"….So, let the championship officially begin!" The host's words called for the cheers from the crowds. They began cheering for their specific champions.
"Hey, do you know who's going to win?"
"Ain't that obvious enough for everyone to see? It is obviously mad lion."
"Look there, it seems that there are a few fresh meats this time."
"Hehe, I can't wait to see how they get trained in the ring."
"Do you think there's a newbie who can win the championship today?"
"Stop daydreaming there. Since when had newbies win the competition? Only those that had been here a few times have a chance of winning."
"What daydreaming? It's already almost nighttime."
"Then stop night dreaming."
"Can people control their dreaming time?"
"Just stop sleeping."
"I'm talking with you, how am I sleeping?"
"Figure that out yourself."
As the crowd was still clamoring, the host spoke again. "Now, to the first part, we always talk about the rules of the championship as there are always some newbies or, some with ….short memory."
""Hahaha""
The crowd laughed at the host's words. It wasn't long before they forgot about the arguments that they were having with their friends or neighbors not long ago.
"Now, the first rule of the competition is that, by the end of today, there will only be eight fighters remaining. This is to ensure that the fights tomorrow would only be epic."
"Another thing to take note of would be that, each fighter has three fights. Three wins and you'll proceed. These people will fight once again, the same thing as before, three fights, three wins and you'll proceed!"
Although the rules seemed harsh, at the end of the day, they only wanted the strongest fighters. So, if one was unlucky to encounter the strongest opponents in all the three matches, then he was bound to lose.
Furthermore, there was nothing like three chances. Once you lost a single match, you would disappear from the competition. After all, the prerequisite of entering the next round was to win three matches out of three.
So, even if you win the first two matches, as long as you lose the last match, you would be disqualified.
"The rules of losing the match are simple. You lose if you stay on the ground to the count of ten, you're kicked out of the ring or knocked unconscious."
"Please, don't blame us if you have much vitality in your body and you have much pain tolerance in that you're beaten to death without admitting defeat. Remember, all of you who are fighting in this arena have signed the agreement contract that if you die in the ring due to your stubbornness, this has nothing to do with the Ultimate Arena."
These rules were directed to the fighters and they could hear them clearly as the speakers in the changing room transmitted the host's voice to them.
"Since there are many fighters but less time, each fight will only have ten minutes. If the ten minutes are over and there's no winner, both the fighters will be disqualified."
After talking about a few more things in five minutes, the host finally stopped and looked at the VIP room.
The moment that he did so, a loud sound of a gong echoed in the arena. Of course, although it was loud, it wasn't deafening at all.
"Now, the fights are going to start at this moment. The draws are random, nothing is planned. Let me stop my big mouth from running any further and let the first draw of the matches begin!"
As soon as his words faded, a screen appeared at the arena's center. It was in form of a box. And, it was a projection of a screen and not a real screen.
Names of the fighters began appearing one by one on the screen projection before being replaced by another.
Not long after that, a name was displayed on the screen. It was none other than 'Dingo'. The moment that the name appeared, the crowd cheered.
From their chattering, it could be known that this Dingo had been here a few times already. His performance wasn't bad as he was able to make it to the last round of the preliminaries in the previous two months.
It was just that he had met some tough guys in the last elimination matches and was eliminated.
Not long after the host shouted the name that was displayed on the screen, a baldheaded man came from the changing room. His steps were quite confident as if he was going to win the match already.
When he appeared, the crowd cheered a lot. They knew him and thus, he had accumulated a good number of fans already.
As the names on the projection rolled, another name was displayed. This time, it was 'JK Silver.'
When this name was displayed, there were no loud cheers as those when Dingo had been selected. The reason behind this was that, the person this time was a newbie.
"What a bummer. I was expecting a good fight. It turns out that it's a newbie going to fight."
"How disappointing. Anyway, what's the use of the fight when we already know the results?"
"That newbie has to surrender as fast a possible so that we can watch another match."
"You guys don't know a thing. There are newbies that end up winning in their first debut."
"Heh, that only happens in novels and tv shows where the MC is so super powered."
As the crowd talked, Jack walked out of the changing room calmly. Although he had expected to test his maximum strength here, he was quite disappointed the moment that he saw the fighters here.
The way that they carried themselves already told him that they didn't know how to fight. Well, that was to a standard of a professional combatant like him.
Now that there was no challenge here, he decided that his reason for participating this time would be to finish the system mission and get the good things after he won the bet.
Although the crowd couldn't see his upper part of the face, they could definitely see his blue eyes as well as the special silver hair. Plus, the well carved chin, they could already guess that Jack was handsome.
But, that made their impression of him fall further. According to them, a pretty boy had decided to come to a ring where men fought. This was no different from suicide.
Jack never cared about what they were thinking and stepped onto the ring after following the stairs. Although he could simply jump onto the ring, there was no need for him to be so showy.
He walked forward and stood in front of Dingo. The two stood opposite each other and gave the crowd such a contrasting image. Although Jack did have a good body, in front of the bulky and tall Dingo, Jack was no different from a small boy in front of an adult.
Such contrasting difference made the crowd boo at Jack. And at the same time, bets were placed and most of them were on Dingo.
"Hehe, Edwin, do you think that kid of yours can win this round?" Austin laughed as he asked sarcastically.
Edwin looked at him as if he was an idiot. If Jack had agreed to bet with Austin for a stake that was worth more than a billion, he must have confidence in his abilities. As a result, Edwin believed that Jack would definitely be able to win this round.
Although he was a little uncertain, he still believed that. To prove that, he placed a bet worth a hundred million dollars on Jack.
The moment that he did this, the other big bosses that were present in the room couldn't help but look at Edwin with surprise in their eyes. After all, this was the first time that they had seen Edwin make such a bet that he was sure to lose.
Now, they thought that Edwin might have made the bet because he was provoked by Austin. So, they simply shook their heads at this. There was nothing that could be done as once a person placed a bet, there would be no refunds.
"Hahaha, it seems that you're confident in that little chap of yours. Just look at the difference between the two. That boy is skinny while Dingo has muscles on him. Do you think that boy can compete?"
At this time, Austin was no longer calling Jack a brat. After all, if Jack could give out a billion worth of assets when he lost his bet must have some background. But even so, he still referred to Jack as a boy.
"Body size doesn't show the strength." Edwin said indifferently.
"Heh, why have I not seen a situation where the thin fighters win against the bulky ones?" Austin sneered.
"Maybe you're blind not to know that you're an example. You have a bigger mouth than me but you've never won against me." Edwin replied with a cold smile.
"What are you two talking about?" At this time, a man I'm a green and yellow suit asked.
"Just something small Linus. This guy doesn't know when to quit and thinks that he can still change the tide even after he'd lost." Edwin smiled as he replied.
"You're the one that doesn't know when to quit. Look at the two, you already know that your boy has no chance of winning and yet you still placed a hundred million dollars on him." Austin retorted.
Linus looked at the ring and smiled as he looked at Jack. He could see that although Jack was standing in front of Dingo, he didn't seem nervous at all. In fact, it was like he was ignoring the opponent and thought that he wasn't going to fight.
Just from this and knowing about Edwin's character, Linus smiled and placed his bet as well. And, he placed it on Jack.
Jack's current odds were at 1:3.5. When the others saw Linus place the same bet as Edwin, they were surprised. But, Edwin wasn't that much surprised as he knew that Linus wasn't someone that bet on just anybody. He must have noticed something.
Dark lines appeared on Austin's forehead when he saw this. He was just about to speak when the sound of a gong echoed again, indicating the start of the match.
****
Author's Note;
Thanks for the day. Now that we're back on track, let's meet tomorrow for another update. The more power stones the more the chapters that would be updated.