The diners in the ramen shop had retreated to the walls, looking at him with a mixture of fear and anticipation.
David King cleared his throat, and the roar of the Emperor Engine perfectly added to his imposing aura.
"There's no need to panic, everyone."
His deep voice echoed through the ramen shop, "This monster has already lost its combat capability. As a hero, I have a responsibility to bring her back to the Association for righteous judgment."
As soon as he finished speaking, the surrounding diners erupted in enthusiastic applause and cheers.
"As expected of Lord King!"
"So cool! He's actually going to capture a monster alive!"
"Quick, take photos! We need to record Lord King's heroic figure, this is exclusive news!"
David walked towards Mosquito Girl without changing his expression, but his heart was pounding.
He squatted down, carefully observing this powerful monster that had once put Genos in a difficult fight.
Mosquito Girl seemed to sense something and slowly opened her blood-red eyes. When she clearly saw the man's face before her, her pupils suddenly constricted.
"K… King…" Mosquito Girl's broken wings trembled violently, her voice as faint as a mosquito's hum but filled with terror, "No… don't kill me…"
Evidently, as a frontline combatant of the Evolution House, she had also heard of King's formidable reputation.
"Ding! Detected strong fear from Demon-Level monster Mosquito Girl towards the host, Deterrence Points +200!"
The system's notification made David's heart leap with joy.
A good start!
He feigned a profound demeanor, reached out, and grasped Mosquito Girl's slender neck, lifting her up.
This action caused a chorus of gasps from the onlookers.
"Don't worry, I won't kill you." David lowered his voice, ensuring only Mosquito Girl could hear him, "But you have to cooperate with me, understand?"
Mosquito Girl nodded weakly, blood beads still clinging to her long eyelashes.
David could feel her small body trembling in his hand. This feeling of controlling a powerful being made his heart race.
"Everyone, please make way."
David stood up, holding Mosquito Girl. The roar of the Emperor Engine caused the onlookers to automatically clear a path. "The Hero Association has specialized containment facilities to handle situations like this."
Walking out of the ramen shop, the lingering glow of the setting sun fell upon them both.
David looked down at the dying Mosquito Girl in his arms, a faint, almost imperceptible curve on his lips.
"I've really struck gold this time…"
…
David, of course, did not take Mosquito Girl to the Hero Association.
Are you kidding?
Sending her to the Association would be equivalent to handing over his newly acquired "experience baby" and potential research sample on a silver platter, wouldn't it?
Along the way, he deliberately avoided crowded main roads, choosing to walk through secluded alleys.
Finally, he returned to King's residence in a high-end apartment complex in M City.
With a fingerprint unlock, the heavy alloy door slid open silently.
What greeted him was a typical male bachelor's setup, yet surprisingly spacious and tidy.
The most striking feature in the living room was a giant screen that almost covered an entire wall, surrounded by top-tier audio equipment and gaming consoles. In the corner, there were piles of limited-edition figurines and thick collections of game discs.
Thanks to the generous monthly remuneration provided by the Hero Association based on hero rankings, King, as the 7th ranked S-Class hero, was among the top earners and had absolutely no worries about his livelihood.
Carefully closing the alloy door, David finally truly relaxed.
Leaning his back against the cool door, he looked down at Mosquito Girl in his arms, who was still unconscious but seemed to be breathing more steadily.
Her broken body, covered in congealed blood and dust, formed a stark contrast with his clean and tidy living room.
"Tsk, I can't just leave her like this…" David frowned.
He needed Mosquito Girl to be alive, conscious, and… fearful.
But having her lie on the floor so dirty was clearly not an option.
For the next hour or so, David experienced what it meant to be "flustered."
He was not a professional medical worker or biologist. Dealing with a monster that had lost its limbs and resembled a human female in appearance was far more difficult and awkward than he had imagined.
He found a large plastic basin, filled it with warm water, and then rummaged through cabinets to find a few old, unused towels.
Carrying Mosquito Girl into the bathroom, he hesitated repeatedly, but finally closed his eyes and, using a towel dipped in warm water, carefully avoided the more gruesome-looking wounds, wiping away large patches of blood and dust from her body.
During the process, he tried to avoid looking at her overly feminine features.
But his fingertips occasionally brushed against her cold yet elastic skin, causing his heart to skip a beat, and the Emperor Engine almost roared uncontrollably again.
The cleaning process was clumsy and mentally exhausting. The focus was on removing large blood clots and grime.
His movements were as gentle as possible, fearing he might wake her up or cause her to fall apart. The entire process was as tense as defusing a bomb, leaving him with an aching back.
When he finally wrapped the cleaned Mosquito Girl loosely in a large dry bath towel and carried her back to the guest room bed, he finally collapsed onto the floor beside the bed, panting heavily.
"Oh my god… this is much more tiring than playing games all day…"
After being cleaned, Mosquito Girl, though still unconscious, pale, and fragile, was at least free of the previous filth and strong smell of blood.
Her pale skin glowed with a pearly soft light in the dim illumination, and her facial features were strikingly clear.
That peculiar beauty, a blend of inhuman allure and near-shattered fragility, made David momentarily lost in thought.
He slapped his own face hard.
"David, snap out of it! Don't be fooled by appearances, this is a Demon-Level monster! Who knows what she'll do when she recovers!"
Forcibly suppressing that unusual feeling in his heart, David immediately began the next safety measure.
He rummaged through his utility room and found some temporarily unused hemp ropes… the extremely tough kind.
He deftly but very cautiously used these ropes to firmly bind Mosquito Girl's remaining limbs (mainly her waist and upper thighs, as her four limbs were gone) to the solid wood bed frame, wrapping them several times and tying them in dead knots.
Although he wasn't sure how much force she could exert once she recovered, this was all he could do for now.
After doing all this, he exited the guest room and threw himself heavily onto the soft sofa in the living room.
Physical fatigue washed over him, but his Spirit was unusually excited.
"System!" he thought silently.
The virtual screen, visible only to him, instantly unfolded:
**——Deterrence System——**
- Host: David King
- Level: 1 (Experience: 0/100)
- Attributes: Strength: 7, Agility: 6, Spirit: 5
- Skill: Emperor Engine (Proficiency: 0/200): When activated, it produces tangible sound wave vibrations, with a red aura appearing around the body, enhancing deterrent power.
- Deterrence Points: 200
200 points! This was the "good start" contributed by Mosquito Girl in extreme fear at the ramen shop just now.
David took a deep breath, his gaze sweeping back and forth across the system interface.
"Leveling up requires 100 experience points, and 1 Deterrence Point can be exchanged for 1 experience point. Reaching Level 2 will grant 10 free attribute points…"
This temptation was immense!
10 attribute points, whether added to Strength, Agility, or Spirit, would bring immediate and noticeable improvements to his physical capabilities!
Perhaps it could make him run faster, give his punches a bit of power, or make his mind clearer.
But another option was also extremely enticing—investing in skills.
"Emperor Engine" was currently only at "Proficiency," and the 200 Deterrence Points needed for upgrading were just enough.
And from the description, it seemed that the proficiency level unlocked the physical effects of sound waves?
Just now in the ramen shop, in the rush, it really seemed to make the soup ripple.
What about further upgrades?
Would the power be greater?
The range wider?
Perhaps… even generate mental suppression?
Like causing temporary dizziness?
This skill was his signature move as "King," and also his core method for deterring monsters and acquiring more points!
Improving it was equivalent to improving his capacity for sustainable "development."
The two choices clashed intensely in David's mind.
The benefits of leveling up were: comprehensively improving basic abilities, directly enhancing the fundamental aspects of survival and combat (or rather, escape), feeling more grounded.
The allure of upgrading the skill was: strengthening the core signature skill, making his "bluff" more genuinely deterrent, making it easier to scare off enemies (especially more powerful monsters), thereby acquiring subsequent Deterrence Points more efficiently and safely.