The basement was deathly silent. Every prisoner still clinging to life stared in paralyzed shock at the empty space where the thugs had once stood.
"What... what was that?" "Can mutants really do that?" "He's a devil! A white-haired devil!"
One of the nearby gang members tremblingly wiped a fleck of blood from his face, let out a high-pitched shriek, and turned to bolt. He didn't make it three steps before a bullet found the back of his head.
The gang leader stood there, smoke curling from his pistol. "What are you screaming for? Use your brains! A move like that has to be a massive drain on his energy. He can't keep it up!"
He turned to his remaining men, his voice booming with authority. "Focus your fire! Wear him down! Jello, bring the rocket launcher! Don't forget—this is a high-level order. If this deal fails, Kingpin will peel our skins off while we're still alive!"
The mention of Kingpin acted like a bucket of ice water. To these men, the "King of New York" was a far more terrifying reality than the boy in the cell. They gritted their teeth and opened fire, a storm of lead raining toward Su Mu.
Facing the hail of bullets, Su Mu didn't flinch.
The consumption of the Infinity technique was based on time, not the volume of attacks it blocked. With a cold, cruel smile, he walked forward as if strolling through a light spring breeze.
Energy surged through his limbs, strengthening his muscles to their peak. The combat experience from the Gojo Satoru template flooded his mind, refining his instincts. Despite never having been on a battlefield, he felt no fear—only a rising, intoxicating thrill.
He dug his heel into the concrete.
BOOM!
His body blurred as he shattered the floor beneath him, rushing the gunmen head-on. Under the micromanagement of the Six Eyes, every joint and limb became a surgical instrument of death.
The thugs couldn't even track his movement. One moment, Su Mu was ten feet away; the next, he was in their midst. A stray bullet would occasionally spark against the invisible barrier of Infinity, unable to touch a single thread of his clothes. He moved like a reaper through tall grass, leaving a trail of broken bodies in his wake.
Finally, Su Mu reached the gang leader. He stopped, hands tucked casually into his pockets, and walked toward the man with a relaxed, terrifying gait.
"I don't believe it... there has to be a flaw!" the leader roared, his voice cracking with desperation.
Just then, a subordinate scrambled forward, shoving an RPG-7 into the leader's hands. The weight of the weapon seemed to restore his courage. His eyes lit up with a frantic, murderous hope.
"Go to hell, you freak!"
He pulled the trigger. The rocket roared to life, streaking across the short distance and detonating at Su Mu's feet in a massive plume of fire and debris.
The leader laughed hysterically, his whole body shaking. "Die! Die, you damn mutant! Die, you yellow-skinned monkey!"
But as the smoke began to clear, the sound of steady, rhythmic footsteps emerged. A pale hand reached out from the grey haze, closing like a vice around the leader's throat.
"Uh... gack..."
First, a deep, oceanic blue light pierced the smoke. Then, the shock of snowy-white hair appeared, followed by the sight of Su Mu—his clothes were tattered and his body was covered in old scars, but he was completely untouched by the explosion.
Su Mu's eyes glowed with a predatory light as he pulled the leader close.
"Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue."
An azure vortex manifested directly in the palm of Su Mu's hand. The leader didn't even have time to scream before the singularity swallowed him whole. The blue sphere continued forward, tearing a massive, jagged hole through the thick concrete wall of the underground prison.
Su Mu didn't look back at the remaining, broken survivors. He stepped through the gap and vanished into the night of Hell's Kitchen.
Behind him, after a long, stunned silence, a roar of cheers erupted from the prisoners as they rushed toward the hole—toward freedom.
A few hours later.
In a penthouse overlooking the city, a crystal chandelier illuminated a room that felt as cold as a tomb. Sitting in a custom-made chair was a man who looked like a mountain of muscle—Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin.
Standing before him was a man in a tactical suit, his expression as cold as a machine. Bullseye.
"Bullseye," Kingpin's voice was a low, rumbling bass. "You're saying the transaction failed?"
Most men would be trembling, but Bullseye remained calm. "Yes. Every man on the ground is dead. Most don't even have bodies left to bury. It seems a mutant was hidden among the cargo. He is responsible for the massacre."
The room fell silent for a full minute. Then, Kingpin opened his eyes. "Can you kill him?"
"If he breathes, I can kill him."
"I want his head on my desk within the week."
"As you wish."
Meanwhile, back at the underground prison.
A middle-aged man with a receding hairline and a kind, approachable face stepped into the ruins. He was followed by a team of agents and a few traumatized survivors. Phil Coulson scanned the room, his professional mask slipping as he saw the sheer scale of the destruction.
The warped metal, the disintegrated floor, and the massive, smooth-edged hole in the wall...
"You're saying one mutant did all of this?" Coulson asked.
A young woman, one of the survivors, stepped forward with a look of awe. "Yes. He was... a gentleman. Silver hair, eyes like a deep lake... he was elegant, even when he was fighting. He wasn't like those other violent mutants. He was a hero."
Coulson nodded, taking the "beautified" description with a grain of salt but noting the key features: White hair, blue eyes, immense power.
He looked at the crater again and whispered into his headset. "Director Fury, we have a situation."
"Report, Agent Coulson," the voice of Nick Fury crackled in his ear.
"The subject is an unregistered mutant. High-level energy projection. Destructive capacity is easily Level 4, possibly reaching Level 5. He wiped out a Kingpin-affiliated cell in seconds."
"Level 5 potential..." Fury paused. "Find him. Before the hit squads do. If he's open to it, I want him as a core candidate for the Avengers Initiative."