I watched several fights. The violence was raw, but there was a logic to it. It was a test of will as much as strength. The one who hesitated, the one who showed fear, lost.
My gaze met the bet organizer's. He was an older student, with a scar cutting through his eyebrow. He gave me a nod. "Next?"
I nodded back.
My heart started to pound. Not with fear. With excitement.
I thought about it all one last time. Yoo-Na's kindness. Min-Soo's warnings.
Maybe Min-Soo was right. Maybe Yoo-Na was manipulating me. Maybe I was a pawn in a game I didn't understand.
But looking at the fighting circle, I realized none of it mattered.
Ally or enemy, Yoo-Na had shown me the door. Min-Soo, with his caution, never would have. He would have kept me in the hallway, safe, analyzing the lock.
I might have called Min-Soo jealous, and maybe it was true, maybe not. But the truth was, I was the one who had changed. I didn't want his safety anymore. I didn't want his analysis.
I wanted this. The heat. The risk. The fight.
The organizer shouted my name. Or rather, the nickname they had already given me.
"Next up! A new guy! The Last Draft Pick!"
Laughter erupted from the crowd.
I stepped into the circle. The spotlights were harsh. The dirt on the floor clung to my shoes.
I finally felt like I belonged.
The laughter continued as I took my place in the center of the concrete circle. I paid it no mind. Their doubts were fuel.
My opponent stepped in across from me. A colossus, even taller and broader than the bulky guy from my room. He had a stupid grin and arms as thick as tree trunks.
"One hundred points on the new guy!" the organizer shouted. "Who's betting against him?"
Several hands went up in the crowd. Another student noted the bets on his terminal. The odds were clearly against me.
The organizer didn't give a starting signal. The fight began when the colossus decided it began.
His body began to glow with a faint brown light. Body Reinforcement. A classic in the Pit. He charged at me, a human bull, his fist raised, ready to crush me.
I didn't see him as an enemy. I saw him as a problem.
Min-Soo would have told me to dodge, to analyze his movements, to find a weakness. But my duel with Park had taught me one thing: I wasn't fast enough to dodge a stronger opponent. I couldn't play their game. I had to play mine.
The colossus's fist, hard as stone, came straight for my face.
I didn't move an inch.
And at the last moment, I did what I came here to do.
I summoned my dagger.
But I didn't try to block his fist. I aimed for his arm, just below the shoulder, and I struck.
The tip of my dagger touched the colossus's arm. His reinforcement aura flickered at the point of contact, like a sputtering lightbulb. A part of his power was erased.
But the punch still landed.
He hit me square in the chest. The pain was like an explosion. I was thrown backward, rolling across the dirty concrete floor, the wind completely knocked out of me.
I coughed, trying to catch my breath, the taste of blood in my mouth.
"HEY!"
The organizer's voice boomed, louder than the crowd's murmurs.
He stepped into the circle and pointed at me. "No weapons. Ever. That's the first and only rule of the Pit. You fight with your fists and your Aura. Not with knives."
He turned to the colossus. "You're lucky, the new guy doesn't know the rules. Continue. But if he pulls out his toy again, the fight's over and all bets go to you."
He left the circle.
I understood. My best weapon, the only thing that gave me an edge, was forbidden. They wanted a brute force fight.
The colossus grinned, a wide, cruel smile. He saw I had nothing left.
I got back up, my ribs on fire.
He didn't even use his Aura this time. He just ran at me, grabbed me by the waist as if I were a rag doll, lifted me off the ground, and slammed me down with a brutal wrestling hold.
My back hit the ground with a dull thud. Stars danced in front of my eyes.
He didn't give me time to breathe. He grabbed me by the ankle, spun me around, and threw me against the other side of the circle. My body slammed into the wall of spectators.
He was slaughtering me. And I could do nothing. He was toying with me, stomping on me, throwing me around like an object. The crowd was laughing.
This was worse than the duel with Park. This was pure, total humiliation.
I was on all fours, trying to get up. The world was spinning. Every part of my body screamed in pain.
The colossus got a running start. He charged me and hit me with a powerful lariat, his outstretched arm hitting my throat and head with the force of a battering ram.
Darkness closed in. I collapsed, face down. Unconscious.
The fight was over.
I don't know how long I lay there. When I came to, the next fight had already started. I was off to the side, abandoned.
I managed to push myself into a sitting position. My body was one giant ache.
I looked at the crowd. And that's when I saw her.
Yoo-Na.
She was there, in the shadows, away from the main circle. She wasn't alone. She was with Park, the guy who'd beaten me in class, and a few other students with arrogant faces. The Ivory Circle.
She was laughing. A light, crystalline laugh. She was holding a terminal in her hand, and I saw her receive a point transfer from the organizer.
She had bet. Against me.
The kindness. The encouragement. The messages. "You have something others don't." It was all fake.
It was a game to her. I was her toy. She sent me here to laugh at me, to bet on my failure.
A cold rage, far more intense than anything I had ever felt before, washed over the pain.
I got to my feet, staggering. I ignored the fights. I pushed through the crowd, shoving people out of my way.
I stopped right in front of her. Her group fell silent.
"Why?" I asked, my voice hoarse and broken.
Yoo-Na looked at me, her smile vanishing, replaced by a look of amused surprise. Then, she raised an eyebrow, and her face turned cold, contemptuous. The real her.
"Why?" she repeated, as if the question was stupid. "Because it was funny. Watching the hopeful little rookie get crushed."
She took a step toward me, her gaze piercing me. "Did you really think someone like me would be interested in someone like you?"
"Know your place, you piece of trash."
Those words, cold and sharp as her ice, shattered the last thing I had left: the shred of respect I still had for her.
The rage exploded. All the pain, all the humiliation, all the betrayal transformed into a single word.
"Bitch," I spat, the word full of venom.
Silence fell over their group. Yoo-Na's face froze. Surprise gave way to a glacial fury.
Park, the guy who'd beaten me in class, stepped forward. His expression was dark.
"No one talks to Yoo-Na like that," he said, his voice low and threatening.
Before I could react, two other members of the circle grabbed me by the arms. They were strong, much stronger than me. They dragged me out of the Pit without a word, pulling me through the dark basement corridors.
Yoo-Na and the others followed, their footsteps echoing in the silence.
They took me to an old, abandoned boiler room, far from everything. They threw me into the middle of the room, onto the dusty concrete floor.
I landed heavily on my injuries. The pain was blinding.
They formed a circle around me.
"You think you can insult anyone you want, F-rank?" Park said as he approached.
He kicked me hard in the ribs. I cried out in pain.
"You're nothing. You're a glitch in the system. An insect." Another kick.
"You should be grateful we let you breathe the same air as us." A kick to the stomach.
They continued, one by one. Punches, kicks. Each blow came with an insult. "Trash.""Poor." "Useless." "Mistake."
Yoo-Na watched, arms crossed, her face a canvas of cold contempt. She didn't say a thing. She didn't need to. The others were doing it for her.
They beat me until I couldn't move anymore, until my consciousness started to fade. The last thing I saw before sinking into darkness was her face, perfect and cruel, looking down on me as if I were less than nothing.