"But I don't like red," Jimmy chuckled, pulling a black bodysuit out of the bag (you can just picture the one from Spider-Man 3). He quickly changed into it, glanced at his hands and feet, and felt pretty good about it. Nodding with satisfaction, he stored the red Spider-Man suit into his ring, then looked up at the building tens of meters tall in front of him and began to climb its wall.
Jimmy could feel extremely fine hook-like pores on his hands and feet, which he could control at will. As long as he released those pores, he could climb walls.
Very quickly, dressed in the black Spider-Man suit, Jimmy reached the rooftop.
"From now on... I am... Shadow Spider-Man..." Jimmy muttered to himself. He suddenly raised his head and sprinted toward the roof of the next building. With a light jump, he leapt over a rooftop gap a full eight meters wide.
"Yo-hoo!" Jimmy shouted with excitement and kept running. The gap between buildings stretched over ten meters, but for Jimmy, it was a piece of cake. He estimated his current jumping ability at about 14 meters.
As for his strength, he could now punch a deep dent into a steel plate. Uh… and when he passed by a billboard featuring a voluptuous model, he actually landed a punch right on her chest…
Soon, Jimmy arrived at a parking lot somewhere in Brooklyn. He saw that two gangs were already in a shootout. Crouching on the rooftop next to the parking lot, he realized he could now see the bullets' trajectories with incredible clarity!
He used to be able to see them somewhat, but never this clearly. More importantly, Jimmy had a strong feeling in his gut—that he could dodge them effortlessly.
He instinctively scratched his ribs again. That itch on both sides of his ribs was still there. Strange.
Shaking his head, Jimmy leapt down. It was time to test his combat skills.
"Hey, guys!" Jimmy shouted, suddenly appearing behind seven gangsters hiding behind a car.
They all turned around immediately, alarmed.
Wearing a full-face black bodysuit, Jimmy smiled slightly. Of course, they couldn't see it.
"Who the hell are you?" one of them yelled in panic.
"Someone here to take your lives," Jimmy said coldly. He threw a punch that landed squarely on one gangster's head—smash—it hit the wall and burst like a watermelon.
"Ahh, satisfying," Jimmy muttered. Then he stretched out his left arm, wrapping it around a terrified gangster. With just a little force, Jimmy snapped his cervical spine.
"Heh." Jimmy could clearly feel the difference—his strength had increased a lot! Before, it took 80% of his strength to snap someone's neck with his left hand. Now it only took 30%.
"Ah!" The remaining five gangsters finally reacted and started shooting at the black-suited figure.
At that moment, a white, dagger-like object appeared in Jimmy's hand. He began to wave it rapidly, deflecting all the bullets off-course.
Jimmy had pulled out the dragon horn from his ring just in time, swatting away the slow-motion bullets that came flying at him.
Seeing the dumbfounded expressions on the gangsters' faces, Jimmy sneered. He raised the dragon horn and stabbed it directly into one gangster's throat. Then he extended his left hand and landed a punch on another gangster's nose.
Jimmy swiftly yanked out the dragon horn, slicing across the necks of two more men. The one with the broken nose looked on in horror, just before Jimmy's left arm wrapped around his neck and twisted.
As for the last gangster, who had taken the nose hit earlier—Jimmy kicked him down and the dragon horn flipped midair, stabbing right into his heart.
Jimmy pulled out the horn, and instinctively wanted to stick out his tongue to lick it—but the mask was in the way. Realizing this, Jimmy froze.
"Damn!" he cursed. He didn't want to lick blood anyway!
Jimmy leapt up immediately to look for the remaining gangsters.
"Shoot him!" some gangsters shouted, terrified after seeing how brutally Jimmy had dealt with the others.
While still in midair, Jimmy hurled the dagger in his hand, nailing one gangster in the throat. Then, tracking the bullet trajectories clearly, he began dodging in the air.
By the time Jimmy landed, not a single bullet had touched him. He looked up and saw the gangsters frozen in shock. He wasn't about to waste the opportunity.
He stretched out his left hand and wrapped it around one of them, squeezing his neck, while simultaneously delivering a flying kick to another nearby thug.
Jimmy exhaled and pulled the dragon horn from the last man's throat. He walked forward and called out:
"They're all taken care of. You can come out now."
The other gang faction was stunned. One of their leaders shouted, "Who the hell are you!?"
"Someone helping you guys," Jimmy answered casually.
"Drop your weapon!" the gangster leader ordered.
Jimmy tossed the dragon horn to the ground.
Not long after, a group of about 14 gangsters emerged.
"Who the hell are you really? Why would you help us?" the leader asked coldly.
Jimmy suddenly burst into laughter.
"Fine, I'll be honest. I actually came here to kill you too!"
Before they could react, Jimmy's hands were already holding two pistols. Without hesitation, he opened fire on the shocked gangsters.
With his current stats, Jimmy found aiming effortless. Thirty bullets were gone in no time.
He tossed the two M92Fs back into his space ring, extended his left hand to retrieve the dragon horn from the ground, and strode toward the gasping survivors with a cold grin…
Afterward, Jimmy went after another gang that had been an enemy of Corey's. In less than ten minutes, Jimmy finished the job again. Soon, the area was swarming with cops who'd heard about the massacre.
But Jimmy had already returned to his hotel to rest.
As for turf wars, Jimmy didn't care anymore. He'd only killed the gangsters because of his mission. Now that the mission was done, he wasn't about to get involved in a bunch of gang-on-gang dogfights.
Early the next morning, Jimmy woke up from his dreams. He shook his head and realized—after just one night's sleep—his stats had improved even more!
Now, Jimmy's priority was learning how to control his new powers.
He didn't want to accidentally squeeze out all the toothpaste when brushing his teeth… or break the doorknob just trying to open a door.