novelraw Chapter 435
Chapter 435
The Solt-Ish Man
"Chakra-On… mmnnn, Aura Henshin!!"
"Oww! Hey, you!!"
"I know you're in there, y'know~!"
"Ura! Get out here, damn it~!"
Hmm. On top of the annoying engine noises from earlier, I can now clearly hear the angry shouts of several people. I suppose I'd better show myself soon; they seem about ready to charge right over the fence with their momentum.
"Alright, I really don't want to deal with this, but let's go. Tohh!"
I leap and land with a thud on the roof of the large gate. From there, I can see the faces of the assembled crowd in a single glance.
(Oh, hell no. This is totally unbearable...)What a sight. Looking down from atop the gate, it's like a convention hall for delinquents.
From the typical young guys on custom bikes to wannabe street racers and thug-looking characters, it's really varied. There are guys in ridiculously loose summer sweaters, and even ones with their pants sagging. Some are still on their bikes, but the number is roughly around thirty.
Yeah, how to put it. My honest impression is that I'd like to load them all onto a mud boat and send them sailing into a stormy sea.
The vehicles are awful too. They all seem like a lineup tuned specifically for the purpose of intimidating those around them. On the windshield of one I spotted, white fuzzy dice hang in a row, and the dashboard is covered with a carpet-like cloth. And there's a strangely high usage of purple. Everything's like that, so naturally, there isn't a single itasha—a car decorated with anime girls to entertain onlookers—in sight.
And, in the center of this group of cars that are painful in a different way than itasha, was Nemu-kun, still with one arm in a sling.
(But are they insane? Even the police wouldn't let something like this slide, right??)
Is this what they call seeing is disbelieving? Or has the local police's power waned so much that their minds have completely turned into世纪末 mohawks?
""…!?""
"Hey, hey, what the hell is this guy?!"
"You screwin' with us, bastard?!"
And their reactions upon seeing me in the Bug King Suit were also varied. Some kept up their usual foul mouths, some looked at me with eyes doubting my sanity, and a few immediately averted their gaze, probably thinking it's dangerous to make eye contact with this guy.
Yeah, right now I have the mask open to talk. But if someone dressed like this was in a residential area, I'd probably avoid eye contact too.
However, for me, this Bug King Suit is my formal attire for battle. Hence, I stand tall and proud.
I'm just standing here empty-handed to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings about carrying a weapon. Well, I'm fully aware that just being in the Bug King Suit is pretty out there already.
"Hah, what is this thing?! Creepy!"
"Don't look down on us, asshole! Get down here now!"
"Quit messin' around, you piece of shit!"
And the rowdy boys lined up below seem very displeased about being looked down upon.
(Well, probably not much different from the old days. The usual tactics...)
I superimpose my former classmates onto these arrogantly barking delinquent boys. They're like that. They provoke, make the other side throw the first punch, then use that as an excuse to gang up—that's their plan.
That way they can claim, "The other guy started it!" to assert their own legitimacy, and if it's one against many, only one of them has to risk taking the first hit. After that, if they surround him under the pretense of stopping the fight, victory is assured.
Therefore, here, it's like punching a paper curtain, hammering a nail into bran. I completely ignore their shouts of "Get down here!" and just keep looking down at them as I retort.
"You're the ones who are loud. Do none of you, as a group, ever consider being a nuisance to others?"
"""The hell you say!?"""
"Just stop revving your engines and state your business. What are you going to do if the chickens stop laying eggs?"
"Wha... don't get carried away, you bastard!!"
No, no, this is important. I look forward every morning to having TKG with rich, flavorful egg yolks and having breakfast with Grandpa's homemade natto. I won't allow anything that disrupts that.
"Oww, hey! You're the one who should hand over all that meat you picked up!!"
"Yeah! Don't you feel pathetic hogging all that meat you found, huh!? Don't you!?"
"Meat we picked up...??"
"That's right! There's no way you guys could defeat the Mountain Lord! You just found it after it fell off a cliff and died on its own, right!?"
As I tilted my head at the rowdy boys' incomprehensible ranting, that noisy girl I saw before explained it to me.
"I see. So you all want to believe that the super giant boar just died on its own?"
"What of it! That's the truth, isn't it!!"
I see, so that's it.
Their values—or rather, you could say their assessment of strength—dictate that the super giant boar is not an opponent we could possibly defeat. So, to explain why we possess its meat, they've filled in the blanks with an assumption like "it fell off a cliff and died on its own."
But really, that's far too convenient. It's just wishful thinking taken too far.
Even the Self-Defense Forces have cleared out dungeons more than a few times... actually, scratch that. At a glance, there isn't a single person among them who looks capable of manipulating aura. In that case, it's no wonder they can't gauge our true strength.
(But, to be underestimated like clockwork... Could it be that the title [Salty Guy] has some kind of effect like that...??)
As that thought flickered in the corner of my mind, its effect suddenly flashed into my head like an inspiration.
[Salty Guy]: Has information concealment effect. However, will be looked down upon as a 'salty guy' by hostile opponents.
(Hahhh!? Wait, so that's the pattern!?)
Could it be that all those status-related details don't properly display unless you consciously recognize them yourself??
"Hey, you! How long are you gonna keep lookin' down on us!?"
"Keep this up and you're gonna get hurt!!"
The rowdy boys are shouting something below. But for me, this new information is more shocking. So that's it... the reason I'm constantly underestimated is because of [Salty Guy]...