As Kingpin's subordinates spread out in a frenzy searching for Skye, the entire Hell's Kitchen was thrown into unrest.
Although Kingpin had never truly unified Hell's Kitchen in na, he was still its uncrowned king in every aningful sense.
The reason he never pursued absolute unification was simple: the cost of governing it, the pressure of outside forces, and the problem of balancing various interests and ambitions.
To put it bluntly, he absolutely had the power to unify Hell's Kitchen.
But he could not afford to do so.
He could dominate the underground world here, but if he openly unified everything under one banner, he would beco far too conspicuous. That would inevitably attract the attention and suppression of official agencies.
So instead, he ruled Hell's Kitchen from the shadows through countless indirect thods.
He controlled gambling, prostitution, drugs, smuggling, protection rackets, construction, labor unions—even the police, judges, and politicians had all been bought by him.
That was why he was called the uncrowned king.
As for the remaining gangs, they existed only because Kingpin allowed them to.
None of those gangs were weak. In other cities or regions, they would each be considered top-tier criminal organizations. Their existence served to maintain balance—or more accurately, to create the appearance of balance for outsiders.
Even so, Kingpin himself remained highly conspicuous.
Every move he made attracted attention, and this ti was no exception.
In the middle of the night, his subordinates suddenly flooded the streets of Hell's Kitchen, searching aggressively for a single girl. The scale of the operation imdiately caught the attention of the Hell's Kitchen Police Departnt, the other gangs, and even the so-called street heroes lurking in the shadows.
Especially the girl at the center of it all.
Skye.
Who exactly was she?
What kind of background did she have for Kingpin to mobilize his forces on such a massive scale to find her?
For a brief mont, Skye beca famous throughout Hell's Kitchen.
Kingpin's actions had caused a huge disturbance, but they were also extrely effective.
In less than an hour, one of his subordinates finally sent back useful information.
Without hesitation, Kingpin imdiately forwarded the intelligence to Neagley.
At that mont, Neagley and Natasha were sitting on the balcony of their hotel suite, drinking while waiting for news. When they saw the ssage, both won frowned slightly.
"Purple Man? The Erebus Family and Deacon Frost?"
"Who are these guys?" Natasha asked, sowhat perplexed.
During her years as a spy, most of her activities had taken place across the world, with very little involvent in New York. After being recruited by Matthew, she had thrown herself entirely into training, making her even less familiar with this kind of information.
"I'm not too sure either. Let's check." Neagley picked up the laptop resting on the nearby table and began accessing the database.
With Pierce—that massive traitor and ultimate insider—on their side, the database of the Strategic Holand Intervention, Enforcent and Logistics Division (S.H.I.E.L.D.) was practically wide open to her.
She possessed independent authorization and could access the overwhelming majority of the organization's data.
Of course, she still could not access the confidential files personally locked by Nick Fury himself. Even Pierce lacked permission for those.
The two old foxes might appear to be ntor and friend on the surface, but in reality, they had always been wary of each other.
Still, the access Neagley had was already more than enough.
As ridiculous as the internal situation of that agency could sotis be, there was no denying that before its eventual collapse and internal chaos, its reach extended across the entire globe.
Calling it the most powerful organization in the world would not be an exaggeration.
Naturally, its databases contained extensive information on countless people, events, and organizations—not only comprehensive, but extrely detailed.
Very quickly, Neagley pulled up the relevant files.
Natasha, clearly interested as well, leaned over to look.
And the mont she did, even she was startled.
Purple Man.
Real na: Zebediah Killgrave.
Forrly a Yugoslavian spy who, for unknown reasons, had developed the ability to secrete chemical pheromones capable of controlling the actions of others.
Judging from his psychological evaluations and criminal history records, this man was a complete psychopath.
Extrely narcissistic. Cruel and cold-blooded. Pathologically controlling. Chronically bored. Skilled at disguising himself. Entirely devoid of morality.
Because his abilities were extrely troubleso to deal with, combined with his irregular movents and relatively limited destructive capability, S.H.I.E.L.D. had never considered Purple Man a particularly high-priority target.
That was fairly normal.
Neagley and Natasha imdiately reached the sa conclusion.
This man could not be killed.
He had to be brought back alive.
The technology departnt was severely lacking in living experintal materials, and death would be far too rciful for soone like him. He deserved a fate far worse than dying.
Neagley even made a ntal note to instruct the departnt later to keep him alive for as long as possible.
Compared to Purple Man, however, the true source of shock for the two won was the Erebus Family and Deacon Frost.
Because neither the family nor Deacon himself were human.
They were vampires.
Ordinary people believed that humans were the only intelligent race in the world, with mutants appearing later as a new phenonon.
But in reality, aside from humanity, there were also vampires and werewolves—two supernatural races that most people assud only existed in movies and novels.
According to the information in the files, the two races had fought a war long ago. The werewolves had lost and were now scattered like sewer rats, hiding throughout the world, while the vampires gradually blended themselves into human society as technology advanced.
The influence of the vampire race spread across the globe as well.
There were countless vampire families of all sizes.
Their numbers were impossible to estimate.
Small families occupied tiny territories or struggled to survive as isolated individuals, while the truly powerful families had beco genuine nobles within high society.
They controlled enormous wealth and influence.
Lavish, refined lifestyles were the norm for them.
And among all vampire families, the Erebus Family stood at the very top.
They controlled the highest council within vampire society and possessed authority comparable to royalty itself.
The na "Erebus" originated from the primordial Greek god of darkness, symbolizing eternal darkness.
The family maintained an extrely strict internal order.
Unfortunately, the information available in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s database only went this far. There were no deeper details, which clearly showed that even S.H.I.E.L.D. lacked the ability to fully investigate a colossal force like the Erebus Family.
As for Deacon Frost, publicly he was known as a major comrcial real estate tycoon in Manhattan.
He owned office buildings, luxury apartnt towers, upscale shopping properties, and private clubs. To the outside world, he appeared to be a textbook Manhattan elite gentleman and philanthropic investor.
But secretly, he was also a vampire.
Moreover, his relationships and interests were entangled with countless powerful figures. The dense web of suspected connections and vested interests recorded in the files was so complicated that even Neagley and Natasha felt their heads hurt from looking at it.
"This really is a complete ss."
Natasha glanced at the countless scandals and disgusting records contained in the data. There were all kinds of twisted parties and unspeakable activities mixed in there, enough to thoroughly pollute anyone's eyes.
The deeper she looked, the more revolting it beca.
These so-called elites appeared refined on the surface, but in reality they were worse than beasts.
Just looking at the files made her feel sick.
Natasha was certain that if these people stood in front of her right now, she would personally tear them apart piece by piece.
"Yeah," Neagley exhaled slowly, gritting her teeth in irritation. "They owe compensation for making read this garbage. I wonder if the Milson Tech Departnt guys will even want to touch these people."
She had always known the upper class had low moral standards.
But she genuinely hadn't expected them to sink this low.
Compared to those people, she suddenly felt that their dear leader Matthew was practically the embodint of truth, goodness, and beauty itself.
Holier than God.
"Believe , Natasha. One day, I'm going to have every single one of these people strapped onto an operating table. They don't even deserve to go to hell."
"But we need to move now. Your friend Skye is probably in far greater danger than we thought."
"Agreed. We should prepare so weapons first."
Neagley picked up the phone and imdiately called the logistics departnt.
"Jimmy, we need a batch of weapons. Highest priority. Get them made as fast as possible."
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