One-punch KO

It was seven thirty in the evening when he left the martial arts school.

Li Shuhua had stewed some soup and taken it to the hospital today, so there was no need to worry about Fang Xiaozhu's dinner.

It was a little late for dinner, and the night market was already bustling.

Fang Yuan found a roadside food stall at the night market, ordered a bowl of braised offal, and browsed the news on his phone as he ate.

While he was eating, two thug-looking men suddenly appeared and slung their arms around his shoulders, one on either side.

Fang Yuan glanced at them and asked, "What do you want?"

"Our boss wants to see you. Come with us." The two thugs tried to drag Fang Yuan away.

Fang Yuan scanned the two thugs with Iris Data.

He saw that they were just ordinary people without even any Star Power-the sort he could flatten with a single punch.

Fang Yuan flung his arms out and threw both thugs to the ground.

"Ow!"

The two thugs groaned in pain on the ground. "You fucking dare hit us? Got a death wish?"

"Weren't you going to take me to your boss? Lead the way," Fang Yuan said.

Realizing how tough he was, the two thugs hurriedly scrambled up and led the way toward the old district.

Once they entered the old district, the streetlights grew dimmer and dimmer, until there were none at all.

They passed through a pitch-black alley and arrived at that same street basketball court.

Dim yellow lights shone over the court.

A group of thugs was playing basketball on it.

Only when they saw Fang Yuan approaching did they stop playing and gather around a young man with a wolf's head tattoo on his arm. A dozen or so pairs of eyes all fixed on Fang Yuan.

Fang Yuan glanced over the group and spotted the three street thugs he had beaten up the other day.

Seeing those three, he had a rough idea of what was going on.

Fang Yuan withdrew his gaze and looked at the young man with the wolf's head tattoo before him. "You wanted to see me?"

Qinglang said unhurriedly, "Do you know who I am?"

"No."

"Our boss is Qinglang, the boss of Qingtang Street! Get on your knees and apologize if you don't want to die!" Brother Donkey threatened.

"My knees are too stiff. They won't bend."

Fang Yuan and Qinglang stared at each other, their gazes clashing in midair as though sparks were flying.

A sneer curled Qinglang's lips. "How are you planning to settle the score for beating up my brothers?"

As he spoke, he gave his men a look.

The dozen or so thugs immediately spread out, surrounding Fang Yuan in the middle of the basketball court.

"One, two, three, four..."

Fang Yuan looked at them and started counting, pointing to each in turn.

"What are you counting?"

"How many of you there are."

"Don't bother. None of them will lift a finger. I'm more than enough to crush you myself. If you give in now, I'll only cripple your arms and legs. I can spare your life." Qinglang raised his right hand and activated his superpower, radiating the powerful aura of a Lv.2 Awakener.

His right hand began to change, quickly turning into a wolf's claw.

A chilling gleam reflected off its sharp claws, enough to make anyone's skin crawl just looking at them.

"A transformation-type superpower." Fang Yuan recognized his superpower type at a glance.

Such superpowers usually arose when certain genes hidden within the human body were activated and combined with Star Power, ultimately causing a physical mutation.

Qinglang flexed his wolf's claw and said leisurely, "I don't mind telling you that my Star Power level has already reached Lv.2. One flick of my claws is enough to tear you in half. So I suggest you give in. I keep my word. I'll only cripple your arms and legs."

Fang Yuan channeled Star Power into his eyes and checked Qinglang's stat panel.

Name: Qinglang

Star Power level: Lv.2

Attributes: Strength 22, Agility 24, Constitution 20, Spirit 19

Superpower Trait: Qinglang's Claw

Against an ordinary Lv.1 Awakener, these stats really would have been overwhelming in every respect. A single swipe could tear a Lv.1 Awakener apart.

After reading them, however, Fang Yuan smiled faintly, slowly raised his right fist, and aimed it at him. "Take a guess. Can you block this punch?"

Qinglang sneered. "Quit bluffing. I checked you out. You're only Lv.1, and your martial arts grades are garbage. I could slap basketfuls of weak trash like you to death!"

As he spoke, he immediately lunged at him.

His agility of 24 made him as fast as a phantom.

In the blink of an eye, he reached Fang Yuan and slashed down with his sharp claws.

Fang Yuan had already checked his stat panel and knew his agility was high.

He was prepared, so the instant Qinglang attacked, he activated Advanced Agility Enhancement, using Gliding Step to dodge backward and evade his wolf's claw.

"Huh..."

Qinglang had not expected a Lv.1 Awakener to dodge his attack. Unwilling to believe it, he swept his claws at him again.

Fang Yuan dodged with another Gliding Step, still moving with ease.

After dodging four or five times, Fang Yuan clenched his right fist and began to channel his force.

Thirty-six streams of Star Power erupted.

Bam!

His punch blasted out, bending Qinglang double and sending him flying.

"Argh!" Qinglang gave a muffled cry as he flew straight back, smashed through the wall with a bang, and fell to the ground.

Qinglang felt as though every bone in his body had been knocked apart. Both his hands were broken, and he could not muster any strength.

He stared wide-eyed at Fang Yuan, unable to understand what had happened. "You... how can you be so fast?"

He could not understand it. His agility was as high as 24. There should not have been a single Lv.1 Awakener in this world who could touch him.

"Because I have 'Advanced Agility Enhancement.' My base agility is 19. A forty percent increase makes that 26.6. Your 24 agility isn't enough." Fang Yuan generously cleared up his confusion.

Qinglang looked down at his hands, which he could not lift, even more bewildered. "No. That punch definitely wasn't something a Lv.1 Awakener could throw. You're definitely not Lv.1."

"No, I really am a Lv.1 newbie. That's right. You lost to a Lv.1 newbie."

Rage Points +30.

"Impossible. A Lv.1 newbie couldn't be this strong." Qinglang refused to believe it.

"It's not that I'm strong. You're just too weak," Fang Yuan said with a chuckle.

Qinglang bitterly refused to accept it, but that punch had broken his hands.

Rage bottled up in his chest, and his lungs felt ready to burst with fury, yet there was nothing he could do.

Fang Yuan's Rage Points began to skyrocket, increasing by 150 in no time.

The dozen or so thugs nearby were all dumbstruck with fear at the sight.

In their eyes, their boss Qinglang was invincible.

Yet now someone had sent him flying with a single punch.

Qinglang gritted his teeth and roared, "Get him! All of you!"

His dozen or so underlings immediately closed in, swinging their fists at Fang Yuan from all sides.

One of them was even an elemental-type Awakener, sending bursts of ice from his palms.

But this ice Awakener's level was too low to be worth a damn.

Fang Yuan knocked them all down with a few punches-bam, bam, bam.

The dozen or so thugs lay on the ground with bruised, swollen faces, groaning nonstop.

These fellows had lorded it over Qingtang Street. This time, they had come looking for trouble with Fang Yuan in an imposing show of force, with their Lv.2 Awakener boss leading them.

Instead, a high school student had thrashed them, leaving them utterly aggrieved.

Fang Yuan watched the thugs groaning on the ground and slowly counted his growing Rage Points.

The twelve of them had contributed a full 380 Rage Points to Fang Yuan.

His total Rage Points had already reached 450.

Earning Rage Points like this felt downright wonderful.