Dan temporarily withdrew his attention from Drive and the Roidmudes.
Sensing the several completed sets of differently colored coins engraved with animal images surrounding the Mind Stone within his personal mirror space, he nodded in satisfaction.
The progress was very encouraging. In just a short time, half of the coin sets created using the power of the Mind Stone had already been completed.
New York truly deserved its reputation as the largest city in the United States and one of the three great global cities. It directly influenced the world's economy, finance, media, politics, education, entertainment, and fashion, and was filled with countless temptations that stimulated people's ambitions and desires.
The entire city overflowed with immense desire—it was practically a perfect place for producing O Medals.
"It's about time to find a suitable host for OOO's transformation," Dan Daoichi muttered as he entered the Gaia Library to search for a suitable candidate.
The template could probably follow Eiji Hino's model.
Someone born into a wealthy family, someone who had enjoyed luxury and prosperity to the point of becoming accustomed to it. Naturally simple in personality, but someone who had suffered a major life setback.
Being used to wealth and extravagance would make it easier for them to remain indifferent to fame and profit. With a powerful family background and having everything they could want, they would naturally be able to treat most things with calm detachment, without developing excessive obsessions or desires.
Meanwhile, in New York City.
The Grongi's Gegel Game was still ongoing.
Just after the Heavy Acceleration caused by the Roidmudes ended, with the interference gone, the Mantis Grongi immediately began taking action again, continuing its human-hunting Gegeru game.
With limited time remaining, the Mantis Grongi ignored everything else and only wanted to complete the required number of kills as quickly as possible.
After learning that the Mantis Grongi had appeared again, Steve located it while it was continuing the battle that had been interrupted by Heavy Acceleration.
When Steve arrived at the scene and saw the many victims who had been beheaded by the Mantis Grongi in such a short time, he was instantly filled with rage.
He immediately transformed into Kuuga's Rising Titan Form.
Relying on Rising Titan's powerful defensive ability, Steve directly endured the Mantis Grongi's razor-sharp scythe-like blades while launching heavy and relentless sword strikes, giving the monster no chance to breathe.
With the final strike, he knocked the long sickle weapon from the Mantis Grongi's hand.
Then he thrust his sword straight through its abdomen.
Without any unnecessary movement, he immediately injected Sealing Energy, forming the Sealing Rune that would declare the Mantis Grongi's death sentence.
Although the Mantis Grongi had suffered a fatal injury, it did not explode immediately. Gritting its teeth, it used its dark power to temporarily resist the sealing energy Steve had injected, preventing the sealing rune from fully forming for a short time.
"Kuuga… even though you defeated me, don't be too proud.
Because once my game fails, it means the truly terrifying game will begin.
Next… the Go Group, the semifinalists, will begin their game.
Let's see if you can still oppose them."
After leaving behind those words, the Mantis Grongi could no longer suppress the sealing energy. Its body erupted in a violent explosion, shattering into pieces.
After killing the Mantis Grongi, things actually stayed quiet for quite some time. No further reports of Grongi murder games appeared.
But the quieter things became, the heavier the feeling in Steve's heart grew.
He had the uneasy sense that what was coming next might be far worse.
"Captain, these Grongi haven't appeared for almost half a month now. Why do you seem even more serious and alert?" Kent asked while handing Steve a towel, watching him relentlessly punching a sandbag.
Steve accepted the towel and wiped the sweat from his face.
"I always feel that when things are like this… the problems and disasters that follow might be even more severe."
Kent lowered his head thoughtfully.
"You mean… this is the calm before the storm."
Steve nodded.
"Although the Grongi's behavior is cruel and bloodthirsty, treating the hunting of humans as a game where the results are judged by the number of people killed…
They strictly follow rules in this so-called game.
Even if one of their own violates the rules, they will eliminate them without hesitation."
Kent thought of the Mushroom Grongi that had been killed by Omega and nodded in agreement.
"So this unusually long pause in the murder incidents might mean their killing game is about to enter the next stage?"
"And as the game continues to progress, it's clear that the required number of kills keeps increasing," Steve said with deep concern in his voice.
"That means the number of victims will also continue to rise."
What Steve worried about, of course, were the innocent civilians who would lose their lives to the Grongi.
Even if he and Kent rushed to the scene immediately after receiving news, it was impossible to save everyone. By the time the news reached them, it already meant someone had died.
Kent fell silent for a moment, unsure how to respond.
After a long pause, he finally spoke softly.
"Even if we can't prevent every single tragedy… we can still do our best to find and defeat the Grongi playing these killing games, and save as many people as possible.
As long as we act with a clear conscience."
"Captain, another suspected Grongi murder incident has appeared," a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent responsible for assisting Steve and Kent hurried over to report.
Steve and Kent exchanged a glance and immediately prepared to move out.
"The scene has already been sealed off by the New York Police Department," the agent quickly continued.
"The police are conducting a thorough investigation within the area where the victims were found, but no suspicious Grongi traces have been discovered nearby. The Grongi likely left immediately after completing the killings.
Even if you go now, you probably won't find the Grongi responsible.
At the moment, we have no way to determine the Grongi's whereabouts."
"So this Grongi used some kind of long-range attack, and after killing a certain number of humans, it simply leaves the scene," Kent said.
"And its behavior is clearly different—it leaves once it completes a certain amount of killing."
The previous Grongi usually stayed at the scene after appearing and continued the killing game, which allowed Steve to arrive and defeat them.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent nodded and added more information about the attack method.
"Based on the victims' wounds, the attacks appear to have come from above."
Steve frowned.
"A Grongi similar to the Wasp Grongi we saw earlier? One with the ability to fly, attacking pedestrians from the sky?"
"But the killing speed is much faster than the Wasp Grongi," the agent said with a grim expression.
"In a very short time, a large number of pedestrians went into shock and died.
And unlike the Wasp Grongi before, this flying Grongi doesn't emit ultrasonic signals while flying, so we haven't been able to track its movements."
(End of Chapter)