Chapter 34: Fancy Me Lad?!
Maybe Cole had been staring at the crystal for too long or something else, but the group finally turned their attention toward him.
"What is it, kid... do you fancy me or something, staring with such thirsty eyes...?"
The middle-aged man licked his lips while staring at Cole’s figure up and down.
For some reason, Cole felt a chill run down his spine. The look in the middle-aged man’s eyes made him uncomfortable.
Alas, he was not a delicate individual. Taking a deep breath to calm himself down, he looked at the group and said in a calm tone while pointing at the crystal in the middle-aged man’s hands,
"That crystal in your hands, hand it to me. It’s mine."
His words were clear and crisp, leaving not a single room for negotiation.
As someone raised in the modern twenty-first century, his logic made sense. A random item lying on the street belonged to the person who saw it first.
It might have made sense in Cole’s mind, but when the middle-aged man and his underlings heard those words, wide mocking smiles appeared on their faces and they laughed out loud.
"Boss, did you hear this kid’s words? He says this crystal is his..."
"You better hide that crystal, boss. It seems he is after your good fortune..."
Both of the underlings threw their heads back and laughed out loud, revealing their piss-colored teeth, their spit flying in every direction.
Cole frowned, not understanding their reaction to his serious words. He was sure that he did not crack any joke.
Suddenly, he had the urge to take a look at his face.
He instinctively turned his head to see if there was a mirror lying around.
Cole’s weird action surprised the middle-aged man and his underlings. One of the curious underlings could not help but ask,
"What are you looking for, my guy...?"
While the other more bloodthirsty underling seemed to have had enough of Cole, the next moment he took out a long knife from his back pocket, just as he was about to rush toward Cole.
"Hmph!"
The middle-aged man snorted coldly, stopping the underling in his tracks.
Seemingly understanding something, the underling stopped.
Meanwhile, Cole also stopped whatever he was doing when he heard the curious question.
Then, after a brief pause, he answered,
"A mirror. Do you happen to be carrying an extra mirror?"
Although Cole said those words, he already had an answer in his mind. Given how hideous the group looked, they did not seem like the type to care about outer appearance.
"Mirror? What do you need that for?!"
The underling asked in confusion. Then he could not stop himself from looking at Cole again.
Was this guy right in the head?
Did he not realize what kind of situation he was in...?
Then another possibility flashed in his head.
Could it be he took them for nothing but mere fools?
Once his train of thought reached that point, the look in the underling’s eyes turned slightly frosty.
Cole acted as if he did not notice the change, but looked right into his eyes and said word by word,
"A mirror. I need to take a better look at my face and see if there’s stupid written somewhere, because with how you guys are staring at me, surely that must be the case."
"....."
Following those words, a heavy silence descended in the surroundings. Only the sound of raging lightning echoed above.
Just at this moment, a lightning bolt fell fiercely from the sky, directly between Cole and the middle-aged man’s group, but not even a single one of them blinked.
Cole gave another look and said word by word,
"Hand that crystal to me and scram, and I might spare your pathetic lives."
A few minutes ago, he had come to a realization.
This was not a modern world, where law and logic prevailed, but a jungle where might was right. The strong dictated right and wrong. After all, one could not reason with a tiger when their head was in its mouth.
The middle-aged man finally reacted. His two eyes immediately turned furious, killing intent boiling from within them.
"Both of you, go... break his limbs...!"
However, before his underlings could even take a single step, Cole took one step forward.
Swish!
They had barely blinked when he was right in front of them.
He had already asked the A.I. chip to scan them. The two underlings only posed about twenty percent threat, while the middle-aged man posed around fifty.
The three of them were just trash with death wishes.
Without wasting another moment to think, he launched three precise punches, each one aimed at vitals.
Even though Cole was fast, these men had been living in the Thunder Domain for an unknown amount of time, and the fact that they had survived for so long spoke about their abilities.
Cole’s punches only knocked out the underling with the knife, while the middle-aged man and the other underling were able to dodge his attacks.
So fast...!
Cole exclaimed in his heart.
The next moment, he hurriedly sidestepped to completely ignore the middle-aged man. His sudden action caught the underling by surprise, who had thought Cole would attack the middle-aged man next.
Before he could blink, his entire vision was filled by a single approaching fist.
Then darkness.
"You...! How?!"
The middle-aged man’s eyes widened in pure shock.
Although the gang was experienced, experience could not bridge the sheer gap in strength that existed between them and Cole.
"If you had just given the blood crystal over obediently, your fate would have been slightly less painful..."
Now that there were no underlings to disturb him, Cole could put his entire focus on dealing with the middle-aged man.
Just when the middle-aged man expected another punch to fly toward his face, his eyes widened in horror as he felt something cold and sharp brush right against his throat.
Cole only felt slight resistance as the sword sliced through the middle-aged man’s neck.
With a soft thud, a head with wide open eyes rolled on the ground.