As Caleb slowly approached, the sleazy fat man, who was even more repulsive than Hajime Tanaka, finally withdrew his gaze, which was filled with greed and lust, from the girls before him. Just moments ago, he had subjected these five couples to a deeper layer of reality alteration. Starting tonight, he would, one by one, initiate all five of these beautiful girls, who had just begun dating their boyfriends and still maintained their purity.
The sleazy fat man noticed the outsider but paid him no mind. Having acquired such an ability without knowing the true nature of the world naturally made him reckless. He planned to play with the women at Aiho Academy until he was bored, then move on to other places. The famous private Kuoh Academy, for instance, was a promising target. Rumor had it that it was a girls' school until last year, filled with noble young ladies whose beauty surpassed that of Aiho Academy.
Seeing Caleb's uniform, the sleazy fat man's eyes lit up. Wasn't that the uniform of his next target school?
"Stop." A crimson light flashed in the sleazy fat man's eyes, and a wave of mental power surged toward Caleb's mind. Subjected to the double reduction from Mental Resistance and Allure, the remaining power couldn't affect him at all, merely causing Caleb's steps to pause momentarily. However, he still stopped, feigning a state of being hypnotized.
The sleazy fat man smiled with satisfaction, the fat on his oily face folding together, making him look utterly repulsive. "Who are you? What are you doing here?" Having successfully controlled Caleb, he didn't intend to get closer. Why would he approach unless it was a beautiful girl? This distance was perfectly sufficient for questioning.
Caleb moved his lips, saying in a barely audible but unclear voice, "I... came here..."
The crucial words were all inaudible. The sleazy fat man frowned, displeased. "Haven't you eaten? Speak louder." Seeing the opponent still showing no intention of moving forward, Caleb sighed inwardly. Why were they all the same, unwilling to even take one or two steps? Hajime Tanaka was like this, and so was this replacement. With this ingrained laziness, it was no wonder he'd ballooned into a pig.
"Fine, I'm tired of pretending." Caleb's expression relaxed, and he slowly started walking forward. Killing this fat man head-on would be a bit more troublesome, but only a bit.
The sleazy fat man was startled and quickly hypnotized again, "You are very tired, your legs can't move, and you want to lie down and sleep."
Caleb immediately felt a wave of drowsiness, his body feeling like he had labored for three days and nights, especially his legs, which were completely unwilling to move. He stopped in his tracks, slightly closing his eyes. Just as the sleazy fat man let out a sigh of relief, Caleb suddenly opened his eyes, completely shaking off the hypnosis's influence. The Mental Resistance talent, coupled with the mental resilience from the Allure talent, and his inherently far-above-average soul strength, meant that a B-Class mental attack could only affect Caleb for a few seconds.
"How is that possible!?" It was the first time the sleazy fat man had failed at hypnosis, especially such a simple one, which was arguably his strongest form of hypnosis right now. The simpler the hypnosis, the stronger the effect, and the easier it was to take effect.
After the shock, he retreated in panic, shouting to the five couples beside him, "Stop him for me! Kill him if you can!"
The ten people hesitated. The sleazy fat man quickly added, "Do it without worry! This person is a criminal; I'm from the government. You must trust me." A red light flashed in the eyes of the ten people. As they closed in on Caleb, they muttered, "The government's Sex Instructor said so, so it must be true."
Caleb looked scornfully at the sleazy fat man hiding behind the crowd. Trying to stop him with a few ordinary people? That was wishful thinking. He tensed his leg muscles, changed direction, and was about to use a speed that surpassed normal human vision to bypass the ten people and go straight for the sleazy fat man's head.
"You are very sleepy, you are very tired, you are very sleepy, you are very tired..." Just as he sped up, Caleb heard the frantic hypnotic whispers of the sleazy fat man. In a mental lapse, his movement momentarily stalled. Under the sleazy fat man's continuous influence, Caleb remained in a dazed state, unable to take effective action.
The five couples formed a circle, starting to punch and kick him. Their attacks couldn't breach Caleb's defense, but they made it much harder for him to approach his target. Usually, using mental attacks like hypnosis would also consume the user's mental energy, but the sleazy fat man showed no sign of mental fatigue. Apart from occasionally being out of breath from talking too fast, there was no strain.
That was because the hypnosis wasn't actually his ability, but came from the rimless glasses on his face. A week ago, this pair of glasses suddenly appeared in his home. When he picked them up and put them on, the knowledge of the hypnotic ability naturally flooded his mind. After a week of practice, driven by an inexplicable urge, he began to execute his plan for Hypnotic Sex Guidance. He hadn't expected that right at the start of the plan, someone beyond his hypnotic control would find him, and clearly with malicious intent.
This situation continued for an unknown period. The sleazy fat man felt his throat was about to give out, yet Caleb was still slowly inching toward him. Aside from his clothes being wrinkled, there wasn't even a mark on his body.
"Monster..." The sleazy fat man looked at Caleb with terror. "If ten people aren't enough, then I'll use a hundred!" His face darkened, and he said viciously.
With that, he stopped trying to affect Caleb and quickly ran out of the gymnasium. Aiho Academy had more than a hundred students. If he succeeded, not only would Caleb be in trouble, but the terrible consequences would probably make Akeno Himejima's breasts ache with frustration. Caleb desperately wanted to stop the man, but five girls clung tightly to his limbs and waist. Five boys were continuously attacking him in front. He couldn't stop the sleazy fat man the instant he recovered. By the time he broke free from the entanglement and knocked the ten people unconscious one by one, the sleazy fat man had already disappeared.
Little Kuro, which had been hiding since the fight started, reappeared and transmitted information to Caleb.
"He went to the broadcasting room..." Caleb's expression was grim. Unsurprisingly, he was about to be pursued by the entire school body. As if to confirm his suspicion, the broadcast system chose this moment to blare to life.
"Everyone listen up! There's a monster in the gymnasium right now..." The sleazy fat man's voice echoed from the broadcast across the entire campus, and an invisible force began to affect everyone who heard the message.
Just as Caleb pondered whether to temporarily retreat and call for help, a yellowed piece of paper fell out of his torn pocket. He picked up the paper and contemplated for a moment. "Akeno-senpai said to use it when facing a crisis, but didn't specify the effect... This should count as a crisis now, right..." Caleb decided to use it. If he delayed any further, there was no telling what other mischief this replacement would cause.
More importantly, he likely knew the root cause of this incident now. After being hit by the hypnotic attacks so many times, whenever he suffered a mental impact, or rather, whenever the opponent used his hypnotic ability, a crimson light would flash in his eyes. No, to be precise, the transparent lenses of his glasses turned red, staining his eyes. Since he first saw this replacement, Caleb had felt a sense of familiarity but couldn't place it. After confirming this detail, he suddenly realized the truth. It was that flat, rimless pair of glasses—the most obvious yet easiest thing to overlook. Hajime Tanaka also wore an identical pair of glasses. No, his intuition told Caleb it was the same pair of glasses. And this pair of glasses was the source of their hypnotic ability, the true target he needed to deal with. Without dealing with these glasses, countless future 'Hajime Tanakas' would appear, attempting to recreate the Hypnotic Sex Guidance.
Upon realizing the opponent's ability came from the glasses, a single word popped into Caleb's mind: Sacred Gear. If it truly was a Sacred Gear, then using the paper given by Akeno Himejima made even more sense. Even the weakest Sacred Gear carried the weight of the word 'God,' and it was reasonable to approach it cautiously. Furthermore, these glasses were far from weak. In the hands of someone skilled in mental power, even if they were only D-Class, they could potentially defeat Caleb head-on.
Hearing the continuous sound of footsteps from outside the gymnasium, Caleb hesitated no longer. Pale blue Magic Power began to flow onto the yellowed paper.