After a moment of excitement, Quinn gradually settled down and started thinking about where to place all these puppets.
First up, Genos... B-rank combat power and an incredibly flashy fighting style meant he'd draw attention no matter what role he played, which would generate tons of prayer points.
Especially since Quinn had transformed him into a human identity with zero background. If Genos operated alone, even while doing heroic activities, he'd get targeted by every organization with resources, leading to even more fights.
Which would, of course, attract even more attention.
"...Then he should just act as himself!"
After mulling it over for a bit, Quinn made his decision.
The puppets had the intelligence, strength, personality, and even memories of their original characters. Every action they took naturally aligned with their established personas—their mannerisms were identical.
If you forced a puppet to act as an identity that didn't match their core character... Unless the puppet itself was literally programmed to be an actor, you'd spot inconsistencies in their behavior and habits immediately.
The backstory Quinn crafted for Genos matched his original setting, just with some minor adjustments...
"Seeking revenge against the mad cyborg that destroyed his hometown, he didn't hesitate to transform himself into a machine. He's driven by a strong sense of justice and destroys whatever evil he encounters. While searching for the mad cyborg, he somehow crossed into this world and lost his purpose. Feeling adrift, he finally started doing heroic activities because he didn't want his own tragedy to happen to anyone else!"
"Well, maybe it's a bit cliché, but it works!"
Quinn reviewed Genos's character profile, nodded with satisfaction, and placed him on Broadway in Manhattan.
About puppet placement... This was a built-in system function. The deployment range was centered on Quinn's location and extended to anywhere within a 300-kilometer radius.
He could also withdraw puppets at will within the deployment zone.
But there was a one-month cooldown on retrieval.
Plus, the deployment range could be expanded by spending prayer points.
There was a specific reason Quinn chose to drop Genos on Broadway. Based on the timing, another major event was about to kick off.
When that happened, he'd let Genos ride that wave of attention.
After settling Genos, next came Kyojuro Rengoku and Tamayo.
Same approach for both.
Kyojuro Rengoku would play the role of the Flame Hashira from the Demon Slayer Corps who'd crossed into this world, and Quinn randomly placed him at the farthest edge of his deployment range.
And Tamayo got dropped in Hell's Kitchen.
He planned to have Tamayo run an underground medical clinic. Normally she'd treat people who couldn't afford proper healthcare or couldn't risk going to a hospital. Then during the final battle at Infinity Castle, he'd have her make her grand entrance and recreate that iconic scene where she poisons the Demon King.
And then there was the Vongola Family...
The Vongola Family had over 300 members. Besides the Tenth Generation Boss Tsunayoshi Sawada and his six Guardians, there was also the Varia assassination squad, plus outside advisors like Reborn, Colonnello, Lal Mirch, Fon, and I-Pin.
Their strength ratings ranged from E-rank to C-rank—quite a wide spread.
The rest were ordinary members, all F-rank within the normal human category.
Also worth noting: Tsunayoshi Sawada and his six Guardians were adults who hadn't experienced the timeline alterations, not the middle school kids from the anime's main storyline.
Which also explained why they seemed weaker than expected.
Without dragging their past selves forward to a desperate future timeline, and without going through the trials that exceeded the original historical trajectory's difficulty, their power levels were honestly kind of underwhelming.
Even the most overpowered Cloud Guardian had retired after the battle with the Phantom Knight. The equally broken Mist Guardian tried to assassinate an enemy boss but got outmaneuvered and nearly died.
Sure, part of that was because they'd lost the Vongola Rings.
But they were the ones who lost the rings—couldn't blame anyone else for that.
Still, even with all that, they were more than enough for Hell's Kitchen, or even the entire American underground.
After all, their "rings" and "box weapons" were revolutionary technology.
Especially the box weapons—according to the source material, the gap between them and conventional weapons was like comparing guns to swords (though the actual manga never really demonstrated that kind of difference).
"You're a mafia family that's crossed over from another world. Your goal after arriving is to rebuild the Vongola's glory in this world and become the number one family globally... Let's start from Harlem!"
After Quinn assigned the Vongola Family their mission, he selected their drop location.
Harlem was just as notorious as Hell's Kitchen, if not more chaotic.
Every year, massive numbers of Mexican and Latino immigrants plus countless illegal residents packed into the area, filling it with people living off the grid.
Crimes like theft, robbery, and human trafficking happened constantly.
The worst part was the gang presence. They'd exchange gunfire in broad daylight over drug and weapons deals. Even deploying the military couldn't fix the situation.
Having the Vongola Family develop their operations from there seemed pretty fitting.
…
After handling the puppet situation, Quinn turned his attention to his remaining five thousand prayer points.
"System, five thousand prayer points for physical enhancement!"
Ding! Your strength has been upgraded to D-rank seven-star!
Ding! Your strength has been upgraded to D-rank eight-star!
As the system notification echoed in his mind, Quinn felt the changes rippling through his muscles—becoming denser and more resilient.
Body enhancement, skill enhancement, gacha probability improvement, deployment range expansion, system space enlargement... Prayer points had countless applications, far more than just these few.
He could even enhance the puppets' strength directly.
But that wasn't worth it.
Five thousand prayer points could only boost strength from D-rank six-star to eight-star. If he used those points for gacha pulls instead, he'd basically guarantee puppets of equal or even greater strength, plus earn a bunch of puppet fragments in the process.
Even pulling items would give better returns than raw stat increases.
So upgrading puppets directly? Not something he was considering for now.
But his own personal strength couldn't be replaced by external tools. Whether it was ensuring his own survival, achieving immortality, or lasting long-term, he needed to be strong himself.
The puppets and all the theatrics were just means to an end—getting stronger. Quinn wouldn't forget his priorities.
"Otto, get changed. We're going out to eat!"
…
Harlem consisted of low-rise, aging buildings.
The streets were filthy, reeked of garbage, and had barely any foot traffic.
In the early morning hours, only small groups of three to five Black residents hung around the empty streets, playing cards or practicing rap. Occasionally a car would pass by, kicking up clouds of dust and earning enthusiastic shouts from the card players and rappers on the sidewalk.
At that moment, a group emerged from an alley.
Young and old, men and women, with white, Black, and Asian members among them.
They wore expensive suits and leather shoes, luxury watches and silk ties, walked with their heads held high and carried themselves with unmistakable confidence—a stark contrast to the locals in their cheap, worn-out shirts and casual attitudes.