"We just need a couple mints, bro, we're fellow DIsciples, you should help us out." One of the guys called out, heckling the person who was kneeling on the ground.
"Yeah, just a couple thousand will do. Or you can give us a gold mint. That's always useful." Another Disciple added to the first one. He was also standing in front of the poor Disciple who was cowering on the ground.
In total, there were five Disciples who were surrounding the fearful person who didn't want any trouble. He stiffly kneeled in front of them while begging them to stop.
"You've already asked me that yesterday, I don't have mints anymore. Zero. I don't even have the funds to get a decent meal later." The poor Disciple muttered to himself, flinching as he expected one of the five Disciples to slap him across the cheek.
"Who cares about your meals? Just get us the mints or you're in for a real treat." The guy who seemed to be their leader, haughtily extended his hand, gesturing for him to cough up what little bit he had left.
Right now, the guy didn't have anything to spare anymore. Not a single mint was in his pocket.
"What's this..." With his demeanor shifting into a mild rage, Satoshi slowly walked towards the group, fully prepared to mercilessly confront them due to their one-sided bullying. There was no way he was going to let this one go after witnessing it firsthand.
In fact, he was surprised that no one actually stepped in to stop them even though they were blatantly harassing someone. It was madness, a clear image of the bystander effect. There were a lot of people but not a single person stepped forward to save the guy from his bullies.
Seeing that no one would take action, Satoshi decided to take it upon himself to stop them. Without thinking twice, he approached them with the thought of beating them black and blue just so he could teach them a lesson.
Grab!
"Satoshi!" Horatius snapped as he tightly grabbed Satoshi by the arm. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." He warned with a serious expression on his face.
"Are you stopping me right now, Horatius-san?" Satoshi gritted his teeth but he didn't shake off Horatius's vice grip on his forearm. He was due an explanation, and the only one who could explain what was going on was either Finana or Horatius.
"I am... because you don't stand a chance against them. Even I can't go head to head with that group. They always travel in packs and once they gang up on one Disciple, they're unstoppable. I wouldn't mess with them if I were you." Horatius respectfully warned as he slowly let go of Satoshi's hand.
"You go do your thing but don't say I didn't warn you. Each of them may be weaker than you but as a group, they're the best. No one could stop them, that's why they could freely roam around and bully like that."
"By the way..." Satoshi trailed off. Now that he got back to his senses thanks to Horatius's deathly grip, he felt like he overlooked something.
"What is it?"
"I mean... what are mints?" Satoshi asked, wondering why the guys were asking the person for a mint. "Are they asking him for candies? What's going on?"
"Oh um, that's the currency we have here." Horatius casually said as if the gang-up wasn't even happening in front of them.
Now that Satoshi got a good gist of the situation, he still turned around to get in the way of the five bullies. Up until now, they still haven't noticed Satoshi's presence since they weren't paying attention in the first place. Adding to that, no one had interfered with their bullying before so they were confident that no one would do it this time around as well.
Although there were two additional people in the dimension, the group felt like it didn't matter that much. Because of that, they didn't even notice that Satoshi was already making his way to them.
"You've got until before lunchtime. If you don't have the money by then... you know what would happen, right?" One of them said.
This was the first hour Satoshi got here, and he already knew what could happen to the guy if he wasn't able to provide the expected funds.
Since the group couldn't outright bully him especially when their Manager is around, they'd have to do it in secret or when the Manager was not present— which meant that if they want to beat him up, one of them would have to formally ask him for a duel and then the one-sided beat-up would commence soon after that.
Satoshi could already see the future and he didn't even have to look that far. At this rate, the guy was going to get stomped on until he loses his right as a Disciple due to his declining confidence and strength.
With a smug expression on his face, the man pretended to spit something at the poor guy before he turned around. Confidently, he lightly gestured at his followers to go with him while he walked away from the scene. He was letting the poor guy off the hook for now, but if he still didn't give the money by lunchtime, then the punishment was due in order.
Walking away, he didn't even notice that Satoshi was also approaching him and his group of unruly men. They were giggling and nudging at each other like the close friends they were, but underneath those grins was the attitude of superiority and desire to humiliate others.
It took all of Satoshi's being to suppress the urge of punching them right then and there. Instead of attacking them, he simply used his absurd physical capabilities by quickly shifting his foot from one side to another, basically tripping the leader of the group so he could humiliate him in the most messed up way possible.
For a Disciple who basically honed his senses to the limits, the most shameful way to get attacked was for someone to trip them. Any Disciple out there would say with confidence that their senses and reaction speed could pretty much get them out of any normal threats.
Basically, if you're a Disciple and you tripped, you're a failure as a Disciple. This was what Satoshi wanted the leader to feel since he was already a failure, to begin with. He was just going to prove it.
The leader just let Satoshi pass and he didn't even notice the glare that Satoshi gave him. It was a conundrum whether he noticed it or not but at this point, it was irrelevant.
At the right moment when the leader took a step, Satoshi shifted his foot and tripped him. He also activated the Statue of Captivity's skill which pushed the leader to the ground and affected the gravity pull around him.
Everything happened so briefly that no one even noticed who did it. By the time they realized what was going on, their leader's face was already lying down face-first on the ground. He tripped on Satoshi's foot and he didn't even notice it.
Someone who boasted top-notch reaction speed and was chosen by a Manager tripped on someone's foot. It was the greatest insult and embarrassment one could ever experience as a Disciple.
"I'm sorry, you didn't see my foot there, didn't you?" Satoshi apologetically said even though he intentionally did it to humiliate the leader of the group.
Before the guy could even get up, Satoshi activated the Statue of Captivity's gravitational pull skill which allowed him to slam the guy even further into the ground. While it didn't do any significant damage, it was more than enough embarrassment for someone who held himself in such high regard.
"What was that for?!" The man angrily screamed as he stood up and approached Satoshi. He didn't hesitate to grab Satoshi by the collar even though he was obviously aware that Satoshi just defeated Horatius in a game of arm wrestling a moment ago.
"I said I'm sorry, sheesh~!" Satoshi slapped the man's hand which grabbed his collar. He then walked away as if the group of bullies weren't even a threat to him.
"What the... do you even know who I am?!" The leader grunted as his followers surrounded Satoshi, cutting off all his escape routes.
Initially, Satoshi wanted to walk toward the guy they were bullying to help him out... but now that he was surrounded, he couldn't do that without struggling. Because of that, he stopped and turned around to address their leader instead of pushing his way forward to help the bullied guy out.
"I have no idea. I'm Midoriyama Satoshi by the way." Satoshi calmly responded. With a smile on his face, he extended his hand for a handshake as if this was a normal time to exchange handshakes.
"You~!" The leader grunted, his patience running short as the humiliation got the better of him.
BAM!
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