Climbing the Ranks - Chapter 38 preview (Patreon)

Arthur was never sure afterward who threw the first blow. All he really knew was that things had been tense in a Malaysian standoff – like a Mexicon standoff, but with more races and parangs instead of guns – and then the thing he knew, everyone was punching, kicking and slicing one another up.

Being rather broken at the moment, Arthur was not able to pay full attention to the fight. A few things were quite clear, quite fast though.

Firstly, Samseng really knew how to run. It wasn’t as though he had learnt a new movement technique – unless there was a technique called ‘throw your friends in front of your enemies’ except, you know, more flowery – but he seemed to have an innate sense of when to run and when to duck, so that others could get in the way of the oncoming fist.

Secondly, the Amah was just as though as she looked. She had a scary level of efficiency at using the cane she held in her hand, smacking weapons out of knuckles and cracking the cane across temples and collarbones. The fact that the cane itself was sheathed in some lightly glowing energy as she swung it probably helped with the smacking.

Lastly, the Suey Ying tong’s people here were all thugs. They had a tendency to lean in towards more Body – Strength and Endurance type attributes than they did speed. It made them really hard to take down but also slow, in comparison to the ladies who made up for their lack of damage potential with using very sharp weapons.

For all that, when one of the men managed to land a hit – and in a fight, that happened all too often – the women had a tendency to break.

In the end, two corpses, two injured and one fast running man were left along with three tear-stricken faces. The Amah stood around, glaring at the two men she had taken down mostly by herself and then prodded her no longer glowing cane at Arthur.

“Get up, boy. We can’t stay in their territory too long. Ah Choi is good at running and he’ll bring back his people fast enough.” Looking at the bodies, she barked out a quick series of orders that had them stripping weapons and helping the injured away. Another girl, the largest, grabbed hold of Arthur’s bag and then his arm, dragging him upright.

“Move!” She growled. Husky. Kind of cute, if you liked the low, growly voice women had.

“Who are you people? And what do you want with me?” Arthur muttered.

“Us? We’re the Thorned Lotuses,” the bear of a woman said, dark skin reflecting off her tight clothing as she kept moving with him along the edge of the tent city, following the limping but still fast-moving Amah. “The Cihe Hua.”

Arthur winced. “Please don’t.”

“Don’t drag you? We got to move.”

“Don’t speak Mandarin. Your accent is horrible.”

“Yours isn’t much better!” A voice called out from behind, ribbing Arthur.

“Never studied Mandarin. I’m a KL-ite!”

“Uh huh,” said the same woman, smirking. “Didn’t go to a proper school?”

“No Chinese schools where I was. Public all the way,” Arthur admitted. What that meant was that he studied in Malay mostly, had a class in English and none in Mandarin at all. If not for some afterschool classes, his Mandarin would have been pretty much non-existent. As for his English – that had gotten a decent boost from his sensei and a dedicated teacher overall.

Ah the joys of public education, one where there was never enough money and never enough good teachers involved and everything was being taught in a language less than thirty million people spoke, many of them not even well.

“I do have to ask – what the hell is wrong with you?” the girl holding him asked.

“I got beaten up.”

“Not that. You feel off.”

“Ummm… thanks?” Arthur said, hesitantly.

“Stop being dense. I meant your energy flows. It’s not what I’d expect from a man. You feel like a, a, girl!”

“Oh… that. Yeah….” He winced. “Cultivation deviation.”

“So, what? You’re a girl now?” she said.

“You know ah, I don’t let my friends call me a girl, never mind an unnamed woman.”

“Sharmila. Now, stop dodging the question,” her voice dropped and grew dangerous. “If you’re into some weird dual cultivation practice you read on the Internet…”

“No! Nothing like that.” Arthur shuddered. He knew what she had spoken of. There had been a case a few years back, where reports of a Tower climber who had exited started sacrificing women, using them to empower himself. He had to use Tower survivors, other cultivators, but he had left them as husks. Unfortunately before he had been captured, he’d released his methods onto the Internet. Attempts to scrub the information had – obviously – failed, so rumors of dual-cultivating cults were always floating around.

Didn’t help that other groups like the Golden Sunrise and the Third Pyramid in the USA had all chosen to jump on the same cult bandwagon, leaving the entire process with a rather bad taste in everyone’s mouth.

“Uh huh. Very fast at saying no, eh?”

“You got that right, Jan,” Sharmilla said.

“It isn’t. I took a pill I found. Thought it’d give me a boost…” Arthur said, quietly. “It was dumb, alright. I knew it was dumb. But it’s not as though playing it safe is going to get me to the top.”

“Oh, you’re orang itu lah,” Jan said, rolling her eyes.

“What? And you all aren’t?” Arthur replied. “what’s the point of going into the Tower if you don’t intend to climb it.”

“Just like a man lah, always got options,” Jan said. “You think we got some, eh? You think we wanted to be here? Some of us come ‘cause we have no choice lah.”

“So, what? Come in, hang out, live life and maybe, maybe ascend?” Arthur’s eyes narrowed. “What’s the point? You can’t even have kids in here.”

“And thank god for that!” Sharmilla said, fervently.

“No hunger lah. You can eat, you can cook, you might have to fight, but whatever. Kita pun get lots of rest, no need to work.” Jan shrugged. “Outside, got debtors, got rent, got lots of orang bodoh always want something. No one even come bother you from outside.”

“Ya-lah. I wasn’t going to marry him.” Sharmilla shuddered. “But a Tower climber? That’s status. And hey, no reason you can’t, maybe, eventually ascend.”

A lot of nods then, from some of the other women.

Arthur could not help but contemplate their words. It was an entirely different kind of viewpoint to Tower climbing then he had been exposed to. Everyone in his classes had been like him – dedicated to the idea of bettering themselves through the Tower. Using it for its real purposes, to ascend.

Then again, were they so different? Everyone who entered the Tower was doing so to escape the dystopian world of automation, low paying jobs and barely enough welfare income to pay for their existences. Well, except for the rich or connected, who were here to become richer and more powerful.

“Whatever. I just need to figure this out. Then I’ll be fine…” Arthur said.

“Uh huh. Just keep telling yourself that,” Sharmila followed Amah as she turned in, heading deeper. Soon enough, more and more individuals appeared, women of all sorts, many calling out greetings that were ignored or shushed.

Word spread, and suddenly, Arthur felt himself rather alone in a sea of women. A sea of angry, watchful women.