The setting sun cast long shadows across the city.
At this moment, a scene was unfolding here that was so cliché it could be featured in a textbook for every low-budget TV drama.
“No!
Help me!” The girl’s shrill cries pierced the silence of the dim alley.
A young woman in an exquisite white summer dress was pressed tightly against the corner of a wall, trembling violently.
She had a slender figure and a beautiful face, her long, straight black hair falling in a slightly disheveled mess over her shoulders.
The three thugs surrounding her stared, their eyes glazed over.
“Tsk tsk, what good luck.” The ringleader, a man with a scar on his face, let his greedy gaze scrape up and down the bare thighs of the girl named Shayla.
“I only came here to get some money for the internet cafe, but I didn’t expect to run into a top-grade beauty.
This is exactly my type.
These legs could keep me busy for a whole year.” Beside him, a punk with tattoos covering his arms swallowed hard and rubbed his hands together impatiently.
“Big Bro, look, there are no cameras here, and it’s so secluded.
Even if she screams her head off, no one will answer…” He flashed a lecherous grin.
“How about we have some fun first?” Shayla hugged her schoolbag tightly, staring at them in terror, seemingly too scared to move.
Thud.
Thud.
Just then, a steady, unhurried set of footsteps echoed from the alley entrance.
The three men whipped around, their expressions turning hostile.
Against the dim light, a sturdy figure slowly approached.
It was a tall, lean teenager, standing just over 180 centimeters, with black hair, black eyes, and cold, sharp features.
The summer uniforms of Merin students were notoriously thin.
Now, slightly dampened by sweat, the fabric clung to his body, outlining his firm, lean physique beneath.
However, this cold aura was half-ruined by what he carried.
A schoolbag hung diagonally across his left shoulder, while his right hand held a white plastic bag filled with groceries.
Inside the transparent bag, a carton of eggs on sale and several green-topped scallions were faintly visible.
“Where did this little brat come from?” The tattooed man weighed the wooden club in his hand, his face a mask of aggression.
“What are you looking at?
Get lost if you don’t want to die!” The teenager seemed not to have heard.
His pace didn’t falter for a moment, his expression flat and indifferent, like a deaf and blind person.
But his steady, approaching footsteps clearly gave the opposite answer.
This feeling of being completely ignored sent the thug leader into an instant rage: “Trying to play the hero, are we?
You chose the hard way!
Kill him!” Three burly men closed in on him, forming a triangular formation.
Their steady steps and solid builds clearly showed they weren’t just some petty punks who only knew how to bluster.
Thud!
Thud!
Smack!
“Arghhh!!” After a few extremely rapid, muffled thuds, the three arrogant brutes were now curled up on the ground like dead dogs, wailing in agony, without even the strength to stand.
The teenager flicked his wrist expressionlessly, collapsing the black baton in his hand and skillfully stuffing it back into his schoolbag.
His breathing hadn’t quickened by a single beat.
He simply lifted the bag of eggs higher to avoid them breaking.
“Waaah…
Leon, you saved me again…” Shayla rushed forward with tears in her eyes, familiarly hugging his arm.
“You always rescue me at the most critical moment.
I can’t even remember how many times this is now.
Ninety?
Or one hundred?
All of this must be destiny, and I can only repay you by offering myself to you…” Faced with the beautiful girl’s proactive snuggling, the teenager named Leon didn’t even bother to respond to her.
He simply pulled his arm away with composure, placed the bag of eggs on the ground, and took a small notebook out of his pocket.
Seeing this, Shayla leaned her head in to peek at the notebook.
The yellowed pages were densely filled with names, just like an account book.
Following each name was a phone number, and after that, a few lonely strokes hung there.
Only after the name “Shayla” and her phone number, the dark gray ink was a shocking sight.
A full row of tally marks occupied two lines like a brick wall, silently accusing the girl’s appalling frequency of causing trouble.
Leon held the pen and added another stroke next to her name.
“Tsk, so it’s only the 42nd time.” Shayla’s originally pitiful expression instantly vanished, replaced by a cunning, little-demons-like smile.
She covered her mouth with her hand, letting out a “kuku” chuckle, and even dared to lift the corner of her skirt slightly in front of Leon, revealing her dazzlingly white, delicate thigh.
Her gaze was so intense it seemed to pull like taffy: “Instead of keeping a record in a notebook, I’d much rather you leave your marks on me~” Leon didn’t even lift an eyelid.
He closed the notebook and held out his open palm directly to the girl.
“Hmph, you really have no idea how to be romantic…” Shayla puffed out her cheeks, wearing a disappointed expression.
She pulled a white-and-green wallet with a green cartoon avatar printed on it from her small bag, then skillfully counted out several bills from inside: 6 red hundred-mark notes, 4 blue ten-mark notes, and 8 green one-mark notes.
Shayla didn’t know why the boy in front of her always demanded this exact amount of money, with a mix of large and small bills.
She rolled her eyes.
“Here, here, you money-grubbing jerk!” With a slap, the bills landed in Leon’s palm.
Leon’s thumb skillfully pinched the middle of the bills, giving them a slight rub.
After his fingertips swept across the edges of the banknotes to confirm the thickness was correct, he swiftly folded them and tucked them into his shirt.
The motion was as smooth as flowing water, even more efficient than his fighting earlier.
Then he turned and walked away.
“Hey!
You’re just leaving like this?” Shayla shouted from behind him, her tone tinged with a hint of disbelief.
“Leaving a fragile, beautiful girl alone in a place like this?” Leon didn’t look back, his steps remaining steady.
After all, Shayla had staged this whole thing herself.
Ever since Leon saved her in an accident a year ago…
The rich young lady had been like a switch flipped, completely clinging to him.
At first, she would just hire someone to slide supermarket sale flyers under Leon’s door, then time her appearances in remote, deserted alleys to coincide with his shopping trips, sending him texts like “I’m so scared” or “I’m lost,” complete with her location, just in case he couldn’t find her.
It wasn’t that Shayla was small-brained and completely defenseless; Leon had already glimpsed a high-voltage stun baton and powerful tear gas spray in her half-unzipped bag.
Besides, it was said she was the daughter of a major conglomerate’s chairman, so she most likely had personal bodyguards following her nearby.
But Leon had little interest in her background.
Later, perhaps because Shayla found that wild thugs were insufficient and too dangerous, she simply started paying her own bodyguards to act.
Even though the “kidnappers” lying on the ground were always carefully made up, even wearing fake tattoos, Leon recognized them at a glance.
They were old actors.
Though he saw right through it all, he didn’t mind as long as the rich young lady was willing to throw money around.
At most, he’d just hold back when beating up those familiar, unfortunate bodyguards, ensuring they’d be up and about the next day without a single bruise or lingering injury.
It was normal for rich people to have all sorts of quirks.
Shayla only had this kidnapping fetish, which was already pretty good; at least she wasn’t messing with anyone else.
Besides, this wasn’t the same country as his previous life.
This was a super-metropolis called Vanden, located in a nation called Merin.
The city’s area was enormous, and combined with the fact that even surveillance cameras weren’t widespread…
even though technology wasn’t backward, public security was still a bit worrying.
It was even worse than the environment around the year 2000 in his previous life; there were quite a few chaotic and lively social groups.
…Though precisely because of this, he was able to thrive like a fish in water.
“Hey!
Wait up!” Shayla followed him, refusing to give up, and blocked Leon’s path, looking up at him like a swan: “Why do you always brush me off like that!” Leon stopped and glanced down at her chest, a look of genuine disdain flashing in his eyes: “I am a man destined to save the world.
Women are just in the way.” After saying this, Leon walked around the petrified young woman and strode forward.
Shayla stood there, her lips twitching.
This guy had already rejected her confession with that same line for the twenty-fifth time.
Whose famous quote was that anyway?
She’d never even heard it before!
Even though she had gone out of her way to cram knowledge about the ACG subculture and various games just to pursue Leon, she still couldn’t understand the way his mind worked.
Could this be the legendary Chuunibyou?
But they were already seniors in high school, adults already.
“How did I end up falling for such a screw-loose guy…” She sighed, holding her forehead, but then her expression immediately shifted back to one of genuine interest.
If she weren’t a screw-loose person herself, she wouldn’t be so interested in him!
Shayla skipped along, catching up to the boy ahead.
“Hey!
Leon!
I want to go see your place!” Leon seemed too lazy to even refuse, so Shayla took his silence as tacit consent.
The two of them, one behind the other, emerged from the complex alleys.
What came into view was a giant windmill in the distance.
– Spy-A bit of a different fic, but we like to mix things up here CREATORS’ THOUGHTS NotASpyTL It takes a real man to be best girl