Feeling the blinding light pouring through the passage ahead, Sett irritably raised his hand to shield his eyes from the glare that seemed capable of piercing through the venetian blinds.
"Tch... It's obvious barely anyone's watching... So why are the lights this blinding? For a guy like me, wouldn't darker be better?"
Muttering this half-hearted complaint, Sett slowly stepped into the arena. As his entire body was finally exposed to the light, before he could even adjust to the irritating brightness, a sudden eruption of joyful shouts and commotion assaulted his ears.
The noise from the stands, the feel of the sand beneath his feet—it all left Sett momentarily stunned.
"Is this the tenth one tonight? How long do you think this kid's gonna last?"
"Looks like this one's about to get broken by Razor too... Weren't the first few just like this?"
"The strongest fighter in Japan...? That's nothing against that face of a child."
Having been an underground street fighter for years, it wasn't that he had never heard such cheers. But those were reserved for popular, legitimate matches. For an underground player like him, this kind of reaction was impossible. His opponents weren't ordinary fighters; they were men who fought with swords, knives, and even explosives. Only those kinds of death matches could bring him the rewards he sought.
And those rewards certainly weren't ordinary money or anything trivial... They were experience and gold that couldn't be measured by cash.
Since the day Sett was born, an interface had always been floating before his eyes, one called the LoL Wrist System. He had always thought it was just some ordinary mental illness... and had never paid it any mind.
That was until this "mental illness" turned into a godsend when he was getting beaten up. He had accidentally tapped the W skill on the screen... After using it to subjugate half the bullies in his middle school's district, Sett ended up expelled.
With no other means to make a living, Sett was naturally lured in and beaten down by the underground fighting rings, rightfully becoming their cash cow.
Most people weren't interested in these kinds of brawls. Although a few regular lunatics came to watch his fights, the stands were usually devoid of any real excitement.
Whether he was facing down armed opponents head-on, or when he messed up and lay weakly on the ground awaiting death, the people in the stands never showed any emotional fluctuation. They just paid to watch the carnage.
In short, he had witnessed countless brawls, but the current scene left him completely dumbfounded, like a creature that had lived underground its whole life suddenly emerging into a sunlit meadow.
Just as Sett was lost in a daze, a mocking voice suddenly rang out in front of him.
"Hey, bookworm... This ain't no place for a student like you... Where do you think you're going with that weak little body of yours? Hahahaha!"
Logically, pre-fight trash talk should have been the most routine part. In his early days of fighting, Sett had heard it all... He should have been long accustomed to it.
But none of his opponents had ever chosen to mock him as a college student. Let alone a "bookworm."
Who would call a 1.9-meter tall, nearly 200-pound guy with explosive muscles a college student? Even if it was an insult, using that one was just brainless, right?
Hearing this mockery, a nonplussed Sett finally chose to look at the other party. Ever since he had entered this scene, no one had ever dared to mock him to his face like that.
But the moment Sett raised his eyes to look at his opponent, his expression froze, his eyes widening in shock.
Standing a mere four meters away was a blonde man with a massive, muscular back. Striking a cocky pose, this "Big Back" flashed a grin at the audience, showing off his white teeth, all while hooking a thumb towards Sett in a gesture of utter ridicule.
But what surprised Sett wasn't the man's powerful muscles—he had those too. What shocked him was... this guy wasn't carrying any weapons?
Every opponent he'd ever fought had been armed to the teeth. If they could have stuffed a grenade somewhere unmentionable, they would have. None of them would just stand there posing so harmlessly like the man before him.
Completely shirtless, exposing his powerful muscles to the air... No place to hide a knife, not even a gun? Was this guy hiding a pistol in his pants? How would that even work...?
Could it be... Was this guy actually going to fight him with his bare hands? But the problem was... Thinking of his own muscles, Sett instinctively raised a hand to compare... And in that moment of lifting his arm, he froze.
His originally explosive muscles were gone. What remained was an arm so thin you could clearly see the muscle fibers stretched taut over the bone. He had never been this scrawny, even back in middle school!
Seeing the change in his body, Sett's hands trembled as he frantically tapped on his system panel.
[Name: Sett]
[Level: 1 (0/280 EXP)]
[Gold: 0]
[Equipment: None]
[Remaining Skill Points: 1]
[Pit Grit: Not Assigned]
[Haymaker: Not Assigned]
[Knuckle Down: Not Assigned]
[Facebreaker: Not Assigned]
[The Show Stopper: Not Assigned]
Right, this system wasn't some smart AI like in the novels. It couldn't talk, it didn't give out quests. It just quietly granted Sett experience and gold based on his fights, and pointed him towards incredible skills.
But now, looking at the long string of zeros and ones on his stats, Sett's heart felt like it was shattering. He had worked so hard every day for nearly a decade, exchanging his blood and sweat for a simple set of cloth armor and a pair of boots... The experience from Level 6 was still there, but now, overnight, he had been sent back to square one.
It felt like a decade of effort had been for nothing. But the most important thing now wasn't his lost progress... It was why he had changed, and how his body had ended up looking like this? This question plagued Sett deeply.
While Sett's mind, which had never quite finished middle school, was still conducting its own frantic brainstorming session, the Big Back in front of him felt an urgent need to perform.
The boss had already told him that there was a weak-looking but tough fighter participating in the Boxing Aspirations exhibition match tonight... Although the guy in front of him didn't look tough...
As the Big Back walked up to Sett, he realized that Sett's thin body was actually a few centimeters taller than his own. The perspective on the sand had made him look shorter from a distance.
Only when he got close did the Big Back understand the source of his instinctual fear. The aura radiating from this thin man was inexplicably terrifying. It wasn't the spirit of a fighter at all—it was like someone who licked the blade of a knife with their blood every single day.
But the arrow was already on the string and had to be loosed. Even though he was scared now... his legs trembling slightly, the Big Back still mustered the courage to slap Sett on the ribs that were so prominent they looked like they might break.
"B-book... Bookworm, I don't wanna hurt you today... So get lost while you still can!" Seeing that Sett didn't seem to take him seriously at all, the Big Back's voice quivered as he delivered this dismissal, his bravado faltering. If it were possible... he would have run already. His lips felt dry.
Only when he was this close did the Big Back truly grasp the source of his primal terror. The aura radiating from this man wasn't human at all.
From a distance, he'd just looked like a skinny guy. But now, up close, he realized the other man was as cold and lifeless as a piece of steel... a weapon.
In the Big Back's eyes at that moment, Sett was no longer a man. He was a machine gun, positioned right in front of him, ready to spit fire and end his life at any second.
Up in the stands, the man in charge of this "Razor" witnessed the humiliating scene and slammed his fist down in frustration. Losing face in front of the regular audience wasn't a huge deal—after all, they were just here for the fights. What did their opinion matter?
But the main issue was that some seriously big names were coming tonight!! He'd heard that one of them possessed strength comparable to the Chairman of the Great Quan Yuan Federation!
If that VIP was in a bad mood because of this pathetic display, Razor might never get this opportunity again in his life! At this critical moment, how could this idiot embarrass him like this?!
Feeling the Big Back's slaps on his body, Sett finally snapped out of his confusion and refocused on the man before him. His right hand unconsciously clenched into a fist as he looked at this guy who was clearly built but had the nerve of a frightened chicken.
"You're the one challenging me?" Sett's voice was flat, almost bored. "That's it? How could I ever lose to the likes of you?"