I stared at her for a moment too long, and she noticed.

  "Something wrong?" she asked, tilting her head with the exact energy of a woman who had dealt with enough weird men at this shelter to have developed a very fine-tuned threat assessment.

  "No, sorry." I looked away. "You just remind me of someone."

  'Damn, she's hot.'

  I mean, Aunt May from the Tom Holnd trilogy was always hot, but this was a good five years before Homecoming, so she seemed that much more radiant.

  As I came to my senses after a brief moment of retardation, she spoke again.

  "You seem pretty young to be around here, don't look like the usual type." Her words were not judgmental, instead containing pure curiosity.

  Her statement was pretty accurate. The people you'd see in the shelter were… quite vagrant, more or less toughened by a prolonged life on the streets.

  Many of them were recovering drug addicts, alcohol abusers, victims of abuse, and other such issues.

  I, on the other hand, seemed… well, not to toot my own horn, but I'd say I looked less worn down than them.

  I knew I'd be out of here soon, scratch that, very soon now that I have a usable power, so I didn't have the hopelessness many others held.

  Deciding not to dilly-dally any further, I responded briefly.

  "Yeah, well, I'll probably be moving out here soon, was just down on my luck for a bit.""

  At my words, she gave a rather unknowable smile.

  "That's good to hear. A lot of people say that when they first get here, but…" she paused, looking me over once more. "I believe you."

  "Thanks." I meant it more than she knew.

  An awkward beat passed between us.

  "May," she offered, extending a hand.

  "Varis."

  We made some more pleasantries, though after a while she went back to sorting her bags, and I took that as my cue to leave.

  'Yeah, no way I'm letting her die.'

  So far, Aunt May had been the first proper character I'd met face to face, so I, as the future greatest being of the multiverse, had decided to bestow her a little grace.

  I found my mattress and y down, briefly struggling to sleep as various pns ran through my head.

  —

  Waking up, I was immediately met with a flurry of notifications.

  [Deyed Fear Processing Complete!]

  [12 individuals regained consciousness with no expnation for their sudden colpse - mass confusion and fear reported in the area! +47 FP]

  [Local residents witnessed multiple simultaneous unconscious bodies on the street - widespread unease generated! +31 FP]

  [A woman has told her friend group about an 'invisible force' that knocked out everyone around her! +12 FP]

  [Fear Point Bance: 90]

  I stared at the notifications for a moment.

  Ninety points. From twelve unconscious people and whoever had the misfortune of stumbling across them.

  It wasn't explosive, but it confirmed the theory. The Haki itself generated nothing, sure, but the aftermath? The confused victims telling their friends and family about how one day they and a dozen people simply passed out on the side of the road? With no expnation, all sorts of fearmongering theories would sprout up. That was the real yield.

  'Now this is what it's all about.'

  If that number were to be scaled up…

  Well, it would be pretty damn good.

  With my points, I briefly scrolled through the shop to see what was avaible.

  The closest thing would be Mineta's quirk, but I'd rather die by one million angry wasps than have purple ballsacks grow on my head.

  Anyway, I didn't pn on polluting my kit with trash abilities. Don't they say not to fear the man who has practiced a thousand kicks once, but the man who has practiced one kick a thousand times?

  I quickly gathered what little I had and signed out for what I hoped would be the st time.

  The thought of heading to my construction gig didn't even cross my mind. I had actual power now, so there was no need to do backbreaking work like that just to get by.

  And regardless, it's not like they'd care. I was working under the table, so it wouldn't be a surprise for me to just stop showing up. They wouldn't exactly be doing any check-ups.

  Today, I pnned on making my first 'debut'.

  Now, that didn't mean revealing my power to the world, no, it just meant that I would actually get to do something instead of terrorising children and women and hanging around under bridges like some bum.

  Today, I pnned on taking out a small criminal hideout.

  Nothing too ambitious. No Hydra bases, no Ten Rings cells, nothing that would put me on any government radar.

  I had no interest in tussling with big boys like Arnim Zo or Wenwu, not yet, at least.

  My target was a small, unassuming criminal operation that wouldn't be missed. The kind you'd find at every turn in New York.

  During my brief stint as a construction worker, I'd overheard enough conversation from simir down-on-their-luck guys to know about some rather unsavoury dealings going on in the area.

  So now I'd perform my first… sort of heroic act by taking them down.

  Honestly speaking, my main goal was to see how I could farm fear from them and to have some dummies to train my haki on.

  My control over my conqueror's was currently nonexistent, so honing it to be able to use it at different ranges would be good. I didn't want to accidentally use it and end up knocking out a dozen people again.

  'Welp, let's get to aurafarming.'