Chapter 15: Ploy

Glancing from afar, Shi Tian could see the poor attire that the people were wearing.

Though it was surprising for him to see that none of them were actually wearing a mask, meaning that the air pollution in the area wasn’t as drastic and hazardous.

‘Hmm, some of them are openly holding assault rifles.’ Shi Tian thought to himself.

It just goes to show that this world was no longer the world he knew. To openly have firearms out in the open where numerous people are around, it was like they were back in the wild west era.

Most of the people walking around were ferocious looking, seemingly afraid that others would mistake them as easy prey.

Shi Tian was minding his own business as he proceeded to walk toward the camping site which was a path that he needed to go through before entering the city, Gearits.

While he was walking, he saw a scene of a muscular man bullying a woman.

“Hey there beauty, how about a night with me in the bed and I’ll give you these source crystals. I bet you already want to spread your legs for me, right?” The muscular man had a tattoo on his right arm as he grabbed on tightly at the delicate young woman.

“N-No, I don’t care for your source crystals. Let me go.” The delicate young woman responded and struggled to free her arm from his grip. ｂ𝚍ｎｏ𝚟ｌ.

And it was unsurprising that such a scene was ignored by most people as they seemingly walked past them, not batting an eyelid, almost as if they were familiar with this play already.

Shi Tian was no exception either as he could see the woman trembling slightly, but didn’t care about it. That woman had no relationship with him whatsoever and he had no time to be role-playing as some hero.

‘If you don’t want to be bullied, then you should have at least strived to become stronger to not get picked on.’ Shi Tian exclaimed inwardly, walking past them.

As he was walking past them, the muscular man suddenly cursed in fury.

“Whore, you dare to sneak attack me and injure my arm?” After cursing in fury, the muscular man shoved the woman aside.

With an instinctive reaction, Shi Tian could tell the woman was about to crash into him, so he gracefully stepped aside and allowed the woman to collapse just next to him.

There was no way he was going to allow himself to be involved in such a scene like most protagonists would have done in the movies.

Unwilling to idle further, Shi Tian tried to walk forward and pretend nothing had happened.

Alas, little did he expect the muscular man would still call him out.

“Hmph, a greenhorn brat trying to snatch my woman?” The muscular man yelled out. He was lifting his sleeves up to show his muscle meat, almost as if he was trying to intimidate him.

Meanwhile, Shi Tian clicked his tongue as he finally realized why no one was paying attention to such a scene. Originally, he had thought they were all showing no empathy like him, but he couldn’t have been more wrong.

For the woman to coincidentally crash near his position and how he was still called out despite not saying anything, it was clear that this was a ploy. A ploy to trap newcomers or foreigners that had just arrived to scam them of their equipment or money.

“Pretty nice act the two of you had performed. But are you sure you chose the right target?” Shi Tian’s eyes were cold as he turned around and glared at the muscular man.

The muscular man might seem fierce and deadly on the surface, but considering how he had seen the true terror a monster could truly be like, such as the Tenceloras. The muscular man in front of him was no different than a toddler, trying to showcase his pitiful achievement.

“And you, stop pretending to cry and go back to your man. You look like a hideous gnoll trying to pretend to be a princess.” Shi Tian then told the young woman that was still laying on the ground.

Once Shi Tian had said that, the nearby people were finally interested in the situation and began watching, waiting for the scene to unfold.

“Heh, I told you one day that Benmos would meet its end for targeting foreigners to scam. This new person doesn’t seem to be a greenhorn at all.”

“Keke, just one sniff and you could smell the blood of numerous monsters. I don’t get how Benmos could still miss that and continue with this ploy.”

“Ah, I feel bad for Krissie though, being forced by Benmos and tortured daily by him to do such an act. But then again, who told her to be weak in this era. Maybe we can have a taste of her if Benmos gets injured by the newcomer.”

The people surrounding them were all chatting happily and were ready for a fight to occur. The only thing missing was the popcorn and soda that they could have enjoyed.

“Goddamn, whore. It’s all because of you for not crashing directly into him.” Benmos clenched his fist tightly and blamed the woman for not doing what he had ordered.

The woman, Krissie, trembled slightly upon being scolded and gradually stood up, running back to Benmos.

SLAP!

The moment she had returned to his side, Benmos slapped Krissie across the face, giving her a bruise and a red hand mark on her left cheek.

“Fucking whore, watch how I’ll torture you tonight and make you satisfy me thoroughly for making me waste my energy.” Benmos then spit at her before turning his attention to Shi Tian.

And just when Benmos was prepared to curse at Shi Tian as well, his eyes flashed before him when he saw a metallic round of ammo coming at him at supersonic speed.

BANG!

Shi Tian had fired his pistol without a single warning as he coldly watched Benmos crash into the ground with his forehead temple pierced by the bullet.