The giant mosquito plague in Lone Star City entered its ninth day. Independence City and the two neighboring states were still in a state of emergency. Although sightings of giant mosquitoes had decreased outdoors, a new wave of terrifying disaster had just begun—after feeding on human blood, the mosquitoes started laying eggs inside living bodies.

The President of the United States ordered the military to defend state borders at all costs, ensuring that the bloodsucking mosquitoes and infected individuals carrying eggs would not make it north into Texas and Louisiana. Despite all efforts to block them, some mosquitoes and infected individuals inevitably entered the two southern states via the east-west highway of Lone Star City.

Luckily, as long as the larvae didn’t get enough human blood to grow and lay eggs, the pest numbers were going down.

The federal government announced nationwide that the bloodsucking mosquitoes were within the capabilities of ordinary citizens to handle. It advised citizens to actively attack and protect themselves if they encountered such creatures.

However, once bitten and injected with digestive toxins, death was inevitable. Those suspected of having eggs laid inside them had to be immediately transferred to designated isolation hospitals for surgery to remove the eggs or larvae.

Meanwhile, people in the worst-hit areas continued to live amidst the battle—or rather, they fought in their daily lives. Who knew if cockroaches would also grow larger in the future? It couldn’t hurt to practice with mosquitoes first.

Screaming while swiftly spraying the giant mosquitoes with the special insecticide distributed for free by the Grimm Group, and then grabbing a hammer or directly stomping on the foreign invasive species, became a new skill for the women of Lone Star City. One could only say that women were often more vigilant than men, which led to a higher mosquito kill count. The positive side effect was that sexual harassment and assault cases had dramatically decreased.

Nemo lay on the bed, examining the faint bruise marks left on his arm. Since the insect plague began, he and Tolya had stopped practicing their sparring, so he had no new injuries.

First of all, it was ridiculous to practice outdoors with giant mosquitoes flying around.

It wouldn’t work indoors either, as neighbors would complain about the noise, and afterward, there’d be a mess to clean up. In the end, both Nemo and Tolya agreed that they had to maintain their physical fitness at all times , while combat training would have to be put on hold for now.

Tolya needed it to handle the high intensity of delivery work and the mosquito threat, while Nemo had been diagnosed with severe autonomic dysfunction by the Grimm Group's health check, requiring plenty of rest.

After the plague began, the wealthy man shamelessly informed boss Liu and Sunny Jie, which led to Nemo being forced by everyone to focus on recovery, delaying any further training.

" Hey, why has your secure phone been busy all the time recently? Your replies seem to be taking longer too. Who are you chatting with before you go to sleep? I can't get through to you! Wait, you even deliberately cut off my calls!" Matthew, probably losing it from all the detoxifiers and secret projects, decided to bother Nemo in search of psychological relief.

Nemo believed Matthew was just bored and pretending to be dumb to trouble him.

Did the rich man not know Nemo’s communication records?

"Your new hero, Salamander, needs some advisors' suggestions for action and friendship connections."

"When did she get your secret number?"

"She saved us that night, on the rooftop across from the Grimm Tower. I asked her if she wanted my secure communication number, so she could contact me if needed."

"Why did you voluntarily give her the number I gave you? This isn't fair!"

"Like-minded people, couldn't help it."

"What? I haven’t broken up with Angie yet!"

"Who you break up with has nothing to do with it. We're just fellow countrymen, talking about the Taiwan Strait situation, planning to organize civilian activities for military fundraising in the future." Nemo wasn’t lying, just omitting some details.

"Why are you chatting with my girlfriend before bed? Shouldn’t you just chat with me to avoid any misunderstandings?"

Nemo was silent. Normally, a boyfriend and girlfriend would go off and enjoy their own private time, leaving Nemo to enjoy his online space in peace. But now Angie wanted to erase her black history, and Nemo had to cover for her. Matthew, on the other hand... was never normal.

"Can you speak Chinese with me? American? AI translations don’t count, I mean gossip and idle talk in the native tongue, just a relaxing time."

Matthew let out a series of heartbroken sobs from the other side of the phone, so fake that Nemo wanted to shove his head into the trash can.

"Don't you want to know the accurate pest disaster data? I have first-hand information!"

"Spill it!"

"Only about 5% of the original bloodsucking mosquito larvae are left, and they won’t increase anymore. This means bloodsucking behavior and direct fatalities are greatly decreasing. The mosquitoes capable of laying eggs have tripled in size and now have stripes, making them easier to identify, and the targets are larger, with the public now more aware and prepared."

"How many mosquitoes is that, exactly? Is it an estimate based on the abilities of ‘NGOs’ extracting information from Mosquito Man?"

"Let’s just say there are still around three digits worth. They were deliberately dispersed in sparsely populated areas before the charity gala, some kind of deceptive biological weapon, so cleaning them up is more troublesome. But Salamander has a special talent for detecting and capturing bloodsucking mosquitoes. We’re lucky to have a hero who is a natural enemy to them."

"She didn’t eat them all, right?" Nemo asked with concern.

"If it helps with her ability evolution, I would encourage her to eat more. The larvae directly produced from the Fragment seem to provide special energy. But when it comes to the sub-adults that have started to lay eggs, Salamander uses her tongue to curl them up, bite them to death, and discard them. She needs special energy to support her transformation time and mobility. Human technology hasn’t yet been able to provide her with this kind of supply." Matthew said.

It wasn’t that the sub-adults lacked nutrients, but eating them was equivalent to consuming humans, which was an absolute taboo for shape-shifting superpowered individuals who retained their human consciousness.

In theory, the temptation to consume fully nourished sub-adults, with their egg sacs grown, would be stronger for Salamander, meaning Angie would need to exert more effort to suppress her predatory instincts.

"Isn’t there Leviathan? His energy is so vast that just a tiny bit would be enough for Salamander. But I haven’t seen him eat the east coast monster; he must have other ways of supplementing his energy." Nemo’s anger flared again.

"Although the superhero rankings place Leviathan and Salamander in the same category, they belong to completely different power systems. Leviathan’s mystery surpasses even Michael. You’ve seen Michael with your own eyes, did you get the gist of it?" Every hero was special, but also isolated. Matthew bluntly stated this harsh fact.

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Nemo fell silent. "You should be the one protecting Angie more than me, don't let me down, my friend."

"I’m sorry, I just respect her will. I swear I haven’t influenced or pressured her to fight, but she does need an outlet." Both Matthew and Nemo knew Angie’s grief from losing her mother and her self-doubt about her powers. She was desperate to get stronger, even at the cost of acting recklessly.

"I originally asked for Salamander to receive your training and protection, to have enough time to grow, not to be thrown into real combat right away. Now she’s on the battlefield devouring monsters, and learning fast. This shouldn’t be happening—can her mind handle it?" Nemo questioned sharply.

"But Lone Star City can’t do without her now. The orders aren’t from me, they come from the U.S. military generals. As a civilian, she’s not obligated to obey military commands, but Salamander says heroes should face challenges. Since this is her stage, she wants to give a perfect performance."

"All performances have an end time. You’re the investor, you need to call it off when it’s time, you can’t let the military think they can command a superhero. This will have very bad consequences." Nemo said.

"Do you know, Nemo? Sometimes your thinking and actions resemble your state before amnesia. Perhaps your body instinctively draws on subconscious experience to deal with crises. I just hope you don’t suppress the signs of recovery. This is also a hint about your original identity." After saying this, Matthew left some time for the curly-haired youth to reflect, before continuing to reveal other unpleasant truths.

"The government and investors actually don’t want me wasting time on monsters that can be dealt with using current weapons. There are bigger threats that could arrive at any time."

"I get it. The president wants you to bring out a secret weapon to fight Godzilla, but instead, you’re researching detoxifiers and giant mosquito insecticides." Taking advantage of Matthew not being able to see him, Nemo popped a painkiller into his mouth, grabbed the glass of water from the nightstand, and swallowed it along with the pill.

He still got headaches from time to time, though Matthew claimed it was more stress-related than from old injuries. Nemo hoped to solve the problem at its root, but he couldn’t deny that painkillers were still very convenient. At least, when his external injuries were nearly healed, he switched from ibuprofen to acetaminophen, always within a safe dose. He rarely consumed alcohol either, and that alone showed a level of self-discipline that most Americans couldn’t match.

The downside is that his pain can only be alleviated at best, never completely vanishing. It seems that a part of him even welcomes this clarifying, painful sensation.

"Actually, NATO and the UN are working on it too. Their research results are either too slow or too expensive. They’re just waiting for my breakthrough and then they’ll put political pressure on the U.S. to allow humanitarian authorization." Matthew certainly had the capital to be this audacious.

"So what?" Nemo coldly retorted.

"I like this reaction from you." Matthew chuckled lightly. "So, half a day ago, I called Salamanda back to headquarters, and after checking that she was fine, I gave her a new mission: to decide the locations of private bases for every hero working with the Grimm Group on my territory. As her boyfriend, I’ll help her build a secret base. No one will be able to find Salamanda, my cute little lizard."

"So you were just playing me earlier?"

"I just wanted to test our mutual understanding, and found out that you really don't have much faith in me." Matthew complained.

"Maybe it's because I have more faith in Angie." Nemo replied with this cryptic line.

"What do you mean?" Sometimes Matthew couldn’t understand what Nemo said, and it was a fresh experience for him.

Although Matthew didn’t understand mind-reading, almost every human in front of him was like an open book.

However, on occasion, he did come across something resembling oracle bone script—a book titled Nemo Captain after its English translation, which might reference the so-called "Eastern mysterious creature."

"Taiwanese girls and Taiwanese guys are basically two completely different species." Nemo commented slowly. "Although individual differences shouldn't be generalized, maybe you could say there's some ethnic characteristic."

"Like what?"

"Girls like CEOs."

" Very well, I am both a CEO and a CTO, and not only that."

"Correction, the CEO in novels and movies."

"But I’m more impressive than fictional CEOs. In fact, fictional works even use me as a reference for character models."

"I've already given you the answer. You can ponder it when you have time; if you're too busy, just pretend I didn’t say anything." Nemo spoke with finality. It seemed, based on their conversation, that Matthew probably didn’t have much hope with Angie.

Matthew clearly didn’t care much about relationships; he was always discussing global issues or life-and-death topics. No wonder Angie didn’t want to disturb him.

No matter how cute the CEO in novels and movies was, in reality, if a boyfriend didn’t show any feelings or even caused trouble, a girl might treat him like an appendix—easy to cut off without regret. Even if she couldn't do it right away, it would still be an inflamed appendix.

It's okay to eat whatever you want, but you should never speak without thinking. The night before, Matthew had jokingly mentioned breaking up in a phone chat, and the next day, Taiwanese supermodel Angel held a press conference to announce their peaceful breakup.

The woman made a public declaration that she had fallen for a certain superhero during the giant mosquito disaster and had decided to remain single, silently supporting him from afar.

This new relationship of Matthew's didn’t even last two weeks. The media, embarrassed to gloat, praised Angie for not caring about fame and fortune, and instead admired the surprising purity of her affection for a superhero, as well as Matthew Grimm's gentlemanly demeanor.

"Nemo—did you know Angie was going to break up with me?" Matthew, for once, wasn’t afraid of Nemo's morning grumpiness and called him to complain.

Lucky for him, Nemo had been well-rested recently, waking up early and in a relatively calm mood.

" I suggest Angie communicate with you properly. Are you both too busy, or is your radar broken, and you couldn’t interpret the reason why Angie was charging into battle? Did you really believe it had nothing to do with you? You just told her to pick a location for her secret base, but didn't accompany her to explore it? You didn’t even take her to the Lakeview Villa for the night?" Nemo hugged his pillow and turned over.

"The Lakeview Villa is only accessible to those with enough authority..." Matthew realized he was at fault and fell silent.

"You trust Salamanda more than Angie, because Salamanda has my guarantee. And you trust me far more than Salamanda, because I have a guarantee from one of your closest friends. Matthew, girls aren’t fools."

"I do have feelings for her. I think she's a smart, genuine girl..."

"Don’t worry, the trust thing I said is just for show. The main reason isn’t that—it's got nothing to do with me. Angie never expected you to trust her. The real issue is, after you published her unflattering video, how did you expect her to keep dating you? Dream on!" Nemo put it bluntly.

"Suppose I didn’t release Salamanda's combat footage, how could the U.S. military and other superheroes know she’s an ally? What if they mistook her for a monster and killed her? The only real footage of Salamanda we have is from when we were trapped in the black Ford, and that was our first contact—the most shocking and realistic." Matthew felt extremely wronged.

"Hmm, that last scene where you climbed onto the big lizard’s back was straight out of Princess Mononoke. It was so touching, the Grimm Group stock shot up 7%, a huge breakthrough from the previous peak."

Matthew sheepishly said, "You don’t even watch financial news, do you?"

"But the restaurant customers do. They said that Lone Star City’s first encounter with a monster was thanks to Matthew Grimm and the new hero working together, notifying the superheroes across America for a timely rescue, especially Michael’s key strike that captured the Mosquito Man and prevented the giant mosquitoes from multiplying." Nemo mocked.

"Should I try to win her back?" the billionaire cautiously asked for the chef's advice.

"If you just want to salvage Angie’s dignity, don’t. In the future, she’ll be your lifesaver and superhero. Doing this will make her happier." Nemo said, rarely speaking from the heart.

"Oh." Matthew let out a dejected sound, which made him sound less mysterious than the world imagined.

But Nemo still didn’t believe Matthew Grimm would ever truly let his guard down. Perhaps he just mixed real emotions with his usual performance.

"I’ve been dumped again. How are you going to comfort me?" Matthew asked pitifully.

This line sounded eerily familiar.

"As I said before, what does it have to do with me?"

"You have a lot of responsibility for this whole thing. After all, you interfered too much between me and Angie." Matthew shifted to his business negotiation mode.

"If you want to blame someone, blame Michael for being so cool and powerful. Angie saw him subdue the Mosquito Man from the rooftop. Which girl wouldn't fall for a superhero like that, especially one who drops down from the sky during a crisis? By the way, Taiwanese girls like those with wings too."

"Are we talking about the same thing?" Matthew asked, confused.

"The media doesn’t know the truth, but we were there. The only superhero to appear was Michael. Angie’s press conference was just her confession to him. Admiring strength is instinctive; falling for someone takes just a moment."

Matthew refused to face the cruel fact that the rich tycoon lost to the handsome angel. He had been praised and wrapped in the media bubble for too long and needed to face the real world.

"I just didn’t want Salamanda to be controlled by the Grimm Group and you from the start. You agreed to let her live independently. As a friend, my concern has never crossed the line." Nemo said proudly.

"No, I think you really don’t understand. Never mind, it's better if you don’t." Matthew sighed deeply.

"All done? I want to take a nap." After Matthew’s mixed complaint and passive-aggressive morning call, Nemo felt like his head was heavier again.

" Wrong, I am not okay. How do Taiwanese people comfort their friends after a breakup? You were so good to Angie. I demand equal friendship services." Matthew insisted, remembering how Nemo had decisively won the cold war at the Lakeview Villa.

"Rent a few movies or pick a favorite game, buy some snacks and beer, and just hang out watching TV and complaining." Nemo said, based on internet stereotypes and TV shows. He hadn’t had any friends who needed comfort after a breakup before he transmigrated.

"Sounds like Americans, though I’ve never experienced it. Is this how you comfort your roommates?"

"I don’t know Tolya’s relationship status. He goes to bars all the time, so he’s probably single? We have movie nights in the living room, no need to wait for him to be heartbroken." Nemo reflected.

He hadn’t seen Tolya go through a breakup, but Nemo had amnesia, so he could only assume that Tolya hadn’t been dumped this year yet and probably hadn’t even managed to get a girlfriend.

Matthew seemed shocked, his voice trembling: "You’re so nice to everyone except me?"

"They don’t hide their motives when approaching me." Nemo scoffed.

"It’s because I’m trying to help you heal! I haven’t slept in over a week, and both you and Angie teamed up to hurt my heart. I was still calling the shots at the Lakeview Villa! You owe me two vacation dinners! And didn’t you practice fighting with your roommate? I can teach you a few moves! I have a championship belt as a sparring partner! Also, you need to familiarize yourself with my survival gear and backup forest base, otherwise, wouldn't my ultimate secret have been told to you for nothing?!"

Nemo almost wanted to duct tape Matthew’s mouth shut.

"Wait until the disaster settles down in a few days, the restaurant needs me," the curly-haired youth instinctively tried to make an excuse.

"Don't try that. The Westlake Restaurant is now doing bento box business. It’s something that can be handled by hiring a few temporary chefs and waiters. Don't you want to give your refugee compatriots a little extra income and earn my high private chef's allowance?" This rich guy knows everything about Nemo's daily life.

Nemo was really annoyed by this rich guy. All right!

Recalling how Matthew had indeed treated Angie impeccably during their brief relationship, Nemo reluctantly agreed to visit the Lakeview Villa once again to accompany the busiest tycoon, who had been tirelessly dealing with the insect plague, for a two-day respite.

Nemo was now restricted by Sunny Jie and Boss Liu. They had told him that unless his next medical check-up results showed significant improvement, he wouldn’t be allowed to work as he had before and was strictly prohibited from staying up late every night!

Anyway, the billionaire's money was not something he should let slip away. As for movie nights, it meant he could binge-watch movies until sunrise and then sleep like the dead. Now, that was relaxation! After the insect disaster, Nemo truly needed to practice controlling Matthew’s doomsday base.

Nemo didn’t forget to add a condition: "I’ll choose the movies, and I won’t accept any objections."

"That’s fine! But I’ve already thought of a romance movie: The Shape of Water. Would you like to consider it...?"

"Rejected!"