Niklas walked north, past the main area of the village, towards the outskirts of the village. This was where the central market was located. It was bigger than one would expect from a poor village. The central market occupied 10,000 square kilometers. It buzzed with a lot of trading because it was mostly people from other settlements that came here to trade. A few of Kernel's citizens barely came here. Niklas wasn't going here to buy or sell anything. He was going to visit an illegal gambling pub that was hidden in the market.
After he set foot on the market's ground, he made a left turn and went down a path. Down this path, on the left was the boundary wall, and on the right were a number of shops that had buyers selecting goods and sellers trying to convince the buyers to buy their products. Niklas made a right turn at the intersection of another path, followed by a second right turn, which led to a path blocked by a large building that served as a digital wrist watch repair shop.
The shop's door was open for the public to see what was happening inside. It was a long, single-story building. A number of watchmakers were seated on opposite sides of three long tables. The tables were littered with watches, spare parts, and repair tools. The watchmakers seemed engrossed in their businesses to entertain customers. The remainder of the shop was taken up by a number of showcases displaying a variety of watches for sale.
Niklas arrived at the watchmakers' shop. A lady, the attendant, who was dressed in a tight, above-the-knee, short-sleeved gown, approached Niklas. She gave him a professional smile. He acknowledged her with a nod.
Niklas asked, "Are you the attendant?"
The attendant asked, "Yes, I am. Do you have a watch that you would want to repair?"
Niklas said, "No. I came here to see Mr. Uncle."
"Oh, I see you have an appointment," the attendant said with an undiscernable faked tone of realization. "Kindly, follow me."
Niklas followed the lead of the attendant into the building. This watchmaker shop was the cover of the illegal gambling pub that was located below the building. In order to be allowed access to the gambling floor, one would have to meet with the attendant lady and say the pass phrase to her.
As Niklas and the lady walked through the floor to the right end, he looked around, searching for CCTV cameras, but saw none. He mused, 'Still no cameras up here. So irresponsible."
This wasn't Niklas' first time here. Diallo brought them here. On Diallo's urging, he memorised the way Diallo got them in and other details up here and below.
Niklas and the attendant lady went through a door, out of the watchmakers' area. They instantly took a left turn and walked towards a flight of stairs that went below ground level. From the stairs down, the lights were dim red in colour, making it hard to see. At the bottom of the stairs, the way ahead ended in a wall a few metres from the last step. To the left and right was a door. The door on the right was labelled male, and the one on the left was labelled female.
"This is the furthest I can lead you," the attendant said. "These doors lead to the restroom. Use it to prepare yourself before you enter the playground. Don't forget to present all dangerous weapons to the bouncers as you walk out of the restroom into the playground. Don't worry, all your possessions are safe with them, and you won't be charged for anything except the tax on winning games.
"Most importantly, choose the door you want to walk into wisely. Most folks aren't accepting down here, and we can't do a thing about it."
The attendant walked away, leaving Niklas to make his choice. Niklas walked into the male restroom. There was no one in here. The rest room had a series of sinks below a long mirror that was opposite a series of toilets. He put the back pack on the sink's lip, took out a scarf, and concealed his face; he didn't want anyone to recognise him. Fortunately, the pub allowed customers to conceal their faces, but most of the time, all customers don't conceal their faces. He also pulled off his jacket and polo, deciding he would go topless inside the playground. He considered himself in the mirror; he looked so skinny and undesirable.
'I must have to bulk up when the money starts coming in.'
After putting his clothes in the backpack, he left the restroom for the playground. As he stepped out of the door, he met two tall, hefty, dark-skinned bouncers who stopped him in his path. These were the bouncers he met during his last visit. One of them scanned him head to toe for weapons with a handheld device that was shaped like a police baton. The other demanded that Niklas surrender his backpack to him, which Niklas didn't hesitate to do. The bouncers were several inches taller than Niklas. He observed that these bouncers looked bulkier than his knowledge of bodybuilders. It was then that he noticed that each bouncer had a lower pair of canine teeth that were thick as a finger, protruding over their upper lip. The bouncers were orcs!
Niklas composed himself, not revealing his surprise.
"He is good to go," said the orc that scanned him.
"Your code name is Dirty Rabbi 69. Don't forget, or you may as well forget your back pack," the second orc said.
Niklas nodded and advanced from the checkpoint. Unlike the stairs before the restroom, the restroom and the playground were well lit with combinations of blue and white lights. However, the lights in the playground were dimmer in comparison to those in the restroom.
Niklas had a game in mind to participate in: arm wrestling! After consideration with a little bias, he concluded that arm wrestling was the safest game to participate in because he had boosted strength. His bias stemmed from the fact that this game was rarely rigged and that cheaters were identified on the spot and beaten. The pub had no issue with cheaters getting jungle justice as long as they got their money and kept customers happy. The pub would later deal with the cheaters and make sure that they didn't run to the police and expose them. The pub taxed 5% on every win, unlike the 20% legal gambling pubs charged. Niklas gained this knowledge after his last visit.
'I hope that arrogant idiot is here today,' Niklas hoped as he made his way to the arm-wrestling section.
During his last visit, there was a challenger in the arm wrestling section, and he won every opponent who came his way with the ease of a hot knife cutting through butter. Toretto was the name of this 'invincible' arm wrestler. He bragged noisily about his feat, putting up his stake as high as 2000 EKs to tempt people into challenging him. The minimum stake for a challenger was 50 EKs. If a challenger won their match, they got to keep their stake and the opponent's stake and then proceed to give the pub its cut of 5%. A lot of challengers came to wrestle Toretto but lost. Diallo participated as a challenger but didn't wrestle with Toretto. The late, sexy, dark-skinned man multiplied his stake 30 times without losing a match before he left the pub with his friend.
"No one has the balls to challenge today?!" A familiar voice yelled arrogantly. It was Toretto, a brown-skinned brawny man in his early forties. He sat alone at a wrestling table shirtless and wore jean shorts with a pair of black slide sandals on his feet. His entire torso was covered in tattoos. Stretching from the proximal end of his sternum, an eastern dragon was easily discerned from the mesh of tattoos.
"He is here!" Niklas muttered to himself.
"How do you expect challengers after you easily won others like they were a blade of grass sitting in the path of a storm?" said a short and bald middle-aged man who walked up to me. This man looked to be in his late fifties or early sixties.
Toretto said, "Bald Joe, cut some slack, man. Look, it isn't my fault that I am an awakened person who received enhanced strength." Toretto yelled again, "2000 Earth Kredits for whoever will win me!"
"This is what I wanted to hear!" Niklas was glad that Toretto was still arrogant.
Other arm wrestling challengers and customers at other tables looked over to Toretto's table with conspicuous despise and displeasure. Toretto enjoyed the hateful stares, and he picked one of them and sarcastically said, "Oh, you want to challenge me? Damn, I better prepare myself; I'm scared."
The customer who was picked on ignored Toretto, keeping his curses to himself. No one stepped up to challenge Toretto. The bald man beside him had a contemptuous smile, which Toretto ignored. The tatted man was hurt that no one came up to him, but he remained composed, keeping his arrogant and boastful demeanour.
Niklas sat at an empty table to see if anyone would challenge Toretto. He silently prayed to the heavens, "Heavens, please, make this fool increase his stake. I promise to drop a good offering at the altar if you grant my request. Amen."
The bald man sarcastically said, "That didn't work out well because you didn't raise your stake value by three times."
Toretto became mad at the bald man. He directed an indifferent look at the bald man. Suddenly, a smile beamed on his face, which confused his mocker.
"You are right, bald Joe," Toretto said before yelling, "6,000 Earth kredits to whoever could win me."
Toretto deliberated that rather than for him to fall for the bald man's nuisance, he rather made himself feel good. The bald man was irked by the fact that he couldn't check the brawny man's arrogance, and so he walked out of this section. Toretto sighed in pleasure. He gazed to the right, looking at the sumptuous butt of a female pub attendant who was at another table collecting taxes from customers and challengers. He didn't notice when a shadow cast over him.
"I will challenge you!" said an incredibly forced, deep voice.
Joy struck in Toretto's heart as he turned to see his bold challenger.