"Hi, how are you guys!"
Ryo greeted the people on the training ground awkwardly, then turned around, preparing to slip away quietly.
But Annie had appeared behind him, blocking his path!
"Uh, what are you all doing…?"
Ryo took a few steps back and found himself quickly surrounded by the group.
He scratched his head. This wasn't going to be easy. These women were tough!
But come to think of it, were they really this vindictive?
I shouldn't have provoked them earlier. All of this was caused by that idiot Eren!
When Ryo thought of Eren, he was so angry!
"Accept our challenge and defeat us, or be beaten by us and apologize in front of everyone, you choose."
Ymir's smug face showed that this idea was hers! With so many people on their side, including experts like Mikasa and Annie, if they all teamed up, Ryo wouldn't be able to resist, no matter how powerful he was!
And, knowing Ryo, he wouldn't accept the second option—they wanted him to apologize in front of everyone? Not a chance. If he did that, he'd lose all his face and his pride would be completely destroyed. There was no way he could live that down.
The challenge seemed like his only option.
The girls were still angry about what happened yesterday evening. While they were bathing at the lake, they had set up sentries, but Ryo had swum from the water instead, bypassing their watch, and saw them! Now, that was a source of embarrassment.
They were blushing from the thought, but their anger outweighed their shyness. If they didn't get some revenge on Ryo, they wouldn't be able to feel satisfied. And if they just beat him once, it wouldn't be enough. They planned to challenge him and beat him every day until they'd vented all their frustrations!
"Dear sisters, aren't you going too far?"
Ryo looked aggrieved. He had just been checking out the lake, and now they were making it out to be a big deal?
But he didn't dare say that out loud. With this group, if he spoke up, they might just eat him alive! Apologizing in front of everyone? That was out of the question.
"If you don't want to apologize, accept our challenge. If you beat us, we'll let it slide. But if you can't, you'll see the consequences."
Ymir shook her fist, her expression one of determination.
Ryo glanced around at the group. Except for Krista, who had gone back to rest, everyone else was here. Krista didn't know about this plan—if she did, she'd never agree to it. Ryo knew she would probably tell him to back out of this, so he couldn't let her know what was going on.
The group of women wasn't something Ryo wanted to fight. There was no benefit in winning, and losing would be incredibly embarrassing. But since they insisted on it, he could only bite the bullet and accept.
"Fine. If that's the case, I'll accept your challenge. How do you want to compete?"
When it came to fighting, Ryo wasn't afraid of anyone. He had confidence in his strength, especially now that he had the system's help. He wasn't sure he could defeat Captain Levi or Kenny, but everyone else—he was confident he could win.
"Of course, we're going together! If we fought one by one, it'd be too easy for you!"
Sasha, holding half a sweet potato, spoke while chewing, clearly unfazed by the situation.
Ryo looked at the sweet potato in her hand. It wasn't even cooked. Had she stolen that from the kitchen again?
"What, seriously?" Ryo was taken aback. These girls wanted to gang up on him? This was too much!
There were more than a dozen of them! With Mikasa and Ani already tough opponents, and Ymir joining in, Ryo felt the pressure building up. This wasn't going to be a simple fight.
(Ding! The system has issued a prompt: If the host wins this battle, you will gain 5 points of favorability from Mikasa Ackerman and 20 experience points as a reward!)
What? Just as Ryo was starting to hesitate, the system dropped a task. Not only was he going to get experience points, but also 5 favorability points from Mikasa? What was this favorability stat?
Curious, he checked the system panel. Sure enough, he could now see the favorability levels of various people toward him.
The highest was Krista, with a favorability of 95 points! She was almost at the full 100. The comment was: "I think Ryo is a good person, and I want to be around him." This made Ryo smile a little.
Then he saw Mikasa's favorability: only 35 points, with a downward trend. The comment: "I was peeped at by him while bathing. I felt shy and angry." Ryo winced. It seemed Mikasa was still upset about that incident. The hostility status was red, and the favorability had dropped 35 points as a result.
Yikes. That was bad. But it was a good thing he had Krista, whose favorability was practically at max.