Martial Arts Worlds

Trotting down the woods, after his deathmatch with the Bloodthirsty Bear, Kiernan was heading back to the Selection Mansion as it was getting quite late.

The thickness of the overhead branches made the woods seem darker than usual, and he could barely see where he was going.

However, as Martial Grandmaster, all of his senses had been turned to the extreme limits of humanity.

So, even his eyesight was much greater than before, and he had semi-night vision at this point.

"…"

Kiernan stopped walking, looked over his shoulder at the dark forest around him, and rolled his eyes.

Hiding with the help of the darkness of the night, there were three figures hiding behind one of the trees.

'They've been following me for a while. They didn't follow me from the mansion, but I suppose they discovered me a while back and started following me immediately after.'

Kiernan leaned on the tree, waiting for them to reveal themselves, and then, as a twig cracked, three young men walked out from behind the tree.

"He indeed did that mission! Look at the black wristwatch, and see his points!"

Aldemar cried out.

"That punishment was just a trick to see whether you have balls to take the quest or not. It mustn't have been actually that difficult of a mission."

Rastko said with a scoff.

"What you say makes a lot of sense, Big Bro!"

Nolwenn said with a grin.

When they were trying to find some people to fight back in the Selection Mansion, they found out that someone took the Bloodthirsty Bear mission.

Thus, they headed over to the forest in case that crazy person actually succeeded in the mission, and it looked like he indeed managed to do that!

"Or I am just strong, and that mission was actually incredibly difficult!"

Kiernan said with a smile.

"…Doubtful. You don't have any injuries on you. If it was actually that difficult, you should be half-dead, at least."

Rastko said coldly.

He was a dark-haired young man with a black beard and sideburns that went from his ears all the way to the jaw.

"So, what do you want?"

Kiernan asked.

"…A deal, perhaps. Give us five thousand points, which we will split among three of us, and you can join our group.

"It would be wise to have some friends over in here.

"While only a hundred people drop out each day, in the first few days, that number will be in the thousands.

"If you have zero points, you get automatically dropped out, did you know that? So, since there are over nine thousand of us here, there won't be enough points for everyone.

"One point is enough to keep you in the competition.

"With your 5000 points, you'll be easily able to get to the top 100. And if I and my two friends over here split that other 5000, we each have about 1650 to 1700 points. I can't be arsed to do the math right now.

"That is more than enough for us to last a while. There will be new missions after the first disqualification happens, and we will keep doing the missions together and splitting the points.

"This way, we will be part of the seven.

"Well, what do you say?"

Rastko asked.

"And if I say no?"

Kiernan asked with a smile.

"We will take all of your points then. There are three of us and only one of you. We're kind enough to leave you with 5000 points!"

Aldemar said.

"And how do you plan on taking these points if I refuse to fight? If I remember correctly, one cannot threaten another to fight."

Kiernan asked.

He wasn't naive enough to think that there wasn't a way to bypass that rule, but he was quite curious about how these three planned to do that.

Rastko touched the black touchscreen wristwatch, put it into a combat mode, and showed it to Kiernan.

"Combat mode. I don't know how many people actually bothered to check the applications of the wristwatch.

"Without fighting through combat mode, one cannot receive any points. In it, you can invite nearby people into your team or invite them to fight.

"We can force you to accept the invitation and then force you to surrender to get all the points, and we will keep doing that until you have no points remaining.

"It's against the rules, sure, but in these woods, there are no cameras to keep track of us. They will have no idea what is going on over here!"

Rastko said.

'I received my points as soon as I defeated the Bloodthirsty Bear. How would I get those if the organizers didn't have cameras in the forest to see that I successfully cleared the mission?

'I think they are underestimating just how many cameras there are for real.'

Kiernan thought, checked the wristwatch, and entered the combat mode of the wristwatch.

There, he was able to see the nearby people around him, as the wristwatch was able to detect other nearby wristwatches.

[7565. Rastko Dravenic - Points: 0]

[7888. Aldemar Vianez - Points: 0]

[9387. Nolwenn Kerbrest - Points: 0]

In the wristwatch, only Nolwenn's name was in red, as he was in the bottom hundred of the rankings.

'If I beat them, I won't receive any points since they have none. How bothersome!'

Kiernan thought, but then chuckled and invited them all into a match.

To the surprise of the three young men, they received Kiernan's invitation for the match, and they accepted it.

The three quickly joined into a team.

[Kiernan (10,000) vs. Rastko (0), Aldemar (0), and Nolwenn (0)]

"Good choice. Now just surrender, and we will let you be."

Rastko said.

He thought that Kiernan sent the invitation because he decided it was better to just give away 5000 points and team up with them to have a better chance at the selection.

However, that wasn't it. Not at all.

"I want to see something… If it's possible to get points from the ones with zero points!"

Kiernan said aloud with a smirk, then crossed the distance with a lunge and smacked Nolwenn in the chin.

It was a dangerous jab, and Nolwenn's eyes rolled back into his skull as he collapsed down to the ground.

[Nolwenn Defeated!]

[0 Points Acquired!]

"Hmm, interesting."

Kiernan said as he looked at the black wristwatch.

"You bastard!"

Aldemar swept his hand over at Kiernan, trying to strike him, but he missed by inches. He kept pushing.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

He kept swiping his hands, trying to scratch and strike Kiernan in the face, but Kiernan dodged each attempt.

"Interesting try."

Kiernan drove his fist into Aldemar's chest, stopped his heart for a split second, and then watched as he collapsed on the ground.

[Aldemar Defeated!]

[0 Points Acquired!]

"Shit…"

Rastko raised two fingers, officially surrendered, and the wristwatch beeped.

[Rastko Surrendered!]

[Kiernan Has Won!]

[0 Points Acquired Total!]

"Huh? You let these friends of yours test my strength. I guess you weren't as foolish as I thought."

"I knew there was always a possibility that mission had a high punishment for a reason because it is incredibly dangerous.

"I just didn't think there was anyone strong enough here to clear that mission, and if someone did, it's because the mission was easy."

Rastko said coldly.

"Nasty one…"

Kiernan walked past Rastko but then smacked the back of his hand at Rastko's head and knocked him unconscious.

Rastko fell on the pile of mud, snoring his drowsiness away.