NOVEL NEXT Chapter 130: Flight x Laki City - Arriving at Heaven’s Arena
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Chapter start:
As Alex and Menchi enter the cabin, Menchi immediately sits down on the small sofa. She reaches into her small bag, pulls out a few bills, applies a light layer of Shu, and throws them toward Alex in one swift motion.
Alex barely manages to catch them, to which she claps and says, "Good job catching it. Now use that money to buy us some food. It will most likely be terrible, but a trip is made memorable by the food you eat! It's an adventure just discovering what food each place has to offer, regardless of whether it's good or bad."
"No need for the explanation… I'm hungry too, so I'll grab us something. I'll pay you back once I win some money at Heaven's Arena. Anything specific you're in the mood for?"
"No," she says while closing her eyes, obviously training her Nen. "Surprise me!" she adds.
"Fine, I guess," Alex says as he leaves the cabin, only moments after entering it.
He walks around the airship, even stepping onto the deck for a moment to enjoy the cold but clean air, deep in thought.
I have 3 months… I need to reach the 200th floor, which may sound easy but is actually quite hard. Gon and Killua were already monsters stat-wise. To enter the gates to Killua's home, I'd actually estimate Gon's STR stat to be at least 15 to 20. Killua's STR stat is probably easily 25 to 30. Since the Realm's stat points don't progress in a linear fashion, it's hard to really tell. Anyway, I guess it's too early for me to just "push" enemies out of the arena like Gon did. With my Claw style and basic skills, I should be more than fine, so I shouldn't worry about that part.
If I really struggle against common fighters, I'll just use Nen and hide it with In. Even if that's not wise, I can at least use Ten to increase my defense in any case! Still, I am not satisfied with just reaching the 200th floor. I am sure there are secret missions beyond just reaching the highest floor. I want to win against Nen users… perhaps even… no, it's too soon to even think about it. Well, I should hurry up and buy some food before the five-horned she-devil gets mad again.
Alex finally stops his daydreaming and heads to the airship's canteen.
Once inside, he doesn't recognize much of anything. He also doesn't see anything of note—it looks pretty much like normal canteen food, probably close to what he could buy at a truck stop. He just buys a bunch of random snacks, drinks, candies, sweets, a couple of sandwiches, and a few random dishes like pizza, burgers, a grill platter, and even some kind of stew, along with a huge salad.
Just five minutes later, his order is ready for pickup, and Alex is confronted with regret seeing the giant mountain of food in front of him. Shit, I'm so used to my inventory that I didn't think about this. I'm stupid.
"Young man, we prepared a small food cart for you. Just return it once you leave the airship, okay?" a friendly-looking man working in the canteen tells him.
"Thank you!!" Alex, grateful for this unexpected help, says and hands him a bit of the remaining cash as a small token of appreciation.
He then pushes the cart with food back into their room and sees Menchi lying on the bed, just wearing her pair of extremely short hotpants and her bikini top—this time without any mesh. It nearly looks like she's wearing underwear; that's how skimpy her outfit is.
"..." Alex, a bit nervous, just tries to ignore this weird situation. He pushes the cart next to the small table, and Menchi immediately stands up to inspect his choices.
"You… Are you stupid? You just bought random dishes, fast food, candies, and sandwiches. You should have asked for the specialties!" Menchi criticizes him.
"Menchi, this is a damn commercial airship. Their inventory has nothing unique; it's probably the same anywhere on the damn continent," Alex responds, slightly annoyed.
"Tzzz, you could have tried harder!! I'm not in the mood to eat this!" she nags, looking like Alex tried serving her poison.
"Honestly, this looks pretty decent to me…" Alex responds and begins to eat.
Just a few minutes pass, and Menchi joins him, eating only small portions of everything. She opens any kind of snack, takes tiny bites out of it, and moves on to something else.
Alex sighs but ignores her silly antics and eats whatever he wants, including the stuff she's nibbled at, deciding it's not worth complaining about.
After 10 minutes, Alex keeps a few of the unopened snacks that Menchi spared and pushes the cart, along with all the half-eaten food and trash, back to the canteen. When he returns, Menchi has a different look on her face.
This time, she speaks seriously: "If you really want to challenge Heaven's Arena, especially the 200th class, you need a LOT of training! You need to learn to constantly use your Aura. If you're bored, use Ten. If you have time to train, improve your Ren. Need to recover? Zetsu!"
I guess she's right, he thinks, as he sits down and begins to focus.
Alex uses the time traveling to Heaven's Arena to constantly practice his newly acquired Nen abilities. He focuses on the basics: Ren, Ten, and Zetsu. He also experiments with En, managing to extend it to nearly 30 meters (almost 100 feet). While sitting comfortably on the floor, he senses various people on the decks above and below them. He can even feel what's happening in the cabins next to theirs.
Suddenly, Alex focuses on the cabin beside theirs and notices two people lying on top of each other on their bed—obviously having sex.
"What the fuck!" he blurts out, losing his concentration and stopping his En.
"What's wrong? Don't tell me you got all flustered because you noticed something naughty with your En? You are such an innocent little man" Menchi teases him mercilessly for the rest of the flight.
… … …
Just an hour later, Alex is finally freed from her torment as an announcement echoes through the airship speakers:
"Thirty minutes until we arrive at Laki City Main Airport."
"Laki City?" Alex wonders aloud. "Come to think of it, I've never heard the name of the city Heaven's Arena is in before."
"I actually didn't know either. Who cares about the city anyway? The city is essentially Heaven's Arena. We don't even have to leave the arena since it has restaurants, casinos, cinemas, and pretty much anything else you could imagine," Menchi explains.
… … …
Half an hour later, the two hunters leave the airship and arrive at Laki City. They immediately board a bus that takes them to Heaven's Arena. Alex glances at his [Destiny Watch] and notes the time—6 PM.
"I guess we should book a hotel close by or maybe even inside Heaven's Arena and wait until tomorrow?" Alex suggests.
"Stupid! We have no time to waste. Heaven's Arena is open 24/7! You better hurry up and win enough fights to quickly get to the 100th floor so you can have a private room. Hell, you might even use your Aura to frighten the judge into bumping us to the 100th floor immediately," Menchi counters.
"I guess that makes sense… will you compete too?" Alex asks, curious.
"I… I can't enter," Menchi admits, looking slightly embarrassed.
"Why can't you enter? As far as I know, you can join as often as you want, even if you fail," Alex presses.
"Let's just say… I needed some money, so I quickly made my way to the 200th floor—twice. And after that, my participation was revoked. I didn't know you couldn't do that! I was young and very hungry, and was planning to constantly go from 1 to 200 and earn an infinite amount of money! I didn't listen to the instructions during that time. Also all those expensive restaurants drained my travel funds.… It was a bad time afterwards. Anyway, I'm not allowed to enter again," she explains.
"How the fuck do you spend 400 million on food?! That's impossible!" Alex is seriously gobsmacked by the absurdity of her situation.
"Shut up! You wanted to come here, so now you win your fights. Don't mind me!" Menchi snaps, clearly ashamed.
"I guess… I'll do just that. Not like we have another choice, do we?" Alex relents, finally letting her off.
"Anyway, we're nearly there, if my eyes aren't deceiving me," he says, looking out the window. He sees a giant building with multiple fighting arenas visible even from the outside. It somewhat resembles the Burj Khalifa, only grander and crazier in scope.
Heaven's Arena… I'll make it to the very top!
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