The man with rolls of fat around his neck spoke through a belch, his breath reeking of alcohol.
Seeing this, how could the restaurant staff stand by and do nothing?
"Stop!"
The loud rebukes from Lin Feng and the staff caught the thugs' attention, and their leader lost interest in toying with the unfamiliar woman.
He casually let go, and the woman fled without looking back, not even bothering to fix her disheveled hair.
Ignoring the fleeing woman, the thugs all turned toward Lin Feng and the other kitchen workers.
One thug was still frantically swallowing white powder, while the other two stood on either side of their leader, already drawing clubs and daggers from behind their backs, ready to teach Lin Feng and the others a lesson.
"You think carrying weapons means you can do whatever you want?"
"Like we'd let you cause trouble here! We'll drive you out today even if it kills us!"
The kitchen workers erupted in fury, all rushing forward to fight these thugs to the death.
Meanwhile, Lin Feng looked around both inside and outside the entrance. There was no one outside, and only four thugs inside.
"Everyone, calm down!"
Lin Feng waved for his coworkers to restrain their anger.
"I can handle something this minor. No need to dirty your hands."
"Heh, you can handle it? Dirty your hands? You bastard!"
Hearing those words, the thugs, who cared about face above all else, naturally flew into a rage.
They wanted nothing more than to rush over and skin the boy before them alive!
Nearby, Sheele was frantic with worry as she watched her childhood friend take such a risk.
Yet Lin Feng, who stood before her facing the four thugs, turned back and gave her a resolute look.
"Lin Feng..."
"Where do you think you're looking?!"
Two thugs, one wielding a long club and the other a dagger, swung at Lin Feng from either side.
Turning back, Lin Feng chose not to dodge even in these circumstances.
His right hand seized the dagger-wielding hand and twisted it hard in the opposite direction. At the same time, he used the leverage to lash out with his left leg, and two sounds rang out at once.
They were the sounds of a wrist snapping and ribs cracking under a kick.
"Aaaah!!!!"
One thug clutched his wrist and howled in pain, while another was sent flying almost to the corner of the restaurant. Only the thug who had taken enough drugs to hallucinate and their petty leader remained.
"Lin Feng... were you always this strong?"
The kitchen workers were stunned by Lin Feng's talent for combat, but Lin Feng felt nothing in particular.
Compared with these utterly pathetic thugs, the Danger Beasts used as ingredients were far stronger.
"You bastard... I'll get you!!!"
The fat leader smashed a wine bottle against a dining table and was about to swing it at Lin Feng's head.
Yet Lin Feng only felt like laughing.
How boring... releasing Danger Beasts in the restaurant would cause a lot of trouble. Forget it!
"Form Transformation."
Just as the broken bottle was about to strike Lin Feng, he vanished from the man's sight.
"Where... where'd he go?"
"Right here."
Holding his wineglass aloft, the fat man heard Lin Feng's voice but had no idea where he was.
Suddenly, he felt a strange force bind his hands together, while his legs were squeezed shut by that same force.
Looking back, the man saw only a pitch-black shadow restraining his hands and feet, and nothing else.
"This... what is this..."
In an instant, Lin Feng had merged with his own shadow, freely controlling its position and easily evading the man's attack.
The man could not break free of the shadow at all. Unable to use either his hands or his feet, the more he struggled, the harder it became to keep his balance.
Finally, he fell heavily to the floor, landing face-first. Even then, he could not move his limbs, and his struggling made him look like a ridiculous worm.
Seeing this, the restaurant staff doubled over with uncontrollable laughter.
"You useless bastard, all he did was break your wrist! Hurry up and help me get this thing off!"
"Boss... it hurts too much. I don't even have the strength to talk right now..."
Lin Feng toyed with the fat man for quite a while before finally returning to his original form.
The furious fat man was just about to attack when he discovered that the restaurant staff now surrounded him instead.
"Think carefully. If you leave now, we can still talk things over. If you attack now, there'll be nothing to discuss."
Lin Feng spoke coldly. Given the situation, no one, however stupid, would ask for trouble.
"Just you wait! Once our people from the Gathered Heroes Group get here, not one of you animals in this restaurant will get out alive! We'll burn the place first, then kill you! We'll settle this score later!"
Taking the useless thugs with him, the fat man with rolls of flesh on the back of his neck left the restaurant, cursing all the way.
Yet a terrifying, icy gleam flashed through Lin Feng's eyes.
"The Gathered Heroes Group, huh."
The thugs' departure put everyone in the restaurant at ease.
"Lin Feng, how did you get those abilities? How can you turn into a shadow?"
"I heard there's something called Teigu in the imperial capital. Lin Feng, do you have a Teigu?"
"Sorry, I don't know anything about Teigu. I don't know why I suddenly gained this power, either."
Lin Feng had other plans next. Faced with his coworkers' stream of curious questions, he quickly waved for everyone to quiet down.
"Clean up the broken dishes and keep bringing customers in to eat. Just carry on with business as usual. I'll be right back."
After saying this to everyone, Lin Feng started toward the door.
"Where are you going? Don't tell me..."
Although she really wanted to know why Lin Feng had such powerful abilities, Sheele was more worried about him now than anything else.
"Don't worry."
Lin Feng turned back, gently stroking Sheele's head and ruffling her hair a few times.
"I promise you, I'll be absolutely fine."
Hearing Lin Feng's words, Sheele felt an inexplicable sense of calm and reassurance.
"Mm..."
Stepping lightly over the restaurant's threshold, Lin Feng looked around.
Only enough time for a few words had passed. They definitely could not have gotten far, and since they were all drunk, they would certainly be walking slowly.
Sure enough, Lin Feng had barely followed them a few steps before spotting the four thugs on the street, kicking trash cans as they sauntered along.
It was around six or seven in the evening. Red clouds surged in turn through the golden light of day, the light dimming as night approached.
After rounding a few corners, the thugs entered a secluded courtyard.
Lin Feng did his utmost to conceal himself, following several dozen meters behind the last thug in the group.
Only after seeing them disappear into the courtyard did he pause briefly.
Along the way, only two or three unrelated passersby had seen him.
Then, once he could no longer hear the group's racket, Lin Feng walked straight toward the courtyard's iron gates.
"Halt! Who goes there?!"
The guard at the gates naturally did not recognize Lin Feng, but Lin Feng did not want to slaughter innocents indiscriminately, either.
"I'm a member of the Gathered Heroes Group. Aren't you one too?"
The guard looked Lin Feng over and said irritably:
"Are you out of your mind? Have I ever seen you in the Gathered Heroes Group?"
"If you're with the Gathered Heroes Group, then there's no mistake."
As Lin Feng spoke, he suddenly exerted force with both hands, forcing the iron gates outward from the inside.
[Alucard Template System] [Host: Lin Feng] [Experience: 4.00 → 4.02%] [Skill points: 0] [Skill: Vampire Physique (passive) lv: 1]
Apparently, forcibly tearing down iron gates also counted as combat to the template. That really was amusing, Lin Feng thought.
"You're asking to die!"
The guard was just about to grab his spear and charge forward to run Lin Feng through.
But as he watched Lin Feng tear a huge, twisted opening in the prisonlike iron gates with his bare hands, the guard felt more shock than alarm.