C21 Steel Pipe

Gao Mu remained expressionless amid the taunts of the trio.

He quietly allocated his unused AFK point to freestyle grappling.

"Ding! AFK complete!"

Gao Mu finally eased up when he saw his freestyle grappling skill reach level 999.

Truth be told, if his freestyle grappling had been a mere level 1, he would have seriously doubted his ability to handle so many opponents.

He could distinctly feel a surge of energy filling his body after completing the freestyle grappling AFK, along with a plethora of new grappling techniques in his mind.

"Don't just stand there! Come over here!" one of them yelled, pointing at Gao Mu.

"I think he's scared because there are so many of us," another remarked.

The brash youth from Class 6, Zhang, boasted, "I bet Mr. Ma scared him witless."

"You were so bold earlier today, weren't you?" one of them said, stepping up to Gao Mu.

Emboldened by Mr. Ma's support, his confidence swelled.

Ma Ruo had intended to give Gao Mu a lesson today. However, one of his underlings informed him that his brother had been bullied at school.

Since they were all at Tianhai No.1 High School, Mr. Ma readily agreed to intervene and handle the bully.

"What a coincidence!" Ma Ruo couldn't help but smirk upon seeing the three making a scene in front of Gao Mu.

"Speak up. You were quite the big shot earlier, weren't you?"

"We're going to give you a proper thrashing today."

"Don't get cocky just because you know a bit of martial arts. I'll have you know, Mr. Ma is not someone to be trifilled with."

As Ma Ruo approached, he overheard the trio's sycophantic praises and couldn't help but look pleased with himself.

Gao Mu noticed that Ma Ruo hadn't arrived unarmed.

He and his followers each wielded a steel pipe about the width of two fingers.

In this day and age, with firearms and knives being restricted, steel pipes had become the weapon of choice for these thugs.

Ma Ruo confronted Gao Mu with a disdainful gaze. "You were all high and mighty yesterday. What's with the cowardice today?"

Gao Mu remained silent, simply regarding Ma Ruo with a cool gaze.

One of the guys from Class 6 jabbed a finger at Gao Mu and barked, "What's the matter, you deaf? Mr. Ma is speaking to you, can't you hear?"

The brash youth named Zhang pointed at Gao Mu and taunted, "You used to strut around like you owned the place. What's got your tongue now?"

The last one in the group jabbed a finger towards Gao Mu's nose and hurled insults. "Apologize to us right now. If you don't, you'll be spending your night in the hospital."

Ma Ruo didn't intervene as they hurled abuse.

He was biding his time, waiting for Gao Mu to either talk back or take action.

But to his surprise, Gao Mu was as unresponsive as if he were asleep, not reacting in the slightest.

"Are you deaf?" Ma Ruo stepped up to Gao Mu, tapping his cheek with the steel pipe he held.

"He must be deaf," Ma Ruo muttered, his patience seemingly evaporated in an instant. He swung the steel pipe, ready to bring it crashing down on Gao Mu.

"Stop!" Just then, a thunderous shout rang out.