The Grate Oni
Volume (1) Benoni Chapter (3)
"Hmph."
"What is it, huh?"
"Bastard!"
The thug hurled curses and charged at Li Fan.
They were big—each at least six feet tall—while Li Fan, still young, stood around five-foot-eight. Yet that smaller frame let him slip through openings and trade blows with startling ease.
One thug aimed a kick and another drove a punch. In Li Fan's sharpened vision the attacks crawled, almost slow-motion.
_I can see everything so clearly_, he thought in cold blood. He slipped past both strikes and countered, fist whipping out.
Though Li Fan had never formally studied boxing, his ability to imitate was exceptional; whatever he had watched, he could mirror. Remembering bouts he'd seen, he slammed his knuckles straight into the nearest jaw.
"Thud!"
The target blacked out instantly and crashed to the floor.
"Hmph."
Seeing a comrade felled with a single blow, the remaining bullies wavered.
Li Fan pounced on the opening, shot forward, and blasted another jaw. Then he fed a tight hook into the ribs of the thug beside him.
"Damn it!"
The gang shivered, cursed, and swarmed once more. Yet Li Fan's eyesight, speed, strength, reflexes, decision-making—every faculty—now ran at twice the normal rate, letting him spar with them effortlessly.
One bully, who knew a little kickboxing, lay in wait; the instant Li Fan's back showed, he drove a knee strike into it. Li Fan staggered half a step—no more. He turned, eyes blazing red, and cracked the attacker's cheek with a lightning-fast slap.
"Whack!"
The bully froze where he stood; two teeth spun out, and he dropped, unconscious.
Still unwilling to give up, the gang lunged again. Li Fan didn't even dodge this time; he caught a fist in his palm and twisted.
"Aaah!"
Tears sprang to the thug's eyes. Li Fan slapped him away, sending him sprawling.
Only three stood now; the rest littered the ground. They were no hardened criminals—just ordinary high-school boys. Past scuffles had given them a taste of fighting but no real skill. Seeing their fallen friends, they quailed, unable to step forward.
Li Fan granted no mercy. He rushed them.
At double-speed they couldn't react; each took a crushing blow and collapsed. All three went limp.
"Thump… thump… thump…"
Li Fan's heart hammered, loud and fast.
Ten against one.
He smiled in quiet satisfaction, basking in the fierce exhilaration coursing through his chest.
"Hey, kid—everything okay?" Li Fan asked with a grin.
"All good, big brother!" the little boy replied cheerfully.
"How can I get strong like you?" the child added, fists balled tight, eyes sparkling with admiration.
Li Fan laughed, ruffled the boy's hair, and answered, "Eat healthy, don't be picky, go to bed early, exercise, and listen to your parents. Do that and you'll end up as strong as I am."
The boy nodded, eyes still shining.
At that moment a teenage girl hurried into the alley.
"Than A!" she called, voice anxious.
Li Fan turned—and stared. She was stunning: about five-foot-six, maybe seventeen, dressed in jeans and a white T-shirt. Big, magnetic eyes; a small, sharp nose; red lipstick; a neat bob framing a delicate face. He'd never seen a girl so pretty in person.
The boy's eyes lit up. "Sis—sis! These bad guys tried to mug me, but this big brother saved me!"
The girl glanced at Li Fan, then at the thugs slumped behind him, and flinched. "Thank you so much," she said quickly, grabbed the boy by the ear, and tugged him away. "How many times have I told you not to wander off alone?" she scolded.
"Ow—sorry, sis."
The siblings disappeared down the alley.
"Great… didn't even get her name, let alone her number," Li Fan muttered, still staring after them.
Behind him the thugs began to stir. Li Fan smiled and stepped over. "Alright, boys—empty those pockets. For every dollar that's missing, I smack you once."
_____
By the time Li Fan got back to his room he was sitting on a small fortune.
"Five hundred-twenty dollars for a quick workout? Easy money," he chuckled. "Next time dumb punks hassle someone, I'll just 'collect payment' again."
A wicked grin spread across his face.
"Wa-ri-wa-ri ya, wa-reee-wa-ri yaaa~" he hummed, half-singing.
His phone lit up; one of his friends was calling, so he answered. "Hello?"
A booming voice shouted from the speaker. "Li Fan, dude—game time!"
"Coming, man," Li Fan replied.
By 2040, full-immersion VR titles were the rage, and the biggest of them all was Martial World Online—over a billion players, clans rising and warring nonstop. Li Fan and his friends had cofounded the Dark Sky clan, one of the game's elite guilds.
They usually logged in at nine a.m., broke for lunch, then played straight through until about seven. With school reopening in less than a month, Li Fan meant to squeeze out every drop of fun he could.
After dinner he washed up, climbed into bed with his phone, and waited. "Wonder if it'll show up again tonight," he murmured, excitement humming under his skin. He meant the System that had delivered three choices the night before.
If it had appeared once and vanished for good, what then? He'd already decided: if it returned, he'd pick the toughest test; dying in a test didn't kill him in real life, after all.
"It came up at nine last night," he whispered, jittery. It wasn't even eight, so he killed time with a movie. As the hands crawled toward nine he found himself checking the clock every few seconds.
Nine p.m. struck.
A translucent blue screen bloomed in front of him.