1 [PROLOGUE] The Beginning of A New Era
*BOOM*
A loud bang followed by ripples of waves that look like auroras suddenly appears in the sky.
People at that time were left frozen with fear and confusion.
"What is that?!"
"Is this the end of the world!?"
"Are we going to die?!
These questions that popped up inside the minds of these apes were left unanswered. But not for long.
At the city park, a guy wearing a tracksuit suddenly burst into flames. He went panic and started to scream.
" STOP! DROP!! AND ROLL!!!" shouted a policeman from afar.
The policeman immediately took off his jacket intending to help extinguish the fire. He ran as quickly as possible in an attempt to approach the young man who seems to be in his early twenties.
The guy who got engulfed in flames followed what the policeman just said.
A few seconds later, a moment of realisation suddenly hit.
The flame was not even that hot. You could even say that it was not even as hot as a warm bowl of rice. It was lukewarm at best. He was confused. He chose to stand up while also trying to look at his arms and legs.
"Are you okay?" asked the policeman in confusion.
"Yeah! it's not even that hot."
"What!?" the policeman was not convinced.
Though, as the policeman witnessed that the skin of the young man still looks in a pristine condition, he dared himself to touch the flame.
"It's... it's not hot! You're right! the flame is not hot! But how?!"
"I don't know."
The man, the policeman, and the people in the park who witnessed these scenes were left bewildered, unable to process the event that is happening in front of their sight.
This event will be well known throughout the world as 'The Fire Man Incident'.
Another event also happened not quite far from there. But this one is special because it will change the course of humanity drastically.
the next event happens in a boxing arena. The match between the concurrent heavyweight champion Santiago Hernandez and the challenger Julius Morgan for the championship title has ended the first round with an intense bout, and the start of the second round is about to begin.
"Well that was quite interesting isn't it, Jeremy? Santiago's ability to connect all of his punches without leaving any opening for his opponent really shows what the challenger need to surpass in order to become a champion. It's kinda like trying to ...."
One of the commentators, Elias, suddenly stopped his sentence midway.
"What the hell is that?!" asked Jeremy who was supposed to commentate on the match.
The match suddenly stopped. The start of the second round was supposed to start already, but everyone in the stadium was left static and bewildered.
|Are You Ready to Battle?|
|HP 86| |HP 74|
A prompt suddenly appeared on top of the ring. These prompts can be seen floating on top of both these boxers. People were confused.
"That looks like one of those info screens from fighting video games that my son often plays at home. How the hell does that appear right in front of us right now?" said Elias.
"I don't know... you think they'll continue the fight Elias?" asked Jeremy still in bewilderment.
"I don't know."
While everyone was still frozen in confusion, the challenger, Julius, tried to lightly punch his opponent while looking at the prompt screen.
|FIGHT! FIGHT!! FIGHT!!!|
|HP 84| |HP 74|
Both the audience and the boxers were dumbfounded by the sudden change in the prompt.
"This is really like video games!" said Elias in enthusiasm.
Both of the boxers were looking at each other and they agree to continue the fight. They looked at the referee to asked for him to proceed with the match.
The referee was quite hesitant, but, he didn't know what to do, so he decided to continue and start the second round.
*DING* *DING* *DING*
The start of the second round was silent. Everyone, except for the boxers, was still having a hard time digesting what was happening in front of their own eyes.
Ignoring the disturbance caused by mysterious prompts, these professionals kept throwing their jabs and hooks toward each other.
Santiago's fist flew to Julius's left temple.
Unable to neither block nor dodge, he received a clean hit from the champion.
|HP 82| |HP 70|
Santiago looked at the prompts with satisfaction.
Julius saw an opening and threw a solid left hook.
|HP 75| |HP 70|
This is the first time that the champion ever gets distracted during a match. He felt frustrated, though calmly, he managed to land a perfect left jab and right uppercut combo.
|HP 75| |HP 50|
It is clear to him that even though his opponent is talented, Julius still lacks the experience to beat him and become the champion, or so he thought.
As the hp bar of these professional boxers kept decreasing, the audiences started to express their opinion.
"This is very cool!"
"You think one of them will die if their HP reaches 0?"
"You think a monster will suddenly appear from a portal dungeon?"
the audiences were confused but seeing the boxers' HP reducing from taking each hit made them excited
The audience cheers kept getting louder and louder.
And then...
*DING* *DING* *DING*
The sign of the end of the match echoed throughout the stadium filled with thousands of people.
"And the winner is... the new Heavyweight Champion.... Julius Morgan!!" said the announcer with excitement.
Though Santiago's HP has reached 0, he did not die. He only suffered from a serious injury. He was immediately taken to the hospital.
The cheer that comes from these audiences at that time was louder than a jet engine. They expected Santiago to keep his championship title. But throughout the second half of the round, his movement suddenly becomes sluggish, and Julius movement becomes sharper. It is as if their body and soul was suddenly exchanged.
"Man! I knew that Julius was actually strong!"
"Maybe the former champion got too distracted by that weird floaty thingy right?"
"Or maybe, he's just not as strong as when he was in his prime. I mean..., He is in his forties now and that alone is already impressive!"
"Yeah."
The audiences kept exchanging their thought after the match ended.
For the next couple of days, more people started to become aware that they have acquired powers similar to those superheroes in a fictional world.
Though it is not as powerful as they might think it should, the people were rejoicing these newly acquired powers, thinking that this is the next step of human revolution.
They later found out that they can strengthen their power by fighting each other.
People were obsessed with fighting, whether it is on the street, at school, at hospitals, and many other places.
The cities across the world were facing an imminent threat with an increasing report of public disturbance and physical assault caused by these fights.
International Conference was organized to discuss this issue. They finally reached a conclusion and decided to establish <Super Fighter Arena>. It is a place to fight for strength, fame, and wealth. Anyone with superpowers or not can join as a 'Fighters'. Trillions of dollars were spent to build facilities to accommodate these fighters, from an association building for administrative work to stadiums exclusive for fighting. People celebrated this newly made announcement and began the rush of the new era of fighters.
