In an alleyway close to Cloudy Street, Julian leaned against the wall of a building, drinking from a water bottle.
"You’re alright?"
Karma asked and peeked out of the alleyway—he saw police cars parked outside his house and lawn searching the taxi and the house with an open door.
"What is the Police Force doing? Aren’t they arresting Zachary?"
"I am... alright."
Julian crushed the empty water bottle in his hand and stood up, but his legs still felt weak like jelly.
"Let’s go then."
Karma said, walked out of the alleyway, and approached his house, but there was yellow tape surrounding the periter and police cars parked out front.
"Excuse us, but you cannot co here."
A lawman stopped them with his hand reached out to them.
"I am this house’s owner. Is sothing happening here?"
Karma asked.
"You’re... Karma Hunter?"
The lawman asked and saw Karma nod his head.
"Well, Mr. Hunter. We’re not sure if your house is related to it, but we got a report of a murder that happened nearby.
"A taxi over there had a dead body inside, and when we ca, your house’s door was open, and we went inside to investigate.
"It had been ssed up, looking like a burglary."
The lawman said.
"Was anyone inside?"
Karma asked in surprise.
The lawman took off his blue top hat, wiped the sweat off his forehead with a napkin, and said.
"No, but we found so blood. It might be the taxi driver’s blood, as he was poked by so kind of object, and the culprit might’ve gone inside your house with the murder weapon, and the blood dropped off the weapon.
"It’s just a guess at this point, but we will take the blood for a DNA test. The result will co in a few days, and we might be coming here for further questioning."
The lawman said.
"Oh, alright... I’ll let you do your job then."
Karma said, and walked with Julian a few houses down, puzzled expressions on their faces.
"Where the hell did Kiernan and Zachary go then?"
Julian asked.
Karma pulled out his phone from his pocket, sent a ssage to Kiernan, and waited impatiently, but a mont later, he received an answer from his son.
"It’s Kiernan. He is saying that he is alright and that you-know-who is dead..."
Karma said in surprise.
"Zachary is dead? How the hell did Kiernan do that, and how did he already get rid of the corpse?"
"I don’t know..."
Karma said.
"Are you sure it’s Kiernan ssaging you? What if it’s Zachary on his phone?"
"No... Kiernan has a very specific way of typing. He types slowly and speaks like an old man with the way he types, pretty much."
Karma said with a wry smile, pocketed the phone, and leaned on the fence.
"I believe there is nothing to worry about anymore."
"...Mmh."
Julian nodded and leaned against the sa fence, but then he had a lightbulb mont and quickly straightened up.
"Right, the second event of the championship is about to start. Will Kiernan miss it?"
Julian asked.
Realizing that, Karma pulled out his phone again and turned on the broadcast—the second event was about to be decided with the lottery wheel.
"I don’t know..."
...
"Argh... Ngh!"
Kiernan sat on the bench of his personal waiting room and tightened the bandage around his right leg.
He took a deep breath and saw the television co to life—the white-faced doll showed up with a stitched-up smile on its face.
"Welco to the second event, representative!
"These days must be the most exciting days of your young life yet, and it is still in the beginning phases.
"The first event went spectacularly. Point ball is a chaotic event to start, so shall we see what the second event is?"
The white-faced doll asked with a wink.
"Don’t be running, please."
Kiernan said and turned to the television.
The lottery wheel appeared on the television, and the white-faced doll gave it a spin—it started spinning rapidly.
One na in the wheel was already grayed—it was Point Ball—so it couldn’t happen a second ti in the championship!
The arrow at the top kept slowing down the wheel, and a short mont later, it ca into a slow stop.
[Horse Endurance!]
"Oh, oh, oh! It is Horse Endurance ti—it’s an event where you’ll have to stand in horse stance for as long as possible...
"Sounds easy, right?"
"Hahaha, the conditions will be ever-changing, and even one minute will be torturous. The longer you survive, the more points you net. Good luck, representative!"
The screen turned dark.
"Horse stance?"
Kiernan said aloud and grimaced—it wasn’t a good event for him—it was going to be imnse pressure on his legs.
"Unlucky..."
He limped to his feet, careful not to put any weight on the right foot, and then saw the door before him open into the stadium.
The roaring of the audience entered his ears, and as he limped through the short, dark tunnel, he started to walk on his right leg as well.
It brought him imnse pain, but the last thing he wanted was to show any weakness to his competitors—they would just target him if they knew that he was weakened.
The hundreds of representatives entered the arena—it was a different floor this ti around—it was the stone yard of a majestic temple.
There were brown tiles mixed with gray ones—in front of the brown tiles, there were numbers—and there were approximately 316 of them.
In the first event, a few representatives had to drop out of the competition after getting injured, so only 316 were left!
’Where am I supposed to go?’
Kiernan wondered, and since he was a tier four representative, he moved closer to the back, but then an event organizer stepped in front of him.
A quiet smile on her face, and her eyes closed—curved as if her closed eyes were smiling—but it was also clear that she could still see.
"Mr. Hunter. Your spot is number three at the front. It is based on rankings."
"Oh, thanks."
Kiernan nodded and walked normally towards the brown tile with number three at the front—he looked ahead, and from there, he could see the audience more vividly than ever before.
They were looking at him closely—it was one of the perks of doing well in the first event—he was now being looked at by the audience and the entire world.
Since he was in the front row, where the top 10 ranking representatives belong, the broadcast would also show them more than any other row.
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