The two guys rushed over in an instant—one throwing a punch, the other a kick. Ryan Carter, unhurried, took a slight step back and dodged both attacks completely. Then, lifting his left leg, he landed a kick squarely on the face of the man to his left. But just as he was about to swing his right leg, he realized the guy on the right had already jumped back in surprise.

Ryan Carter gave a wry smile. If this were real life, his “Double Swallow Soars” move would never hit just one person. But now, in the game, his speed was completely limited by the poor physical stats of a mage, making it impossible to fully execute the move—he could only manage half of it. And his strength was even more pitifully reduced; the guy on the left, after taking his kick, was just holding his face and staring at him in shock. If this were real life, a kick like that to the head would have left him unconscious for at least four or five hours.

“So you do have some skills,” the leader’s expression changed, but he didn’t panic. Ryan Carter had landed a kick, but clearly its power was very limited. He immediately shouted, “He’s just a mage, nothing to be afraid of.” With that, he charged in to join the fight.

Ryan Carter weaved among the three of them. Although his strength and physique were extremely weak due to the mage’s physical stats, the mage’s agility was at least passable. At this early stage, when everyone was still a beginner and hadn’t leveled up or allocated stat points, the gap wasn’t that obvious. Ryan Carter would throw a punch or kick from time to time, and with his wealth of combat experience, every move landed on his opponents. Meanwhile, the three guys hadn’t even managed to touch the hem of Ryan Carter’s clothes. The leader grew more and more astonished: this guy was more than just “a little skilled.” Luckily, he was a mage—if he had more strength, the three of them would have been knocked down long ago.

At this point, Ryan Carter felt rather helpless. Because of so many limitations, he couldn’t use many of his martial arts moves at all. It seemed that even if he’d chosen a fighter-type class, without stat points from leveling up, his skills still wouldn’t shine. On the other hand, even though he was a mage now, as long as he put more points into agility and strength when leveling up, he’d still have a chance to use his martial arts! The thought lifted Ryan Carter’s spirits.

The three attackers saw that not only could they do nothing to Ryan Carter, but he was actually getting more energetic as the fight went on, even flashing a very relaxed smile just now. Their hearts grew even more anxious.

Their street-thug level skills with knives and bricks were full of holes in Ryan Carter’s eyes. Ryan Carter had no interest in tangling with these guys any longer; he seized an opportunity to slip out of the circle and said with a smile, “Want to keep fighting?”

The three had taken quite a few hits from Ryan Carter. Though the blows weren’t heavy, the accumulated pain was unpleasant. Especially since Ryan Carter had deliberately targeted the same spots repeatedly. Now, the guy on the left had a black eye on his left side, the one on the right had a black eye on his right, and the leader in the middle had a nosebleed that wouldn’t stop. He was afraid to even speak for fear of swallowing blood, so he tilted his head back, wiped his nose, and said to the others, “Let’s go!”

“Hold it!” Ryan Carter spoke up. “You think you can just leave after beating people up without apologizing?”

“Apologize?” the leader laughed. “You can’t even kill me—why should I apologize?” He wasn’t wrong; after all this, Ryan Carter had only given them two black eyes and two nosebleeds—not exactly serious injuries. As for dying, that was impossible; in the game, you only die if your HP hits zero. Right now, despite their bruised and battered faces, their HP was still full. This was, frankly, a major bug in the game.

Ryan Carter just smiled faintly, bent down to pick up a piece of gravel from the ground, and suddenly flicked his hand—“smack!”—hitting the leader squarely on the forehead.

The leader was furious. “You—”

“If I’d aimed for your eye just now, what do you think would have happened?” Ryan Carter said calmly.

The leader froze. He’d thought Ryan Carter had just thrown the rock at random, but from his tone, it sounded like he could hit wherever he wanted.

“In real life, of course your eye would be fine. But in the game, you’d be blind from now on… Don’t forget, this is a fully immersive simulation game,” Ryan Carter said.

The leader staggered back two steps in fright, but then thought, “He says he can hit my eye, but is that really possible?” He relaxed, laughed, and said, “Who are you trying to scare, kid?”

Ryan Carter said nothing. He hooked another piece of gravel up with his foot, swung his right arm—

“Ahhh…” A scream rang out as the leader clutched his right eye and collapsed to the ground, rolling and howling in agony, over and over. The pain of having your eye blinded was on a whole different level from getting a black eye.

“You still have one eye left,” Ryan Carter said to the man writhing on the ground. Then he flicked his foot, sending two more pieces of gravel into the air, caught them in his fist, and swept his gaze over the other two. “This time, I’ve got two pieces of gravel.”

“S-sorry!” The two were completely terrified by the leader’s miserable state on the ground, and stammered out their apologies.