Martial Arts Worlds-Chapter 509: Increasing Cold

Tick-Tock! Tick-Tock!

The time slowly ticked down—a clock showed on the television—and it was ticking with the sound.

Screech!

Zeus cut the white tape, wrapped his hands with it, and tapped his fists together—he was feeling slightly sluggish after yesterday’s party.

Slightly hungover, but the two brothers stopped him from completely passing out so that he could still participate in today’s event.

Buzz! Buzz!

A message came to his phone, and he checked it out.

[Justus: Let’s do like planned—we’ll start from the front, so we don’t need to worry about Kiernan, who is starting further back, so let’s focus on the obstacles first]

It was messages in their secret group chat that they created yesterday.

[Jason: I heard the commentator’s voice, and it looks like the obstacles are not the same as in previous versions—first is a ten-kilometer run]

[Justus: Let’s just keep our energy up for the run—we don’t know if there is something else during the run, as it is supposed to be an obstacle]

"..."

Zeus looked silently at the messages, took off his wristwatch, and put it inside his locker room before closing it.

’These Arcanielago brothers think that I can be easily fooled—lustful and alcoholic—but if they think I’ll just blindly trust them, they have another thing coming their way.

’I’ll play along for now, but I won’t let them take advantage of me.’

At that moment, the door opened, and he stepped through—but he was instantly hit with a cold wind.

’It’s cold...’

...

"Whoo..."

Kiernan stepped into the arena, and as he breathed, cold fog formed on his face, and he felt the tips of his fingers grow numb quite quickly.

’It’s freezing.’

He looked at the audience—they seemed unaffected—so the coldness was only within the arena and thus part of the event.

He watched as the representatives swarmed the starting area—they took their spots where the numbered tiles were, and since most of them had memorized their rankings, they found their place quickly.

However, some who were at the back of the rankings hadn’t and were confused as hell.

"H-hey, what’s my current ranking?"

They asked the officials, who looked at them coldly, and checked from their tablets.

"299th."

"W-what’s mine?"

"...Tch. You’re 301st."

The coldness of the official made others afraid to ask, so they just took a random spot at the backs of the rankings, hoping they were in the correct position.

However, at that moment, the large screen beeped and showed that those who were in the wrong tile were disqualified from the event!

"A-ah? Disqualified? The hell!"

"This is so unfair! Does it matter if I start 303rd or 304th?!"

The officials took them away, despite their protests, and soon, most of the tiles had been filled, except the few at the back who got disqualified.

Kiernan, rubbing his numb hands together, stood at the 44th spot—those around him glanced at him briefly, scoffed, and looked ahead.

On the screen, the countdown started, and the representatives took their running stances.

Ten!

Nine!

Eight!

Seven!

Six!

Five!

Four!

Three!

Two!

One!

Go!

Bang!

The resounding sound of the gunshot echoed through the air—a bearded man was holding a revolver, pointing it at the sky, and kept pulling the trigger a couple more times.

It signaled the start of the race.

Everyone took off running as fast as they could and crossed the starting line—but few beeps sounded—a few took a head start and got disqualified!

"Shit!"

"I accidentally stepped off the tile, fuck!"

"I am such an idiot!"

When every representative finished running past the finishing line, cold snowflakes started dropping from the sky and quickly began to accumulate on the ground.

The snowflakes were falling so fast that the road suddenly became very snow-covered, and the runners struggled to keep their balance on the slippery surface.

’I see—this does increase the difficulty—not to mention that it is cold.’

Kiernan thought to himself and started using Sea Steps—he balanced himself—and he was able to run through the snow and ice without falling.

However, it barely allowed him to pass anyone, as everyone else also had their own movement techniques that allowed them to balance themselves.

These representatives weren’t rookies—they were the best that their countries had to offer.

Instead, Kiernan started to slowly lose places, and his ranking shown on the screen showed that he was down to 48th place!

...

In the homes of New Rakuya, the people had their phones open on the side, where they could see the rankings while the broadcast showed the running representatives.

When they saw that Kiernan was falling further back, they started to rage under their breaths.

"What are you doing?!"

"Oh my god... How is he losing places already?"

...

"..."

Kiernan kept a calm pace—there was no need to run faster—as everyone around him was running faster than they should.

It was the initial excitement, and it was going to hurt them in the long run—it was a long way to go to the finish.

They couldn’t even see the tower yet—only the long road that spanned a long distance, and it seemed like they would never reach the end.

51st... 52nd... 53rd...

The places kept dropping.

And in the front, Sun Jupiter and Seo Donghae kept the best pace—they were easily at the front—and they were also going solo.

Neither of them sought for a team even though every person in the championship would’ve wanted to team up with them.

Their reasoning to refuse them all was simple—they didn’t need leeches, and they could win without any help.

The snow kept falling heavier and heavier—the cold also increased—and everyone was wishing that they had some winter clothes with them.

Those from colder environments thrived—a young man in 153rd place, who originated from the coldest region of Martial World, kept passing everyone in front of him.

The martial art of his was created to fight in the snow, ice, and cold—thus he ran through the ever-increasing snow with ease.

He started the event in 201st place but was already 150th!

"Haha! This event is perfect for me! The colder it gets, the faster I become!"

He said with a grin, but then a cold-looking, black-haired young man appeared behind him and kicked him in the leg.

The kick broke his leg in two places, and he fell down with a scream.

"Aaaaaaargh! My leg!"

"Idiot..."

The black-haired man said, jumped over the screaming young man, and ran ahead—no one stayed behind to help him.