Next bonus is at 5k stones.
Get cra-Kuhum!
Get to it.
...
"John Doe, the writer of Fight Club. Has he truly sparked a change with his work? Is this spark positive or negative? Let’s take a look into that."
The pretty news reporter had a very sharp tone when talking about the rising number of middle-aged men who had joined the gym and martial arts classes. The prime example being Norman Osborn, who had started investing in an MMA gym near his estate in Manhattan.
But she seemed to stress more about the increase in workplace violence in recent days. And much more than that, she had spent the better half of the program just covering the attack on Centurion Club last night.
And there were some interviews conducted with the victims who were present.
"They messed with the food... I’m not sure how to say it. But beyond that, they were caught before anything could happen."
Even Susan Storm made an appearance on TV, looking a bit too pretty in the hospital gown. Still, John’s mind stayed with the statement New York’s mayor and other senators were giving out. They were really trying to link John Doe to the Fight Club and their erratic behaviour in New York.
It was quite the stretch, but John didn’t really care that much.
The reason?
’It’s over 5000!’ The news run had gotten him a large influx of readers overnight. In a little while he’d be able to actually make the reference proudly.
Still, as gladdening as that was, John wondered what Fury wanted with John Doe, and now these damned politicians too. There was no way it had something to do with the Fight Club the news was yammering about.
There had to be a deeper reason that he didn’t know about. Something beyond his scope of vision.
As the news segment moved on to the ruckus zoo animals were causing since last night in the US, and the sudden global summit by the world’s leading powers which would be held in a month, he turned the TV off.
For the first time, John started to scroll through the EP notification list. He had only been looking at the large ones this entire time. Because the notifications that came with 50, 100, or 1000 EP were pinned to the top.
So, unless someone constantly sent him 1EP the way Rogue still did now and then, it was almost impossible to catch every name that flashed by the notification window.
And it was hard to get back to work once he started to enjoy the reactions of the readers.
But now he had an actual reason. So, after digging through the backlog on his way to ESU, John had found a few notifications he had missed in the sea of additions since the website had gone live.
From names he had missed like Kitty Pryde, Scott Summers, Raven, Irene Alder, and Ben Grimm, to the latest additions of Susan Storm, Phil Coulson, Thor, Maria Hill, and more.
But the ones that got his attention were the latest ones.
[Anthony Masters doesn’t want to get involved with you again. +100 EP]
[Frank Simpson doesn’t see you as a human. +50 EP]
[M.O.D.O.C wants your body. +1EP]
[M.O.D.O.C is obsessed with you. +1EP]
[M.O.D.O.C wants your body. +1EP]
[M.O.D.O.C is obsessed with you. +1EP]
[M.O.D.O.C is planning his next move. +1EP]
[M.O.D.O.C wants your body. +1EP]
[M.O.D.O.C is obsessed with you. +1EP]
[M.O.D.O.C wants your body. +1EP]
[M.O.D.O.C is obsessed with you. +1EP]
’Fuck me sideways.’ John sucked in a sharp breath at the wall of notifications that surpassed Rogue and were continuing every hour or so.
Now that AIM’s next scientist supreme had his eyes on him, with Super Adaptoid fragments already in the picture, it was about time these guys started coming after him with everything they had. The only saving grace was that MODOC still didn’t have control of AIM.
If his memory served him right, MODOC wanted a perfect body to match his intelligence. And John just happened to enter his radar.
Still, John wasn’t worried about one or two Adaptoid fragments for now. Even then, he knew better to take AIM lightly. These no-booty getting science nuts were probably dreaming about how to dissect him right about now.
The best course of action right now was to get stronger and build connections. With Natasha orbiting him twice as hard, he had a clean link with SHIELD and Fury’s proper attention. He had to use all of that to prepare himself.
Although John didn’t want to rope in Gwen, she would most likely jump into the fray willingly. It would be way better to not let it get to that point.
But before growing further, he needed to understand the limits of what he already had. With Hanma Bloodline fully awakened, his body was practically a weapon.
His punches packed quite the sting, and so far, he hadn’t faced anyone who could push him back in pure strength. Still, there was no guarantee it would always be like that.
The good thing was that he didn’t need to go out and seek fights to grow stronger. Natasha had shown him the scans of his brain, and there were signs of Demon brain in there.
’Baki really wasn’t pushing bullshit.’ John already could mentally replay his fights and refine his skills as far back as the bank fight with Ajaz or whatever.
With more mental and visualization training, he could reach Baki’s level of shadow boxing. He already had Anothy Masters as a starting opponent, and then he could try others, like that praying mantis or Yujiro himself?
Still, training alone could get a bit stale. He only had CQC for now. As much power as he had, it was still a human-level martial art. And buying other human-level martial arts felt like a waste at the moment since he could learn them by watching the pros.
And the shop did have some great options he could use to further increase his striking strength.
Gun-Kata, Ecky Thump, Niko Style, Chinese Kempo, Renewal Taekwondo, Water stream rock smashing Fist, and Bajiquan.
The problem was that the later ones cost a pretty penny. So, he was a bit hesitant to invest in them already. For now, he wanted to get a hold of his limits and see what was missing from his fighting style.
That way he could choose the perfect martial art that could reinforce his weaknesses and make his strengths shine more.
’Should I go run some hands with each martial arts school like a good old kung fu movie?’ John walked out of the lectures with a rather sharp smile.
Gwen had left early to meet Fury. Natasha had also followed her. So, John was pretty free to look around the existing martial arts gyms around New York.
However, the moment he reached the main gate, he noticed someone familiar waiting for him.
Colleen Wing was leaning against the wall, her arm in a sling.
"I knew it was better to wait for you here." The red-haired, blue-eyed woman really pulled off the cream-coloured tracksuit like no one else.
With the hint of disinfectant on her, she seemed to have come straight from the hospital.
"What if I decided to rest today?" John stopped before her.
"I would’ve come back tomorrow, and the day after if I had to." She shrugged. "Not like you left me with a number."
"Could’ve gotten it from Susan." He said as they started walking.
"Not my style." She gave him her phone with a wink. "Plus, I can’t exactly practice with my hand like this, so coming here was a good excuse to get my steps in."
"What’s the projected recovery time?" John entered his number and gave the phone back.
"Two weeks if I push myself, but I wanna do it in 10 days this time." She pocketed her phone and took out a brown envelope from inside her jacket’s pocket. "This is your half for saving my butt last night. 70% of what Osborn paid me for the gig."
"You don’t really have to do that." It wasn’t that John didn’t like money; it’s just that if he took this money, it would probably open the door for Harry to think money could get him, John as his bodyguard.
The blood in his body didn’t want to be categorized in the ’Muscle for hire’ box. And it matched John’s value as well. But Colleen had a different reason for doing this.
"Take it, I insist." It was a matter of principle and pride for her. And it didn’t look like she would tell Harry she shared money with him.
"Since you insist, I’ll take it." John opened the envelope and saw the check for $100k in there.
"You are a real handful, you know?" Colleen smirked.
"Only sometimes." His eyes narrowed a little when he noticed another piece of paper inside with a key.
47 Monroe Street, Chinatown, Manhattan.
"That’s the place I am at most of the time; drop by when you want," Colleen said coolly. This looked like the main reason for her visit.
"I get that, but why the key?" John blinked.
She had this bold side to her, but he didn’t expect her to be this bold.
"That’s a key to the dojo." She chuckled, getting the exact reaction she had expected. "You’ll need to do a lot more to get the key to my room."
"See you around." With a last smile, Colleen Wing left as suddenly as she had arrived.
’Isn’t she the handful one?’ John pocketed the key and check for now and headed for home.
Sure, he had a lot to train with, but sharing the stories still came first.
Even more so when he saw the latest notification from Rogue.
[Rogue feels like she is ready to take the next step because of your encouragement. +100EP]
Now, if someone asked him what he did to make this possible, he wouldn’t be able to answer it even if his life depended on it. Still, it wasn’t that important to mull over since the direction looked positive to say the least.
It was quite the opposite compared to the notifications from a certain Norse god.
[Loki is trying to find out where you live. +1EP]
[Loki is trying to find out where you live. +1EP]
[Loki is trying to find out where you live. +1EP]
[Loki is trying to find out where you live. +1EP]
[Loki is trying to find out where you live. +1EP]
’The dangers I put myself in for these readers, all so I can give them peak fiction. They would never know what I go through.’ John’s face had this look of a tragic heroine about to sacrifice herself.
Still, the positive changes were the reason he felt eager to share more of his favourite works with this world.
And one of these positive changes came in front of his eyes in the form of another notification. This one was also from a Norse God, well, according to the timeframe, a former Norse God.
[Thor is wondering what it is like to see with eyes unclouded. +100EP]
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