Martial Arts Worlds

With the night turning darker, Kiernan finally returned back to the Selection Mansion, and he was greeted with a big crowd at the front lounge.

They weren't there for the mission board, as all the missions have been taken, but they were there waiting for mission takers to return to challenge them to a fight.

When their gazes landed on Kiernan, looks of surprise and shock came first, then came the looks of greed and hunger.

Their gazes landed at the black wristwatch, saw all the zeros at the end, and immediately started sending him fight invitations.

"Hey, fight me!"

"Do you dare to fight me? Come on, let's go!"

"Are you scared, huh? Fight me!"

The ears started hurting from the volume of all the shouts, and Kiernan ignored the shouts while making his way up the stairs.

The crowd tried stopping him by placing their bodies in the way, but with his High Stage Martial Grandmaster physique, he effortlessly shrugged them aside.

There was no way he was going to fight hundreds of people for no reason, especially since everyone inviting him to a fight had zero points!

They tried taunting, insulting, and angering him in every possible way, but he remained unfazed and uninterested.

'They cannot force me to a fight inside Selection Mansion. There are cameras everywhere here, and if they do, they would just get disqualified from the selection.'

With that, he left the angry crowd behind and headed straight back to his room.

Once there, he fed his pet wolf, Fen, and gave him a few pats to the head before pulling out his phone and messaging Aoi.

[Kiernan: I finished doing a mission and got quite a few points. Want some?]

Since he had so many points, he thought about giving some to Aoi as well, but she quickly responded.

[Aoi: Thanks, but I am good. I plan to do this myself, as I don't think I deserve to be part of the seven unless I make it there myself!]

Kiernan nodded at the message, pocketed the phone, and stared out of the window towards the big gray moon.

'There are not cameras inside the rooms, now that I took a quick look, which I am not surprised by, as there should still be some privacy and all that…

'It means that the security of this place isn't waterproof. People can still force their way in if they really want to and force me into a fight.

'Of course, I won't accept the fight, as now I am certain that against zero-point people, they give nothing in return.

'I thought that there might be a chance that they would go into negative points if I beat them, but that's clearly not the case here.'

…

In the common room of the Selection Mansion, two young men stared at each other with furious gazes.

In the black wristwatches, they both had exactly a thousand points each, and they came to the common room to fight.

It was so that they wouldn't get disturbed by anyone else.

"Bold of you to challenge me, chump."

Zeus Abracadabra said with a smirk.

"…You were one of Kiernan's rivals back in the Junior Martial Arts Championship, so it's just right for me to beat you."

Julian said with a smirk, with his white hair falling over his face, partially covering his icy silver eyes.

"…Kiernan? You know of him?"

Zeus asked.

"Of course, I do. He is my best friend, after all, and my greatest rival, whom I will defeat with my improved Metal Style."

Julian said, and cracked his knuckles.

"Hahaha… With your strength, you don't have qualifications to be his rival, let alone mine. Be a little good boy, and give those points over to me, yeah?"

Zeus said with a smirk.

"Metal Style, Blazing Bullet!"

With his right arm pressed against his chest, Julian tackled straight ahead—it was as if he was a car heading at full speed towards Zeus.

Zeus put his hands on Julian's shoulders, stopped his momentum like a brick wall would stop a car, and threw him to the ground.

Julian rolled back to his feet, lunged at him with a chin punch, and Zeus slid past like a slippery eel.

"King Cobra Strike!"

While his fist was already flying past Zeus' face, he suddenly snapped his wrist, changed the trajectory of his fist, and chased after Zeus.

Zeus snatched the fist from the air, slammed his hips against Julian's chest, and flipped him over his shoulder with a loud thud.

Zeus whipped his hammer fist down at him, and Julian quickly rolled out of the way while Zeus' hammer fist destroyed the floorboards underneath.

"…"

Without much expression in his face, Zeus pulled his fist out of the broken floor and looked at Julian, who had backed away closer to the door.

In these few exchanges, Zeus wasn't trying at all, while Julian was going all out in his base form already.

It was obvious that the difference between their strengths was immense.

"You're not a match for me, and you're clearly not a match for Kiernan. He fought a Death Incarnate face-to-face and survived. And you think you're at his level? Laughable."

Zeus scoffed.

"I haven't shown everything I am capable of doing…"

Julian whispered softly, then closed his silver eyes, and then smoke started rising from his body like a chimney.

It was the Flow State!

"Flow State? It looks like you're not as worthless as I thought you were."

Zeus said.

However, was he worried? Not in the slightest. This wasn't the first time that he was going to fight against someone with Flow State.

"Whoo!"

With a smoky breath, Julian crossed the distance in a blink of an eye and started throwing kicks with some punches mixed in.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

The kicks were stopped with Zeus' arms. The punches were dodged with ease. And few of Zeus' punches found their mark on Julian's chest.

THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!

Reeling backwards, Julian's eyes shook slightly, and he steeled himself, making himself look like a boulder of defense.

"Metal Human!"

"Ha!"

At that moment, Zeus punched him in his guard, smashed right through, and drove his fist into Julian's stomach.

"Cough!"

Julian coughed out his dinner onto the floor, and he collapsed on the ground with a pained groan.

"Well?"

Zeus stood before him with a cold look, and with a dark look of despair, Julian raised two of his fingers in surrender.