[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-marvel-a-lazy-ass-superman":3,"chapter-marvel-a-lazy-ass-superman-marvel-a-lazy-ass-superman-chapter-223":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Marvel: A Lazy-Ass Superman",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1721523,2198,"Chapter 223 223 – The Continental Hotel’s Management Office","marvel-a-lazy-ass-superman-chapter-223",223,"\u003Cp>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For 20 advanced chapters, visit my Patreon:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Patreon - Twilight_scribe1\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Henry's black clinic wasn't just a side hustle — it was one of the Continental Hotel's external listening posts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Reporting patients' movements wasn't part of his official duties, but he certainly didn't mind making a little extra on the side.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, from the Continental's point of view, the only clients who truly deserved confidentiality were those who paid in gold coins.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Everyone else? Fair game to sell out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>People liked to romanticize the Continental and its \"code of honor,\" but Henry knew better.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For organizations like this, loyalty was cheap talk — integrity was something you could price by the pound.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So while he operated inside their system, Henry always kept one foot out the door. Ready to disappear the moment things went south.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Still, appearances mattered. To keep milking the system, he had to make it look like he was deeply embedded — just another cog in the Continental's well-oiled machine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That took acting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Traffic was light outside rush hour, and it didn't take long for Henry to pull into the underground parking lot near the Continental.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He parked, stepped out, and entered through the side door.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unlike the grand lobby above, this entrance had no doormen, no chandeliers. It led directly down to the management level — the real nerve center of the operation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Down here, information was traded, bounties posted, contracts logged. The place buzzed with quiet, purposeful activity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For most of the hotel's \"contracted professionals,\" all it took was one gold coin — and an assistant would personally run the errands, fetch missions, even pull intelligence reports for them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Henry, like most broke rookies and small-timers, handled his own business.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He walked up to one of the counter stations — where a woman in a pale-gray business suit sat waiting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If you ignored the purple spiked hair, the nose ring, the black lipstick, and the tattoo sprawling from her chest up to her cheekbone, she might've passed for a polished Wall Street professional.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unfortunately, the overall look screamed punk who almost went straight but still parties with her ex every weekend.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>> \"Hey, Lena. Still killing it with the unique look today,\" Henry said, smiling as he handed over a folder. \"But this perfume… citrusy. Don't think I've smelled that one before.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She grinned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>> \"Family recipe. My grandma's secret blend — natural scent, keeps the skin healthy too. Don't tell anyone.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lena had Native American blood — and a family full of folk remedies to match. Henry sometimes wondered if there was a line of shamans or witch doctors somewhere in her ancestry.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn't pry. Instead, he flattered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>> \"Figures. Most women's hands are rough and dry, but yours—wow. Smooth as a baby's skin. You must work hard and take care of yourself. That's rare.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As he spoke, he took her hand — gently rolling each finger between his own, testing the softness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lena didn't pull away immediately. She let him enjoy the moment just long enough — then snapped her hand free with a sharp slap.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>> \"That's all you wanted? Just a feel? You already have my number, you know.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>> \"Hey, you've got a boyfriend,\" Henry chuckled. \"Breaking up happy couples isn't my thing. Too many grudges come back to bite you.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>> \"Please. You don't need to do anything to get hated,\" she said, rolling her eyes. \"Now, let's see what you've brought me.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sliding on her narrow-framed glasses, she switched into work mode — fingers clacking rapidly across the keys of an old monochrome terminal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The green-on-black glow of the screen painted her face in a ghostly hue.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Continental had built its database system long before personal computers went mainstream — a relic of the early information age, closer to a bank mainframe than a modern PC.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Operating it wasn't easy. Every command had to be typed manually, every search coded precisely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The front-desk staff, mostly women like Lena, had trained hard to master this dinosaur of a system.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Still, once you knew what you were doing, the thing was powerful.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Instead of flipping through endless paper files alphabetically — a job that could take three days minimum — Lena could type in a name, hit Enter, and instantly pull every related entry on screen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If too many results appeared, she could narrow them down with extra parameters — a second, third, even fourth filter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Officially, she was supposed to verify each new piece of intelligence against the database, assess how much overlapped, and then calculate the bounty value.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In practice? They simplified it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whatever the system displayed after filtering — the number of matching entries — determined the payout.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ten matches per page.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If her search turned up nothing, the intel was considered unique — worth the maximum of $10.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Each additional match lowered the payout by one dollar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the screen overflowed with results, the reward defaulted to the minimum $1.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a clean, transparent system. Easy to explain. Hard to argue with.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, it also left room for creative interpretation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The right keywords, the right filters — they could make the results look however the clerk wanted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Which was precisely why Henry made sure to stay on Lena's good side.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whether anyone else knew or not didn't matter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When she finished typing, Lena scribbled a few red annotations on his report sheets. Then she removed her glasses, smiled, and said:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>> \"Alright, your total payout's twenty-three dollars. You want small bills or large?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>> \"Large's fine. Need to stock up on meds and supplies — coins are a hassle.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Henry's \"no drug sales\" rule at his clinic didn't cover things like antibiotics or basic medical materials.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>> \"Please wait a moment,\" Lena said, all professionalism now.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She rolled his paperwork into a tight cylinder and fed it into the pneumatic tube behind her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fwoosh! — the canister shot upward through the system toward the records department for filing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then she turned to the cash register, counted out the full amount, and set the bills neatly on a silver tray in front of him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>🎉 Power Stone Goal Announcement! 🎉\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I'll release one bonus chapter for every 500 Power Stones we hit!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Let me know what should I do\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Your support means everything—let's crush these goals together! Keep voting, and let the stones pile up! 🚀\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\u003C\u002Fp>",1068,"2026-06-06T15:31:22.542Z",1,"novelbin.me","8f79c8b606496d667e98322306228151e7b6fe45bc2d332ef6c2533e9d2dfa21","marvel-a-lazy-ass-superman-chapter-224","marvel-a-lazy-ass-superman-chapter-222",556,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fmarvel-a-lazy-ass-superman-cover.jpg"]