The man's vacant gaze was dead-set on Mei, conveying an intensely strong obsession.
Seeing him like this, Noah thought to himself that even after causing him that level of pain, it still couldn't pull his "aggro" away.
It seemed the man probably only had this last shred of consciousness left—that is, the hatred toward the ex-girlfriend who had dumped him.
Noah glanced at Mei behind him, then shifted his position to stand right in front of her, proactively shielding the girl.
Seeing someone blocking Mei, the man predictably became violent immediately.
He grabbed a nearby chair, directly using it as a weapon, and swung it down hard toward Noah's face.
"You didn't learn, huh."
Noah observed the man's demeanor and actions.
Facing the chair smashing toward his face, he didn't even blink.
Just as the chair was about to smash onto the boy's head, the two girls both wanted to warn him in extreme panic.
But the scene that followed made their voices catch in their throats.
They saw the chair suddenly disassemble in mid-air, simultaneously pulverized into sawdust by an invisible force.
Mixed in with the sawdust was a thin line of blood.
The hand gripping the chair leg, along with the wrist, fell to the floor.
And Noah remained in the same posture, looking as if he hadn't done anything at all.
Yet the man's wrist had been severed, landing on the floor and dyeing the ground red.
Even though the blood loss was massive, not a single drop stained Noah, who was within his "barrier."
"Aahhhhh! Aahhhhh! Aahhhhh! Aahhhhh!!"
At this moment, the man's remaining arm hung uselessly below his shoulder because it had been broken earlier, and his only usable arm had just been sliced off by Noah using a wind blade.
He roared in agony, standing in place and desperately trying to open his mouth as wide as possible.
What was terrifying was that under his reckless attempt, the muscles and skin restricting his mouth were actually stretched to the point of tearing.
This change was truly astonishing.
However, what Noah cared about more right now was another matter.
"Sorry, I dirtied the floor in the shop."
He suddenly remembered that this wasn't a place for a fight, he still had to pick out a suitable gift here.
In that case...
"Come outside with me for a bit," Noah said in a low voice.
Then, his figure blurred, appearing in front of the man, and grabbed him by the collar.
Although the man was tall and burly, he only weighed about 120 kilograms at most.
To Noah, this didn't even count as an arm workout.
He pinned the man to the ground, dragged him, and dashed out of the shop.
Bam—!
He flung the man out and tossed him onto the street, kicking up quite a bit of dust for a moment.
Manipulating the airflow to disperse the dust, Noah looked at the man in front of him.
In reality, he was appraising him further.
Because the two had made physical contact, a massive amount of information regarding the man surged into Noah's mind.
As he read this intelligence, Noah's gaze subtly shifted.
"As I thought, it's the drug used by the Enhanced Unit... just an inferior version that should have been destroyed."
It seemed someone within the Science Division had secretly leaked the drug to the outside world.
The dose this man used was less than a week's worth for Kurome and the others.
But this man hadn't undergone surgical modifications like those children, so his body couldn't adapt, resulting in irreversible damage to his brain.
Restrain him and notify the Science Division to retrieve him?
No, it's better to just hand him over to the Imperial Capital Guard to handle.
This guy can't recover anymore.
To put it bluntly, he is no different from a ferocious beast charging into a crowd.
Might as well just eliminate him.
If it were Bill, he would probably want him to do exactly that.
"Roar!"
Dragging his two ruined arms, the man staggered and charged over.
Compared to his berserk momentum, Noah's movements not only seemed slow but completely unthreatening, because he merely raised his left hand and extended two fingers.
But the moment those two fingers moved last yet arrived first, making contact with the man's forehead, the man suddenly paused as if imprisoned, and completely stopped moving.
The anchor has been set.
"Let me see who did this."
To the outside world, the two seemed to have simultaneously entered a state of stagnation.
But in reality, Noah had already entered the man's Soul Corridor and found a memory from about three days ago.
'This scene... is a tavern?'
It's been almost a month since the breakup, yet he still can't accept this fact, so he spends his days drinking away his sorrows at the tavern.
He also stopped going to work without notifying anyone.
Until a certain man appeared before him.
Watching this scene from a third-person perspective, Noah saw attire slightly different from his own Science Division's.
It was also a white coat, but it didn't have the Science Division's insignia on it.
The person listened to the reason for the man's decadence, used hypnotic techniques to fan the darkness in his heart, provided the drugs, and explained that the power of this thing was enough to change any outcome.
Subsequently, driven by liquid courage, the man actually swallowed all the pills in one gulp.
Seeing this, the person in the white coat who incited him was also momentarily stunned, and his expression turned somewhat troubled:
"Oh my, how troublesome. This is a week's dosage, you know. To actually swallow it all at once... hehe, but this could also be very interesting."
Noah paused the man's memory here.
He approached the other person in an ethereal form, carefully examined the person's face, and memorized his features.
'So this is the person who brought the enhancement drugs to the outside world and used them on ordinary people, huh.'
Exiting the Soul Corridor, Noah casually manipulated the man's cranial nerves and severed them.
Then, he leisurely stepped aside, letting the man—who had now become a vegetable—collapse onto the ground.
He would never stand up again!
"Whoa!"
"You're amazing!"
"To be so capable at such a young age, how did that man go down?"
"Incredible."
Watching the violent man get subdued, people on the street and those who had been hiding poked their heads out, treating it as a spectacle.
Some even began to compliment Noah.
After the Imperial Capital Guard arrived, Noah proved his identity to them and didn't face any difficulties.
After they escorted the man away, the street returned to its peaceful state.
...
"Here, this is the painting you wanted. Please keep it safe."
Half an hour later, Noah selected the gift and paid for it.
To express her gratitude, Mei didn't want to accept the money, but Noah insisted these were two separate matters.
Besides, frankly speaking, it wasn't much money at all; at least for him, it was just a paltry sum.
"Today... we really owe it all to you!"
"Y-Yeah, thank you for saving Mei."
Mei and Sheele continuously thanked him.
They were both girls, if this boy hadn't been here today, their fates would have been utterly unimaginable.
"P-Please accept this as well. Although it's nothing special..."
The girl named Sheele offered the basket containing the bread and cookies with both hands.
"Uh."
Looking at the situation, if he didn't accept it, it would only make them feel uneasy!
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