Night settled over the city.
Skye had been away from home for several days, enduring hunger, thirst, and cold, yet she hadn't fallen ill. This truly showed the excellent foundation of her Inhuman genes, but she also desperately needed rest. So, as soon as she touched the warm, soft bed, she fell asleep instantly.
Bucky, on the other hand, went to the rooftop of his apartment building.
Braving the cold wind, he looked at a single eye.
That's right, it was none other than the future King of Agents, Mr. Nick Fury.
"This file was entrusted to me by Mr. Stark for you. Burn it after reading."
It wasn't that Nick Fury was willing to stoop to running errands; after all, he was a Level 7 Agent, an elite force of S.H.I.E.L.D.
But precisely because he was a Level 7 Agent and "Pierce's man," with a sufficient security clearance, Howard sent him to run this errand.
Because the document Nick Fury handed to Bucky was filled with black bars obscuring the text, with not a single complete sentence. The entire paper only read "Top Secret," "Do Not View," and "Guess for Yourself."
There was no need to burn it after reading; it could be pasted on a utility pole without issue.
It seemed that another high-ranking official responsible for this incident back then considered the matter of Skye's background too important, so even S.H.I.E.L.D.'s top-secret archives only recorded it in this manner.
This allowed Howard to further mislead Alexander Pierce.
Of course, Bucky, who had no such thoughts to begin with, was completely unaware of this.
He merely breathed a sigh of relief. Howard and Nick Fury would surely keep it a secret, and for now, no one would notice Skye's unique nature directly; they would only notice her indirectly because of him.
After seeing the future King of Agents truly disappear into the night, Bucky did not go home.
The night was long, and he had no desire to sleep, so he might as well do something.
Brooklyn, 99th Precinct.
"The police station's operating model is still too backward…"
Bucky modified cameras along the way, avoiding the police's sight, and subtly blended into the police station. He found the archives room, but was greatly disappointed.
In this era, the 586 (Pentium 1) hadn't even been released yet. Most computers were 386s or 486s, and some remote areas were even still using typewriters.
A police station didn't even have two or three computers. The hard drive capacity of a few hundred MB was simply outrageous, and it couldn't store much. The vast majority of data was kept on paper.
It was the same here; the database was just boxes and boxes of paper files in the archives room.
This completely dashed Bucky's idea of connecting to the police's criminal database. Scanning these papers one by one would take forever.
However, even though the path to finding criminal records was unfeasible, he could still monitor police radios to listen for real-time crime information if he wanted to combat crime and gain experience and complete tasks.
[System: Craft and implant Military-Grade Tech Earpiece Monitor I.]
[System Information: Consumes 30 common item components, 25 fine item components, 15 fine Quick Hack components, 5 rare Quick Hack components to craft Military-Grade Tech Earpiece Monitor I;
Earpiece Monitor I: Enhances hearing, can receive various long and shortwave electromagnetic signals, built-in decoder automatically decodes and converts to audio, customizable reception frequency band;
Enhances balance, strong noise resistance.]
[Implanting into both ears…]
A strange sensation in his ears, as if they were slowly disappearing, yet also slowly changing. His ears felt like they weren't his own, yet they still were…
Once implanted, Bucky instantly felt as if Superman had just awakened his super hearing, though not as exaggerated. His hearing was filled with countless chaotic, yet very clear sounds.
After a brief period of adjustment, the cybernetic implant also connected to the Network Access Pod, and thus to Bucky's brain, automatically adjusting to a level Bucky could adapt to.
"Next, I need to find a police radio."
Bucky found the parking lot, turned off the cameras, pried open a patrol police car, and hacked into its police radio…
"Alarm received on 5th Avenue, shooting incident…"
"Shooting incident on 6th Street, police support needed…"
"Robbery at Pearson Bank, all available police units in the vicinity ordered to assist…"
Back in his car, the crime reports from the police radio constantly echoed in his ears, forming a sharp contrast with the calm surroundings. This made Bucky nod repeatedly.
This was the joyful U.S., with gunfights every day.
Bucky also scanned detailed maps of various New York streets from the police station, and his cybernetic eye automatically identified the surrounding terrain, matching it with the map.
The map in his vision could now be displayed normally, and it could also automatically navigate to a location based on his own position.
"Well then, happy hour begins."
Bucky grinned silently, stomped on the gas, and the car sped away.
…
"Good morning~, this is~ Johnny, time to wake up, little sleepyhead."
"Ugh… Ah! I'm getting up now!"
In the early morning, Bucky knocked on Skye's bedroom door, but heard a terrified scream from inside, as if Bucky had knocked with an axe instead of his fingers.
It was easy to imagine how she used to be woken up if she overslept.
Bucky didn't open the door or go in to console her. Sometimes, you don't need to remind others that you're fine; that would only remind her how troubled she used to be.
It was better to give her a little space to discover and get used to things herself.
Bucky simply walked away, went to the kitchen, and prepared bacon and eggs.
Humming a tune, he was indeed in a good mood.
Unlike yesterday during the day, when he only dealt with two robbers, last night, with the help of the police radio, Bucky completed… three tasks.
Alright, Bucky was quite excited at first, looking for gunfights, bank robberies, and drug dealers. He rushed to three scenes in a row, but they were all crimes committed by groups of seven, eight, or even a dozen people.
Bucky, a rookie hacker with only one skill and a 15-second cooldown, would always deal with two or three people at a time, which would inevitably lead to the other party discovering the problem. Either the police would take advantage of the situation and attack, or the criminals would scatter. During this, some police officers were also shot.
And Bucky didn't want to take out his anti-material sniper rifle and turn the crime scene into an anti-human massacre.
He had to hastily finish up.
Knowing he couldn't rush, Bucky changed his strategy and looked for crimes involving one or two robbers that could be easily subdued.
Although he only completed three tasks afterward, combined with the previous kills, he also gained over 600 experience points, proficiency, and three common boxes.
Although the gains weren't much, Bucky was only Level 2, and the experience needed for the first few levels wasn't much. Two or three more times like this, and he could level up again.
"How about I take you out to play today? Is there anywhere you want to go?"
Skye was old enough for school, but the extra schooling subsidies had naturally been embezzled by her foster family. They forged a school certificate for Skye and then kept her at home.
However, all of this would be handled by the child protection agency personnel sent by S.H.I.E.L.D. Bucky just had to wait for the results.
For now, he just needed to take good care of the little kid's life.
Bucky thought he needed to find a babysitter for the little kid.
But there was no rush. He was in a good mood today, so he would take her out for a stroll first.
ADVANCE CHAPTER AVAILABLE IN PATREON
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