In a certain alley in Canghai City, a group of older kids cornered a scholarly-looking boy with glasses, shoving him deep into the alley.
"Kid, protection fee, hand it over now!"
"Protection fee my ass, I have no money, only my life to give!"
"Damn, so feisty? I like it. Get him, beat him up!"
With an order from the leading hoodlum, his underlings swarmed forward and gave the little boy a sound beating.
But even though he was beaten black and blue, the little boy remained unyielding, cursing these dregs of society.
While the boy was being beaten, one of the hoodlums rummaged through his pockets, finally finding the few dozen yuan of pocket money the boy had hidden.
After getting the money, the little hoodlums let the boy go.
The leader held the money and patted the face of the little boy, which was now swollen like a pig's, his glasses broken with only half a frame hanging from his face.
"I've had my eye on you for a while. You're so rich, what's wrong with sharing some with us!"
"That's the money my parents earned, who the hell are you! Why should I give it to you!"
The boy glared resentfully at the hoodlum in front of him. If looks could kill, he would have dragged them all down with him.
"Because my fists are bigger! Hahaha!"
The hoodlums all laughed wildly, slinging their arms over each other's shoulders and preparing to leave with cheerful grins.
As for the beaten boy? What did he have to do with them? The school wouldn't care about this kind of thing anyway, and even if he tried to make a fuss, the little bastard protection law would protect them~
"Hey… did we go the wrong way? How did the road disappear?"
One of the hoodlums at the front stopped in confusion, looking at the wall of green grass that had suddenly appeared before him.
"Idiot, it must be someone's prank, they just put a piece of cloth here."
Another hoodlum walked forward nonchalantly and tugged at the wall.
Then… before the horrified eyes of the hoodlums, that hoodlum was swallowed whole by the wall of grass.
Immediately after, the grass wall began to shrink rapidly, transforming into a grass man the same size as the hoodlum it had just swallowed.
A voice, identical to the previous hoodlum's, came from within the grass man.
"You guys… just now… did you say that just because your fists are bigger, you can rob and hurt others?"
"Ahhh!" "What the hell, I want to go home!" "Mom!"
The hoodlums were so scared by the bizarre scene before them that they collapsed to the ground, scrambling backward on their hands and feet.
Seeing that the hoodlums had lost their nerve, the grass man didn't want to waste any more words. Countless vines shot out from its body, binding them all up and dragging them towards the deep end of the alley.
"Damn it… damn it… why is my body naturally so weak? If I had such a strong physique…"
The little boy, who had been beaten up and robbed by the hoodlums, lay on the ground crying in agony.
Although his intelligence was very high, far exceeding his peers, he was born frail and sickly, always either taking medicine or in the hospital. He had not only become a burden to his family but also a laughingstock among his peers.
Even though his family had never looked down on him, he could never accept himself…
*Drip—*
*Drip—*
*Drip—*
As the sound of dripping water approached, the boy looked up at the strange grass man before him, and behind it, the hoodlums who were bound by vines, so scared they had passed out and lost control of their bowels.
"Do you think all the wrongs you've experienced are due to the injustice of society and your own weakness, your lack of power?"
The grass man's face was tightly wrapped in grass, its features and eyes invisible. But the boy clearly felt the grass man's gaze, and he couldn't help but swallow hard.
"Yes…"
"How unsightly."
The grass man shook its head at the boy, then threw all the hoodlums it had knocked out in front of him.
"The weak are prey for the strong; it is an unchanging law. Society itself is just a theater of domination established by a group of the strong who have gathered the weak.
If you truly feel that society is wrong, then why not try to change it with your own hands."
"Impossible… I don't have their kind of strength… I can't do it."
The boy lowered his head. He had heard words like this many times before. It was moving at first, but reality had slapped him hard. Without status, without connections, without strength, in this society, besides being a hoodlum, there was nothing he could do…
"Indeed…"
The grass man nodded and said no more.
It took the money the hoodlums had stolen from the boy, and then took everything else from the hoodlums' bodies.
The grass man shot out a vine that pierced through the little boy, pinning him to the wall.
"You want to change this sick society, but you lack the power… so, I will give you power. I hope you can master your own destiny and change everything."
A moment later, the boy, having died once, slid down from the wall and knelt on the ground.
A few minutes later, once the boy had come to his senses, he kowtowed dozens of times in the direction the grass man had left, not stopping even when his forehead was broken and bleeding.
He only stopped when the first unconscious hoodlum began to wake up.
He walked up to the awakened hoodlum, grabbed his head with one hand, and lifted him up. At the same time, the remaining few hoodlums floated into the air.
The boy dragged the hoodlum, with the floating ones in tow, and disappeared into the alley.
The bullying that happened in this alley was not only happening here, but all over Canghai City, and even the world.
The strong wield their knives against the weak, and the weak wield their knives against the even weaker.
The only difference is that those weak people don't get help from others… they might even be blamed for provoking the strong…
This society is a bit sick, but perhaps it has never changed at all.
The grass man didn't know, and didn't want to know. Whatever happened to this society had nothing to do with it.
Because it was just one of the blades of grass that Ryn had thrown out…
And their only mission was to steal the money from people they deemed to be bad.
As for that little boy, it was probably Ryn's subconscious support for someone who wanted to change the sick phenomenon of bullying.
So the little blade of grass involuntarily helped the boy, implanting Honkai energy into his body and modifying him.
Where he goes from there, whether he can truly change society, or if he will fall into depravity amidst great power.
That has nothing to do with it, because it is just a blade of grass.
———————————————
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The little blades of grass completed the orders given by Ryn, delivering the money they had stolen from various hoodlums in Canghai City to him.
Ryn sat at the entrance of a shop, weighing the money in his hand and the memories the little blades of grass had transmitted to him.
"Sigh, as expected, bullying is rampant and unavoidable in every world…"
Raiden Mei, Yuno, and others… they were all Herrschers born under such extreme pressure.
Ryn didn't object to those who had been persecuted using their own power for revenge, but he didn't want Fu Hua's hometown, Canghai City, to be destroyed now.
Ryn singled out the little blade of grass that had given the boy power and threw it in the boy's direction.
"Go, and keep an eye on that guy. Some things, once you've had a taste of the sweet, you can never go back."