Martial Online.



Cerberus, followed by members of Zahhak, shoved players and civilians out of the way as they rushed to the prison. 

When they arrived there, it was complete chaos, with the armed Watchmen of Amaterasu trying to restore peace in the chaotic streets.

The guards ran like headless chickens, desperately trying to regain control of the situation.

"How in the world did he escape?" Mizuchi asked with a deep frown. "The biggest question is, why? He had only few more days left of his sentence."

"Perhaps he expected us to be waiting for him, so he escaped to also get away from us." Arsenal guessed. "Redheart and her big mouth must have revealed it."

"Yeah, but now he is a wanted man." Mizuchi said with a scoff. "He definitely can't return to Amaterasu. If he ever gets captured again, he would have to serve a long time."

In the skies above the dark tower, a bright light descended, and from there, a broad-shouldered figure with beautiful gold eyes emerged. 

All the Watchmen of Amaterasu bowed their heads and shouted in unison.

"God's Paladin, welcome to Amaterasu!"

"..." Mikael looked at the dark tower and then saw the mysterious hooded figure feeding his Chrysalis horses. 

He approached him and said. "So, he escaped with one of your horses?"

"Yeah, he stole our fastest one," replied the hooded figure with a hint of annoyance.

"That is indeed unfortunate." Mikael looked towards the dark tower and narrowed his eyes. "It seems I underestimated his strength. I guess this is on me."

"Are you planning on going after him?" The hooded figure asked.

"No, I will be unavailable. I am going to return to the Dark Continent to fight against those evil beings." Mikael sighed, but then reassured his loyal follower. "However, I have received a message.

"In a few hours, that player, Ambrose, will have all sorts of Inquisitors and bounty hunters chase him. Perhaps even other players will go after him. After all, there is zero respect between players, only greed.

"That's why, in a couple of days, I am sure he is back at rotting his cage, and you have gotten your horse back."

...

A brilliant white-winged horse soared across the vast skies with the sunset looming on the horizon. He and his rider flew over many mountains, valleys and forests.

"In just a few hours, I will be in Yatagarasu!" Ambrose thought aloud while seeing the immense speed of the Chrysalis Horse. 

While they had to pull the wagon, they only showed a fraction of their speed.

With this horse, he could visit all the major cities in a single day. The speed was unfathomable!

Unfortunately, he would have to abandon this horse. He was simply way too eye-catching, and he wasn't foolish enough to think that no one would come chase after him. 

Therefore, he had to disappear from the face of the earth and hide somewhere.

However, first, he planned to visit the players who bullied his sister.

Ding, ding—a loud message erupted from his eardrums.

"Tsk, what is it now?" Ambrose looked at the transparent floating screen that suddenly appeared in front of him.

[The servers will shut down in one minute!]

[Preparing for the update...]

[0:59...]

[0.58...]

'Oh, it is happening now.' Ambrose caressed the white-winged horse's mane and made it land safely on the ground. 

He then tied the reins around a thick tree branch and began waiting for the countdown to end.

After also placing a temporary spawn, he crossed his arms and looked at the countdown.

The countdown soon reached zero, and Ambrose saw the world around him fade away as if it were messy paint being wiped clean. 

He soon reappeared in the world of darkness. It was the place where dead players would be transported.

[Countdown till the update is completed...]

[00:59:40]

'59 minutes and 40 seconds. Longer than expected.' Ambrose then logged out of the game.

...

Jesse opened his eyes and took off his headset. 

He then set an alarm on his phone. 

He put it in five minutes prior to the completion of the update because he wanted to log back in before.

After jumping off the bed, he sat in front of a desk and powered up the computer. Using the mouse, he double-clicked on the browser and typed Martial Online Forum's website.

The excitement was at an all-time high.

However, he then noticed an intriguing post.

[A prison break in Amaterasu???]

But that post didn't garner a lot of attention because the update was right around the corner and all focus was on that.

After checking out the post, he realized that everyone was pretty clueless about what had happened.

'Better that way, I guess.' Jesse leaned against the backrest and scratched his hair. 'I sure have made a mess. No regrets, though. I wouldn't change a thing.'

He put his legs on top of the desk and looked silently at the clock on the wall. It ticked down painfully slowly.

However, he couldn't help but feel anticipation building up inside.

...

At Loch City, inside Martial Company.

"Is everything ready?" Graham asked calmly while scanning the thousand screens.

"Yes, sir!" The workers were hard at work as they prepared to open the servers again.

During the update, they had to freeze the whole vast world of Martial Online. 

It wasn't the easiest thing to do because they didn't want to mess up with anything, such as accidentally failing with the code, and one NPC could accidentally move around in an otherwise frozen world and do whatever they wished.

Graham checked his wristwatch and frowned deeply. 'I hope the calculations were correct and nothing happened to her. The Virtual Pod experience is still in the experiment stage, and if the shutting down of servers did something to her...'

He took a deep breath and opened his phone, showing a picture of a beautiful middle-aged woman who had unique red eyes and a sweet smile.

'I miss you...' Graham sighed and opened another picture, showing a lovely-looking girl with similar red eyes but a mischievous grin. 

She looked like she was a playful girl. 

'I will take care of our daughter, no matter what.'

He looked at the picture of his daughter and then closed his phone before pocketing it.

He then crossed his arms and shouted with a dominant tone.

"Alright, begin the procedure. It is time to open the game again!"

...

As the time neared the top of the hour, the alarm went off, waking Jesse from his brief nap. He then let out a yawn, stretched his limbs, and limped towards the bed.

There, he put his headset around his head and pressed the starting button.

He returned to the world of darkness with the countdown ticking down in front of him.

Four minutes...

Three minutes...

Two minutes...

One minute...

Ambrose watched quietly as the countdown finally reached zero. The darkness still remained even though the countdown showed zeros.

At that moment, a similar interface screen appeared in front of him. However, it didn't have any of his stats, but something else.

[The Update Completed!]

[Log In]

[Check The Patch Notes]

[Log Out]

The screen showed three options.

It was an obvious choice for Ambrose. He chose the middle option, checking the patch notes!

Of course he wanted to see what the update brought to the game without having to blindly search for it in-game!

After pressing on the option, a long row of new updates opened in front of him.