Super Rich System

7 Defeating Vincent

Plates and glasses scattered to the floor. Rice and soup spilled everywhere. Vincent lay among the wreckage of the table with his eyes wide open in disbelief.

The entire cafeteria froze. No one moved. No one spoke. They all stared at that scene with mouths open like people watching a scene in a movie with the wrong genre, one that was supposed to be drama suddenly turning into an action film.

Bimo, who was sitting at their table, let go of the fried chicken he was holding. The chicken fell back onto the plate but Bimo did not even notice. His mouth gaped wide, his eyes bulged, and for several seconds he forgot how to breathe. This was Vino, his best friend who did not even dare to greet a minimarket cashier, had just kicked the most feared thug on campus until he flew across one table.

Beside Bimo, something that had never happened in the entire history of their friendship happened. Bram shifted his gaze from his phone screen. Not because of a game notification or because the battery was dead. Bram actually put his phone down on the table with the screen facing down and looked toward Vino with both of his eyes wide open. In Bram's world, that was equivalent to standing up and applauding.

Vincent got up with great difficulty from the wreckage of the table. His lip was bleeding from hitting the edge of the table when he fell. His face was crimson, not from embarrassment but from fury that had passed the limit of control.

For years he had bullied Vino, and for years Vino had never fought back even once. This was an insult he could not accept. This was like a king whose throne had been spat on by a commoner.

"You're dead today, Vino!" Vincent shouted while lunging forward with both hands extended ready to strike.

Vino did not back away. His body moved again with terrifying precision. His left foot became a pivot, his hip rotated, and his right foot shot forward in a roundhouse kick motion that struck the side of Vincent's head.

The sound of the impact made several people in the cafeteria wince. Vincent spun half a circle before falling and crashing into another table. This time he did not get up right away. His body slumped on the floor, blood flowing from his split lip, and his eyes rolling in a half conscious state.

"Rio! Dimas!" Vincent shouted with a voice that had lost all of its authority. "Beat him! Attack together!"

Rio and Dimas, who had only been standing frozen until now, finally moved. Both of them lunged at Vino from two different directions, Rio from the left and Dimas from the right.

Bimo had already risen from his chair. His big body moved faster than he was usually capable of, ready to defend his best friend even though he himself had never fought in his entire life.

"Bim, sit down," Vino said without turning his head. "I can handle this myself."

Bimo stopped in the middle of his step. There was something in Vino's tone of voice that made him obey, a confidence he had never heard from his best friend's mouth before.

Rio, who came first, threw a punch from the left. Vino dodged by tilting his body, then landed a side kick to Rio's ribs that made him stagger sideways while clutching his ribs. Before Rio had time to recover, Vino's foot had already spun and struck Rio's temple with a back kick that sent him to the floor.

Dimas saw his friend fall and his anger defeated his fear. He lunged at Vino with a blind haymaker. Vino ducked under that punch, then rose with a jumping kick that struck Dimas's chin from below. Dimas's head snapped backward, his body lifted slightly off the floor before falling flat on his back on the cold cafeteria floor.

In less than two minutes, the three people who had bullied Vino for years were now sprawled on the cafeteria floor.

Vincent was still half conscious, Rio was holding his head while groaning, and Dimas was lying with his eyes rolling.

Vincent forced himself to get up. His legs trembled, his lips were full of blood, and one of his eyes was starting to swell. He stared at Vino with a gaze that was a mixture of anger, disbelief, and for the first time, fear.

"You're finished, Vino!" Vincent shouted while stumbling backward toward the cafeteria door. Rio and Dimas followed him with equally stumbling steps. "I'm going to pay you back for this! Just you wait!"

That threat still sounded intimidating in its words, but the way the three of them walked toward the door, hurriedly while supporting each other, told a very different truth. They left not because they chose to leave. They were fleeing.

The cafeteria slowly became noisy again, but this time with a different tone. Astonished whispers filled the room. Admiring gazes were directed at Vino from various corners. Several students who had also been victims of Vincent's intimidation all this time stared at Vino with sparkling eyes as if they had just seen a hero from their favorite movie step down into the real world.

And the girls. The girls who all this time could only admire Vino from afar because Vino never dared to approach them, now saw a completely new figure. The shy Vino, who always bowed his head, who was always a victim, had just defeated three people at once with movements that looked like they came from a Korean action film.

A girl with shoulder length straight hair walked toward Vino even before the dust in the cafeteria had time to settle. Her name was Lina, a third semester student from the Economics faculty, known as a girl who never hesitated to pursue what she wanted.

"Vino right?" Lina said while smiling widely without a single speck of shyness on her face. "I'm Lina. Can I have your number?"

Vino, who just moments ago was capable of kicking three thugs without flinching, now suddenly turned back into the usual Vino. His face turned red and he scratched the back of his head that was not itchy.

"U uh, my number?"

"Yeah, your W******p number." Lina had already held out her phone with the screen showing a new contact field.

Before Vino had time to answer, another girl approached. Fenita, a student from the Communications department who was famously beautiful and always the center of attention at every campus event, stood beside Lina with a smile no less bright.

"I want it too, Vin," Fenita said with a light tone but clearly showing interest.

Vino looked at the two phones being held out toward him and his brain needed a few seconds to process a situation that in nineteen years of his life he had never imagined would happen. With slightly trembling fingers, he typed his number into both of those phones.

From the table behind, Bimo watched all of that with his mouth still half open. He swallowed, then muttered loudly enough for Bram beside him to hear.

"Bram, it should have been me who hit Vincent and his henchmen. If I was the one who hit them, those girls would be asking for my number now, not asking for Vino's number."

Bram glanced at Bimo briefly without expression. "Can you hit people?"

"Well, if I was forced to, I probably could."