Ferocity

Make money, top up, get stronger.

That was what his life was all about!

System, map things out for me. Where's the highest bounty on a cursed spirit next?

Yagami Jue asked in his mind.

[Ding!]

[Searching for missions around Sendai City...]

[Search successful!]

[High-paying mission found: abandoned hospital on the outskirts. Suspected Grade 2 Cursed Spirit activity. Black market bounty: 3 million yen!]

Three million, huh...

Yagami Jue sneered inwardly.

That money is fucking mine!

Once he got that three million, he would pour every last yen into his Taijutsu panel.

His strength would undergo a true qualitative leap!

By then, he would stand a fighting chance even against the special grade cursed spirits from the early plot!

Just you wait...

This twisted world ruled by cursed energy.

One day, I'll smash it to pieces with my fists!

The corners of Yagami Jue's mouth curved into a crazed smile that sent chills down the spine.

The feast of slaughter and sudden riches had only just begun!

The final school bell had barely rung.

Yagami Jue strode straight out of the classroom, one hand in his pocket, without even taking his schoolbag.

Behind him, his classmates cleared a wide path as though avoiding the plague.

Not one of them dared meet this "fiend's" eyes!

Asakura Yuki sat in the front row, watching Yagami Jue's retreating back as she bit her pale lip.

She hesitated for two seconds, then snatched a blue umbrella from her desk and jogged after him.

"Yagami! Wait!"

At the corner of the hallway, Asakura Yuki called out to stop him, breathless.

The girl's eyes were red, like a frightened yet stubborn little white rabbit.

She offered him the umbrella with both hands. "The forecast says there'll be a downpour tonight... You didn't bring an umbrella..."

Yagami Jue stopped and gave her a cold glance.

"I don't need it."

"But..." Asakura Yuki was so distressed she nearly cried, her voice thick with pleading. "I just want to do something for you. I don't want to keep being a useless burden..."

Looking at her pitiful expression, Yagami Jue's lips curled into a sneer.

"Right now, you look like a stray dog wagging its tail and begging for scraps."

Asakura Yuki shuddered, her pretty face instantly turning white as paper.

"Don't want to be a burden?"

Yagami Jue abruptly leaned close, his oppressive presence bearing down on her. Asakura Yuki stumbled backward in fright until her back pressed against the cold wall.

"Then wipe that pathetic look off your face!"

"In this world that eats people alive, tears are the cheapest trash there is!"

"Go lift weights at a gym, learn to fight, pick up a knife and stab the people who bully you!"

Yagami Jue enunciated every word, his gaze as vicious as a wolf's.

"Come talk to me when you have the guts to look me in the eye."

"Get lost."

With that, Yagami Jue turned and left without looking back.

Asakura Yuki was left leaning against the wall alone, stunned.

The umbrella in her hands fell to the floor.

But this time, she didn't cry.

She bit her lip hard enough to draw a trace of blood, and for the first time, a wildfire of defiance ignited in her watery eyes!

Half an hour later, at the Extreme Strength Underground Gym in Sendai City.

It was the most hardcore iron gym in the city, frequented entirely by hulking muscle monsters.

Yagami Jue pushed the door open and entered in an ordinary black tracksuit.

"Hey, brat. You lost?"

A bald brute nearly two meters tall, with arms thicker than Yagami Jue's thighs, sat sprawled in front of the squat rack.

His face was thick with flesh as he looked Yagami Jue up and down contemptuously.

"This is where men come to sweat, not where high school kids like you play house!"

"Go home and suck on your mommy's tits!"

Several muscular men bench-pressing nearby burst into raucous laughter.

"Hahahaha! This kid's skinny as a bamboo pole. Better not let the barbell snap his bones!"

"Probably came to watch us train and get his kicks!"

Yagami Jue walked up to the bald brute, expressionless.

"Move."

His voice wasn't loud, but its chill made their hearts tremble.

The bald brute froze for a moment, then flew into a rage!

He shot to his feet and loomed over Yagami Jue like an iron tower!

"The fuck! You're a little shit who hasn't even grown pubes, and you dare talk to me like that?"

"Today, I'm gonna-"

Bam!

Before the bald brute could finish.

Yagami Jue abruptly raised his right hand and planted it against the man's chest!

He didn't even use his full strength.

With nothing but his terrifying 52 points of strength, he gave a casual shove!

Crash!

The two-meter giant looked as though he had been hit by a speeding dump truck!

Both feet left the ground, and he flew five or six meters backward!

He slammed into the dumbbell rack behind him, smashing a whole row of steel dumbbells into a wreck!

Blargh!

The bald brute spat up a mouthful of sour fluid and rolled wildly across the floor, clutching his chest, in too much pain to utter a complete sentence!

Dead silence!

The entire gym instantly fell deathly silent!

Clang!

A muscular man doing curls was so frightened that he dropped his barbell onto his foot, yet didn't even dare cry out in pain.

Everyone's eyes went wide as they sucked in a sharp breath!

"Holy shit..."

"What the fuck kind of monster is he?!"

"He sent a hundred-kilo beast flying with one hand? Is he fucking Superman?!"

They whispered among themselves, staring at Yagami Jue in utter terror and disbelief.

Yagami Jue didn't spare the bald man on the floor so much as a glance.

He walked straight to the squat rack and began piling weight plates onto both ends.

50 kilograms!

100 kilograms!

200 kilograms!

300 kilograms!

Until the barbell on the squat rack reached a horrifying 400 kilograms!

The bar had already bent into an exaggerated arc under the weight!

The muscular men around him stared, dumbstruck.

"He's insane... This kid's completely insane!"

"A 400-kilo squat? Even the world record isn't that ridiculous!"

"Call an ambulance! He's going to get crushed into pulp!"

Yet.

Under everyone's horrified gazes.

Yagami Jue slipped beneath the barbell, bracing the steel bar across his shoulders.

"Up."

With that low shout.

The muscles in Yagami Jue's legs abruptly tensed, and his 52 points of strength exploded into action!

Bam!

The nonslip rubber mat beneath his feet was instantly crushed to pieces!

As steady as a mountain, Yagami Jue lifted the 400-kilogram weight!

He didn't even breathe hard!

Too light.

Yagami Jue cursed inwardly.

Although his strength had reached 52 points, training with dead weights like these no longer gave him any sense of improvement.

Looks like ordinary training is useless now. I need real combat.

Making money comes first!

Boom!

Yagami Jue casually tossed the 400-kilogram barbell back onto the rack.

The enormous impact bent the steel frame out of shape!

He picked up a towel and wiped his hands, then strode out of the gym under reverent gazes that looked at him as though he were God.

"Is... is he a god descended to earth...?"

Lying amid the wreckage, the bald brute watched that lean figure leave, frightened to tears.

Eight that evening.

The "Dark Crow" bar in Sendai City's underground black market.

It was a gathering place for curse users, wandering jujutsu sorcerers, and underground mercenaries.

The bar was foul and smoky, the air thick with the smell of cheap tobacco and hard liquor.

Jingle-

The bar's battered wooden door was pushed open.

Yagami Jue walked in wearing his black high school uniform, his face expressionless.

The noisy bar instantly quieted a little.

Countless malicious eyes on scarred faces turned in unison toward the high school student who looked so out of place.

"Hey, am I seeing things? A high school kid?"

"Hahahaha! Kid, this isn't the maid café you're looking for!"