Chapter 19
The alarm rang at exactly 7:30. There were some text messages from Mom to which I simply replied that I would be late.
I left my car, locked it, and made my way back inside the building. The same receptionist saw me and without checking my ticket pointed at the room at the corner.
I already knew about it since I had been here before. I made my way there and opened it. Instead of a room, what greeted me was a narrow corridor with another door at the other end.
I knocked on it and it was opened from the inside. The man behind the door looked at my ticket and pointed at a door and said, "Wait for your turn."
I nodded and headed for that room. There were many rooms but some led to the open arena while some led to the VIP arena. I headed to the one where the participants resided.
I opened the door and I was greeted by menacing stares from sixteen other participants. If it was Murim, there would have been some women in there as well but unfortunately, there were all men here.
I ignored their stares and made my way to the bench and simply took the seat. By my count, there were fifteen men and my participation made it sixteen. This was the reason why I had come so soon as well. Every day, only sixteen participants could participate. After sixteen, the slots would be closed and there would be no place for more registration.
The setup was simple. Fifteen fights of the traditional tournament style. Eight fights eliminate eight participants and eight go to the next round and so on until only two remain for the finals.
There was no medical care so if you were injured in a fight and still managed to advance to the next round, you will have to fight enduring the pain from that.
Anyway, there was no killing here so it was all good.
"Next up," I heard on the speaker, "Dreadnought and Cole."
By chance, I was the first one to be called. I stood up and on the other side of the room, a man almost a quarter my size also stood up.
Great.
I made my way to the stage and didn't wait for my opponent because I expected a cliché taunt of giving up. I made my way to the area that connected straight to the stage because the fight wouldn't begin immediately.
The first five minutes were for betting. Too bad I couldn't bet but if I could, I would have won a substantial amount than just the five grand prize money.
"Well, well, well, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me," I turned to look at the person who had said that. what greeted me was a familiar face that I think I used to bully in high school.
Didn't remember his name though.
"What is the Sapphire prince doing in a shith*le like this?" The guy asked, referring to my status.
I just stared at him because I still couldn't remember what his name was. I remembered bullying him, but I didn't remember his name.
"Fighting," I said, simply trying to end the conversation but I knew he had no such intention.
"Fighting? You? You must have grown some balls because last time you ran like a pussy when I caught you fucking Trixie. You remember her, don't you?" He ranted on.
"Do I have to remember every hooker I slept with?" I asked.
"She's my sister." He said, anger on his face.
"…" Awkward.
"Look out on the ring today. I own this ring." He threatened me and went on his way.
What a rude person. He said all he wanted but he didn't even tell me who he was. Tch… Youngsters these days.
I waited for the betting to come to an end and obviously, I received zero bets. None at all. It was kinda humiliating.
I made my way to the stage where obviously, my opponent taunted me and I wouldn't waste my energy to mention what he said. He taunted me, I remained quiet, and the fight began.
He ran at me in anger for being ignored and I simply sidestepped, turned around, blocked his charge from the side with my back, and delivered an elbow strike straight to his nose. He stopped, completely, and when I moved away, removing his support, he fell, not to get up again.
I waited for a while and looked at the stunned referee who couldn't seem to make any sense out of this, "Oi!" I called him which snapped him out of his reverie. He declared my victory, shocking the audience.
I left between curses hurled at me because I had caused many people to lose their money today.
I returned to the participants' room and closed my eyes. I didn't know how long had passed, but no fight was as fast as mine. Still, by nine pm, my fight was called again.
The betting was once again done but once again, no one took a chance for me while my odds went up by a bit.
The reason there were no bets on me even though my previous attempt was awesome was because of my opponent. Well, if the knife in his hand was any indication of that, no one believed I would survive this.
"I didn't know killing was allowed in here," I said to my opponent.
"Well, the rules have changed." He said. I, on the other hand, turned to look at the guy from before whose sister's name I had mistaken as that of a hooker.
It was clear what was going on here but it was so trivial that it didn't even bother me. I still, however, chose to give my opponent a fair warning, "If you come at me with that, that means you're coming after my life."
That meant I had to take his. I couldn't kill in this world because this world wasn't as lawless as Murim. But here, where everyone had something to hide, no one would rat me out.
There were no cameras, and the bodies of the killed would probably be burned or disposed of because no one here could afford to be involved in this operation. If one person folded, then meant everyone's neck was on the line. No matter how much that guy hated me, he wouldn't be able to pin this against me because if he were to even try, the other respectable citizens would have him killed even before he connected the call.
"Like I wouldn't know that," My opponent clearly lacked the brain cells to understand what I meant so I simply nodded.
Acknowledging his wishes, I would kill him.
"Begin!" The referee started the match but my opponent didn't run at me this time. I smirked and said, "You really should take the first shot. It would make the death painless."
Once again, my opponent thought I was talking about myself so he smirked and said, "Oh don't be so sure boy. I will make your death very painful."
And here I was thinking of having mercy on him and giving him a painless death.
Well, whatever suited his preference the best. Who was I to question?
I took a step forward and instantly, I dashed at him. It wasn't an inhuman dash, but it was still fast enough that I made it to him before he could even react. And while the knife was still in his hands, I simply got behind him, kicked him in his left knee to make him kneel and before he could act, grabbed his arm from the begin and guided it straight to his neck.
It wouldn't have been much of a problem if he didn't have a knife in his hand. Too bad it did. It went straight into the middle of his neck, the sharp knife effortlessly impaled his neck, all the way through.
I so wished I had Ki to coat the knife with so I could leave it in the incision I made with the knife, to lower the blood flow from his neck and in doing so, make his death slower but painful. The Ki would also help to prevent any safety or healing measures taken unless the Ki itself was taken out.
Haa… How much less fun it was to kill without Ki. I just realized it with the death of this guy.
I let him go and let him choke while I turned to the referee and said, "Get me a mike."
"What?" He asked, after a while once he snapped out of his stunned state, again.
"I said get me a microphone," I repeated but the man didn't have any interest in listening to me so I made my way to him and took the small one on his shirt, and spoke into it.
"Hello! Ladies and gentlemen. This is fighter A. Now I would like to make a proposal tonight. There are still three contestants, other than me, left. Now we can go the way it always has or we can make tonight's event a little spicier."
Once I had everyone's attention and the guy on the floor had finally died, "One against three. Let's wrap up tonight's event in a one-against-three battle. Of course, one being me."