ark clouds partially covered the moon, draping the area in shadows. A cold breeze brushed against his neck. If he wasn't out to farm points, these would be the ideal conditions for an evening stroll.

  This is it.

  Leon stood atop a building with Nyx perched on his shoulder, looking at a lit door guarded by two gangsters in red attire. Smoke from their cigarettes trailed into the air. He didn't miss the slight protrusions around their waists—pistols, probably.

  With the assistance of Nyx, they had travelled to the closest area with high gang activity. Their search led them to a rather destitute pce where streetlights barely functioned and the buildings were falling apart. If he hadn't been looking for this specific kind of location, he would have completely passed by it.

  "Thank you for the help, Nyx. I'll take it from here," Leon whispered, giving Nyx a quick headpat before vanishing into the familiar space.

  Dangerous.

  He checked their danger rating, just in case, and the result made him raise a brow in confusion.

  Does the Danger Rating take my current, non-reinforced state into account? That's the only way these guys are a Dangerous level threat to me.

  After giving a quick "frantic call" to emergency services to tell them about guns being fired at his current location and to get the police, he began assessing his options.

  Now, what do I do from here?

  Excluding the mugging when he first arrived and his chance encounter with Killcannon, this was his first official round of vigintism.

  Stealth was an option. But he sucked at stealth, both in video games and in real life. He usually ended his mission guns bzing around halfway through or when stealth just wasn't working.

  Guns bzing it is.

  Decision made, Leon began reinforcing himself. He poured energy into his gear, reinforcing them to their limits and draining his energy reserves by a tenth. His body was next, draining his reserves even further, but not nearly as much as his gear.

  Before his training, the max reinforcements on his gear alone would have drained at least a fifth of his energy.

  Good thing I got the Energy Heart before. Might not have been able to practice as much otherwise.

  Fight Mode flicked on next, flooding his body with chemicals and hormones to put him into optimal fighting shape. His heart began drumming in his ribs, causing blood to rush through his blood vessels like it was a highway.

  Without further dey, he stepped off the ledge. Just before he hit the ground, he activated Light Step and nded on nothing instead. He stood tall before the startled gangsters who now had their attention on him and checked Danger Rating once again.

  Moderate.

  Hm. So, I was right.

  "Yo. How's it going?" Leon greeted with a light-hearted tone.

  The two gangsters gnced at each other. One stepped forward while the other remained at the door.

  "You lost, freak?" the one with the sagging pants barked, hand hovering near his waistband. "Fuck off before we pop you."

  Leon didn't move. Instead, he let out a sharp, mocking scoff, crossing his arms as his eyes drifted slowly from the man's sideways cap down to his knees. "Freak? That's rich coming from a grown ass man whose belt is clearly decorative. Is that a fashion statement, or did mommy just forget to teach you how to get dressed this morning?"

  The man's face reddened, his grip tightening on the concealed grip of his weapon. "Watch your mouth, bitch. I'll put a hole in you."

  "With what? Your coordination?" Leon tilted his head, his voice dripping with feigned pity. "Actually, I get it now. You wear them like that so it's easier for the other guys in lockup to hit you from the back. It's a convenience thing, right? Efficient."

  Behind him, his partner let out a muffled snort, quickly pressing his lips together to kill a ugh. That was the breaking point. The lead gunman's nose fred, his eyes turning murderous as he finally ripped the pistol from his waist.

  "Shut the hell up! I'll kill you!"

  "Do it then," Leon prompted, his voice dropping to a boring, unimpressed drawl. "Or are you too stupid to figure out how to turn the safety off? I know thinking is hard for you. It's probably why your mother left your sorry ass behind. She didn't want to catch the stupidity you're radiating."

  The man snapped. As he pulled the trigger, the subtle twitch of his knuckles didn't escape Leon's notice. His Void Child trait allowed him to map the exact trajectory of the muzzle in his mind, while his Martial Foresight signaled the precise instant of the discharge. He could evade it with a simple side-step, but he had a theory to test.

  He shifted just enough to catch the round on his right shoulder and flinched from the force it carried, hearing the sharp clink of fttened metal hitting the ground. Looking down, he checked the impact point.

  The cloth wasn't even torn.

  [Feat Achieved! It's one thing to have power, but it's another to let a criminal shoot you just to see if you're bulletproof. Reward: 150 GP]

  Huh. Felt like someone lightly flicked my shoulder.

  Relief and realization dawned on Leon simultaneously. This was better than he expected.

  When he raised his head to look at the thugs, it seemed they came to the same conclusion. Their eyes had widened and even their breathing seemed to have stalled.

  The grin on Leon's face couldn't get any wider. "Oh, you guys are fucked."

  Before they could continue shooting him, his hands blurred and he flicked two low-charge cards. Each one exploded the moment they reached a pistol, blowing the guns away from the gangsters hands.

  "Ah fuck!"

  "Agh!"

  Leon didn't give them the opportunity to regain their bearings. With a swift upward thrust of his fists, the ground around them rumbled as it rose to encase them in pyramids of earth. Only their heads remained in the open.

  [Defeated two armed thugs! Reward: 20 GP]

  Huh. Each of them only gave ten points? That's less than what I got from those muggers in the park.

  Leon frowned.

  Do I get less points from enemies the stronger I become?

  If that was the case, even beating Killcannon again wouldn't give as many points as the first time. This put a dampener on his pns.

  In the middle of the chaos, the door behind them opened and a third thug stepped out, his head buried in his phone.

  "Hey, the boss is wondering what all that noise wa-"

  The man looked up and froze before frantically reaching for his gun.

  "Oh fu-"

  A swift pebble to the head shut the man down. His body hit the ground, blood seeping from his head.

  [Defeated an armed thug! Reward: 10 GP]

  "Whoops," Leon muttered. "He should be fine… I think."

  "This motherfucker's a superhero!"

  "Who the hell are you?!"

  Leon opened his mouth to answer, but he was stumped. What should he call himself?

  I'll think about it ter. Now's not the time. Though maybe Powerhouse would fit? Nah, too close to Powerplex.

  "I'm nobody. Not a superhero either," he joked, walking pass the human traffic cones while knocking them out with non-reinforced punches to their faces. "Just a normal guy doing normal guy stuff. Your base needs a little clean up and I'm the perfect guy for the job."

  He'd been wanting to see what a Diamond Ticket could get him. If the pattern of the rewards for each ticket didn't change, getting a Legendary or Mythical should be within his reach if he was lucky.

  I hope these guys will at least net me half the points I need.

  [Total Gacha Points: 471]

  -x-

  Unlike his casual attitude before entering the building, Leon focused the moment he stepped inside. Despite guns being mostly ineffective against him now, a barrage of bullets or a lucky shot hitting the back or side of his head could still injure him.

  Within the compound was pure chaos as Leon cleared the building room by room and hall by hall, neutralizing every threat he came across with ever-increasing efficiency.

  The narrow hallways were a tactical nightmare for the gunmen, but for Leon, it was like a shooting gallery. Every time a door kicked open, he didn't even need to look. His enhanced spatial awareness allowed him to sense the precise locations and movements of anyone nearby even if they were inside a room.

  Some wielded knives. Most had firearms. Regardless of which they used, Leon took them down all the same.

  One group in particur holed themselves up in a room with their guns pointed at the door. He took one look at the situation and charged a card. As if he was bowling, he slid that sucker through the gap under the door.

  The explosion unched them into walls and furniture, leaving them knocked out or in serious pain. That one move even got him an achievement that rewarded a hundred GP in addition to the points he got from defeating them.

  Leon fought those who thought they could take him on in close range, even if they came at him in two's or three's. Each bout ended in less than a minute and wasn't even close to challenging him, but he welcomed the practice.

  He assumed he was close to clearing the pce when four men charged from the kitchen area, submachine guns in the middle of being raised. Leon didn't break his stride. His hands flicked, the purple leather of his gloves a blur.

  Two cards with a white glow sailed through the air. They didn't hit the men but the ceiling directly above them. He wanted to drop enough weight to pin and disorient them, not ftten them.

  Pster, acoustic tiles, and light wooden sts colpsed in a localized shockwave, burying the quintuplet under a pile of debris before they could pull their triggers. Leon stepped over a protruding head, his polished bck shoes clicking rhythmically on the linoleum.

  [Defeated four armed guards! Reward: 40 GP]

  [Feat Achieved! Neutralized a group of armed thugs using controlled environmental destruction. Reward: 50 GP]

  Sweet.

  As he reached the second floor, he saw the reinforced safe room at the end of the hall.

  Inside that room, Tony "The Butcher" Vane hyperventited. He stared at the security monitors, watching the white-masked figure move with the terrifying grace of a predator. His men—hardened killers who had survived turf wars against other factions—were being folded like undry.

  "Who the fuck is this guy?!" Tony screamed, grabbing a heavy-duty assault rifle from the wall rack. "One of Machine Head's assassins? Damn it! Don't tell me they found out we accidentally killed some of the bio-stock!"

  The monitor showed the masked figure stop in front of the heavy door guarding his room. The stranger simply shifted his weight, dropping into a low, rock-solid as he stomped.

  Leon didn't need to overcomplicate it.

  One measured stomp to the floor sent a ripple of rumbling earth through the ground. A jagged pilr of stone erupted from the floor directly into the door's frame, shearing the hinges. Wood and the metal door tumbled into the office, raising a cloud of dust and debris.

  Leon strode through it, pushing through the smoke. The split-back tailcoat of his suit fluttered behind him like a cape.

  The man behind the desk fired a panicked, wild burst from the assault rifle. But Leon already anticipated it, raising a thick wall of earth before the man pulled the trigger.

  "You'll be out of ammo soon," Leon said through the hail of bullets, his voice barely audible. "And out of luck!"

  Tony held the trigger until only clicks could be heard, his eyes wide with a primal sort of terror. He reached for a heavy paperweight to throw, but Leon was already there.

  In a burst of movement that shattered the ground he stood on, Leon swerved around the wall and was across the room. He didn't strike with reinforcement. He knew a strike like that would pop the man's head like a balloon of flesh and bone.

  Instead, he disabled the Reinforcement of one arm, catching the man's neck in a riat. The blow sent him into the air and crashing into the wall. Thankfully, he was still breathing.

  Leon dusted his gloves.

  "That should be all of them, right?"

  [Defeated a heavily-armed Gang Leader! Reward: 100 GP]

  [Feat Achieved! Cleared a compound of over 20 armed criminals without sustaining significant damage. Reward: 300 GP]

  [Feat Achieved! Maintained a formal appearance and stayed retively unscathed throughout a high-intensity raid. Reward: 70 GP]

  Leon stood in the silent office, the whirring of machines the only sound in the room. He looked at the unconscious man on the ground before something else grabbed his attention. He sensed a strange hollow space directly beneath the office. It seemed like a sub-level.

  That's odd.

  The paths he took and the rooms he passed didn't align with it. It was hidden with great effort.

  Hm. I wonder what's down there. Might as well take a look while I'm here. It could be loot.