🦏Moonwalk

"Leave impossibilities as the myths they are, and become a legend."

How to Move Forward By Walking Backwards: A Beginners Guide to Smart Investments for the Arena

Written By: Moonwalk

This guide is dedicated to my first cellmates and to the many others who still struggle to make it.

NOTE: READ THIS BEFORE CONTINUING

“How to Move Forward By Walking Backwards” is a renowned and beloved bestseller amongst the controlling populace, discussing methods and strategies to make the most out of their investments within the arena.

This is a front to disguise the true purpose of this book. A batch of copies should make their way into the hands of combatants like yourself all throughout the stations, and if they do, a chip implanted in the cover will detect the ID signal of your collar, rewriting the pages to reveal its actual underlying contents.

However, this is a one-time effect. The pages will not be able to revert back to their masked counterparts after the change. So for the safety of yourself, others, and the author, we ask you to take great caution when reading.

Do not get caught.

Contents

Preface/About the author 3-5

Low Value? No Problem 6-19

Die As Yourself, But Live On As The Character 20-34

Set Doable Expectations for The Audience 34-42

Style Over Substance? Why Not Both? 43-50

Fight Smarter, Not Harder 51-73

Friends, You Need Them, and They Need You 74-83

There’s No Such Thing as Downtime 84-101

Build a Castle of Stone, Not Sticks 102-119

Value as a Bargaining Chip 120-136

A New Life, What Now? 137-152

Preface/About the Author

If you are a human from the planet earth, you may be familiar with another creature native to your homeworld: the rhinoceros. For those who may not have any experience on that planet, a rhinoceros is a large, bulky beast that walks on all fours. They display intimidating horns that protrude from their head (while some variants only possess one horn, most species of rhinos have two) and are protected with a tough layer of skin, gifting them both a natural form of weapon and armor.

It is because of these qualities that the rhinoceros has been symbolized to be many things, mostly in regards to strength, fortitude, and headstrongness. But one other aspect this creature represents is the tenacity of pushing forward, to not let simple obstacles halt your progress, but to ram through them with confidence. This belief not only stems from their already mentioned qualities of strength, horns, and durability but also derives from an old human myth. For years, it was believed that the rhinoceros, with all of its favorable traits, was disadvantaged in one crucial facet: it couldn't walk backwards.

Nowadays, we know this not to be the case. But this old misconception has been passed down as a metaphor for tackling problems head-on and never looking back. While that's a perfectly reasonable mentality for one to have when facing difficult situations in life, I don’t believe it is sufficiently suited for everything that reality has in store, and certainly not for anyone getting into investing.

I’m not a human, nor have I ever visited their home world of earth. I’m a Runefera from the planet Zeratugashi: a beautiful lush world brimming with hundreds of civilizations, each with a multitude of varying intelligent species as their populace.

I am, or better put, WAS a realtor: I would help people buy or sell real estate, a fairly well-paying and respected occupation, at least from where I’m from. I thought that my life had reached its peak and that it was all smooth sailing from there on. All of my needs were met, and I had the money and respect of my peers to keep my spirits lifted till my deathbed. But the universe is a very finicky thing, and one mustn’t become too complacent under its watch.

Like perhaps most of you reading this, I had been targeted and captured by these extraterrestrials, supposedly “chosen” to become a contestant in their galactic death game. Once I had my DNA archived and a collar placed around my neck, I was forced into a cell with my new fellow combatants to await my debut.

Now, most individuals that had fallen from such lavish lives as I had would curl up into a ball and play along with the demands and rules, only giving enough effort to survive. This is where I believe that mentality of simply “ramming head first into every obstacle until you make it” begins to fail: after hitting your head against harder and harder walls, eventually, your gonna get dizzy and fall on your back.

There was about a week span of time before I was expected to showcase my abilities in the arena, and for the first few days, I was just like most people that I referenced earlier: moping atop my house of cards that had crumbled back to ground level.

But as I began to speak with my fellow captives (who were unlike any of the species I was familiar with in the galaxy), I would learn things about their world and culture that would eventually invigorate something within me that I hadn’t felt in a long time. They had told me that they were called “humans” and that I appeared to greatly resemble a creature from their world: a strong creature of the Sahara called the rhinoceros. Not much else to do, I would indulge further into this resemblance, curious to know more about this creature that shared my likeness.

This was where I learned about that myth of the rhino, a behemoth in its natural habitat, yet unable to accomplish the simple maneuver of walking backwards. After spiraling into a depressive state, this, surprisingly enough, got a chuckle out of me. Even the humans informing me understood the absurdity of this myth, which is why they referred to it as such. In my mind, I related the concept to me and my own life, almost immediately dismissing the notion. Specifically, I remember thinking to myself, “I have the strength, the fortitude, the persistence, but I don't have such a weakness.” Of course, I eventually came to the self-introspection that those thoughts were false: I really couldn’t move backwards… er… metaphorically speaking.

The catalyst to shine a light on my own faults was my reaction to losing everything I had built. Instead of taking that same initiative I had mustered during my earliest years when I had nothing, I allowed the dreaded prospect of starting over to suffocate my fire. Initially, I still separated myself from the myth, declaring that I couldn’t handle moving back because I was forced into this state of retreat by outside forces, whilst the rhino (in regards to the misconception) wasn’t capable of such because of its own inner nature. It was a desperate attempt to still to deny the truth: one doesn’t move back for the heck of it; one moves backwards because of an insurmountable obstacle blocking their path. Regardless of whether it was by one’s own initiative or by another entity, if they can’t hold the will to begin anew, then that's when the myth becomes a reality.

Acquiring this understanding and resolve was a challenge, perhaps even more so than the arena itself. Soon enough, with nothing but time to ponder over it and a few victories hanging on my belt, I felt a small spark live on through the ashes of my pride and confidence, just hanging on, waiting to be kindled.

This arena wasn’t just a game of blood sport for the sake of entertainment; it was an avenue for these “overseers” to make a profit from investors, promising a growing return for anyone who could place their faith in a combatant. And wouldn’t you know it, I was also something of an investor, and I was beginning to gain a lot of faith in myself.

The security breed of aliens that watched and tended to the combatants would place masks over newbies, giving them a generic ID until they’ve racked up a few wins to earn what they called “the second debut.” It would only be then when your mask is removed, given a title, and placed on the market with a value.

The first step was to cater to the “entertainment” aspect of the game: While the decision of a name one receives is typically reserved for the overseers, I would use this restriction to test my grip. Before my second debut, I did everything I could to make a spectacle of my skills. I killed with unconventional methods, like beating an opponent with the shoulder stock of my rifle even when it was full of ammo. I targeted specific combatants who held a high value, knocking them down in the market. Lastly, I ended every match victory with a “moonwalk”: a dance that I had learned from exchanging cultures with my human cellmates.

Sure enough, I had created an identity for myself before my face had even been revealed. The spectators no longer referred to me by my ID, but instead called me “Moonwalk.” Before I was placed on the market, there was an unwritten value attached to that rather strange name. When my second debut arrived, it was only natural that the overseers would wish to make the most out of this development, releasing me into the next battle with a new face to accompany the name decided upon by the fans. In truth, the audience didn’t decide my identity or my value; I did. Through my own effort and skill, I knew how to take control of a situation where you’re granted none. While those in power still held onto the illusion that I was playing their game, this small crack in their vision allowed me to play with different pieces.

Now you might be asking, “What is so important about all of this? Sure, you may have made a better name for yourself than others, but at the end of the day, you’re still a combatant.”

That’s where you’re wrong, my friend; I tell you this because, through similarly clever plays, I have been able to form enough cracks in the system to buy my own freedom. No longer do I toil away as a pawn in this endless blood sport, but now I sit as one of the only real players of the game: an investor, buying and betting on pawns like you.

No hard feelings; I still hope that one day these “gods” are torn from their thrones and that the tournament is left to waste away in burnt remains. But until that day arrives, if one wishes to achieve the impossible and move backwards, then one mustn’t keep bashing their head against the wall as their only method of progress. We’ve all had our slate cleaned, starting back to the first square. Accept the restart, regain the drive that once awarded you the treasure you lost, and little by little, do it again. Eventually, you will achieve the impossible; you will move forward by walking backwards, and only then will you truly be like a rhino, smashing through every obstacle in front of you.

To prove my intentions, I have written this book and hired unnamed acquaintances to dispense its copies throughout the many holds. So I ask that you use this book as a guide. The following chapters will teach you methods on how to make small but stackable investments in yourself that can accumulate into your potential freedom, or at the very least, award you with a high value and all the perks that accompany it.