"Now that's more like it!"
Hawking's face immediately broke into a wide smile as he opened the safe door.
Stacks of U.S. dollars, chunks of gold, and various jewels, diamonds, and precious ornaments filled the entire safe to the brim.
Indeed, compared to those petty thugs who collected protection money, a boss who knew how to do business was truly wealthy.
"Shrink!"
After a moment's thought, Hawking didn't take out the cash and jewels. Instead, he simply cast a Shrinking Charm, reducing the entire safe to the size of his thumb, then put it into his pocket.
It was a pity that Harry hadn't learned the Undetectable Extension Charm yet, otherwise he could have used it to create something similar to a space pouch.
"Seeing as you've contributed so much money, I won't kill you."
He glanced at the unconscious old man and quietly left the Villa.
Without changing the overall environment of Bronx, killing any number of bosses was useless. Kill one, and another would immediately emerge to take his place, or his territory would be swallowed by another force.
The result would still be the same, and it would easily cause a bigger stir.
Crucially, if there was no darkness to contrast with in this World, where would the light come from? Without criminal incidents, how could he earn Justice Points?
His first outing was a resounding success, so Hawking didn't bother going to the territories of the other bosses. Instead, he headed directly north, preparing to return.
This amount of cash was enough; collecting too much was meaningless because using large amounts would raise questions about its origin, and if he truly needed more, he could always get it with his abilities.
Although he was now trusted by Professor X and had gained management rights over the Daily Bugle, the entire Daily Bugle didn't actually belong to him; it still belonged to Professor X, and the Daily Bugle's profits naturally belonged to Professor X.
It wasn't that Professor X had any reservations about him; it was just that in Professor X's eyes, he wasn't an adult yet, so it was impossible to entrust the entire Daily Bugle to him.
This issue could be resolved in two years when he came of age, or he could also wait until his reputation was fully established and then start the Superheroes International Company sooner.
He had already chosen a name: "Hero Alliance International Company."
By then, various hero merchandise, advertisements, endorsements, and so on—those would be the funds he could use openly and legitimately.
The next day, when Hawking woke up from his afternoon nap, he saw a text message from Peter Parker on his phone.
The message roughly conveyed Peter's agreement to work as a temporary employee for Hawking and expressed a desire to meet again today to discuss the details.
"Excellent, the first member of the Hero Alliance is secured."
Hawking replied with a text message, arranging a time and place to meet Peter Parker, then opened his computer to browse the web.
As expected, because he had repeatedly appeared in public to save people, his popularity had further soared. He also saw the report written by Eddie about the God of War, which was posted online.
This report once again attracted many loyal fans to him, although some people commented that the content written by the Daily Bugle might not necessarily be true.
There were also various speculations about whether his identity was a Mutant, and so on.
Overall, things were developing in the direction he wanted, and while some extremists made extreme remarks to smear him, the good outweighed the bad.
You know, besides money, you can't make everyone like you.
Especially those who already had criminal tendencies or were already committing crimes; they certainly wouldn't like the God of War, this busybody Superhero.
However, one thing surprised him: he found that despite him having announced his name as God of War, people didn't seem to like it, perhaps finding it awkward to say.
So now, the internet uniformly started calling him Armor Man, or Armor Hero.
When he saw this, he couldn't help but inwardly complain that it would have been better to call him Armor Warrior. It seemed that sometimes not everything goes as one wishes.
He thought that he should have just called himself Saiyan Superman, like Gohan; after all, there were Superman comics in this World, and it would be easily understood.
"Armor Hero it is then!"
He got up, took a shower, changed his clothes, and then went to borrow Cyclops's motorcycle again.
At four in the afternoon, at the burger shop on East River Pier Street in Queens.
Hawking looked at Peter Parker, who pushed the door open and entered, and smiled, "Your school gets out quite early?"
"Usually, we can leave after 3:30 PM. If you participate in clubs, it's around 5 or 6 PM. I don't participate in any clubs, so I leave school at 3:30 PM to catch the bus.
My home is in the suburbs, and it takes over an hour by bus."
Peter explained as he sat opposite Hawking.
"Public schools are really relaxed."
Hawking couldn't help but sigh inwardly upon hearing this.
This was senior year of high school; he remembered that in his senior year, he basically worked from six in the morning to eleven at night, but here it was nine in the morning to three in the afternoon.
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure!"
Peter nodded, then asked somewhat sheepishly, "You said last time I could get an advance. Can I get an advance of five thousand?"
"Of course, you can. But may I ask what you plan to do?"
Hawking nodded, a hint of curiosity on his face.
Peter replied somewhat awkwardly, "I want to buy a used car before I graduate so I can drive my classmates around."
"Is that so? A used one won't do then. I'll advance you one hundred thousand. Buy a new one to drive around. After all, it's less than two years of your salary. How can you chase girls driving a used car?"
Hawking immediately laughed and patted Peter's shoulder.
He knew right away that Peter was definitely doing this for Mary Jane; otherwise, he wouldn't be so impulsive as to ask for an advance on his salary.
As for Mary Jane, his impression of her wasn't very good.
In high school, she always hung out with Thompson, who liked to bully Peter, and he guessed she had already lost her virginity.
After graduating high school, she didn't go to college and became a waitress, constantly dreaming of becoming a star. Then she broke up with Thompson and fell in love with Peter's best friend, Harry, who was even richer than Thompson.
When she found out Peter was the famous Spider-Man, she broke up with Harry and fell in love with Peter again.
Because Peter was busy saving people and didn't have time to accompany her, she seemed to have cheated on him with an officer and almost married that officer.
After reconciling with Peter, she once again betrayed Peter and got together with Harry.
Looking at Mary Jane's career, she became a waitress after high school, didn't go to college, didn't study acting, and later became a famous star. If you said she didn't pay some kind of price in between, he certainly wouldn't believe it.
However, this kind of thing is a matter of mutual consent, and there's no way to comment on it. Anyway, he just happened to use this to get Peter on his side first.
So, let alone one hundred thousand, even two or three hundred thousand would be fine. He actually hoped Peter would take more.
"Is this really possible?"
When Peter heard he could get an advance of one hundred thousand, an incredulous expression immediately appeared on his face.
He hadn't even started working yet, and he could get an advance of one hundred thousand. This boss was too good, so good that he almost couldn't believe it.
Even bank loans still charged interest.
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