Chapter 37: Marvel: Awakening the Cosmo at the Start, Chapter 18

Very quickly.

The Black guy, pretending to reach up and adjust his headset, swayed his head while humming a tune to himself as he arrived behind Hawk.

The next second.

The moment his right hand, which had been adjusting the headset, came down, a folding knife instantly appeared, aimed at the shoulder bag Hawk was carrying on his back.

Just at this moment.

Hawk, with his back to the Black guy, suddenly seemed to lose his footing, stumbled, and lurched backward a few steps.

The Black guy, standing behind Hawk and intending to strike, hadn't anticipated this; as he was bumped by Hawk, the handle of the folding knife—which he had just pulled out and hadn't yet positioned properly—caused the blade to flip direction, and with a squelch, it pierced straight through the Black guy's wrist.

"Ah!"

The Black guy let out a miserable scream, his eyes widening as he gasped, staring at the folding knife embedded in his wrist.

Fresh blood dripped from the wound on his wrist, plop, plop, onto the floor of the subway car.

The people around the car were startled by the Black guy's scream, but after seeing the skin color of the man with the pierced wrist, they quickly looked away.

The subway train pulled into the station.

The passengers all around rose in unison and left the car.

No one gasped.

No one cared, and certainly no one went up to ask if the Black guy needed medical assistance or anything of the sort.

Hawk also followed the crowd and walked out of the car.

From start to finish, he didn't even turn his head to look at that Black guy once.

After walking out of the car, Hawk felt one, two, or three resentful gazes fixed on his back from behind, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.

He had been merciful enough.

If this weren't a subway, but some desolate wilderness or an alleyway without security cameras, he could have scattered the ashes of that Black guy who tried to steal from him.

Didn't he see that he was wearing nothing but cheap street-stall clothes, which wouldn't add up to even fifty dollars?

He was already this poor, and the guy still had the nerve to steal?

Was there no justice?

Was there no law?

Was there...

"Gwen?"

Having walked out of the subway station, Hawk, who had been feeling indignant about almost encountering a pickpocket and felt his train of thought was blocked, saw Gwen standing not far away, right below the Oscorp building, seemingly waiting for someone.

Gwen, who was looking around at the entrance, suddenly caught sight of Hawk across the street; her eyes lit up, and she raised her right hand toward him, waving quickly to signal.

Waiting for me?

Hawk was slightly stunned, then took advantage of a gap in the traffic to quickly cross the road.

The Battle of New York was already half a month ago; now, half a month later, one couldn't even see traces of the alien invasion that had once occurred in Manhattan.

This was the charm of money.

The Battle of New York ended in the morning, and the repair work for the damaged buildings in Manhattan, especially on Wall Street, began at noon.

At the time, the outer wall of the Oscorp building had also suffered heavy damage.

But right now, who could tell that during the Battle of New York, the Oscorp building had once been pierced through by the Chitauri?

Hawk looked up at the Oscorp building, which towered into the clouds just like the Stark Tower five blocks away, then withdrew his gaze and looked at Gwen, who seemed to be waiting for him at the entrance.

"Are you waiting for me?"

"Of course."

Unlike her outfit at school, today Gwen had her hair in a big ponytail and was wearing a researcher's standard white lab coat, smiling as she said, "If I'm not here waiting for you, how am I going to find out your secrets?"

Hearing this, Hawk shook his head, momentarily speechless.

"I don't have any secrets."

"No, you do, and I'll find them out."

Gwen said with a straight face, then her serious little face returned to a smile as she said to Hawk, "Alright, I won't tease you anymore. Mrs. Snow called me this morning; she forgot you don't have a phone, and you don't have an Oscorp access card yet, so she was worried you wouldn't even be able to get through the front door of Oscorp. That's why she specifically called me to bring you in to find that..."

Gwen paused here and looked at Hawk: "Right, what was the name of the person you're looking for again?"

"Max Dillon!"

Hawk spoke the name of the future supervillain Electro, currently a super-invisible engineer.

Gwen's expression turned to one of realization.

"Right, him. Let's go, I'll take you to the Bio-Electricity Engineering Department."

"Okay."

Hawk did not refuse.

Gwen then put her hands in her pockets, flicked her ponytail, turned around with flair, and led Hawk to the card-swiping station; after entering, she said a few words to the security guard nearby.

The security guard glanced at Hawk in the direction Gwen was pointing, then nodded and manually opened the gate.

After Hawk came in, Gwen said thank you to the security guard.

Before long.

Gwen led Hawk with practiced ease to the Bio-Electricity Engineering Department on the first floor of the annex building.