We walked in silence as the short man led me out of the stadium. He would occasionally stop to shake people's hands, speak a few words with them and then continue walking.There wasn't much of an explanation needed, just from how he carried himself and interacted with those around him, I knew he held a very high position in the stadium. How high exactly?Was quite something I wasn't dead-set on finding out.Eventually we'd walked through another tunnel, this one much more well-lit and a lot shorter.On the other side of the tunnel was a set of menacingly large steel doors. The short man snapped his fingers and the two bodyguards that had been following us up until that point turned to leave.'He could at least let them wear pants.' I thought to myself as they left.The man placed his hand on the door and after a few moments, a loud buzz sounded out and the door began to slide open. It was surprisingly a low amount of security, far from what I had imagined.Behind the doors was a relatively comfortable room. Nothing too large nor small. A glass desk stood at the left most side of the room with several paintings behind and around it. Bookshelves covered the walls, accompanying the paintings. And in the middle of the blue room were two couches opposite of each other.The man motioned for me to sit, with which I complied. He walked to the desk, and from what seemed like thin air, pulled out a large glass bottle and two matching cups.'I really need to ask about that.' I wasn't sure what kind of technology allowed these people to store things in some kind of void, but my curiosity would eat me alive unless I found out more about it.He made his way back to the couches, plopping down on the one opposite of me. He began to pour the contents of the bottle, which was just a clear liquid, that smelled like nothing. For a second I thought he might have just been offering a glass of water.However once he poured my cup and handed it to me, I knew after a single sip that I was mistaken. The liquid was strangely sweet and sour, and left a bitter after taste, like some kind of expired alcohol."Cyrus Carod." The man began. "Eighteen years of age. Recently woke up from a three coma at Sky Saints Hospital. No record of an accident, and the patient seems to only have been affected with some form of amnesia."Every word he spoke I wriggled in my spot uncomfortably. Wherever this was going, I knew I was not going to like it."Declared an orphan after no medical or other records could be found, and not a single visitor received during the three year time period. After exiting the hospital, Cyrus immediately headed towards a run down motel on the other side of the city, in which he stayed inside for the past three months." He stopped and looked at me. "Do I have everything correct?"A part of me wanted to ask how the man had found out all of this, but a more rational part of me told me that it probably wasn't a good idea to question someone that had access to information , at what I was assuming, was the snap of his fingers.And naturally, there was no reason for me to be shocked. The timeline of events of my life post-coma, were a bit suspicious, and my mysterious and uncovered past didn't help my case in any way. So I calmed myself down as best as I could, and responded."That's right."The man nodded and poured himself another cup."Now obviously, I wouldn't usually reject anyone wanting to become one of my fighters. Unless of course they're disabled or just someone I don't like."
'Great criteria.' I chuckled to myself.
"But when some random like you shows up at my door, with this many red flags, of course I have to take some extra precautions. Now naturally I won't question how you got the password, as I'm assuming your chip found out and told you." He paused again.His mannerisms and tone were very informal and carefree, but his words seemed to carry so much weight."You like that drink kid?" He followed up.I stared down at the empty cup in my hands."It's not the greatest thing in the world, but then again I haven't tried anything other than water since waking up, so it's not bad." I was unsure as to why I went the extra mile with my answer, but I said exactly what I was thinking.The man laughed slowly, before pouring me another cup and encouraging me to drink up."I have it imported here from one of our neighboring sectors, it's one damn expensive booze. But the taste really grows on you. You want to know something even more interesting?" He questioned, putting his cup down."Not really." Once again, I was shocked at how I'd simply spoken my mind."That's fine, I'll tell you anyway. The liquid is extracted from the leaves of a Srilla plant. Roughly translating to holy, in the planet's natives language. When it was first discovered, we humans thought it earned the name because of its halo-like shape.It wasn't until the leaves were brought back and fermented into the liquid you see before you now, that we discovered the real reason behind its name." He paused again, this time much more ominous than the last."You see the Srilla plant, received its name because those that ate its leaves or drank the extracted liquid, would be unable to hide their true thoughts. This became very effective in developing war tactics to extract information from the opposing sides captured soldiers.Thus the natives believed it to be a gift from their gods, and gave it the name it has today. To sum up that very boring amount of words, what you have inside you is the most potent truth serum in the universe."It was all a very shocking and intriguing story, especially finding out that there are a lot more forms of intelligent life out there. There was of course only one slight problem…"That's cool and all, but why have you given it to me?"The man simply stared at me dumbfoundedly. As if he were expecting a much different response."You aren't scared? Worried I'll force you to tell me your deepest darkest secrets?"My right brow shot up as I stared at the man in confusion. For someone with access to so much information, he wasn't exactly the brightest man alive."Normally, probably. But as you've stated before, I have no real memories. Sure I've caught up on a lot of learning recently thanks to Infra, or the chip as you call it. But in terms of deep dark secrets, I have none. Unless you count information on history to be a secret worth cowering in fear over?"For some reason the serum didn't count the memories of the past as secretive either, which I was in no way complaining about.A long silence followed. It seemed as if the man had a hundred different questions but was debating whether there was any point in asking them or not.Finally, a large sigh broke the silence."To be fully transparent with you kid, I was planning on killing you no matter how this went.""That's not great." I blurted out, immediately slapping my hands over my mouth after.The man smiled in response."But you're a bit too interesting to kill." The man stood up and snapped his fingers. In less then a second a woman walked through the door and stood silently by them."I don't fully trust you, but quite frankly I don't trust anybody. However, it'd be a shame to not see how far you can go. So this lovely lady is going to lead you to your new room, explain a few things and get you ready for your new life." He smiled and stretched his hand out."Welcome to The Underground kid."I celebrated internally before standing up and shaking the man's hand. I'd expected a much longer process with a lot more push back, but for the first time, a plan succeeded without me experiencing any form of pain.Maybe I should stop listening to Infra entirely.I walked over to the woman and began to follow her out the door."Oh and one last thing, kid." The man called out.I spun around, a smile still plastered on my face."If at any point I find out you screwed me, I'll rip your head off and feed it to the other fighters." He stuck both thumbs up. "You have fun now."The smile left my face just as fast as it came, and I swear I could hear metallic whirring, like Infra was laughing at me.⥁ After going through a maze of tunnels, the woman had led me to what seemed like a one floor establishment. Double doors opened to reveal an extremely long corridor lined with doors.'I can't tell if these people like tunnels more or doors.'The woman led me down the hall, past a small amount of rooms before stopping in front of one.She jabbed her finger at the keyhole, before yanking my arm and placing my hand on the door.After a few moments, she let go and pushed the door open. Without another word she entered first.There was no difference in the room from the one I'd been staying in at the motel, except for the fact that there were two beds.Having a roommate didn't seem like the greatest thing, but I didn't seem to have a choice in the matter.Once I took a seat on the bed, the woman began her explanations."This will be your room from now on. Sit down as I begin the explanation" She motioned for me to sit.I plopped down onto a chair tucked into a desk."The Underground runs on a ranking system, in which only the strong are treated with respect. If this room and your roommate are not to your liking, you can only fight your way to the top twenty, and only then will you receive a better room.You are currently ranked three hundred and forty fifth. You will fight three times every week, once every other day. Your ranking will go up upon a victory, and down upon a defeat. The amount your rank will increase or decrease depends on several factors, but can be narrowed down to a few.It mostly depends on how fast you defeated or were defeated by your opponent, how much you suppressed or were suppressed, and how satisfied or dissatisfied the audience were by your fight.Once you enter the top one hundred you can start fighting in sponsorship matches, which are unranked matches only set in place to allow you to demonstrate your full capabilities to potentially find a backer.Our tailor will find you tomorrow to discuss the specifics about your outfit and alter ego. Never disclose your real identity to anyone, no matter the circumstances. Do you have any questions?"…'Infra I think I found you a girlfriend.'It was a lot of common sense, but the sponsorships were what piqued my interest the most. Having a financial backer was definitely something I needed to get as soon as possible."Hello?" The woman snapped her fingers in front of my face.I snapped back to reality."Uh no sorry. No questions. Thank you."She scoffed before leaving the room and closing the door behind her.I let out a long sigh and walked over to the bed. Allowing myself to fall back on it, kicking off my shoes. There was so much to register but no time to do so. Even now I still have my doubts about this plan. My biggest were if I got severely injured or if my identity was ever discovered.Both of those would throw any hopes of my attendance at the academy out the window, seeing as how everything about this place was highly illegal. But now it was a bit too late to go back. I had to continue to grow stronger and rise in the rankings.I thought of the man in the black mask. If I could ever catch up to him, then I would have no worries about moving forward in the world.'If I'm at the first stage, I wonder what stage he's at. The eighth?'My roommate had arrived.