Chapter 84: Sacred Gear
As Haruto gradually drew closer, the sleazy fat man—even more repulsive than Hajime Tanaka—finally tore his greedy, lustful gaze away from the young girls before him.
Just moments ago, he had performed deeper-level cognitive rewriting on these five couples.
Starting tonight, he planned to take the virginity of these five beautiful girls—all newly in relationships—one by one in sequence.
The sleazy fat man noticed an outsider's arrival but paid it no mind. Having obtained such abilities without understanding the world's truth, he felt completely fearless.
After growing tired of playing around at Aiho Academy, he intended to target women elsewhere—for instance, the famous private Kuoh Academy would be an excellent choice.
Rumors said it had been an all-girls school until last year, filled with noble young ladies, with even higher quality beauties than Aiho Academy.
Spotting Haruto's uniform, the fat man's eyes lit up—wasn't that the uniform from his next target school?
"Stop," the sleazy fat man's eyes flashed crimson as a wave of psychic energy surged toward Haruto's mind.
After double reductions from mental resistance and charm resistance, the remaining force couldn't affect him at all—at most causing Haruto to pause momentarily.
But he still stopped, pretending to be hypnotized.
The sleazy fat man smiled in satisfaction, his greasy face folding into repulsive fat layers.
"Who are you? Why are you here?"
Having successfully controlled Haruto, he didn't plan to approach—why bother getting close when it wasn't a beautiful girl? This distance sufficed for questioning.
Haruto moved his lips slightly, speaking just loud enough to be barely audible but unclear: "I'm... came here..."
Missing all the key parts, the fat man frowned displeased. "Didn't eat? Speak louder."
Seeing the man still refused to come closer, Haruto sighed inwardly. Why were they all like this—unwilling to take even a step or two forward?
Hajime Tanaka had been like this, and now this substitute too. With such bone-deep laziness, no wonder they grew fat as pigs.
"Never mind, can't be bothered pretending anymore."
Haruto's expression relaxed as he slowly walked forward. Although killing this fat man head-on would be a bit troublesome, it was only a minor inconvenience.
The sleazy fat man was startled and quickly attempted to hypnotize him again, saying, "You're very tired now. Your legs can't move, and you want to lie down and sleep."
Haruto suddenly felt a wave of drowsiness wash over him. His body seemed as exhausted as if he had been laboring for three days and nights, especially his legs—they refused to move.
He paused in place, his eyelids drooping slightly.
Just as the sleazy fat man let out a relieved sigh, Haruto abruptly snapped his eyes open, completely shaking off the effects of the hypnosis.
With his innate resistance to mental attacks, combined with the mental fortitude granted by his charm abilities and his already extraordinary soul strength, a hypnosis capable of affecting B-rank individuals could only influence Haruto for a few seconds.
"How is this possible?!" The sleazy fat man had never failed to hypnotize someone before—especially with such a simple command, which was practically his strongest hypnosis technique.
The simpler the hypnosis, the stronger and more effective it was.
After the initial shock, he frantically stumbled backward and shouted at the five couples beside him, "Stop him for me! It'd be best if you kill him!"
The ten hesitated, prompting the sleazy fat man to hastily add, "Don't worry, just do it. This man is a criminal. I'm a government official—you have to trust me."
A flash of red light passed through their eyes as they began to encircle Haruto, murmuring, "If the government's sex counselor says so, then it must be true."
Haruto sneered at the sleazy fat man hiding behind the crowd. Thinking a few ordinary people could stop him was pure wishful thinking.
His leg muscles tensed as he abruptly changed direction, preparing to move at a speed beyond ordinary human perception to bypass the ten and go straight for the fat man's head.
"You're sleepy, you're tired, you're sleepy, you're tired..."
Just as he accelerated, Haruto heard the sleazy fat man's frantic hypnosis in his ears. His mind wavered, and his movements faltered.
Under the fat man's relentless influence, Haruto remained in a dazed state, unable to take any effective action.
The five couples closed in, surrounding him and launching a flurry of punches and kicks. Their attacks couldn't break Haruto's defenses, but they made it even harder for him to reach his target.
Typically, using hypnosis—a form of mental attack—would drain the user's mental energy. However, this sleazy fatso showed no signs of exhaustion at all, aside from occasionally panting from speaking too fast.
That's because this hypnosis wasn't his ability to begin with—it came from the frameless glasses on his face.
A week ago, these glasses had suddenly appeared in his home. The moment he picked them up and put them on, knowledge about the hypnosis ability flooded into his mind.
After practicing for a week, driven by some inexplicable desire, he began executing his plan of hypnotic guidance.
Unexpectedly, just as his plan was getting started, someone immune to his hypnosis had found him—and it was clear this person harbored nothing but ill intentions.
This standoff lasted for who knows how long. The sleazy fatso felt his throat was nearly hoarse, yet Haruto continued to advance toward him slowly.
Aside from his clothes being crumpled, there wasn't even a single mark on Haruto's body.
"Monster…" The fatso stared at Haruto in horror.
"If ten people aren't enough, then a hundred will do!" His expression darkened as he snarled viciously.
With that, he stopped trying to influence Haruto and instead bolted out of the gymnasium.
Aiho Academy had far more than a hundred students. If he succeeded, not only would Haruto be in trouble, but the disastrous aftermath would probably make Akeno Himejima furious enough to give herself a headache.
Haruto desperately wanted to stop him, but five beautiful girls clung tightly to his limbs and waist.
In front of him, five boys were relentlessly attacking him, making it impossible for him to break free and chase the fatso immediately.
By the time he shook them off and knocked all ten unconscious, the sleazy fatso had long since vanished.
Kuro, who had hidden at the start of the fight, reappeared and relayed a message to Haruto.
"He went to the broadcasting room…"
Haruto's expression darkened. If nothing went wrong, he'd soon be facing the entire school's pursuit.
As if to confirm his suspicions, the broadcast system crackled to life at that very moment.
"Everyone, listen up. There's a monster in the gymnasium right now…"
The sleazy fatso's voice echoed throughout the campus, and an invisible force began influencing everyone who heard it.
Just as Haruto was considering whether to retreat temporarily and call for reinforcements, a yellowed piece of paper fell out of his torn pocket.
Picking it up, he pondered for a moment. "Akeno-senpai said to use this only in a crisis, but she didn't specify what it does… This should count as a crisis, right?"
Haruto decided to use it.
If he delayed any longer, who knew what else this substitute would pull?
More importantly, he had a rough idea of the root cause of this incident.
After being subjected to the opponent's hypnosis attacks so many times, he noticed that every time he suffered a mental assault—or rather, every time the other party used his hypnosis ability—a flash of crimson light would appear in his eyes.
No, to be precise, the transparent lenses would turn red, tinting his eyes with the same hue.
Ever since he first saw this substitute, Haruto had felt a sense of familiarity but couldn't pinpoint where it came from.
Only after realizing this did it suddenly dawn on him.
It was the most obvious yet easily overlooked detail—those flat, frameless glasses.
Tanaka Hajime also wore a pair of glasses in the exact same style. No—Haruto's instincts told him they were the very same pair.
And these glasses were the source of their hypnotic abilities—the real target he needed to deal with.
If he didn't destroy these glasses, countless more 'Tanaka Hajime' would appear, attempting to recreate the hypnotic guidance.
Once he realized the source of the opponent's power lay in the glasses, a single word flashed through Haruto's mind—[Sacred Gear].
If this truly was a Sacred Gear, then using the paper Akeno had given him made even more sense.
No matter how weak a Sacred Gear might be, it still bore the mark of the divine—caution was only natural.
And these glasses were far from weak. In the hands of someone skilled in mental abilities, even a D-rank user could potentially defeat Haruto head-on.
Listening to the footsteps rapidly approaching from outside the gymnasium, Haruto hesitated no longer. Pale blue magical energy flowed into the yellowed paper.
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