4: Pitiful harvest, finding a home, and Kingpin [REVISED]
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The Subterranean dungeon had five floors/levels. The two lowest floors spawned Skeletons which were a lot harder to deal with in comparison to the slow-walking zombies. Nevertheless, they were all killed by Estelle and turned into experience points for her to spend.

And spend she did.

Stealth was upgraded from level 5 to level 10, Athletics had its level increased by 1 allowing access to Stealth Speed, and Stealth Damage and Stealth Speed upgraded from level 0 to level 5; bringing them up to -50% mob detection range and +50% concealment when in stealth plus an additional +150% melee damage and +50% movement speed when in stealth.

This made her exploration in the dungeon go a lot smoother and so long as she was careful, she wouldn't face another sneak attack like the initial surprise she got upon entering the fourth floor.

As long as she was in stealth, she would be the first to spot the enemy, however, approaching any further would alert them as her presence would finally enter their perception.

Estelle ransacked every room she entered, even excavating dozens of units of stone walls with the hope of finding a secret room. But alas, that was only wishful thinking and there was only dirt on the other side. Fortunately, she did find some bows with low durability and repaired them through the crafting table by combing their durabilities. She also found an Iron Ore and smelted it through the Forgery Runic Band's furnace rune, costing her half a level.

However, in the last room on the last floor, Estelle looted a relatively cleaner-looking chest. Inside that chest, she found a Golden Apple, a Poison Arrow (4), a Potion of Regeneration (1), a Gold Ingot (1), and an Iron Ingot (2).

All craftable materials and resources were stored inside the Runic Bands storage and her inventory was sorted with the weapons and tools at the top, consumables at the bottom row, and the rest in the middle.

Estelle's Hotbar consisted of a Stone Sword (65%), Steel Machete (3% — off-hand), Bandages (7), Potion of Regeneration (1), Bread (5), and a Golden Apple (1).

Her current level was 9 and the durability of her chestplate armor "Leather Jacket" was reduced to 0 breaking apart and disappearing into thin air.

She brought up the Locations panel opened the Atlas and selected Game World 1.

The familiar purple portal appeared in front of her emitting purple runes and whispering an unknown language into her ears, much like the Enderman she encountered before her descent to the fourth floor.

Stepping through this portal she was carried through space and time with her senses deprived. A second later she regained her senses as her body exited a portal that appeared in the middle of a park.

This was the same park that she had killed the thugs in, but it looked completely different from how it did in the night.

Sunlight shone and the warm summer breeze brushed her messy hair across her face. The skeletons of the thugs that should have been where she left them were nowhere to be seen. Only broken bone shards, some blood stains, and broken teeth could be seen scattered about.

"But where are the police? Shouldn't this place be closed off to the public and under investigation? Well, not that it matters to me anyway."

Estelle casually strolled out of the park heading toward a hotel she walked by in her search for a tree.

While she walked she struggled to find the most useful item to craft using the 3 iron ingots she obtained.

'Should I craft an Iron Pickaxe? Or perhaps a bucket? A Shield and Iron Sword are also feasible...'

As she was lost deep in thought, she didn't realize that she was being followed.

Even if she did, she wouldn't care.

Continuing on her way down the street, she seemed to have remembered wrongly and entered a road lined with dilapidated buildings, cracked pavements, and potholes every couple of meters.

"Strange. I could've sworn it was this way." Estelle muttered under her breath. She opened her system window and brought up the Locations panel.

The hooded figures finally caught up with Estelle and didn't bother to hide their hostile intentions. Two thugs wearing thick jackets and their hands in their pockets crept up on Estelle from behind.

Another thug exited the alley ahead of Estelle with a gun in his hand and his other hand holding up the trousers that threatened to wrap around his ankles and trip him over.

And lastly, a fourth thug, or rather a black SUV driven by a thug with several more vicious-looking middle-aged men in the back seats revved up the vehicle's engine as they soared down the uneven road.

Despite the loud noise and the men with obvious killing intent directed toward her, Estelle continued to wave her hand in the air muttering to herself all the while ignoring these gangsters.

Clicking on the minimap, the large window in front of her shrunk to an eighth of its size sitting at the top right corner of her vision. Even if she looked around moving her eyes, the minimap would appear stationary so she could look at it without it moving along with her line of sight.

Estelle looked at the minimap which revealed a 50-meter radius surrounding her.

"Oh, it's the next street over."

As she said that, the SUV abruptly stopped beside her and the trunk was flung open. Simultaneously, the two thugs behind her rushed forward, one grabbing toward her arms and the other pulling out a thick black bag, about to throw it over her head.

In that short span of time, Estelle even had the leisure to think about something.

'They can see me? What about the stealth... oh yeah, I'm in broad daylight and I haven't bothered to hide.'

The thug that wanted to bag her head suddenly fell forward, no thanks to the force he used swinging his arms downward.

Estelle had stepped forward, equipping her Stone Sword, and thrusting it into the gun-wielding thug's throat in front of her. His ruthless expression froze on his face, turning to horror as he grasped his neck, dropping the gun in his hand which was grasped by Estelle and stored in one of her empty Hotbars.

The thugs in the SUV paused before cursing aloud and pulling out their guns as they started firing at Estelle.

A thick wall of stone was instantly summoned between them and the target they were shooting after.

Ignoring the dying thug before her, Estelle swung her sword in a horizontal arc 180 degrees, slicing through the air and smashing the side of the fallen thug's head, instantly killing him from blunt force trauma.

Switching from the Stone Sword to the pistol, Estelle shot the other thug point blank in the face, killing him as well.

The SUV didn't sit idly as it drove around the stone pillar, just to see its three comrades already dead in the blink of an eye, issuing another round of violent gunfire directed toward the ruthless woman.

Like cat and mouse, Estelle avoided their storm of bullets hiding behind the stone pillar.

She activated her Runic Bands and frantically began placing stone blocks around her, creating a wall that separated herself from the SUV.

Estelle opened her crafting table and crafted a wooden door.

She had an idea she wanted to test.

Placing the wooden door, she pointed the barrel of her gun through one of the holes in the window of the door, aiming at one of the thugs holding a rifle and shooting him in the head.

"It worked!"

Unfortunately, it worked both ways as windows were intended, and a bullet grazed her forehead taking out a chunk of flesh and hair from her head.

Estelle collapsed onto the ground along with the summoned stone walls and door.

"Stop shooting! I think we got that bitch! Hey, you, go check up on her."

The one driving the SUV leaned over his seat and shouted to one of his subordinates.

This subordinate didn't dare to disobey orders directly and could only click his tongue in displeasure.

Who would want to get anywhere close to this freak that could summon walls out of nowhere? Certainly not him.

Psyching himself up, he got out from the back of the SUV and carefully approached the motionless woman lying on the ground in a pool of her own blood.

Thud.

The gangster kicked her foot softly, backing away abruptly from fear. Seeing no response from the woman, he turned around and shouted to his boss. "All good boss, I think she's dead."

"You think? Hurry and confirm it! See if she's breathing or if she's got a pulse."

"Huh? Fuck, fine!"

The man turned around preparing to crouch over the girl but was stunned to see the bottomless chasm of the barrel of a gun pointed directly at his face.

Bang!

A bullet hole appeared on his forehead followed by a line of blood and his limp body hitting the floor.

The leader of this gang was frightened and instead of returning fire, he decided it was enough and decisively chose to leave the battle scene.

Estelle hastily shot at the speeding SUV, hitting one of the gangsters but ultimately couldn't kill another one.

"No, my EXP, come back..."

She pouted cutely. But her appearance was anything but cute.

Blood covered half her face, her eye was bloodshot red, and a large piece of her flesh and hair on her forehead was missing, revealing her white skull.

This didn't seem to bother her at all and was only a mild nuisance to her.

She patched her head with the bandages instantly recovering her last health and returning her appearance back to normal.

Estelle had to admit, the Ender System and Players physique was extraordinary. No matter how bad her injuries were, she could recover in a few seconds from bandaging her wounds much like inside a video game.

It was heaven-defying, she thought.

...

On the top floor of a skyrise building belonging to Fisk Industries sat a mountain of a man.

Pure muscle stretched taut threatening to rip the suit he wore into pieces.

This was Wilson Fisk, a powerful businessman and philanthropist on the surface, but a ruthless and vicious beast pulling the strings, the mastermind behind the scenes, the King of the underworld — Kingpin.

Next to Kingpin stood a refined gentleman with gold-rimmed glasses and short brown hair.

He appeared calm and collected but god only knew that he was always on edge around Kingpin, controlling the fear inside him expertly and reading out Kingpin's schedule and recent happenings.

His name was James Wesley and he was Kingpin's current assistant. As for Kingpin's last assistant, he was brutally murdered by Kingpin himself and fed to his dogs after a slight mistake causing Kingpin to lose several millions of dollars. His decisiveness and brutality were the cause of James' fear for the man, but he also highly respected him due to his capabilities of climbing to the top of the Underworld and smoothly running its operations.

"Wait, read out that last part." Said Kingpin with a raised eyebrow.

"Ah? Yes sir. Ahem, a branch of the Empty Eyes gang under one of your subordinates was massacred by a woman of unknown origin. The Empty Eyes gang issued a bounty on the woman, and just this morning a small gang found traces of her walking toward the Renaissance Hotel.

"However, according to the leader of the small gang, she displayed perfect marksmanship and sufficient combat prowess. She also had the ability to fabricate stone walls from thin air. Also, despite being shot in the head, she appeared unaffected and even took out one of the small gang leaders' men.

"Further surveillance and monitoring reveal she has an abnormal healing factor, recovering from all injuries in mere seconds. I've taken the initiative to disengage all hostile interactions toward her and take down the bounty placed on her head by the Empty Eyes gang."

James said in a lengthy explanation and Kingpin patiently listened. After a short pause sitting in silence, Kingpin smiled and asked James, "How should we deal with her?"

"I... believe we should continue to monitor her behavior and character over the next couple of days. If we can grasp a weakness of hers, we may be able to deal with her as a potential threat to your safety.

"There is another way, and that is to establish friendly relations with this type of person. However, this task may be difficult as she has shown indifference to everyone she's met, not so much as speaking a single word but going straight for the kill, no matter who it is.

"This person can be used as a tool to get rid of your enemies, becoming the finest weapon alongside Bullseye. In fact, if we can gain her loyalty, she may be more useful than Bullseye as he is just a mercenary, a hired contract killer."

Silence ensued in the luxurious office. Sweat trickled down James' forehead and the longer the silence continued the more anxious he became. But it wasn't long until Kingpin finally spoke up, agreeing to one of James' proposals, surprising him.

"You're right. Continue to monitor her and find out her origins. I give you full authority over this matter and expect some good results this Sunday before my meeting at the next Stark Expo. If possible, try and recruit her. If not, then so be it. Call Bullseye back and let him deal with her. Oh yes, while he's at it, see if he can take out Daredevil as well. Two birds with one stone."

"Yes sir."

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