A unique sense of anxiety and excitement permeated the air of New York, as if the entire city's adrenaline had been injected prematurely.
Giant electronic billboards, mobile push notifications, TV programs—all channels were tirelessly roaring the same theme: "Black Friday" shopping frenzy! Discounts! Limited time! Rush to buy!
Outside a large department store in Manhattan, at six in the morning, before dawn, the air was bitterly cold, yet it was already replaced by a sea of people.
The surging crowd was like boiling porridge, with everyone's eyes gleaming with a desire for low prices and an almost instinctive competitive urge.
Security guards, as if facing a formidable enemy, linked arms to form a human wall, barely maintaining the last bit of order in front of the entrance.
Karen, an ordinary office clerk, was also part of this human tide.
She had been eyeing the latest smart TV model, a limited-time special almost half off, for a whole month.
For this, she set three alarms, came to queue at four in the morning, shivered in the cold for over two hours, and watched as the mall doors were about to open, victory in sight.
"Ding—"
The sound of the doors opening was like a starting gun!
The crowd instantly surged forward like a bursting flood!
Karen was violently shoved by a huge force from behind, stumbling and almost falling.
She desperately tried to steady herself, pushing towards the direction of her target counter, constantly shouting: "Excuse me! Please move aside!"
However, the power of the human tide was terrifying.
She was swept along, involuntarily deviating from her direction, watching helplessly as several strong men, like tanks, rushed to the TV counter, instantly snatching up the only few discounted units.
When the last cardboard box was carried away, the counter salesperson helplessly hung up the "Sold Out" sign.
Karen froze in place; around her was the ecstasy of those who got their desired items and the curses of those who didn't, all sounds seeming to drift away from her.
She looked at the empty counter, only a few words left in her mind: "It's gone... my TV..."
For this TV, she had scrimped and saved, she had stayed up late researching strategies, she had waited bitterly in the cold...
All her efforts, all her hopes, turned into nothing at this moment.
Extreme disappointment, exhaustion, and an unnamed rage, fueled by this crazy atmosphere, accumulated and surged like lava in her chest.
"My... that was my TV!!" She let out an inhuman shriek, her eyes instantly bloodshot and beginning to glow with an abnormal, eerie light, like static on an electronic screen!
Empty cardboard boxes, discarded flyers, even flattened water bottles scattered around her, as if pulled by some invisible force, began to vibrate violently, twist, and deform!
They softened as if thrown into a furnace, then frantically converged, stuck, and covered Karen!
Within mere seconds, a three-meter-tall, bloated and twisted "monster" made of countless discarded packaging boxes, plastic, and paper appeared on the spot!
It had no clear facial features, only constantly flickering and changing "expressions" pieced together from broken advertising paper, sometimes angry, sometimes crying.
Its "arms" were giant tentacles made of countless intertwined express delivery boxes, creating whooshing sounds as they swung!
The "Shopping Festival"wack (monster) was born!
"Give me back my TV!!"
"Hand over all the discounts!!"
"I want to clear my shopping cart!!!"
It let out a chaotic and piercing roar, a sound mixed with the beeps of cash registers, the looping playback of advertisements, and the clamor of the crowd, forming a highly penetrating and inciting noise!
It wielded its huge cardboard tentacles, indiscriminately attacking surrounding shelves and people, sweeping goods to the floor, trying to engulf everything into its body made of waste!
[Manhattan XX Department Store · Detected high-intensity material reconstruction and emotion-polluting energy reaction! Threat level assessment: tiger-level!]
[Incident type: Emotional/Material Mutant (Shopping Festival Monster), ability to control and assimilate surrounding waste (mainly packaging materials) to form temporary physical constructs for attack, and emit inciting noise.]
[Mission issued: Immediately proceed to subdue the "Shopping Festival" Monster, control its destructive range, and evacuate trapped civilians. Mission level: tiger-level. Reward points: 180.]
The alarm sounded, and the mission was issued.
At the Hero Association Command Center, Wesley watched as the behemoth made of trash rampaged through the mall on the surveillance screen.
Although the destruction it caused was not top-tier, the panic and chaos it triggered were extremely severe, and the location was sensitive.
"Sandman is currently handling a small energy leak in the east of the city.
The Silent Heart Master's ability has limited effect on this type of physical construct," Wesley quickly assessed.
"Issue a collaborative mission, find heroes with quick subdue or large-scale control abilities."
Almost simultaneously, the mission was accepted.
[Hero "Iron Fist" (C+ class) has accepted the mission. Expected to arrive in 5 minutes.]
[Hero "Jessica Jones" (B class, temporary collaboration) has responded to the mission. Expected to arrive in 4 minutes.]
The mall was already in a mess.
Goods were scattered everywhere, and terrified customers screamed and fled.
The "Shopping Festival" Monster was like a moving garbage heap, constantly devouring surrounding waste to grow itself, while polluting everyone's emotions with its noise.
The first to arrive was Jessica Jones, wearing a leather jacket, her expression one of habitual impatience.
She leaped directly from the mall's shattered glass dome, crashing heavily in front of the monster, making the ground slightly tremble.
"So noisy!" She frowned, rubbed her ears, then slammed a punch into one of the monster's swinging cardboard tentacles!
"Boom!" The tentacle shattered instantly, paper scraps flying.
But soon, more waste converged from around, attempting to repair the damage.
"Damn it, this thing can self-repair?" Jessica clicked her tongue, her movements unceasing.
Relying on her superhuman strength and fairly agile skills, she grappled with the monster, constantly smashing its limbs, slowing its destruction, but for a time, she found it difficult to completely subdue it.
Immediately after, a swift figure rushed in from the mall entrance—it was "Iron Fist."
He wore traditional martial arts attire, his hands glowing with a faint golden light.
He didn't clash head-on like Jessica, but rather weaved like a fish among the flying waste and shelves, trying to get close to the monster's core—Karen, who was wrapped in layers.
"Its core is inside! We must attack the core directly!" Iron Fist shouted, delivering a 'chi'-infused hand chop that cut through a cardboard wall attempting to block him, but more waste immediately filled the void.
The monster also seemed to realize Iron Fist's threat, shifting its main attack to him.
Several tentacles wrapped around him like giant pythons, while the inciting noise became even more piercing, attempting to disturb his mind.
Just as the battle was somewhat stalemated and the scope of destruction was still expanding, a low, steady engine sound, incongruous with the chaos of the scene, came from outside the mall.
A multi-purpose cleaning vehicle, entirely black, with a boxy and robust design, bearing the Hero Association emblem, stopped steadily at the main entrance of the mall with an agility unsuited to its size.
The car door opened, and three Logistics Department personnel in blue overalls, wearing protective goggles and earplugs, jumped out.
They glanced at the chaotic battle inside, their faces showing no change in expression, as if what they saw was not a terrifying monster, but merely a "large waste site" that needed to be dealt with.
The Captain, who was leading, made a gesture.
One person quickly pulled several thick hoses, like vacuum cleaner pipes, from the car, their interfaces glowing with a faint blue light.
Another person activated a handheld device; its screen rapidly scanned the monster's energy composition and material structure.
The Captain himself walked to the side of the cleaning vehicle and operated the control panel.
"Initiate 'High-Intensity Material Decomposition and Recycling Protocol,'" the Captain calmly ordered.
Instantly, the emitters at the ends of those hoses lit up, emitting a special energy field, almost imperceptible to the naked eye, precisely enveloping the "Shopping Festival" Monster!
The monster, currently entangled with Jessica and Iron Fist, suddenly froze!
Its body, made of waste, began to "loosen" at a visible rate; the cardboard and plastic that were originally tightly adhered started to peel away and decompose, turning into basic particulate matter, which was then sucked into the hoses by a powerful suction force!
"What?!" Jessica's punch missed, and she watched in astonishment as the massive monster rapidly "melted" like a sandcastle meeting water.
Iron Fist also stopped his movements, watching the eerily efficient cleaning process, his eyes grave.
The monster let out a terrified and angry howl, trying to struggle, but that energy field seemed specifically designed to counter its temporary material constructs.
Its size rapidly diminished, and the core, Karen, gradually became exposed.
In less than two minutes, the three-meter-tall behemoth was gone, leaving only Karen, collapsed on the ground and unconscious, and the surrounding area exceptionally clean, as if it had just undergone a deep cleaning—even the scattered product fragments had been collected.
Logistics Department personnel stepped forward, skillfully checked Karen's vital signs, injected her with a mild sedative, then lifted her onto a stretcher and placed her into the isolation compartment at the back of the cleaning vehicle.
At the same time, the team member with the handheld scanning device had completed the detection and recording of residual energy at the scene.
"Threat neutralized.
Scene cleared.
Target individual contained," the Captain reported to Command Center via communicator, his tone calm and unwavering.
The entire process was efficient, professional, silent, with a cold, stunning beauty.
Jessica and Jones watched as the cleaning vehicle drove away from the scene as smoothly as it had arrived, leaving behind a dead silence and... an overly clean ground.
"Wow," Jessica raised an eyebrow, her tone complex, "These Logistics Department guys... they're better fighters than us."
Iron Fist said nothing, only looking in the direction where the cleaning vehicle disappeared, deep in thought.
What the Association displayed was not just the combat power of heroes, but a complete, efficient, and deeply involved system that covered the beginning and end of incidents.
[Mission "Subdue Shopping Festival Monster" completed! Reward points distributed according to contribution.]
[Hero Association Logistics Department "Rapid Response and Cleanup Team" performed excellently and received internal commendation.]
Onlookers outside the mall and the late-arriving media captured the entire process of the Logistics Department "cleaning up" the monster as if by magic.
Related videos and reports once again pushed the Association, especially its mysterious and efficient Logistics Department, into the spotlight.
People realized that the power of the Hero Association lay not just in the dazzling heroes at the forefront, but more so in the profound system behind them that supported their actions and minimized the impact of incidents.
Kingpin stood in front of his office screen, looking at the Logistics Department's action report, without any surprise on his face.
Cleaning up trash was, after all, the responsibility of the Logistics Department.
No matter if that trash was ordinary waste, or a monster twisted by human desires.