This Spiritual Energy is Lethal!

Chapter 87: Chapter 087 Golden Arthur

A green taxi stopped on the slightly busier shopping street of Gun Tie District, where Chen Ke had previously gone on a shopping spree at Walmart, but this time he wasn’t here to shop.

He pulled out his phone, opened Google Maps for navigation, and found the HEMA club located on the fourth floor of a shopping mall next to Walmart, with a somewhat worn-out sign boldly stating: Golden Arthur HEMA Club, Opportunity City Branch.

There was an old small elevator on the side of the mall that could go directly to the fourth floor. Chen Ke pressed the upward button but the elevator did not respond.

He pressed it again, still no response. It must be broken. Chen Ke scratched the back of his head and decided to just take the stairs in the mall.

The mall was very noisy, yet very clean, with numerous small cubicle counters neatly dividing the entire ground floor.

The first floor turned out to be a place similar to a computer city, but Chen Ke observed that they were mostly second-hand dealers, selling used laptops and desktops at the counters.

In the United Federation, most ordinary people buy prefab computers rather than assembling the parts themselves, partly because individual computer components are very expensive in the United Federation, much more expensive than buying whole computers, and partly because most people have limited computer knowledge, many even unable to distinguish between a graphics card and a memory stick…

Each small cubicle counter was like an independent shop front, with owners sitting inside waiting for business. However, in the Gun Tie District of Opportunity City, it’s hard to do business, so many shop owners stepped out of their cubicles to chat with each other.

Wading through the maze-like cubicles, Chen Ke finally found the stairs going up at a corner.

Climbing his way up, he finally reached the Golden Arthur HEMA Club on the fourth floor, but it was nearly 2 p.m., and looking through the glass door, it seemed like there were hardly any people inside.

“Buddy, you here to learn HEMA?” Suddenly a voice came from behind.

Chen Ke got startled, turned around, and saw a chubby white guy wearing a dark blue cap and dressed in a dark blue janitorial outfit.

“Right, but I’m looking inside, and there’s no one? Are they off today?” Chen Ke asked, puzzled.

“You’ve come at a bad time, buddy. They closed down a week ago,” the chubby guy said with a smile.

“Ah?” Chen Ke gave an awkward smile.

It seemed this trip was a waste.

“HEMA is an expensive sport, and people here in Gun Tie don’t have that kind of spare money to spend on it. But you don’t look like someone short on cash, otherwise you wouldn’t have come here,” the chubby guy said.

“Golden Arthur… How’s this club? Have you heard anything about it?” Chen Ke made conversation.

“Oh… you actually don’t know about Golden Arthur? I thought you’d done your homework before coming here!” the chubby guy exclaimed, surprised.

“Is this club that impressive? Tell me more?” Chen Ke became interested.

“Golden Arthur HEMA Club! They have dozens of branches across the entire United Federation, can be said to gather all the swordsmanship masters. They have tens of thousands of members and have won most of the championships in HEMA competitions,” the chubby guy said with an impressed expression.

“That impressive? Then their coaches must be exceptional. Sounds like you could really learn something valuable,” Chen Ke pinched his chin, quite satisfied with the capabilities of this HEMA club.

“Coaches and managers at the Golden Arthur Club are all legendary figures in the circle, all well-versed in various forms of swordsmanship, like Shijie Lian who specializes in small shields, Ma Lewei the longsword expert, and Betty the Queen of dual swords… there’s too many to mention, and they all very much welcome students to come and challenge them. It’s said that defeating one of the Golden Arthur managers will earn you a badge…” the chubby guy explained.

“Is it that interesting? So, what happens if someone collects all the badges?” Chen Ke asked curiously.

“No one has ever managed it, dude, but I’ve heard that if you can gather all the branch badges, you could challenge the founder of Golden Arthur,” the chubby guy said with a secretive smile.

“I bet the founder must be quite confident in believing that no one can gather all those badges,” Chen Ke spread his hands.

“Maybe, but don’t underestimate him, the boss of Golden Arthur, even though he’s this white-haired old man over sixty, no one questions his mastery in swordsmanship,” the chubby guy chuckled.

“If possible, I’d quite like to meet him,” Chen Ke laughed, thinking that with strong coaches at this HEMA club, mastering this sport wouldn’t be hard given his circumstances.

“Yeah, me too, I might just need a couple of weeks’ practice to beat him, hahahaha!” the chubby guy laughed, clearly thinking that Chen Ke was joking.

“Um… do they have other clubs in Opportunity City?” Chen Ke asked.

“There’s one on Raffi Road, where there are a lot of wealthy folks, but relatively speaking, after all, Opportunity City has run out of opportunities,” the chubby guy said.

Opportunity City has run out of opportunities; this was the second time Chen Ke heard this phrase, the previous time it was from a taxi driver.

“Thanks, I’ll go check it out… and… who is their founder?” Chen Ke asked.

“Jelotte.” The chubby guy replied.

“I thought it would be Arthur…” Chen Ke crossed his arms.

“This is one of their flyers, I picked it up while sweeping. The Gun Tie District branch has been open for less than two years, business was bleak, so they decided to close up. They left in a hurry a few days ago, lots of flyers were discarded, you can have a look,” the chubby guy handed Chen Ke a somewhat crumpled flyer from the trash.

“I’ll take a look when I get back… Ah, it even has a phone number… Thanks a lot, this is really helpful,” Chen Ke took the flyer.

Chen Ke walked out of the mall, and although he came out empty-handed, the trip wasn’t wasted. If the Golden Arthur Club is as formidable as that janitor suggested, it would definitely be excellent.

Though HEMA is just a sport in the modern era, those sword moves are still lethal, and could be adapted as pure cold weapon combat techniques with some ingenuity in battle.

It is at least a hundred times better than using a dual sword as a fire poker.

Chen Ke carefully considered the travel distance from Gun Tie District to Raffi Road District. Uber had only just been founded in 2009, and it would not launch its ride-hailing app until October 2010, so Chen Ke had no way of knowing the cab fare from Gun Tie to Raffi Road.

He could only estimate the drive time through Google Maps’ driving navigation mode; excluding traffic jams and the like, it would only take an hour to make a round trip by car from his rental place to the Golden Arthur Club.

“Maybe I should buy a car…” Chen Ke pondered.

The United Federation is a nation on wheels; buying a car for transportation isn’t expensive, and now he had a complete set of fake documents and could even trade directly through an offshore account, which was convenient.

There’s no rush for the car; Chen Ke shook his head, deciding to first enquire with some courier personnel to see if he could get a car through the black market. At least that way, he wouldn’t be tracked by the authorities.