On his 16th, Comprehensive Enhancement [One-time, Non-Upgradable]: bone density, muscle fibers, nerve reaction speed, cellular activity, self-healing ability... pushed to the theoretical limits of a mortal. This allowed him, during a commercial kidnapping, to smash the skulls of three professional mercenaries bare-handed, so fast that his bodyguards couldn't even see his movements.
On his 17th, he drew Energy Absorption Lv1. This is also one of Hawk's core abilities. In this same year, Hawk experienced some dramatic events that prompted him to put on a tight suit and do something exciting and righteous. He initially wanted to call himself "Hungry Ghost Path," but after being ridiculed as too silly, he changed it to "King." In his opinion, having this ability greatly enhanced his self-preservation. Although Lv1 Energy Absorption couldn't compare to Sebastian Shaw, in Brooklyn at this time, there was absolutely no one who could be his opponent.
The ability he drew on his 18th birthday was Hawk's second favorite ability, Male Technique Enhancement Lv1. A perfect coming-of-age gift, a blessing from God. After acquiring the ability, Hawk immediately used it on his older sister Andy... Andy, who was already a CFO by then, took a week-long vacation for the first time, and they spent the entire week in bed...
On his 19th, he drew an unremarkable skill card. He now had three skill cards.
The ability he drew on his 20th birthday was truly heaven-defying, and the most awesome ability Hawk had drawn so far.
**[Conceptual Immortality (Non-Upgradable)]**
*No matter what form of life you are,*
*As long as there is a vessel recording you under the omniverse,*
*As long as you are not forgotten,*
*As long as someone speaks your name,*
*As long as there are traces of your existence,*
*You will never truly die.*
For this, an excited Hawk threw yacht parties for three full months, gathering various famous supermodels and second- and third-tier actresses from multiple countries, making headlines in entertainment and business sections daily. After all, the ability description stated, "as long as there are traces of your existence..." Hawk naturally wanted to leave many traces, all kinds of traces, which certainly included his genetic material... During this time, even playboy Tony Stark's gossip news went unnoticed. In short, it was a life of debauchery... because he couldn't die anyway...
However, the peaceful days were shattered a month ago. The greedy vultures of Wall Street – Bates Capital – finally showed their fangs after multiple failed hostile takeovers of various mining assets under Lane Mining. They were no longer content with financial games but directly hired a... monster squad.
The attack occurred during a time when John Lane had convened an important meeting with corporate executives. The attackers were precise and ruthless. This was a four-person team; their movements were inhumanly fast, their strength capable of tearing concrete walls apart with bare hands. Most bizarrely, they possessed some form of psychokinetic ability; bullets fired at them seemed to hit an invisible wall, instantly flattening into metal discs. Fortunately, Hawk was at the company at the time. After rushing into the conference room, he physically withstood and absorbed most of the shockwaves, successfully covering John Lane and most executives' evacuation, otherwise the consequences would have been unimaginable. The Lane family's mercenaries and bodyguards suffered heavy casualties.
Blood, twisted steel, strange energy fluctuations lingering in the air... All of it was like a cold needle, piercing through Hawk's meticulously maintained facade of calm. Anger burned in his chest, but stronger than anger was a cold determination, because someone had crossed his bottom line. And this time, with "immortality," Hawk feared nothing.
Hawk used information from irregular channels and his own hacking skills to pinpoint the attackers' location. He, as the superhero "King," launched a ruthless counter-hunt in New York's underworld. Of the four:
Doh-hoon was dismembered, his self-healing speed unable to keep up with Hawk's damage rate, and he was thrown onto train tracks and ground into pulp;
Park Sung-mi was split in half, one half buried in a construction site, the other sunk into the Hudson River;
Ha Soo-min's head was blown off by a heat ray, and he was ultimately incinerated into a pile of carbon...
Only one member of the four-person team remained. Hawk used the most brutal methods to interrogate the team leader – the woman who had caused him a little trouble: Eun-bi. She was completely broken by Hawk's power. She struggled to lift her head, fragmented words of fear spilling from her mouth: "We are... the Clay Doll Squad... base... Busan..... Witch... Gu Ja-yoon..."
"The Witch Project"! A name, a location, a vague outline surfaced. Hawk's investigative abilities far surpassed ordinary imagination. He used the Lane Group's globally distributed server nodes as a springboard, employing a skill card to upgrade his hacking skills to Lv2. With this, he breached the peripheral databases of multiple national intelligence agencies, scraping fragmented information, and, combined with Andy's tracking of Bates Capital's secret financial flows through special channels, he finally outlined the target – the "Witch Project" base, hidden deep underground in Busan, South Korea, secretly funded by former S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Alexander Pierce, for the development of superhuman weapons.
By investigating decades of financial movements, they discovered that Bates Capital, which had constantly opposed them and attempted to dismantle and acquire the Lane Group, was actually Alexander's shell company. In other words, Alexander, the former S.H.I.E.L.D. leader, wanted to secretly devour Lane. As for the reason, the first was: who would complain about having too much money? The second reason was that Alexander had done this before. In fact, in his early years, he had used his authority for personal gain, secretly acquiring or gaining controlling stakes in multinational corporations. First, to fund some of his operations; second, as his intelligence channels.
"So this is how Hydra slowly developed." Hawk, at that moment, was also swirling his drink. He needed to extinguish this small threat, to give his opponents a small American shock.
Crucially, he became interested in the project itself... or rather, in the project's core "products." He didn't tell John Lane and Andy the specific action plan, only saying he was going to "take care of Bates Capital's loose ends."
Time rewinded to 72 hours ago.
Hawk's actions were swift as lightning. With the superhuman qualities from **[Comprehensive Enhancement]**, the high mobility from **[Flight]**, near immunity to base defenses from **[Energy Absorption]** and its ability to supercharge him, plus the **[Heat Ray]** slicing through alloy gates like a hot knife through butter. Hawk unleashed a precise "natural disaster" within the base. His target was the core experimental zone.
Then, he met her. Gu Ja-yoon. The First Generation Witch. Combat Level: T0.
She emerged from the broken cultivation tank's liquid and the red alarm light, like an exotic blade freshly forged and drawn. Her eyes were hollow and cold, yet her movements possessed an inhuman fluidity and deadly grace. There were no words, only the pure, long-suppressed instinct for slaughter erupting. Psychokinetic shockwaves capable of tearing tanks apart, air condensing into invisible blades at her fingertips.
This was a tough fight! Hawk swore, this was absolutely the strongest opponent he had ever encountered, bar none. Dozens of times stronger than the four-person combat team, the Clay Doll Squad, that appeared in New York, even combined. Absolutely absurd!
Hawk was in a bitter struggle. His energy absorption field was under immense pressure, and his heat rays were deflected again and again by her unnervingly agile movements and powerful psychokinetic shield. Her strength, speed, psychokinetic level, and combat intuition were all terrifyingly high. To end the battle quickly, Hawk had to use two reserved skill cards.
Heat Ray Lv1 → Lv2
Energy Absorption Lv1 → Lv2
"Buzz!" Hawk instantly flared his power, unleashing an energy pulse burst that covered half of the core area, forcibly disrupting Gu Ja-yoon's continuous attack rhythm. In the instant she stiffened from the energy impact, Hawk closed in! His fists moved so fast they left afterimages, slamming heavily into Gu Ja-yoon's crossed arms. The immense force caused the alloy floor beneath her feet to crack inch by inch. This was followed by a furious storm of close-quarters combat! Gu Ja-yoon's boasted speed and psychokinesis were overwhelmed by Hawk's comprehensive suppression, which had reached a pinnacle in prediction, strength, speed, and energy defense.
"Bang!" A cunning side-kick, imbued with an energy burst, sent Gu Ja-yoon flying heavily, crashing into a thick alloy wall, leaving a human-shaped dent. She slid down, kneeling on one knee, breathing heavily, spitting out a mouthful of blood. For the first time, her hollow eyes showed intense emotion – shock, unwillingness, and a hint of... bewilderment?
Hawk stood before her, looking down, his breathing slightly ragged but his eyes still cold and sharp. He extended his hand, dangerous energy fluctuations pulsating in his palm: "You can continue until I completely break you, or..." His voice was not loud, but it carried an undeniable penetrative power, "come with me. Leave this cage, leave those who treat you as a tool. I need power, but I won't treat you as expendable. You can... choose to be yourself."
Gu Ja-yoon looked up, her blood-stained face appearing especially fragile in the flashing red alarm lights. Her hollow eyes stared intently at Hawk, as if discerning the truth in his words, weighing the cost of further resistance. The forcibly implanted obedience protocols within her and her yearning for freedom clashed fiercely. After a moment of silence, her tense body gradually relaxed, the ferocity in her eyes slowly fading, leaving only deep exhaustion and a faint trace of... curiosity about the unknown?
She asked a question: "Can I go... to a nightclub... and drink cheap alcohol?"
Hawk almost lost his composure hearing this question, his mouth twitching. He wanted to ask: "Can't you drink real alcohol? You can afford it!" But he ultimately nodded. Cheap alcohol gets to your head easily, and Gu Ja-yoon surely had a high metabolism, so real alcohol wouldn't get her drunk. She probably wanted to try cheap alcohol... Gu Ja-yoon said nothing, only lowered her eyelids, tacitly agreeing to Hawk's suggestion.
Soon after, another much lighter set of footsteps sounded. Shin Shi-ah poked her head in like a curious little bird. She had changed into a pink hoodie with a cartoon cat print, her hair simply tied back, her face showing the nervousness of a new environment and a hint of irrepressible excitement.
"H-Hawk... Mr. Hawk?" Her voice was soft, with a distinct Korean accent. "Sister Andy said... we can have our own rooms? Really? Big? Can we see the lights outside?" Her eyes sparkled, filled with the most innocent imagination of "freedom" – a space of her own, without surveillance cameras.
A hint of a smile appeared on Hawk's face. This girl's innocence was like an untarnished mirror, reflecting the darkness of the base. "Yes, Shi-ah. A big room. Do you like bright lights? The whole city lights up at night." He pointed to the large floor-to-ceiling window.
Shin Shi-ah followed his finger, letting out a small gasp of wonder: "Wow... just like in TV shows!" She turned to Hawk, gathering her courage to ask, "So... what should I do from now on? Sister Gu said we have to listen to you..." She cautiously glanced at Gu Ja-yoon beside her.
"Just be yourself, Shi-ah," Hawk said gently. "First, get to know your room. Andy will teach you basic life skills." "Do you want to draw? Or read? Anything is fine." "Your ability is very special. Perhaps... we can slowly figure out how to make it more interesting, rather than scary." He emphasized "interesting" rather than "useful." This girl needed guidance and security, not to be immediately thrown into cold missions.
Shin Shi-ah's eyes shone brighter: "Draw? Really? I... I only secretly drew on paper before..." She nodded vigorously, a pure smile blossoming on her face. "Thank you, Mr. King!" She had clearly remembered the codename Hawk had casually given himself, finding it both mysterious and cool.
"I have one more question!" Shin Shi-ah raised her arm like a good student.
"Hmm?"
"What were you and that auntie doing in the room just now? The sounds were a bit... naughty?"
Shin Shi-ah's innocent voice broke the sudden silence in the room. Gu Ja-yoon quietly stepped back a few paces, awkwardly covering her eyes and turning her head away.
Hawk blinked. "This apartment of mine cost two hundred thousand dollars just for soundproofing..."
Gu Ja-yoon quietly interjected, "But for us, it was still quite clear. Though, Mr. Hawk, you are truly strong!" She even gave a thumbs-up.
"Fu... That was just an ordinary leopard-print auntie..." Hawk swallowed the American expletive that was about to escape, forced a smile, and pulled a stack of cash from a drawer, tossing it to Gu Ja-yoon. "You two go stay out for a night. I'll arrange new accommodation for you later."
After ushering the two out, Hawk sighed in relief. This apartment had good feng shui, often frequented by young models and actresses seeking his "blessings." He couldn't have them listening in every time, could he?
His phone vibrated again; it was an encrypted message from Andy: [Everything is ready. The list has been 'leaked' as planned. The bait is in the water.]