Hoarding Goddesses' Affection

Chapter 002

Six months into his transmigration to this world.

The abandoned basketball court in the old campus of the Spirit Martial Academy was permeated with the pungent smell of rust and the restless heat of early summer. It was a blind spot for the surveillance cameras, and naturally, the favorite "hunting ground" for the predators at the bottom of the academy’s ecological food chain.

Leo Shaw leaned against the peeling chain-link fence, casually tossing a coin in his hand. The coin flipped through his fingers, tracing cold, silver arcs in the air. His breathing was so steady it was almost deathly still; his eyes were profound, like a detached bystander watching a poorly acted play about to unfold.

As an "observer" who was extremely stingy with his energy expenditure, Leo had spent the past half-year dismantling the psychological profiles, vested interests, and behavioral logic of nearly everyone in the academy into cold, hard data. He knew full well that in The Grand Dominion, a world ruled by mutated beasts from the Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Spirit Revival, without absolute martial power to back it up, any emotional counterattack or conflict born out of so-called "dignity" was a meaningless waste of energy.

Bang!

A basketball, wrapped in the faint, khaki glow of Earth-attribute Spirit Power, smashed into the chain-link fence inches from Leo's cheek like a cannonball. The massive impact caused the fence to shake violently, emitting a piercing metallic groan. Flakes of rust fell like snow, dusting Leo’s expensive custom uniform.

"Hey, Young Master of the Shaw family, contemplating the meaning of life here again?"

Jack Lewis swaggered out of the shadows with three lackeys in tow. Jack sported an arrogant buzz cut and wore the same academy uniform, but his collar was left wide open, revealing a thick gold chain. He belonged to a peripheral branch of the Lewis family. Though his status wasn't particularly high, among the high school students who hadn't officially awakened yet, his already manifesting A-tier Earth Spirit affinity was more than enough to let him run rampant.

"I heard you scored full marks in yesterday's theory class again?" Jack walked up to Leo, extending a rough, calloused hand to heavily pat Leo's shoulder. His mouth twisted into a malicious smirk. "But what's the use of a perfect theory score? A cripple who can't even sense Spirit Air, even if you cram an entire national library into your brain, you're only fit to be an appetizer for mutant beasts out in the wild."

His lackeys obligingly let out a burst of unrestrained, mocking laughter.

Leo didn't speak. He lowered his eyes, his gaze resting calmly on an ant crawling on the ground.

He was, in fact, calculating.

According to the game theory experience he had accumulated in the vanity fair of his past life, the psychological model of a bottom-feeder bully like Jack was incredibly one-dimensional and easy to manipulate. They were like some lower-order primates, requiring an audience and the fear of their victims to fill their pathetic vanity and class anxiety. If Leo showed weakness now, the bullying would become a normalized pastime; if he directly used extremely cruel methods to cripple Jack, it would draw the undue attention of the academy's upper management and the main branch of the Lewis family, completely ruining his strategy of "dormancy and camouflage."

He needed a fulcrum. A perfect lever that could both establish a martial deterrent and maximize his social returns.

Just then, Leo's far-superior hearing caught the sound of light footsteps approaching the tree-lined path on the perimeter of the basketball court. It was Yuna Lynch's footsteps—an even stride, landing extremely lightly, carrying her unique rhythm of caution and lack of security.

The fish had finally swam into the net.

"Why aren't you talking? Did you really go mute?" Seeing Leo completely unresponsive, Jack felt the dull frustration of punching cotton, followed immediately by the rising anger of being ignored. He abruptly reached out, grabbing Leo firmly by the collar and shoving him hard against the chain-link fence. "I hate that disgusting look of yours! You're clearly a piece of trash, yet you always have this aloof, all-seeing expression! Believe it or not, I'll smash that pretty face of yours into pulp today!"

"Jack," Leo finally spoke. His voice was very soft, even deliberately suppressing a barely noticeable tremor, perfectly simulating the panic and false bravado of someone pushed to the brink. "Let me go. It's the academy's iron rule: fighting with Spirit Power in private will result in expulsion."

"Expulsion? Hahaha!" Jack acted as if he had heard the greatest joke in the world. He raised his right fist, which was shimmering with a grayish-brown, rock-like luster. "In this world, power is the rule! Even if I break a few of your ribs right here, right now, as long as I don't kill you, do you really think the academy would punish an A-tier combatant destined for the front lines over a corporate cripple who doesn't even have C-tier potential?"

Before his voice completely faded, Jack's fist, howling with wind and wrapped in heavy Earth Spirit Power, mercilessly smashed toward Leo's face.

In that very split second—Leo moved.

He didn't use any Spirit Power, nor did he display any exaggerated martial arts style. He simply operated with a terrifyingly rational calmness that defied the human biological instinct of fear, tilting his head exactly 3.5 centimeters to the left.

Bang!

Jack's inevitable punch smashed heavily into the chain-link fence. The massive reaction force sent a sharp jolt of pain up his wrist.

In that infinitesimal frame of stun, where Jack’s center of gravity shifted due to overexertion and his old force was spent before the new force could be generated, Leo's counterattack sliced in like a precision scalpel.

He didn't form a fist, because a mortal's knuckles striking muscles wrapped in Earth Spirit Power would only shatter their own bones. He turned his palm into a blade, utilizing the massive momentum of Jack's forward lean, and chopped precisely at the lower side of Jack's fragile Adam's apple—the carotid sinus. Immediately following that, Leo's right knee, looking almost as if it had been inadvertently pulled up when Jack yanked him, drove upward at the most vicious angle, burying itself ruthlessly into Jack's completely unguarded celiac plexus.

"Urgh—!"

Jack didn't even have time to scream. The instantaneous, catastrophic trauma to his nervous system caused his brain to crash on the spot. He deflated like a punctured balloon, his eyes bulging, a pained gurgle escaping his throat as his massive frame hunched over uncontrollably.

It all happened too fast. In the dim light and from the horrified perspective of the lackeys, it looked exactly as if Jack had simply lunged too hard and accidentally impaled himself on Leo's knee.

But Leo's calculations weren't finished. To completely crush any future thoughts of revenge in this bully's mind, he seamlessly grabbed a handful of Jack's hair and, using the downward force of Jack's collapsing body, slammed the bully's face violently into the rusted iron pole of the basketball hoop nearby.

Crack.

The sickening sound of breaking bone was exceptionally piercing in the empty court. Jack's nasal bone shattered instantly, and blood mixed with physiological tears gushed out, staining the concrete floor.

"Stop!!"

A crisp female voice, laced with extreme shock and anxiety, rang out from the entrance of the basketball court.

Yuna Lynch stood there. She was wearing a pristine pleated skirt, her arms tightly clutching several thick High-Tier Spirit Herb Compendiums, her face pale as she watched the scene unfold before her. She never imagined that Leo Shaw—the boy who always slept quietly in class, who looked harmless and even somewhat isolated—would be involved in such a bloody brawl.

In the thousandth of a second it took to register Yuna's voice, the chilling, cold-blooded killing intent of an apex predator surrounding Leo vanished without a trace, as if a machine had been abruptly unplugged.

He let go of Jack's hair as if he had been electrocuted, letting the bloodied school bully collapse to the ground like a puddle of mud. Then, Leo slowly turned around and looked at Yuna at the entrance.

At this moment, Leo's chest was heaving violently, seemingly lingering in the aftermath of a "near-death" encounter. His uniform was left disheveled from the struggle, and a trace of glaring red blood even seeped from the corner of his mouth (from inadvertently biting his own tongue just moments ago). He looked at Yuna, and the bottomless, calculating darkness in his eyes was replaced by a perfectly timed flash of bewilderment, helplessness, and... a deeply hidden vulnerability of a fiercely torn pride.

"Yuna..." Leo's voice was slightly hoarse, carrying a bitter, self-deprecating tone, like a fallen aristocrat trying to piece together his dignity from the ruins. "I'm sorry you had to see me in such an embarrassing state."

It was a flawless, soul-piercing psychological manipulation.

Leo knew very well that for a "Fairy" like Yuna Lynch, whose heart was pure and brimming with empathy (and perhaps even a slight savior complex), a perfect, always-aloof corporate heir would only evoke awe and distance. The only thing that could truly make her drop her guard and form an indelible emotional bond was a broken soul—someone who, despite being trapped in the abyss and treated with malice by the world, still struggled fiercely and alone for his dignity.

Sure enough, after a brief moment of shock, Yuna's emotional defenses collapsed instantly, rapidly replaced by an intense heartache and anger. She completely ignored the unconscious Jack on the ground, dropped the books in her arms, and rushed over to Leo, anxiously checking him for injuries.

"Leo, how are you? Are you hurt anywhere? Did he hit you with Spirit Power?" Yuna's eyes instantly reddened. She pulled out a pristine white handkerchief with a faint scent of jasmine from her pocket. With trembling wrists, she tried to wipe the blood from the corner of Leo's mouth, her movements as gentle as if she were touching a fragile piece of art, terrified of hurting him.

"I'm fine." Leo slightly turned his head away, seemingly unaccustomed to this sudden tenderness, but he didn't step back to create distance. He lowered his eyes and whispered, "He attacked first. I just... didn't want to keep backing down like a coward anymore. Even if I don't have Spirit Power."

Those words acted like a poisoned, tender thorn, piercing perfectly into Yuna's heart. She looked at Leo's stubborn, pale profile, and an unprecedented, overwhelming protective urge surged within her.

"I know, I saw it!" Yuna whipped her head around, her usually gentle gaze now cold and fierce like an enraged lioness, glaring at Jack's three lackeys who were entirely petrified by the sudden turn of events. "Why aren't you taking him away?! If the academy finds out about this, the first ones to be expelled will absolutely be you scumbags who provoked the fight!"

The three lackeys jolted awake from their stupor. They cast a terrified glance at Leo (that look confirmed to them that if they didn't leave immediately, the next broken noses would be theirs) and frantically dragged the unconscious Jack away, stumbling and fleeing out of the basketball court.

The abandoned basketball court returned to tranquility, leaving only the rustling sound of the breeze blowing against the chain-link fence.

Leo leaned against the fence, quietly looking at the girl before him whose eyes were red with worry. From an angle Yuna couldn't see, a flash of absolute, rational darkness flickered in the depths of Leo's eyes.

The prey had completely taken the bait.

In this malice-filled world where power was paramount, even though he currently had no system and no martial prowess, he possessed a weapon far more terrifying than any magic—the absolute insight into and manipulation of human nature.

The door to Yuna Lynch's heart had been thrown completely open to him. And this was merely the first step in his conquest of this world.