****** A burst of pain had snapped through the thug’s spine as he found himself slamming into the dirt. And immediately following that, the entire world seemed to have flipped violently upside down. Before he even realized it, his vision had swum and his ears had buzzed, a distant taste of iron appearing in his mouth. ‘What…? How…?’ His thoughts had scrambled like broken glass scattered in a storm, unable to understand what had happened. One second he had been attacking, but the next… he had been airborne, and then everything went black at the edges. He had tried to form a thought, any thought, but none had stuck. Instead, his skull had felt as though a sledgehammer had crashed down on it… merciless and final. A sledgehammer against an ant. That was the closest comparison his dissolving consciousness had been able to muster. And he, of course, was the ant. And just like that, darkness had swallowed the last of his awareness, dragging him under. Then his body ha

******“Silence!”The sudden, startling voice came from the gang leader, who currently stood radiating a chilling, predatory calm… the kind that didn’t need to raise itself to dominate an entire street.His present composure was so icy, unbroken, and terrifying, that it seemed as if the world itself bowed to him.And the moment his voice landed, the atmosphere in the street shifted significantly.It didn’t just go quiet...it froze, his words seeming to echo in the air, directly swallowing every sound, and reducing the rowdy chaos from earlier into a tension so absolute that it felt like the air had turned solid.Every person present stiffened, every heart skipped mid-beat, and even the bravest onlookers felt their lungs lock, trapped under the pressure of his presence.And with this, the kind of abrupt silence that felt unnatural, like someone had pressed a mute button on the entire street, descended.Only then did the gang leader move, slowly and deliberately shifting his att

******Within seconds, the street began to drift back toward its earlier noise, people talking over one another… relieved, confused, and irritated, until suddenly…“You…”The gang leader’s voice sliced cleanly through every sound, snapping the chaos in half.His finger pointed toward the thug whose family jewels Red had kicked earlier, the poor guy who had appeared as though his soul had been knocked loose since then.“Join him and bring him here.”The thug swallowed hard but nodded, his respect evident even in the way he lowered his head.Then he limped forward, each step sending a pulse of agony up his spine. The spectators winced just watching him.His brothers did not offer sympathy.Instead, they laughed in a mocking and unrestrained manner.“Careful with that limp! Looks like the gender-confused psychopath turned you into half a man!” one jeered.“Hope you are still a man or you’ve become a princess!” another yelled, laughing excitedly.And hearing them, both humilia