MARVEL: CARD EXTRACTION SYSTEM

The Side Quest the system had presented me with came to mind as I watched the three men approach me. They seemed irritated by my attempt to ignore them.

[Objective: Deal with the three thieves...]

The quest may seem simple, but the word 'deal' meant that the choice of method I would use to deal with them was in my hands. I could accomplish this quest in several different ways, and the easiest of those ways, violence, was not my first option because we were in public.

"Lose something, boy?" one of the men asked, but his body language told me he wasn't expecting a fight. This intimidation seemed more like a plan B in case the theft didn't work.

"Not really. I was just passing through." You know who we were. But let's do this the easy way, okay? Make it easy and hand over all the money you got there."

He held out his hand, expecting me to obey without question.

"Look, I don't want any trouble. I'm from the neighborhood. I live in the Valley Building. So if I were you, I'd reconsider."

"Reconsider? Boy..."

"You know, New York is a dangerous city, and I'm not just talking about the heroes patrolling the streets. If you think you can just rob anyone and get away with it, you might not know this city as well as you think, and you're going to find out that there are some pretty bad people who don't like it. Thefts and robberies lead to reports and calls to the police, which can screw the guys around here."

"Are you threatening me, kid?" an older man asked, and the other two took two steps back.

"I'm trying to warn you. You know, we're all neighborhood pals."

For a moment, I saw the old man become conflicted. He scratched the back of his head, clicked his tongue, and turned to walk away. "Leave him alone, boys... Kid, you're lucky I'm in a good mood today. Get out of here soon."

The three men walked slowly away, back to the trash can on the sidewalk.

I breathed a sigh of relief and said to myself on my way back:

"I bluffed, and it worked. What a stroke of luck."

[Congratulations! You've completed the Side Quest "Neighborhood Defects"!]

[200 Card Points have been added to your account.]

It was only a small victory, but any extra points were welcome. With this quest, I recouped my risky investment in the roulette.

As I walked around the area, I realized that crime was more prevalent and brazen on this Earth than in most of the Marvel worlds I'd seen in the comics. It was strange because Gwen, the Spider-Woman of this universe, had the same powers, the same code of conduct as Peter Parker, and worked just as hard to protect the city. It didn't make sense to have more crime than in the universes where he was Spider-Man.

As I thought about this, I remembered something important. In the comics that tell Gwen Stacy's origin story as Spider-Woman on this Earth, Peter Parker became the Lizard, and after he died, Spider-Woman was falsely accused of killing him, making her a wanted person by the police.

These events took place on Earth-65, so it made sense that many criminals would take advantage of the situation. They didn't see Gwen as a hero, but as a criminal just like them, so maybe they didn't fear her too much.

When I realized that this city was sinking into crime because the figure who was supposed to protect the citizens was considered a public enemy by the police, I felt that I had to help her in some way. Maybe that way I could gain her recognition and become worthy of her telling me who she was on her own.

And the first opportunity for me to make a difference came when I was in a more isolated part of the area, with few pedestrians and even fewer cars.

After hearing truck noises coming from the middle of a block, I entered a dark alley and spotted a group of men loading several crates into a moving truck, an action that was suspicious to say the least, given what appeared to be an abandoned shed.

"Let's go faster, boys! Mr. Murdock isn't very patient, so we'd better speed things up. I don't want anything to go wrong," said the man coordinating the shipment. He had his hand in a gun holster the whole time.

The name "Murdock" caught my attention. I knew that, in most universes, the only person with that name was Matt Murdock, the Daredevil.

'If I remember correctly, Murdock is a villain in this world. Do these men work for him?' I wondered.

There were more than ten men loading the big truck. I wanted to test my Sharingan, but I wasn't stupid enough to try to fight them. Even with the Sharingan, which allowed me to predict the trajectory of the movements of everything around me, I still didn't have enough speed or strength to act against so many opponents at once.

Suddenly, the armed man frowned and sniffed the air. He had a strange nose, flatter than most people would consider normal. Then he gestured for the others to stop.

"Wait a minute. There's something strange here. I smell something."

My heart almost stopped. Had he noticed my presence? I was hiding in a relatively safe position, but considering there were mutants and people with superpowers around every corner, I couldn't really say I was safe.

"Good sense of smell." A female voice replied ironically, "I even took a shower to come here."

I was surprised to hear the voice, as it had only been a short time since I had heard it in a less muffled form. I turned in the direction of the sound and saw Gwen, dressed as Spiderwoman, perched on her tiptoes on the edge of a building next to the shed.

Her heroine's uniform was mostly white, with black detailing on the sides and arms, down to her gloves. Her mask had two large white eyes and was covered by a white hood.

The men froze for a second when they saw Spider-Woman, and I was relieved because it meant they hadn't spotted me, but Gwen.

The leader immediately pointed the gun in her direction. "Don't tell me the most wanted criminal in the city came to us. The police will love it when we tell them we caught you. Maybe they'll even turn a blind eye to us this time." He said.

"You know, before I point a gun at someone, I'd make sure it's safety." She stood up.

Then the leader looked at the top of his gun for a moment and remembered that this gun didn't have a lock.

"Your piece of...!"

Without giving the criminal any time, Gwen launched webs that covered the man's mouth and the exit from the barrel of his gun.

"Come on, we're enemies now, but at least use the training your mother gave you." She said.

Then she threw a web to the ground and she pulled up, throwing herself into the middle of all these criminals without fear.