American comic: From Beijing with Love, starting with a mutant.

"Hoshino-kun!"

Shinji Ito, noticing that Lao Zhou was also on the rooftop, raised the lunchbox in his hand and gave him a bright smile.

Before he could speak, the blond guy next to Ito leaned in with a sly grin. "Is this the transfer student you were talking about... the one who looks like a yakuza and comes to school to collect debts?"

"I didn't say that!" Ito quickly waved his hand, pointing to the blond boy and explaining, "Hoshino-kun, his name is Mitsuhashi Takashi."

"A second-year student at Toyo High School, a future legend!" Mitsuhashi raised an eyebrow and proudly pointed his thumb at his nose.

"He and I were both transfer students in our second year."

Ito added earnestly, "We were classmates in junior high school."

Sanqiao chuckled, nudged Zhou Xingxing with his shoulder, and said, "I heard a new leader came to Class 3-D, and on his first day, he made all the boys in the class stand against the wall as punishment?"

The news spread so fast?

"The title of 'boss' is too flattering. I'm just assisting my classmates with discipline training."

"Discipline training?"

"Yes. Improve posture, cultivate a sense of collective honor, and enhance class cohesion."

Ito nodded seriously: "That sounds very reasonable."

The three of them then found a spot on the rooftop to sit down and have a meal.

Stephen Chow shoveled rice into his mouth and casually threw out a few questions about the distribution of power within the school.

For an agent, gathering intelligence is instinctive.

Using the natural cover of "transfer student's curiosity," he managed to extract information without any sense of awkwardness.

As soon as Stephen Chow stepped onto the rooftop, his ears caught the faint breathing sounds coming from above.

His breathing was long and steady, but unfortunately, it was mixed with a jarring rumble from his stomach.

"Do you usually eat here?" he asked casually.

"Occasionally," Ito replied quickly.

Mitsuhashi put the chopsticks back into the lunchbox: "On rooftops, it's first come, first served."

"Isn't that also part of the rooftop? Why don't we go there?"

Stephen Chow pointed to the other side.

A few steps away, a short ladder runs along the wall upwards, leading to a platform half a floor higher.

An old table stood at the edge of the platform, sheltered from the wind and offering a wider view than where they were sitting.

Mitsuhashi's mischievous grin vanished, and Ito stopped picking up food with his chopsticks.

From above the platform, a lazy voice drifted down at just the right moment: "Because there are already people up there."

Stephen Chow ignored these words and continued to poke at the shriveled plum with his chopsticks.

Mitsuhashi Takashi glanced upwards with a sly look: "Don't blame me for not warning you, those things up there are monsters our high school can't mess with!"

"A monster? Does it have three heads or five legs?"

Ito put down the lunchbox, his expression serious: "It's Serizawa Tamao. A third-year high school student, the leader of the Serizawa Gang. Everyone calls him the King of Beasts."

King of beasts?

Stephen Chow almost spat out the sausage in his mouth.

These Japanese brats are always talking about the strongest and the king of beasts.

Back in the day, he could wield a butcher's knife from the south street to the north street in the market without even blinking. Shouldn't he be called the Monkey King?

He's the king of beasts! Old Zhou is the master of dealing with all sorts of unruly beasts!

"Okay, okay, the king of beasts." Stephen Chow said dismissively, "So what does he eat? Does he eat people?"

Seeing that the transfer student was not following the rules, Mitsuhashi's eyes darted around.

"Don't underestimate him! Last month, dozens of students from the neighboring high school came to block the school gate and provoke us. Serizawa charged in all by himself and took them all down in less than five minutes!"

"Yes," Ito testified earnestly from the side.

"And a few days ago, one of his men was captured by another gang. Without saying a word, he single-handedly raided their hideout and carried the man back. He's a very loyal guy!"

"Um... Hoshino-kun."

Mitsuhashi's smile was as lewd as could be.

"Since you're so good at fighting, how about... joining forces with us to take down that King of Beasts?"

"Once you defeat him, your name, Hoshino Seiichi, will resound throughout all of Toyo High School!"

Stephen Chow coldly sized up the guy in front of him.

"You two are in second grade, right?"

"Only male protagonists in novels would do something like fighting monsters much stronger than themselves! Do you think this is a video game, where you can defeat someone and get a legendary sword?"

Just as Sanqiao opened his mouth, wanting to say a few more words of deception.

"Bang!"

A dark figure jumped straight down from the upper half-platform and landed next to the three people.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!"

The man straightened up. "You lot were all whispering and babbling down there, ignoring me for ages! It made me lose face!"

Mitsuhashi, terrified, hid behind Ito, who was ready to fight at any moment.

Only Stephen Chow held that meager lunchbox, without even moving his butt.

Is this Tamao Serizawa?

She has a good presence, but those worn-out leather shoes of hers are practically falling apart on the sides!

You're a big shot, huh?

Wearing this?

Tamao Serizawa completely ignored the two who were on high alert.

His gaze swept over the three bento boxes.

Ito's bento is a deluxe double-layered bento, while Mitsuhashi's is a fried chicken set meal.

As for Stephen Chow's share?

It looks pretty bad.

"Um..." Serizawa pointed to Mitsuhashi's lunchbox.

"Is your bento box big enough? I see you have a lot of fried chicken. If you have any extra, could you share a piece with me?"

Sanqiao's chin almost fell to the ground.

What's going on?

The mighty king of beasts, jumping down just to beg for food?!

Ignoring the stunned Mitsuhashi, Serizawa grinned at Zhou Xingxing again, "You're the new transfer student who arrived today? Hoshino Seiichi?"

"I heard you've been causing trouble on my turf this morning? You came in and immediately recruited those idiots as your underlings... Are you trying to steal my position as the third-year leader?"

Good heavens, I was sitting on the roof and a pot fell from the sky!

In the morning, he was labeled as the leader of a violent gang by his homeroom teacher, Ms. Xiaomei, and at noon, the school's gang leader came to his door to confront him.

"Misunderstand!"

Stephen Chow stood up and pulled over Takashi Mitsuhashi, who was standing next to him.

"It's all a misunderstanding!" Stephen Chow said righteously, pointing at Sanqiao.

"I'm a pacifist! What I did this morning was entirely to help my classmates correct their scoliosis! As for fighting for territory... ask this blond kid!"

Mitsuhashi, who had been dragged out of the room, looked completely bewildered: "Huh?"

"What?!"

"Didn't you just say that? You said you, Mitsuhashi Takashi, are the king of the second-year students at Toyo High School! You've been looking down on the third-year students for a long time, and today you're going to take down the king of beasts and make your name resound throughout the entire high school!"

Stephen Chow delivered a smooth and effortless retort, directly refuting the words that Sanqiao had just urged him to say.

"Oh, and he also said your hairstyle looks like that of a homeless person who hasn't washed their hair!" Stephen Chow added insult to injury at the last minute.

"When did I say his hairstyle looked like a homeless person's?!" Mitsuhashi screamed in despair.

"Look, you only denied the hairstyle, but not the fact that you wanted to take him down. That shows you're plotting to usurp the throne!"

Shinji Ito, watching anxiously from the sidelines, grabbed Mitsuhashi's arm: "Mitsuhashi! We want to challenge Serizawa, but you can't talk badly about him behind his back! That's unethical!"

"Ito, you idiot, shut up! Whose side are you on anyway?!"

Looking at the chaotic second-year duo, Serizawa Tamao scratched his neck and looked back at Zhou Xingxing.

"You're... interesting."

Serizawa pointed at Stephen Chow and clicked his tongue: "Those losers from Class 3-D are yours now. But... as a greeting gift, your sausage is mine."