Martial Arts Worlds

"Human Government and Animal Kingdom has decided on some extra rules regarding the tournament, and honestly, it doesn't work well for us.

"Animal Kingdom was honestly leading these conversations, as the Human Government couldn't afford the war, so they were forced to comply with the extra rules set by Animal Kingdom.

"The rule that concerns us the most is the way we can select our fighters. There is no coin flip or anything like that.

"This rule makes it so that we can't really strategize well and works wonderfully for Animal Kingdom.

"The rule is that our first fighter must be our weakest. The second fighter is the second weakest, et cetera. The same goes with Animal Kingdom.

"It is so that the tournament will get progressively more interesting, but it also means that Beast Prince Arazimir is guaranteed to be their last fighter with this.

"It also means that we can't send our stronger fighters early to possibly win the tournament in four matches without having to fight Beast Prince."

Victor said.

"How do we decide the order then? Have Low Stages fight against each other, and then Middle Stages against each other, and High Stages?"

Zeus asked.

"No… This is the slight loophole in the rules. It's regarding the martial ranks of who we will send, and again, this loophole is the best for Animal Kingdom.

"They have mostly High Stage Martial Grandmasters, and they can just choose whoever, but they cannot send Arazimir.

"We have two Low Stages. Zeus and Antigone. We can choose either one to represent us in the first match, and the second match will be the other one."

Victor said.

"These rules are really fucking us in the ass…"

A grumpy-sounding man said and smoked some pipe.

"I can be the first fighter!"

Zeus stood up, his lips curling into a smile, and he emitted confidence.

With the pride of the Abracadabra family on his shoulders, he couldn't afford defeat and wasn't planning to let his family down.

"…Then that is settled. The third and fourth fighters are then Karmea and Seo. And the last fights are between Wilhelm, Helvetti, and Kiernan."

Victor said.

Wilhelm and Helvetti looked over to Kiernan. They could tell that he was strong.

'…There is something familiar about Wilhelm. I just can't grasp my finger around it, but I just have a feeling.'

Kiernan thought to himself.

…

It was late in the night, and after the meeting concluded, everyone returned back to their room.

When Wilhelm arrived in his room, he took his clothes off and stepped into the steamy shower with a grim expression.

The warm water went down his body—scars and memories of the past washing away with it.

In his broad back, there were strange-looking metallic tubes embedded beneath his skin. They looked like some sort of experimental device.

Wilhelm looked at the hazy mirror, and through it, saw his past memories of evil-looking doctors and the painful experiments they had subjected him to.

He didn't know where he came from. If he even had parents. He didn't know any of that.

Since he could remember, he had been stuck in that experiment facility for as long as he could recall.

Day and night—the doctors never let him out, never let him see the world outside—there were no moments of relaxation there.

Their only goal was to make Wilhelm Kruger the perfect martial artist—a superman—and thus they experimented with his body.

They made him as strong as Martial Grandmasters. As durable as Martial Kings. As fast as Martial Legends.

They removed every weakness from his body. He wouldn't feel fatigue or pain.

They also surgically modified his martial soul. It was something that went against the law of the heavens. It was a blasphemous thing to do.

They artificially strengthened his martial soul.

After he turned fifteen years old, they sent him to the underground fighting pit of the Dark Countries.

A hundred fighters in each pit. Only one survivor. He emerged victorious every time.

Wilhelm had forgotten just how many underground fighting pits he'd been to, but it must be over a hundred already.

"Ahh…"

Wilhelm stepped out of the shower, put a towel around his waist, and walked out of the bathroom, but when he went out, there was someone sitting on his bed.

It was his 'agent,' but actually, he was just a representative of the Dark Countries, who was making sure that Wilhelm wouldn't try to escape.

He was about 100 million gold investment. This body of his was invaluable. Thus, they couldn't afford to lose track of them.

They sent him to the tournament to see whether the experiment was successful.

If he came out victorious, the Dark Countries would start creating more of these superhumans like Wilhelm Kruger.

"Mind leaving? I am going to change my clothes."

Wilhelm asked.

"…No."

The agent said.

Wilhelm stayed silent, just let the towel drop to his ankles, and then went to his bag to take out some of his clothes.

He put on a t-shirt and sweatpants and stayed sockless, as he liked the feeling of the soles of his feet touching the hard floor.

"Do you have to dress like a slob? You're the greatest creation of the Dark Countries. You should dress like a king."

The agent said with a frown.

"I wear whatever the fuck I want. Are you guys taking that last bit of freedom from me as well?"

Wilhelm looked at the agent from over his shoulder, and he just scoffed before heading over to the door.

"I just came to check on you. I had to make sure you wouldn't try to drown yourself in that bathtub of yours."

With that, the agent left and slammed the door shut.

'…Even I would like to drown myself, but I can't, since you sick fucks made it so that I can't even drown.'

Wilhelm took a deep breath, stretched his arms, and then dropped down to the ground—he started doing push-ups.

For the rest of the night, all he did was push-ups, as he had no need for sleep. He couldn't sleep even if he wanted to.

After finishing ten thousand push-ups, which didn't even make him sweat, he stood up casually and headed out of his room for some breakfast.