In a dim room illuminated only by the moonlight from the floor to ceiling window, a dark shadow was sitting on a one seater sofa with legs crossed leisurely, one hand holding a phone on call.
"Hah." A cold and derisive snort came from the figure on the sofa as the person shook the left feet over the right leg in rhythm to the tapping of the hand on the sofa armrest.
The person on the other side of the call spoke in an anxious and urgent tone but the figure on the sofa sat leisurely without any hint of urgency.
" So she has made her decision. " The voice was very low but audible in the silent room.
Despite the person's lazy and nonchalant demeanour, the dark figure looked lonely and pitiful in the cold and empty room furnished with just the bed, a desk and the sofa.
Under the bed, a red dot flickered from time to time with a timer counting down on it.
But the person did not notice it.
The furnitures in the room and the person all blended together as shadows in the dark room, creating an eerie and tense atmosphere.
"When is it?" The hand tapping on the sofa clenched tightly.
"In a month, Boss." The voice replied on the phone.
"Oh."
A lone tear streaked down the pale cheek as it beautifully and tragically reflected the silver moonlight in it's glorious descend.
The call ended with a single tap of long, slim and fair finger as the screen came alive, reflecting a beautiful pair of red rimmed eyes.
Before the person's face was fully seen-
BANG!-
A loud explosion sounded as the entire apartment building went up in flames, the fiery flames engulfing the figure and the lone tear that vaporized before it touched the floor.
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A slim and tall girl with a huge tattoo of a coiling snake on a thorny rose bush covering half of her face was squatting by the corner as she watched the two burly men grappling in the arena.
A blade of grass hung between her lips as she swatted the buzzing mosquitoes by her leg.
Dressed in oversized rugged jacket with a hood over her head and dusty cargo pants, the right side of her face was covered with tattoos of a ferocious black snake head with sharp fangs hissing, it's forked tongue ending right on the corner of her lips.
The snake appeared very life like, as if will come alive and strike you the next moment with it's cold and sharp deadly fangs.
The left side of her face was marred by a large and deep scar running from right below her left eye down to the corner of her lips, intertwined with many other smaller scars of varying depths.
It was difficult to picture what she looked like underneath all the tattoos and scars.
Only her large and clear eyes with dark pupils that flickered with broken shreds of lights told of a story that they once belonged to a beauty, so ethereal yet laid in ruins now.
Crowd of burly men with bulging bodies and rough appearances cheered and hooted loudly at the two men duelling in the spacious arena covered with splotches of dark and black old blood dried and hardened by the passage of time, now splashed with specks of glaring new red blood like fresh artwork of a passionate painter.
"Raner, rip that fucker's throat out! Rip out the fucking bastard's tongue!"
"Yes! Rip out that arrogant bastard's tongue! Let's see if he could spew out shit without his tongue! Hahaha!"
"Smash that fucker's head!"
"Ripley! Tear off that Raner bastard's arms!"
"Are you going to let that sissy Ripley beat you up, Raner?"
The two men, Raner and Ripley fought more aggressively and ferociously at the instigation of the wild crowd.
Everyone present were aware of the two men's rivalry after spending a few days together. Raner and Ripley were like water and oil, they just couldn't stand each other the moment they met in the camp.
Ultimately, they decided to duel to settle the victor and the loser once and for all after many skirmishes in private and public, creating chaos and inconveniences amongst the candidates in the camp.
The more burly and larger Raner shot for the tall and slimmer Ripley's throat with a ferocious clawed hand while Ripley lunged with fisted hand and punched at the other's chest.
Blood and flesh flew as Ripley clutched his bleeding chin hanging on his face grotesquely while Raner spewed out blood from the heavy blow to his chest cavity. The heavy punch has broken few ribs while he managed to only rip off Ripley's lower chin.
Both men groaned in pain. The more severely wounded Ripley with half of his face ripped off and hanging eerily, was taken away by the guards. Raner limped back to his camp with another man who seemed to appear to be on good terms with him.
Seeing blood, the rough crowd erupted into raucous laughter and cheers and booing.
The disfigured girl squatting in the corner frowned in distaste.
As the only female, her small frame stood out amongst the crowd of brawny, robust men covered with wicked and aggressive auras.
Someone noticed the small figure on the ground and immediately called out to her ,"Hey Scarface, how bout' you show us some moves as well?"
Soon, countless pairs of eyes turned towards the girl addressed as Scarface. Some were disdainful, some mocking, some sleazy, some filled with laughter, and a few were probing.
No one who could register for the Trial under Boss Li would be simple.
Scarface stood up amidst the roving eyes of the crowd. Despite being the only female present, her grotesque and disfigured appearance did not elicit any tender feeling among the battle hardened men, instead invoked feelings of disgust, disdain, contempt and ridicule filled with satire.
The past few days, the men had been making all kind of crass jokes about her disfigured and ugly face.
Dusting off her clothes leisurely, her indolent and cold gaze swept across the on looking crowd as she said arrogantly, "Are you worthy?"
As soon as her cold and haughty voice fell, all the eyes around her darkened and the air turned thick with tension.
The past few days the candidates were living together, they all noticed her.
Not because of her gender or her ugly appearance- it was her extremely annoying and arrogant mouth that made everyone want to beat her up at every instance.
Some did tried beating her up secretly away from the watchful gaze of the supervisors but instead returned with black and blue bruises all over their faces.
They couldn't fight or brawl publicly under the supervision of the stoic and stern looking guards.
Unlike Raner and Ripley who were permitted to duel by the Supervisor after their skirmishes caused unrest among the candidates.
So some men could only secretly scout out the camp of the ugly girl and return even more secretly with glaring bruises and swollen faces.