Time began to flow.
"Ah!"
"Hiss~ Tadahiro, why did you hit me!?"
"Mitsuda, you did too! Ugh~ Why did you hit my face!"
"Mutō..."
Screams rose one after another in the crowd, mixed with cries of anger and confusion.
"Hayato! I demand an explanation!"
The most furious and hysterical voice rang throughout the field, causing everyone else to instinctively shut up.
"Bo... Boss, I... I don't know why. I clearly didn't even raise my hand, how could I have slapped..."
Feeling the leader's violent emotions, Hayato lowered his head, fidgeting like a child who had done wrong. Although he was unwilling to remain subordinate forever, he was still a small fry for now, and he knew when to bow down.
"Slap!"
"Idiot! Have you been unhappy with me for a long time!"
Ignoring Hayato's apology, the leader put all his strength into a slap across Hayato's face and roared.
"I... How dare I be unhappy with the Boss..."
Hayato rubbed his swollen face miserably and stammered a reply.
"I-it must be him! That's right, it must be that punk!"
His gloomy gaze happened to fall on Ho Fei-yu, who was watching the show with a smile. A lightbulb suddenly went off in his head, and he immediately pointed at Ho Fei-yu, speaking with certainty.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, don't go slandering me now~ I've been standing right here, I haven't moved an inch."
Ho Fei-yu spread his hands, presenting a harmless image.
"Impossible! We're all injured, and only you are not. Don't tell me you didn't do it."
Hayato analyzed logically.
Immediately, everyone's eyes focused on Ho Fei-yu. They realized that he really was the only one unharmed, and he instantly attracted all the firepower.
"Kid, did you really do this?"
The leader heard this, and after comparing the evidence, he reached a conclusion in his mind. But he still asked Ho Fei-yu, because if he confirmed Hayato's words, wouldn't that be eating his own words? After all, he had just slapped Hayato without proper reason.
"What if I did?"
Ho Fei-yu asked with a smile. He didn't expect these guys to realize it so quickly. It seemed that only women in this world were "idiot-proofed."
"Damn it! Everyone attack! Whoever kills him gets fifty million yen! I'll take responsibility for the consequences!"
Ho Fei-yu's contemptuous attitude, coupled with the embarrassment of being played earlier, made the leader utterly furious. He put out a bounty, actually intending to kill Ho Fei-yu outright.
Although the bizarre incident earlier had made the thugs uneasy, a large reward always attracts brave men.
After the leader spoke, the thugs' eyes immediately shone brightly. Why did they join the Gokudō? Wasn't it for money? They had done life-and-death fighting before.
"For the money!"
Someone shouted passionately, and then something extremely familiar to Ho Fei-yu happened.
Naturally, the result was no different from the last time.
"Ah!"
"Tadahiro, why did you hit me again!?"
"Mitsuda, you did too! Ugh~ Why did you hit my face again!"
"..."
The familiar dialogue immediately silenced the wailing crowd. Everyone endured the pain, looking at each other with strange expressions.
"Gulp—"
"Could it be the legendary Ghost Blocking the Way..."
Someone whispered in terror.
A spine-chilling atmosphere slowly enveloped everyone's hearts.
"Bastards! What nonsense are you talking about!"
"It's clearly that punk's doing!"
The leader shouted, interrupting the thugs' wild thoughts.
At the sound, they looked at Ho Fei-yu again, and saw that he... was sitting on a stool.
'Where... where did he get that stool...'
A simultaneous question arose in everyone's mind.
"Magic! It must be magic!"
Hayato could only guess this way.
When people encounter something they can't understand, they always like to find a reasonable excuse to explain it.
"If hitting him makes us injured, then what if we hit ourselves? Will he get injured instead!"
Hayato suddenly thought of something and shouted excitedly.
His words exploded in the minds of the crowd like a thunderclap on flat ground.
"Hayato-kun, you're so smart!"
Even the leader praised him.
"Oh, it's nothing. His trick is too simple, Boss. You don't even need to step in."
Hayato felt delighted by the praise, but he didn't get carried away and quickly flattered the leader.
"Yosh!" (Good!)
The leader patted Hayato's shoulder with satisfaction.
Ho Fei-yu heard their conversation and nearly doubled over with laughter. He had to retract his earlier statement that only women in this world were "idiot-proofed." It seemed men weren't much better.
"Pl-please don't, Hayato is lying to you."
Ho Fei-yu pretended to look uneasy and said. He didn't mind playing along with these thugs. Free clown entertainment was worth watching.
"Hahahaha~ My guess must be correct after all!"
Hayato saw Ho Fei-yu's lack of confidence and was now completely sure his hypothesis was right.
The thugs who were originally skeptical of Hayato's suggestion now believed him.
"Alas~ I didn't expect you to find out. Can you give me a chance..."
Ho Fei-yu sighed with a crestfallen expression, acting so realistically that it seemed true.
"Begging for mercy? It's too late! I want you to suffer immensely!"
Hayato looked down triumphantly at Ho Fei-yu sitting on the chair.
"Brothers, use a little more force. Ideally, enough to break his limbs. Don't worry, the one who gets beaten in the end will definitely be this punk."
Hayato suggested maliciously to the thugs.
"Trust Hayato-kun. Let's finish up quickly and go back for a nap."
The leader also stepped out to support Hayato.
"I'll count three, two, one, then we all move at once!"
"Three."
"No!"
"Two."
"Wait a moment!"
"One."
"Ah!" x27
Twenty-seven screams rang out.
"Huh!? Why am I okay?"
Immediately, Ho Fei-yu's incredulous voice was heard.
The thugs endured the pain and saw Ho Fei-yu touching his body with a look of joyful surprise.
Instantly, a row of question marks appeared simultaneously in everyone's heads.
"Phew! Good thing they didn't realize that everyone has to exert force..."
Ho Fei-yu looked at the intact leader and Hayato and muttered to himself in relief.
"Heh heh, I didn't say anything, and you didn't hear anything."
Seemingly noticing their stares, he quickly dismissed them.
Now, Hayato and the leader immediately became the targets of everyone's anger. The thugs glared at them, seemingly questioning why they were ordered to exert force while the two of them did nothing.
"..."
"Ahem... ahem, I called it too soon. Let's try again. I promise I'll strike this time!"
The leader stalled, making excuses. It was easy to order others, but hitting himself was something he couldn't do. But now that he had incurred public wrath, if he insisted on strongly denying it, he might lose the loyalty of his men.
"Mhm mhm! I didn't react fast enough just now."
Hayato also nodded in agreement. Like the leader, he couldn't bring himself to hit himself.
"Hahahahaha~"
Ho Fei-yu couldn't help himself and burst into loud laughter watching these two 'Wonders of the World'.
"Kid, you're laughing even when death is imminent. We'll see if you can still laugh later!"
The leader found an outlet for his anger and said viciously to Ho Fei-yu.
"Brothers, one more time! We'll definitely succeed this time!"
"Three."
Time began to pause.
Ho Fei-yu twisted his neck and stood up. Playing the game once was enough; playing too much easily leads to boredom.
He walked up to a thug who had just raised his baton, snatched the baton from his hand, and toyed with it for a while. Since it was his first time handling something like this, he wasn't sure how to grip it, so he simply held the tail end, like holding a stick when he was a child.
Then.
'Bang, bang, bang'
He struck the hands, feet, and neck of every thug five times, helping them complete what they intended to do. But to prevent them from getting too noisy later, he simply knocked them unconscious. As for Hayato and the leader, he still wanted to play with them a bit longer.
Time began to flow.
"Two."
The leader, just about to shout "one," found that everyone except him and Hayato was lying silently on the ground. Then, he saw the baton in Ho Fei-yu's hand slowly change shape into a sphere. It was important to note that the baton was completely steel...
"Now I'm giving you two a chance. Whoever can knock the other person out gets to live. Otherwise, the remaining person will end up like this."
Ho Fei-yu said expressionlessly, tossing the ruined baton he had crushed in his hands in front of the two men.
"Gulp..."
"Hayato-kun, you!"
'Thud!'
The leader was about to negotiate with Hayato, but a sharp pain shot through the back of his head. Before he could finish his sentence, he collapsed instantly, with bright red blood oozing from the back of his head.
"Big Brother! Big Brother! I was wrong, please forgive me!"
Hayato's sinister expression flashed and disappeared. He immediately dropped to his knees with a 'plop' and "crawled" towards Ho Fei-yu, his face showing a look of remorse.
Ho Fei-yu almost gave Hayato a thumbs-up. Ruthless, vicious, and the makings of someone who achieves great things.
Unfortunately, Hayato made Crazy Diamond very uncomfortable, and Ho Fei-yu himself didn't like people like this, so...
"You actually believe that!?"
"I don't eat beef!"
Hayato, who was just about to embrace Ho Fei-yu's thigh, hadn't even had a chance to look happy when he felt his body tilt. He flopped onto the ground like a turtle, his back heavily trod upon, unable to move.