Hide stood at the mouth of the alleyway, the sweltering desert wind of Ufrifa blowing past his back.

He didn’t need the lights from the main street to see what was happening in the pitch-black corridor between the buildings. His passive skill, True Sight, instantly pierced through the suffocating darkness, rendering the horrific scene in perfect, sickening detail.

There were two men.

The first was a massive, burly guy with sickly pale, albino skin and patches of coarse, rust-colored hair slicked to his scalp with sweat. He had a fat, protruding belly that strained against a filthy, shabby undershirt. His clothes were patched at different spots, reeking of cheap alcohol and unwashed grime. At this exact moment, his stained trousers were pulled all the way down around his ankles.

The second man was bending right beside the first. He was taller, lacking the grotesque fat of his partner. Instead, he looked severely malnourished, his cheeks hollow and his limbs gaunt, exuding the haggard, desperate energy of a man exhausted beyond normal limits.

Hide’s glowing blue eyes tracked their movements, and his features immediately twisted into an expression of unmitigated disgust and boiling anger.

The taller, malnourished guy was forcefully grabbing the young girl’s face, his filthy fingers wedged roughly into her mouth to pry it open and muffle her desperate, choking sobs. Meanwhile, the fat albino man had one massive hand wrapped entirely around both of the girl’s fragile wrists, pinning them above her head. With his heavy legs, he had her thin legs pinned completely to the filthy brickwork. He was grabbing her head with his free hand, forcing it violently downward toward his exposed crotch.

Hide’s jaw locked. The muscles in his neck pulled taut, and he ground his teeth together so hard a faint, audible crack echoed in his own skull.

He didn’t yell, but simply took a slow, heavy step into the alley, his eyes dropping to stare dead at the cracked, garbage-strewn ground.

The soft crunch of his boot against the gravel was barely noticeable, but the taller, malnourished man flinched. He snapped his head up, his hollow eyes catching the silhouette of the silver-haired boy standing in the mouth of the alley.

"Hey," the second guy hissed, his brow furrowing as he quickly tapped his partner’s shoulder. "Someone’s here."

The bigger albino man froze. Cursing under his breath, he instantly scrambled backward, his fat hands frantically hauling his patched pants back up to his waist. He stumbled slightly, turning his massive bulk around to face the intruder.

With the sudden release of pressure, the terrified girl finally ripped her mouth free. She sucked in a desperate breath, preparing to scream for help.

SMACK. The malnourished man backhanded her viciously across the cheek. The sheer force of the slap sent the fragile girl tumbling sideways, her head cracking sharply against the rusted metal of a nearby dumpster. Before she could recover, the tall man pulled a jagged, rusted switchblade from his pocket and pointed it directly at her throat.

"Shut up," he threatened, his voice a raw, desperate rasp. "Don’t even breathe, or I’ll open your neck right here."

The girl instantly froze, her eyes wide with terror. She pressed herself desperately into the corner, pulling her knees to her chest, and began to sob. It wasn’t a loud cry; it was a pathetic, broken, hopeless whimpering of someone who knew nobody in this city cared if she lived or died.

Listening to her choked sobs, something deep within Hide’s heart violently stirred. The sound of her crying seemed to act like gasoline poured directly onto an open flame, fueling his anger until it threatened to completely consume his rationality.

Seeing the intruder wasn’t moving, the fat albino man seemed to regain his confidence. He reached into the waistband of his shabby pants, pulling out a heavy, thick-bladed combat knife. He pointed the weapon directly at Hide’s chest, his small, piggish eyes narrowing in the gloom.

"Turn around and run away, boy," the albino man spat, a nasty sneer forming on his face.

But as the ambient light from the street caught Hide’s pristine white half-shirt and the sleek, obviously high-tier artifact cap on his head, the albino man’s expression shifted. He took a better look at Hide’s silver hair and unblemished skin, and a greedy smirk spread across his thick lips.

"Wait a second," the fat man chuckled. "You seem to be a foreigner. You must be quite rich."

Hearing that, the malnourished man’s eyes lit up. He kept his knife pointed toward the girl but took a step forward to stand beside his partner, a wide, rotten grin splitting his hollow face.

"Looks like the loot came to us on its own," the second guy rasped.

Hide slowly lifted his head. He didn’t look at the two men. His blue eyes, ringed with a faint, lethal violet glow, bypassed the thugs entirely and locked onto the sobbing girl huddled in the corner.

"You can go," Hide said. His voice was completely flat, devoid of any inflection or warmth.

Being completely ignored seemed to violently agitate the malnourished man. He took another step forward, a heavy wince crossing his face as his exhausted muscles protested the sudden movement. He pointed his free hand at Hide.

"It is none of your business, boy," the tall man sneered. "Just hand over all the money you have, and we will let you go free. Hell, we will even pay her after we are done."

He added the last line with a twisted, sickening arrogance, as if he were bestowing some kind of grand mercy upon the girl. Beside him, the fat albino man threw his head back and let out a booming, guttural laugh.

The laugh died halfway in his throat.

Hide didn’t summon any weapon or activate any skill. The baseline Agility of a Level 41 Exterminator was already so far beyond the realm of normal human physics that to the two street thugs, Hide simply vanished.

A sudden sonic boom shattered the quiet of the alley.

CRUNCH.

Hide’s fist connected dead center with the fat man’s face. He didn’t hold back. The sheer, unmitigated force behind the strike was like getting hit by a speeding freight train. The albino man’s feet literally left the ground as he was launched backward through the air. He slammed spine-first into the solid brick wall of the commercial building with a sickening, wet crack.