Over the last two months, Alex had been expanding as much as he could, all while staying as discreet as possible, which naturally slowed down his growth.
It wasn't as if he planned to conquer the world or anything like that, but his goals did involve bringing down a very powerful government.
Because of that, not being seen as the leader of a faction was helpful. Still, Alex knew that nothing stayed hidden forever, so he began sending members of his group on missions to gather more resources.
Fortunately, he happened to have a being that was invisible to normal people.
So he sent Tyon to raid a few places, only explaining the basics of how to drive a vehicle so he could transport supplies back.
Unfortunately, an unexpected problem appeared.
Alex had never explained that they needed food, medicine, weapons, and construction materials.
As a result, Tyon stole an entire truck that had been delivering furniture to a store and proudly brought back a massive collection of completely useless furniture.
Boris laughed about that incident for hours.
When Tyon drove the truck into the warehouse and opened the back doors, Alex had actually been excited. That excitement vanished the moment he saw couches, tables, cabinets, and other furniture instead of supplies.
Not everything was bad, though.
Alex now had a comfortable sofa to sit on, and the mattresses inside the truck gave everyone somewhere decent to sleep.
The real problem was the giant flat-screen TV, two microwaves, and even a vacuum cleaner.
None of them had electricity.
After Tyon's "success," Alex never allowed him to go on solo missions again. He was absolutely certain Tyon would misunderstand another order sooner or later.
Instead, Josh and Ray became the most useful members during that period.
They began mapping the entire territory Alex now controlled while also recruiting desperate people from the surrounding area.
And through their reports, Alex discovered something rather problematic.
Jack had been incredibly poor and almost powerless.
The territory he controlled had fewer than fifty thousand residents and was practically turning into a wasteland because of crime and the lack of opportunities.
Even when Jack had been the "owner" of the area, nobody truly respected him. The only reason crime had been somewhat lower was because the Kingpin had apparently been supporting him for reasons nobody understood.
The situation was so bad that many residents were already considering abandoning the area entirely in search of a better life.
And now that Jack was gone, things seemed destined to get even worse.
Fortunately, Alex had already come up with a plan.
A hidden network.
He would have members of his group eliminate the more problematic gangs. Then, once rumors spread about those gangs being wiped out, the remaining ones would slowly be brought together under the same banner.
The gangs would act as the body.
Sanctuary would be the brain and nervous system.
It could create problems in the future, but if Alex wanted to remain hidden, it was the best solution available.
At the same time, Alex began getting closer to Sanctuary's members.
During that process, he learned more about Josh and Boris.
Josh possessed a surprisingly powerful mutant ability. He could create a gravitational field around himself and manipulate it however he wanted.
The drawback was that he could barely maintain it for ten minutes, and even with maximum concentration, his area of influence only reached around a hundred meters.
Boris was an even stranger surprise.
Despite looking twenty years old, he was almost forty.
More importantly, he could cover parts of his body with tough scales resistant to most forms of damage. He could also grow claws and sharpen his teeth.
The downside was that he couldn't transform his entire body at once. At most, he could focus on two areas simultaneously.
Even with those limitations, both powers could easily change the outcome of a battle.
For someone like Alex, who expected many fights in the future, that was invaluable.
Meanwhile, Josh and Ray continued bringing people into Sanctuary. Sadly, none of them were mutants or cursed energy users.
Still, Alex couldn't afford to be picky.
In total, Sanctuary now had twenty members.
That count included Alex himself and Tyon, who technically wasn't even human.
One particularly useful recruit was a former architect.
The man had lost everything during the alien invasion and had been wandering the ruined districts like a homeless man.
When Alex explained his plan to build a hidden base beneath the warehouse, the architect had nearly screamed at him.
According to him, digging directly beneath the structure without proper reinforcement would destroy the foundation.
If Alex wanted something quick, they could build beside the warehouse.
If he wanted something secure, they could build underneath it.
That option would take much longer because the entire structure would need reinforcement before excavation could begin.
After some thought, Alex chose the slower route.
Security mattered more than speed.
The architect also explained that an underground base would require ventilation systems and air purification, making the project significantly more expensive.
Even so, Alex accepted.
Construction began at the start of the second month.
The first week was a disaster.
Almost none of the recruits had any experience with construction work, and the architect spent days teaching everyone the basics.
There was also the issue of materials.
They had almost none.
So Alex sent Tyon and Boris to acquire construction supplies.
Fortunately, they succeeded.
Unfortunately, Boris was captured by a security camera during one of those operations. Since he was a well-known experiment, that immediately attracted unwanted attention.
Recently, Tyon—who handled patrol duties around the dome—had spotted several heavily armed groups investigating the surrounding area.
Thankfully, none of them had discovered the barrier itself.
Speaking of the barrier, that had become a project of its own.
After reinforcing it with additional pillars, Alex expanded its size. Since he needed more space anyway, increasing its radius while strengthening it seemed logical.
He also modified its structure to improve durability, sacrificing some of its ability to contain cursed energy.
That could create problems later.
But after discovering just how powerful he truly was, Alex's fear had diminished considerably.
Some things still made him cautious.
Yet the knowledge that he could literally cut through space made death feel increasingly distant.
A dangerous arrogance was slowly taking root inside him.
Strong enemies no longer sounded terrifying.
They sounded exciting.
The battle against Logan had awakened something buried deep within him.
A desire for combat.
A hunger for challenge.
Even so, he hadn't abandoned caution entirely.
He now had people depending on him. Members of Sanctuary. People he had accepted as his own.
Alex understood one uncomfortable truth.
He wasn't capable of protecting everyone.
Not because he lacked strength, but because he had never learned how to fight for others.
Everything he knew was designed for combat and destruction.
If an exciting battle truly began, he wasn't sure he could focus on anything else.
Because of that, he spent the last month organizing training for everyone.
Even the ordinary workers helping build the base were taught how to fight.
At minimum, Alex wanted every member of Sanctuary to reach the level of a trained soldier.
Ray ended up handling most of the instruction.
Since they lacked weapons, training focused on hand-to-hand combat.
To Alex's surprise, it worked almost too well.
He had no idea what Ray had done to them.
Ever since training started, everyone had become obsessed with physical fitness. People randomly stopped construction just to spar, exercise, or challenge each other.
At first Alex considered stopping it.
Then he decided otherwise.
The stronger Sanctuary became, the stronger his future would be.
At the moment, Alex sat alone on his sofa.
Everyone else was busy.
For the first time in months, he had absolutely nothing to do.
Most of his recent days had been spent planning, training, and giving orders.
The boredom was becoming unbearable.
There were no games. No television. No electricity.
Even his training had reached a plateau.
Having a teacher was one thing.
Creating an entirely new path by yourself was something else entirely.
Thankfully, Sukuna had taught him the basics.
Otherwise, he would have progressed far more slowly.
Most of his advancement now came through endless experimentation.
Through Tyon and Vox, he had learned more about curses as well.
Normal people couldn't see them.
However, prolonged exposure to cursed energy gradually allowed humans to perceive curses and become more sensitive to danger.
That discovery fascinated him.
It also gave him ideas.
Many dangerous ideas.
Ideas involving experiments on his own people.
Fortunately, he discarded them before acting.
A mistake could easily kill someone.
He had also learned more about Nen.
It could be infused into objects to strengthen attacks.
It reinforced the body far more efficiently than cursed energy.
It could even function as a detection system.
Yet Alex felt there was still something deeper about Nen that he didn't fully understand.
His most interesting discovery came completely by accident.
Remembering how his cursed energy had altered an entire building during one of his battles, he decided to test the concept on a metal pipe lying in a corner of the warehouse.
He poured an absurd amount of cursed energy into it.
At first, nothing happened.
Then the metal began changing.
Strange wrappings formed around the handle.
The pipe stretched and sharpened.
Spirals emerged across its entire length.
Eventually, it transformed into a wickedly sharp metal stake covered in mysterious spiral patterns.
Alex had no idea what it actually did.
There was nobody willing to test it.
Except Ray.
Ray immediately volunteered.
Alex refused.
The weapon still ended up in Ray's possession simply because he was the only one physically capable of wielding it properly.
Ray promptly named it Mountain Slayer.
Alex thought the name was ridiculous.
He didn't bother arguing.
Even with all those discoveries, his experiments had slowed.
At his core, Alex wasn't a scientist.
He was a warrior.
He learned through battle.
Victory and defeat were his teachers.
And lately, the city had offered him neither.
Until suddenly, an idea struck him.
Alex leaped off the sofa with a grin stretching across his face and sprinted outside.
Workers filled the construction site. Some built, some laughed, while others took breaks to spar or exercise.
The moment they sensed Alex approaching, however, the atmosphere changed.
Months inside the barrier had made everyone sensitive to cursed energy.
The pressure Alex naturally emitted made people tremble.
Ignoring their reactions, he searched for a specific person.
Eventually, he found the architect.
The older man looked up from his work.
"Architect, I need you to tell everyone something."
The man frowned.
He actually had a name.
Nobody ever used it.
"Go ahead, Boss. I'm listening. And for the record, just call me Key."
Alex blinked.
The name felt strange.
He ignored it.
"Tell everyone to choose one cursed energy user and one normal person. Give them most of our money and have them start businesses. We need places to launder money."
Key's face immediately turned pale.
Alex continued.
"And while they're doing that, I'm going out to explore the city and make some money."
The architect felt genuine dread.
Every single time Alex left saying he was going to "make money," something catastrophic happened somewhere.
He opened his mouth to stop him.
Too late.
Alex was already gone.
Key stared at the empty space where he had been standing moments earlier.
"Well... Fuck."
Alex ran toward the city with excitement burning in his chest as a new idea slowly began taking shape inside his mind.
What if he publicly declared himself a villain?
Technically, he was already considered one by plenty of people, but that wasn't enough.
What if he openly caused trouble? Drew attention to himself? Made enough noise that heroes would have no choice but to come and stop him?
The more Alex thought about it, the more appealing the idea became.
He needed experience. He needed battles. Most importantly, he needed opponents capable of pushing him beyond his current limits.
Every major breakthrough he had achieved so far had come during combat.
Not during training.
Not during experimentation.
During life-or-death fights.
So if he wanted to become stronger, perhaps the answer was simple.
Find stronger enemies.
Or better yet...
Make them come to him.
A grin slowly spread across his face, the kind that would make most sane people immediately decide to walk the other way.
His excitement only grew as he imagined what kinds of heroes might answer the challenge.
Mutants. Vigilantes. Government agents. Maybe even some of the monsters hiding behind the scenes of the world.
The possibilities felt endless.
Eventually, Alex slowed down.
The sprint turned into a jog, and the jog became a casual walk.
There was no rush.
For the first time in weeks, he actually had something interesting to do.
With his hands in his pockets and a smile still lingering on his face, Alex walked toward the city.
The ruined streets slowly gave way to more populated areas. People moved through their daily lives completely unaware of the dangerous thoughts forming inside the young man's head.
Alex paid them little attention.
His mind was elsewhere.
Thinking.
Planning.
Wondering.
Who would come first?
Would it be a street-level hero?
A mutant team?
Perhaps someone from the government?
Or maybe someone even stronger?
The thought alone sent a pleasant shiver through his body.
His blood felt warmer. His heartbeat slightly faster.
That strange feeling Logan had awakened during their battle had only continued to grow over the past month.
The anticipation of a real fight.
The uncertainty of victory and defeat.
The possibility of encountering someone strong enough to force him beyond his limits.
Alex couldn't deny it anymore.
He enjoyed it.
Far more than he should.
As he continued walking toward the city, his smile widened slightly.
For everyone else, a powerful enemy was something to fear.
For Alex, it was something to look forward to.
And somewhere deep inside him, hidden beneath reason, caution, and responsibility, a certain King of Curses would have been very proud.