I can hear a loud voice. Wait, where am I? I realised I was inside one room that stank of sweat, wearing a full set of military clothes. How could I come here? I thought I was in my room before, sleeping like a baby. I get up and stretch my body for a moment. One of the doors is locked from behind, and the other is open in front of me. It seems there is no choice but to go right now. I went to the door that was in front of me.
There is one dark tunnel in front of me. I moved through there to get out of this place. The closer I got to get out of this room, the more noise I could hear. It was very noisy; I felt like I was in a football stadium. I don't know if my ears can withstand this noise any longer. As I got out of that tunnel, I could see that it was a sunny day, there were many people around this place, the ground was sand, and there was no roof here. Am I right now in a place called the Colosseum?
When I wanted to return back to the entrance I came from, suddenly that entrance had been closed by some gate. Could this mean that I should fight with someone until death? I don't have any experience in any kind of physical fight before. If there were any, I think I got lucky because there might have been someone that came to help me.
For a brief moment, this place becomes silent, as if there is no one here. Then, I could clearly hear one voice loudly announcing.
"Hello everyone. Good morning and happy good day. I am your host today, Ryman Shahi. Today, we will begin our 'Fight of Fury'. I know that the audience is not patient enough to wait for a briefing. Before we start, I will introduce to you our contestant from the west gate, Shah Khairi. He is a man with pride who can kill an army by himself. He believes in his double machete skills.
Okay, next is our contestant from the east gate, Who Life? Who is he? Eh, who gave this note to me? Oh, it is a detail for our contestant. He is a man who survives the man-eater attack by luck. He lacks skills and can not do anything on his own. He uses the bow as his main weapon. He is still a novice when it comes to archery. What is this? A mock? This might make this match end faster. Hahaha...
On countdown three, the match will start. There is only one round. Contestants can use anything inside the arena as their own weapon and fight until incapacitated.
Okay, let's count. From three. Two. One. Begin the match."
Then the gong sound is heard. I could hear that the audience started to cheer for the one that fought me.
"Hey, I hope we can have a fair fight. I am still a novice here."
That man looked at me with a scary look. Whoa, he is not the type who likes to talk. It seems he wants to end this quickly. As soon as he got ready with his stance, he kicked the sand at me. My vision blurred for a moment. When my vision got clear, he disappeared from my sight. I gawked for a moment, looking for him everywhere in a sandstorm that suddenly appeared.
For a moment, I felt uneasy about having my back open. My body moved with high reflexes when that man tried to engage me from behind. Thanks to that reflex, I was able to dodge the hit. It really makes me feel goosebumps. Then, that guy disappeared from my sight again through the sandstorm. My vision becomes limited when I have a sandstorm around me. I must beware of my surroundings. Making mistakes can lead me to my death.
Before that, how come I don't have a weapon? Where is my weapon? I thought that it was with me from the beginning. I need to find my bow to counter this man's attack. My bow might be outside in this sandstorm. For an instant, my reflex moves without my thinking again. I dodged every attack that was going to hit me. Then, he disappeared again in the sandstorm.
Ah, I need to do something. My stamina might be depleted soon if I can't stop this. I got an idea for a moment. "Hey, Mia! I need your help." I whispered to my watch.
"Ah, what happened? Good morning. Whoa, where am I?"
"It is not the right time to give an explanation."
"If you said so, please wait a moment." Mia tried to search for a way out. "It seems there is no way out if you don't stop him from here."
"What should I do? I don't have any weapons. "
"Hey, don't worry about that. I found a new feature on this watch." One text just appeared on the screen.
'Chesscraft'
"I think I will know if I try this." I taped on the Chesscraft text. Then, something weird occurs to me. Some symbols just appeared on the watch's screen. That symbol looks like a bishop icon in chess.
"It says here, you need to think about the weapon that this icon can do."
"Okay. And then what?"
"Tap that icon again."
"Okay." Suddenly, the luminous light just illuminates the area.
"Agh, what happened?" Now, I can hear that guy's voice. It seems the light made his eyes blind for a moment.
"Now use me."
"Eh! What happened to you? Are you bored enough to become a data?"
"I become the weapon that you visualize. Now use me wisely."
"If you said so." I use the bow and shoot at that guy. The arrow moves toward that guy. My training for aiming is not useless. But it was not for long when that guy grabbed the arrow that was going to hit him.
"Hahaha. You think this arrow will hit me?"
"Hey, use my power now. Turn that arrow into a web. Snap your finger to command it."
"I don't think that you should touch that arrow." Then, I snap my finger. Suddenly, the arrow that he touched exploded and wrapped him in that web explosion. That guy becomes incapacitated and can't move anymore.
As the sandstorm disappeared, the bow and the web that exploded on that guy became data and entered the watch quickly. I am pretty sure it happened pretty fast. All of the spectators are stunned as I remain in this arena.
"Huh? Is the fight, ending already?" The host becomes surprised. "It seems we have a new champion. Who's Life? A new champion rises from the bottom. You can take your prize there." Suddenly, someone with a hoodie grabs me from behind with a bag full of the prize. "Huh, where is he? Our new champion." When that host looked at the prize, he was shocked. "What happened to the prize? Someone has stolen it. Guards, find the culprit."
"Come. We need to get out of here." This was a girl's voice. Without asking her, I followed her to the place that she wanted to show me. We escaped through the sewer. I could feel that she was rushing.
"Hey, girl. Please calm down. Who the hell are you? Why did you steal my prize?" That girl stopped running and looked at me. She took off her hoodie with a mask to show me her face.
"It's me, Laura. You need to remember every girl's voice you meet. Otherwise, you will not get a girlfriend."
"Seriously, Laura? Eh, back to the topic. Why did you steal my prize?"
"Oh, this! It is a part of me too. I registered you to enter that fight. So, I get this prize too. You can say that I'm your manager."
"You make me think that you are more like a kidnapper, thief, and terrorist."
"Hey! I'm not at that level. Maybe I'm a kidnapper. But, I kidnapped you."
"That's no difference."
"There is a difference. Before that, follow me." She led me into the deep sewer to escape from the Colosseum guard. When the situation was safe, she started to talk back. "Actually, this is your training. As your teacher, I will make you learn how to handle yourself in any random event."
"Oh, that makes sense. If you said so, why don't you explain everything to me? Hah! "
"I would like to. But, we must get out of here right now. Plus, there is someone I need to meet. "
"Who is it?"
"Ah, why did you ask me so many questions? Just be quiet and follow me. You will know soon." Then, I followed her to get out of this sewer. As we get out, there is someone that waited there.
"Madam Laura, you are back. Glad to see that you are safe." One man with tough muscles and butch style hair said to Laura.
"I got the money. Where is the thing that I asked you about?"
"Here is your weapon. Strong and sturdy."
"Before that, who is he?" It seems one of those guys' gangs managed to capture me from behind. I let my guard down.
"Let him go. He's with me." That guy released me. "He is the one who beat up that strong guy in the colosseum."
"Hah. No way that he can beat that guy?"
"Are you sure you don't want to try sparring with him?"
I grabbed her shoulder and brought her away from that guy for a moment. "Hey, Laura! What the hell are you doing? I would not want to be your betting thing here. If you want to spar with him, you should do that by yourself." I whispered in her ear.
"Hah! Why would I? He does not have a chance with me. My rank and skills are far higher than that gang and you. I can be a Pharaoh's attendant for a reason. Not many people can meet up with the pharaoh offline. Only me and certain people can.
"Hey! You two. Are you done quarrelling? We need to go to the village right now."
"Okay. We're coming." Her feelings just changed. Seriously, I could not understand the woman. Especially like her. We moved to the location by riding a horse with a carriage. Because I couldn't ride the horse and they did not believe me yet, I went to the carriage. I stayed in a different carriage than Laura. I'm in the carriage with their leader.
On our way to the destination, I was talking with the leader of the gang here. The one who talked to Laura earlier. He looks like a fierce person. I think I should start my conversation with him. I have to try. It is better to fail to try than to fail to do nothing.
"Mister, could I know where we would go?"
"Oh, you can call me Ahlan. I am a merchant. I thought Laura told you everything." He looks at my face with a scanning look. "If you want to know, we are people that help people who are poor in the village. You could see it from Laura's actions before. She stole some stuff in that bag there. He showed me a bag that contained Laura's stolen items.
"Why would she do that? Does she not know that stealing is not a good thing?"
"Huh! Good thing? There is no such thing as a good thing or a bad thing in this world. People always say that they are good and say that other people are bad. Maybe you can say that we are stealing. But we do this to help someone who needs more money and fortune. They do not have a bit of good luck like ours. So, this is our way of helping them."
"Whether you say it is true or wrong, what you do is wrong. Giving people stolen money will not bring them happiness. You may make them more unfortunate. You have to know what happened if the government knew about this. Who knows what happened to the people you helped? Please hear me. There is a way to help people other than using stolen money."
"If you are good enough. Beat me. If you win. You may lead this gang. You can give them another way to make sure that the people that you helped do not get an unfortunate life. Are you brave?" It seems he challenged me. This is my decision. I have to think about this wisely. Looking at this man's body, he is fit and might be fast. I need time to train before sparring with him.
"Okay, I will accept your challenge. But give me a week to train myself. I'm still a novice and do not want to win by luck."
"Hah! You have a nerve, boy. Okay, if you say so, we will have our fight here." He showed me outside. It was a large field. It looks like a football field. "Yes, that field is a suitable place where no luck or anything can come. Are you confident taking my challenge?"
"Yes, I am. This is a way for me to help people here get a revolution."
"Okay, I will wait until next week. For now, we will give this money to the people here first. You can do whatever you want if you beat me."
"Okay, if you said that." Then, I get out of the carriage to look at the village.
When I look at the village, I don't think that I should help people here. The environment here is very thick and dark. All of the villagers are like smugglers. Also, they don't look good in my eyes.
Did I make a good decision? Should I go back to Ahlan and convince him about the challenge we made? Ah, I can't believe that I made a huge mistake here. What should I do?
"Hey, Hulaif! What happened? Are you okay? You must be tired. Come with me, you need to take a break." Laura took me to an inn in that village. She must be worried about me.
"Hello, nice to meet you. Could I help you, madam?" The receptionist at the inn asked Laura.
"Please give us one room."
"Okay, so one room for each of you. Is it?"
"No. Just give us one room. Just one room."
"Urm... okay. This is your key to your room" I can look at that receptionist's young face. She looks like a shy person, and her face looks red. I am kind of worried about her. Does she get ill or what.
"Hulaif, hurry! You need to rest?"
"Okay, I'm coming." I followed Laura and entered the room that the receptionist gave.
"Sit there!" Laura ordered me to sit on the bed. "Now sleep." Because I was too scared of what she might do to me, I ended up sleeping at that moment. I felt very tired and a bit relieved when I stayed in bed. I don't know what happened after that.
"Hulaif!!! WAKE UP!" I can hear someone calling me. It's very loud, which surprises me and causes me to awaken from my slumber.
"Eh, what happened?" I asked Laura since she woke me up.
"I heard all about your challenge from them. Now is the right time for real training."
"Huh! Already?" She nodded with a smile on her face. "Oh, no!"