Marvel: The Super Player

Are you free during the winter vacation?

Locke froze slightly, pausing his actions of opening his gift, and looked up at Carrie.

"Yes, I am!"

Locke opened the box. Sure enough, it was another bottle of aged Bourbon. Locke retrieved the aged Thunder Bourbon from inside the box and looked toward Carrie.

"Is something the matter?"

To anyone else, Locke would certainly claim he was unavailable.

But for Carrie, he absolutely had to be!

Carrie bit her lip and said, "A friend of mine has gone missing."

Locke raised an eyebrow. "A friend?"

Carrie nodded. "Anila Katz."

"Who is that?"

"Someone who works part-time with me at the coffee shop. She is also a witch, though it seems she only recently awakened."

"Oh?"

Locke looked at Carrie.

He knew about Carrie working part-time at the coffee shop. It was perfectly normal for high school students to work part-time jobs to earn money for their college tuition or living expenses.

Wasn't Gwen also working part-time at Osborn Biotech?

Locke?

Working a regular job was out of the question for him. Don't even think about it. It was precisely because he couldn't work a standard job that he chose to become an assassin. He couldn't just get rich and then let his knees go soft to work a regular job; that wouldn't look right at all.

However...

Locke led Carrie into Chester's study. As he turned on the computer, he looked at Carrie curiously.

"A newly awakened witch, why didn't you mention this to me?"

Carrie shrugged. "She just awakened last month. I found it quite fascinating too, but weren't you busy last month?"

Locke gave an hum of affirmation.

Last month, he had been swamped with a flurry of operations because of the ICA affair.

The computer booted up.

"What is her name?"

"Anila Katz!"

"Alright."

Locke directly hacked into the major law enforcement systems. After inputting Anila Katz's name, a girl's photo popped up from the driver's license database a moment later.

Immediately after, an airline ticket record appeared in the backend system of JFK International Airport, showing that Anila Katz had traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana, ten days ago.

And then...

There was no then.

Locke looked at Carrie. "Didn't she tell you that she went to New Orleans?"

Carrie said, "She went with her mother. Her mother came back yesterday, but she didn't."

Locke raised an eyebrow. Filtering through the system, he indeed found Katz's mother, who had traveled to New Orleans at the exact same time as Anila Katz ten days ago but returned alone yesterday.

But.

"That doesn't prove anything."

"I have a premonition that something happened to Katz."

Carrie said with deep worry, "I went to ask Katz's mother yesterday why Katz hadn't returned, but her answer was very perfunctory. She claimed Katz had settled down at a relative's house in New Orleans. But Katz told me before that she and her mother lived alone, and they don't have any relatives in New Orleans at all."

Locke stroked his chin. "Is that so."

A moment later.

Locke directly selected a tracking card from his inventory.

[Ding!]

[Tracking Card used successfully!]

[Target: Anila Katz!]

[Locating!]

[Location acquired, expanding map!]

[Anila Katz is located in the Ash City of the Hell Dimension; her physical body is stationary at Lake Lery!]

"..."

Locke raised an eyebrow.

Dead?

But this Lake Lery?

Locke looked at the final coordinates on the tracking map. After zooming out, he raised an eyebrow. This Lake Lery was located just a short distance east of New Orleans.

Well, look at that.

She really is dead?

Locke opened his mouth, snapped back to reality, and looked at Carrie.

Seeing Locke's expression, Carrie froze slightly.

"...Dead?"

"Regrettably, it looks that way."

"This..."

Carrie opened her mouth wide. "When she left for New Orleans, I even told her that I would tell her a secret when she got back. How could she..."

Locke didn't say anything.

However, he did possess a tiny shred of curiosity regarding this matter.

Then...

[Ding!]

[Quest generating!]

[Quest Name: "Release That Witch!"]

[Base Quest Rewards: "5,000 Achievement Points", "500 Potential Points"]

[Quest Bonus Mode: "Reputation Value!"]

[Quest Bonus Multiplier: "100x" (Maximum)]

[Quest Description: "It's here, the big one has arrived. In this world, you, who stepped into the extraordinary because of a witch, swore to protect these poor and kind witches. Yet today, bloodthirsty and cruel witch hunters still walk this earth. Teach them that witches have a protector!"]

[Quest Note: "Settlement will occur once it is determined that the witches possess a safe living environment."]

[Quest Note 2: Dear user, please pay close attention to the prompt.]

Locke raised an eyebrow.

When did I ever say I would protect witches?

How come I didn't know about this?

Locke blinked. He pondered, knowing he had never uttered words to that effect. Furthermore, when he discovered he had changed classes into a witch back then, he had only one thought, which was to alter time and start over.

When did he ever swear to protect this group of poor and kind witches?

Undeniably, there were many cute and kind individuals among the witches.

But more often than not, they were witches, and there were plenty of villains too.

Plague Witches.

Black Witches.

World-Ending Witches.

If these three types of witches were let loose, any single one taken out could destroy the world a hundred times over—provided that the Sorcerer Supreme, Ancient One, watched and refrained from intervening.

Therefore, Locke didn't consider himself capable of protecting the entire witch race.

Besides.

What do I need a pack of little witches for?

It wasn't as if he was a lolicon, and this wasn't the Middle Ages either, so what oppression could there possibly be?

"No way."

"Hmm?"

Locke snapped out of his thoughts, looking at Carrie who had suddenly shouted.

Carrie looked at Locke. "Where is Anila?"

Locke spoke accordingly, "Lake Lery, east of New Orleans. Barring any accidents, her body should be inside that lake."

Carrie's breathing visibly grew heavier. "Thank you."

Then.

Carrie turned around and walked toward the exit.

Locke directly stepped forward to stop her. Looking at Carrie, whose form had already shifted into the Sovereign of Dark Power after a flash of purple light as she crossed the study, he said.

"Where do you think you are going?"

Carrie didn't look back. "Anila is my friend."

After arriving in New York, she had managed to make a few friends with great difficulty, and Carrie invested a lot of care into every single one of them.

She was very similar to Locke in this regard.

Locke directly grabbed hold of Carrie.

Carrie stopped her footsteps.

She turned around.

The purple light dissipated.

Carrie looked up, staring at Locke. "You don't want me to go?"

Locke shook his head. "I don't want you going over like this, but I never said I don't support you going. Don't forget, today is Christmas Eve, and you promised Betty you would go to her house."

Carrie said, "Anila is more—"

"She is already dead."

"..."

Locke pressed a hand to his forehead. "Her soul has already gone to Hell, I have verified this. How about this, you go to Betty's house today, and tomorrow, I will buy tickets and accompany you over there."

Carrie frowned. "I can go by myself..."

Locke interrupted her directly, "I am going with you."

There was no need to worry about Carrie's safety. What Locke worried about was if there really turned out to be some lingering remnants of medieval feudal toxicity over there, then the ensuing mess would be quite entertaining.

Locke glanced at the time on his wristwatch, thought for a moment, and said, "Let's do this: we go on the morning of the twenty-sixth, after Christmas is over."

Carrie knitted her brows. "I can head over by myself first."

Locke shook his head. "No."

"You don't have to—"

"I worry about you."

"..."

Locke waved his hand, walked toward the doorway, and said without turning his head.

"You are my sister. If I don't worry about you, who am I supposed to worry about? We leave the day after tomorrow. Right now, go to Betty's house and enjoy your Christmas Eve properly."

With that finished.

Locke directly got into his car and left Chester's house.

Midway.

Only now did Locke find the time to retrieve the bottle of seventeen-year-old Thunder Bourbon gifted by Chester, which he had placed in his inventory, and examine it closely.

Extremely magical.

Where on earth did that old fellow Chester find these beautifully aged bottles of Thunder Bourbon? How come he had never heard of them on the black market?

Or could it be...

Did that old fellow possess a wine cellar that he simply hadn't discovered yet?

Locke thought to himself.

During the evening.

Locke placed the Christmas gifts he had brought along under the Christmas tree in the living room, which was already piled high with numerous presents.

Gwen spoke beside him, "Dad spent the entire morning dealing with several people."

Locke smiled. "That is precisely where the charm of everyone wanting a promotion lies, isn't it?"

Wasn't a promotion pursued precisely to enjoy this kind of feeling?

Locke loosened his buttons and looked toward Gwen. "Is George still in the study?"

Gwen nodded.

Locke gave an hum of affirmation. "I'm going to find George."

Gwen was stunned.

By the time she snapped out of it, Locke had already strided upstairs.

What was going on?

Gwen blinked and quickly followed him up.

"Knock, knock!"

"Come in."

Hearing George's voice from inside the study, Locke smiled, pushed open the door from the outside, and greeted George who sat inside the study.

"Good evening, George."

George, who was currently inside the study writing up a summary of his experiences regarding another year of failed attempts to capture the Peerless Assassin, looked up, saw Locke entering, and raised an eyebrow.

Just then.

Gwen walked over from behind as well.

Locke looked at Gwen, whose face still bore a look of surprise and suspicion, and didn't tell her to leave or anything. He went straight to the point.

"George, do you know anyone at the New Orleans Police Department?"

"New Orleans?"

"Yes."

George shifted his gaze upward, thinking for a moment. "The head of their Homicide Unit and the head of the Organized Crime Investigation Division are my former classmates. Why do you ask?"

He had graduated from a professional academy, and most of his classmates were around his age. Basically, among those who hadn't left the profession, most were unit heads, or at the very least, detective captains.

Only...

George looked at Locke curiously. "Why are you asking about this?"

Locke smiled. "I might need to make a trip there the day after tomorrow, and I'm afraid there might be some trouble then..."

To put it simply.

Before heading out, he wanted to identify who he could call upon for assistance. When he arrived at that place, there was no telling what might occur. In case anything happened, he could directly call upon them for aid.

Hearing these words.

Gwen was stunned.

"Wait a minute."

"Locke, New Orleans?"

"When?"

"..."

***

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