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

The monster shattered in the most literal sense.

Foul-smelling green blood and flesh scattered across the sky like fireworks.

Yet that area itself was not affected much. Clearly, when Skye threw that punch, she had deliberately controlled the destructive range of her shockwave ability. Rather than letting it spread outward, she had concentrated its force onto a single point.

Skye withdrew her fist and stood steady, then looked up and saw Jessica slowly descending from the sky.

The hem of her red windbreaker whipped wildly around her, and paired with her black hair, she looked valiant and heroic.

"That's an amazing ability. You've improved, Skye." Jessica was happy for her sister's growth.

To someone who did not understand, that punch might not have seemed very destructive. It did not have an intense visual impact.

But Jessica knew.

Concentrating power into a single point like that, without making a huge show of it, required an extremely high degree of control.

Skye had clearly been lacking in this area before. Because of that, Reacher and Natasha had specifically pointed it out and told her to work harder on it.

That attack just now clearly meant Skye's control had reached another level.

"Hehe."

Skye laughed foolishly, then seemed to realize something. She raised her head again and looked left and right.

She seemed to be expecting something.

Jessica immediately understood when she saw Skye like this, but she did not expose her. After all, she was actually the same.

Unfortunately, they saw nothing.

Just as a trace of disappointment began to settle over the two girls, the space around them suddenly fractured. Their vision blurred for an instant.

They had left the mirror dimension and returned to the real world.

A park stretched out before them.

Fine rain drifted down in a steady drizzle, carrying a faint chill and dampness that slowly soaked the entire park.

The wet tree-lined path shimmered with a thin layer of water. Beside it, a narrow winding stream rippled gently under the falling rain, the sound of flowing water blending with the soft patter of droplets striking leaves and branches. In the distance, the broad lake lay veiled in a thin mist of rain. Few people were out. The whole park lay quiet in the wet, cold, hazy atmosphere.

The air stirred with an extremely faint spatial ripple. Skye and Jessica suddenly stepped back into reality from the folded space of the Mirror Dimension, still somewhat dazed.

Their feet stepped onto cool, soft, damp grass. The sounds of rain falling across the park and the scent of wet vegetation instantly replaced the smoke and dust of the previous battle.

For a moment, they had not yet fully synchronized with reality. The two instinctively looked around but did not see Matthew. A faint sense of emptiness welled up inside them.

Then gentle footsteps sounded behind them.

They turned their heads together and saw Matthew holding an umbrella. In one hand, he carried a metal tray with three steaming cups of milk coffee on it. He was walking slowly through the fine curtain of rain toward them.

He stopped on the riverside path.

Looking at the two girls with bright eyes, Matthew smiled and said, "Come sit."

Beside him was a bench, and behind it stood a large tree.

Most of the benches in the park were out in the open, though quite a few were sheltered by the thick leaves of large trees, enough to block the light rain.

Skye and Jessica exchanged a glance, then immediately walked over.

Matthew held out the metal tray, and the two girls did not stand on ceremony, each taking a cup of steaming coffee. Once Matthew sat down, they sat as well.

Without any visible movement from Matthew, the metal tray turned into a wisp of light and vanished from his hand.

He held his own cup of milk coffee and took a small sip. The first thing he tasted was the rich aroma of milk, smooth and mellow, like a layer of warm cream wrapping around it. There was none of the burnt bitterness or sourness of black coffee.

The coffee was quite good.

Even Matthew, who had only an average impression of coffee, found it pleasant to drink. It seemed his luck was decent; he had found a coffee cart with good quality.

"It's good." Skye and Jessica both praised after finishing theirs.

"How would you evaluate your performance in this actual combat?"

Matthew sat beside the two girls, but he did not look at them. Instead, he looked at the scenery ahead.

He was not in a hurry to give his own assessment.

Jessica was the first to speak. Clearly, after the fight, she had briefly reviewed it in her mind.

"Barely passing. Personally, I lack experience in close combat, and I lack effective long-range methods. I need to quickly get started with the other physical techniques besides Moonwalk and master them, and I also need to awaken two types of Haki."

"As for cooperating with Skye, we didn't have enough tacit understanding. At the start of the battle, I was a little flustered. It was better later on."

"The same goes for me," Skye blurted out right after. "I lack real combat experience, and my control accuracy over my ability isn't enough. Long-range attacks and destructive power are my advantages, but our coordination was lacking. In close combat, I'm missing the combination between my body and my ability."

Matthew nodded in satisfaction. He did not criticize them. On the contrary, he praised both girls.

"For your first time being brought out for actual combat, this level is already very good. Especially since you know how to review the battle and find your own shortcomings. That means you understand what it means to have respect."

The respect he spoke of was not fear of battle or cowardice. Rather, it was a sign of seriousness and caution.

It meant they would not grow arrogant just because they had gained power and won this battle.

Of course, he believed the two girls could not become arrogant either.

If they showed even the slightest arrogance, putting Matthew aside, the soldiers of the two warbands led by Reacher and Natasha would not go easy on them just because they were young girls.

Because the two girls had been injected with the third-generation serum, their starting growth was higher than the soldiers injected with the first-generation serum.

But potential was potential, and battle was battle. Before they grew enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with Reacher and the others, they were still rookies.

The methods veterans used to beat rookies were called cruel for a reason.

Even if the two girls' future growth surpassed those veterans, as long as they showed even a little arrogance or underestimated the enemy, those battle-hardened soldiers would have ways to defeat them.

Seeing that the two girls' attitudes were still proper, Matthew did not say more on this topic.

Instead, he smiled and asked, "Since we're back in New York, I'll give you a day off so you can rest properly."

"BOSS, what about training?" The two girls were happy for a moment when they heard that, but then they hesitated.

Matthew shook his head. "It's only one day. Once you return to the base, you won't have much time to relax."

It was still the same point: the two girls were very young.

He would take care of their mental state. After all, whether it was Skye or Jessica, neither of them was yet the mature future hero shaped by hardship.

Overly tense and strict training would also wear down their emotions.

So Matthew treated the two of them completely differently from Reacher and the others.

Taking care of the emotions and mental state of one's subordinates was one of the virtues of a good leader.

Sure enough, after hearing Matthew's words, Skye and Jessica immediately cheered. They were so excited that they even pounced onto Matthew and kissed him hard on the face.

But after kissing him, both girls froze, then immediately retreated. They lowered their heads and secretly glanced at Matthew, feeling very uneasy.

To their surprise, Matthew actually covered his face, wearing an expression as if his body had been defiled by two wicked women and they had been terribly daring. He looked extremely mischievous.

The two girls burst into laughter.

Their clear laughter rang out like larks, bringing a trace of joy to the quiet park.

...

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