BNHA: Martial Arts God (Patreon)

CHAPTER 24

The tournament area was packed. I mean, packed with a lot of people. People from countries like China to even Africa gathered around to participate in the tournament. 

It was understandable. The World Martial Arts Tournament was only held once per 4 years, so the hype was understandable.

Walking to one of the hundred registries at 8 a.m. was a smart move since at this time, the whole stadium was already so full of people, participants, and audiences alike.

They had already registered that they were participating online a few months back, so after showing them a card with their name and tournament ID, only Gohru and Kenichi had the participant pass while the rest had the spectator, and they let them in pretty quickly without any hassle.

Thankfully, Gohru had already predicted the incredible size of people that were coming to the tournament, so he bought VIP tickets (With the help of Tashiro-san, bless him) for the gang. 

The tournament starts in two hours' time, so while waiting they were on their phone playing together.

"Hey! Fuck, I need help mid!"

"Hold on, I'm farming right now..."

"Ahhhhh!!! Helppppppp!  |  Motherfucker's ganking top again! FUCK!"

"La la la la~"

"Toga! Stop touching my CS!"

Yep, they were playing Wild Rift. Gohru was quite surprised that League was even in this universe. It was toxic as hell, something that carried over in this universe, but hey, at least this was something fun instead of all the fucking Hero games that were catered for kids.

After 5 matches of both losses and wins, they eventually put their phones down when the P.A. system in the stadium rang.

"To all participants, please gather at the center of the stadium. I repeat, to all participants — "

The voice said in English, which Gohru understood fully since he himself was an American before his first death, but Kenichi only understood a little.

"So... We meet in the center?"

"Yep. Come on."

"Good luck, Boss man and Ken!  |  I hope you break someone's bones!"

"I doubt the tourney will be interesting since the boss's here."

"Good luck, Gohru! Oh, you too Kenichi."

And with that, they walked to their destination.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, it is good to be back in a tournament!"

Said a man with blond hair and glasses in the mic as cameras were panning left and right around the participants. There was also a huge screen above the main stage of the tournament, presumably for the audience to watch closer.

"Now, before we begin, we would like to introduce a... newer and interesting way of choosing the final participants for the fight! Since there are only 16 slots in the main event, after much discussion and planning, we have finally found a way to reduce the time taken to choose said participants!"

The crowd cheered as Gohru hummed at the announcement. Kenichi looked at him confused at the long English sentence to which he explained hastily.

'I guess they decided to make the process faster because of the last one.'

The previous World Martial Arts Tournament went on for a whole week due to the number of participants, and the fact that they used an elimination bracket method to decide the final 16 participants, the choosing process alone took 4 days to complete, which was a major profit lost for the organization holding the event.

"Now, who else to explain the new method of the "Selection" than the creator of the system himself, David Shield!"

The screen shifted to a VIP room,  the crowd watching as a man was holding onto a mic. The man had sky-blue eyes and short, brown hair. He also had a short goatee on his chin and wide-rimmed square glasses on his face.

David Shield, the CEO of Shields Corp, the latest sponsor of the World Martial Arts Tournament. He was also a main plotline character for one of the BNHA movies, though the plot was already forgotten by Gohru since it really wasn't relevant to the main plot of BNHA.

Looking up to the VIP rooms, he frowns as he focuses, eventually finding the same room that David Shield was in. 

'He brought his daughter too? Cool, I guess they came to watch too.'

"Ahem... Good morning, everyone. I'm David Shield, CEO of Shields Corpoarted and the inventor of the new "Selection" as Yuha-san mentioned. Now, please take a look at the screen above the stage.

The image changed to a machine that had some sort of punching bag in the middle, along with a lot of wires coming out at the back of it connecting to a station nearby.

"This here is what I call a "Power Level Scouter". It scans the amount of power and the average level of strength one has after 5 strikes of any kind. We will be using this to determine the 16 participants."

Gohru's eyes widened as he recalls something similar to this. Dragon Ball's power scaling machine in the Buu arc. But how? ...

He guessed that it was only a coincidence. After all, how would they even make this? It's not like someone else reincarnated into this specific world too. Besides the name of the tournament also was similar to Dragon Ball's Tenkaichi Budokai, so it must surely be a coincidence.

Shrugging it off, he focuses back on David Shield's message.

"Now, some of you may ask, what if your strengths were not strengthened based? Well, let me introduce you to the Quirk version of the Power Level Scouter.

A different image appeared, revealing a chamber with a dummy bot in the center with all sorts of sensors on the walls of the chamber.

"You can use your Quirk or technique on the dummy, and it will record the damage dealt to it. Then using our state-of-the-art AI scanning, it will give you a power level base on the technique or Quirk.

The screen then flashed back to him, smiling as he continued.

"We have produced 10 of each version of the Power Level Scouter, so the process is estimated to only take one day, reducing the amount of time needed by 240%. And for any viewer who is watching this online and wishes to not miss out on your favorite participant's score, don't worry. On the official website, you'll see a tab called Power Scaling. This will show the up-to-date ranking from highest to lowest, along with a search bar to find your favorite participant. You can then click on their name, and it will show you their Quirk or martial art used on the Power Level Scouter."

'Dayum, this guy just made it fairer than I expected! And an online view of the leaderboard? That's very cool, Shield-san.'

Impressed at the amount of details they thought to make the event more fun, he watches after explaining to Kenichi how the devices worked as David bows slightly. 

"Now that that's out of the way, I'd like to thank the organization for supporting me and my team to make the new "Selection" process easier. For the participants, I wish you the best of luck in the tournament, and to the audience, sit back and enjoy the tournament. I know that I will!"

And with a chuckle at the end, the screen goes dark as the announcer from before walks back up to the stage.

"Now that Shield-san has explained the machines, let's start the "Selection" process right this instant!"

The participants in the area cheered as he continues.

"Following ID from lowest to highest! You can choose your variant of the machine that best suits your fighting style!"

Gohru and Kenichi's ID was next to each other, number 83 and 84 respectively, so they just had to wait a while before it was their turn. They choose the chamber variant because of their specialty in martial arts techniques.

"Thank goodness you bought the participant tickets early..."

"I know right, I think there's like 300 people here joining the tournament"

After a few more minutes of waiting, they were finally able to test their Power Level. But before they entered the chamber...

"Highest PL gets lunch?"

"Bet, don't go easy on me, Gohru!"

"Fuck you, I never hold back!"

And they entered their respective chamber at the same time.