Juggernaut

Meng Zu and Yang Hai followed the staff to the venue and took their seats. The surrounding rows were packed with people—men and women, young and old.

In the center stood a wrestling ring, enclosed by three yellow ropes. A huge howling wolf's head was painted in the middle, and an enormous overhead light shone directly onto the ring. Compared to the dim spectator stands around it, the ring drew even more attention.

"Could this be some kind of underground match?" Meng Zu spotted a massive steel cage hanging above the ring. Regular wrestling matches did not have something like that.

A beam of light shone high above, revealing a middle-aged man in a gold suit and sunglasses. Holding a microphone, he shouted, "Welcome, everyone! Tonight is destined to be unforgettable! Now, let us welcome the king of wrestling—Juggernaut!"

The light shifted to the wrestlers' entrance. A muscular giant nearly two meters tall emerged from the darkness, followed by three scantily dressed beauties.

"Juggernaut! Juggernaut!"

At the sight of the hulking man, the crowd excitedly chanted his name.

Juggernaut clearly enjoyed the attention. As he walked, he raised both hands high. Once he reached the ring, he bared a ferocious expression and let out a roar at the audience.

Rather than being put off, the crowd became even more excited.

"Next, please welcome our challenger—Beast!"

From the other wrestlers' entrance came a muscular Black man standing around 1.8 meters tall. Although he was shorter than Juggernaut, his physique was not inferior in the slightest.

"Beast! Beast!"

Once Beast stepped into the ring, the host addressed the two men. "There are no rules in our match. You may use any means necessary to take down your opponent. The match ends only when one side loses the ability to fight or admits defeat. Of course, no killing. Otherwise, we can only hand you over to the police."

"All right, enough nonsense. Let the match begin!" the host shouted.

Juggernaut and Beast did not rush at each other immediately. Instead, they sized one another up. Suddenly, Juggernaut charged forward and threw a straight punch at Beast's head.

Beast reacted quickly, tilting his head to the side. Juggernaut's fist only grazed his scalp, but even without landing cleanly, it still left Beast with a burning pain.

Seizing the chance, Beast stepped forward, raised his right knee, and drove it viciously into Juggernaut's lower abdomen. A dull impact echoed out.

The lower abdomen was one of the softest and most vulnerable parts of the human body. Beast had thought Juggernaut would drop to his knees after taking that blow, but Juggernaut merely trembled slightly. Then he grabbed Beast by the head with both hands, a vicious grin spreading across his face, and smashed his forehead into Beast's with a brutal headbutt.

Juggernaut released Beast's head and saw him swaying on his feet. The headbutt had clearly left Beast dizzy. Juggernaut retreated to the ropes, held his arm out sideways, and charged at Beast.

The moment Beast regained a trace of clarity, he saw Juggernaut rushing toward him. He hurriedly raised both arms to block, but it was too late. Beast was unsteady from the dizziness, and with a thud, Juggernaut's tremendous force knocked him onto the mat.

Juggernaut raised his huge foot and stomped on Beast's abdomen. Beast's eyes widened as his face twisted in pain.

The intense pain left Beast unable to rise. Juggernaut pressed his advantage, raining down a frenzied barrage of punches on Beast lying on the ground. Beast's resistance gradually weakened.

At that moment, the referee stepped into the ring and waved an arm at Juggernaut. Juggernaut stopped attacking upon seeing it. The referee crouched beside Beast to check him over, then rose, walked to Juggernaut's side, and raised his left hand.

Juggernaut immediately let out a triumphant roar.

The crowd erupted in excited cheers as well. "Juggernaut! Juggernaut!"

Meng Zu noticed that Yang Hai beside him was shouting Juggernaut's name with the same excited expression as everyone else. He could only curl his lip helplessly. To him, it was just a boring match.

Though Juggernaut was built like a bear, Meng Zu judged that his physical abilities were at most twice those of an ordinary person.

Because of his size, his speed was obviously his weakness. If the Black Beast had not taken that headbutt head-on, Juggernaut would not have defeated him so easily.

Juggernaut did not leave the ring afterward. Instead, he became the reigning defender, took the referee's microphone, and shouted, "Tonight, I am the king of wrestling! This ring belongs to Juggernaut!"

Was he raising a death flag?

Meng Zu stared at Juggernaut in surprise. People who dared raise flags usually met miserable ends. Like a soldier telling his comrades that once the battle was over, he would go home and get married—only to die on the battlefield, while the girl he loved married someone else and had three or four children with him.

"What a warrior," Meng Zu thought with feeling as he watched Juggernaut.

The facts proved that people who dared raise flags really did have some skills. Juggernaut swept aside his opponents in the next three matches. In particular, he threw the last three directly out of the ring, smashing a table beneath them.

After listening to the staff, the host stirred up the atmosphere. "Does everyone want to keep watching?"

"Yes!"

"Then let us welcome the next victim! And this time, the venue will change. If he can last three minutes inside the steel cage, tonight's three-thousand-dollar prize will be his!"

"Yeah!!!"

Money was always better at stirring people's enthusiasm. Before the host had even finished speaking, the audience burst into excited cheers.

The host retreated to the other wrestlers' entrance and quietly spoke with the next contestant. Then, as he walked forward, he shouted, "The three-thousand-dollar prize will go to the terrifying, deadly, astonishing Spider-Man!"

As he spoke, the host turned and pointed behind him. The lights shone into the darkness, revealing someone in a red mask and red hoodie. A spider pattern was printed on the hoodie.

"Not Spider-Man. It's Spider-Man," Peter Parker muttered in correction.

"Pfft!"

At the sight of that figure, Meng Zu sprayed the soda he had just taken into his mouth.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" The spectator in front of him, whose head had been drenched in soda, turned around and glared at Meng Zu furiously.

"Sorry! I'm really sorry!"

"Watch it next time." After taking the Franklin Meng Zu handed him, the spectator's anger vanished. He muttered under his breath, then turned back around to continue watching.

Meng Zu had been startled by the newly appearing contestant. He recognized him as Peter Parker—Spider-Man himself!

His most familiar Marvel hero had actually appeared in an underground wrestling competition.