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

Pier 17, north side of Newark Port.

A taxi and a Dodge Challenger came to a stop under a gantry crane.

The car door opened, and Snotty, wrapped tightly in his trench coat, sniffled wildly while peering around curiously.

Stephen Chow also got out of the car. He pressed one hand against his white felt hat and the other hand tightly against the inside pocket of his chest, looking pained.

"Nine thousand eight...nine thousand nine...ten thousand..." Stephen Chow muttered to himself, tears welling in his eyes.

Jiliu carried Anton, who was still unable to walk normally, off the bus.

Lorna and Amy followed closely behind.

"Don't feel sorry for him, it's good that he can walk."

Slug sniffed and pointed to a Panamanian-flagged cargo ship ahead.

"See that? That's the ship. The captain's name is Black Shark, a ruthless Latino guy who works with a bunch of outlaws. Don't say anything out of line later, just pay up and get on board."

Just as he finished speaking, a group of people came down the gangway of the cargo ship.

The leader was a bald, burly man with a black shark tattooed on his neck, and he was playing with a large-caliber revolver in his hand.

He was followed by a dozen fully armed thugs, each with a fierce look on their faces.

"Slug, is this the 'special guest' you were talking about?" Black Shark walked up to the group, his gaze sweeping over Zhou Xingxing and the others with arrogance.

"Shark Bro, yes, it's them." Snotty-nosed put on a fawning smile and turned to frantically wink at Stephen Chow.

"Where's the money? Give the money to Brother Shark right now."

Stephen Chow took a deep breath and made the most difficult decision of his life.

With trembling hands, he pulled out a wad of US dollars tied with a rubber band from his pocket and reluctantly handed it over.

"Ten thousand US dollars. Not consecutive numbers, no counterfeit bills, I counted it three times." Zhou Xingxing said through gritted teeth, "Take it. Please give me a receipt, addressed to 'Overseas Commuting Fee of the Seventh Urban and Rural Infrastructure Construction Team.' If you don't have an invoice, a blank slip with a personal stamp will do."

Black Shark didn't take the money; instead, he looked at Stephen Chow like he was crazy.

"Ten thousand? That was the previous price."

Stephen Chow's hand, which was handing over the money, froze in mid-air: "What do you mean?"

"The coast guard is conducting strict checks today; the wind is strong, and the risks are high."

Black Shark tapped the metal bucket next to him with the barrel of his gun.

"Five thousand per person. That comatose patient is a big problem, so that's ten thousand. That's thirty thousand in total."

Upon hearing this, the air seemed to drop to freezing point.

"Brother Shark, that's not what we said on the phone..."

"Shut up! Who gives you the right to speak here?"

Black Shark kicked Slug to the ground, then his gaze swept past Stephen Chow and landed brazenly on Lorna and Amy.

"However..."

Black Shark grinned, revealing a set of yellow teeth: "I see you guys can't come up with thirty thousand in cash. How about this, these two girls stay, consider it payment for your boat tickets. I guarantee they'll have a much more comfortable life in New York than at sea. What do you guys say?"

The dozen or so thugs behind him let out a lewd laugh.

Amy panicked a little. She was used to being treated as merchandise, monsters, or burdens. Instinctively, she took half a step back and hid behind Stephen Chow.

Lorna sneered, and her fingertips were already glowing green.

Just before the battle was about to break out, Stephen Chow shoved the ten thousand US dollars back into his pocket, then pointed at Black Shark's nose with a pained expression and started his crazy attack mode.

"Do you have a business license?! Do you have approval from the price bureau?! Don't you understand the concept of clearly marked prices?! Don't you understand the spirit of contracts?!"

Black Shark was somewhat taken aback.

This plot isn't right!

Shouldn't they be begging for mercy or fighting to the death? Why are there people asking for price bureau approval at the gang's dock?

"Do you even understand what you're doing?"

Stephen Chow grew increasingly angry, his finger almost poking Black Shark's nose: "This is unilaterally breaching a business contract! It's price gouging! It's monopolistic practice! It's disrupting the market economy! If this happened where we are, the market supervision administration would revoke your license and fine you until you have to pawn your pants!"

Black Shark's head was spinning from the barrage of insults, and he instinctively asked, "What game?"

"It's not over yet!" Stephen Chow said, spitting as he spoke.

"How dare you lay a hand on our female employees? They are key pieces of advanced productivity that China is focusing on importing! If you detain them and delay the construction, can you afford to compensate us? If you disrupt the nation's infrastructure plan, can you, as a gangster boss, bear that historical responsibility?!"

The sea breeze blew by, and even the dozen or so thugs looked at each other in bewilderment.

I wonder if I've encountered a severely delusional patient who escaped from a mental hospital.

"Fuck! Shoot this filthy, yellow-skinned monkey through the teeth! Kill the man and throw him into the sea, take the woman with you!"

Black Shark finally realized he had been tricked and roared in fury.

"Bang bang bang—"

The henchmen simultaneously pulled the triggers, spitting fire.

Lorna snorted and a dazzling green magnetic light burst from her fingertips.

The bullets that left the gun barrel suddenly stopped in mid-air.

Immediately afterwards, the assault rifles, shotguns, and revolvers in the hands of the thugs simultaneously went out of control, their barrels bending upwards at a bizarre 90-degree angle, turning into twisted pretzels.

"Jingle bells—"

The hovering bullets lost their kinetic energy and fell to the ground.

The thugs were dumbfounded as they looked at their weapons, now reduced to scrap metal.

Stephen Chow didn't immediately squat down and pick up the two bullets.

"Xiao Luo, could you be a little gentler when you control the magnetic field next time? You've crushed the warhead; they'll deduct the weight when you sell it to them for scrap!"

Lorna rolled her eyes: "They're trying to kill you, and you're worried about the scrap value?"

"Killing me is one thing, destroying recyclable resources is another. Let's keep things separate." Zhou Xingxing put the bullet in his pocket, stood up, and looked at Black Shark.

Black Shark's facial muscles twitched twice, and he slammed the revolver in his hand to the ground.

"Mutant, huh? I am too!"

Black Shark ripped open his shirt, revealing his muscular chest and the menacing black shark tattoo on his neck.

He roared, bent his knees, and fell straight down onto the hard concrete dock floor.

The expected head injury did not occur.

The moment Black Shark's body touched the ground, the hard concrete rippled like water. With a "plop," he disappeared into the ground!

Immediately afterwards, a sharp black bulge rose up from the ground.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a shark's dorsal fin.

Jiliu was somewhat stunned: "He's...swimming in cement?!"

"What the hell kind of power is this?!"

Just as everyone was shocked by Black Shark's abstract and bizarre mutant ability, Stephen Chow's eyes burst forth with an unprecedentedly fanatical light.

"What a talent!!!"

Zhou Xingxing pointed to the rapidly approaching dorsal fin on the ground, then turned to Lorna and shouted, "Lorna! Did you see that?! This is a once-in-a-century expert in trenchless underground pipe dredging!"

Lorna managed to suppress the magnetic shockwave she had prepared, nearly choking on her breath.

"……ha?"

"The biggest headaches in renovating old residential areas in China right now are clogged underground sewage pipes and aging cables! If we dig up the road to repair them, it disrupts traffic and we have to spend a lot of money to fill them in! If we don't dig, it's impossible to get through!"

Stephen Chow pointed at Black Shark with a pained expression: "But he's different! He can swim right underground! If the sewer is clogged, he can dive in, swim a couple of laps, and it'll be clear!"

Black Shark, who was preparing to launch a fatal attack underground, almost choked to death in the cement when he heard these words.

I'm the mafia boss!

It's a deep-sea shark that strikes fear into the hearts of everyone!

"I'm going to tear you to pieces!"