283: Chapter 280 Betting and Ranking

"Which area are you all planning to watch in today?"

Upon entering the building, Stallone asked with a chuckle.

The building's exterior was decorated in a rustic style, resembling an ancient Roman coliseum, but inside was a vast, modern service area, as if one had suddenly entered a Las Vegas casino. Looking around, one could see many young women carrying trays, moving among the guests to offer drinks and beverages.

There were several entrances and windows here.

"Are there many different areas here? Isn't it just Boxing?"

Dragon and the others were somewhat puzzled. Although they had obtained their qualifications long ago, this was their first time here. They had heard that the fights here were real, completely in the style of life-and-death contracts from the last century.

Zhou Guoli pretended to be in a listening posture, though he had already inquired about the situation here.

"Hehe, it's divided into two types. One follows the professional Boxing competition system, but unlike the outside world, it's a death match in an octagonal cage where only one person is allowed to walk out. This belongs to a 'choose one of two' betting category."

"The other type is unrestricted Boxing, where strikes to vital points are allowed. It's also in an octagonal cage, but you can concede. This belongs to the 'king of the hill' system."

"This type mainly depends on who can hold the ground for enough rounds. The betting pools here will let us bet on which number, as well as how many rounds he can hold out. The more accurate the bet, the higher the odds."

"This is similar to betting on football; some pools are more finely divided. If you guess which side wins, the odds are average. If you can guess the winner and also accurately bet on how many goals are scored in a match, the odds are higher."

Stallone explained with a chuckle; clearly, he was a veteran player.

"I think I get it. They used to play like this in the old Kowloon side, too," Brother Hong nodded thoughtfully.

This was not unfamiliar to him and Dragon. Back in those days, those organizations played even crazier; they not only specifically sent martial arts masters from various schools to fight but also let their own subordinates, and even their top enforcers, go play.

Just like here, conceding was allowed; if you didn't concede in time and were beaten to death, you couldn't blame anyone else.

As for the betting, it was all stuff they used to play in Hong Kong. Macau also held many such events in the past. It was only later, as times changed and these things were strictly cracked down upon, that they gradually faded from view.

"That sounds quite interesting! But since there's gambling involved, I didn't bring any money with me."

Durant scratched his short hair, feeling somewhat embarrassed.

He was actually quite wealthy. After all, as an All-Star level player with few bad habits—other than being a bit of a simp—he had significant assets.

"It's fine, Durant. We are friends. I brought one hundred thousand US dollars; we can split the bet."

Zhou Guoli smiled and patted Durant on the shoulder, though the other man was too tall, standing at nearly two meters.

Fortunately, Durant was very touched and bent down so that Zhou Guoli could easily pat him.

"Zhou, you really are my good friend!"

Durant gave Zhou Guoli a bear hug directly, and a pungent odor of body odor instantly rushed into Zhou Guoli's nostrils, almost making him suffocate.

Fortunately, Durant let go as soon as he made contact.

The group discussed it and finally decided that if they were going to watch, they should watch the more exciting unrestricted fighting. The key was that the betting pool was large enough and the odds were high enough.

Everyone didn't really bring much money, but they didn't mind a little entertainment with small amounts.

Entering the venue, they realized that the interior of this building, which resembled an ancient Roman coliseum, was a horizontal figure-eight structure.

In other words, the interior consisted of two circular tiered arenas, perfectly divided into two fighting zones, with each zone capable of seating nearly twenty thousand people.

When they entered, they noticed that the place was surging with people, and the vast majority of seats were already filled.

"Just pick any few seats together. The seating here is free, unless our invitation has special privileges."

As he spoke, Stallone pointed to a circle of separate circular private boxes above the venue. Clearly, there were some special guests here who had VIP service.

Looking at this, Zhou Guoli was secretly astonished.

"It seems Genentech, besides having great connections in the political world, also relies on events like this to befriend various dignitaries and capital tycoons."

At this moment, Dragon shook a tablet he had just received from the window and chuckled, "This place is truly professional. I didn't expect them to give away a free Fruit tablet for betting."

"Of course, this place is professional. Since they can set up such a large betting pool here, this expense really means nothing to them," Stallone shook his head.

"Look, the information for tonight's first 'king of the hill' fighter has been released. According to the rules here, the first defender to appear is always the last person standing from the previous round of defense battles."

Following Stallone's explanation, everyone quickly tapped on their screens to take a look.

Zhou Guoli also realized that the betting here was indeed professional. The Fruit tablets distributed were clearly custom versions for internal use, with only a betting app on the entire device.

At this moment, the app popped up a notification. Upon tapping it, the information for the first defender was quickly displayed.

Nickname: Rhino (No. 10)

Date of Birth: June 30, 1980

Height: 180 cm

Weight: 110 kg

Fighting Style: Japanese Faction Aikido

All-time Best Record: 7 successful defenses.

All-time Highest Ranking: 65

The information wasn't very detailed, just some basic facts. There weren't even any highlight clips of the fighter.

Just then, Stallone's voice rang out.

"Don't look at the fact that Mr. Rhino's all-time highest ranking isn't very high; this is the ranking for all fighters in the defense matches. In fact, he is very strong. I watched his match last time, and he was very impressive."

"Jie Ge, I believe you can understand what I mean. He feels a lot like the feeling captured in your Chinese Kung Fu movies. To use your Chinese term... Grandmaster! Yes, that's it, Grandmaster! He is definitely a Grandmaster; every duel is resolved very quickly."

"His opponents are just like children in front of him."

Jie Ge, being mentioned, was taken aback. He knew Stallone's personality; he rarely praised others with such high regard.

However, looking at the person's fighting style, he raised his eyebrows slightly.

"As expected of unrestricted fighting. I didn't expect even Aikido could be used. But Mr. Stallone, is there really no Chinese Kung Fu here?" Jie Ge asked skeptically, while Dragon and Brother Hong beside him also cast glances over.

"Of course there is Chinese Kung Fu, but there is only one in the top one hundred. Most are ranked outside the top one thousand, and very few are within the top one thousand."

"Honestly, friends, this isn't just me saying it. There is a ranking statistic here; you can take a look."

Stallone shook his head. He really liked Chinese Kung Fu, but the rankings here were somewhat hard to describe.

Hearing this, the group tapped on the rankings to check. Upon seeing it, their expressions immediately turned grim.

Because there was also a fighting style area statistic view, where one could check the Chinese Kung Fu area, and indeed, there was only one person in the top one hundred.

A total of one hundred people participated, but unfortunately, ninety percent were ranked outside the top one thousand.