"Ms Denisa, how much will you take these for?" Joey walked over to the service counter in the Martial Center, he called her by the name on the tag and put the hook swords and red whip on the table.
Denisa seemed to know her way around a good weapon, she seemed like a professional looking at the weapon from different angles. After about 10 minutes she put them down then said "Are you sure you want to sell these? If so how much do you want."
"17,000"
"haha, kid I don't know if you think I'm blind or dumb but these are at least worth 9,000, These have been used already." She haggled Joey all the way down to an acceptable 13,000. Ms Denisa drove a hard bargain and Joey couldn't cope.
They quickly shook on the price. Even though Joey never got what he asked for he never felt like he lost much. After he got the money that brought his total up to 14,323$, Joey was satisfied that he had this much money but he didn't think of buying any Martial Arts Book; even the cheapest ones wouldn't suit his taste.
Advanced Tier Martial Art could run up to 150,000$ which just set the goal further away. His only concern was his sister being soft, he thought it was best to use the money for somewhere to sojourn after she left the hospital.
Joey collected the money from the deal then collected the things that were left there for him. Joey looked at the things he got from the package in a safe place. Although he was satisfied it was hard for him to be delighted.
In the box, there was a combat suit which was insanely expensive. More so that training suits. The combat suit was dark blue and complimented Joey's eyes, there were cold steel chest plates that protected his chest and slash resistance fabric.
(AN: Cold steel weapons where I don't specify the ranks are 1dc. If it is higher I will tell you < 3)
There was a 2dc cold steel long sword it was dark blue and had the words 2dc on it. "Seems like that dumbass finally wised up, but seems too good to be true".
No sooner said than done, his phone vibrated as he received a message, which was of course from Stephenson.
[After you gear up, go to the Martial Center and approach Arena 5. Your opponent will be May Lion, make sure you kill him if you don't then good luck seeing your sister. Welcome to the Afterlife.]
Joey's heart sank when he saw the message on the phone. He was far from ready for fighting an afterlife match. People like Mason were too strong for him to beat he was far from them. He even copied their Martial Arts from him so what were the chances of him winning?
It was a death wish!
He didn't even have any superpowers or heavily treasure that would help him win the fight. He had no idea about his opponent's superpower, while he was thinking of another message that came in.
[Stephenson: The fight starts at 7:30]
The message came along with an attachment. It opened by itself, It was an attachment of Rayla in her hospital bed throwing a peace sign, Joey was awedde with rage thinking of the amount lies he filled her head with.
"Damn Stephenson, do you really want to do this for some money" Joey scowled, He wished he could go and win his fight but afterlife matches weren't so simple, going to the match could mean he would die and leave his sister alone.
Does he go and get his sister out of the hospital, it would be his safest option but he didn't have a chance of getting her out. much less Stephenson wouldn't let him do what he wanted.
These had to be the lowest points of his life in these very moments. He knew what had to be done but he didn't know if he had the strength to do it. He started hyperventilating and his eyes started to water from fear of dying and letting his sister down.
He smashed his head on the ground like mad mustered his non-existence confidence, he looked at the time and it was 7:14.
He hid his staff somewhere around the Martial Arts Center, he took his long sword and finally managed to force himself from the ground.
He kept thinking about if he would be alive 2 hours from now, Joey made his way toward the Martial Center. He quickly took a cat mask from one of the vendors there and threw them enough coins.
The mask didn't help with anything but he likes the feeling but at least he could protect his identity. He walked up to the martial center.
After getting over the stage fight he walked up to Arena 5 where a man in his early 20's stood on the stage. He had a tall build and he looked calm and scars were on his arm.
He only wore chest plates and had gauntlets.
His gauntlets looked like eagles on each hand. Shivers went down his spine that made the hair on his back, he knew that aggressive people with gauntlets like that were looking for blood.
Walking up with the mask the referee looked at him "Are you from Stephenson's fighter?". The referee was a wrinkly face old man in regular clothes, his voice was aged but strong at the same time.
"Y-yes" Joey hesitantly answered.
The referee nodded then said "Well let's get this started" the referee held him by the arm then said "Fight as hard as possible at the start then the Afterlife will start after, your life is your own responsibility" the referee took a better look at Joey.
"You should know that whatever you win goes to Stephenson so I'm not going to explain all that yet."
The referee let go of his arm and patted him on the back "Now get on the Arena, good luck in the Afterlife"