Martial Arts Worlds - Chapter 343

Chapter 343: Caged Ring

“…”

In a dark, moldy basement, brown spiders scurried across the floor, and a musty smell hung in the air.

Sitting in a creaking, shaky chair, the arc-eyed man stared at the computer, stuffing his mouth with salty snacks, completely engrossed in the new TV show he was watching.

At the back wall, there was a bulletin board with pictures of Roah York and with various locations marked on a map of the city.

There was a picture of the silver-handled revolver, the office, and the shady-looking alleyway with a dumpster overflowing with trash.

At that moment, as the TV show got to a good part, the basement’s door got blasted open from its hinges.

“Ah?”

The man jumped to his feet, and to his horror, brown-coated detectives stepped down the stairs and swarmed the basement.

“Marlow. You’re arrested for the murder of Roah York. Please come down to the station willingly, or we will have to use force.”

The lazy-eyed detective said and looked to the bulletin board, where the proof of Marlow’s sins was displayed for all to see.

‘How foolish.’

“Shit!”

Marlow lunged towards the door, but then the black-masked detective appeared in front of him and reached out his hand towards him.

Swoosh…

Marlow stopped moving, as if he were frozen in time.

‘W-what is this ability?’

The black-masked detective then waved his hand, and Marlow got flung backwards across the room.

He crashed against the wall, groaning loudly in pain.

‘How did they find out it was me? Did I get snitched on by those city council bastards?!’

…

“…”

Kiernan stared at himself in the mirror, his handsome self staring back at him with a look of confidence.

At that moment, he heard a sound that he had desperately wanted to hear.

Ding! Ding!

[Quest has been successfully completed!]

[Instinct Acquired!]

‘They really found the killer? I shouldn’t underestimate the detectives.’

Kiernan let out a sigh of relief and felt the phantom pain in his eyes disappearing like a fart in the wind.

He had a slight phantom pain in one of his eyes for the past few days as he couldn’t help but imagine him failing the quest and basically losing one of his eyes.

He hated to leave his fate in the hands of the detectives, but there was nothing else he could do as he wasn’t familiar with Gothic City’s terrain, making finding the killer really difficult.

‘I wonder why he killed Roah York, but I suppose I’ll know shortly when it reaches the newspapers.’

Kiernan then closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and with his eyes open, he stepped out of the bathroom.

A screaming crowd surrounded a fighting cage in the center of the place. People were betting on the side, and the underground lords of Gothic City watched from the shadows.

It had been a few days since he sent the detectives the letter, and after that, he started to grind some experience points to level up.

The amount to level up had drastically increased, and with his previous pace, it would take him a year just to level up once.

It was too slow of a pace, as leveling up was one of the best methods to get strong quickly, so he decided to start grinding experience points.

It didn’t take long for him to find this underground ring, and it was the best place for him to start grinding experience points.

“We have the next match coming up!”

The match organizers shouted from inside the ring, and with his microphone in hand, he started shouting.

“From the black corner, coming from the streets of Gothic City with a knack for getting out of tight situations, we have our veteran, Mack “The Rollhouse” Jemeriah!”

Through the black corner’s entrance, Mack entered the ring with a grin, flexing his muscles while walking circles.

The crowd was loving him, cheering and clapping as he made his way to the center.

“The Rollhouse has a fighting record of 14 victories and 11 losses!”

“Yeaaaaaaaah!”

Mack screamed towards the bright ceiling and pumped his fists in the air.

“Then… in the white corner!”

Kiernan started walking, pushing the crowd out of his way, and entered the ring with a confident look on his face.

“Newcomeeeeer!

The crowd started jeering as they loved to see the newcomers get absolutely crushed in their debut matches.

“A newcomer in the ring and a newcomer in Gothic City—coming from the stormy seas of World Seas, he is about to learn the hard way that Gothic City is no place for the weak.

“John Castle!”

Booing filled the place with a few claps mixed in, but it was clear that the crowd wasn’t expecting anything from him.

They wanted to see exciting fights, which they doubted that this kid could provide.

Kiernan, whose alias was John Castle, looked calm and then turned to look at the ceiling towards a screen.

He had witnessed a few matches beforehand and knew that before the match began, there was a lottery to determine the weapons that the two fighters would get.

“As always, black corner has the first spin!”

Mack looked towards the screen, where a lottery wheel appeared and started spinning, with about thirty different types of weapons that could be used in the fight.

It started to slow down and, in the end, came to a stop on a long-shafted hammer that could crush skulls with ease.

“And Mack’s weapon is a sledgehammer!”

From the weapon’s rack, the brown-bearded man picked up the sledgehammer and tossed it over the cage into the hands of Mack.

“This one is good~”

Mack grinned and grabbed the sledgehammer’s rough, worn handle, feeling the weight of it in his hands.

“And lastly, white corner’s pick!”

Kiernan looked to the spinning lottery wheel and watched as it came to a stop, showing his chosen weapon for the match.

It stopped at weighted gloves.

‘Weighted gloves? Hmm…’

Kiernan caught the thrown gloves and noticed that they were quite heavy, as there were some sort of metal weights sewn into the fabric.

It would definitely hurt to get hit by these, but since they were heavy, it would slow down Kiernan’s punches.