Just as Chen Ye returned to the restaurant, ready to rest, he received a series of prompts from the system.
"Ding."
"Congratulations, Host! George Stacy's favorability has increased."
"..."
"Congratulations, Host! Police Officer A has successfully added you as a friend."
"Congratulations, Host! Police Officer B has successfully added you as a friend."
"Congratulations, Host! Police Officer C..."
"Congratulations, Host! Hell's Kitchen Resident A has successfully added you as a friend."
"..."
Chen Ye was annoyed by the continuous system notifications: "System, can you turn off these system sounds?"
"Already set to silent mode for the Host," the system replied mechanically.
Chen Ye stared at the series of friend notifications in his mind, completely stunned.
Why were these notifications different from before? Why were others adding him as a friend? Previously, Chen Ye had always actively added friends. Could he also gain friends passively?
So Chen Ye asked, "System, I didn't actively make friends, so why do I suddenly have a bunch of people as friends?"
"Host, the system has never said that you can only actively make friends. As long as the person involved considers you their friend, a friend worth making, they will naturally become your friend. Sometimes, making friends is that simple; even a glance or a gesture can make you friends," the system explained.
"Of course, these passively added friends can only be one-star friends. If the Host wants to increase their favorability, you need to spend more time with them," the system added.
After listening, Chen Ye instantly thought of a myriad of ways to gain friends. If he became a star or a Super Hero and appeared on television, wouldn't a whole bunch of people become his friends?
The system seemed to see through Chen Ye's thoughts. "Only those who have met in person are qualified to become friends. It's like you've seen Trump on TV, but Trump hasn't seen you. You're not qualified to be friends. The reason the Host has so many friends this time is because you did something beneficial for them. The conditions for passive addition are much more difficult than for active addition. Please, Host, stick to actively making friends."
"System, how many friend points do I have now?" Chen Ye wanted to see if this harvest was enough for a ten-pull.
"Currently, there are 227 friend points, which can be exchanged for two family points."
"Exchange?"
"No exchange," Chen Ye quickly refused. This would only allow for two draws. If he got 'Thank You for Your Patronage,' he would lose a lot. It was better to save up for a ten-pull before drawing. Chen Ye never believed in miracles from single pulls; those were all shills!
Chen Ye hadn't expected that his genuine desire to improve the conditions of the Hell's Kitchen Police Department and create a better living environment for the people of Hell's Kitchen would yield such a rich reward. It seemed that not everyone in Hell's Kitchen was heartless.
...
Meanwhile, Natasha, Hawkeye, and Agent Coulson, along with the other Agents, quickly scurried back to the Triskelion. Coulson instructed his subordinates to send the Agents for examination, then took Hawkeye and Natasha to Director Fury's office, in front of Director Fury.
Clearly, Director Fury had been waiting for them for a long time.
"Director Fury, I'm very sorry. This mission was all my fault; I underestimated the strength of Chen Ye and his group," the good-natured Coulson proactively took the blame.
"No, Director Fury, I was too careless. Seeing a blind man, I didn't use my full strength. The main responsibility for this mission's failure is mine, not Coulson's or theirs," Hawkeye, as the mission leader, also quickly stated.
"It was me!"
"It was me!"
Director Fury looked at them, mutually excusing each other, and a look of relief appeared on his face, seeing that their morale was good.
Then he interrupted, "Enough. The main responsibility for this lies with me, not with you. The top priority is to re-investigate Chen Ye and his group. Why does that Kane have superpowers? Is it a problem with our intelligence department? Or did he just awaken this ability?"
Director Fury pointed out the most crucial issue at hand.
"If it's the former, it's fine. But if it's the latter, it proves that Chen Ye's group might be much stronger than we imagined," Natasha's expression became solemn.
Coulson pondered for a long time but couldn't figure it out, so he asked, "Why is the latter a big problem? It's entirely possible to awaken abilities later in life. What does that have to do with Chen Ye and them? As long as we analyze what their superpowers are, we can respond accordingly, and next time it definitely won't be like this."
"According to intelligence, these people have been ordinary people for decades, without any superpowers. They came to Chen Ye's side less than a month ago and turned into Mutants. Isn't that enough to explain the problem? And haven't you noticed that more and more Mutants are appearing around Chen Ye?" Natasha explained.
Director Fury nodded and added, "According to the data, Chen Ye wasn't a Mutant at first, and neither were the siblings beside him. This indicates that either someone behind Chen Ye has mastered a method to unlock superpowers, or Chen Ye himself has mastered it. This means that the number of Mutants in Chen Ye's faction is far more than just them; perhaps even John Wick and others are Mutants."
"When a force controls a group of Mutants, or can create countless Mutants, I don't need to say what that represents, do I?" Director Fury's eyes deepened. This means they have the ability to destroy a country at any time.
If this is true, from another perspective, this Chen Ye is not as simple as the data suggests.
"Of course, all of this is just speculation, so what we need to do now is conduct a comprehensive investigation into Chen Ye, and the forces he might represent."
Coulson, standing by, said worriedly, "But we just promised not to go to Chen Ye's territory, and besides, Hell's Kitchen is extremely exclusive, making it difficult to send Agents in again."
"Keep an eye on them. Before we gather more intelligence, don't act rashly. If it's confirmed to be true, I will seek outside help. There are still many Mutants in this World who are stronger than them."
Director Fury made this decision with almost no hesitation.
"Agent Coulson, I'm giving you a long-term mission: keep a 24-hour watch on them, no matter what methods you use, as long as you don't get close to the restaurant. Try to avoid conflict; everything should be focused on gathering intelligence. We only promised him we wouldn't actively cause him trouble, but we never said we couldn't monitor him!"
"Understood, Officer!" Coulson replied, bowing respectfully as he exited.