Marvel: Sign-In System – Starting with the Glint-Glint Fruit

In the dead of night, Hell's Kitchen looked quiet on the surface, but beneath that silence lurked crime and danger.

The streets were nearly empty because everyone living there understood one thing—this was when Hell's Kitchen was at its most dangerous.

As you walked down the street, greedy and vicious eyes could already be watching from some dark alleyway nearby, like beasts staring at their prey.

And for two beautiful women like Neagley and Natasha, each with completely different styles, they naturally attracted even more covetous gazes.

However, these two women were no ordinary citizens; within those slender frames lay what was essentially a slightly weakened version and a super-enhanced version of a standard Hulk and a "Failed Man" (a parody reference to Spider-Man).

And this trip wasn't just the two of them alone. They had also brought along an elite armed squad fully equipped for combat.

A few thugs had eagerly prepared to rush toward them, only to find themselves blocked first by a group of burly men in plain clothes carrying firearms, their fierce temperaments obvious at a glance.

The outcome was already clear.

Neither Neagley nor Natasha cared about such trivial matters.

The old repair shop was located in a somewhat remote part of Hell's Kitchen, surrounded by residential buildings. It looked completely ordinary and was not particularly large.

Neagley wore a dark green air force jacket paired with jeans, while Natasha was dressed in a black leather jacket, straight-leg pants, and Martin boots that perfectly highlighted her figure and long legs.

The two women were exceptionally eye-catching.

Even the soldiers accompanying them could not help but cast heated looks in their direction, though it had little to do with lust.

Ever since passing the organization's brutal screening process, these soldiers had received the highest level of treatment and benefits and lived almost entirely like professional military personnel. Most of their days were spent training and studying, with very few actual missions.

They knew who they served, but they knew very little about the organization's true core structure.

There were rumors that the organization's highest echelon consisted of two great warbands: the Astartes and the Ravens. Every member supposedly possessed unimaginable individual combat power, each one a true monster.

It was said that conventional weapons could not even scratch them.

Any one of them alone could overturn an entire city in a short period of time, and given enough time, toppling a country would not even be difficult.

At first, most of the soldiers hadn't believed those rumors.

That changed when, some time later, an Astartes soldier personally arrived and demonstrated such overwhelming power that everyone present was left stunned.

The man casually carried a boulder weighing dozens of tons and shattered it with a single punch. With just one finger, he pierced straight through a block of alloy metal.

Even while facing bullets fired from dozens of guns, he could effortlessly dodge them all. And even when the bullets struck his body directly, they failed to damage his skin in the slightest.

But what truly ignited fanaticism within these soldiers was the fact that the two warbands had supposedly been personally established by their supreme leader, Matthew.

And according to the rumors, as long as they could pass the instructors' layers of evaluations and meet the required standards, they too would one day be able to join the warbands and obtain that same terrifying power.

The moment they learned that, every soldier became consumed with fervor.

No soldier could possibly resist such power.

Many members of the Astartes warband had originally been ordinary soldiers from various training bases, just like them. Ordinary people who had been given extraordinary power.

The treatment and benefits were incredible, and there was even a chance to join the warbands and gain superhuman abilities At that point, what else was there to say?

They would gladly give their lives for it.

To swear absolute loyalty to the great leader!

Now that they finally had the opportunity to carry out a mission alongside the commander of the Raven warband, of course they would do everything possible to prove themselves.

What if they caught her attention? After all, they desperately wanted to rise higher.

...

Under the protection of the soldiers, Neagley and Natasha entered the repair shop. The sturdy white squad captain with a thick beard gestured toward his men, and the soldiers immediately split into three teams. Flashlights in one hand and guns in the other, they began conducting an extremely thorough search of the building.

Meanwhile, Neagley and Natasha walked with the squad captain toward the center of the repair shop.

Soon, the squad members flipped the main breaker, and the pitch-black repair shop instantly lit up.

"Captain Gilson, clear in the back."

"Workshop clear.

"The back door is sealed shut."

After completing their inspections, the squad members regrouped and reported their findings.

Neagley nodded before lowering her gaze toward the dusty floor covered with chaotic footprints. She crouched down, observed for only a moment, and quickly reached a conclusion.

"Judging from the size and gait of the footprints, there were three people here."

"Two sets of shoe prints. One is size 39, the other size 40."

"The size 39 prints have shallow, dense tread patterns with a narrow shape. Flat soles with no heel—cheap white canvas shoes, the kind commonly sold on the streets. Durable and inexpensive."

Natasha calmly added, "A style commonly worn by people at the bottom of society."

"Yeah~"

Neagley nodded and continued.

"The size 40 prints have thicker soles with messy tread patterns. Worn-out civilian work shoes made from canvas. The toe area has been ground flat, and there are traces of glue repairs on the soles. Cheap shoes someone wore for a long time because they couldn't bear to replace them."

Natasha then pointed toward another, larger footprint nearby.

"Size 43. The arch is tightly shaped, and the sole is flat without any anti-slip patterns. The steps are extremely light, leaving only faint traces. Soft-soled casual dress shoes made of thin leather. A man."

The two women carefully extracted clue after clue just from the footprints alone.

The soldiers, including Gilson, were instantly stunned.

None of these grunts had ever learned footprint analysis before.

At the same time, their hearts tightened.

It seemed that joining the warbands required far more than combat ability. Observation skills, analytical thinking, and countless other abilities were equally important.

They immediately made mental notes to study all of this later.

As long as they didn't die from overworking themselves, they would keep learning.

In the past, there had been no path upward, so naturally they had simply drifted through life. But now that an opportunity existed, if they didn't work hard now, then when would they?

At around thirty years old, they were still in their prime.

Rest? There would be plenty of time for that once they were lying in a coffin.

"The size 40 footprints followed the size 43 footprints out through the front entrance of the repair shop," Neagley continued. "There are also faint tire tracks from a Ford vehicle along the road."

"Only the size 39 footprints are chaotic."

Natasha analyzed the scene while lifting her gaze to scan the surroundings, searching for possible hiding spots.

"She probably hid somewhere and watched the other woman leave with that man. After they left, she came out feeling extremely anxious and paced around here for a long time."

The surrounding soldiers immediately spread out once more.

Soon, a voice rang out from a corner.

"Footprints here, ma'am!"

Neagley and Natasha walked over. Under the beam of the soldier's flashlight, the size 39 footprints became visible on the ground once again.

"It looks like my good friend was very conflicted,"

After mentally reconstructing the scene through the footprints, Neagley had already pieced together most of what had happened earlier.

"So we need to move quickly," Natasha said. "What's your plan?"

"Searching on our own would be too troublesome."

Neagley smiled faintly. Mobilizing manpower and conducting a full search would take far too much time and effort.

Hell's Kitchen wasn't exactly huge, but it certainly wasn't small either. More importantly, the place was filled with every kind of criminal and shady character imaginable. Hiding a few people here would be incredibly easy.

"So?"

"Perhaps we should pay a visit to the biggest local boss around here," Neagley said as she winked at Natasha with her right eye. "Maybe we can make a new friend and ask for his help."

...

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