A Bit of Manipulation

"Hah hah! You idiot!" With Naomi poisoned and thinking it was a accidental buff I gave him, he was eager to finish the fight.

I grunted as some of his punches I couldn't dodge landed on my ribs and arms.

As Naomi started actually landing hits, he got excited and started throwing them faster. I tried to create some distance with a kick, but that ended up with a full powered punch to the gut for me.

I dropped to the floor and coughed out blood.

He gloated for a good minute before he felt that something was wrong.

That was when he realized, it wasn't a buff. His body was slowing down.

He looked at his arms, with his aura visibly decreasing every second.

I spoke up, mocking him. "What? Are you wondering why I didn't fly backwards? Why I didn't hit a wall? What happened to all the bravado before?"

"Sh-shut up!" He tried to throw another punch, but he was slower than a turtle and stumbled forward. I stepped to the side, and gave him a kick straight to the stomach. With his aura down, he probably never took a blow that painful before. He coughed and fell to the floor.

"What happened to" I dragged out the next phrase in a mocking tone "The real man?"

He covered his ears and shriveled into a ball position like a five year old when getting scolded.

"Shut up! I said shut up!"

Well, it seems like I broke his spirits enough. I canceled {Hyper Cell Poison Level 8} and activated {Omnipotent Parasite Level 7}, then knocked out the boy with a quick chop to the back of the neck. How does that work anyways? Oh well, it looked cool.

I took out a small ball of mist from my skin and fed it to the unconscious and pale Naomi.

His pale face gained more color taking the pill. A large amount would be too obvious and would be detected easily, but too small would not make it effective at all. Even if he was a crybaby, he's still S+ rank in power. All I could do with that amount was to whisper small amounts of doubt in his head and feed him things he wanted to hear. The best I could do was change his mind with a argument and read his mind. Make him think it's what he wants.

|Wake Up|. Instantaneously, his body jolted forward as he regained consciousness. He took a look around him, and then focus on my face. "I... lost"

|I shouldn't mess with this guy... he beat me without using his full power|. Judging by his facial expression, it was working. I looked at my system menu. 273 points... I chose materialized them on my hand. 273 golden beads clattered gently on my palm. I crushed them in my palm and opened the shop menu. I poured the pure golden dust within the「deposit」hole. Sure, this way was inefficient for larger numbers, but this is much better than waiting "3-9 business days for us to confirm the payment".

With those, I bought a suitcase with some high quality cloths. 250 points left. I looked at a few of the other products, but none of them interested me.

I looked at Naomi, and said, "how bout we keep this as our little secret?

"Why would I -"

|It's a good idea, there's no reason to tell everyone you got beat by this prick|

"Fine."

I looked down on him and smiled, rubbing his hair and said, "good boy".

Naomi stood up and and was about to pick another fight, but he decided to just walk off back home. After a few steps, he looked around and found out I was following him.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!?"

"Oh my, what a coincidence! My home's this way too" I responded with a polite smile.

We kept walking as he stops in front of his out. I stopped too.

"Alright, prick. This is my house and you can go off somewhere else"

I gave a mocking smile and pushed past him, ringing the doorbell.

"What do you think you're do-"

Before Naomi could finish, Jack poked his head out. "John! You were taking so long I thought you ran off!"

"I would never do such a thing sir!"

As Jack and I continue our conversation I snuck a look behind me. Naomi was looking starstruck.

Ami greeted me with her usual smile, as Anna looked shocked that I was even alive, with Naomi looking away in embarrassment. I gave a smile to Anna who quickly recovered her composure and gave back a hidden middle finger. I knew it. Anna must've called up her brother to give me a beating. Well, things didn't quite work out in her mind, as I was looking perfectly fine with just a bit of dirt and cement particles on my suit.

Jack noticed Naomi behind me roughed up, and questioned me about it. I gave a simple response about something like a quick spar and doing boy stuff.

"Well, glad you guys are getting to know each other better"

"Right, sir" I responded with a chilling smile. Naomi and Anna shivered.

I was ushered into their house, and I got the guest room. As I unpacked my new clothes, I heard Anna throwing a fuss in the living room. "Why does he have to live here!?"

"He doesn't have a place to live Anna! Be reasonable!"

"No, you be reasonable! He's a complete stranger! We don't owe him anything!"

"But we do! You were trying to murder him!"

"I already told you I wasn't!"

"If it wasn't you then why are you still alive!?"

Anna had no way to counter that. She stormed up the stairs to her room, passing through my door step in the process. I flashed her a smile, and got another middle finger back. She slammed the door closed as I laughed to myself. This is gonna be fun.