Toretto's joy died when he saw the lanky, masked man before him.
"No, man, I'm not wrestling with you." Toretto returned his gaze to the butt.
Niklas was irked by the response. He followed Toretto's gaze. He refixed his gaze on Toretto and yelled, "Stop looking at her butt!
Toretto averted his eyes in embarrassment before others could catch him. However, other customers in this section turned their attention to Toretto's table.
"Look at me! Wrestle me, man." Niklas slapped his right elbow on the table as he pulled a chair close and sat on it. "Are you scared? I guess you are a chicken."
Toretto didn't pick offense. He leaned his head back while raising an eyebrow to contemptuously size up who was talking to him. He looked at his arms' muscles to see if they weren't looking as intimidating as they should. They were!
"If he is a chicken, what does that make you? A twig!" Another customer said to Niklas
The whole section burst into laughter. Niklas was hurt by the familiarity of being called a twig, but his mask hid his frown as his body language remained composed.
"One bottle of beer to you, my fellow gambler!" Toretto promised the customer who slandered Niklas. This was followed by a cheer from the people at this customer's table.
Niklas was cursed and verbally cajoled to leave Toretto.
"Alright, alright, alright, everyone shut up," Niklas said arrogantly. It attracted cuss words, and Niklas guffawed in his fake deep voice.
Toretto waited, looking at Niklas with a bored face. When the uproar died a bit, Niklas said,
"Look guys, I just wanted the privilege to touch the invincible Toretto's hands. The man is like a legend in this place. If you don't believe me, I'm willing to stake 100 Earth Kredits for this match to happen."
The skinny man dropped a bundle of 10 Eks notes worth 100 Eks on the table opposite Toretto's 6,000 Eks stake. The other customers urged Toretto to accept the match.
Niklas urged Toretto, "Look, man, I know I'm going to lose. Just do this for me. Do it for a fan."
The drama stroked Toretto's ego. He looked around with a big smile. He arrogantly yelled, "I need an attendant to come over here."
The attendant, who he was looking at her butt, left her current table for his. She was a dark-skinned elf and had a sexy figure, which was outlined by her indigo T-shirt and black bum shorts. Toretto licked and bit his lips in lust at the attendant as she came over.
Niklas said to the attendant, "He was looking at your butt when you were over there."
The attendant looked at Toretto with a frown. "Really?"
The section erupted in humorous scrutiny of Torreto.
He scoffed at Niklas. "Dude, why did you snitch?"
Niklas shrugged, his mask concealing his malicious smile.
The attendant said to Toretto, "I'm charging you ten percent on your win."
The pub gave power to the attendants to penalise any customer where they felt fit, as long as it was deserved.
Toretto protested, "Not fair. Why do you even trust a guy who hides his face?"
Toretto turned to Niklas and said, "Dude, why do you even hide your face?"
Niklas lied, "Someone dared me to."
The attendant positioned herself in a central position on the side of the table. She said,
"Gentleman and perv." 'Perv' was directed at Toretto, who shook his head. "Place an elbow on the table and lock your hands with each other. When I say go, the match kicks off. Remember the rules: you can't use your body weight, and you can't get off your chair. Also, your hand and forearm should always be in line, which means you should not bend your wrists. Infringement of any of the aforementioned rules is a disqualification, and the abiding challenger automatically wins the match.
"The match is won when a challenger pins the hand of his opponent on the table's surface. Am I understood?"
The two men said in unison, "Yeah."
Niklas was excited that he was opportuned to get this money bag fool as his opponent. His perception perceived Toretto to be stronger than average, but he was no threat to him.
Niklas said, "I can't believe that this match is happening." Toretto misunderstood Niklas, thinking he was just excited that they were holding hands.
"Enjoy it while it lasts, man," Toretto said arrogantly.
"Go!" The attendant kicked off the match. Due to his higher agility stat, Niklas reacted faster, and with a powerful forearm swing, he slammed and pinned his opponent's hand against the table, destroying it in unequal halves.
The attendant was stunned by the result. Toretto's mind was blank, as he couldn't believe what happened. The few people who invested interest in the match erupted, inviting other people's attention.
"Nice joke, dude." The others refused to believe. A few of the disbelievers just spared a glance at Toretto's table. When they saw the damaged table, they collectively thought, 'Toretto totally wrecked that dude."
The attendant yelled in excitement, "Lanky slim guy wins Toretto o!" She quickly grabbed from the floor the bundle of 6,000 Eks Toretto staked.
The disbelievers turned; they couldn't believe their ears. "How did this happen?" asked one of the disbelievers.
One of the customers who watched the match, almost choking on her saliva, eagerly said, "Lanky dude, just power slammed Toretto's forearm, destroying the table."
Niklas collected his after-tax win of 5700 Eks from the attendant. He stuffed the cash in his jeans' side pockets. He picked up his stake of 100 EKs and gave it to the attendant. "You can keep this." The attendant delightfully stuffed away the gift in her shorts' side pocket. She went to a nearby counter to deposit the tax money with the accountant behind the counter.
Niklas was on his way to the checkpoint when he heard murmuring behind him, and then he felt a thick hand hold his jeans' waist lip, restraining him.
[You have successively completed a mission!
You have successively completed a silent mission!]
Niklas saw the mission pop up in his view. 'A silent mission?' He wondered.
More lines of words appeared.
[Mission: Defeat Toretto and trigger his anger. Status: Complete.
Reward: You have gained 5 evolution points.]
"Get your hands off me!" Niklas said, and he shoved Toretto. Toretto was moved backwards, but his grip wouldn't loosen, dragging Niklas with him.
The other people urged Toretto to leave Niklas, as he won fair and square. Some people even took the chance to mock Toretto as a sore loser. The accountant at the section, who was more like the manager of this section, tapped her ear comm. that was shaped like an ear bud on her right ear. A communication link was opened to the security section of the pub.
"I need some help to control a sore loser customer at the arm wrestling section," the accountant's voice echoed in the security section.
A brawny orc among the numbers of security personnel in this section stood up. "I got this one." He wore his black T-shirt to cover his clay-grey-coloured torso and completed his black-on-black security uniform. "See you guys later," he said to his colleagues, who simply responded with eye contact and a simple nod.
Niklas had managed to free himself from Toretto's grip, but Toretto wouldn't let him be. He followed Niklas, saying, "I didn't lose to you. You cheated, and you know it. Come, let's have a rematch, or are you a chicken?"
Niklas didn't like the harassment, and he feared that Toretto wouldn't stop following him even when they were outside. Niklas took out a bundle of cash. He ran his fingers through it and confirmed that it was 2000 EKs. He stopped and offered the cash to Toretto. He said,
"Take this; it is 2000 Eks. Take it and stop harassing me!"
Toretto was adamant. "Oh, you are now bribing me? I will only accept a challenge from you, you slimy trickster."
'Oh no.' Toretto gasped when he saw the security personnel, who were a tank of an orc, from a distance, heading in his direction. He gently backed away from Niklas, sad to give up his harassment. Niklas followed his harasser's gaze and saw the incoming security personnel.
[Mission triggered!]
[Mission 1: Accept Toretto's challenge.
Info: The user brings punishment on themselves if they do not fulfil the mission before leaving the club.
Punishment: 100 points will be deducted from your evolution points, consequently taking you a step lower in the evolution ladder.]
[Misson 2: Wrestle Toretto five times and emerge victorious in all!
Info: The user brings punishment on themselves if they fail to emerge victorious in all matches.
Punishment: 200 points will be deducted from your evolution points, consequently taking you two steps lower on the evolution ladder.]
'The punishment for failing missions is always harsh; why?' Niklas mused. 'How is this mission important?'
He pulled up the 'Race' bar from his general info bar.
[RACE: Human/Demigod.
Prominent race: Human.
Level of Prominence: 10.
Next level: Demigod, level 0.
Progress towards evolution: 86/100.
Info: Affect the world around you and obtain evolution points.
Since you are aligned with good, you have to affect the world around you with your goodness in order to obtain evolution points.
Info 2: Missions available to affect your evolution!]
Niklas mused, 'This is serious.' He turned to the retreating Toretto, who had just turned his back. He yelled to him, "I accept your challenge, Toretto!"