Mako went over to the registration booth where two middle age men were sitting. One had no hair on his face and only a beard which was starting to turn grey, while the other one had a small scar on his face with jet black hair and no facial hair.
It is hard to assume people's age in this day and age as if that person has an ability, then they are prone to age slower and can far exceed the normal limits of Human life spans. An example of this is Mako's grandmother; according to the tombstone, it said that Amy Grey was 118 years old when she died, but in Mako's most recent memory and her portraits in their photo album, she looked nothing more than 70 years old.
The two middle-aged men were ability users, but not that high of a level as Mako felt no sense of pressure even though they were emitting their aura freely.
"Excuse me, I would like to register for the Rookie Brawl!" Mako said politely through his facemask.
Mako decided to also wear a facemask since he was shown live during his fight with Bill, and people could potentially recognize him which he didn't want.
The bald man slightly closed one of his eyes as he took a good look at Mako from his other eye which had a faint purple glow in the iris and scanned him from head to toe as if he was searching for something.
After he was done analyzing Mako and completely making the situation awkward, he turned toward his partner and whispered something in his ear.
"Certainly sir, just fill out this form and you will be registered to enter." The man with jet black hair said as he gave a form and a pen to Mako.
Mako already knew what that man was doing as, during the time that he was analyzing Mako, Mako also used the Analyze skill on him and read his status sheet.
[Analyze]
[Profile: Tyler Smith]
[Ability: Omni Eye (Level 1)] ⓘ
[Health: 120/120] ⓘ
[Energy: 95/150] ⓘ
[Strength: 6] ⓘ
[Agility: 4] ⓘ
[Perception: 15] ⓘ
[Intelligence: 7] ⓘ
[Mentality: 10] ⓘ
[Stamina: 2] ⓘ
[Charisma: 1] ⓘ
[Fortitude: 3] ⓘ
Mako was able to learn basic information about the bald man whose name was Tyler Smith. The intriguing thing though was his ability 'Omni Eye'. Mako opened the information about the ability using the information icon next to the description because this was an ability that wasn't in Mako's knowledge.
[Ability: Omni Eye (Level 1)] ⓘ
[A perceptive-only ability as this ability (at the current level) allows the user to be very good at observing minute details and reading other's energies. Though a bit rare, this ability's main drawback is that it has a very horrible learning curve as even talented people can't learn this ability past level 5]
It was an ability that had no offensive or defensive properties as it was purely a support type ability one that can easily read energies and observe surroundings that could be very helpful in situations such as infiltration and stealth missions.
Mako immediately put two and two together as he understood that this person was scanning him to make sure he was eligible to enter the tournament and whether he was worth betting on.
That's right, the event organizers also had the option to place bets as this was one of the many ways that organizers such as the mafia made money.
Filling out the form, Mako noticed that the form didn't ask Mako to give any of his personal information as it mainly just asked him about a stage name, his ability level, and a signature to consent about many things that otherwise the organizers could get in trouble for.
Mako filled out the form and gave it back to Tyler who was still using his eye ability to make sure whether it was safe to bet on him.
"Okay sir, The entry fee would be 7500 credits." The man with jet black hair said as took out a potable money transfer machine.
Reluctantly Mako swiped his card on the machine and the transaction was complete. Mako was then led to a separate set of benches where other fighters participating could be seen.
Mako sat down in a corner as he wasn't in the mood to converse with any of them as his main focus was the plan that moving smoothly. Mako made a discreet signal with his hand and that was the cue that Bill needed to go to the betting booth near the ring.
This was the first part of their plan as Bill bet 10000 credits on Mako to survive the first round.
Before the fight could begin, the announcer came to the benches where all the participants were and he began telling them the rules of the fight. There weren't many considering it was an illegal fight where life-threatening injuries were also allowed as long as the opponent didn't die. The announcers told them how the fighting would go.
There were 20 participants in total and they would be broken off into two groups, Group A and Group B. The ten participants would then fight in a battle royal style match where the top 2 would be winners. Then the top 2 will have a one-on-one match to decide an overall winner of that group, who will then fight the final match with the winner of the other group.
The instruction was straight forward and within minutes the two groups had been made as Mako was part of the second group, Group B.
The announcer came back to the ring to announce the beginning of the rookie brawl and participants from Group A had come into the ring. They were mostly level 2 and Level 3 ability users but you would never know in a battle royal who would come out victorious as there were certain strategies that a person could use.
The battle started shortly and the ring exploded with multiple people using their abilities to launch the beginning move so that the weak could be knocked out easily.
The battle continued and the participants started to rely on their weapons if they had any or their fighting skills to conserve energy so that they could use their abilities when in a pinch.
The whole fight was being broadcasted live and thousands of online viewers had also placed their bets on who they thought would win.
After about 40 minutes, the first battle royal ended with two participants would be fighting for the shot at the final battle. One was a short man with a height of 5ft 2", dark skin, and a trimmed beard, and long black hair. The other was a huge buffed guy with red hair that was braided and a heavy mustache and facial hair, which mimicked the exact look of the Vikings that Mako had seen in a game he used to play with Gary.
The crowd cheered and the live stream exploded with comments as the two that won were the crowd's favorite and made them good money.
There was a short break before the announcer came back to the ring to announce the beginning of the second battle royal.
Mako and nine other participants made their way one by one as their stage names were called out and judging by how many people cheered when a name was announced, it could easily be determined who was the crowd's favorite and who had the most bets placed on them.
"AND LAST BUT NOT THE LEAST, OUR FINAL PARTICIPANT FOR TONIGHT IS... BLAZE!" The announcer announced as coincidentally Mako was the last person to be called on stage.
The whole crowd was silent as there wasn't a single cheer coming from the crowd. It made it very awkward for Mako to walk to his starting pressure betwixt the silence but internally he was laughing very hard as this meant that Bill was about to make a lot of money.
Once all ten participants were in place, the announcer proceeded to start the tournament; however, before the announcer could do so, Mako heard a certain noise that he had gotten used to now.
*DING!*
[Win the Group B battle royal]
[Condition: For every opponent knocked out by the user, the rewards would be increased.]
[Reward: ???]
[Penalty: - ]
'Oh, I never had a condition attached to a quest before. Not that I am complaining.' Mako said in his thoughts as he read through the quest.
Mako's growth had been slowed down ever since he got to a decent level as the measly 50 experience from doing daily quests wasn't enough to put a dent in the level bar, plus the attribute points were also not as effective as Mako would have to put multiple points in an Attribute to observe any change.
The battle royal and this quest were the perfect solutions as he would be earning a lot of money, getting the rewards from the quests as well as exploiting another function he had learned by fighting the students at school in duels after his match with Bill.
[Fighting Experience] ⓘ
[When the user fights an opponent and is proven victorious, the system will reward the user with experience based on multiple factors such as opponent level, the difficulty of the fight, condition of the user, etc.]
"FIGHTERS READY!" The announcer shouted as Mako was knocked out of his thoughts and he quickly took up a basic stance.
"BEGIN!!"