Dear Heroes, I really am a Villain

Inside the patient room, Strauss was listening to his assistant, who was reporting on the current situation.

"Howdy, Mr. Strauss. Heard you got shanked on your way home. How are you holding up?" Oldcowboy asked as he placed the get-well gift basket on the side table beside the bed.

"Other than being stuck here for another two weeks, nothing worth mentioning, Mr. Blackwood. Injuries just come with the job description," Strauss replied blandly, as if stating a simple fact.

"Seriously, Mr. Strauss? Nothing worth mentioning? Not even a curse? I heard the one who stabbed you was dressed like Nihilus." Oldcowboy looked incredulous.

He knew Strauss was a serious, grumpy, no-nonsense type, but this level of calmness—as if he weren't the one who'd been injured—was just ridiculous. He wondered if anything in the world could make this guy lose his composure.

Hearing Oldcowboy's question, Strauss gave a small nod to his assistant, signaling him to leave the room.

Once the door was closed, Strauss finally seemed to relax.

"I suspect that one of the UEC leaders may have decided that…. I'm… too inconvenient to be left alive," Strauss said with his usual composed tone.

"Why do you think that?" Oldcowboy asked.

"Because the one who tried to kill me appears to have been Manifesto—and the only person with the authority to order him around is Gideon Voss, the UEC Chief Secretary," Strauss replied.

Oldcowboy frowned and glanced around the room, scanning left and right as if to make sure no one was listening.

"That rat!?" he whispered, as if afraid someone might overhear his opinion of that particular leader.

Strauss nodded.

"So what are you going to do, Mr. Strauss? Do you have enough evidence?" Oldcowboy asked.

Strauss shook his head. "If we can capture Manifesto, we might have a chance to bring him down… but only a chance," Strauss said, lowering his voice.

"Do you have a plan yet? Want me to tell Atlas about this?" Oldcowboy asked, concerned.

"Right now? Not yet. But I do hope that the incident in the Fringe may have presented us with an opportunity," Strauss said.

"Oh? Is there anything I should know? Tell me," Oldcowboy said, now curious.

Strauss gave a small smirk before he began recounting what he had learned from the Fringe incident.

— Maximilian Cafe —

At the café, Max had decided to close for the day to get some rest. However, even though the sign outside clearly displayed that it was closed, the first floor remained open for friends and acquaintances.

A muscular man in a Hawaiian shirt and leather overcoat walked into the café. Maximilian, who was watching TV with Rebecca and Pierre on the café floor, turned toward the entrance.

"Hello, Mr. Ricardo. How may I help you?" Maximilian asked politely. Since he was still using the Max persona, he had to maintain a polite demeanor.

"Oh! The younger brother. Do you know where your older brother is? I mean... Mr. Maximilian," Ricardo asked casually.

"Huh? Older brother?" Maximilian was startled. Did this musclehead seriously think the Maximilian persona was the older one? He was pretty sure he hadn't told anyone which persona was older.

[It's reasonable though. Maximilian is your true identity, and Max is just for fun. When it comes to order, Maximilian should be the elder one. (´-ω-`)]

Atherna chimed in thoughtfully.

{That's reasonable, but what are you trying to get at?}

Maximilian asked, feeling suspicious.

[Nothing, just saying. (づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ]

"How do you know that I'm the younger one?" Maximilian asked, feigning surprise.

"Hahaha! Oh, Max, you just look like a pushover—too polite and nice. Your older brother, I mean… the boss, seems like trouble. So I just figured he must've been the one pushing you around before you became a martial artist.

"If I had to guess, you were probably bullied by your older brother all the time, until one day you'd had enough. So you ran off to train on a mountain with some hidden master, and now you've come back to smack your brother's face in! How close am I?"

Ricardo asked, sounding completely serious as he shared his vivid (and wildly inaccurate) theory about the relationship between Maximilian and Max, the two personas.

"Ahaha..." Maximilian could only smile wryly. Honestly, sometimes he was amazed by people's imagination.

"Then, may I ask—why are you looking for my brother, Mr. Navarro?" Maximilian asked calmly.

"There's some… unpleasant stuff that happened. It's bad for business. So… I think I need to inform the boss about it," Ricardo said, looking a bit unsettled.

Maximilian, even though he wasn't directly involved in Ricardo's business, still felt responsible. After all, he was the one who gave Ricardo the green light to start operating. So even if he didn't interfere, he needed to be informed.

He already knew that Ricardo's gang had run into some trouble during one of their protection runs. The target they encountered appeared to be far stronger than they could handle. Their usual training and suppression rounds weren't enough to subdue the troublemaker.

Whoever it was had enough strength to overpower Ricardo's men—despite their rigorous training. While they weren't trained to the extreme standards of special forces like the Blood Mongoose due to certain limitations (such as the lack of proper facilities for endurance runs, beach swims, or full field exercises), their CQC, firearms handling, and melee combat had all been honed to the limit, following the Blood Mongoose standard.

The only plausible explanation for their failure was that the opposing side either had a very powerful EF ability… or was somehow even better trained. But that seemed unlikely—most heroes with powerful EF abilities typically lacked serious combat training.

Which left only one logical conclusion: they'd run into a hero with both.

Someone like Photon Fury.

And this definitely wasn't the work of any local hero or villain...

Maximilian thought of a name that had been all over the media recently:

Manifesto.

Maximilian then remembered the man in black armor—the one who dressed exactly like him when he assumed the Nihilus persona. That guy… had the same powers as Manifesto.

It was hardly a coincidence. Especially not the kind of one-in-a-billion coincidence where someone happens to have the same powerful EF and just so happens to be in the same city.

Maximilian wasn't certain if the person who caused trouble for Ricardo's gang was Manifesto or not, but it was best to be prepared.

He reached into his inner pocket, took out a syringe, and handed it to Ricardo.

"This syringe contains an EF Evolution Injection. It's designed to evolve your EF into a more powerful form. My brother gave it to me a long time ago, but since I'm a blank, it's useless to me. Please, use it," Maximilian said.

"What? This… this kind of thing… is it real?" Ricardo was startled by the offer, but then his eyes grew determined. "No! Even if it is real, I can't accept it." He tried to hand it back.

"Please, Mr. Ricardo. Even if my brother were here, he would've given you something to increase your strength. You've helped him run the business, so it's only reasonable for you to receive this. Besides, I already have martial arts—and I'm a blank. I don't know what kind of reaction I'd have if I injected it. This syringe has never been tested on blanks before," Maximilian explained.

Ricardo paused for a moment, considering, then took the syringe—and jammed it into his arm without hesitation.

"Err… isn't that a prototype injection? It's not like a stimpack you can just stab into your arm like that… Shouldn't someone with medical knowledge handle it?" Rebecca said, clearly worried.

Ricardo swallowed hard. He hadn't thought of that. But now that he'd already injected the whole thing into his body… he could only hope he wouldn't die or mutate into some strange lifeform.

Seeing this, Maximilian let out a wry smile and quickly opened the System UI to share one of his EF abilities:

EF Ability Shared:

Adaptability Regeneration:

- Can regenerate limbs and all types of wounds, no matter how severe, as long as the brain has not been completely destroyed.

- Regeneration speed depends on the severity of the wound.

- Any regenerated wound or body part gains twofold resistance to the same trauma for 48 hours before returning to normal.

Maximilian decided to share this sub-ability of his main EF, Beast Sovereign Physique, with Ricardo. It would drastically improve Ricardo's survivability.

Coincidentally, it could also pass as the evolved form of Ricardo's existing EF—his basic wound regeneration. Perfect cover.

As for what was inside the syringe? It was just a standard light stim, something typically used for overworked salarymen pulling long shifts. Nothing special.

So there should be no adverse effects. And even if there were, the regeneration ability would have taken care of it.

After the injection, Ricardo felt like his ability had received a major boost—his body felt light. He quickly took out a knife and made a cut on his arm.

The wound appeared, but it quickly mended within seconds. A scab formed, but it looked unusual—more like a second layer of skin, resembling an armored shell rather than a normal scab.

Ricardo tried to cut the scab again, but the knife made a sound as if it had struck solid metal.

"This… this power," Ricardo muttered, startled by the transformation.