Within the heart of God City, a heavy-looking vault door opened with great struggle, as if it hadn't been opened in centuries.
Once open, five serious-looking men entered the vault and surrounded a pedestal—nothing standing on top of it.
One of them let out a deep breath, reached out to his black bag, unzipped it, and pulled out a glass-covered bottle.
The glass protecting the bottle was made from a thick layer of bulletproof material—it had been reinforced even further with several layers of Korkosh steel.
Korkosh steel was the strongest material known to man—it was so strong that even a punch from Martial Emperor wouldn't be enough to dent it!
It was said that Korkosh steel's origins were shrouded in mystery, with some claiming it was a gift from the gods themselves.
However, that wasn't true.
It was the creation of a long-forgotten martial artist whose Martial Ability, allowed him to create endless amounts of Korkosh steel.
He lived 187 years—died during the destruction of Dead World—and he only managed to create just barely enough Korosh steel to cover a small house with it.
It meant—it was extremely valuable!
A man said to the person holding the glass-covered bottle, and he just grunted in response before lowering it down to the pedestal.
The bottle contained some kind of blue liquid and had a strange-looking cork—the cork was made of a dark, twisted wood that looked like pineapple leaves.
The men stepped out of the vault, closed its doors, and locked it tightly behind them.
The sky had gone dark, and most of the God City had become empty as everyone returned to their homes.
At the current moment, inside his temporary residence, Kiernan sat on the sofa in the living room.
A laptop, silver in color, stood at the knee-high table in front of him and showed a website of FightTube.
"I haven't checked any nationals of other countries, but I know some martial arts enthusiasts are watching all of them, hundreds of them.
"So there must be videos of them, but first of all…"
Kiernan used the laptop mouse, moved it to the search bar, clicked it once, and then typed "Junior Martial Arts Championship" to see if he could find anything interesting from there.
After pressing "enter", millions of videos popped up, and he found one that caught his eye immediately.
"Junior Martial Arts Championship's Final Rankings?"
Kiernan rubbed his chin and noticed that it was a video of a person that was guessing the potential final rankings of the championship.
It was common content on FightTube, but it made Kiernan curious, as he wondered who would win based on viewers.
As he didn't know who was going to be the strongest opponent for him, he clicked on the video and leaned back to watch.
"Hello, FightTube enjoyers—this is Mike Fight Watcher, and today I bring my guesses for the final ranking of the championship!"
An energetic voice came from the laptop's speakers.
It went on for a couple of minutes. He was thanking his sponsors, and then, he started with winner prediction.
"I believe… that the winner will be God Island's representative, Sun Jupiter!"
Kiernan raised an eyebrow in curiosity and saw that he added Sun's face to the first place board.
"It might seem like an obvious choice—God Island's representatives are always in the top ten, but I believe Sun Jupiter is really a special one!"
"God Island doesn't have nationals or anything like that. It has one school—the strongest school in the world—and whoever reaches the top of the ranking there is usually God Island's representative.
"It is a war zone, and everyone in that school can be representative of any country in the world, but only one from there can participate in the Junior Martial Arts Championship.
"This time around, Sun Jupiter is standing at the top of the God High!"
Mike said in the video and then moved on to the second.
"In the second place…"
Kiernan went to the kitchen to get some water while the laptop was loud enough for Mike's voice to traverse throughout the entire house.
While sipping on the water, he looked out of the window towards the streets and noticed that it was strangely peaceful over here.
"A paradise, I suppose."
Kiernan drank the rest of the water, put it back in the cupboard, and returned back to the sofa with Mike going through his predictions.
And then, he reached his top ten prediction and said.
"In tenth, I believe Seo Donghae of Lagitech Country is a clear top ten fighter. A powerhouse in every sense of the word."
Kiernan wryly smiled as he wasn't included in the top ten, but he wasn't surprised about it.
He was only a representative of a tier four country.
"And in eleventh… we have a controversial participant—for the first time ever, Pirate Kingdom's representative, Frown Man, a son of the feared Pirate Emperor Happy!
"Pirate Kingdom joined the Martial Arts Association officially last year, and that gave them permission to participate in this year's championship.
"It's a very controversial decision!"
Kiernan looked at the screen and shook his head in disbelief.
"What the hell is this world really? These scumbag pirates are now considered an actual country? Holy hell."
Kiernan just scoffed at the ridiculousness of the situation, and he still hadn't forgotten about his time in Pirate Kingdom.
He was also not done with Pirate Kingdom, but he knew that he was still as strong as the strongest insect in the world, so he wouldn't even be able to make a dent in their defenses.
"In the twelfth spot, Nightingale's very own representative, Zeus Abracadabra of the Abracadabra family!"
A smug-faced person appeared on the screen, and he was added into the twelfth spot on the board, right under Frown Man.
"Right… I forgot that Nightingale is also its own country. They can also send their representative, and they ended up with Zeus, huh…"
Kiernan rubbed his chin and remembered that it was Zeus who beat his time on the Game, which meant that he was a really impressive one.
Even though he ended up defeating Zeus' time with ease, it was only possible because he was able to do the water obstacle much faster than anyone else.
Without the water obstacle, he might not have been able to do that!