Marvel: Emotion Farming System

The bonus Chapter for 2.5k will be released in an hour, since I had to schedule this before.

Next bonus will be at 5k stones.

As always, get cracking.

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Colleen leaned against the reception desk. She had expected a fatal injury today. Part of her was even expecting to meet her end. However, she was suddenly in a different place, away from the sword strike that had almost reached her neck.

It confused the hell out of her, but she rested against the wooden drawers with a huge sigh. Her breath fogged up the mask from inside. The left hand felt the broken collarbone, making her wince a little.

Even with Chi circulation, she had no hope of rejoining the fight. And hearing the sonorous clashes in the smoke and the deafening booms, she wouldn’t be more than a liability even if she went in.

But more than that, the green smoke now stuck onto her bare skin, soaking her clothes in a heavy, sticky layer.

’I have been holding on, but it is getting to me.’ Her drowsy eyes glanced at the passed-out Harry and Susan. It seemed they had long succumbed to the smoke; there was no movement from upstairs either.

That’s when the smoke thickened further. So much so that she could barely make out the fingers of her outstretched hand.

Even with a mask, she couldn’t stop herself from falling unconscious.

That raised a question. Were the three who had continued to fight inside this mist for more than 10 minutes even human?

One of them wasn’t a human. It was a machine recently built by AIM.

Taskmaster was given a special mask, contact lenses, and even a heavy dose of antidote by the maker of this smoke.

Then there was John. Even as he followed the two bouncing shields that kept ricocheting all over the place, even off each other. He only had one thought in his mind.

’Now there are two annoying mosquitoes!’ He clenched his jaw.

Even with most of his vision covered. He still had Observation Haki. The presence and intent sensing were doing the heavy lifting for him as he kept track of Adaptoid, Task master, and their two shields.

But even if he used Boogie Woogie, it was hard to land the decisive blow on Task Master. This bastard was playing defence with the aid of Adaptoid.

The good thing was that he could use Boogie Woogie. Even if the people in this world didn’t have cursed energy, they had its source. Negative feelings.

This negative energy became clearer as someone attacked another. And he could use that energy as his target thanks to Observation Haki’s emotion-sensing skill.

But because of that, John became more aware of the violent tendencies within himself. The same violence he had tried to suppress with Haki now flooded through his veins much more clearly.

[Hanma Bloodline (Awakening—93%)]

The number had been rising faster with each punch and kick. Every moment, he felt annoyed. With each step forward, he thought of how to destroy these annoying pests as the number kept rising.

And that familiar feeling of exhilaration started to rise from the pits of his bowels. It spread upwards. Climbing up, trying to take over his heart.

’I wanna go home...’ John gritted his teeth as Task Master made a rare attack, seeing him pause for a moment.

Task Master had done his best to study John’s attack patterns. Punch, kick, chops, knees, elbows, and sweeps. It didn’t take long for him to understand that his target used CQC at a respectable level.

But the thing that kept him on the back foot was the unnatural power behind those strikes. Sure, he could copy the moves and go blow for blow. Just that doing that was suicide.

He had no way of matching that explosive strength and toughness, even less of a chance to cause damage with his bare hands. Because this guy’s endurance was freakish in its own right.

He had matched his sword with bare punches and didn’t even get a white line on his skin.

And the current amount of drug released in this area was enough to put the entire city of New York to sleep. This guy had been inhaling that like it was perfumed air. Following after him with that crazed smirk.

’Even with my entire body covered and the antidote, I am starting to feel the effect a bit. But here he is, still at peak capabilities, if not stronger.’

That’s why Task Master lunged forward when he saw him distracted for a brief moment. Playing defence wasn’t the best option anymore.

But the moment his sword came down. John’s fist swung sideways. The side of the fist met the flat side of his blade. And with a little swipe, the strike headed towards the ground beside him.

Task Master quickly dove and rolled forward. Transferring the momentum from the swing’s follow-through into an evasive action to dodge the following low kick.

But while rolling, he felt the emptiness on his wrist.

’The shield.’ Getting back on his feet, he noticed it in John’s hand. The grin on his face seemed even wider now.

"This isn’t worth it." Task Master turned on his heel as John wound up, throwing the shield after him.

He ignored the yapping in his ear and studied the trajectory.

Dodging the shield, which travelled in a straight line, wasn’t that hard. He wasn’t worried about John’s place-switching technique either.

John couldn’t switch places with the shield, and the person he was switching places with needed to have both feet lifted from the ground, or else the switch wouldn’t work.

And, he was too busy dealing with Adaptoid to even pursue him right now.

’And those claps are the signal, a very dead giveaway.’ Task Master tilted his head to the right.

The shield went by him like a bullet as the door came near. And what followed was a clap that echoed in the silent hall.

’Who is he switching with?’ The answer came fast.

One moment Task Master faced the door. A moment later, a fist came into his view.

’Finally caught one!’ John had intentionally only used Boogie Woogie to switch places with Task Master when both his feet were in the air, and made it look like he failed the other times.

He believed that someone observant like him would pay attention to that detail. All that just for a moment when this annoying bastard would believe he could get away safely.

Now, without the shield, Task Master had nothing to block the attack. Adaptoid was near the door. Not enough time to reach him. Throwing the shield was also useless.

Facing the fist that closed in fast. All of Task Master’s senses kicked into overdrive. In a moment of desperation, he threw out a punch. Copying John’s movement on instinct.

’I shouldn’t have done that.’ He regretted it immediately.

The fists collided. But the stronger one prevailed.

Task Master saw his hand crumple like a metal jug under a hydraulic press. John’s punch dug right into his chest. His chest caved in. The wired vest, made to absorb physical blows, soaked up a ton of damage.

Even then, half of his ribs shattered as he flew back like a rag doll.

Crashing on the floor with a sharp pain going through his heart. Task Master only thought of one thing.

’I should be dead right now.’ The taste of iron dominated his mouth, almost choking him.

If the punch had landed at full power, he really would’ve died on impact. However, he sat up with a groan and looked at his target.

John stood in the middle of the room. His right arm outstretched and hazy black eyes.

"I owe Rappaccini an apology." Task Master spoke through the pain piercing his lungs.

After 20 minutes of inhaling the special compound YGH635469 in the midst of battle, John Grayson finally lost consciousness.

Well, rather than losing consciousness, it was more of him retreating deeper into his mind. His muscles had stopped moving; in fact, they had started relaxing.

But instead of falling, his body stayed upright as he looked at the system panel that had been blinking in front of him for 5 minutes.

[Hanma Bloodline (Awakening—99%)]

Unlike his expectations, he couldn’t get the last 1% for some reason. It was like a giant wall was caging him. And it really was. It was right in his face at this moment.

No matter how much he punched or kicked, no matter how much he slammed against this.

This impossibly tall wall didn’t budge one bit.

"Of course it won’t." Yujiro stood before John as time slowed to a crawl.

’This thing is here again.’ John mentally rolled his eyes.

"What is this? Some mechanism I have to break before I can use the full power?" He sat down on the white floor with a huff.

"Do you think the Bloodline is blocking you?" Yujiro laughed out loud, so loud that he almost teared up.

"Who else will?" John’s brow turned crooked.

Even more so when Yujiro pointed at him.

"You."

’How am I connected to the walls?’

"What have you been doing since you got the Bloodline?" It seemed that Yujiro could read his mind; well, this was a part of his mind anyway.

"Yes, I am the amalgamation of what you call Hanma’s urges, something that has been a part of you for a while now." He suddenly became calm, like a pool of still water.

"But why do you think I have this form?"

"Why not this one?" Yujiro’s body shifted. His height shortened, muscles deflated. Skin tone lightened. In a blink, he turned into his son, Baki Hanma.

"Or this one?" Then he phased into Yuichiro Hanma, Yujiro’s father. It all happened like a performer changing their clothes mid-act.

"How am I supposed to know that?" John sighed.

"Exactly." Yuichiro continued, cracking his wide neck as he crouched before him. He was a mountain of a man. And he would’ve looked more like a demon if not for his lax smile.

"You had already decided what these instincts meant the moment you first felt them, so they took the form befitting that and spoke with you."

John couldn’t say anything in response. It was true. Thinking back, he had instantly thought of Yujiro during the first time he fought. The craving for violence and that unbendable pride that made him lash out when someone looked down on him.

Who else would he think of if not Yujiro?

John didn’t want to turn into that type of person. He feared he’d become someone who wanted to fight all day, every day. He didn’t want to become someone who had little regard for others’ lives as long as it served him and made him stronger.

John never had any reason to prove his worth through strength after all. That’s what made his rejection of that part even stronger.

To John, suppressing that feeling was the most normal decision if he didn’t want to change into that. However, that had created another problem.

"Kid, you can never truly suppress what you don’t understand." Yuichiro was much calmer than Yujiro and a better explainer; that was for sure.

"This feels like a fever dream..." John had really stepped into the realm of Schizophrenia.

...

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