Fisk Great Lake City

Fisk Great Lake City had once been known as Salt Lake City, but now, it belonged to Kingpin.

The first person to rule this place had been Magneto. He had coveted its resources and mineral deposits, naively believing they would be the hope for the rise of mutantkind. But facts proved that his thinking had been somewhat one-sided.

During the first few years of the Brotherhood of Mutants’ rule here, those lawless mutants began oppressively retaliating against the local humans, causing people’s hatred of mutants to accumulate deeply.

Without ordinary people as laborers, local production soon ground to a halt. A strike on this scale had far-reaching effects. When people would rather move away than work, Magneto’s rule had already begun to backfire on him.

With no other choice, in order to maintain resource output and local development, Magneto had been forced to make contact with certain criminal organizations. He needed a large number of slaves to increase productivity, or his city-state would soon fall into a state where expenses exceeded income.

The influx of gangsters had indeed revitalized the place, but it had also challenged Magneto’s authority. Although they feared Magneto’s power and kept their heads down, Magneto understood that he was merely raising tigers that would one day threaten him.

But by then, it was likely already too late for Magneto to turn back.

For the poor common folk, they had no ability to control their own fate. Those earlier measures targeting mutants had nothing to do with them, and the laws hunting mutants had all been enacted by those in power. Toward mutants, they felt nothing but fear.

Was it wrong to be afraid?

They did not understand why they had to pay for other people’s mistakes. These mutants, having once been discriminated against, had begun venting the anger in their hearts on them. It was utterly unreasonable.

As for Magneto, he had also been in an awkward position at the time. His original intention had been to help mutantkind flourish, but after truly becoming a leader himself, he realized the importance of humans and mutants living peacefully together.

The two sides should have needed each other, rather than constantly creating conflict. To that end, he had even introduced quite a few policies benefiting the people, promoting the idea that mutants should care for and cherish humans, and that the two sides should accept one another.

The idea was good, but carrying it out was exceedingly difficult. Magneto knew all too well what kind of people filled the Brotherhood of Mutants. Those who had grown up wallowing in darkness did not understand what courtesy meant.

Perhaps they would put on an act when Magneto was present, pretending to have a good relationship with humans. But the moment Magneto turned away, they would twist off an ordinary person’s head the next second.

When the rule of law ceased to exist and everything returned to darkness, those who had "evolved" from human genes would once again submit to the law of the jungle. Only those with the biggest fists had the right to speak.

Here, countless ordinary people died at the hands of mutants almost every day. Though the numbers reported to Magneto were always concealed and falsified, with the deaths labeled as accidental injuries, Magneto was no fool. He knew exactly what sort of people served under him.

At that time, Magneto finally regretted it. He understood why Charles had spent his entire life searching for a way to coexist harmoniously with humans, and he also understood why the X-Men had needed to be created.

But unfortunately, it was all too late. By then, he was already too old. Too many people had their eyes on his position. Young mutants and gangsters alike—countless people watched him like tigers eyeing prey, any one of them ready to take his life at any moment.

In fact, it had already happened.

The gang boss who called himself the second-generation Kingpin had ended Magneto’s rule in one stroke, using poison and assassination after Magneto had grown too old to control magnetism.

The world was unpredictable. Who could have imagined that the ally Doctor Doom had admired so greatly, the opponent who had given the X-Men and Avengers endless headaches, and the formidable figure who had fought his entire life for his people would ultimately die miserably in his own bed?

Even more ironically, the thug had used nothing more than an ordinary bullet to assassinate Magneto.

Perhaps that was the unpredictability of life. Still, it was worth mentioning that Magneto’s death truly brought enormous changes to this place.

After the second-generation Kingpin slaughtered Magneto’s die-hard loyalists and drove out the remaining mutants, ordinary people here began living much better.

Though these gangsters also bullied them, at least people could tell the difference between taking a beating and losing their lives.

Kingpin renamed the place Fisk Great Lake City and continuously expanded his territory. By now, Kingpin’s sphere of influence even encompassed nearby Las Vegas, Nevada, Idaho, and Hammerfall City.

Logically speaking, Red Skull and Hydra would never have allowed such a "state within a state" to exist within their territory. But there was no helping it—Kingpin paid well.

Every year, the currency Kingpin offered Hydra alone accounted for two-thirds of Hydra’s total income. With a goose that laid golden eggs like this, Red Skull was naturally happy to take it easy and let him do as he pleased.

It could be said that throughout the western part of America, aside from the Hulk Gang, Kingpin was the most powerful presence.

Though he was merely an ordinary man skilled in combat, no one dared underestimate Kingpin’s influence, much less resist his rule!

"I really want to kill Kingpin in front of everyone."

Looking at the enormous statue Kingpin had built of himself from pure gold, Ashley sighed from the bottom of her heart.

"Keep your voice down. This is Kingpin’s territory. If you want to die, don’t drag us down with you, okay?" Pietro knocked Ashley on the head, making her glare at him furiously.

"What’s there to be afraid of? He’s just an ordinary person. I could punch straight through his chest." Ashley said angrily.

"Yeah, and the next moment, countless bullets would turn you into a sieve."

Pietro rolled his eyes and continued.

"I’m begging you, use your brain, okay? A guy who plotted Magneto’s death—how careless do you think he would have to be to give you a chance to assassinate him?"

"Then we can just charge in and kill him. Those useless idiots under him can’t stop us anyway." Ashley said stubbornly, while Venom also chimed in softly. "Exactly, exactly."

"Exactly my ass! You parasite, don’t lead my girl astray!" Old Barton angrily pointed at a fire hydrant.

"…"

Everyone fell silent at once, looking at Barton helplessly. There was no helping it—Old Barton’s glaucoma was getting worse and worse. By now, he could barely see anything at all, and he was not far from going blind.