The look on M. Liberach’s face is indescribable, like a mix of shock and fury and disdain. He watches frozen in a myriad of reactions while I toss my phone to the kid who played cards with me earlier. He does as instructed and keeps the camera lens focused on Liberach.

What a docile boy. Or it could be that his thoughts have halted in the face of the thugs and their intimidating street weapons.

Becca 「 Let’s see, one, two… yeah that’s a lot of men. 」

I do a simple headcount of the 18 people I have to beat down. If I don’t rely on powers and restrain myself, it seems doable. By that I mean I can probably beat them all easily without exposing myself.

Attracting too much attention is bothersome. If I go overboard here then I’ll probably get an annoying call from Detective Raina. The ones who will clean up my mess will likely be her Solstice society or the Bleak Moon society. It’s their job, sure, but I can’t just dump extra work without a word.

One of the suited thugs seems pissed off at my nonchalant attitude and swaggers up to me menacingly.

Thug A 「 Sir, this girl seems defiant. What should we do? 」

Liberach 「 Not to worry, I have a net jammer so they won’t be able to upload any videos instantly. Just beat her to within an inch of death and retrieve the phone. 」

Thug A 「 Yes sir. 」

They think I might stream the footage live but that would be such a waste. Granted, I still need to find someone who can edit the video to be a sensation, as well as hire a media manager to grow my channel. I’m obviously too busy to do it myself.

The thug otherwise nicknamed as Thug A in my head, wields his baseball bat like a sword and swings it almost as if trying to break open a watermelon. Although I am holding my strength back, my other stats like Dexterity and Agility allow me to view the falling bat in clear detail like watching a movie in slow motion.

Just as I intend to send this guy to a lengthy stay in the hospital someone pulls me back and takes my place to receive the blow. Sister Therese shows up gallantly to stop the thug, grasping the wooden bat with her bare hands. The bat stops in place with her iron grip and the thug pales in realizing he can’t free it from her hands. She shoves her palm into the guy’s dazed face and knocks him off his feet.

Sister Therese 「 What kind of adult uses violence in front of kids? 」

Her words would have sounded pretty cool if she didn’t just use violence herself. A few more thugs surround her making it difficult for her to respond in time. They all coordinate their attacks on her at once. She manages to fend off their attacks but she doesn’t have a chance to fight back.

The previous Thug A has gotten back up and is glaring at me. It seems that he wants to rectify his previous failure in teaching me a lesson. Sister Therese looks worried but is otherwise preoccupied by the men circling her. I wink at her with the hidden message of not to worry about me. Thug A doesn’t notice and uses the same motion of swinging the bat down on my head.

With high Dexterity, my visual acuity is pretty decent, and that coupled with my Qi senses gives me a 360 degrees view of my nearby surroundings. I can see a bunch of the kids close their eyes or look away because they expect me to get hurt.

Hang on, is that Maeve? All the way in the back, is she eating a bag of popcorn? Where and when did she get that? Was it from the snacks or groceries Lina brought?

I clear my thoughts and sidestep to let the bat hit the ground, and while Thug A is slow to react and realize why he missed, I send my palm out like pushing a salesman away. The force of this blow is reduced to around 50 Strength points but is enough to make his figure cave in like a twig snapped at the center. He flies back a meter or two and lets go of the bat where my hand is positioned perfectly to catch it.

Although this motion seems quick and easy, some might say it is extremely difficult to do. A big adult like that being sent flying in one hit that blows away his consciousness without leaving a lot of blood-spill? I bet a real martial artist would be astounded at the level of control I have over my strength. Well it’s actually all thanks to my skills. And by that I mean an actual skill that I made for this situation.

I remember playing games like P*kemon and there was a special move designed to leave your target with one HP. Hence, I created a skill called, Non-Lethal Strike. Yeah, this is probably cutting it close when I’m trying to keep things within human ability.

The whole audience stares in silent shock but this is nothing new to me. The Sister is probably more shocked that I could use more force than she could. It’s not like I asked her to protect me earlier.

Liberach looks like he both got a piece of bone stuck in his throat and also saw the ghost of the dead chicken he ate.

Liberach 「 Are… are you, one of those… people? 」

Becca 「 Huh? No clue what you’re talking about. 」

He seems convinced that I’m part of some side that he is afraid to mention. I have a guess or two about that but I don’t need to confirm it right now.

Liberach 「 No… that’s right, it’s impossible. How dare you frighten me even if just for one second. 」

The tyrant regains his overbearing attitude. He reminds me of the typical school bullies, the kinds that pick on the weak but changes to meek behavior in front of the strong.

Liberach 「 Men! What are you standing around gawking for? It’s just some women, I don’t pay you to just stand around. Get them! 」

I send a telepathic message to my party member Brigid to guard the Sister for me. Roughly a dozen men are taking cautious steps towards me, a reasonable choice given that they have no way to accurately gauge my strength.

This actually reminds me of when I first showed up in Arcoul, when I fought against that group of women hunting down kids. Back then I wasn’t as strong and I was against swords and sabers. Feels funny how time passes but things don’t really change.

Needless to say, I easily dispatch the enemies in front of me using Non-Lethal Strike. The skill allows me to control the degree of damage that my attacks do to a target. I’ve reduced the severity of my blows to not leave any lasting damage. Of course they’ll spend quite the long stay in the hospital. I want to give them a sizable amount of time to reflect, regardless of whether they get sent to jail afterwards or not.

Is this still in line with pretending to be a regular human? I’m probably not fooling anybody anymore but I’m sticking to my story either way.

Everyone 「 …. 」

Oh come on, no reaction?