The world famous city that never sleeps, New York—
Right now, it was sunk in darkness.
A roar coming from one corner of the city sounded like thunder ripping through the night sky, sending tremors through the whole place again and again.
But not a single trace of fear could be found in the hearts of New Yorkers. Some of them even felt like laughing.
"You think the Avengers are just sitting around doing nothing?"
"Was that alien army tough or not?"
"Still got wrecked!"
"And you think you, some little nobody, are any different?"
"Go on, hop around all you want."
"As long as even one Avenger shows up, you'll be put out in minutes…"
Yes, they were already used to villains popping up from time to time to stir up trouble.
No one knew why New York had so many lunatics who came out to make a scene at the slightest excuse.
Back in the day, they might have at least pretended to be scared.
But ever since they witnessed the Earth Division's performance in the Interstellar Showdown, their horizons had been raised to another level.
"I'll bet ten bucks… this farce ends within half an hour."
A bearded man with bleary drunk eyes slapped a one dollar bill onto the table, all swagger and bravado.
Even though the bar was dim because of the blackout, nobody panicked.
They kept drinking in the dark and even started placing bets.
"Hey buddy, you sure that's ten bucks you're betting?"
Someone with sharp eyes managed to make out the bill in the faint candlelight in the big guy's hand.
What they did not know was that the Avengers they were counting on as their rock were not even in New York.
Thor had long since taken Loki back to Asgard.
Captain America had followed Nick Fury, Hawkeye, and Black Widow back to headquarters in Washington.
Tony Stark was on vacation overseas with Pepper.
Dr. Bruce Banner had found another suitable hiding spot in Africa and was enjoying a quiet, pastoral life.
Worth mentioning was that Banner's greatest daily pleasure was watching a guy pedal past him at lightning speed on a bicycle loaded with bananas.
That was a kind of effortless grace and thrill he would never have.
So, right now, New York only had Corin.
And he was not even a member of the Avengers.
At best, an external consultant. The hired kind.
"Crunch! Crunch! Gulp! Burp—"
In the dim and silent room, the only sounds were teeth chewing on bones and swallowing.
With lightning flashing now and then outside, it carried a faint hint of horror.
By the time Corin finished his fifth family bucket, bones and all, he could not eat another bite.
Greasy. The hotel did not offer garlic.
He wiped the oil off the corner of his mouth and looked at his hands again.
The soft glow, like a breathing light, still had not faded.
"Is the efficiency really this low?"
He opened the system interface, frowning.
Eating clearly restored energy, but he was almost sick from stuffing himself before he noticed the progress bar had only gone up by one percent.
From 18% to 19%.
"Well, I guess it's not completely useless."
The light on his body was still flickering, which meant eating was not some kind of fast charging.
Thinking about how, in the future, not only would his abilities be limited by energy, but he would also have to spend a huge amount of time every day just eating, Corin felt like the system would not design something this low level.
But the lack of energy was indeed a problem.
He could already picture a future day when he fired his heat vision at an enemy, only to warm them up a little because he was low on power.
Just imagining it was embarrassing.
By then, even heating up coffee might be a problem.
As for freeze breath, forget about icing a Coke. He probably could not even make a bit of frost.
And what about the magnetic field?
He had no idea how much this energy limitation would affect his other talents.
Clearly, eating was not cutting it.
Corin started thinking of something else.
Charging physique. Whether it worked the way he guessed or not, this seemed to be the first time the system had given him something.
Was it worth looking forward to?
"What if… I touch a live wire and see?"
Blackout. Even if he touched one, there would be nothing.
He set that thought aside for now and decided to deal with his greasy hands first.
While washing them, sparks suddenly burst out from the wall socket. The room lights flared violently.
That was the moment Max cranked the voltage to the limit in an instant.
Across the city, buildings lit up in waves.
Plenty of substandard wiring blew all their breakers on the spot.
Click!
Still thinking about the charging physique, Corin's eyes lit up. He immediately seized the chance. Not caring that his hands were still covered in soap bubbles, he shoved his fingers straight into the socket.
Crackle!
A flash of electricity, and the room fell dark again.
"No kidding. Seriously."
Corin was pleasantly surprised to find that he was no longer glowing.
The energy had instantly jumped from 19% to 21%.
But his first thought was, "So the low energy warning kicks in at 20%, huh!"
At the same time, he understood what charging physique meant.
If touching electricity shocked other people, for him it meant charging.
The question was whether there were other ways to charge.
So where was most electricity? A power plant.
Should he go top up? No, no, no.
He was obviously going to help that sunny, cheerful young man.
When a good friend gets into trouble, you cannot just ignore it, right?
Corin's figure flashed and he flew out the window.
The hotel bathrobe flapped wildly in the wind, exposing his pale long legs.
———
[Power Plant]
Max's powerful current visibly traveled along the web Peter had shot.
But the moment the electricity reached his wrist, it vanished into nothing.
"Oh, thank you, my Miss Gwen!"
Max's tens of thousands of volts were completely useless against the simple adjustment Gwen had made to the launcher.
After being slammed to the ground by Peter, Max's body scattered into countless arcs of electricity and merged into nearby electrical equipment.
While moving at high speed, he continued launching fierce attacks.
Peter kept shifting positions midair as Max's lightning form struck again and again.
Just as Max had Peter locked in and was about to deliver the final blow, a car came charging in.
Max did not even have time to turn into electricity before he was sent flying.
Seeing Gwen arrive, Peter did not bring up whether it was dangerous or not.
"Go to the control room and restart the city's power!"
Since Max was basically a giant power bank, then this time, let him charge to his heart's content.
Normally a power bank explodes if it overloads. No reason a mutated human body cannot do the same.
And when Max got back on his feet, he was furious beyond measure.
Shouting, roaring, chasing Peter down, throwing out attacks like they were free, blasting everything in sight.
Peter could only rely on his agility to dodge nonstop while firing webs.
If he absolutely could not dodge, he tried to reduce the damage as much as possible.
Gwen needed time to reach the control room.
"Well, well. Quite lively here."
At that moment, Corin showed up above the power plant, wearing hotel slippers and his bathrobe.
Good thing he had shorts on underneath. Otherwise, from a low angle, he would have needed a holy light to censor him.
"Oh? It's Mr. Corin!"
In the middle of the fight, Peter was already extremely skilled at using his spider sense.
The moment Corin spoke, he noticed him.
But he had something more important to do.
He needed to use his webs to reconnect the damaged cables. That way, once Gwen flipped the switch, all the electricity would converge at one point.
The result would be simple.
Focus fire and blast him.
Corin did not expect to arrive right at the decisive moment.
When Peter's webs linked up all the equipment, Corin's eyes lit up. Was this not the perfect time for him to charge?
Just then, Peter shouted, "Pull the switch!!"
Gwen got the signal and pulled down the master power lever in the control room.
Tens of millions of volts surged through the webs, converging together. With a blazing red glow, they shot violently toward Max ahead.
Spider Man was instantly blown back.
The entire city's power system was restored.
And Max, who had only been connected to the red high voltage for less than a second, suddenly felt a foot slam into his face.
Corin kicked Electro away and took his place within the high voltage's range.
Crackle! Crackle!
Sparks flew everywhere.
30%, 40%, 50%…
The number on the energy bar kept climbing.
Corin felt refreshed from body to soul.
He realized that this charging physique was actually pretty fierce.
"The system really is the best big bro!"
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