BBC: In other news, there was a huge debate on social media that reached the UN about "The Treatment of Mutants." While some argued that more measures should be taken to contain them, others believed they were individuals who didn't choose to have powers. However, the increasing number of incidents involving one or more mutants only escalated the issue.
BBC: A woman and her husband in Paris were leaving a restaurant when they were assaulted by a mutant, and sadly, her husband died.
"I was there, and the man grabbed my husband's face and started burning it! Nooooo!"
TV News: "Mutant powers are like weapons, not inherently dangerous, but a tool for evil individuals to be cruel."
In London, there was an incident at a nightclub.
Witness: "We were dancing when this tall guy entered. He saw his girlfriend with someone else, and out of nowhere, the guy's head fell to the ground. It was terrifying... I'm sorry, I don't feel well. Can I go now?"
Radio station: "People are generalizing and blaming all mutants for the actions of a few."
CNN: A press conference was held at the White House to address measures preventing incidents like those in NYC and Miami from recurring.
CNN: "There are rumors of establishing an institution to deal with dangerous mutants, in response to rumors of groups gathering powerful mutants."
...
At Allen's home, Nick Fury spoke to him about the Avengers initiative, a group of superheroes meant to face threats beyond common understanding.
Allen firmly refused; he wasn't a hero, mostly an advocate for self-preservation. He wouldn't go around fighting villains and crazies in latex suits.
Fury wasn't surprised by this response, anticipating it. However, he came with a Plan B.
"The deal is this," said the eyepatch-wearing man, "I'll give you missions in exchange for monetary rewards, with the freedom to choose which ones you want to take or reject."
"Are you planning to bribe me with money? Do I look like a guy who loves gold?" Allen scoffed. It's pretty obvious, but they don't get along. On one side, Allen never liked that Natasha was an agent and risked her life, despite only having a desk job since she adopted him.
Fury approached Allen and said in a low voice, "I don't think you care that much about money, but a million is a big debt... I'm sure I can help you reduce that number." Fury pulled out a check and showed it to Allen. "I just need you to go get a hammer that apparently no one can move in New Mexico."
Allen frowned upon hearing that Fury knew about his debt, but thinking about it, being Nick Fury he should know a lot of things.
"Do you pay upfront?" Allen thought for a moment, looking at the check Fury showed him.
"Well, if one percent of what you showed in your livestream is real, you won't have any problems with this mission."
"Wait, are those four zeros?" Allen shook his head; it wasn't worth risking for that amount. "No, definitely won't do something like that, Fury..."
Fury pulled out a pen and rewrote the check.
Allen widened his eyes as his conviction wavered. "Are those five zeros?"
"Yes."
"..."
At that moment, Natasha appeared, already dressed, and upon seeing her boss, far from being surprised or greeting him, she pulled out her gun and aimed it at him.
"Agent Romanoff, do you realize what you're doing?"
"That's what Nick Fury asked! What are you up to with my family?!"
Fury sighed and looked at Allen, seeking help.
"Aunt, he wanted to recruit me for the Avengers or something, but I refused," Allen stood up and walked towards Natasha, then took her by the waist, "then he proposed another idea, and I'm considering it."
Natasha blushed. "But it's dangerous..."
"Compared to facing Doomsday, retrieving a magical hammer isn't a big deal."
"Before, you obeyed your aunt in everything..." Natasha sighed, defeated. " I want to go with you..."
"Sorry, aunt, remember that Allen Walker the public figure, and you, Allen Walker, are two different people."
"..." Natasha fell silent with sad eyes, making Allen feel guilty.
"I promise it won't be long before we can walk the streets safely," Allen is sure that the day will come when he can live in public without anyone bothering him.
"Okay, honey." Natasha reluctantly agreed.
Allen agreed to do it; Fury left before Natasha could shoot him.
...
Later, Allen explained the situation to Gwen and MJ, who didn't take it well. However, Allen appointed them as moderators on his channels, so they could monitor him at all times.
Moderators are responsible during live streams for managing comments, applying bans, making announcements, starting polls, etc. In general, they support the content creator.
Allen didn't need moderators before because his viewers weren't numerous enough to require one, but Allen has a feeling, no, he is confident that there will be too many people the next time he does a livestream.
MJ immediately accepted since she had wanted that position for a long time. Gwen also agreed although she was nervous. Natasha agreed without thinking too much about it, even though she wouldn't be available all the time.
"Don't worry, Gwen, you're the police, judge, and jury; if you see anyone insulting Allen, ban them permanently," MJ joked, addressing Gwen's concern.
"One important thing, I usually allow swearing, trolls, and generally rude individuals, so don't be too strict when moderating."
Natasha remained silent the whole time.
"Aunt, will you feel better if I show you that I'll be fine?"
"And how do you plan to do that?"
"Remember the mysterious entity rewarded me, so I have many chests with things it gave me that I haven't opened."
Natasha looked suspiciously at Allen; she knew him well enough to know he was hiding something, but she believed he had his reasons, so she said nothing.
MJ already knew about the chests, so she just looked curious.
Gwen seemed somewhat skeptical. "Are you sure it won't harm you? That entity seems very suspicious."
"Well, it's hard to trust someone who gives you things for free, but the entity asks for fragments to give me something."
"A mutually beneficial relationship... huh," Gwen put her hand on her chin while pondering. She had seen him use Clown Crown and was very interested in how he obtained it. However, her main concern was that the abilities came from someone mysterious. Although Allen received his "Innocence" from a mysterious email and not from the system itself, but those were minor details.
Allen told the system to used the three hundred golden tickets while talking to the girls.
[Host, you obtained 249 gray chests, 31 green chests, 17 blue chests, and 3 purple chests, and you have twenty-four tickets left.]
'Ugh,' Allen felt a huge amount of disgust upon seeing that two hundred and fifty of the chests were gray, but he endured it silently; he'd had worse experiences in gacha games.
Allen used ten fragments to improve the system, which he appreciated because a certain mad scientist almost discovered the location of his world and one fragment to enhance Bullet Time. As a result, he had only two fragments left, which he used on two golden tickets to turn them into iridescent ones.
Is it cheating? Yes... but why is it cheating?
According to the system, the gacha rewards are adjusted to Allen's level, which means Allen is perfectly capable of using its content without endangering himself.
However, as they've realized, the higher the tier of the chest, the harder it is to use. What Allen got from a purple chest was the cursed energy from Jujutsu Kaisen. Even though it didn't inconvenience Allen, he's a beginner in its use. For now, he can only strengthen his body and use it in conjunction with the Gojo clan's abilities.
Don't think it's to mess with him; that restriction is for Allen's good. He can't handle the contents of a crimson chest firsthand.
At best, Allen won't be able to use the content from crimson chests. At worst, he'll end up harming himself, like when he used the six eyes, and that was after hellish training with Satoru Gojo. The most dangerous part was that when combining Gojo's abilities and purple-level cursed energy, Allen nearly committed suicide. By using fragments, Allen can bypass that safety restriction, but that's not necessarily good.
[Host, with the two Iridescent tickets, you obtained a crimson chest with a warning... and an Iridescent chest!]
'What?!'
Their surprise was understandable. A crimson chest had a set of abilities as ridiculously broken as Satoru Gojo's, and an Iridescent one must simply be absurd.
'But...'
[But]
«But»
The system allowed Wednesday to listen, and she also agreed. If Allen is lucky, he simply won't be able to use the content from the Iridescent chest; if unlucky, he'll die as soon as he opens it.
'Not worth it...' Allen stored away the Iridescent and crimson chests and focused on the others
.
Although Allen hates gray chests, he decided to open them first. Surely, at least one must contain something good.
[Host, there are many items of similar categories. Would you like me to group them?]
Allen nodded without much interest. The system combined the contents of similar gray chests into one.
After the upgrade, the system could see the contents of gray and green chests before opening them. With blue ones, it only knew if it was an item or ability, and with purple ones, it only knew if it was dangerous for Allen or not.
Allen approached the table in the living room, and a gray chest appeared in front of everyone.
"Oh, it appeared out of nowhere." Natasha's reaction showed interest but, as expected from someone who works in SHIELD, it wasn't too exaggerated.
MJ approached the chest expectantly. It's quite magical if you look at it from a certain perspective. On the other hand, Gwen opened her mouth in surprise as she watched the chest appear.
"That's breaking a lot of laws of physics..." Gwen said.
"Well, that's magic or whatever the entity uses as power," Allen shrugged.
"Allen, can I?" MJ asked with a coy smile.
"Go ahead, you don't have to seduce me for something like this," Allen laughed. Of course, opening green or higher chests would be dangerous for them, as they are normal humans. However, with gray chests, there's no problem.
'What happens if there's an ability and someone else opens the chest?' Allen inquired.
[No one else can obtain abilities from them except you. If someone else opens it, the abilities would, in any case, come to you.]
That eased Allen's worry, but he also hoped to give them some defensive abilities. Gwen was in danger less than an hour ago.
[You can give them equipment or items if you're concerned about their safety or wait for a future system update,]
'Can that be done?!'
[External non-consumable items and equipment can be given to others, but there will always be a connection with the system. For example, even if you give a sword to one of your girlfriends, you can retrieve it from the system interface, even if she's in another world.]
'System, explain me the difference between internal and external equipment better.'
[Internal equipment, like Clown Crown, is linked to you and is non-transferable. External equipment would be like the knives you obtained from gray chests and used Wednesday.]
"Got it." Meanwhile, Gwen approached MJ, who was about to open the gray chest, while Natasha remained by Allen's side.
"Here we go." MJ swallowed nervously.
The chest opened, and both girls were covered in a gray light.
'System, is there a less conspicuous way to do this?' Allen shook his head.
The light vanished along with the chest, leaving thirty cards that faintly glowed on the table.
"What is this? A bicycle?" Gwen picked up a card with an image of a bike.
[Thirty gray-grade vehicles: a series of different vehicles without extraordinary abilities but useful for traveling in normal environments – to use them, find a suitable place and throw the card. Be careful to take enough distance and ensure no obstacles are present.]
(A/N: I reiterate that this is not the content of a single chest, but of thirty, but the system combined them into one, as they are of little relevance.)
"A motorcycle, a truck, even a tricycle, a skateboard, and a boat? What is this?" Gwen looked at all the cards without knowing what to think; they were like Yu-Gi-Oh cards.
Allen sighed; those were thirty gray chests, all containing only common vehicles... In other gray chests, there are clothing sets, provisions, and electronic devices. Are they useful? Yes, but considering that there are green chests that could give something like the Bullet Time ability, it's simply painful for him to see so many chests with common objects.
Gwen approached Allen, annoyed, holding the cards in her hand. "Looks like you were scammed, Allen. These things can't be a reward for risking your life."
Allen smiled and petted the blonde's head. "Don't worry, there are better chests with incredible content, but don't underestimate these cards."
Allen picked up one of the cards and threw it to the side; a magical circle appeared on the ground, and from it emerged a black skateboard.
"No way!" Gwen covered her mouth.
"I knew they couldn't be normal, hahaha," said MJ, then grabbed one of the cards. "Allen, what would happen if I threw this here?" the girl smiled mischievously.
Allen watched his girlfriend's antics indifferently. "A truck would appear, destroying my living room, and that would leave us homeless because probably the floor won't support the weight."
Mary Jane felt embarrassed and handed a card to Allen. "Sorry."
Allen thought for a moment, looking at the card. "Girls, you can choose the car you want."
"Seriously?!" Gwen said incredulously.
"Well, there are many, and I won't use them all."
Natasha looked at the cards. "Honey, are these vehicles registered?"
[All vehicles come with all the paperwork in order. Just keep in mind that registrations will adjust to the place where the cards are used.]
"It seems so..."
"That's absurd!..." Gwen narrowed her eyes suspiciously, but after thinking for a moment, it didn't seem so far-fetched. "I guess a miraculous entity should be able to register a car easily."
More chests materialized on the table, and the girls opened them one by one; one was filled with clothing cards.
[Set of good quality clothing, denim set, military set, rock set, mountain set, beachwear set, Barbie-style clothing set, James Bond-style clothing set, furry convention clothing set...]
The girls took the cards curiously, but unlike the land vehicle cards, these activated automatically.
"Wtf!" Gwen cursed.
"Hyaa!" MJ screamed.
"No!" Gwen appeared in front of everyone wearing a red bikini; she felt embarrassed and immediately ran to another room.
"..." Mary Jane didn't scream, but she appeared wearing a full-body fox suit; it wasn't the typical anime cosplay ears and tail; she literally had on a fox mascot costume.
MJ remained silent for a while and walked in front of Allen. "I... I'm going to change my clothes..." she said with a subdued voice. Becoming a furry affected her quite a bit.
"I understand, and don't worry, MJ," Allen encouraged her.