Show

Outside the tavern, a huge commotion is ongoing. All the customers outaide who are waiting in line were happy to see a show going on as they saw a customer being dragged outside. Noctis threw the fat man on the ground and mounted him, the fat man struggled while cursing and telling his guards to save him or he's going to kill them but the guards just stood there to watch him, they were already warned by the owner earlier. When they remembered the eyes of Noctis earlier, they couldn't help but shiver.

"Hey, what's going on? Is there a fight going on?" Asked a newcomer stretching his neck out.

"Kid, you might not know this since you are still new, but this is a normal occurrence in this tavern. There will always be that one guy who wants to cause trouble every week and the owner is not a pushover. Heck, he even punished a prince from a Kingdom." The middle-aged man said to the youngster causing the youngster to feel a little excited because this is the first time he's going to see the show.

Other newcomers who heard the man's voice were interested as well while the old timers just shook their head and just enjoyed the show.

"You want wine, right? Here let me get one for you." Noctis said as he spread out his hand and a bottle with a skull mark label appeared in his hand. The bottle contained 120% alcohol and was named Hellfire.

After the system was upgraded, lots of weird ingredients and food were unlocked by the system. Of course that includes Noctis' torturous ingredients. He even saw an alcohol bottle that has a description of more than 100% alcohol content. One can imagine how strong that alcohol is, how that alcohol will scratch your throat and bring you to a drunken state in no time.

Of course there are lots of alcohol bottles with less than 100% alcohol content but compared to the torturous alcohols, these are the bottles that everyone would fight for a drop.

"You said you wanted my wife to pour you wine. Don't bother, I'll be pouring you wine." Noctis said as he opened the bottle of torturous alcohol and poured it on the fat man's face. The man struggled even more after being drowned by the alcohol.

"How was it? Did you like it? Oh, how could I forget. How would you like it if you haven't even tasted it." Noctis said as he threw the empty bottle and another bottle appeared in his hand.

The newcomers felt like what Noctis is doing is cruel but for the old timers, it was normal, because they knew the reason why the owner would personally drag someone out. The owner wouldn't care if you badmouth his food, his tavern, or even the owner himself, but once someone insulted his family, the owner's switch would be flipped on.

"You're proud because you are a successful merchant and you're arrogant because you have someone backing you? Very well, be proud because you're the first one who's going to have a taste of this wine." Noctis said as he uncorked the bottle with his hand and a silhouette of a knife appeared as he cleanly sliced the top.

He then pinned the fat man's arms by pressing his knees into it causing the man to scream as he felt like he was being nailed to the ground. Seeing the man's mouth open from screaming, he dropped a droplet into the man's mouth and the man immediately closed his mouth.

The man felt hot after the drop of alcohol touched his tongue. The taste of the alcohol was so strong that he frowned from one droplet and when the drop of alcohol touched his throat, he felt like scratching his throat but his arms were pinned by Noctis so he tried to clear his throat so many times, to no avail he could not remove the residue.

His throat was on fire, when the alcohol reached his stomach, his stomach felt like being cooked alive. His body started producing sweat.

"How was it? Was it good?" Noctis asked as he stared at the man. The man saw Noctis' eyes that was cold and emotionless. He felt fear from Noctis and tried to struggle once more and shout but there was no voice coming out of his mouth.

"Oh, what are you saying, I can't hear you. What did you say? You want more? Gladly!" Noctis said as he pinched the man's nose then shoved the bottle's opening to the man's mouth. The wine started pouring inside the man's mouth, the burning sensation of the wine burned his tongue, throat, esophagus, lungs, stomach, and intestine.

The man had no choice but to gurgle the wine as he passed out from pain. Noctis then noticed that the man had passed out but he was not done yet. He drew a healing rune and pushed it towards the man's forehead and used knocking as he hit the pressure spots of the man.

The man woke up after being hit by Noctis. He is now staring at Noctis like he was a demon that the newcomers closed their eyes as they looked at the man in pity. Noctis then continued shoving the wine to the man's mouth. This time he used damage knocking to lighten the pain of the man.

Is Noctis being lenient?

No, one of the downsides of Damage Knocking, is if the knocking was removed, the pain that accumulated would hit you all at the same time.

The healing rune healed the man's body and would be destroyed by the wine then healed by the rune again, it was a never ending cycle while the man felt only normal pain.

When the Wine was downed to the last drop, he struck the man's pressure point once more, what he struck was to make sure that the man wouldn't faint at all. He then removed the Damage Knocking and all the accumulated damage fell down to the man who tried screaming but there was no sound that was coming out as his throat was destroyed.

The healing rune could barely heal jim because of the damage. Noctis didn't want him to die just yet that's why he isn't removing the healing rune just yet. He let the man heal till he was barely alive.

"You come to my tavern, slammed my door, insulted the food that my customer eats, insulted me, I don't care what you say or do, but when you called my wife to pour you wine, your fate was already sealed. I haven't even ordered my wife yet to pour me wine yet you want to be poured with wine? As for your backer, why don't we meet them? Ram, Rem, take care of this place, I'm going to take care of this trash." Noctis said as his voice was heard by the twins who were blending with the crowd, watching the show.

The twins nodded as Noctis teleported to Sevens. When the Crowd saw Noctis disappearing with the man in his grasp they instantly knew that the show was over. The people were talking about what just happened and there are lots of people who had mixed emotion of what just happened.

"Man, that guy was scary and cruel, I feel like I don't have the appetite to eat after watching that." A newcomer said.

"Then how about you go back and I take your spot?" An old timer said.

"No way! I woke up really early to get a chance to eat at this rumored tavern, there's no way I'm going to give that up." The newcomer said. The people who heard it laughed as the laughter washed away what they just watched.

"But would the food be good if the owner is gone? Who would make the food?" The newcomer asked.

"You don't have to worry about it. The owner has disciples to replace him if he is gone. Their skill is also good and the foods they serve are many times better than famed restaurants. Of course if the owner is the one cooking, reaching the heaven is not impossible." The old timer said as he remembered the time he reached heaven through Noctis' food, he even thought he died but after a few moments he returned to reality.

"I wonder if the owner is accepting new disciples?" A man waiting in line said.

"Ha, with your face that can even scare a witch, he wouldn't accept you!" A man chimed in.

"What did you say?!" The man retaliated as the crowd were cheering for another show to happen.

Meanwhile, Noctis arrived in front of the Green Family house still dragging the worn out man. When the guards saw him, they were startled but after seeing that it was Noctis, they saluted to him.

"At ease. Is Andrew inside?" Noctis asked.

"Yes, he had just returned from an auction." The guard said.

"Do you mind?" Noctis asked and the guard knew what he wanted. He turned to the wall and spoke to it. Noctis thought that the guard was crazy but he saw the magic item attached to the wall. A few moments after the guard called Andrew, Andrew, and Kian arrived, when they saw Noctis, they were elated but when they saw that Noctis was dragging someone, they narrowed their eyes.

"Hey, Andrew, Kian, do you know this man?" Noctis said as he held the man by the nape so that Andrew and Kian could see his face.

"No? I don't know him, why do you ask?" Andrew said and had a gist of what happened.

"This man came in to my place, slammed my door and ordered my wife to pour wine for him. He said no one should offend him because he had the Green Family's backing." Noctis said and Andrew and Kian's face darkened, he didn't know the man at all. Someone's using their family name and smearing it with mud.

Noctis let the healing rune circulate once more and healed him. The man opened his eyes and saw Andrew and Kian in front of him, as if saved by God, he struggled and Noctis let go of him. The man then crawled into the ground and hugged Andrew's ankles.

"Master Andrew, please avenge me from that brute! I am just a merchant and this guy tortured me when I said that his food taste sh*t." The man said.

"Tell me, who are you?" Andrew asked solemnly.

"I'm Tchampa, master Andrew, I am a merchant under my Uncle, Veerus. Please avenge me!" Tchampa said as Andrew's face was filled with rage. Seeing Andrew raging, Tchampa felt delighted as he thought that Andrew will avenge him.

"I'm leaving this for you to handle. You better clean your merchant teams. Bad seed like this one can ruin your reputation in one go. I hope the next time we meet, one of us bringing a good news." Noctis said as he left the place and teleported back.

After Noctis left the place, Andrew looked at Tchampa who had a frozen smile on his face. Andrew kicked Tchampa and ordered Kian.

"Reclaim everything from Veerus. Reclaim the team and properties given to him. If he asked why, he breached the contract. As for his nephew, bring him to level 3 prison and take everything from him, if he didn't want to give it bankrupt it." Andrew said and returned to the estate. Kian then followed his father's order as he left, leaving a stunned Tchampa on the floor.

When the guards were about to close the door, Andrew turned around and faced the guard.

"If someone asks where I am, tell them I am busy and I'm not going to meet anyone today. I'm going to have a cleaning session in my organization. A few bad apples with worms are mingling with the healthy apples." Andrew said as he stared at Tchampa for a second and entered the estate as the guards closed the door.