"W-What the—?! Sahal, isn’t your physical defense supposed to be 0?! I heard you abandoned defense entirely to specialize in attack power!"

Oh, I get it now.

Even after knowing how strong I was, he still launched this ambush because he thought a surprise attack could take me down. Too bad for him. The "physical defense 0" thing was just a joke I made after getting slapped by a little girl.

"What are you talking about? I just put on a little act to trick scum like you guys."

Of course, that was a lie.

I puffed out my chest to look as intimidating as possible and sneered at the short man.

"You scheming bastard, Sahal!"

The short man ground his teeth with a loud grit grit sound, his face turning bright red.

"Enough! You lot, finish him off!"

At his sharp command, the two macho guys and the filthy man all attacked at once.

Impressive.

Even though I could only see the boss, the short man, and Macho #1 in my field of vision, I could somehow sense the ones attacking from behind. The subtle shifts in the room’s air and their presence told me exactly who was coming from where.

It seemed that beyond the stats shown in the status examination, my body had been enhanced in all sorts of other ways too.

The moment the brawl began, I could feel my mind and thoughts sharpening, optimizing themselves for combat.

The filthy man was swinging down a knife-hand strike like he was pouncing, while the two macho guys were trying to wrap their thick arms around me to pin me down.

I can read everything from their presence alone...

I could even tell that the macho guy’s flabby belly was jiggling up and down. If I wanted to, I could probably poke his belly button the instant it appeared. That’s how overwhelming the difference in our combat ability was.

Still... they’re so slow.

I simply took one well-timed step to the left, and all their attacks missed completely.

The short man lost his balance and fell, while the macho guys who lost their target collided with each other.

"Uwah!"

"Gah!"

"Nfuu!"

After their failed ambush, the short man’s face grew even paler, and he started shaking visibly.

"Umm... Just to check—if I beat the crap out of you guys right now, does that count as a crime?"

"D-Don’t screw with us!"

The filthy man got up and lunged again. The macho guys also reached out with their thick arms, trying to grab me once more.

Still too slow. I dodged them with plenty of room to spare.

"Stop squirming around!"

"Catch him! Stop his movements!"

"My stats are on par with the strongest knights in the country. You guys have no chance."

I continued dodging every single attack inside the cramped room.

I never felt even the slightest bit of danger. Even with six men in a small room, I could instinctively tell exactly where to move so I wouldn’t even brush against them. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Even if the short man and the boss joined the attack, I would probably still dodge everything.

"Damn it! I’ll kill you!"

The filthy man pulled out a hidden knife and swung it.

I wasn’t sure what would happen if the knife actually hit me. I figured I could dodge it, but there was still a small chance, and I didn’t want to get hurt. So I snatched the knife away.

The weapon disappeared from his hand. The filthy man’s eyes widened in shock.

I pinched the hilt and the tip of the blade between the fingers of both hands and thrust it right in front of his face.

"Don’t move! If you move, this knife loses its life!"

"W-What kind of nonsense—"

"You moved, huh? Then this knife shall die."

I put strength into my hands.

Crack.

It snapped cleanly in two.

Oops.

I wanted to do that cool anime thing where you bend a sword or knife into a spiral to show off your strength, but it just broke instead. How the hell do you twist it like a lollipop anyway?

"Hii..."

It was a failure on my part, but it seemed to have more than enough intimidation effect.

All the men froze.

While further snapping the broken blade, I threatened them.

"I might burn all of you to death right now. But... if you become my loyal subordinates, I might spare you. So, anyone here want to become my underling and live?"

I tried to induce an internal collapse among the enemy.

However, the short man let out a mocking laugh.

"Hoh hoh hoh. It’s useless. There is no one here who would betr—What?!"

Everyone except the short man had raised their hands.

"P-Please spare me!"

"I was just following orders!"

"I-I’ll do anything! I’ll even offer my ass, so please forgive me!"

"I’m not the boss. I was just ordered to sit here. This guy is the real boss!"

"Y-You bastards! You’re betraying me?!"

I see. So the guy acting like the boss was just a decoy. The well-spoken short man was the true boss all along.

He had planned to trick me from the start and pin all the blame on his subordinates if things went south.

"Looks like your subordinates have a lot of faith in you, huh?"

"S-Still, I have two loyal subordinates left!"

Ah. Right, there were four macho guys yesterday.

"But..."

"Those two... aren’t around anymore."

"W-What?!"

"They’re probably buried in the wasteland by now."

"N-No way..."

I told a convenient lie and dropped the shattered pieces of the knife onto the floor.

Clatter clatter clatter...

The hollow sound that proved my overwhelming finger strength delivered the final blow.

The true boss’s eyes went dark. His shoulders slumped heavily as he resigned himself.

"Damn it... Just kill me..."

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHH!!!"

I became furious.

Probably even more furious than Melos. If I were from a battle-loving race, my hair would have turned golden. If I were a manga protagonist, I would have awakened a new power.

Of all things, hearing "Just kill me" from someone other than the female knight!

How—how could such a horrible thing be allowed?!

"H-Hiiii..."

The real boss backed away until he was pressed against the wall. The fake boss screamed and fell off his chair.

The other subordinates fell on their backsides and scooted away, unable to stand.

"H-How dare you say ’kill me’... How dare you say ’kill me’...!"

Rumble rumble rumble...

Magic power was leaking from my body, causing the entire building to shake.