Cheat Awakening

Oh? What's with the sudden change in attitude? Can't people even scold someone in their mind now? Myne thought, feeling outraged as he walked toward the counter. Since he was pretending to be someone else, Myne had to act as if it were their first meeting.

Upon reaching the bartender, Myne didn't ask what the other party wanted by calling him as if he was his servant or why he had such a killing intent toward him for no reason but directly used his King's Intimidation skill at full power.

A deadly aura, imbued with overwhelming pressure, filled the bar, causing it to tremble slightly. All the weirdos who had previously leered at Myne, trying to appear fierce and dangerous, began to tremble under his power. A few, even weaker ones, fled the bar as if they'd seen a ghost.

"What are you doing?! Don't you know the rules here?" Alex said sternly, raising an eyebrow as he finally put down the already sparkling-clean glass.

"Oh, I don't know," Myne replied coolly. "Why don't you enlighten me? And even if I wanted to break the rules, f*ck everyone present here up, who would be going to stop me? You? Do you have the strength?"

Myne wanted to push this player bartender to his limit, who offended him for no reason, and Myne was also quite curious about his backing. Otherwise, how could they openly run such an illegal business under the noses of the kingdom's higher-ups without anyone stopping them?

As Myne's words hung in the air, a deafening silence descended upon the entire bar. Another wave of timid mice scurried out of the bar with their head lowered as if in fear that this big shot might notice them, and send them to hell for no reason. Alex's face also darkened with anger, and black veins throbbed across his forehead.

"I see, so you're a troublemaker, huh, good, very good," Alex said coldly while trying to hold back his anger. "Hahaha, It's been years since someone dared to come here and openly challenge us. Tonight is definitely going to be sleepless." He threw his head back and laughed maniacally before retrieving a blue, palm-sized crystal from a drawer and placing it in front of Myne.

"This is your last chance," Alex warned expressionlessly, his amusement gone as if it was never there. "Apologize sincerely and settle this peacefully. Once this crystal breaks, it will be too late for regrets." Seeing the playful smirk on Myne's face, he sighed and continued, "Since you seem so confident in your skills, then why not invite your own doom?

Break this crystal and see if you see the sunrise tomorrow."

"Sure," Myne replied with a smile. "I'm also curious what gives you such courage to run such an illegal activity so openly in my town. Tonight will indeed going to be colourful." However, he didn't hurriedly break the crystal.

Instead, he scanned the bar and raised his hand at a man whose face was nightmarishly ugly, he had a sallow face with countless wrinkles, half-broken yellow teeth, a big mushroom head-like nose, small eyes, and a handful of hairs on his round head. Just looking at him made people feel nauseous.

As if seized by an invisible hand, the ugly man was yanked towards Myne, breaking multiple tables and running many people's wines, and food along the way.

"Man, your face is so damn f*cking ugly. You should really wear a mask. At least then you won't be targeted by others simply because you're unpleasant to the eye." Myne, after offering this life-saving advice for free, slammed the ugly man's head against the blue crystal before casually tossing him aside like garbage.

"What! You didn't expect me to believe an assassin's words and break an unknown magical crystal, right? What if it had some kind of dangerous curse? Then wouldn't I die for nothing?"

Listening to Myne's naked accusations of his credibility, Alex just looked at him as if he was looking at a dead man, before retrieving an expensive-looking bottle of wine from the hidden drawer under the counter, filling a glass for himself, he sat down on a chair, and began savouring it slowly.

"This place is getting destroyed anyway," Alex said nonchalantly, like a soldier accepting defeat and wanting to enjoy his last moments. "Might as well enjoy these good wines."

"By the way, while we wait for your boss to come wipe your ass, why don't you help me with what brought me here?" Myne said, taking a seat on the stool and deactivating his King's Intimidation skill, making other bad guys in the bar who waiting to watch a great show, breathe a sigh of relief.

"Sure, but there won't be any discounts for you," Alex said casually, taking another sip of wine. There wasn't a single trace of annoyance or anger on his face, as if he were dealing with a regular customer, an annoying one, of course.

"However, before we get to the main business, do you sell potions here? When I came here, I just wanted some information, but thanks to you, my workload has increased significantly now. You understand, what I'm trying to say, right? Some necessary preparations are unavoidable before a good battle," Myne said with a smile as if chatting with a friend instead of an enemy.

"Yes, we do. But again, there won't be any discounts or negotiation and praise will also be many times higher than outside. So, what kind of potion are you interested in?" Alex replied, maintaining a calm facade despite the urge to curse Myne's entire family.

After all, weirdos like Myne who dared to purchase things from their enemies before the battle so he could beat his enemies with their own supplies were just too hateful.

"Give me a few dozen high-grade mana, I mean magic energy potions," Myne said calmly, and as if he suddenly thought something he gave Alex a knowing wink before continuing... "And don't try any tricks. Believe it or not, I'm a potion master myself. There's no fooling me with fake potions, at least you definitely are not qualified to do that."

Seeing that Alex went to pick up potions obediently, bored Myne picked up the wine bottle Alex was drinking from. He sniffed it, finding the aroma pleasant. Unfortunately, Myne wasn't a drinker, so he regretfully put it back down.

Alex didn't see Myne's small movement; otherwise, he surely would have misunderstood him, thinking that Myne was looking down on his most expensive wine and indirectly calling it garbage by making an ugly face.

A few seconds later, Alex emerged from behind the counter with a briefcase-sized wooden box. He placed it before Myne and resumed his drink without offering any explanation. Since the other party claimed to be a potion master, Alex, as a simple bartender, saw no point in talking.

Myne wasn't one for formalities either. He swiftly opened the box, revealing ten exquisite, starry-blue, palm-sized bottles.

[ Mana Potion:

Grade: High

Description: A high-level mana-recovering potion that can instantly refill a normal human's mana storage in the body to maximum capability... ]

[ ???: It is detected that the host's mana storage is linked to Inventory... ]

[ ???: Reanalyzing the effect... ]n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

[ Mana Potion:

Grade: High

Description: A high-level mana-recovering potion that can recover the host's one day's worth of mana instantly according to his natural mana-recovering speed.

Side Effect: None

Recipe: ??? ]

One day's worth of mana, huh? That means I can recover around ten days' worth. This should be enough to deal with the boss behind this bar, right? After all, how powerful can he be? Two hundred levels, at most... Why does that sound like too much?

Myne thought with a frown, he glanced at his own level, a meagre 94, and fell silent.

No way. Although I can bully Alex as much as he wants, the most he has to do is steal his skills, and he's just a fish on a chopping block. But don't forget there are some entities who can block his appraisal skill with their magic items, or know if he stole their skills just like Mr. Ghost.

So, at least dealing with someone whose levels are hundreds of times higher than himself, of course, he has to worry a little bit."

Perhaps more preparation was needed. If I really have to flee, it shouldn't be too embarrassing. And... my time is also running out. I hope those fools will arrive soon, otherwise, they can only drink wine together without me.

Myne thought, picking up the first mana potion bottle, opening the cap, and emptying it completely into his mouth.

With these thoughts in mind, Myne picked up the first mana potion, uncorked it, and downed the entire contents in one go. No one would bat an eye at that. But when he picked up the second, then the third, finally emptying all ten bottles like shots of alcohol, everyone in the bar stared at him as if he'd grown a second head. This was the literal definition of burning money for pleasure.

"Are you out of your mind?! Do you even know what you just drank? No matter how powerful you are, two bottles are more than enough to replenish all your magic energy. Why did you guzzle them all at once? They won't increase your mana capacity or recovery speed! That's simply a waste of resources!" Alex roared, slamming his palm on the counter.

He couldn't control himself upon seeing such a great level of wastage or a luxury reserved for the super-rich, which poor people like him could never understand.

"No one asked for your opinion, Mr. Bartender. What I do with my things is none of your concern," Myne replied expressionlessly while tossing two platinum coins at Alex, which were many times higher in price than the market rate of those potions. But Myne, a super-rich guy, had long ago stopped caring about such minor expenses.

While Myne didn't care about the money, Alex did. Seeing the platinum coins in his hand, his breath hitched and his arms trembled. Though accustomed to being a powerful assassin before working at this bar, most of his life revolved around gold coins.

Believe it or not, a normal hume life wasn't that particularly valuable unless the target was a noble or wealthy merchant, whom most assassins generally avoided unless they had a death wish. Most of their targets were poor bastards, and their bounties weren't that high.

Otherwise, given Alex's assassin and magic skills, how could he still be working his ass off in this shitty bar instead of enjoying his life with his new lover and banging her right beside her cheap husband after giving him a sleeping drug?

Boom!

Just as Myne was checking how much mana he had recovered and how long it was going to last, and Alex was thinking about where he should spend his newfound wealth, suddenly a deafening explosion erupted from beneath the bar. The entire building shuddered as if struck by a powerful earthquake.