Chapter 112: Young Master?
Robert's luxury sports car that drew attention wherever it passed through the city, when it entered the place turned out to be almost a popular car, since Noah could see two more Aston Martins parked, (although the two were different models from Robert's), but given the large number of luxury cars in that parking lot, with some apparently costing almost $1,000,000, Robert's car didn't look as special as it had a few moments prior.
Noah looked at the cars with curiosity, but nothing more. He had decided that he would buy himself a car in the near future, as had Jasper and Robert.
After entering this shed, Robert gave up the arrogant attitude that he maintained around Noah and adopted a more respectful attitude when he went to deal with a local attendant.
From what Noah was hearing, the clerk was saying that registration had already closed, but Robert insisted so hard that the grumpy clerk said that registration would now cost $ 10,000.
This price made both Noah and Robert surprised, as it was much bigger than they had imagined. Especially Robert, who believed that the price would be no more than $2,000 for registration. But as he had already boasted so much to Noah, both about his money and about ensuring that he would pay Noah's registration even if it got more expensive, in the end even though it would be costing him more than 3 Rank D Fortress raids, he still paid, but only after giving Noah a resentful look.
Noah was unaffected by that look and just thought, 'Nobody told me to show off too much about how much money I had and promise things I couldn't keep.'
If Robert had heard this he would definitely have been so angry that he might even have tried to attack Noah on the spot, but the only ones who heard it were Lilith and Terrence, who could both hear Noah's thoughts.
Terrence often did not understand what Noah was saying, but he was able to feel the intention through their bond, and Lilith had always had a strong connection with Noah beyond her human-like intelligence.
The clerk looked at Robert with disdain, since he had noticed the young man's hesitation after hearing that price. 'If you are going to drive an expensive car, at least have the money to pay for things like this. Maybe he is the poorest person who got here today?' But he clearly didn't say that to Noah or Robert.
After receiving the $10,000 through transfer, the clerk gave Noah a bracelet that indicated that he was a competitor. Initially he had had doubts about Noah, since he appeared to be younger and was accompanying this fake rich man in front of him, but when he went to put the bracelet around Noah's wrist, if Noah wouldn't have let him move his arm, it would have been very difficult for the attendant to be able to move it himself.
The attendant was a Blessed Rank E. With such a high strength exhibited from Noah, he assumed that Noah was actually a peak Blessed Rank D or even maybe a Rank C with a Blessing focused on strength, since it didn't look like Noah was forcing his own arm; it was more like an involuntary reflex.
It was common knowledge that Blessed with strength Blessings ended up becoming stronger naturally even without the active Blessing, as well as Blessed with Blessing focused on agility, like Jasper, also tended to be more agile on a daily basis because of the Blessing that they had.
When he felt Noah's strength in a normal way, without activating his own Blessing, the attendant soon assumed that Noah had a very powerful Strength Blessing, since he was very strong even without activating his Blessing.
But what the attendant didn't know was that, in fact, Noah's Blessing was not focused on strength, but that he had acquired many Strength points by burning that large amount of male dwarf corpses, which made his base strength become much greater than a Blessed One without a Blessing focused on strength. But his strength would not improve from anything else other than cremating a Blessed focused on strength that had the same strength as him, who could then double or triple Noah's base strength that was already high; otherwise, Noah would always have the same amount. But that didn't mean that Noah was weak, since he had countless other advantages besides the high base force. It just meant that the attendant had been wrong about his strength.
The difference in attitude that the attendant was exhibiting with him now after feeling his strength was clear to Noah. Before, he looked at Robert and Noah with obvious disdain, but after feeling Noah's strength and thinking that he might be dealing with a blessed Rank C, it had already made the attendant feel a little pressured, and remembering the appearance of Noah, who did not appear to be much older than 20 years, made the attendant think of those monsters he had heard of in the larger cities, which he certainly could not afford to offend by chance.
He knew how eccentric these people were, and to think that he almost offended one of those powerful people from such an influential background made the attendant's forehead start to get wet with sweat.
Noah had noticed the change in the attendant's attitude, but as much as he thought about it, Noah unfortunately couldn't understand why the attendant had changed so much.
Robert, on the other hand, was so distracted by thinking about the price he had paid that day that he no longer had the mood to poke fun at Noah all the time. He just ended up looking at empty space, perhaps counting how much money he had left in his bank account. So he didn't even notice the difference in attitude that the attendant was having with Noah, because if he had realized it, besides the frustration about what had happened, his anger towards Noah would increase even more, since he would feel that this was all his fault.
But just like before, it wasn't like Noah cared about Robert. Even more, now that Robert had already paid the price of his ticket, Noah had no more reason to deal with Robert. Even if he wanted to leave, Noah might think better than to ask Robert for a ride, since afterwards, Noah could call a taxi to go to Maggy's hospital.
"This way, sirs," the attendant said in a very respectful manner, attracting Robert's attention, who believed that the attendant was saying that with so much respect for him. Noah just ignored Robert and walked with the attendant, who Robert barely even bothered to look in the face.
The attendant was surprised by this. After all, for some reason, the mighty Blessed was acting politely with him while the apparently poor boy who pretended to be rich who accompanied the mighty Blessed was treating him with pride and arrogance. It just made the attendant's opinion of Robert even worse while he was thinking, 'Why can't you be like the young master here, instead of acting like a dick and probably offending even more people?' The clerk shook his head in disappointment at Robert's clear lack of awareness of the situation, but out of respect for Noah he decided not to comment on Robert's stupid attitude.
The group passed through a long corridor. The interior of the shed was much better than the exterior. While on the outside the shed looked like it would fall apart at any moment, on the inside it looked much newer. It was nothing luxurious; after all, with so many luxury cars inside, nothing the shed could offer would be able to attract more attention and demonstrate more luxury than those cars.
Noah simply accompanied the attendant while listening to the man explain to him how the competition rules worked. Basically there would be 16 fighters who would fight each other two by two until only one was left over and became the champion. The 16 fighters had already been decided, so Noah would have to fight one of the fighters to take his place from him, that is, even if he paid the entrance, he still had the chance of not being able to participate, which made Robert even angrier, since the chance that he had wasted $10,000 on Noah's possible defeat was very high.
He thought Noah might have a chance to go up against a Blessed Rank E and at least win a fight before he was beaten, but from what the attendant said, the chance that he would lose in the first battle was very high, as was the chance of him having spent $10,000 for nothing.
Another thing that the attendant said besides the number of fighters was the rules of the battle. As this fight was illegal, the rules were also not very strict, that is, before fighting he would have to sign a disclaimer saying that if he died in the battle, only he would be liable and nobody else.
That basically meant that if he wanted to, he could kill someone without being guilty of murder. But if the dead person had a powerful sponsor, the tournament would also not be held responsible for whoever had killed, so the killer would have to deal with the sponsor of the fighter he just killed.
If Noah wanted to kill someone, he would first need to calculate the benefits and costs he would have in doing so. If it was worth it, he didn't mind killing someone else. After all he could get stat points from it. Of course, this all hinged on his moral judgment. If his opponent was just an honest family man, he would not allow himself to do that to him, however profitable it could end up being.
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Please read the author's notes down here! he he :3 ↓↓↓