Elias didn't immediately respond to George's exasperated provocation.
He just tilted his head slightly.
With a playful glint in his eyes, he spared a glance for the clownish George.
Then, his gaze slowly shifted to the stall owner standing nearby.
The stall owner felt a sudden chill.
He had the distinct illusion that this polite-looking young man had already seen through his cheap, fraudulent tricks, right down to the last detail!
This gave him an extremely bad feeling.
Looking around, he saw that because of George’s earlier shouting, the onlookers were starting to point and whisper at his stall.
Now, the owner couldn't sit still. If this crowd truly became convinced that his machine was rigged today, how could he continue to operate in the West District of Hope County? How would he ever do business again?!
“Damn it, I have to let some blood,” the owner cursed silently in his heart.
He decided that he had to let this young man, who was about to step up, at least successfully pass the first level!
As long as someone won some money, it would shut the mouths of these peasants and prove that his machine was absolutely fine!
In any case, he wouldn't lose much.
Having made up his mind, the owner used the cover of the massive machine’s shadow to surreptitiously slide his toe toward the back of the base.
With a firm nudge from the tip of his leather shoe, he secretly toggled a hidden lever that controlled the damping coefficient of the core spring.
He loosened the valve.
He set the pointer's maximum point just below the second scale.
Having done all this, the owner breathed a secret sigh of relief and wiped a handful of cold sweat from his forehead.
At this moment, Elias stepped unhurriedly toward the machine.
He first turned around.
Removing his dark, long trench coat, he handed it to Charlotte, whose eyes were sparkling with anticipation.
Dressed only in a thin white shirt, he lightly loosened his shoulders and neck.
His expression shifted.
He suddenly lunged into a wide stance, and the strength in his arm began to accumulate frantically.
Those muscle fibers, reshaped by the potion, displayed an astonishing density and activity at this moment.
The muscles bulged at a visible speed, stretching his shirt into a full, taut curve.
An explosive power capable of destroying anything gathered in his right arm without reservation in an instant!
As the power traveled from his feet to his calves, then spiraled up to his waist like a wound-up spring, he suddenly twisted!
“Boom!”
A sonic boom, loud enough to pierce eardrums, exploded in mid-air!
A violent gust of wind from the punch howled out like a passing storm!
The stall owner, being the closest, felt as if his face had been struck by a wave of air.
The hypocritical smile on his face froze.
His eyes widened in horror, nearly popping out of his head.
Could this possibly be a sound produced by a normal human?!
This was a locomotive in human skin!!
The owner’s brain screamed an alarm at that moment.
Cold sweat instantly soaked his back.
He frantically tried to stretch his foot to stomp on the mechanism lock that would re-engage the spring's limit!
He was terrified that this inhuman punch would instantly turn the precision parts inside the machine—which had cost him most of his fortune—into scrap metal!
However, even though he had already moved his foot, it was ultimately one fatal step too late.
“BANG—!!!”
The moment Elias's fist made solid contact with the heavy cowhide sandbag, a terrifying roar like a cannon firing erupted in the area.
The rugged power meter let out a scream of overstrained metal.
Violent kinetic energy poured into the machine's interior, tearing through everything in its path.
Instantly, the screeching sounds of shattering gears, snapping springs, and metal parts clattering frantically echoed from within!
Accompanied by blinding sparks and the hiss of high-pressure steam, the sandbag was blasted off the welded iron frame by the force of the punch!
The sand inside spilled everywhere.
Driven by the immense power, the pointer on the machine surpassed the highest scale and shot straight out from the top of the device!
It flew true and struck the worn top hat on the stall owner’s head.
Dead silence.
The entire noisy street fell into a profound silence that lasted for ten seconds.
All the onlookers stood with their mouths agape, looking as if they had all been simultaneously choked.
The stall owner stood rooted to the spot, looking like a puppet whose soul had been drained.
The top hat had fallen to the ground, revealing his slightly balding head.
Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead like a waterfall, stinging his eyes, but he didn't even have the strength to blink.
The urge to urinate swirled frantically in his bladder.
He stiffly turned his neck to look at the hat on the ground.
His scalp tingled with numbness.
If that had been even a centimeter lower, his miserable life would have ended right then and there!
He never imagined that he, who had only come out to set up a stall and make some crooked money, would almost pay with his life!
Were young people these days all this hardcore?!
Gulp.
The owner swallowed hard.
When he turned back to look at Elias, who was unhurriedly lowering his sleeves, all trace of calculation had vanished from his eyes, replaced by an extreme terror that reached the depths of his soul.
“Th—This gentleman!”
He immediately scrambled forward like a frightened cur, becoming subservient to the extreme.
“This gentleman has won one gold crown!”
The owner shouted at the top of his lungs to the silent crowd, his voice cracking: “Let us... congratulate this gentleman! For winning tonight’s highest prize!”
As he shouted, he tremblingly fished a gold crown from his pocket and held it out to Elias with both hands.
However, the smile on his face was more painful than a sob.
“Impossible!”
“This is absolutely impossible!”
In the midst of this atmosphere, an inappropriate shout broke the silence.
George pointed an angry finger at Elias and the stall owner, accusing them loudly: “You two are in this together, aren't you?!”
“This is definitely a scam!” George roared hysterically, trying to use his pathetic logic to overturn the inhuman scene before him.
“Our builds are similar! He’s even half an inch shorter than me!”
“I didn't even break the machine, so how could he possibly blow it up with one punch?!”
“How can there be such a ridiculous difference?!”
He waved his arms about like a victim who had been robbed of the truth.
“Everyone! Judge for yourselves!” George suddenly turned to the stunned bystanders, loudly inciting their emotions. “This must be some kind of shady deal they made in private!”
Hearing this, the stall owner—who had just walked through the gates of death—felt his face turn as black as a soot-covered pot.
His blood pressure spiked to the limit instantly.
To hell with your collusion!
He was just peacefully running a small scam business; who the hell did he offend?!
These ancestors appeared out of nowhere, first stingily questioning his machine, then destroying the iron rice bowl he relied on for survival with a single punch!
And now, even after he had lost the massive sum of one gold crown, this idiot was still here inciting the ignorant crowd with slander?!
Was there no justice left in the world?!
Was he just destined to be fleeced today?!
The owner trembled with rage, his knuckles cracking as he clenched his fists.
If it weren't for the sake of the violent man standing next to him, he would have called a few guys from the West District gangs to drag this fool named George into an alley right now!
He would let him feel exactly what a real-world beating was like!
“George!”
“Shut your mouth!”
While George was still frantically shouting, Mary finally couldn't take it anymore.
Her face was pale as she rushed forward, grabbing her brother’s arm and pulling him back with all her might.
Mary was almost on the verge of tears from fear.
She stole a glance at Elias, who was standing by the ruins of the machine with a terrifying smile.
Her heart contracted violently.
“Stop talking!” she pleaded in a whisper, her voice cracking as she spoke into George’s ear. “A loss is a loss! Don't embarrass yourself any further!”
“Why are you even competing with Lottie’s brother?!”
“And when would he have had the time to bribe the stall owner? We all came here together!”
Mary was truly going crazy. She was genuinely afraid that if Elias got even slightly annoyed, he would slap George’s head into pieces right here!
With the kind of non-human strength he had just displayed, who would dare provoke him? Had her brother’s brain been crushed by a door?!
Was this a normal person one could just challenge?!
If all sailors were of this caliber, she would make sure to walk the other way whenever she saw one in the future!
“Don't stop me!”
Unfortunately, George couldn't listen to any advice. At this moment, it seemed only his competitive streak remained.
He shook off his sister's hand.
“I must expose their despicable and shameless scam today, right in front of Lottie!”
With that, like a warrior about to sacrifice himself heroically, he strode aggressively toward Elias.
He puffed out his chest and accused him from a position of supposed moral superiority: “Mr. Rockland!”
“Out of respect for the fact that you are Lottie’s brother, I wanted to have a friendly match with you!”
“I never expected that for the sake of your pathetic pride, you would resort to such a despicable act as bribing the stall owner!”
George shook his head in deep disappointment. “This is truly not the act of a proper gentleman! You have disappointed me!”
Looking at George, who was immersed in his own self-important delusion, Elias felt his patience for idiocy reaching its limit.
Faced with such an irredeemable, pure-bred moron, he had completely lost the desire to even argue.
When a person is truly speechless, they really are speechless.
Saying even one more word to this creature lacking a brain was a massive waste of the world's already limited oxygen.
However...
Elias’s gaze moved past George’s shoulder, looking at the distant parade.
Then he checked the time.
There wasn't much time left before the city-wide Great Blackout.
This chaotic mess before him seemed to be the perfect opportunity to slip away!
Having made up his mind, Elias lowered his eyes expressionlessly.
With a slight stir of his spirituality, he quickly withdrew the spiritual energy that had been quietly lodged deep within George’s cerebral cortex, suppressing the effects of the alcohol.
Without the suppression of supernatural power, George’s voice stopped abruptly.
The whites of his eyes rolled up.
He collapsed straight down in front of Elias!
Under the dumbfounded gaze of the crowd, Elias calmly brushed the dust off his shirt.
He turned his head and said expressionlessly to Charlotte, “Lottie, he’s had too much to drink.”
“You guys take him back first.”
“I want to go get some fresh air alone.”
Rate on N.U.
