Newbies getting picked on by veteran adventurers - it's everywhere. Even if the world changes, people don't. It's almost a cliche, Ryu thought.

But he had nothing better to do today, so he decided to play with the guy a little.

Ryu lowered his eyes, acting timid, and glanced at the man sideways, muttering.

"You don't look so tough either..."

This was a trick he learned from a bad friend in his past life in Japan, a way to provoke someone into attacking first. His friend said if you acted timid and weak but spoke back with arrogance, people would immediately lash out.

This friend would find young salarymen acting tough while drunk in the entertainment district, use this method to extort money from them. He'd get them to attack first, but he wouldn't fight back, just call the police. Then he'd settle out of court for a hefty sum.

For minors this could settle with apologies, that was one thing. But employed salarymen, well, a violence incident going public is generally bad for them. A call to their workplace with a settlement offer would usually result in them happily paying up.

Ryu thought it was extortion, but since the other party had actually used violence, it was legal. It was their own fault. And even if it went to court, the attacker would lose. It was the attacker's fault for being stupid.

If he'd tried that with someone from the "underworld," he'd have gotten hurt. But this friend was good at judging people.

Even if he'd gotten someone from the underworld, it was okay. It turned out his friend was from a "family" himself. He knew how to handle things smoothly, how to "settle" things. A little show of sincerity (money) to the higher-ups and things would be fine.

Besides, you could tell if someone was dangerous just by talking to them for a bit, so that never happened.

He'd been invited to his friend's place once during New Year's. Ryu (his name in Japan) was a regular guy, and he was terrified sitting at the corner of a room full of scary-looking people.

"You punk! Don't underestimate me!"

The man was just as his friend had said, he was biting. Ryu was hoping to need to bait him a few more times since they were in the guild, but the man snapped after just one sentence and attacked.

Ryu was hit hard and flew backward, crashing into a table. The table split in half.

"Hey! Papico, you're going too far!"

The surrounding adventurers rushed to stop them. Papico, who hadn't expected Ryu to fly that far, was also surprised...

"I...I was just disciplining this rude newbie who doesn't know how to behave."

"No...look..."

Some of the men pointed at something. Papico looked in that direction and saw...

"Gah, Iraira! ...The instructor."

Iraira, nicknamed the "Demon Instructor," who was the head of training, happened to be walking by.

He'd seen Ryu, the newbie, getting attacked by a veteran adventurer.

Considering how strict Iraira was, it seemed like the veteran was about to get disciplined...

But no, Iraira simply glanced at Ryu lying on the floor and walked past him without stopping.

(So that's Iraira the instructor...I see...)

"Heh, Iraira's a pragmatist. She's tough on newbies, but she doesn't say anything to those with real skill... Hey, brat! Learned your lesson? Now you know how to show some respect to your seniors..."

But Ryu was laughing as he got up.

"Papico? ...Papico!"

He thought the name sounded familiar and wondered what it was. Then he remembered it was the same as a popular ice cream brand in Japan.

Laughing at someone's name is rude. And considering this was a completely different world, it wasn't even funny. But suddenly remembering it, Ryu found it hilarious and couldn't hold back his laughter.

"What are you laughing at?!"

Papico, enraged, immediately punched Ryu in the face again.

But it felt different this time. Like he'd punched a thick, sturdy wall.

Papico groaned, holding his hand. He saw that Ryu hadn't moved, and his face was completely unscathed.

Of course, he'd punched Ryu's dimensional barrier. It was impossible for Ryu to just stand there and get punched.

Even when he'd been hit before, Ryu had used the barrier to absorb the punch and then thrown himself backwards dramatically. He'd also intentionally head-butted the table to make it break more spectacularly. (Although it turned out the punch didn't require a barrier, it was pretty weak.)

Ryu grinned menacingly and approached Papico.

Papico took a step back, but he stood his ground and threw another punch. However, he remembered his injured right hand and stopped before it reached Ryu's face. He tried punching with his left hand again.

It was like a feint, but Ryu easily grabbed his fist before it could connect.

Then, in a flash...

"Gah! Aaaargh!"

Papico suddenly screamed. The bone in his forearm, tightly gripped by Ryu, had broken. Ryu had been rough because he figured the man could take a little damage. (It was just a fracture, so he was still going easy. If Ryu had really squeezed, the bone would have been crushed.)

Then, Ryu's fist slammed into Papico's stomach, and he was sent flying back against the wall.

"Seems like violence is okay in this adventurer's guild. Then I won't hold back."

Ryu remembered his "bad friend's" methods. He'd actually considered not fighting back and seeing if the guild staff would deal with him, but...

This wasn't Earth, this was an adventurer's guild in another world. He couldn't expect guild staff to handle fights between adventurers smoothly.

Actually, Ryu had noticed Iraira entering the room out of the corner of his eye. He'd assumed this was the "rumored" Demon Instructor Iraira, and had hoped she would stop it. But she just walked past him while he was being punched. Was the rumor true? Was she a pragmatist instructor?

His opinion of Iraira had gone down.

Ryu approached Papico, who was now on all fours, looking terrified.

But a man, rushing from behind the counter, grabbed Ryu's shoulder.

"What are you doing?! Violence is prohibited within the guild!"

The man was Ash, a former A-rank adventurer who worked for the guild.

"What? ...I'm the victim here."

"No, no, I saw you punch him!"

Next Episode

Violence within the guild is punishable!

Hmm? They didn't even stop me when I was being punched!

Stay tuned!