Lily’s quick response left Arthur feeling a bit dazed, and he felt as if he had been played by this girl. After reaching a preliminary agreement, they discussed the details.
Primarily, Arthur wanted to know what he would have to do to stay here for free.
In a brief exchange, Arthur learned Lily’s story.
Lily had moved to the U.S. with her parents when she was very young. According to her, her father was a Tai Chi practitioner and had some knowledge of BaguaZhang (one of the three main Chinese martial arts of the Wudang school).
After they arrived here, he tried to open a martial arts school to promote their art. However, it wasn’t successful; to say it was unpopular would be an understatement – it was completely abandoned.
After her parents died, the house and the martial arts dojo on the first floor were left to Lily. If it had stayed that way, there wouldn’t have been any trouble. However, a man named Donal Harris recently appeared on this street, gathering a group of thugs and claiming to be the boss.
He set his sights on the small inheritance Lily’s parents had left her, and he came around frequently to cause trouble. They didn’t hit anyone, just damaged things and tried to force Lily to sell the house to him at a low price.
She had called the police twice, but nothing came of it, which only encouraged the thugs. In half a month, Lily’s university would reopen, and she would have to leave. Leaving the house unoccupied made her uneasy.
Arthur happened to arrive at this critical time. Otherwise, it would have been hard for Lily to find a reason to take in a complete stranger.
They revised the agreement…
Arthur could use the house indefinitely until he could find a new place. After all, she wasn’t home most of the time. The only condition was that Arthur had to protect the house. He also had to pay for the utilities and food.
Back in his room, Arthur breathed a sigh of relief.
He couldn’t help but chuckle. Lily really was a clever girl. It seemed that Arthur was getting a good deal, living in the house rent-free. However, the trouble with Donal Harris and his gang was now Arthur’s problem.
Simply put, if Arthur wanted to stay, he had to protect the place.
“That’s fair; there’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world.”
Arthur took it well. It took some courage for Lily to trust a complete stranger so easily. And he wasn’t a freeloader. He could find a way to make money. If he couldn’t even pay the bills for electricity and food, he wouldn’t know how to survive in this world.
With the housing problem solved, Arthur felt as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Then he snapped his fingers.
A ball of fire appeared in his hand.
As his physical condition recovered, so did his inner energy. He was now at full strength. But for some reason, Arthur felt that there were some differences in his body.
Before, he thought that these changes were caused by the energy of the small crystal, but when he used this energy, he clearly felt that there was something else lurking in his body.
This thing was silent as death, completely inert.
It was clearly unusable.
“Forget it.”
Arthur shook his head and threw himself onto the bed, deciding not to think about it.
He stared at the ceiling and wondered, “What am I going to do to make money?”
He thought about it from every angle but came up empty.
He even considered opening the martial arts dojo downstairs to take in students.
But within a second, he rejected the idea.
Not only were his skills all about killing, but even if he knew Tai Chi or BaguaZhang, did he really have the patience to teach students?
Arthur realized that he seemed to be good at nothing…
He was skilled in marksmanship, combat, and killing, and he was even a semi-expert in genetics.
But could these skills be turned into money?
If he wanted to research genetics, what could he do on his own?
He couldn’t just mass-produce Super Soldier Serum and sell it to the public, could he?
Even if he wanted to, it wasn’t feasible.
The materials needed for that were far beyond his currently empty pockets.
Approach large corporations?
He had no ID, no academic qualifications… Who would hire him?
After thinking all day with no results, Arthur drowned his frustration in food that evening, almost bringing Lily to tears.
“In your previous life, you must have been a starving ghost or a reincarnated glutton! I now suspect your stomach could swallow my entire house!”
Arthur, even more frustrated by her scolding, ended up eating even more.
The meal only ended when Lily chased him around the house with a frying pan.
After dinner, they sat in the upstairs living room and watched television.
Arthur watched more news about Stark Industries.
Tony Stark even appeared on the screen.
“This is amazing!”
Lily exclaimed, watching in awe, “Do you think I’ll ever be that rich?”
“Impossible.”
Arthur replied immediately.
“Would it kill you to say something nice?”
Lily nearly died of frustration.
Arthur was about to say more when the TV suddenly showed breaking news.
The screen showed a chaotic university campus, with tank fragments burning fiercely, twisted armored vehicles scattered around, and fully armed soldiers dealing with the scene.
A female reporter, expressionless, held a microphone: “There are rumors of an intense battle between the military and an unidentified enemy on the campus of Carville University. Two sophomores witnessed the entire event.”
The camera then showed a student with a wild hairstyle gesticulating dramatically: “That thing was huge, like a green giant!”
“One of the students is a reporter for the campus newspaper and recorded the footage on his cell phone.”
But there was no hard evidence, no footage of the Hulk tearing apart tanks.
The camera returned to the reporter: “A thunderstorm in the National Forest has delayed the search for the Hulk.
“What’s going on in America? They have giants now?”
Lily asked Arthur excitedly, “What do you think the Hulk looks like?”
“Hmm.”
Arthur thought for two seconds, “Probably short, chubby and green.
(End of this chapter)
You can read ahead up to 20 chapters on my patreon and I’ve also activated (date to date) subscription model on my patreon https://www.patreon.com/GGS6395
Support me on Patreon for extra chapters