"Hi, my name is Murphy. I’m an agent of StickOps Inc."


"In 28 July 1914, the World War I event brought war and great destruction across the countries around the continents of Earth. The immediate trigger for war was the 28 June 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo.”


"The assassination set off a diplomatic crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia, and entangled international alliances formed over the previous decades were invoked. Within weeks, the major powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. However, most of the damage weren’t made by the army as their missiles and tanks are not able to deliver such catastrophic damage. So, the government of the United States began sending out spies to scout around the land to find out the source of destruction that has torn cities and lands to mess of craters. It is to their surprise that there was a bigger event than the rampaging war, they call it The Tournament."


"The Tournament is an event held by the wRHGs (Rock Hard Gladiators) that occurs each time the humans of Earth brought war upon themselves. wRHGs are special individuals of abilities greater than what an average human can do. Their variety of type of abilities includes brute strength, flight, speed, element manipulations, fundamental elements manipulation, time manipulation, psychic powers, time manipulation, et cetera."


"However, the destruction was too much for the government to contain- they have to act and put an end to the rampage. So, they assembled a team of elite soldiers to find and hunt down the gladiators. However, they were too inexperienced and young. They couldn't contain the gladiators as too many of them died in attempt to do so. As the team failed their missions time and again, the world is reaching its peak of total annihilation. Until one faithful day, a member of the gladiators came to for their aid. His name is Steve Gray, the Manipulator of Force. He is one of the eldest of the gladiators that first existed. And he shared the same vision as our government did- to put an end to the troubles that the gladiators are doing. And StickOps came to be."


"StickOps is a group of wRHGs assembled to hunt, analyse, and test gladiators that were scattered around Earth. And by 24 December 1914, a peace treaty was made and The Tournament stopped. Almost all of the gladiators left and some joined the StickOps’ cause. However, after the war ended, a new generation of gladiators were born. They were young and they know nothing of the peace treaty made before their time. They are stubborn, feral, cunning and smart. They also know not of whom they are and used their powers according to their will."


"To stop the gladiators from waging another war, StickOps Inc. was founded in 11 May 1920 by Steve Gray, who is the director of the organization. Their mission is to search, analyse, decide, train, and teach the new gladiators on what they are allowed to do and what they aren't."


"And I work there, sort of."

Murphy was an archaeologist and historian. When he was 4, he lost both his parents in a fire accident and was adopted by Matthew Gray- son of Steve Gray. However, when he was in one of his expedition, Matthew ‘died’ in an explosion event. During Matthew’s funeral, he was given a map by Samuel Dean, the Director of StickOps Inc., and Matthew’s best friend. To Murphy’s surprise it was the map of a legendary city called Akakor, The City of Gold. Due to Murphy’s adventurous personality, he decided to find the city.


However, during the mission, his plane malfunctioned and crashed as he was flying over the heart of the Amazon forest. He lost his friends in the crash and found himself lost in direction. He decided to continue his quest until he finds the city so that his friends didn’t die in vain. However, there was a meteor shower that night and it destroyed the city when Murphy reached there. When the chaos of meteoroids receded, he found a book titled: “Light and its Properties” in one of the meteor craters and it burned Murphy’s skin with a mark of the Othala rune, the symbol of a Chanter.


The book gave Murphy genius-level intellect, immortality, knowledge of light, and the ability to manipulate light. Keen to learning his abilities, he soon began to crave for battles with the wRHGs he once read of in one of Matthew’s research books. After coming back from his mission, he finds Samuel and asked if he could work in the StickOps RRSD (wRHG Research and Science Department). Samuel agreed to his demands and Murphy became part of the StickOps. And with that, Murphy left his adventure outerwear and put on a black lounge suit.


Always being the learner, he went to study the abilities of the gladiators first in StickOps wRHG University. After two years, he Majored in wRHG Science and kept his mortarboard ever since his graduation till now.


Later on, he shifted department and went to work with the StickOps RBRD (wRHG Battle and Record Department) to analyse the new gladiators that were either brought in or registered for skill testing. Within six months, he learned all the abilities written inside his book and signed up as an Operator (Op for short). Operators are those who work in Arenas, there is 100 arenas in total. Each arena has a different structure called Zones based on the Op's ability. These arenas serve for the wRHGs who wants to test their skills and they have to defeat each arena in an ascending order to move on to the next one. Any wRHGs or so called Challenger, who managed to defeat the 100th Arena, would be awarded with a million dollars, making it a popular destination for wRHGs.


After a year of continuous battles with 100 Ops, he managed to become the Op for Arena 99, the second hardest arena. He also became highly skilled in various forms of combat, as an exceptional martial artist, a skilled swordsman, a deadly accurate marksman as well as displaying a strenuously honed athletic ability. However, due to the death of his parents and Matthew Gray, he has lost his personalities and grew cold towards the people around him.

Murphy is 26 years old white stick figure made mostly of solid light with not much of a detail in appearance besides his bright-glowing emerald-greenish eyes. His height is 177 cm, which is about 69.7 inches, which is approximately 5 foot – 10 inches tall, and weights 194.7 lb (88.3 kg). He always wears a mortarboard ever since his graduation and also wears a single-breasted black lounge suit made of wool with a notched lapel single breasted jacket, a breast pocket located at the left side of the jacket, and four buttons on each cuff of the sleeves. He also wears a straight-legged and wide-legged trouser in addition and a pair of nice polished black shoes with white socks. At his side is always a walking stick in which he developed his expertise in singlestick.

The book is white in colour and is made out of solid opaque light. The title “Light and its Properties” is printed in golden ink on the top of the cover and at the spine of the book with the Othala rune printed three times bigger below the title. The gold ink glitters every now and then as a special decoration. The book is 20cm in length and 15cm in width. However, the exact thickness of the book is unknown due to its capability to add more pages itself. Because a book is nevertheless a book, being stolen is not impossible. However, because it has chosen its new Chanter, no one besides Murphy is able to read it. The book orbits around Murphy while shooting a small ray of light that passively heals him while providing light energy at the same time. Besides being a readable book, it is also able to talk to Murphy either through speech or telepathy. The Othala rune printed on it is the rune of ancestral spiritual power, divine inheritance and earthly estate. It means inheritance, heaven on earth, “The gift of Ing”, paradise and utopia. So, it is suggested that Murphy inherited the book from a divine Chanter.


Chanters are previous owners of the book. When the anonymous owner of the book has died, the book drifted along space and landed at Akakor only to be found by a lucky archaeologist- Murphy.

Void and reluctant.

Basic

After signing up as a Challenge, Murphy ‘trained’ with the gladiators he fought throughout his battles. After a year, his strength, endurance, agility, speed, reflexes, durability, and healing, has become the zenith of natural human potential. The trainings have enhanced all of his metabolic functions and he now possess Olympic-level athleticism, peak human cognition and physical condition, giving him endurance far in excess of an ordinary human being. He is also a skilled swordsman and a deadly accurate marksman. He is also very exceptional singlestick user.

Light manipulation

Murphy can absorb, store and process light. His energy capacity is limited by the brightness in an area and he is able to wrest control and manipulate light for a variety of purposes:

-Generate blasts of energy (or lasers).

-Creating holographic images and illusions.

-Solidify light constructs

Murphy can make light into shapes and solidify them so that he can use them as a weapon. These solidified light weapons- floating light blades, light scythe, light axe and so on- are weak against projectiles. These light weapons are only as hard as iron. However, if Murphy holds one of the weapons- a light sword for instance- it will become as tough as Stickronium. Murphy can also render the temperature of the light weapons with saturated heat- such as lasers- if he wants to.

-Lights out

By mentally repulsing photons, Murphy could create areas (10 meters radius) of complete darkness to make a test harder for a Challenger or to escape from an attack within a limited time. However, Murphy is not affected by this as his eyes are able to see in the dark.

Duplication (physical)

As a light, he is also able to duplicate himself. Because he is made of mostly energy instead of complicated organic cells, he is able to create perfect copies of himself without any complications, and all items on his person (clothing, weaponry, etc).

Healing (sort of)

Murphy can convert his body completely into any wavelength on the EM Spectrum. No physical harm from impact can come to him in this form. This process can also be used to 'reset' any damage that his physical form has already sustained. He can use this ability as much as he wants as long as he battles outside of his arena. However, this would be rare since he ONLY battles within his arena. If an opponent outside insists for a battle, Murphy will simply teleport himself and the challenger into his arena.

Though he is technically 'immortal' and made mostly of light, he is still very human- being able to suffer from bleeding, powerful punches, kicks, cuts, etc.

Light Manipulation

-His light blasts (or sometimes lasers) consume a lot of light to create, thus draining his strength quickly.

-His holographic images and illusions are one-term usage ability- once an attack was received or blocked, it dissipates.

Solidify Light Constructs

-His solidified light constructs are easily shattered by any sharp objects at high velocity. However, blunt attacks usually take longer to break it.

Lights Out

-The darkness only lasts for 10 seconds.

Duplication

-The amount of duplicated clones is limited to only 3 at a time and no more until all three shattered. As being made of the same principles of the light constructs- though tougher than the light weapons they still share the same weakness- sharp objects.

Healing

-The activation of this ability only happens after the end of a battle in which he heals both himself and the Challenger.

Murphy plunge his gaze into space, the stars glittering every now and then with a dreadful faint of glow. He stood in his arena, daydreaming, as boredom sets in after an agonizing long wait for something to happen. However, he was also enjoying the moment of peace and quiet, letting his mind settle down as a gust of wind caress his face in a soothing touch. He settled down onto his chair, and closed his eyes in relaxation. A table was next to him, made of an old oak tree stump. On it was placed teapot, and next to it, a cup of tea sitting on its tray. He took a sip of the tea, and smiled. Nothing ever beats a good cup of tea, he whispers to himself.


To his left was a portal. It was made of shifting lights and resembles a vortex at the front. Every now and then, Murphy would take a peek at it to see if there is anyone there, but things appear to be the opposite of his expectations. He decided to stop looking at it, and resume his moment of Zen, until the atmosphere got interrupted by an unexpected surprise. A man cried out in a distance, “Mate, you the Op?” he ask.


Murphy looked around, searching for the source of the voice. His emerald-like eyes flickered and he caught a glimpse of the intruder. He fixed his gaze upon him, and his eyebrows stretched up high on his forehead. "Yes indeed!" Murphy replied with a smile. Apparently, Murphy didn't expect that someone would be able to come this far.
“My name’s Jack.” The man announced, “I signed up for a test here about two days ago and fought 98 arenas to get on this level." He looks around the sky, his eyes scanning wildly for something, and found it. It was a huge shining notation written across the sky in bright yellow: Arena 99." Jack chuckled, "Folks say this arena is the hardest.”


Murphy looked at him, sticking up details of Jack’s appearance in his head. Jack is a tall dark green stick figure, round spherical head and slender cylindrical arms. He looks tattered and dried blood spread across his face as if he’s been through a bloodbath. His hands were wrapped in chains that made loud clinging sounds each time he sways his hands. A sword laid at his back, one and a half meter long and silver-ish black in colour. Two boulders made of metal orbits his body, just like what Murphy’s book is doing. Murphy chuckled, “Welcome to the Light Zone, Arena 99.”


“I’ve already beaten the Fire Arena, and you’re next.” Jack warned. He walks toward Murphy, looking uncertain, “One of them Ops says that if I can beat Arena 100, I get to win a million dollars. Is it true?”


“Aye, but no one has ever beat Arena 100, not even me. Whoever the Op is, he beat me in a split second. I was not given access to know his name; they say it’s for my own good. But they did mention his ability: Gravity manipulation.” Murphy replied in disappointment.


“Maybe I can do better!” Jack snapped. He reached to his back and pulled out his sword, “All I gotta do first is beat you kiddo.”


Murphy laughed, “Okay grandpa.”


Jack lowered his stance, his sword held upright, preparing an attack position. He stares into Murphy’s glaring, focusing at the Op. Murphy held out his walking stick, his other hand opened, a bright blade of light glowed in his grasp, solidified in seconds, and a sword materialised in his other hands. Murphy dual-wielded his weapons, spun them, leaving a trail of light as they were rotating in a circumference motion. He caught them in mid-spin, and changed his posture into defensive stance. “Let’s rumble.”