Chapter 74: Bonus - : General Direction

Chapter 74: Bonus Chapter: General Direction

This is the bonus Chapter for 5k stones.

I’ve been down with a fever since yesterday so it took me some time to check webnovel.

Next bonus will be at 7.5k stones.

Get cracking.

...

’Charles Xavier?’ John had seriously expected the order to be from higher up or something else.

But Charles Xavier?

Even if he entertained the idea. How did that old man even know of John Doe? John had never seen a notification related to him so far.

And why would Charles Xavier want to find out about John Doe? He didn’t know the answer to that, but he knew that he still didn’t have the meat of the information.

’At least I have a general direction right now.’

Since SHIELD had already identified him as John Doe’s acquaintance, Charles or whoever asked to find John Doe would make a move soon enough after Fury broke the news to them.

He could only hope that Conqueror’s Haki held up against telepaths as he had expected, or he’d be in serious trouble. Still, he needed to go back home to think and plan about exactly how much he could bullshit through the following encounters.

At last, when his mind returned to the room, he found her still in his lap. Her right leg crossed over the left as she examined his face with unusual interest.

"When are you going to get up?" Sure, he was out of it for a while, but she should’ve gotten up by now.

"I feel like this exchange has been very lopsided." She tapped her chin.

"Isn’t that a good thing?" John wasn’t sure what she was playing at.

"I suppose that is true." But Natasha only spoke her mind. Professionally, she should be content with this result.

But a lot was going on in her head at this moment.

Dreykov, the Red Room, the still active Black Widows. However, the most important thing was that she now knew Yelena wasn’t gone.

There she wasn’t sure she could give him information equal to that even if she tried; news about Yelena meant that much to her. And he seemed to understand that; even then, John didn’t ask for anything else.

She had grown too used to taking advantage of others’ weakness that she expected everyone to do the same with her. Even now, sitting in his lap, it started as a trick to get him uncomfortable.

’Well, I’ll make sure to remember this.’ After gathering her thoughts, she leaned in and planted her lips on his cheek. The kiss landed on the jaw, narrowly missing the corner of his lips.

After a moment, her lips left his skin, and she leaned back after whispering something to him in Russian.

It was a bit too breathy and fast for his stunned mind to catch, not that he could speak the language aside from yelling that one thing.

"What did you say?" He covered his right ear as she stood up.

"Thank you." Before he could respond, she was already heading for the door.

Natasha had expected him to stop her lips midway, but that didn’t happen. And for the first time since she had started seducing him, there wasn’t that look of pity in his eyes.

’Did he get shy over a kiss? No way.’ His hand was squished between her thighs for half of the conversation, and he didn’t even flinch.

So, what was different about the kiss at the end?

’Whatever changed, it’s good.’ She smirked as he wiped the red stain of her lipstick from near his lips.

That change was the reason John was embarrassed as he exited the room after her. His body was very excited in that moment. And it didn’t have anything to do with the kiss itself.

Usually, Natasha had this mental hesitation before seduction. But this time there was no such hesitation. It was the first time it had happened since they met.

His body caught onto it faster than his brain and didn’t reject her advance.

’I really shouldn’t have let my guard down.’ John buried his face into his palms as soon as he got a seat on the bus.

The biggest reason he could stay level-headed around Natasha and her physical teasing was because of that hesitation. But that hesitation went away at the worst possible time.

The warmth of her thighs, the press of her body, and her breath against his ear returned all at once. His enhanced senses had preserved every detail with unreal clarity.

’My steak is too juicy. I don’t want it.’ This body was a cheat code, but also a pain in the ass at the worst possible time.

But more than the physical attraction, he liked the protective instinct she had for Yelena. Even if he wanted to distract her so he could prepare RCT, Natasha valued the little information a lot. Because even if Yelena wasn’t a sister by blood, she was still her family.

And that was very charming to him. Because in that moment her mind and body were so completely in sync, it almost felt unreal.

On top of that, she had said thank you. These were words he didn’t expect to hear from her. She had really caught him off guard in several ways today.

The moment he reached home, John entered the specialized training room to sweat off this excess energy swirling inside him.

’Too bad there is no anti-horny spray in this damned shop.’ John could practically hear Yujiro clicking his tongue in the background. Maybe because his power of imagination was bolstered to really high levels in the training room.

Regardless, after sweating like an animal till midnight, John took a shower and sat down in front of his computer. By 3 in the morning, he was already done with Pluto; now he could schedule a release with peace of mind and plan.

Now, the big question was which shounen work to release first.

A lot of works swirled in his mind, and each had its own unique advantages.

However, if he were to look at the global reach of all the works that received widespread popularity and praise not only for their plot, but also for the pacing and themes from start to finish, there was a clear standout.

"FMAB it is." John made the final decision after looking at the data and with his own personal bias.

After all, this work was a critical part of the western anime boom. His father also got into anime because of this. And so did John himself.

But before he started working on this, John opened the system tab and looked at the EP counter.

22,420 EP

He had enough EP to buy RCT now, and some change. And he did that without a moment of hesitation. As Natasha was distracted with the Yelena matter, he had enough time to train with this.

’I also have to see if I can learn advanced Haki techniques for Observation and Armament on my own.’ John had a lot on his plate and a low supply of EP.

His mind went to the Disney Star Wars trilogy. There was a big fanbase for that franchise here.

’Yeah no, my suffering was enough, no need to punish these poor souls.’ And John wanted to get EP by giving these guys peak fiction, not with some shitshow like that.

"Let’s just take it one step at a time." John pressed buy and clicked on the capsule that had arrived in the inventory in a smooth fashion.

The moment he opened the capsule, the group of calm, ethereal purple fireflies entered his body with grace. Unlike the disgusting experience he had with cursed energy, this one was the opposite.

John closed his eyes and focused on the warm wave spreading over him. The moment it had covered all his skin, it started to seep deeper.

From the skin, it reached the muscles, the bones, the organs, and the nerves. The energy wrapped around each cell in his body, making him aware of every fibre of his being.

This sensation was slowly etched into his brain alongside the 3D blueprint of his entire body.

After 30 minutes, John opened his eyes as the warm, fuzzy feeling fizzled out.

He pressed the fingernail of his right index finger into his left palm and swiped. Since he had relaxed the skin, it sliced open into a red line. With the control he had, the cut wasn’t that deep.

However, he was more focused on multiplying negative energy with itself inside his body, creating positive energy on command. The warm energy that was created in his gut rushed to the hand and stuck to the cut like iron sand to a magnet.

With the unreal control of his body and the room boosting his power of imagination, the wound closed up in less than a second.

Rather than healing, it was closer to the body following the blueprint in his mind. And that blueprint wasn’t just physical; the soul played the bigger part because that was essentially the real blueprint.

Will this help Natasha? John wasn’t sure. He had just become aware of his own soul; he didn’t know of hers yet and what form it had.

But he had this unexplainable confidence in her at this moment. That’s why he decided to get more familiar with RCT rather than speculating.

After his training finished by noon, John thought it was about time to visit the local martial arts studios.

’I have to visit Colleen as well.’ With a smile, John locked the door and stepped out to ruin the day of many people in New York City.