After sparing a moment of reflection for the scum who had long since been washed into the sewers, Heisenberg began savoring the feeling of getting rich overnight.
Over six hundred thousand units of Origin Matter!
How should he spend it?
For a moment, Heisenberg hesitated. Should he exchange it for one Audrey Hepburn, or ten Audrey Hepburns?
Cough cough…
All illusions. Was he really that shallow?
Priority had to be eliminating the kryptonite weakness.
"System, remove my genetic weakness to kryptonite!"
"Yes!"
Just like that, in the time it took to say a sentence, Heisenberg had one less weakness…?
This… was really boringly easy.
He'd spent a little over forty thousand Origin Matter, leaving a bit more than five hundred thousand. What should he do with the remaining five hundred thousand?
Should he… like he'd always thought, go back to his hometown for a look?
Of course. Heisenberg meant what he said.
But not now. There was no need to rush that hard.
He hadn't even finished eating.
By the end of the meal, Heisenberg felt a trace of regret.
He was sick of steaks and grilled meat. He missed real, proper Chinese food.
Especially a few dishes he'd genuinely loved back then.
"Billy!"
He waved. Billy quickly walked over.
When Billy stopped beside him, Heisenberg spoke softly, "Find time to recruit two Chinese chefs for me. Their skill has to hold up. I want the most authentic Chinese cuisine."
"Yes!" Billy nodded repeatedly.
Once Billy left, Heisenberg slowly drank two bottles of bourbon.
No matter how you ate "Chinese food" in America, it never tasted right. He needed to set aside time and go home for the real thing.
Maybe it was the alcohol hitting, maybe it was that nervous feeling when you're close to home, but for once he actually felt like going out for a walk.
He acted the moment the thought appeared. Heisenberg went back to his room, changed clothes, put on a fairly casual suit, and left Heisenberg Tower.
Today, New York felt unusually empty.
After walking a little over three hundred meters, Heisenberg saw more than ten fire trucks and ambulances.
No surprise. Those two punches he'd thrown at Hulk last night had damaged hundreds of buildings. That wasn't something you could clean up in a short time.
Heisenberg didn't pay them any attention. He'd done what he wanted to do, and what he needed to do.
If he'd let Hulk rampage through the city freely, with Hulk's habit of not stopping until he'd smashed things for ten-plus hours, even more innocent people would've been injured or killed.
Heisenberg wasn't Clark Kent. After reducing the overall suffering, he wasn't going to pin the rest of the suffering on himself.
What he could do was simply be himself.
He kept walking. After about two kilometers, he entered Hell's Kitchen.
To his surprise, Hell's Kitchen was completely different from other neighborhoods. The people here somehow felt unusually cheerful.
There were even groups drinking out on the street!!!
That genuinely startled Heisenberg. As long as Earth hadn't been destroyed, Hell's Kitchen was still Hell's Kitchen?
Heisenberg moved closer to the party crowd, drank a couple cups with them, then chatted with two homeless guys for a while.
Only then did he learn that this party was actually thanks to him.
When Heisenberg ordered Bullseye to take people out and calm the citizens, Bullseye's first stop was Hell's Kitchen.
And with a street mercenary and professional thug like him, what method did he have to "calm people down"?
It wasn't like the federal government, dragging in a mayor to give a speech and stand on stage while citizens cursed for hours to vent.
The federal government could do that, and after cursing the mayor, the governor, even the president, citizens would cool off.
Bullseye couldn't.
So our simple, honest Bullseye just delivered massive amounts of alcohol and drinks to the people of Hell's Kitchen.
Kingpin's gang already smuggled booze. And after Heisenberg started cracking down on drugs, weapons and alcohol took a bigger share of business.
If you did this line of work, how could you not have stock? Hell's Kitchen basically ended up with everyone getting two or three beers for free.
Besides the free booze, Bullseye also issued an order in Heisenberg's name across New York. No trouble. No fighting.
After killing Kingpin, beating Daredevil, and taking down Hulk, Heisenberg's name was already enough to stop a child's night crying.
Once that order went out, aside from the Nuke Gang, not a single gang member in New York dared wander the streets.
Everyone in the underworld knew Heisenberg was a lunatic who killed at the drop of a hat, and a lunatic with Superman-like strength.
Who the hell would provoke a lunatic?
So Hell's Kitchen went from a gang-infested neighborhood so bad even birds didn't dare take a dump, into a paradise with no gang activity at all.
The locals immediately went crazy with joy.
Looking at the happy crowd, Heisenberg knew they weren't exactly good people.
But the atmosphere alone was enough to make him feel pleased.
He left Hell's Kitchen with a satisfied smile. Bullseye's work, at least in this neighborhood, was good. Really good.
Only someone who'd lived on the streets understood what New York's citizens truly needed.
It wasn't a bite to eat. It wasn't just not starving.
It was a sense of safety and real, genuine relaxation and happiness, the kind you'd still want even if you were starving.
And also the freedom to never wear a mask, not even if you wore a hood.
…
Leaving Hell's Kitchen, crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, passing Washington Square, Heisenberg arrived in Queens.
This was one of the most famous places in the Marvel universe. The hometown of little Spider-Man, Peter Parker.
How popular was Spider-Man?
On Origin Earth, the top three best-selling American comics were always those three.
Superman, Batman, Spider-Man.
One represented the perfection of humanity, one wrote the darkness of humanity, and the last, little Spidey, drew the ordinary side of humanity.
And Queens was little Spidey's home.
Heisenberg looked toward Queens. His hearing had long since locked onto little Spidey's location.
At the same time, his vision let him clearly see little Spidey's life at eight years old.
The kid was being kept at home by Aunt May, forced to watch TV.
Little Spidey was lively by nature. It was rare for elementary school to suddenly get a holiday. He desperately wanted to go out and play football with his buddies.
But there was no way. Aunt May and Uncle Ben knew the streets were dangerous, and they easily shut him down.
So little Spidey sat up straight in front of the TV, feeling like even cartoons weren't that good anymore.
Watching him like that, Heisenberg suddenly wanted to do something.
He took off, and in an instant, arrived at little Spidey's window.
Uncle Ben and Aunt May weren't rich, but they still lived in a detached house. Don't misunderstand, it was only because they'd lived in New York for a long time.
Heisenberg lightly tapped on the window. The sound made little Spidey look over curiously.
The moment little Spidey saw Heisenberg clearly, Heisenberg smiled and waved at him.
The next second, Heisenberg quietly entered the room and appeared behind little Spidey.
Just as little Spidey was wondering why the man at the window had vanished, Heisenberg ruffled his small head.
"Ah!!!"
Little Spidey jumped in fright, and Heisenberg showed a grin of successful mischief.
Seeing that smile, little Spidey frowned in dissatisfaction.
Kind of cute…
So Heisenberg kept ruffling his hair, making little Spidey dodge again and again with a stubborn look on his face.
"Who are you? How did you get into my house? This is private property, sir!"
"Haha, alright, alright. Private property, then I guess I made a mistake," Heisenberg said with a laugh. He reached out his left hand and took off the watch on his wrist.
"Since I made a mistake, I should make it up to you. How about I give you this watch?"
"No!" Little Spidey puffed his cheeks and refused, even though the watch looked extremely beautiful.
"You don't need to give me that, and I can't accept gifts from strangers. Uncle Ben told me that!"
"But I broke into your private property."
"You need to apologize, sir. Aunt May and Uncle Ben are upstairs, I… I…"
Halfway through, little Spidey suddenly thought of something.
He looked at Heisenberg's strong body and couldn't help squeezing himself deeper into the corner of the sofa.
Even though he was scared, he suddenly didn't want Aunt May and Uncle Ben to come downstairs. He was afraid his family would get hurt.
He spoke softly, worry leaking into his voice.
"I can accept your apology for them. Will you apologize?"
"Mm-hm, of course I can." Heisenberg smiled. "But you look like you're scared?"
"I'm not scared. You're not a bad guy, right?"
"And you're giving me a watch, so you will apologize, because apologizing is cheaper than a watch!"
Little Spidey used those words to convince himself, and also managed to amuse Heisenberg.
Heisenberg laughed, ruffled his hair again, and muttered to himself, "Yeah. Even a child knows lowering your head is easier than paying a price, but adults just won't do it."
With that, Heisenberg patted little Spidey's head.
"Alright, we'll stop here."
"As for the watch, it's not compensation, and it's not a gift. It's expectation."
Heisenberg firmly grabbed little Spidey's hand and slipped his old watch onto the child's wrist.
Before little Spidey could take it off, Heisenberg rose into the air.
The way he floated in the sky made little Spidey light up with excitement. In a blink, little Spidey even made the Superman flying pose at him.
"Oh my god, oh my god, are you Superman? The one everyone's been talking about lately?"
"Haha. You recognized me, so you'd better keep my expectation safe, kid!"
As he spoke, Heisenberg drifted to the window, politely opened it, and for the first time, left someone's territory without smashing through a wall.
He left only little Spidey bouncing and jumping in excitement on the sofa.
…
By giving away the last link to his past, Heisenberg placed his former ordinary life into the hands of the child most worthy of it.
And by giving away that watch, he also said a complete farewell to his old self.
He'd arrived in the Marvel universe for eleven days now.
After countless inner struggles, Heisenberg finally became the real him, the him of the present and the future.
He quickly flew back to his building's rooftop and lay back on that lounge chair.
"Saying goodbye to the past self feels good. So it's time to make a simple plan for what comes next," he muttered.
"Right now, I've established my initial authority in New York, and the infiltration and recruitment of Hydra is still ongoing."
"I need to add pressure so Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. stay balanced in power, so neither side can spare time to cause me trouble. That'll make Rumlow's turning work easier."
"At the same time, Hydra's crisis and my threat will push the surviving S.H.I.E.L.D. members, and the U.S. government, to continue researching the Tesseract."
"They need power that makes them feel confident. And those studies are the perfect weights to drag them into the abyss."
"Beating Hulk will make the world's countries afraid to act against me alone, but that's still not enough. They must have external enemies, crises that force them to trust me, rely on me, even worship me."
"And that crisis, first, will have to trouble Thor's idiot little brother."
"Chitauri technology will push Earth's tech forward in leaps, and the new energy Iron Man discovered will reshuffle Earth's existing industrial chains."
"Under the shock of the new era, if those once-great people want to stay great, they'll have to be even newer than the era itself."
"What plan could suit them better than leaving the solar system?"
"Earthlings, you'll go out. Very soon you will…"
/-\
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