Martial Arts Worlds

With the doors open, the representatives made their way to the arena and came across a grayish road with lanterns at the sides.

On the poles of the lanterns, there were numbers—twenty, forty, sixty, eighty, and one hundred—marking the distance.

Before the road, there were about three hundred tiles on the ground—they were in a straight line—and the highest number was at the front.

Thus, the top rankers walked all the way back, hundreds of meters, until they found their tile and saw that those with the highest numbers went all the way to the front.

"The representatives will enter the road one by one—those at the bottom of the rankings will start first, and those at the top will start last!"

The commentator's voice sounded.

"What? How fucking long do we have to wait then?!"

A representative in 20th place shouted out of frustration, knowing that those at the last places would have to wait hours for their turn!

Kiernan found himself in 9th place at the back and scratched the back of his head as he saw just how many were ahead of him.

It felt like he was on a line waiting for new game releases on Black Friday.

The screen flashed, and new rankings opened up—everyone was at zero meters—it was a ranking for the fourth event.

The girl at the front gulped nervously and looked at the gray road ahead of her—she felt all those sharp gazes—she was currently the lowest-ranked in the competition.

She was from a small tier five country and only made it through the Zero Event because it was all luck-based.

There was no way that she would do well, but still, she was ashamed of acquiring only twelve points so far in the championship.

'This is a true test of talent. S-Surely I will reach twenty meters, at least, right? I-I am the champion of the nationals of my home country, and I got crowned as the Most Valuable Fighter of the tournament.

'I am the best talent of this generation of my home country. I must reach twenty meters at least for the pride of my country!'

The bell rang.

With a nervous gaze, the girl took her first step on the grayish road while everyone looked at her intensely.

Those behind her frowned and wondered how this Talent Road worked—it was somehow able to calculate the talent of the person, and the further one walked, the harder it would become to walk.

The talent one had would help them to walk further, but everyone wondered about what talent it was really calculating.

She kept walking and soon reached the eight-meter mark—it was going well, and she didn't feel any trouble at all.

A small smile even crept to her face as she felt like at this rate she could even reach thirty meters, maybe forty meters!

'Maybe I am better talent than I thought. I guess the first events were just bad for me!'

However, as her feet landed on the ninth meter, her eyes widened as she felt her body turn heavy and sluggish.

She felt like her limbs were chained to a boulder at the bottom of the ocean.

'W-Why is it so heavy all of a sudden?'

She gritted her teeth, forced herself to take another step, and arrived at the tenth meter mark—but then, her body refused to move further.

'T-This can't be. I am only halfway to becoming a genius? Does that mean I am only half-genius? I-I can't believe this!'

Beep! Beep! Beep!

"Mira Levendarious, ten meters!"

A robotic voice sounded from the screen, and the heavy feeling disappeared from Mira's body—she was able to move again.

However, her turn had ended.

'T-Ten meters…'

She teared up, and with her head hanging low, she walked back to her locker room amidst the laughter of the audience.

To them, citizens of a zero-tier country, those from the lowest-tiered countries were as weak as insects to them.

Most of them had done Talent Road during their days in the God High, and every single one of them had reached twenty meters.

There had never been one that had gone under it, so those who couldn't even reach that benchmark were seen as weak as an insect to them.

With nervous looks, the second representative entered the Talent Road and got stuck at the tenth meter mark as well.

It looked like the difficulty seemed to rise significantly after every ten meters.

Five representatives later, the best result had been twelve meters, and thus, the audience was clearly disappointed.

At that moment, it was Joanna's turn, and she looked over to the screen, showing the rankings, and looked at the first place.

'Twelve meters… I must be able to beat that!'

With gritted teeth, she entered the road and walked fast—she didn't take it slow—and quickly reached the ninth meter.

Instantly, the feeling of sluggishness took over, but she then took another step and entered the tenth meter mark.

It was so heavy, but she pushed through and entered the eleventh meter—she felt like she was trying to walk through a plastic film.

"Aaaargh!"

She screamed, pushed through, and entered the twelfth meter—the audience looked over—and then, right in front of their eyes, she took another step.

Thirteenth meter!

"Hah… Huff…"

She fell down to the road and breathed heavily—her turn ended—and her ranking shot all the way to the first place!

"Yes…"

She wiped the sweat off her face and left the road, but she stayed behind to see the next person's attempt.

She didn't stay in first place for long, as the next person after her passed her right away and stopped at the fourteenth meter.

"Oh…"

Joanna lowered her head in disappointment and walked back to her locker room, and with every person coming after her, her position kept dropping and dropping.

She had high expectations before coming to the championship, but this event truly crushed her hopes—she just wasn't as talented as some.

It was a hard pill to swallow, as in the competition alone there were hundreds of people more talented than her.

If the top-ranked countries were allowed to send all their best talents, she wouldn't even be in the top hundred thousand of the best talents of this generation.

It didn't matter that she was the best in a small tier five country—in the global scheme of things, she was just average.

Painfully average.