little Lamb, then looked smugly at the ashen-faced boss and taunted, "Well? Do you want to put more stuff out?"
The bearded boss shook his head frantically. "Closing up! I'm closing up!"
Seeing this, the surrounding crowd burst into laughter.
The bearded boss flushed red and looked at Mike with a hint of fear.
Mike smiled faintly and said, "Let's go. I saw something delicious over there, let's go taste it."
"Okay!"
Gwen agreed. Looking at the gifts on the ground, she looked up at Mike and asked, "What about all this stuff?"
"You figure out how to deal with it yourself."
"Really?"
Gwen's eyes lit up as she looked at the boss beside her.
The boss felt a sense of foreboding, while Mike and Raven exchanged a glance, their faces full of resignation.
This little money-grubber.
Sure enough, Gwen picked out a few items from the pile, then pointed at the rest on the ground. She flashed a sweet smile at the bearded boss and said gently, "Boss, how about I sell these things back to you? I'll give you a huge discount!"
Boss: "!"
Is that even legal?
He shook his head, ready to refuse, when Gwen added lightly, "If you don't buy them back, we'll come again tomorrow!"
Boss: "!!"
She's a demon!
This whole family must be devils crawled out of hell!
His beard trembled violently. Like a desperate soul pushed to the brink, he screamed miserably, "I'll trade!"
Gwen smiled with satisfaction and turned to flash a victory sign at Mike.
Raven looked at the boss with pity and sighed.
See, I told you you'd cry.
...
Earth, New York, Daily Planet.
Clark sat at his desk, fingers tapping on the keyboard as he wrote today's interview draft.
He looked up at the others. Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, the speed of his typing began to accelerate. In just a dozen seconds, the article that would have normally taken an hour to write was finished.
He quickly checked it twice. After confirming there were no issues, he smiled slightly.
Now, nothing would delay his date with Hope tonight.
"Tsk, tsk!"
Carrie appeared, leaning over the partition of Clark's desk, shaking her head with a look of envy.
"Is this how you use your abilities? I really envy Hope."
As she spoke, she glanced sideways at Clark, a mischievous smirk playing on her lips. "How about we have dinner together tonight?"
"Didn't you get into a fight with Lois?" Clark asked in confusion.
"How did you know?" Carrie asked in surprise, then rubbed her forehead helplessly. "You and Lois really are close."
She shrugged. "You know how it is. Every woman has those few days every month. It'll be fine in a couple of days. Besides, asking you guys out to dinner is a chance to smooth things over with her!"
Clark hesitated. "But Hope is still in San Francisco."
"Is that a problem?" Carrie pursed her lips. Seeing Clark about to nod, she immediately added, "My treat. I've already booked the restaurant."
"Not a problem!"
Clark immediately beamed.
"You guy... I really appreciate how real you are."
Carrie said happily, "I'll send you the location. Let's go together after work."
"Okay."
Clark nodded and picked up his phone to send a message to Hope.
Speaking of Hope, she had been very busy lately.
He heard there were some issues with Pym Technologies.
However, he didn't ask in detail. If Hope didn't mention it, it meant she could handle it herself.
Meanwhile, on Kent Star.
Thanks to Jor-El's adjustments, the time in Kent City was similar to New York time, just about two hours behind.
Charles strolled through the campus, watching the children in the school. The corners of his mouth unconsciously lifted into a smile.
Just seeing these children growing up healthy made him very happy.
"Headmaster! Look out!"
Suddenly, a loud shout rang out.
Charles turned his head in the direction of the voice, only to see a dark shadow flying toward his face at high speed.
Although it was still some distance away, the piercing sound of the wind had already reached Charles's ears.
Charles hurriedly dodged.
The ball grazed his head as it flew past. A puff of blue smoke appeared, catching the ball and revealing a figure.
It was a mutant with blue skin all over and a long tail growing from his behind.
"Kurt! Nice catch!"
Charles praised him.
This child was named Kurt Wagner. Because of his appearance, he had lived in a circus before coming to Kent Star.
Although his personality was somewhat timid, he was a kind child known as Nightcrawler.
Kurt Wagner's face flushed. Because of his skin color, it showed as a hint of purple.
He nodded to Charles, and with another puff of blue smoke, he vanished from the spot with the ball.
Seeing this, Charles shook his head. With a thought, his voice appeared in the children's minds.
"Do not use powers while playing games. If you haven't controlled your abilities yet, go to the training grounds to practice more."
The children's hearts tightened, and they hurriedly agreed.
Charles smiled faintly, withdrew his power, and continued walking forward.
Here, because all the children possessed superpowers, and due to the nature of the institution, this school was unique even on Kent Star.
Not all mutant children had dangerous abilities, but most of the children in this school possessed powers with a certain degree of lethality.
"Hmm?"
Suddenly, Charles spotted a lonely figure.
She sat on the grass, curled up in the shadow of a small tree, looking as if she had been abandoned by the entire world.
She lowered her head, watching the other children. Her eyes were full of anticipation and hope, but Charles felt that she had built an invisible wall between herself and everyone else.
It wasn't that she was too unsociable to interact with others, nor that she didn't want to join their games. It was that she was afraid—afraid of her own powers, and afraid of the things she had done in the past.
Charles paused, then walked over quickly and sat down beside the girl.
The girl's body stiffened, and she shifted slightly away.
"Don't worry, it's okay."
Charles said softly.
The girl didn't respond, but her stiff body slowly relaxed.
"Are you not used to it here?"
The girl shook her head.
"No, it's very good here."
Compared to the small dark room where she had been locked up for years, this place was simply heaven.
Listening to the girl's soft, weak voice, it was hard to imagine that she was known by the terrifying name 'Rakshasa'.
Charles gazed at her, and his brow suddenly furrowed.
"What happened to your face? Marie!"
Marie! He called me Marie!
'Rakshasa' trembled. She looked at Charles with disbelief and surprise, then slowly shook her head. "I fell by accident. It's nothing."
Charles looked at Marie with amusement. "You know my ability. It's very simple for me to know the truth."
He paused, then whispered, "Was it the others? Because they fear you and what you did before, so they treated you this way?"
'Rakshasa' fell silent, then slowly said, "It's what I deserve. I did a lot of bad things before."
She paused. Seeing the distress flashing in Charles's eyes, her heart warmed, and she suddenly revealed a brilliant smile.
"Besides, I'm really happy staying here! Even though some people bully me, and some people are afraid of me or even hate me because they heard about what happened before... I am free. And there are people who care about me. I'm already very satisfied."
Charles instinctively reached out his hand, but she hurriedly dodged, looking at him with a loss of composure.
Charles tapped his own bald head. "Haha, I forgot."
She let out a sigh of relief.
Charles smiled faintly and said, "Everyone's ability can be controlled. Because it is your talent, I believe you can control it too. You just lack practice. If you are willing, you can come to me every Thursday night. I will help you master your ability."
Hearing this, she looked at Charles with surprise and joy. "Can I really go?"
"Of course!"
Saying that, Charles stood up and said to her, "If you don't want me to intervene about the injury on your face, I won't interfere this time. But if they bully you again, I will have to step in. After all, I am the headmaster here."
She responded in a low voice and nodded gently.
Charles stepped away, walking into the distance. But after taking two steps, he suddenly turned back. "How about I call you Rogue? A little rogue who hasn't mastered her ability yet?"
Rogue?
In his eyes, am I just a mischievous child?
Her eyes reddened, and she nodded heavily.
"See you Thursday, Rogue."
(End of Chapter)