"Whoa, being an assassin pays out the ass~"
In the back warehouse of the Fraternity, Mike, having violently ripped open a massive vault, looked at the small mountain of gold bars and stacks of US dollars with a wide grin.
After all, who would ever complain about having too much money?
Then, in the deepest part of the vault, Mike spotted several cheese-like blocks of healing wax, sitting right next to a formula sheet.
This had to be one of the two items MIB headquarters wanted him to retrieve from the Fraternity.
Mike picked up a bar of the healing wax, about the size of a bar of soap, and casually tossed it into a bathtub-sized pool nearby.
Very quickly, the water in the pool turned a milky, opaque white.
"John, get in and test it out," Mike told his teammate.
John still couldn't quite follow Mike's logic, but out of sheer obedience, he didn't hesitate. Fully suited, he waded right into the pool.
Before long, the milky white liquid began to slowly solidify.
At the same time, John felt a tingling, numbing sensation wash over his entire body, as if countless tiny hands were giving him a deep tissue massage.
It was this exact sensation that stopped him from jumping out of the pool in a panic as the liquid changed states.
It seemed the healing wax needed a little time to work its magic. So, Mike turned to his other teammate, Needy, and said,
"Your next task is to move everything in this vault out to the car."
Strange as it was, even though Needy had been glaring daggers at Mike lately, she was surprisingly obedient to his commands.
She was the textbook definition of a perfect tool.
Back in the warehouse, having assigned the tasks, Mike finally had a moment to relax and inspect his "haul."
The [Super Adrenaline Secretion (Trait) - Bullet Time] light orb was an absolute god-tier skill for Mike at his current level.
Gaining the ability to perceive the world in "slow motion" instantly boosted his combat effectiveness by at least ten times.
As for the [Blessing: Sin Perception (Trait)] orb, it leaned more toward the mystical side, somewhat resembling Ghost Rider's [Penance Stare].
Of course, applied to Mike, this trait didn't come with the power to judge or punish; it solely retained the ability to discern good from evil.
Mike had actually tested this ability on Needy and the others earlier. Surprisingly, even after wiping out over a dozen Fraternity members, Needy, much like the total rookie Wesley, registered very little sin.
On the flip side, former hitmen John and Cross were practically radiating thick, black smoke.
Based on this, Mike deduced that his [Sin Perception] was purely rational and objective.
In other words, no matter what your intentions were, as long as you committed acts that harmed innocent people, you were deemed guilty.
But if you eliminated bad people who were already guilty, no [Sin] would stick to you.
When you really thought about it, it was a bit like karma.
So, strictly speaking, Mike's highly rational [Sin Perception] was fundamentally completely different from Ghost Rider's more idealistic [Penance Stare].
[Loot System
Host: Mike Quinn (Zhao Kun)
Intelligence: 197 (Genius 140+, Super Genius 160+, Ultra-Dimensional Genius 180+)
Constitution: 1272+ (Average adult male is 100)
Skills:
Holy Spear (30705/100000), Firearms Shooting lv4 (20353/100000), Mixed Martial Arts lv4 (1081/100000)...
Academics lv4 (981/100000), Disguise lv4 (121/100000), Etiquette lv3 (934/10000)...
(Skills are divided into five levels / Expand for more skills.)
Traits: Demonic Body (Immortality, Eternal Youth, Hyper-Regeneration),
Werewolf Body - Semi-Awakened (Super Hearing, Super Vision, Super Smell),
Moonlight: (Boosts combat power by 50% at night, allows absorption of lunar energy to enhance constitution.)
([Blessing: Return to Youth], [Blessing: Sin Perception], [Super Adrenaline Secretion - Bullet Time], [Weather Prediction])
(Similar traits can be stacked and merged.)]
With nothing else to do, Mike took a moment to study his system panel.
Now that his power level had far surpassed anything an ordinary human could comprehend, his next major life goal was diving headfirst into supernatural events.
God, Satan, the Progenitor Vampire, the Alpha Werewolf—they were all targets he planned to seek out.
Meanwhile, the white liquid in the healing bath had almost completely hardened into a wax-like gel. Lying inside, John had actually fallen into a deep, comfortable sleep.
About half an hour later, with a long, sharp inhale, John shattered the hardened wax and sat bolt upright.
"How do you feel?"
Mike asked curiously, stepping closer.
"Incredible. I feel completely recharged, like I'm back at my absolute physical peak..."
John answered excitedly as he stood up and stretched his limbs.
As a former hitman, John had run countless high-risk ops, naturally accumulating his fair share of lingering internal injuries.
And this miraculous Fraternity serum specialized in rapidly healing both internal and external trauma.
Looking closely, it wasn't hard to tell that John's skin looked significantly healthier. Several old scars had completely flaked off, replaced by fresh, revitalized skin.
"Perfect~"
Having witnessed the serum's power firsthand, Mike smiled and told John,
"Take a couple of bars home with you later and have your wife try it. It might help with her condition."
John's wife, Helen, suffered from a severe heart condition, much like old man George.
But compared to George, Helen's situation was far more critical. Having undergone multiple bypass surgeries, she was practically running on fumes.
Fortunately, while the Fraternity's healing wax primarily mended injuries, it also possessed a restorative quality that replenished the body's depleted vitality.
So, even if it couldn't magically cure Helen's heart defect in one go, it would at least inject some desperately needed life force back into her fragile body.
Conservatively speaking, a couple of sessions in the healing bath would easily buy Helen a few more years, maybe even over a decade of life—which was more than enough.
"Thank you~"
When it came to treating his wife, John's gratitude was profoundly sincere.
Having personally experienced the serum's power, he fully understood just how priceless it was.
It was in this exact moment that John genuinely accepted Mike as his true "boss" from the bottom of his heart.
"Alright, let's head out," Mike said.
"The MIB cleanup crew should be here any minute."
While John was soaking in the healing bath, Mike had already reported the mission accomplished to MIB headquarters.
...
Out in the front courtyard of the abandoned mill, after all this time, Cross and Wesley had finally finished their emotional father-son reunion.
However, holding a stack of files, Wesley didn't look thrilled about finding his dad.
"Why? You knew everything... why didn't you come find me... tell me who you were sooner?"
Wesley asked, his face flushed with anger.
He had just learned that the man standing before him—the father who had "abandoned" him as a kid—had been hiding in the shadows his entire life, silently watching him grow up.
To put it bluntly, Cross had personally witnessed every single milestone and hardship in Wesley's life.
That included Wesley getting bullied at the orphanage, being too broke to afford college, getting constantly humiliated by his boss because he lacked a degree, and even his girlfriend cheating on him with his best friend...
If you put yourself in Wesley's shoes for even a second, you'd realize just how deeply messed up that was.
It perfectly summed up the phrase: With a dad like him, who needs enemies?
"Hold up, you can hash out your family drama later."
Walking back into the courtyard, Mike looked at the dysfunctional father-son duo and said,
"Right now, on behalf of Special Division X, I'm offering you both a chance at a new life. Join us, or enjoy prison food..."
Just as he did with John, Mike laid out the perks of joining the team for Cross: a brand-new identity, a base salary of fifty grand a month, and a bonus structure for special missions.
As for Wesley, whose true potential hadn't fully kicked in yet, Mike only offered a starting salary of ten grand a month.
Faced with Mike's offer, Cross didn't even hesitate before agreeing to join Division X.
For Cross, the money was secondary, but a completely clean slate and a new identity were impossible to turn down.
On the other hand, Wesley, who hadn't fully transitioned from a total loser into a badass yet, was highly tempted by a job paying ten grand a month.
However, he still harbored a grudge over the Fraternity getting wiped out, especially Fox's death.
In his eyes, the members of the Fraternity might have been eccentric, but since they operated on the principle of "divine justice," they had to be the good guys.
And Fox, who had practically "rescued" him from his miserable, dead-end life, was, in a way, his savior.
"What exactly does Division X do? Why did you ambush the Fraternity for no reason?"
Thinking of the dead Fox, Wesley's anger flared up again.
But having witnessed Division X's overwhelming firepower firsthand, his voice lacked any real bite.
Before Mike could even respond, Cross stepped in.
"Wesley, listen to me. The Fraternity didn't just want to use you to kill me and force a father-son bloodbath. Sloan was using the Loom of Fate to completely twist the organization's sense of justice..."
To prove his point, Cross dragged his son into the Fraternity's records room.
Stored inside were the hit lists generated by every single one of the Loom's "divine revelations."
Sloan, Fox, The Butcher—their names were all clearly listed.
"How is this possible?!"
Knowing the supernatural power of the Loom, seeing Fox's name on the guilty list completely shattered Wesley's worldview.
You had to give it to the kid—he was just way too trusting. If he wasn't, Sloan never would have been able to play him like a fiddle in the first place.
Of course, that kind of innocence could also be considered a virtue.
Before long, successfully persuaded by his own father, Wesley followed Cross back out to the front courtyard and stood before Mike.
Having officially joined Division X, Cross had also brought out a massive stack of the Fraternity's internal documents.
These files were all connected to the overarching mutual aid brotherhood.
As mentioned before, the brotherhood and the Skull and Bones society were practically "urban legends" in America. Anyone connected to such massive, deeply rooted syndicates spelled major trouble.
"What should we do with these?" Cross asked cautiously.
"Mortal affairs aren't our problem..."
Mike had zero interest in helping America weed out its corruption, so he casually suggested,
"Of course, if you really want to, I can pull some strings and help you mail these files anonymously to the FBI or some other government agency."
"Uh, on second thought, let's just leave them here! I think these files belong right where they are..."
Cross awkwardly laughed it off and smoothly kicked the files into a corner.