Martial Online.



Death.

That was on everyone's mind that day on the rooftop. The scene of the head splitting like a watermelon was vivid in everyone's mind.

However, that wasn't the case with Jesse's mind. His ordinary mind, which worked like everyone else's, began to work differently.

While the metal baseball bat neared his head, his mind would only be able to comprehend several things—the death, its aftermath, and the pain that would follow.

However, his mind tossed all those thoughts away and only focused on a scene from a movie he had seen a while back.

It was strange.

Jesse felt death approaching, but he suddenly started thinking about a scene from a movie, which he could barely remember before this moment.

The scene had an old martial artist grab his opponent by his shirt and throw him to the ground with incredible force. That move also had a nice name, which the martial artist didn't say aloud, but the move's name was shown on the screen.

'I should say it aloud?' Jesse's fingers twitched, and he thought it was ludicrous, but he decided to give it a try.

"Heaven Drop!"

His hand moved with lightning-quick reflexes and grabbed Marty by his shirt before throwing him into the air.

Marty saw the far-away sky before his vision moved back to the ground before showing a glimpse of the black-haired young man, and finally, he crashed head-first on the ground.

The metal baseball bat slid off his hand and rolled down the ground until it fell down the stairs all the way to the third floor's hallway.

"?!"

Holly's and Allison's mouths opened in shock as they witnessed the shocking scene.

However, Jesse was the most shocked.

[Heaven Drop Learned!]

[Heaven Drop - Completion Rate - 100%]

[Heaven Drop - Rank: Rare]

[Heaven Drop: A skill most suited for Brawler—Grab your opponent and send them hurtling towards the ground with immense force]

'H-holographic screen... this is real life though, isn't it?' Jesse looked at the floating screens in shock and wished they would disappear. Those screens then disappeared until he wished to see them again.

It broke down his view of reality.

'H-how could I have learned a skill so easily?' Jesse wanted to take a seat and calm down his thoughts, but he didn't think this was the best place.

Therefore, he grabbed Zach's hand and sprinted off the rooftop.

"Brother!" Holly screamed, but the two young men had finally left.

"Marty, are you alright?" Allison hurried over to the red-haired young man, whose head was slightly bleeding. He looked stunned.

When he got grabbed by his shirt and thrown, he felt utterly powerless, like the entire world's gravity was fighting against him.

At the school gate, Jesse and Zach sprinted out of the school yard and saw Sebastian about to leave the car.

"Sebastian, start the engine!" Jesse opened the backseat door for Zach and then sat beside him. "Hurry up!"

"Young masters, are you alright?" Sebastian asked in concern and then saw Zach clutching his stomach as if he were hurting really bad. "Master Zach, should we take you to a hospital?"

"No, let's return home!" Zach said.

Sebastian had a hunch that something serious had happened, but he had an obligation to listen to his young master. However, he planned to inform Jack and Anna about this when they returned home.

After the engine roared powerfully, the car drove away from the school.

...

At Rothsmith Estate, after taking Zach back to his room and applying some medicine to him, Jesse returned to his room and plopped down on his gaming chair, utterly shocked.

'That guaranteed it.' Jesse looked at the ceiling and chuckled. "The game is the result of changing my body, and now I can even create skills here.

"I have to test those skills when I return to the game.

"Right, I made a Brawler skill. I guess that is possible, but it is weaker in my hands. I don't think I have any use for it.

"The completion rate was instantly 100%, and I managed to learn that skill just from memory.

"That skill wasn't the creation of a skill scroll, but I simply learned it as if it were an existing skill that could be learned. But, how? I simply remembered it and knew exactly how to do it.

"Is this... because of Intelligence? That would make sense. Maybe Intelligence helps me learn skills immediately!"

He wanted to test it and see where the limit was. He wondered if he could also create his own skills, like it was nothing now.

Jesse then looked at his own reflection through the black monitor screen and touched his chin. "What is different about my avatar than others? If this happened to others, the world would already know about it and be in shambles."

He then remembered something and turned his head towards the bed, or, more precisely, at the white headset.

'If I remember correctly, everyone else has black headsets. Why is mine different?' Jesse stood up, took the headset from the bed, and then returned to his gaming chair. "What is so different about this?"

He looked around the headset but found nothing special about it.

'It looks like an ordinary headset, but there must be something unique about it that sets it apart from others.'

He then placed the headset on the table and crossed his arms.

"I wonder if there's a hidden feature or secret function that I haven't discovered yet."

Jesse then pressed the PC's start button and went to browsers. He sought out the most famous martial arts moves in the world. He then watched a detailed video of it before he stood up and grabbed a wooden stick from his wardrobe.

'Let's see if it works.' He took a step forward and put the wooden stick in front of him, acting like it was a real sword. "The Crescent Slash!"

He waited for his body to move on its own to complete the move for him, but nothing happened. He became dispirited and shook his head.

"I guess it won't be that easy. I must have learned the skill by accident because of the stressful situation or something." Jesse then put the wooden stick back in his wardrobe and planned to do few exercises before his legs became useless for the rest of the day.

Creak—the door then opened, and Zach walked in while holding a bag of ice against his stomach.

"Hey..." Zach said awkwardly, closing the door behind him.

"Hey, are you alright?" Jesse asked.

"Yeah, thanks for the help." Zach said and took a seat on Jesse's bed. "By the way, why did you come to the school?"

"Anna told me to come pick you up. We haven't gotten along, so she thought this would make us talk to each other or something."

"I see..." Zach nodded and then stood up before limping back to the door. He opened the door and looked at his brother. "I think you were right."

"Hmm?"

"About Ambrose, the Immortal Man." Zach said. "I had to read it like three times before I finally understood the message."

"So, you finally like him?" Jesse asked with a small smile.

"No, I still find Ambrose annoying." Zach laughed. "But the book is pretty good, I have to admit."

"I'll take that as a win." Jesse chuckled.

Zach nodded with a smile and then left the room.

Jesse sighed in relief as it looked like Zach had warmed up to him. He then reached out his hand as if he were trying to shake an invisible hand.

"Heaven Drop!" He shouted, and his body moved perfectly, doing the move.

"Hmm, Heaven Drop sounds incredibly powerful. Should I also start calling my new skills insane names, such as Divine Destruction, Ethereal Annihilation, or Celestial Obliteration?"

He chuckled and shook his head. He then returned to the computer and began checking out livestreams and videos about Martial Online.