I know it's probably just a typo, but Kali throwing 4k in someone's face when they ask for 35k and telling them to keep the change is such a gangster move. Things are about to get super spicy if that wasn't a typo, though. xD

Liquor wouldn't kick in that quickly for only that much. It's almost certainly poison, imo.

Looks like I'm going to drop yet another series due to abrupt drop in art quality. So much for the binge...

A chapter so nice I read it twice.

Maybe. I definitely think she could have argued down the severity at the bare minimum—especially in states that are incredibly intolerant of domestic abuse—but it's harder to gauge if she could argue self-defense legitimately, especially since what happened in the store itself is a bit glossed over. I actually wanted to look up if there were some cases similar to this that could show whether it could or could not come to pass, but damned if it's not a pain to actually find and search for this stuff.

Was a fun discussion though.

The danger doesn't have to be real as long as the belief was credible. You're right, stalking probably wouldn't make it a proper defense on its own, but the man has a history of repeated physical violence against his family—a past history of assault against the client in this case—and entered the store drunk, which through his stalking behavior can be presumed due to seeking her out specifically rather than just accidental. If she didn't say anything about protecting the store and instead focused on how she was trying to protect herself, I'd assume it would either lessen or remove any punishment she received. The question is whether she used excessive force, but it seems like a single blow to the head with a hammer, and her using a weapon will likely be waved away because she's a younger female against an older male who has already been successfully physically abusive in the past.

Really? Some rando who's barely in the story at all caught up to the MC who's pretty blatantly overpowered, and has been shown to be overbearingly so in every major conflict he comes into, including in this very arc when he casually went up against a bunch of his own classmates who couldn't do a thing to him? Uh huh. Uh huh. Suuuuuuure. I totally believe this guy—a near literal who?—is managing to keep up with the MC who has more combat experience through his past life than probably the entire first, second, and third year classes combined, on top of every other boon he's gotten during the series. This is just dumb.

https://i.postimg.cc/W1Y1p6RC/i.webp

He got a lot of things wrong—he thinks Odin was "created" by the various powers that be, rather than him being the one who brought all of it together and to heel in the first place—but his assumptions are a lot more reasonable compared to reality. Right now he thinks Odin is a high-placed subordinate to an even higher power, but that's still far, far above where he himself is.

Part of getting far in the business world is knowing who you can and cannot offend, which is why MC's response to him was so telling, and why he himself is willing to bow his head now. He has aspirations but he's going into it without being a complete dumbass. I like it a lot.

I don't even know why we're being shown this, on a narrative level. Why? Are we supposed to sympathize with a cult leader who was betraying the trust of the desperate, mind-controlling them, and killing them off? He's not the MC, and he pushed way past the moral event horizon long ago. Like, we're probably going to get a clue as to Baphomet's powers through this or something, but it really could have been done faster.

On one hand, I agree with you. On the other, this is a calamity strong enough that even the great heroes wouldn't be able to defeat even if they joined forces. This scenario is sort of setting up the Dream Team as the current era of heroes, but the stakes would simultaneously be lowered (because the Dream team can handle it without MC) and would have to be greatly increased (for plot reasons, because this is a power treadmill) if they were able to take it down too readily. For pacing purposes, this is probably for the best—they're so close even without MC, but not so much to make the series jump the shark just yet.

The punitive damages for potentially exposing the general public to a risk at this level is gonna be huge. For those who aren't super legal, punitive = as punishment. Basically, in a court of law, there's the idea of "you have to reimburse the victim for the damage you have caused", and "we have to make sure this hurts to really reinforce that this is a punishment". In this specific case, Sunghwa should have to pay Daeryong for 1) the cost of recalling the products and 2) the damage to their reputation, at the bare minimum. However, that actually may not amount to much, because Daeryong was only just starting to get into the United States market, and it can be said they didn't have a particularly huge reputation in the states in the first place, so only a relatively minor financial loss was incurred. Sunghwa did such a publicly dangerous thing, however, that the United States is likely going to hit them with a huge hammer to firmly establish "this is not ok under any circumstances and we do not want to see this in the future, even if in this case it didn't cause much damage". It should end up so bad Sunghwa will probably have to leave the US market altogether; it's gonna hurt. If Korea doesn't have the concept of punitive damage, this is absolutely the right call if they want to deliver a strong blow.

For some reason, MC hasn't ever actually told her. It'll probably be some weird plot point, perhaps even coming up in this very arc when he makes a point of "you're not cut out for this".

I don't think the childhood friend is as bad, or even as much of a tsundere. Keep in mind that she was the one who asked MC out, and that's incredibly un-tsundere-like. My read is that the two of them had a close sibling-like relationship and horseplay is a common component of that, but there's been a subtle shift in how she behaves in those situations the more she became aware of her own feelings for MC.

In terms of controlling one's emotions, I'd say Ina is actually a bit worse at it. Don't be fooled by her kuudere demeanor, she has plenty of emotions and will often get swept up in them, and she'll make poor decisions based on them. Use her asking out MC as an example, where she said the childhood friend was busy and couldn't come—she was unable to overcome her own shyness to just say she wanted to go with him alone, and ended up giving a very easy to see through lie. The only reason it didn't end up backfiring on her is because the MC didn't call her out on it afterwards.

They are called the "Wisdom Sword Sect". Amusing that it was apt in this case.

"He defeated Rosetale. He's faster and stronger than me. But just because his stats are better than mine doesn't mean he's good at combat!"
He's literally a close-combat specialist with some tricks on the side. He has glowing fucking gauntlets and he's rushing into melee my dude.
"If I engage in close combat so he can't use his skills, then I also have a chance of winning."
Class: Gunner. Attribute: Mind. Super Insight skill. Wasn't this just established in the previous chapter? Holy shit this guy did nothing right.

Well, right. But they should be shouting about how the prophecy will never come to pass. Using that example, it's like saying, "it has been prophesized that my children will kill me, and prophesies will always come true, so let's eat them". It's weird to have such utter conviction prophesies are infallible while going through such effort to stop them, because those efforts would be doomed to fail. One has to give way for the other.

It's really kind of strange for them to be so gung-ho about the prophecy being inviolable, when the whole point of this series is all the shit the Aesir have done and are doing in order to prevent the prophecy from coming true.

I think this is actually the first time someone's appearance was so completely different from their class/preferences? It certainly doesn't come up in my memory, so it's probably quite rare if it does happen. Even then, despite Jaeju getting caught off guard, it wasn't to the point of being panicked or flustered; you'll notice that he didn't use his clothes or otherwise attack back. Unlike what that person assumed, it wasn't that he was unable to react, it's that there wasn't a reason for him to do it, and knowing that—whether due to prediction, or remembering the room had a timer, or so on—is pretty meaningful to show he hasn't lost his combat edge.

I do think Jaeju might be coasting by a little bit. He's generally waaaaay above any users on an equivalent floor, so he may have gotten a bit arrogant by this point. Most of the people he runs into are hindrances either actively or passively, and that may be affecting him.

Interrupting a true love confession? This man deserves death!