Chapter 7: Real Killer

“Alright Kevin, you're free to go.”

“Did you find the killer?”

Kevin asked upon being released.

Jake nodded.

“Yeah. Turns out, it really was your brother Aaron. I was right!”

“That bastard!”

Kevin gritted his teeth in anger as he cursed.

Benjamin sighed while shaking his head.

“Sadly, we’re still not able to find the murder weapon. Any ideas where he might’ve hidden it?”

Kevin shook his head.

“No. I don’t know where that knife could be now. Maybe he threw it in a garbage dump or something.”

“I see...but...how did you know that Anna was stabbed?”

“...Sorry?”

Kevin froze.

Benjamin explained.

“Earlier today. You said you loved her and why would you stab her? We didn’t say that Anna was stabbed.”

“T-that...didn’t you say it? I thought you did? Maybe I just misspoke…”

“Just now too. We didn’t say anything about a knife. In fact, even Aaron didn’t know that she was stabbed in that alley.”

“I-I...that…”

Kevin started to sweat bullets.

“You know what I think? I think this is what happened.”

Benjamin started to speak.

“Anna saw you at the bank and realized that her love for you was still there.”

“She wanted to get back with you so she went to your house. But you weren’t there. Instead, your brother just happened to be there too.”

Jake continued and the two of them went back and forth speaking while intimidating Kevin.

“The two of them had an affair so when he found out that Anna wanted to return to you, they fought.”

“Things got heated up and Anna was knocked unconscious with a brush handle. Aaron panicked, thinking that he killed her so he covered the blood splatters with paint to hide it.”

“He then left and dumped Anna in an alley. Probably hid her in a trash bag or something.”

“As for you, you happened to return just in time to see their drama. You finally found out that your own brother was having an affair with your wife in the past and got mad.”

“So you followed him. Thinking of exposing him and having him arrested for murder.”

“But you noticed that Anna was still alive...so you finished the job.”

“It’s pretty easy to prevent blood from getting to you, all you need to do was stab her while she was in the garbage bag.”

“Your love turned into hate so you stabbed her over and over again.”

“Then you removed the garbage bag, wrapped the weapon with it, and tossed it somewhere.”

“You couldn’t have thrown it far away. Soon enough, the weapon will turn up. And when we find it...it’s over for you.”

Hearing Benjamin and Jake speak, Kevin was unable to take it anymore and collapsed on his knees.

“You’re right...I did kill her...I killed Anna...I wanted them to suffer...both of them…”

Benjamin sighed and shook his head.

He turned to Jake who nodded at him while showing his phone that was recording their voices.

The two smiled and bumped fists.

Actually, he was bullshitting when he said the weapon will turn up eventually. Do you have any idea how much trash is there in Brooklyn?

Without a choice, they could only resort to trapping the murderer and recording the confession.

Good thing it worked.

After settling the procedures and sending Kevin to prison along with Aaron since he was also a part of it, Jake patted Benjamin on the back.

“Nice work Ben! Case solved in one day! We should totally celebrate this! Come on!”

Benjamin smiled.

He looked at the rewards he gained and was indeed happy.

[Congratulations to host for completing the Main Quest: Catch the murderer of Anna Hayworth!]

[Gained 200 MP, Free Gacha Draw]

“Some other time. I still have something to do later.”

“Fine, tomorrow then!”

“Alright, tomorrow. See you.”

Benjamin waved and left the precinct.

He went straight home, checked that Natasha wasn’t present, then pulled up the system.

“Come on, give me some good stuff!”

He rubbed his hands and rolled for Gacha with his free draw.

After a while, a blue capsule dropped.

Benjamin sighed then shook his head.

Well, at least it isn’t white again.

Benjamin thought to open it to see what he got.

[Congratulations to host for getting Electric Skin ability!]

An ability!

No matter what, Benjamin was happy to get an ability, even if it was a low-ranking one!

[Electric Skin: Provides some immunity to electricity. Capable of releasing 10,000 volts of electricity.]

Benjamin recalled that a taser has about 50 thousand volts. Although he can only release 10 thousand volts, it is still quite useful!

Besides, he remembered he could also use MP to upgrade a skill.

Benjamin thought about doing it and a new window appeared in front of him.

[1 MP = 10 volt upgrade]

He then looked at his MP...it was only 350 at the moment.

Benjamin sighed.

There was no difference if he simply added 3500 volts now. It was better to save up MP instead.

He raised his hand and with a thought, blue light sparked between his fingers.

Having gained power, Benjamin was quite happy about it despite it being weak.

Although he had the Super Soldier Serum on his body, it had only made his body strong and reflexes sharper, it was different from something he could see like this electric ability!

Benjamin continued to make sparks fly on his palms as he started to laugh.

“Fufu...kukukuku...mwahahahahahahahahaha!”

[...Host looks like a villain now.]

“...”

Benjamin stopped laughing and pretended not to hear the system’s comment.

He got dressed casually and went out to a convenience store nearby.

He took his badge and ID just in case.

Sure enough…

“Hands in the air! Nobody moves!”

“Seriously?”

“Do it!”

Benjamin sighed and did as he was told since there were a lot of innocent people around. He waited for an opportunity to subdue the criminals without the others possibly getting hurt.

Suddenly, a young voice sounded up from above them.

“Seriously guys? During the day?”

“It’s Spiderman! Shoot him!”

“Woah! Rude!”

Right, the guy sticking to the ceiling was none other than the red and blue superhero, Spiderman!

Woah! I didn’t think I’d get to see Spiderman today!

Benjamin chuckled.

He took the chance that the criminals were distracted and quickly pulled everyone behind him and also assisted Spiderman.

After dealing with them, Spiderman webbed them all up nicely and even covered their mouths with web.

Benjamin took out his badge.

“NYPD. Don’t move...though I guess you can’t move anymore. You have the right to remain silent...though I guess you can’t speak too…anyway, you know your rights.”

Benjamin chuckled. He was too lazy to recite the Miranda Rights.

Spiderman was surprised and appeared awkward.

“Oh uhh...officer. I didn’t know you were already here.”

“I’m already off duty, just out shopping. Alright, thanks for the help kid. You should get going.”

“Uhh, sure thing! See you!”

With that, Spiderman webbed up and swung away in a heartbeat.

Benjamin shook his head.

He still hasn’t gotten used to living in the Marvel world.

Although he basically lives with Black Widow, she’s one of the normal ones and not like Spiderman with his powers or Iron Man with his tech.

But seeing Spiderman appearing and swinging across New York, it certainly feels now that he is indeed in the Marvel Universe.

Benjamin chuckled and shook his head.

After handing off the criminals to the police officers that arrived, he continued his shopping and went home to cook dinner.

Benjamin went all out and even set the table with candles and everything.

It has been a month since coming to this world and meeting Natasha, he figured he should at least celebrate their first monthsary with something.

It’s not like he planned on doing this every month but at least the first month is worthy of a candlelit dinner.

Besides, Natasha looked like she's been stressed with work lately so he thought this would help lighten up her mood.

Though, Benjamin doesn’t know what time she’ll return. He could only watch some videos online to kill some time.

During his time here in the Marvel world, he had been investigating the occurrences and incidents that had happened in the past.

He found out that this world, although similar to the movies in his previous world, is in fact, different.

For example. The invasion of Loki in New York.

The same incident has occurred in this world in the past before he arrived in this world. This led to the creation of the Avengers just like the movies.

However, unlike the movies, there are some differences.

For example, Coulson didn’t die.

Although in his previous world, they did bring back Coulson in the TV Series Agents of SHIELD, in this world, there wasn’t a need to revive Coulson.

Another difference is the members of the Avengers.

In this world, the members now include Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Thor, Falcon, War Machine, and Captain Marvel.

Thanks to the early appearance of Captain Marvel, Loki was easily defeated and there wasn’t much destruction that occurred. It also wasn’t Iron Man who sent a nuke to the aliens in outer space but Captain Marvel who did so with ease.

From the news reports that Benjamin found, it seems Spiderman came only later and isn’t a member of the Avengers just yet.

There are also various reports regarding Daredevil, Elektra, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage. But at this point, they aren’t treated as major superheroes like the Avengers and more like vigilantes only.

That wasn’t all. Mutants such as Wolverine, Deadpool, Magneto, and such are also reported occasionally. Unlike in the MCU movies, the X-men are also present in this world.

According to what Benjamin could tell, they are currently laying low for now as there is still a lot of prejudice regarding mutants.

Simply put, this world has a much larger scale compared to the MCU movies in terms of the number of heroes and villains.

Benjamin wondered if one day, Thanos, Mephisto, Ultron, Galactus, Doctor Doom, Magneto, or Ego, would gang up and destroy the world or something…

Benjamin tried searching for Doctor Strange as well but found that he is still a surgeon. Reed Richards also exists in this world but hasn’t gotten his powers yet to form the Fantastic Four.

During his time with Natasha, Benjamin would sometimes get curious and ask about the members of the Avengers.

It seems that Thor went back to Asgard while Captain Marvel went to another planet or something.

Tony and Bruce are always tinkering on something while the rest are minding their own business.

“They better not be making Ultron…”

Benjamin muttered as he couldn’t help but remember the movie in his previous world.

After some time, Natasha finally got back looking tired.

“Hm? What’s all this?”

“Well, it’s been a month. Thought we’d celebrate or something. Plus, I got promoted too but you probably already knew that.”

Benjamin shrugged while helping Natasha sit on her chair.

Natasha smiled.

“How romantic.”

“Is it the candles? It’s my first time doing this. According to research, candles make everything romantic.”

“What kind of research is that?”

“Movies.”

The two laughed for a bit and started to eat.

As they ate, Benjamin asked.

“You seem more tired than before. Something happened?”

“Sigh, it’s that Beetle bitch. I’ve been tracking her for months but she always manages to slip away!”

“Beetle bitch? Oh, you mean that purple chick flying around?”

Benjamin recalled seeing the news about her a few days ago. She seemed to be a part of Tombstone’s gang.

From what Benjamin recalled in the comics, the female Beetle is Janice Lincoln. Daughter of Tombstone.

Of course, things may be different here in this world and he didn’t exactly have any proof so he couldn’t just arrest her.

Besides, in the comics, she didn’t seem to be part of Tombstone’s gang. Benjamin could vaguely recall that she was under Baron Zemo at one point, then a member of Sinister Six at some point, then a member of the Syndicate at another point.

Based on how Natasha’s been complaining about it nearly every day, it seems that they still haven’t figured out her identity.

Thinking this, Benjamin just shrugged.

“She’s a member of Tombstone’s gang right? How come you’re the one dealing with this? Isn’t Spiderman going against Tombstone or something?”

“Ugh, don’t even talk about it. That kid always gets in the way.”

Natasha groaned and rolled her eyes.

“Beetle isn’t just a member of Tombstone’s gang, she’s also connected to various criminal organizations and a pain in the ass to deal with.”

“Don’t the others help you out?”

“Not really, they have their own messes to deal with. Besides, if other heroes get involved, then other villains get involved. It’s really annoying.”

Natasha pouted.

Benjamin smiled wryly and patted her.

“Alright, calm down. You'll catch her eventually.”

“I hope so.”

Looking at Natasha’s sulky face, Benjamin silently thought to himself.

I should start investigating this more to help relieve some pressure on her.