The seventh gate opened.
Another man stepped out. Short. Unremarkable. Arms crossed like he'd already decided to be difficult.
Alpha glanced at him.
Then at Shorty.
Then back.
He tilted his head.
"Hm."
He walked a slow circle, studying both of them.
"Another short one."
He looked at the crowd with an expression of theatrical exhaustion.
"Should we just call him Shorty V2 and move on?"
The crowd went quiet.
Alpha paused. He looked at them. They looked at him. The silence stretched one second too long.
He smiled slowly.
"Okay. Not that."
He descended into the arena, hands in his pockets, and stopped in front of the new arrival.
"Alright. Let's give you a chance. What do you think?"
The short man looked up at him. Then past him, to Shorty.
He thought about it for exactly one second.
"Well," he said, calm as anything, "I think we should see who's shorter."
The crowd burst into laughter.
Alpha turned to look at him properly. Something in the man's eyes, not nerves, not bravado, just a patient confidence, like a man who had made peace with his height years ago and intended to use it.
Alpha smiled.
"I love that idea."
He turned and pointed.
"You. Come here."
Shorty shuffled forward, unhappy about being measured like livestock. They stood side by side.
Alpha crouched slightly, tilted his head, squinted like a tailor taking measurements.
The crowd waited.
Alpha straightened.
"Shorty V2," he announced. "You lost."
He turned to the crowd.
"His head is bigger."
Shorty V2 looked across at the other man.
"Ah," he said. "That's too bad."
He paused. Then he smiled, easy and genuine, and extended a hand.
"Well fought."
Shorty stared at the hand.
Something in the gesture was too clean. Too smooth. Shorty's eyes narrowed. His jaw tightened.
He reached out anyway.
The explosion was immediate. One moment Shorty was standing in the sand. The next he was not. A red mist. A silence that lasted exactly one heartbeat.
Then the entire arena lost its mind.
Shorty V2 lowered his hand and brushed it against his side.
Alpha stared at him.
Then he laughed. Once, short and sharp, like it surprised him.
"Okay."
He held up a hand.
"Let's see what the audience thinks. Should we punish this man or let it go?"
The voting sigil bloomed. Percentages climbed and shifted, rolling like water finding a level.
It steadied.
Fifty-four to forty-six. In favour of letting him go.
Alpha read it. Then looked at Shorty V2 for a moment.
"You got away with it, kid," he said. "After all, entertainment matters the most."
Shorty V2 now V1 said nothing.
Alpha clapped his hands once.
"Well then. Seems like everyone is here."
He walked back toward the centre of the floor. The lights shifted.
"The rules are very simple."
Tables rose from the arena floor. Long, heavy, covered end to end with food. The smell reached the crowd before the image registered.
"You have to eat. A full meal. Fit for twenty people."
He let that settle.
"Somewhere in these dishes, there are fat amplifiers. By the time you finish, you will be very heavy. Moving will be difficult. Fighting will be difficult."
He smiled.
"But you can only fight after you finish eating. If someone finishes before you, you are completely vulnerable to their magic."
He held up a finger.
"So. Eat good."
Then a second finger.
"But. There is a surprise for the fast eaters."
Quieter. The crowd leaned in.
"There are grains of rice in multiple dishes. Each one contains a condensed explosion. If you eat one..."
He snapped his fingers.
"Dead."
He let it sit.
"They're visible if you check," he added, voice brightening. "Very obvious. The rice grains are darker. Denser. You'd see it immediately."
He spread his hands.
"If you look."
He stepped back.
"Well then. Let the fun begin."
Most of them understood immediately.
They started with the safe dishes, working methodically, leaving the rice alone. The fat amplifiers hit fast. After the first full dish something changed, a heaviness in their movements, their footsteps landing harder, their breathing shifting. By the second dish, some of them were sweating. The food went down easily, designed to bypass the body's refusal, keeping the appetite open even as the weight built underneath.
They ate with the focus of people who had decided humiliation was still better than dying.
One of them had not followed this logic.
Whether it was nerves or poor hearing, he had started with the rice. He had seen everyone eating quickly and decided fast was the strategy. He had matched the pace. He had not checked.
There was no sound. No warning. Just an abrupt absence where a person had been, and a fine red mist settling slowly onto the sand.
The crowd erupted.
Alpha had been watching from the side. He turned slowly, confirming what he'd seen.
Then he laughed, quiet and genuine.
"Looks like someone didn't listen to the instructions."
He glanced at the empty chair.
"He deserved that."