Chapter 1835: Hero Name

Larissa stared at Ning with a blank look on her face.

"You’re kidding me."

Jack had stumbled out of his chair and was picking himself back up.

"Did you say Rank 9?"

Mira couldn’t bring herself to speak out of sheer shock at the news.

Ning had brought the three to the break room as soon as they were together and given them the news. Their reactions weren’t far off from what he expected to see from each of them, which made him laugh internally.

Larissa turned toward Mira. "What’s the rank of the number one hero?" she asked.

"Frostveil is Rank 7," Mira said. "Unless you were talking about Void, who is Rank 8. Rank 9 is one step above even Void."

Void’s powers were a mystery to many, even after his constant appearances, so no one truly knew how strong he was, except that he had never lost a single fight ever since he started working as a hero.

That made Ning’s Rank 9 even more surprising to the group.

"That should be news already," Mira said with a blank expression on her face.

"It probably is," Ning said. "I had to shut my phone because every agency kept calling me."

"No wonder we couldn’t contact you," Larissa said. "We thought you were still busy registering, so we let you be."

"What can you do exactly?" Jack asked.

"Turn into a bat," Ning said. "But I guess my actual power would have something to do with my strength and speed."

Larissa nodded. "You did save me from Waveshot’s blasts if I remember correctly. You were strong enough to defeat... uh, what spot was Waveshot at?"

"Twenty-two," Mira said.

"Right, a twenty-second-ranked hero."

"So, what now?" Jack asked, his claw-like fingers scratching his slightly scaly chin. His dragon-like slit pupils narrowed with excitement. "You’re going to become a hero, right?"

"Yes, but I’ll stick to being a helper here at the same time," Ning said. "I might not be around all the time, but I’ll still be helping out here. That’s part of my contract with my agency."

"Damn, you signed with an agency already?" Jack asked. "Which one?"

"Star Hero Agency. The female lawyer with Waveshot gave me her contact info, and I decided to join them," Ning said.

"You should have waited," Jack said. "Who does the Star Hero Agency have?"

Mira shook her head. "I think Trackmaster is with them, but I can’t be sure."

"That’s the fairy with music hypnosis powers, right?" Ning asked. "Yeah, he’s with them. There’s also Rustking and Kickstar. Those are the only ones they told me about."

"Oh! Rustking is ranked sixteen, and Kickstar is ranked eight in the city," Mira said. "That’s not bad, really. And now they’ll have you. You’ll quickly reach the top ranks once you start."

"Well... I wouldn’t be so sure," Ning said. "These rankings are based on public votes, right? I would have to become a public figure to get voted, and I don’t know if I can do that."

"Any rank is good, though," Mira said.

"I think we’ve talked enough about this," Larissa said. "If we continue, there would be no end. Instead, let’s get back to work. We’ve brought back the footage, so go through it. See how the minotaur came to die."

"Okay!" Mira said in a cheerful voice and left.

Jack moved from the chair onto the sofa. "I’ll try to catch some naps. I didn’t get much wink last night."

"Take your time," Larissa said. "I think I won’t be needing your physical assistance this time around with our new hero here."

Jack smiled and lay sideways. "By the way, did you think of a superhero name yet?" he asked.

Ning paused. "No. Do you have any suggestions?"

Jack thought for a bit. "You can turn into a bat, so maybe... Batm—"

"Blackfang," Larissa said at the same time, drowning out Jack’s drowsy voice. "It works because bats have fangs, and you as a daywalker do too."

Ning thought for a moment. "Blackfang... I can work with that."

Jack grumbled slightly that his suggestion wasn’t even heard but quickly gave up because he too liked the name Blackfang.

Ning walked out of the room, quickly sending a message to Melly regarding his new hero name. It was better to give her the information quickly just in case she needed it for the contract they were going to create.

His phone wasn’t bombarded with calls anymore, so he could finally use it properly again. The other agencies should have gotten the information regarding him joining the Star Hero Agency by now.

’They shouldn’t know about my powers, right?’ he thought. ’Unless one of those testers leaked it, but in that case, I can’t do anything.’

He put his phone in his pocket and walked up to Mira, who was going through the camera recordings.

"It doesn’t capture the area next to the sewer," she said when she noticed Ning and Larissa walking up to her. "But there is something here."

She replayed a part where the minotaur walked down the street next to the sewer, and three figures walked through a few seconds later, following him.

"Three humans?" Ning asked before narrowing his eyes. "Or not. The quality is confusing me."

"Nope. See the ears?" Mira said, zooming in. "Two elves. Or more accurately, two drows."

"And the last one is a woman," Larissa said. "I will bet everything I own that this woman is a vampire."

"I wouldn’t want any part of that bet," Mira said. "I’ll print out the three pictures."

"Do that. We’ll go back to the bar and see if these were the ones that were involved," Larissa said.

Ning turned. "Were there bite marks on the minotaur’s body?"

"No," Mira said. "Vampires don’t drink minotaur blood, right? I heard they only like those who don’t have beast blood mixed in them."

The two turned to look at him for a response.

"What? I’m a half-vampire. I don’t drink blood," Ning said. "Get those pictures ready. We’ll leave right away."