Chapter 17: The Second Apostle Reward

Russell had no intention of obeying Jasper's commands. He continued dragging him toward the mutated Jack.

When Jasper realized his orders were having no effect, the high-ranking Hydra officer who held a modest position even within Hydra headquarters suddenly did something no one expected:

"Please man, please let me go! I beg you, please! I don't want to die!"

It was unclear whether Hydra headquarters had any training in acting, or if Jasper was genuinely terrified, but he no longer resembled a high-ranking officer. Instead, he looked like a panicked elementary school student facing danger.

"If you spare me, I swear I'll leave Hydra immediately and never have anything to do with them again... I swear on my mother's name, I'll quit Hydra, absolutely, immediately!"

Jasper had stopped struggling and now pinned all his hopes on begging for mercy.

After hearing Jasper's pleas, Russell suddenly stopped, temporarily halting his plan to use Jasper as a sacrifice.

Although Russell had stopped moving, the mutated Jack wasn't about to wait patiently from a distance.

Noticing that Russell seemed distracted, Jack seized the opportunity and charged at him.

The loud thuds of Jack's footsteps drew Russell's attention back to him, but Russell still didn't let go of Jasper. Instead, he dodged Jack's attacks while dragging Jasper along.

Forced into this superhuman battle, Jasper felt like he was on a roller coaster. Aside from marveling at Russell's speed, all he could do was scream.

Once he finally adjusted to the speed of these superhumans, Jasper found another opportunity to speak.

"I never wanted to join Hydra in the first place. They found me in S.H.I.E.L.D...

They said if I joined them, they'd not only get me a promotion and raise at S.H.I.E.L.D., but I'd also get an extra salary from them."

"I was tempted and made a mistake by joining Hydra. Aside from collecting paychecks from both S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra, I've never done anything to hurt anyone, I swear!"

"I'm just a desk worker! I've never even done firearms training! I'm really not a bad person!"

By this point, Jasper was crying and sniffling, looking like a wronged elementary school student.

"Come on man, please let me go! I'm really not a bad person! Give me a chance to prove myself!"

Although Russell was carrying someone, his speed was still slightly faster than Jack's, so Jack couldn't land a hit.

However, what troubled Russell now wasn't Jack's attacks, it was the incessant babbling of the bald Jasper in his hands.

"Allen, catch this guy!"

With that, Russell threw Jasper toward Allen, muttering under his breath, "What a damn headache..."

The reason Russell spared Jasper wasn't because he believed his pleas for mercy.

Anyone who believed Jasper's words was an idiot.

Russell simply couldn't bring himself to sacrifice Jasper, and even if he did, he might not earn a Fate Point.

Although Allen didn't understand why Russell had grabbed Jasper only to let him go, he now fully supported Russell's decisions.

Even if he didn't understand now, he would eventually.

Unknowingly, Allen was becoming Russell's little fanboy, and the reverence was deepening.

In Allen's eyes, everything Russell did had a deeper meaning.

If he didn't grasp something, it just meant he hadn't reached Russell's level yet and needed to work harder, 'That's right, that's the only explanation!'

If Russell could hear Allen's thoughts, he'd tell him, "Kid, you're overthinking this."

After tossing Jasper back to Allen, Russell felt much lighter, but he was back to the original problem... he lacked a powerful enough attack.

Was he supposed to outlast Jack in a battle of endurance?

Or maybe engage in a blood-for-blood exchange, trading injuries?

Neither of these strategies appealed to Russell.

As Russell lamented his situation, he couldn't help but think that if he'd drawn a different reward during his first gacha pull, he might not be in this mess.

But what Russell never expected was that, as he was reminiscing about how he'd designed the DC Apostle system's reward pool, a mechanical voice suddenly echoed in his mind.

[Host has met the conditions for Fate Point distribution...]

[Distributing Fate Points...]

[Fate Point Quantity: 1]

Though it was just a short announcement, to Russell, it was like manna from heaven.

"Holy crap, this actually works!"

The moment he heard the mechanical voice, Russell immediately guessed the reason.

Jasper's earlier words must have been sincere, and his change of heart had significantly altered the future, prompting the system to award Russell a Fate Point.

'Initiate gacha immediately!'

With a thought, icons representing different rewards began flashing rapidly in Russell's mind.

[Gacha complete...]

[Host has obtained: Super Vision(Superman)]

When Russell saw the reward he'd drawn, his excitement turned to frustration, and he couldn't help but curse.

"Damn it! Even transmigration can't change my sh*tty luck!"

The gacha pool contained many powerful superhuman abilities and items.

But to increase the so-called "win rate" and for some less-than-noble reasons, Russell had split many of these abilities into segments during the game's design phase.

For example, originally, drawing the Kryptonian bloodline would grant power comparable to Superman's.

But Russell had split this into several, even dozens of segments...

Superman's super strength, super constitution, super vision, super speed, flight, and more were all separated into individual rewards.

This way, while every gacha pull guaranteed a reward, the value of the rewards was significantly reduced.

"I shouldn't have learned from those shady domestic companies. It's a curse on others and now myself. Damn it!"

If he hadn't split these rewards into segments, he might have drawn the complete Superman power set instead of just 'Super Vision', which was more auxiliary than useful for direct combat...