Martial Arts Worlds

Martial World, Capital City, Wheeler Street.

"…"

Sitting on a bench, Julian scrolled down on his phone while listening to the sound of pedestrians walking by him.

"It's so packed. You can't walk anywhere in the city without seeing someone!"

"World Martial Arts Draft… You must work hard, my son, and become a representative!"

"I-I'll try my best…"

Julian looked up from the phone screen, looked at the young man who walked alongside his parents, and just shook his head.

'Martial Champion weakling. Sure, you're probably from a tier 3 country and can be considered decent enough talent there, but in here, you'll get nowhere.'

He thought that people had way too high expectations of themselves. He didn't quite understand why the government sent invites to every young martial artist.

Most of them were just taking space in Capital City, as big majority were under Martial Champion rank, and they would never get chosen.

'The government just wants to make this into a spectacle. They can say that all the humanity's talents are in one place.'

At that moment, he received an email and received further instructions regarding the draft.

He had to go check in at the government building and do a quick test there, and the email didn't say much.

'It must be a test to weed out the useless ones. I am of Martial Master rank. I should get to the selection rounds, at least.'

Julian thought.

He was also wondering where Kiernan might be, as he was one hundred percent certain that he also came here.

There was no way in hell that he would miss something as exciting as this.

"Let's go then…"

With a tired sigh, he pushed himself to his feet and started heading towards the government building.

…

Martial World, Capital City, government building.

Crack!

"Damn!"

A young man shouted in frustration as he accidentally cracked the wooden pen in two, and he hadn't finished writing his information on the paper yet.

He looked around for a new pen but couldn't find any, so he had to finish writing the information with only half of the pen.

It made his handwriting look horrendous.

When finished writing the personal information on the papers, the young men and women headed to the back room, the door closed, and none of them returned.

They most likely, if they failed the test, left the building through another exit so that they wouldn't spoil the test for others.

In that moment, the young man took a deep breath and walked to the woman receptionist, who guided him to the back room.

When he arrived at the back room, he noticed that it was extremely dimly lit, and there was just one table with a purple tablecloth and a smooth ball.

It wasn't football, but it was about the same size.

Behind the table, there was a black-suited man with a cold look on his face. It didn't look like he was having much fun.

There were close to hundreds of these government centers in the Capital City, and each worker there had to take thousands of people each day.

Thus, since it was already evening, this black-suited man had seen over a thousand faces and had grown tired of it.

"Place your hand on the ball."

The black-suited man said coldly.

"…What does it do?"

The young man asked fearfully while slowly approaching the table, and it didn't look like the black-suited man appreciated the question.

It was a question that he had heard hundreds of times so that his ears were about to bleed.

After not receiving an answer, the young man just put his hand on the ball, and it started shining in a purple color.

The black-suited man looked inside the ball, saw something that the young man didn't, and then heard a loud sigh.

"Middle Stage Martial Champion."

The black-suited man said.

"How did you…"

The young man's eyes widened in surprise, and he realized that this ball was a power crystal that was capable of seeing a person's martial rank with extreme accuracy.

"Thank you for participating in the World Martial Arts Draft, but you've not been chosen to participate in the selection rounds."

The black-suited man said tiredly.

He had said the same thing to so many people and knew what followed after this.

"What? Why!"

The young man asked in shock, as he couldn't understand the reasoning for that.

"I-I am a national champion back in my country. I know that my martial rank might not be as high as some of the others here, but I have defeated opponents much stronger than me in the past!"

The black-suited man looked quite pissed, and then slowly, he said.

"It does not matter. You didn't meet the requirements to go to the selection rounds. Please, take the door on the left, and there is a lollipop if you want to take one."

With a pissed look, the young man stomped out of the room, took a ball-shaped lollipop from the bowl, and rushed out of the building.

"I can't believe it…"

The realization dawned on him, and as if he were just a husk of a man, he stumbled down the sidewalk.

"Hey, Mikhail!"

At that moment, he heard a familiar voice—his parents and little sister were coming from over the street.

They came here with him and were waiting for him to finish doing the test.

"How did it go?"

His father asked with a rough voice.

"I…"

The young man looked at the ball-shaped lollipop in his hand, then hung his head low, and said.

"I didn't make it… They said I didn't meet the requirements."

"Oh…"

His mother's smile vanished from his face, and she then put his weeping son into her embrace to comfort him.

"…"

His father stayed silent with his arms crossed and just sighed, as this was something that he expected.

He was also a martial artist, and everywhere he looked, there were young men and women who were as high rank as he was even though they were half of his age.

It didn't surprise him, and even though his son was an amazing talent back in their home country, the world was an enormous place.