Chapter 249: Hell's Kitchen's Own Spirit Bomb!
Of course, Ethan also spotted a handful of Bonds that were obviously never going to happen for him — along with plenty he didn't even recognize.
[ HYDRA ][ Council of Kangs ][ The Hand ][ Wakanda ][ Marvel Boy Team ]
...and so on. Bonds like these belonged to factions actively hostile to him, so Ethan figured there was basically zero chance he'd ever get to activate any of them.
Then there were ones like:
[ The Five Cosmic Entities: Galactus, Eternity, Infinity, Death, and Oblivion. ]
[ The One Above All: OAA. ]
[ The Cosmic Tribunal: The Living Tribunal. ]
Ethan didn't think there was any realistic version of himself ever completing these. Never mind whether he'd even lay eyes on any of them — beings like this had long since shed things like friendship or love. What were the odds they'd ever bother befriending someone like him?
He wasn't exactly Red-Haired Shanks, after all. It wasn't like he could just walk up, flash a grin, and say "Do me a favor, be my friend," and have cosmic gods casually agree to it.
These were, without exaggeration, some of the single most powerful beings in all of Marvel. Ethan figured that with his current strength, even assuming he somehow crossed paths with one of them, he'd probably get slapped into oblivion before he even finished his sentence.
So no — these Bonds were off the table entirely, as far as he was concerned. If he genuinely managed to befriend beings on this level, he'd basically have free rein over the entire Marvel multiverse. At that point, what would he even need Bonds for?
There were also a few Bonds Ethan had never heard of at all — presumably teams pulled from some corner of Marvel comics he'd never actually read.
[ The Round Table Four: Venom, Red Hulk, X-23, Ghost Rider ]
[ The Squadron Supreme: Hyperion, Power Princess, Doctor Spectrum, Whizzer, Nighthawk... ]
[ The Intelligentsia: The Leader, M.O.D.O.K., Doctor Doom, The Wizard... ]
Ethan drew a complete blank on most of these. A couple of the names rang a faint bell — Venom obviously needed no introduction, and Red Hulk was presumably General Ross's transformed alter ego, the good doctor's own father-in-law, but the rest genuinely meant nothing to him.
What really annoyed him was that the System didn't provide any real detail on these — just the bare team name, nothing else. It seemed like the full description only unlocked once he actually activated the Bond.
Ethan figured this was the System's way of stopping him from just cherry-picking targets and going straight out to befriend them for the rewards.
System, he grumbled internally, do you seriously think that little of me? You think I'd just go out and make friends purely for the payout?
Ethan genuinely disliked forcing friendships. These days he was much more of a let-it-happen-naturally kind of person — he wasn't about to compromise his own standards just to chase a System reward.
Some people, he knew, were simply never going to be friends. Different paths, different destinations — no point forcing it.
Family, after all, meant a lifelong commitment. There wasn't room to be careless about it.
And it wasn't a one-way street, either — while Ethan was out there choosing who to trust, those same people were watching and judging him right back. Friendship was always a two-way choice.
Once he'd finished scrolling through every Bond available, he realized something: he wasn't actually short a Bond of his own.
He had one. Exactly one.
[ Hell's Kitchen (Cannot Be Upgraded): Ethan Cross, Wanda Maximoff, Professor X, Iron Man... [and every resident of Hell's Kitchen] ]
[ Bond Effect: Every member of the Hell's Kitchen faction gains +10% learning capacity, +10% physical stats, -30% sense of justice, -100% savior complex, +100% loyalty to their own, +50% resilience, +30% survival adaptability, +50% aptitude for learning criminal enterprise, -50% chance of infighting within Hell's Kitchen, and every member has a 10% chance of surviving what would otherwise be an instantly lethal wound. ]
[ Exclusive Skill (Spirit Bomb): "Everyone in Hell's Kitchen — raise your hands, and lend me your strength!" The Host may draw on the combined power of every member of the Hell's Kitchen faction to unleash a single devastating strike. Afterward, the Host enters a seven-day weakened state, during which only 10% of the Host's normal combat power is accessible. ]
[ Note: You now carry the hopes of all of Hell's Kitchen on your shoulders. Wherever you stand, Hell's Kitchen stands. You ARE Hell's Kitchen! Make its name echo across the universe! ]
Ethan stared at the sheer scale of this Bond's effects. Sure, it was only one Bond, and sure, it couldn't be upgraded any further — but who cared, when the buffs it packed were already this stacked?
He was thoroughly satisfied with it. Every single stat bump sat at a minimum of 10%, with some going as high as 100%. And as for the debuffs to "sense of justice" and "savior complex" — Ethan couldn't have cared less.
This was Hell's Kitchen, after all. There weren't exactly a lot of good Samaritans running around down here, and frankly, Ethan didn't want anyone in Hell's Kitchen developing a savior complex in the first place — if there was one personality type he genuinely couldn't stand, it was the self-sacrificing martyr type.
He'd always been a little worried that if some do-gooder with a savior complex ever popped up in Hell's Kitchen, they'd end up dragging the whole neighborhood down with them trying to "save" it the wrong way. With this Bond active, Ethan figured the odds of a stray superhero-type popping up in Hell's Kitchen had basically dropped to zero.
That said, the "+50% aptitude for learning criminal enterprise" line made him go a little pale. System, are you seriously trying to push Hell's Kitchen straight back down the road of organized crime?
Not happening. Ethan wasn't about to let Hell's Kitchen slide back into what it used to be — not after everything it had taken to drag this place even this far out of the gutter.
Honestly, looking over the full buff list, Ethan had to admit — this really did feel exactly like Hell's Kitchen. Survival adaptability, resilience, not dying instantly from lethal wounds — every single one of these buffs might as well have had the neighborhood's name stamped on it.
And then there was the Spirit Bomb. Ethan had strong suspicions the System had lifted this one straight out of Dragon Ball.
Because let's be honest — this was clearly the discount version. The original technique pulled energy from an entire universe's worth of living beings. His version? Just the population of Hell's Kitchen. How much punch could that possibly have?
Still, he wasn't complaining. It was one more trump card in his back pocket.
If the System could talk, it probably would've been shouting in protest right about now — it had clearly written "all of Hell's Kitchen," and it meant all of it.
All of it!
Of course, Ethan had no way of knowing that.
Right now, he was rereading the closing note one more time. Once he finished, he let out a quiet laugh, then closed the System interface and turned to head downstairs to the first floor.
"I am Hell's Kitchen. System — is this your way of telling me I've finally settled into this world?"
. . .
Just as Ethan made his way down toward the restaurant's ground floor —
A black Dodge and an Aston Martin rolled to a smooth, stylish stop right outside the Lucky Dragon's front doors.
The Dodge's door swung open first. A bald, heavily built man in a white tank top stepped out, his bare arms thick with muscle, radiating an unmistakable air of dominance.
At almost the same moment, the Aston Martin's door eased open too, and an Asian man stepped out at an unhurried pace.
He was dressed casually, a bag of chips in hand, looking completely at ease. His eyes lingered on the restaurant's sign for a moment before he let out a wistful sigh.
"Finally back," he said. "This place hasn't changed one bit."
The bald, muscular man walked up beside him and asked, in his signature low, gravelly rasp, "This the place you said could hook us up with any gear we need? Han?"
☆☆☆
-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Inkshaper
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you