All Chapters of The Rejected Man's Rise: Chapter 131
- Chapter 140
181 chapters
CHAPTER 131
The car was crushed to the point it seemed impossible for anyone inside to survive.The truck driver ran away like his life depended on it.The nearby people rushed over to help. One of them moved the truck away. There were no flames coming out of the car, but it looked utterly wrecked.Nobody even saw the point in trying to check if the person inside was alive or not.Everyone thought that the bones of that person would have gotten broken completely, and they would have died instantly.Still, everybody was staring at each other, wondering who was going to call the ambulance.Just then, the bent door burst open.And Caleb stepped out, his shirt torn here and there, and his nose bleeding, but he stood tall.There was no happiness in his eyes that he survived. There was only shock.That was not an accident.That was murder.He never thought someone would come after his life like this.He had seen such things happen in movies, but in real life, he felt like he had put a foot in the after
CHAPTER 132
“Take me to the black ring,” Caleb said casually.The shopkeeper smiled with arrogance. “Black Ring? What’s that? A new kind of ice cream?”“I won’t say it again,” Caleb warned. “Lead the way, or you’ll regret it.”The shopkeeper’s expression changed.He clapped twice.Two men rushed into the stop and grabbed Caleb on both sides. “You should leave.”Caleb roasted his shoulders so fast their arms were thrown backward.He elbowed in their guts, sending them flying out of the shore.The shopkeeper immediately took out a gun and pointed it at Caleb.Caleb put his thumb finger and covered the gun hole.“You fool,” the shopkeeper pressed the trigger.The gun exploded and was thrown out of the shopkeeper’s hand. His wrist hurt in the process.Caleb grabbed his shirt and pulled him over the counter and kneed him in the face.His nose broke and blood poured out.“AHHH!” He cried.Caleb grabbed him by the hair and lifted his head. “I told you you’d regret it.”“Forgive me,” the shopkeeper quick
CHAPTER 133
“What’s your name?” Caleb asked the girl.“Natasha,” she said.“Oh, that’s a name as beautiful as your looks,” Caleb replied.She chuckled.This wasn’t the first time she received compliments from men, and she was used to it.She guided him to the back rooms after the hall, where there were fighters practicing together. Some were just hitting the punching bags alone.And there were those who were swinging their swords.There were all kinds of people.One big guy saw Caleb and licked his lips. “What a pretty guy,” he pushed the girl aside and stood in Caleb’s path. “You look too soft to fight in this dangerous ring. Why don’t you become my assistant? I’ll pay you well.”Caleb ignored him and helped Natasha get back up to her feet.She thanked him.“Hey, did you just ignore me?” The big guy put his hand on Caleb’s shoulder and pressed it, trying to hurt him.His strength was easily five times more than your average adult male.But Caleb’s expression didn’t change. “Take your hand off, o
CHAPTER 134
The F-rank fighting hall roared like a living beast. Money screamed louder than the crowd.Every few seconds, chips slammed against tables, drunk gamblers cursed at fighters, and somewhere deeper in the arena, metal clanged against metal like chains being dragged across a prison floor.Caleb stood near one of the entrances into the hall, using his enhanced senses to feel everything.Now that he had entered properly, he could finally grasp the full scale of the Black Ring.The arena itself was circular, descending downward like an ancient coliseum buried beneath the city.White lights hung from the ceiling cages, illuminating the fighting stage below. Cigarette smoke floated lazily through the air conditioners, refusing to disappear completely. The smell in the air was a thick mixture of sweat, blood, alcohol, and greed.“So?” Natasha smiled while crossing her arms beneath her chest. “Still think this is just some thug playground?”Caleb’s eyes swept across the audience. Rich men in su
CHAPTER 135
“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! OUR NEXT MATCH IS AN E-RANK QUALIFIER!”The lights shifted. A spotlight landed on one side of the arena.A thin man wearing dark leather walked onto the stage while twirling a knife between his fingers.“ROOOOOK!”“Make your opponent bleed to death again!”“Rook! Rook! Rook! Rook!”The audience shouted his name repeatedly.“Fifteen wins in a row,” the announcer continued. “Fast hands. Likes carving people up before finishing them.”Caleb could hear the voices from the tunnel. His heart felt the thrill as their voices trembled the tunnels a bit.“The crowd is nasty,” Caleb smirked. “Watching others fight to death is not my cup of tea, but if I want to explore the spirit world and beat the powerful creatures that live there, I’ll have to get stronger. If this Black Ring organization allows me to fight strong opponents, then I won’t mind spending some time here to level up. That damned crow can’t come here anyway, so this is a perfect place to train and acquire kno
CHAPTER 136
Caleb walked down the stairs toward the arena floor. The deeper he descended, the louder the noise became.As he got closer, he felt strange. The audience above almost looked like shadowy beasts circling prey.For a second, he remembered the spirit world.And it made him close his eyes for a bit.“Did I become overly sensitive after entering the spirit world? These people look like violent creatures,” he thought.Rook grinned the moment Caleb entered the stage. He too looked like a beast, not a shadowy one but a vivid creature ready to hunt its prey.“You’re handsome,” he said while pointing his knife. “I’ll try not to ruin your face too much.”Caleb ignored him and looked around instead.The stone floor had dark stains everywhere. Some old, but some fresh. People definitely died here. He could tell that much.The referee stepped between them. He was wearing light armor beneath his clothes. Caleb could feel that.These were not things he would have been aware of in the past.Especiall
CHAPTER 137
Caleb came out of the arena. He was in one of the waiting rooms. He was told to wait until his next opponent was announced.Natasha came to meet him.“That was insane,” she said. “Rook usually tortures newcomers for fun. He had fifteen wins in a row. Nobody expected him to lose, at least not in the way he did.”She hid the fact that she had bet on Caleb and made a 2000 dollar profit.“He wasn’t that good,” Caleb shrugged.Just then, one worker brought a bag of chips and gave it to Caleb. “All of the chips thrown are red ones, which were bet on Rook. Nobody had green chips, so you don’t get any money from the chips the audience threw onto the arena.”“Then why did you bring this bag to me?”“We just wanted to let you know,” she said and then left.“Is it just me, or did she look at me like I was a lunatic?” Caleb asked.Natasha chuckled softly. “Rook was considered brutal even among E-ranks. And the way you fought him… catching the knife with barehands… I believe the audience think you
CHAPTER 138
Caleb stopped near a dim corridor lined with fighter rooms.Unlike the noisy arena outside, this hallway felt quieter and tenser.Men wrapped their hands in silence. Others sat with eyes closed like execution prisoners waiting for their names.The atmosphere was not like this in the last arena he had fought. Maybe, his victory brought him to a different arena allocated to the E-rankers.There were a total of 4 stages allocated to E-rankers, after all.Caleb saw an old janitor cursing under his breath because people were walking right after he cleaned the floor.He was supposed to clean faster because it would be difficult to remove stains after the blood dried.Caleb also walked right past the old man, “Bet on me if you want to make some money, sir.”The old man slowly turned his head after Caleb had taken a few steps ahead. He wondered if what he heard was right or if it was just his imagination.Some fighter just called him ‘sir?’ This never happened before.If it wasn’t for that, h
CHAPTER 139
The ten minute wait felt like an eternity for Caleb.He could hear the other fighters in the hallways smiling and snickering as they talked about him right in front of him, not caring about his feelings at all.“I bet 50 dollars that Drake’s going to skin him alive.”“I bet 60 dollars that Drake will break his knees first.”“Haha, Drake is known for breaking his opponent’s bones, so it’s hard to tell which bones he’ll go after this time.”“Maybe, he’ll go after the third leg?”“Pfft, puahahaha.”As they laughed, Caleb stood calmly because he knew that their laughter wouldn’t last long anyway.He was going to shut their mouths without even having to talk to them.Soon, the announcer’s voice echoed in the hall.Caleb’s name was called first.As he was about to enter, Natasha briefly passed by, and she whispered, “Don’t humiliate Drake.”She seemed genuinely worried, not for Drake but for Caleb.And it brought a smile out of Caleb.He felt like losing for her, but he didn’t think that lo
CHAPTER 140
Drake’s jaw hardened.Here in Black Ring, the veterans knew that the flow of the battle was important. Most people ignored it, but the veterans with sponsors knew how important it was to always try to come on top of the opponent.So, now, Caleb’s counter just dismissed Drake’s punch.This wasn’t good for Drake, or for his sponsors.Because Caleb’s words made Drake’s punch look like a joke, and that joke wouldn’t help the sponsors sell Drake’s success as much even if he were to win later on.So, maintaining a strong image was absolutely necessary for any fighter who wanted to rise in status and have a long-lasting career in Black Ring.Whether Caleb said those words intentionally or not, it didn’t matter.Drake’s expression turned cold, and he was no longer smiling.As someone who had fought and won more than 80 times in E-rank arenas, he hadn’t felt the urge to crush an opponent like this in a long time.This was no personal enmity toward Caleb.This was just his way of proving his wo