Chapter 6: Celia's Potion of Fortune

That evening, Luke’s adoptive father, Foggy, still hadn’t come home. It was past ten when Luke, already in bed, heard a commotion downstairs.

He got up to investigate and saw immediately the injured Matt Murdock, being helped into the living room by Foggy and Karen. Daredevil was covered in blood, clearly badly wounded.

From his spot by the stairs, Luke listened as Foggy and Karen argued heatedly.

“No, we can’t take him to the hospital—absolutely not. Those people will make a move; the whole block is under their control,” Foggy said, his voice tense.

“But he’s lost so much blood! If we don’t get him treatment, he’ll die!” Karen protested.

“I know, I know! Let me think…” Foggy paced for a moment, then said, “There’s no other way. Karen, go get the medical kit. We need to get the bullets out of his body.”

“Oh my God.” Karen covered her mouth, momentarily stunned, before hurrying off for the kit.

Matt Murdock, still in his Daredevil suit, was sprawled unconscious on the sofa, motionless as a corpse. From Luke’s vantage point, he could see at least three bullet wounds on Daredevil, all still bleeding.

He heard Foggy muttering desperately, “This is all my fault… I never should have gone to that underground casino with him. The Roulette Casino is the darkest, filthiest place in Hell’s Kitchen!”

Foggy hung his head in defeat, overcome with guilt for Matt.

Karen returned with the medical kit, laying a comforting hand on Foggy’s back. “This isn’t your fault. They’re after you, and Matt would never let them get to you. Let’s help him stop the bleeding, quickly.”

At that moment, Karen caught sight of Luke standing on the stairs—she had no idea how long he’d been there. She flashed him a strained smile and urged, “It’s alright, honey, go back to bed.”

Luke said nothing, glanced once more at the sofa, and went back upstairs.

In his room with the door closed, Luke sighed. He’d known something like this was bound to happen, it was just a matter of time.

From the few words his adoptive parents exchanged, he could tell that Daredevil had been shot during tonight’s vigilante work.

In the endless array of heroes and villains in the Marvel world, Daredevil’s abilities were actually rather average—at best, middling. Aside from his heightened senses, his physical abilities were still within the realm of a normal human. He didn’t have the comprehensive enhancements or superhuman resilience and healing of heroes like Spider-Man.

He was still essentially flesh and blood, and that was his greatest weakness. As a vigilante, he was more than a match for common thugs and street punks, but when it came to facing members of New York’s underground gangs—people armed with weapons, often guns—especially when outnumbered, his shortcomings became clear.

Tonight was a case in point.

In a place like Hell’s Kitchen, “dangerous” didn’t even begin to describe it.

Hell’s Kitchen, also known as Midtown West, is a neighborhood on the west side of Manhattan. Once a notorious slum, it was home mainly to Irish immigrant laborers, infamous for its crowded, squalid living conditions, ethnic strife, and high crime.

Today, Hell’s Kitchen is a haven for gangs. The Russian mob, Japanese yakuza, Triads, Mexican cartels—all sorts of criminal organizations lurk there, carrying out their illicit trades. It’s a chaotic place with virtually no law and order—truly deserving of the name “Hell’s Kitchen.”

Later, the area became the domain of the supervillain Kingpin.

At his height, Kingpin controlled nearly seventy percent of all criminal enterprises in America—drugs, smuggling, arms trafficking, gambling, extortion, human trafficking, murder, arson—no crime was beneath him. He had connections in both the underworld and legitimate society, even in Congress, making him a formidable foe.

In such circumstances, it was easy to imagine how difficult it must have been for Daredevil to fight alone.

It wasn’t until Spider-Man, the Punisher, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones, and other heroes joined the fight against Kingpin’s criminal empire that the situation began to improve.

But right now was Daredevil’s darkest hour.

Only a handful of friends who knew his identity were helping him, and they were all ordinary people—among them, Luke’s adoptive father, Foggy Nelson.

To help or not to help? Luke hesitated for a moment before sighing, “Forget it, I’ll help.” He had a certain respect for Daredevil. Aside from Daredevil’s status as a champion of the weak, Matt Murdock had always been kind to him as a child, never treating him differently for being adopted by Foggy and Karen.

Moreover, from his adoptive parents’ conversation, Luke realized that Foggy himself had gotten entangled in this mess.

That meant the whole family could be in danger.

Those gangsters knew nothing of mercy or family—here, gangland vendettas and massacring entire families weren’t uncommon.

Luke decided to take matters into his own hands.

He couldn’t say for sure that he was stronger than Daredevil, but he did have certain innate advantages.

“Are you finally going to make your move? I can feel my blood boiling! Tonight, the glory of the Apostle will shine forth—hallelujah!” Lotus had been waiting for this moment.

“You’re cold-blooded. You don’t have boiling blood.”

“It’s just a metaphor, kid. Aren’t you excited? Aren’t you fired up?” Lotus chattered excitedly.

“Token exchange rates are outrageous—fifty bucks for a mystery box? That’s daylight robbery!” Luke ignored the chatter. He planned to try his luck with his burger profits and see if he could draw something useful from the system’s magic boxes—like a healing potion.

At least, he could save Uncle Matt’s life downstairs.

Even without his help, Daredevil probably wouldn’t die. But he couldn’t be sure if his presence might trigger some butterfly effect. If Daredevil died under his nose, that would be a disaster.

Luke went for a tenfold pull, spending $500—his hard-earned cash gone in a flash.

System prompts echoed in his mind as the boxes were drawn.

The results were disappointing. He didn’t get the healing potion he wanted, nor were there any skill books—but there was something else.

He stared at the small vial that had appeared in his hand, his expression shifting. “Seria’s Lucky Elixir? What’s this for?”

“It doubles your luck for an hour,” Lotus explained.

“Seriously? Is it really that miraculous?” Luke was surprised.

“You could test it by jumping out the window. If you don’t break a bone, it must work,” Lotus suggested, as dark and unreliable as ever.

“I’ll pass…” Luke grimaced.

Luck was a fickle thing, and Luke never counted on it.

That’s just how it was for the perpetually unlucky.

Then he grinned. “Like you said, I won’t know if it works until I try. Since it’s from the system, I have a bold idea…”

“Have you agreed to blow up Stark Tower?” Lotus perked up.

“No, what I mean is, since I’m going to handle this myself, where I start is crucial.”

Luke figured this wouldn’t be easy to resolve. The opponent was Kingpin, after all, and he had powerful allies. Super-assassins like Bullseye, and groups like The Hand and Madame Gao—Luke wasn’t ready to face them.

He decided to test the waters first.

At the very least, he needed to find out who he was up against.

He would act tonight.

“Maybe I’ll even make a little cash on the side,” he thought.

From his adoptive father’s words, he’d gotten a crucial clue: The Roulette Casino.

As for not having a healing potion to help, Luke figured that a protagonist like Daredevil probably wouldn’t die so easily—right?

Probably…?

He glanced at his reflection and frowned slightly.

Staring back at him was a child barely a meter tall, with a cherubic face and skinny arms—the very picture of a little boy. With that look, he couldn’t even get into a bar, let alone a casino. What to do? He needed a good disguise.

He planned to scope out the Roulette Casino—not only to test Seria’s Lucky Elixir and maybe solve his own cash flow problem, but also to gather intelligence. Two birds with one stone.

“Genius idea!” Lotus cheered.

Luke’s disguise was simple and direct: he put on a child’s mask, featuring Iron Man’s face, and wore a voice changer underneath. Such gadgets were cheap and easy to find in New York—practically standard issue for would-be vigilantes.

He tested his voice—now deep and gravelly, impossible to recognize as a child’s.

He swapped out his kid’s clothes for a plaid shirt and casual pants. Lotus climbed onto his shoulder, camouflaged as a plastic figurine, with strict instructions to keep quiet.

Luke checked himself in the mirror and was satisfied—he looked much more mature now.

He slipped out the window, leaving his adoptive parents’ house quietly. It was a bit of a trek from Queens to Hell’s Kitchen, but nothing he couldn’t handle. With his skateboard, he was unstoppable.

It took guts to stir up trouble in a gang-run underground casino.

Those places were crawling with criminals—definitely not somewhere for ordinary people.

But Luke was no ordinary person anymore.

A year after his rebirth, he was already a master of the inch punch; give him a sword and he could even execute a quick-draw slash. Recently, he’d made a stash of electric grenades, stored in his inventory. Worst case, if he couldn’t win a fight, he could rely on his psychic shield to escape unscathed.

With skills like his, boldness came naturally.

Finding the so-called Roulette Casino wasn’t difficult.

Casinos were one of Kingpin’s main sources of income. This one had a big presence in Hell’s Kitchen, bustling with all manner of unsavory characters.

For obvious reasons, the NYPD chose to turn a blind eye. Luke easily found the location by asking a couple of shifty young men hawking tainted formula on the street.

“Hey, kid, this isn’t the place for you,” a Black doorman told Luke gruffly at the casino entrance.

“Open your damn eyes and look close. Call me that again and I swear I’ll shove your tongue up your filthy—” The voice that came from beneath the Iron Man mask was low and hoarse, tinged with anger.

“Sorry, sir. I didn’t know… Please, go right in.” The doorman immediately stepped aside.

“Hmph.” Luke snorted and strode confidently into the casino.

That was his innate advantage: he could pass for a dwarf. Even Mystique couldn’t pull that off.