Chapter 32: Dawn

"This is an extreme event that no one is destined to forget. Hundreds of citizens have been injured or lost their lives because of this gang brawl. Does our Mr. Mayor have nothing to say about this?

This is nothing short of a massive disgrace. It exposes the incompetence of our New York Mayor and the NYPD. It is a structural failure. We have never seen such large-scale gang violence in Midtown West or the Bronx, and regarding this..."

On the television, J. Jonah Jameson of the Daily Bugle was fiercely bombarding the New York administration. The Mayor sat opposite him, smiling awkwardly, using the instinctual skills of a politician to deflect the topic.

Lynn couldn't help but chuckle. He set down his coffee and changed the channel. However, that battle in the night was clearly a major news story. Although the authorities had brushed it off as a massive clash between gang members to cover up the truth about the vampires, the civilians who were injured in the process would not simply vanish, especially given the sheer scale of the incident.

"Same as always, or perhaps even worse."

Although various news outlets were scrambling to report on it, Lynn hadn't seen a single politician step forward to take responsibility. The only program that had managed to interview Commissioner George over the past two days was cut short mid-broadcast.

The program was abruptly terminated and replaced with a soap opera that everyone loved to watch. Clearly, they didn't want the Police Commissioner talking too much, lest he waste the department's precious time and funding.

Lynn shook his head and turned to Jessica.

"Jessica, how is the work coming along on your end?"

Jessica poked her head out from behind a wall, her nose smudged with white latex paint. She held a roller in her hand, looking quite enthusiastic about painting the walls.

"I'm busy!"

"You know, you don't actually have to do the painting yourself, and to be honest, your skills as a painter aren't exactly professional."

Lynn was currently overseeing some workers renovating the shop. He didn't need to do the manual labor himself, yet Jessica was right there beside him, excitedly rolling paint onto the walls alongside the construction workers, appearing genuinely delighted by the task.

"Is this really that fun?"

"Of course it's fun!" Lynn wiped the paint off the tip of her nose, sighed involuntarily, and then added, "Remember to take a break after a while, then go do your daily check-up and physical training."

"Got it."

Lynn was currently at the base of the building he had seized. He had rented out the space to various merchants at low rates. Because the rent was so cheap, it was quickly filling up with shops. Besides, doing business in Midtown East was better than Midtown West; the security here was slightly better, and the gangs were not as rampant.

Furthermore, these merchants had heard that a new hospital was set to open in the building. This was no small feat; every new hospital in New York had to go through incredibly complex procedures with plenty of red tape. Usually, property prices around a hospital would begin to rise.

Many shops were under renovation, not just Lynn's.

Lynn had no interest in rushing the ordinary workers who were earning a hard living, so he decided to head out to the street to clear his head.

However, as soon as he stepped outside, he saw a humanoid object flying ostentatiously through the sky. It was clearly Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man.

"He's certainly been the talk of New York these past two days."

Tony Stark had certainly hogged the spotlight during the night battle triggered by Shathra, though people didn't yet know that Iron Man and Tony Stark were the same person.

It seemed Obadiah hadn't yet made his move against Tony. This timeline was much slower than in Lynn's memory; after all, in his recollections, the complete breakdown between Tony and Obadiah was perhaps only a week away.

He opened his phone and checked the stock price of Stark Industries.

Indeed, while it was trending red, the stock hadn't plummeted as drastically as one might expect. It was in the same boat as Oscorp, though Oscorp was faring slightly better—after all, their situation was merely a whitewashed scandal, not like Tony, who was stubbornly insisting on shutting down his own weapons factories.

Both tech giants seemed to be having a rough time lately.

"Perhaps this process has caused Obadiah more inner conflict. After all, no matter what, he was the foster father who watched Tony grow up. Even if he prioritized the company over Tony, without that cliff-edge collapse, he might not have reached that point.

But it’s coming soon. Even with the Oscorp incident providing a temporary cover, the stock price of Stark Industries still couldn't be saved by Tony's maneuvers."

Lynn closed his phone and watched the street corner where Tony had disappeared, shaking his head with a touch of helplessness. Although he had destroyed the Nosferatu's crypt, Brutus, much like Daken, didn't seem to care about his own business.

There wasn't a single executive running a pharmacy within the entire crypt. According to the information Lynn extracted from the minds of those vampires, the headquarters of Romulus Pharmaceuticals wasn't even in New York—it was in Philadelphia...

Considering the hospital was about to open, Lynn didn't want to go through the trouble of traveling to Philadelphia. He was essentially financially independent now and didn't intend to acquire another mid-sized pharmaceutical company.

After wandering around the building, Lynn hadn't gained any new insights, so he prepared to return to his shop. Just then, an acquaintance tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey, Fried Chicken Boss, long time no see."

"Hmm?"

Lynn knew this voice all too well. His chalk-tossing aim hadn't missed a single time since that first hit. That reckless boy would get hit every time he tried to sleep; after all, a piece of chalk wasn't a lethal weapon, and the current "Spider-Sense" wasn't quite as effective while he was sleeping.

"If it's all the same to you, I'd prefer we didn't meet. My good neighbor, you have no idea how annoying you are in the news."

Lynn turned around. The familiar figure was, naturally, Spider-Man, Peter Parker, who was hanging upside down beside him.

"Hey! You can't just listen to JJJ slander me and think I'm a troublemaker, can you? Although there were some minor losses, overall, I've done a lot of good."

"Oh? Is that so?"

Lynn produced a small notebook from somewhere and flipped through it with an air of seriousness, even though nothing was written on it.

"Your fight with the Glue Man affected a dozen shops, the local residents are furious with you, and it took a cleaning company a week just to make that street passable. And then there was that guy codenamed Shocker—the fight at Midtown High, which is quite close to here; I work there, and the school had to pay to replace all the windows in the teaching building."

Lynn counted off the two debut battles of the young Spider-Man; the aftereffects were clearly severe.

"Uh... those were technical errors. I mean, well, I'm sorry. I also wish I could take them to more suitable places, but sometimes I feel that if I don't act, there will be more serious consequences.

As a vigilante, I'm still in training. Believe me, Uncle Fried Chicken, I feel I have a lot of potential. Becoming a superhero like Captain America is just a matter of time!"

Peter didn't seem to have any intention of arguing; he admitted his mistakes quite naturally. That was just the reality—he was only a high school sophomore, still very green.

On the other hand, he didn't seem to have much realization about what he was actually doing. With Uncle Ben and Aunt May both around, it was understandable—very much in line with the mindset of a boy his age.

But where did "Uncle Fried Chicken" come from...?

Lynn shrugged helplessly.

"Don't tell me that; I didn't suffer any losses, and I'm not a superhero. But good neighbor, you'd better stay away from me. That glue fanatic seems to have broken out of prison two days ago."

"Huh? Uncle Fried Chicken, you're not joking, are you?"

"Don't you read the newspaper?"

"I... I usually prefer to follow social media and TV news. Yeah, that suits me better."

"Then you really should take a look. It was in last week's paper, the Daily Bugle, third page, that tiny police report section—maybe a few centimeters wide, a single line of small text."

"A prison break like that only gets a few centimeters of space?"

Peter clearly didn't understand why such a serious matter hadn't been reported more prominently. He needed to go check the paper, and maybe ask his network of friends to look for that guy’s whereabouts, so he wouldn't go out with his special glue again to cause trouble.

"I can't just let him run around. Thanks, Boss!"

With that, Peter swung away, leaving Lynn to watch his figure disappear around the corner. Well, and the people on the New York streets waving at him and pulling out phones to take pictures.

In terms of popularity, Iron Man, who frequently appeared on various battlefields blowing up tanks, seemed to have less appeal on the streets of New York than this little Spider-Man.

Although he wasn't mature, he was the one who would actually show up to stick those gangsters to a wall when you were being robbed.

Lynn returned to his shop and turned on the television again. By this time, JJJ's program had ended, replaced by a video that had been cycling for days.

On screen, Peter Parker and White Tiger, Ava Ayala, were fighting side by side, attacking the armed vampires during that night battle, protecting several civilians—including children—amidst a hail of bullets.

"He's done this much; no wonder he sounded so upbeat." After watching for a while, Lynn crossed through the partition into the room intended to be the back kitchen.

"Jessica, why are you still here?"

"Ah? Sorry, Lynn, I forgot. I'm going up right now!"

Jessica put down the latex paint, wiped her hands on her apron, and hurried toward the building's elevator.

"Boss, your daughter's efficiency is really something. It's hard to imagine she's just a girl!"

"Yeah, if only my son had that drive. Instead of inheriting my wall-painting business, he bought a spandex suit and wants to be the second Spider-Man of New York..."

Several workers began to praise Jessica’s efficiency with delight. Lynn looked at the wall; it did look quite good.

A natural-born laborer, though this inexplicably appearing talent seemed a bit out of place. Lynn smiled as he looked at the wall and said to the workers, "Let's revise the blueprints we discussed earlier. Keep these white walls and let's discuss the details."

—

While Lynn was using renovation to relax, Connors was looking at his own face in the mirror. It had changed completely; there wasn't a trace of his past self left.

It was hard to imagine what kind of technology this was. No scalpel, no cutters, no post-operative recovery needed. In just two days, Connors had a completely new face.

"Daddy, is this a face-changing magic trick?"

"It's magic, Nancy."

Connors pinched his daughter’s cheek, using that completely different face to nudge Nancy's nose. The little girl laughed and pushed his hand away, then pinched his face in return.

"But why do you have to do this trick suddenly, Daddy? And your nose feels just like the real thing, it's so weird. Can't you change it back?"

"I'll try."

Afterward, Connors covered his face, counted one, two, three, and opened his hands.

"Wow~ How's that, Nancy? Did Daddy change back?"

"No."

Nancy pinched Connors' cheek, her eyes wide, and asked with some confusion, "What do we do? Daddy, can you not change back?"

As she spoke, she looked a bit sad.

Connors did his best to comfort his daughter. Nancy wasn't very old and had been living in the hospital due to her illness.

There was no need to explain complicated things to her. Connors spent the time with Nancy until a knock at the door sounded, and Maria pushed it open.

"Goldman, it's time for her medicine."

As she spoke, several female vampires walked in behind Maria. This was one of Lynn's gains—precious human resources harvested from the Nosferatu. After Lynn’s modifications and Kalla’s parasitism, these vampires had completely shed their extraneous thoughts, becoming Lynn’s most loyal employees.

"The hospital opens tomorrow, right, Ms. Maria?"

"Chairman Kalla has made all the preparations. Tomorrow, the Doctor will perform the surgery on Nancy with you. However, he will only help you this once. After that, you will have to perform the surgeries on your daughter yourself."

"I understand..."

Connors hadn't fully mastered the fundamental theories Lynn had given him in such a short time, so Lynn would assist him for the first one. After that, Connors would have to complete his daughter's surgeries on his own.

—

By the time Lynn sent off the construction workers, the neon lights of New York had flickered to life. Under the night sky, he saw another acquaintance.

"I thought you'd forgotten about our deal."

"The box is here. And thanks for the arrangements; my friends and I got our revenge."

Blade threw the box to Lynn and disappeared into the night without looking back.

"He said 'thank you'? That's rare."

Without opening the box, Lynn could feel the special metal inside—a small piece of Vibranium, an unexpected bonus Blade had given him.