To be honest, Cia felt crazy wandering in the middle of the night wearing what seemed like a Halloween costume.
"That was a close call. I guess the town officials really took the 'serial killer' seriously." Cia sat on top of a roof. He was staring at the ground below. The system is no longer so useless. At least it could detect people nearby, thus, they managed to avoid the cops.
"I guess sinners are also in hiding, well at least not wandering around the open streets because of the law... But low level sinners are also okay, right? There doesn't seem to be specifics." Cia felt like balding thinking about it.
He thought of the place where not-so-good people gathered. The original owner was a goody two shoes and the only reason why he knew this place was from his grandmother's rants in the letter that Ain kept visiting those places.
The town of Syrencrest is near the coast. Their main source of income is fishing and the merchants arriving at the docks.
Because of those fat fishes (rich merchants), the town had a street filled with pleasures. They simply called it the pleasure street.
Pleasure doesn't only pertain to red-light district, but it also involves gambling houses, pubs, and other not-so-legal activities.
Of course, such large illegal businesses packed together, it's impossible for the town head to know what's going on. Since it generates income for the town, the head just ignored it as long as they don't make a mess.
"Let's go there." Cia had no choice.
Despite the law forbidding people from going out at night, people on the pleasure street are already used to treading between the rules. Cia bet that those gambling addicts would probably not be so obedient in following what the officials said.
...
Pleasure Street.
People dubbed this place the one-night dream, a nightmare of a lifetime. It's okay to indulge occasionally, but if you get addicted to the intoxicating decadence, your life is doomed.
"Ain, how about we check out the arena? I'm getting bored with this simple gambling. I think betting with life is more thrilling."
Sitting on a long wooden bench is a slender young man. His long hair draped over his shoulders as he played with the deck of cards in his hand.
"What's so fun about watching those desperados willing to kill for money?" Ain loves money, but he loves his life more. When it comes to priority, he always puts himself first.
That's why he couldn't understand why someone would be willing to kill or be killed for money.
He propped up his chin and looked at the group of people from the second floor of the gambling house.
The Ikaris siblings looked very good. The only difference is that all of them have different types of appearances.
When you looked at Ain's face, your first thought would be, This guy is scheming something. Because Ain doesn't really look like a good person and shockingly, he is.
He looked a bit effeminate with his fox-like eyes, but you wouldn't mistake him for a girl. He's just a very beautiful man.
"Are you really not interested? I already booked a seat. We'll take a bit of a look. If it's not to your taste, we can just leave." Yban already knew Ain's quirks so he basically readied everything so that Ain would agree into coming to the arena.
I mean, who could blame him? Ain is dubbed as the King of Gambling in this town. Even if he were to lose, he'd still manage to get insane amounts of profit at the end.
Ain is also a bit curious about the arena. That place had opened three months ago. They said that the people who operated that den are foreigners.
Now since Yban had already made arrangements, Ain had no reason to refuse.
...
The arena looked like a colosseum. It was round with each side packed with spectators. It was located underground.
It was quite hot, but had good ventilation. No one really cares about the discomfort since all of them are pumped up with adrenaline.
"Yusi! Yusi! Yusi!"
"Ankai! Ankai! Ankai!"
People had veins popping out as they cheered but they didn't stop. Ain learned from Yban that today is the championship round. The champion from the previous league vs the dark horse that rose from the bottom to the top.
Ain's breathing sped up the moment he realized how much pile of money was in the box.
Yban knew what he was thinking and smiled. "Wanna dominate the bets?"
Yes, he was blinded by the wealth in the box, but Ain is not really that dumb. He gave Yban a look. As a gambler, he knew the unspoken rule of 'you shouldn't win too much.'
Aside from that, the fact that the owner of this arena is a foreigner made him restrain himself a little bit.
He doesn't want to be put inside the sack and thrown to the sea.
Just as that thought crossed his mind, a man suddenly called out his name.
"Ain! Hey look, that guy Ain is here!"
Ain suddenly had a bad feeling. He looked around and saw that many eyes were staring at him.
Ain's reputation as a good gambler is spread wide. Now that they realized he was here, he caught much attention.
Yban was also a bit taken aback by such 'warm' reception. He wanted the money but he now started to hesitate. This is too much attention. "Ain, should we leave? They are looking at us..." More specifically you.
There is limited space inside the gambling houses so the two of them didn't realize how many 'admirers' Ain really had.
"Of course they all turned to look at me. I would too if I saw me walk in." Ain's pride made it hard for him to admit that he was also a bit intimidated by those gazes.
"Hey Ain! Who do you wanna bet?"
"Come here I'll introduce you to the fighters."
"Will Ain know who will win? This is his first time at the arena right?"
"You don't know Ain? He is..."
Ain talked to some people he knew but after a while, he got annoyed and pushed them away saying that he had no idea how the arena works so stop asking him.
He and Yban settled to their seat. They could still feel the gazes glued on them but Ain was quick to ignore that feeling.
Ain scanned the entire arena. Many people wore disguises. Gambling is not a noble thing. People who still want an intact reputation would wear masks or paint their faces.
His eyes paused at the man wearing a brown cloak and a white weeping mask covering his face.
Intuition. That is Ain's advantage. Although he is also adept in gambling tricks, one couldn't deny that Ain had sharp intuition that helped him win numerous bets.
For some reason, his intuition is telling him something about that weeping masked man, but he really couldn't pinpoint what it was. Still, it was enough for him to take note of that man and observe him.
...
\[Host, Ain is looking at you] The system silently sweated for his host. Ain's eyes surveyed the entire arena and stopped directly at Cia.
"Let him stare." Cia had no idea what in him caught Ain's attention, but from the looks of it, he did not recognize Cia.
He had been wandering around the pleasure street and heard about the arena. He managed to grab a ticket and entered inside.
One of the reasons why he did this is because he had also heard that an audience can challenge a fighter. Cia is going for the kill now. But he doesn't want to blindly murder sinners.
The arena seemed to be a good place to train himself and also make himself realize the brutal reality that he is in now.
Yes, he wants a life-and-death situation to arouse his sense of crisis. That demon attack did something, but still not enough. He needed more danger.
Modern life is very peaceful. Aside from a few bursts of adrenaline, nothing really interesting happened. Cia knew his disadvantages so he plans to work on it.
Cia was also a bit shocked. He didn't realize that there were so many people willing to break the law.
Then he took a glance at the betting pool and something clicked. Many people are willing to risk it all for the money. What's more, today is the championship of the arena.
The suspicious-looking speaker that looked more like a torture device in Cia's opinion sounded.
This world already had machineries, but they seemed to have leaned towards a more askew development.
The technical level of this world is pretty similar to steam and machinery, but not quite.
Because there are also many devices here that seemed to have utilized a different power source, but the original owner is a bit clueless in that regard as machines are not his specialty.
Steampunk with machinery would be the best term to describe it.
[Tonight, we would witness the showdown between the all-time undefeated vs the rising star. Two fighters who never experienced losses will now fight for who will be the first ever 'Bloody King' and aside from the title, the winner would get 1,000 gold coins!]
"1,000 gold coins?!"
"Damn! I'm up for the challenge!"
"Fuck. If I won that much money, I wouldn't work for a day!"
There was a buzz in the arena after the prize was revealed. Cia was also stunned. If he could earn that much money in one night, he wouldn't have looked for a job.
"Ankai! Yusi! Ankai! Yusi! Ankai! Yusi!"
The voices mixed. Cia had no idea which is which as he felt like his eardrums were about to burst.
[LET THE CARNAGE BEGIN!]