Chapter 58 : Full Unlock
While walking back to the hideout, Mark counted the dollars inside the envelope.
By the time he finished, it came out to almost four thousand dollars, which honestly wasn’t a bad return for taking a walk and witnessing the dumbest crime scene he had ever seen.
"What a nice night. I got four thousand dollars for free."
He pocketed the cash with a satisfied expression. The whole thing had been a gamble on his part.
The chances felt fifty-fifty at best, and he hadn’t seriously expected anyone to actually pay him. Apparently, Vought’s desire to make problems disappear was stronger than common sense.
At the same time, Mark knew this incident was probably the beginning of Deep’s downfall.
The dolphin wasn’t some random animal stolen from a local aquarium. It belonged to Oceanland, one of the biggest marine theme parks around, and management was going to raise absolute hell once the story broke.
One of their prized attractions had been kidnapped by a member of the Seven and then immediately turned into roadkill.
There was no public relations spin in existence capable of making that look good.
"I really can’t fucking understand why he finds sea creatures sexy."
Even when he watched the series, Mark never understood Deep’s obsession. The rumors about Aquaman fucking fish were just internet jokes and had never actually been true.
Deep, on the other hand, somehow managed to make those jokes look tame by comparison.
Unfortunately, that train of thought reminded him of a certain scene involving an octopus and Deep.
Mark immediately stopped thinking.
"Nope. Not going there."
Some memories were better left buried.
The Boys universe contained plenty of terrible people, psychopaths, murderers, and corporate monsters, but Deep occupied a unique category all by himself.
As far as Mark was concerned, there was a moral bottom line somewhere in the universe.
The problem was that every time he thought he had found it, somebody in this world showed up with a shovel and started digging.
Kimiko suddenly nudged him from the side.
Mark looked over and found her watching him.
She couldn’t speak, but the question was obvious enough.
Why are you smiling?
Mark shook his head.
"Nothing. I’m just thinking about the future."
Kimiko continued staring at him for a moment before looking away. She wasn’t the type to keep pressing once she realized she wasn’t getting an answer.
Mark, meanwhile, looked at the popularity counter only he could see.
[Popularity Points: 4.7 Million]
The number was honestly ridiculous.
Just a short while ago, he had been worrying about scraping together enough points for another simulation. Now he had enough to comfortably spend a million points without bankrupting himself.
More importantly, he could continue developing Gojo’s abilities.
If everything went well, he could eventually master the entire template and become a genuine powerhouse capable of leveling cities.
The thought alone was enough to improve his mood.
’System, remind me. How much does the Unique Template Gacha cost?’
Rare Gacha had given him the Gojo template and cost five hundred thousand popularity points.
Unique Gacha was an entire tier above that.
Which meant it was going to hurt.
[5,000,000 Popularity Points]
Mark’s expression didn’t change.
’Tch. I fucking expected that.’
Of course it was five million.
Anything less would’ve been too reasonable.
He was close, but not quite there yet.
After thinking about it for a few seconds, Mark decided not to worry about it. Chasing another template right now didn’t make much sense when he hadn’t fully developed the one he already had.
It would be better to spend the night running simulations and unlocking more of Gojo’s abilities.
Beside him, Kimiko glanced at him again.
Over the last few seconds, he had somehow gone from smiling to annoyed and back to satisfied without anything happening.
She didn’t know what he was thinking.
At this point, she wasn’t even sure she wanted to know.
The strange white-haired man was probably having a conversation with himself again.
***
The next morning, Mark stretched his body as he got out of bed.
The simulation had been worth it.
Very worth it.
He had spent the entire night inside the simulation space and finally mastered the Reversed Cursed Technique.
That alone was a massive improvement.
With Reversed Cursed Technique, he could heal injuries and restore himself far more efficiently than before. Combined with Sabretooth’s healing factor, the result was absurd.
Even serious injuries would become increasingly difficult to keep him down with.
More importantly, he had finally gained access to Red.
Blue was the manifestation of convergence, creating an attractive force that pulled everything toward a single point.
Red was the opposite.
By applying Reversed Cursed Technique to Limitless, the attractive force was inverted into a repulsive one.
The result was overwhelming destructive power.
Then there was Hollow Purple.
The most destructive technique in Gojo’s arsenal.
A fusion of Blue and Red.
A collision between attraction and repulsion that created an imaginary mass capable of erasing everything in its path.
Even remembering the feeling of using it inside the simulation made Mark whistle.
That attack was terrifying.
Finally, there was Domain Expansion: Unlimited Void.
The pinnacle of Gojo’s techniques.
A domain that flooded the target with infinite information and left their mind incapable of functioning properly.
Just thinking about it made him appreciate how ridiculous the Six Eyes and Limitless combination truly was.
Just as Mark was finishing his morning routine, his phone suddenly rang. He glanced at the screen and immediately saw Annie’s name.
A small smile appeared on his face as he answered the call.
"Good morning, my dear favorite hero, Starlight."
On the other side of the line, Annie sounded slightly tired.
"Mark, are you free today? Because there’s something really annoying happening with the Seven."
Mark didn’t need long to figure out where this was going.
"Let me guess. They’re asking you to call me, correct?"
"Yeah..." Annie admitted with a sigh. "They’ve been bothering me about it ever since yesterday."
The moment she said that, Mark already understood the situation. Vought had finally decided they wanted a closer look at the mysterious hero who had suddenly become national news.
"Okay."
There was a brief silence.
Then Annie sounded genuinely surprised.
"Wait. You’re coming?"
"Yeah. Otherwise they’re going to keep bothering you until you give in, and I can’t have that."
Mark leaned back in his chair while speaking.
"If you get stressed and stop sleeping properly, you’ll end up with dark circles under your eyes. That isn’t good for you."
For a moment Annie didn’t know whether to laugh or be annoyed.
"That’s your concern?"
"It’s a very serious concern."
Despite herself, Annie smiled.
"The Seven will be waiting for you at Vought Tower."
"Got it."
*****
A/N: Advanced Chapters are available on Patreon.
👉 /Mark841
Currently, 21 advanced Chapters are available