Garen was no longer laughing, instead he was in a laughable state.
He was wedged into the neighbor's brick wall, his body twisted at an angle that looked gory ... .like in a horror movie.
His eyes puked out of its socket and the metallic knuckle he wore had fallen off.
The narcissist fool who bullied Rio for years had been turned into a pile of nothing.
The other thugs, Big Mike and Slim stood in disbelief with their jaws dropped.
They shifted their gaze from the huge hole abd back to Rio.
"G-Garen?" Slim whispered. He was already shaking like a child.
Rio on the other hand was facing another major issue, his right arm was shivering violently like he had a cold.
One would think it was because he is scared.
It was because the [1,000x Wrath System] had popped up and was glowing right in front of his eyes.
[Wrath Level: 90%]
[System Suggestion: Eliminate all witnesses.]
[Targeting: 2x Hostiles. Multiplier Ready: 1,000x Final Strike.]
Rio's vision changed to a deep angry red. All the muscle in his body wanted to finish off the other two thugs.
He could predict the exact spot on their bodies that would kill them with just a poke.
All of this is because of the 1000x energy he got from breakfast earlier.
"Rio! Stop it! Please!"
Ellie's voice rang out desperately.
She was standing at the edge of their broken doorway, her hands over her mouth.
Her voice was full of terror. But she wasn't looking at the thugs. She was looking at him. She was looking at her brother like he was a total stranger…or a monster.
Rio forced his eyes to stay on the ground. He had to fight the System.
There was no need to fight with the men.
He bent down and picked metallic knuckles from the floor and wrapped his fingers deliberately over it
The metal was immediately turned to a folded paper as he flung it away, a bit pissed that he needed to contain his energy when those scumbags deserved whatever he would have done to them.
The two thugs shivered as Rio shifted his gaze towards them, expecting their own punishment.
"Take him and leave," Rio said.
"If I see any of you on this floor again, even this building...you'd regret you ever came."
Slim and Big Mike didn't wait for a second warning.
They rushed over to the hole in the wall and grabbed both arms and dragged his body out.
They misstep so many times as they moved due to fear because they could still feel Rio's gaze on them.
After they left and the building was quiet again, Rio stood alone in the hallway for a long time.
The red light in his vision slowly faded, and the shivering in his arm stopped.
The overwhelming feeling from the system reduced.
Then he turned around to look at his sister.
"Ellie..." he said, reaching out a hand but she flinched.
She took a step back and looked at his hand like it was a loaded gun.
Rio froze. That small movement….the tiny flinch hurt more than the black spears that had pierced his chest in the future.
He had come back to save her, but he realized that his power had already built a wall between them.
"I can explain Ellie…."Rio said calmly.
"Explain what exactly? Rio… what was that?" she whispered, her voice cracking.
"Was I dreaming or seeing random things? You don't… you don't do that. People don't fly through walls because of a poke! You're an F-Rank Shield-Bearer!"
I need to lie. Rio thought.
If I told her the truth, that I was a ghost from a dead future, possessed by a god-like system of infinite wrath, she would think I have finally gone crazy under the pressure of their poverty.
He needed her to feel safe and cozy with him again.
"It's a secret technique I had learnt, Ellie," Rio said, a forced sheepish smile appearing on his face.
He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, playing the role of the clumsy brother.
"I didn't want to tell you because I wasn't sure it would work. I've been meeting an old hunter at the docks during my night shifts. He is a retired A-Rank. He taught me about pressure points and all those things."
Ellie blinked, her hands slowly dropping from her face. "A technique? From the docks?"
"Yeah," Rio lied, his heart aching at how easily he lied to his dear sister.
"It's about using the opponent's own force against them. When Garen hit me with all his strength, I timed the touch to hit a specific nerve or I could return it back to him. It might look like I have magic, but it's just applying some tricks and a bit of luck. I've been practicing on sandbags in secret for months."
Ellie stared at him, searching his eyes for any sign of a lie.
Then, she let out a long, shuddering breath. The fear in her expression was replaced by a strange mix of confusion and relief.
"You idiot!" she suddenly yelled, and slapped his arm.
It felt like a feather that just brushed his arm, but Rio let his shoulder drop to make her feel strong.
"You almost gave me a heart attack! I thought you had turned into a monster or something! Why didn't you tell me you were learning stuff like that?"
"I wanted it to be a surprise." Rio said.
"I wanted to make sure I could actually protect us before I told you. I didn't want to give you high hopes and end up disappointing. You understand, right?"
Ellie's lip trembled, and she quickly wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
She closed the distance between them and gave him a quick, tight hug.
She felt small and fragile in his arms.
"Don't ever do that again without telling me," she moped, her voice muffled against his chest.
"Now, help me clean this up. If the landlord sees the mess you created. We're definitely getting evicted." She said, referring to the hole.
They spent the next few hours working in silence.
Ellie swept the shattered glass and plaster dust, while Rio tried to repair the broken door and placed it back to its hinge.
He tried not to use force because of the energy that could go off from the system. He made sure his movement was slow and stiff.
To Ellie, he looked like he was just sore from the "fight." But in reality, something else was going on inside him.
[System Notification: Wrath Overflow: 15%.]
[Physical strain increasing. Please vent your energy immediately.]
Every time he tried to pick up a broom or a piece of wood, his muscles twitched in pain
He felt like an oversized balloon. For now, he didn't need to conserve his energy. He needed a place to vent it all out or he could explode.
"Dinner's ready," Ellie called out, her voice back to its normal, bossy tone.
She placed a small bowl of white rice and a watery soup on the table.
When Rio sat down, the wood groaned sharply. He bit his lower lips and cursed under his breath.
He went ahead and picked up his chopsticks and took a single, small bite of the rice.
[Consuming: 1x Grain of Rice —> Multiplier Applied: 1,000x Calories Detected.]
The response he got for eating that was overwhelming.
That single grain had expanded into a burst of pure, raw energy.
It felt like he had just swallowed a small sun because his stomach hurt, and a bead of sweat rolled down his forehead.
He needed to stop eating. If he finished the bowl, he would probably punch a hole through the floor just by standing up.
"I'm… I'm actually not that hungry," Rio said, pushing the bowl away.
His voice was strained, because he was trying to conserve the energy coursing through his veins.
"Not hungry?" Ellie frowned, pointing her spoon at him. "You just fought a guy! You need your strength, Rio. Eat the rice."
"I think the 'technique' took a toll on me," Rio lied again, and stood up very fast.
That action caused the chair to be thrown backwards with a huge force.
He winced and forced a smile. "I need to go for a walk. I mean to cool down my muscles. It's part of the training."
Ellie looked worried, but she nodded. "Fine. But don't stay out late. And stay away from the Iron Fist territory!"
"I will," Rio promised, grabbing a worn-out hoodie.
As he stepped out of the apartment, a breeze blew on his face.
He needed a sink. He remembered a Hidden Cache near the local park.
In the old timeline, a mana-leak happened there weeks before the first Gate opened.
It was a place where the ground was reinforced by natural mana-fluctuations. It was the perfect place to punch the earth until his Overflow dropped back to zero.
He walked down the stairs, slowly.
He felt like a huge man walking on glass.
When he opened the front door of the apartment building, and reached the sidewalk, he saw something that made him stop abruptly.
The street was dark and quiet, but he felt danger lurking in the air.
Across the street, a black car with dark tinted windows was idling. The engine was a low, expensive purr. Rio's eyes narrowed. He didn't need the System to tell him what this was.
He could feel the "Mana Signature" radiating from the car.
An Awakened.
The Iron Fist Gang hadn't run away.
They hadn't been scared off by a technique like he lied to Ellie.
They had gone back to report to their boss, and the boss had sent someone stronger.
They wanted to see if he had really turned to something else, or if it was just a rumor.
Rio pulled his hood over his head, and continued walking.