Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem

A tall man with a white cloth covering his mouth stepped forward on the road and held out a hand to stop the students from continuing.

"I must advise you to turn back or stay there. In either case, I can not allow you to go beyond this point," he said with a loud and clear voice.

Zach walked closer to the man by two steps. He smiled.

"And why is that?"

"As you can hear," the man nodded toward the city. "There's an ongoing pandemic. We have set up a quarantine to prevent it from spreading. Although you guys are students of the Academy, we have to prioritize everyone's health, not your whims."

"Does that mean you are also preventing people from leaving the city?" Zach asked, still smiling brightly.

"Of course," the man answered with a gruff tone.

"Idiots." Zach's smile faded, and he looked at the man coldly.

"What?" The man glared back at him. But Zach continued before he could repeat his question or say anything else.

"Pandemic? Bullshit. I heard you guys called yourselves Underworld Exterminators or something like that, right? Then, you should know that ordinary people can't handle underworld energy. They aren't sick. It's not a disease.

They're being poisoned."

Zach pointed at the gates.

"The people coughing and crying behind those gates aren't coughing and puking because an illness is going around. They have underworld energy in them that their bodies are trying to get rid of."

"...We know that. This isn't our first rodeo, brat. But that doesn't change the fact that this is the first time anyone has exhibited these kinds of symptoms when experiencing underworld energy poisoning." The man puffed up his chest and took a step closer to scare Zach, not caring so much about whether he was carrying the disease.

"We have to be careful. We don't know what dirty tricks those filthy underworlder bastards might have pulled." The man glared down at Zach, confident in his intimidating posture.

However, Zach had grown up with his father. He was a good and kind father but a terrifying man. Zach had also fought dangerous monsters. He had come face to face with Jigak.

The man's intimidation didn't work.

"And that's why you're idiots. This? A trick by the Underworld? Get a grip. You saying and honestly believing that just proves how little you understand about the enemy." Zach sighed and shook his head.

"What the fuck's that supposed to mean?" The man frowned and brought his face closer to Zach, trying to up his scariness factor. But a sword stopped him from getting too close.

Yanael pointed the tip of her sword over Zach's shoulder at the man's forehead. If he continued getting closer to Zach by more than three hairs, the sword would touch his skin.

The man's eyes narrowed slightly and he looked behind Zach. He was confused, and the confusion lessened the impact of the fear he felt. He blinked slowly and retracted his head.

"No wonder." The man turned his gaze to Zach again.

"You're not just a brat. You're a noble brat. Unfortunately, your family doesn't hold any power over us. We have been granted exemption by the Emperor. As long as we don't cross any lines, people like you can't interfere with our business." The man crossed his arms and scoffed confidently.

Since they were just noble kids trying to enter the city, he didn't have anything to be worried about.

"This is my third time calling you an idiot. Is it starting to stick yet?" Zach glared at the man. Sure Yanael looked like a maid, but even if she did, she was pointing a sword at him. And Zach had noticed that Yanael's sword surprised the man, which meant he hadn't noticed when she drew it, which, in turn, meant that he was a weakling.

But not only was he weak, he was foolish to boot.

"Say that one more time. Brat."

Zach didn't hesitate.

"Idiot."

The man's fist rushed out. Since Zach was trying to obstruct their Underworld extermination activities, the man deemed himself well within his right to exercise a little guidance.

Zach reacted quickly enough to signal Yanael to stand down. Although he wanted to see Yanael chop the man's arm off, that wouldn't be productive.

Instead, he let the man's fist ram straight into a rock-solid, almost invisible barrier just above the surface of his skin.

Something cracked, and it wasn't the barrier.

The man froze up, the smug look on his face quickly disappearing as he slowly turned his hand around and looked at that instead. He then turned back to Zach's face.

His pain fueled his anger.

"...What was that? Some kind of treasure? Your parents must really love you to give you something like that." The man glared at Zach, the pain fueling his anger.

"But it won't hold long."

'I wonder where he got that from.'

Zach smiled, provoking the man to punch him again. He did. Same thing happened again.

To his credit, the man wasn't totally useless. He knew how to throw his fists and weight around. He had probably been in more than one scrap or two. If it had been when Zach first learned how to use his skill or within the first couple of months, the man would have broken through or worn down Zach until he could no longer keep up the barriers.

But that was a year and a half ago.

The man's fists soon swelled and blood dripped down his knuckles as he glared at Zach, who was still smiling like an angel.

"...What the fuck…are you?" He asked in between breaths.

"Now, that's not a very nice thing to ask someone who's only here to help." Zach smiled and patted the man on the shoulder. He tried to avoid or fend it off. But his arms were too tired, and he was too slow. Zach pushed down and forced the man to lower himself.

Reaching level nineteen had made him stronger. Zach was making full use of that strength to humble the man.

"Now, how about you cut the crap and tell your minions to get the fuck out of our way?" Zach hissed in the man's ear after forcing him to bend at the waist until his head was slightly below Zach's head.