Martial Online.

"Remember to finish your homework first!" A woman's voice came from downstairs.

"Yes, yes, mom!" A loud-mouthed young man yelled and entered his room. He slammed the door shut, tossed his backpack into the corner of the room, and rushed to his desk.

The desk had a pile of books, a laptop, and a VR headset, which was black with a gray visor. It was the default VR headset.

"Alright, what is new!" The young man excitedly hopped on his gaming chair and cracked his knuckles before opening the laptop.

The backpack's zipper was open, pouring his school books onto the floor. He couldn't care less about homework currently.

With his fingers dancing across the laptop's keyboard, he entered Martial Online's forum. He excitedly started looking for any information before logging back into the game.

'Information is the greatest asset!' The young man nudged his glasses. 'While my fool classmates run around like headless chickens, I will gather information and find the best place to gather experience points!'

The forum mostly had useless posts. The new players were asking for help, and some shared their experiments and achievements. None of them interested him.

However, at that moment, he saw a post from a player who was selling information.

'Selling the location of Crow Cave?' The young man frowned. 'Why would anyone need the location of some random cave?'

Out of curiosity, he clicked on the post and began reading.

'Wait, what? A trial?' The young man's interest was piqued. 'It is some kind of trial that gives rewards at the end. Apparently, there are leaderboards on a stone table at the entrance of the cave with only ten spots. The creator of this post assumes that only ten people can get rewards for it?'

The young man interlaced his fingers and started thinking. He looked very intellectual, as he was also an honor student at his school.

'This could be a scam. The price he is asking is a mere 50 crowns. I have seen people purchase information that costs 1,000 crowns. 50 crowns seem way too low for information of this level.

'Maybe the creator of this post doesn't know the worth of this information?' The young man looked at the name of the post's creator. 'Ambrose, huh. Never heard of him, so most likely a newbie.'

'This is most likely a scam, and he is trying to get some easy money. But what if it isn't?

'Crow Cave, huh. He said that the cave is near Amaterasu, so definitely in Crow Forest. There are mountains, so most likely there is also some kind of cave. It shouldn't be too far from the entrance of the forest since no one is strong enough to venture too far into the forest.

'Is it a scam... What would I have thought about if I were in his position.

'Once I had successfully completed the trial, received my prize, and then saw that there were still spots in the leaderboard unoccupied, what would I have done? Hmm, I am a student, and I would definitely want money.

'Yeah, I would have thought that it was an easy way of earning money. Yeah, this Ambrose guy wouldn't have received anything if he kept the location a secret.

'Maybe he already received the location of his friends, and they had done the trial as well. Or he has no friends to play with and decided to sell the information right away.

'He didn't reveal how many leaderboards are left unoccupied, but he did hint that there are still some spots... Yeah, I think this is a legit post.

'At least more trustworthy than that legendary sword post.'

The young man leaned on the backrest and nudged his glasses. "Damn, I don't have 50 crowns to purchase that information. However, since I know where the Crow Cave might be, I could go look for it."

He looked at his VR headset, grabbed it, and put it around his head. He pressed a button on the side of the headset and entered the world of Martial Online.

"Nico, have you don—" The door opened, and a woman entered the room. She saw a young man sitting on his chair with a headset wrapped around his head.

Her eyebrow twitched, and a scary look appeared in her eyes.

She walked to the young man, pressed the button on the side, and grabbed the young man's earlobe.

"Nico..."

"Uhhh, mom?" Nico turned to his angry-looking mother. When he entered Amaterasu's streets, everything suddenly turned dark, and he heard his mother's angry voice.

His mother took a deep breath and shouted. "HOMEWORK FIRST!"

...

"Haaa..." A black-haired young man smoked a cigarette while looking at the bustling streets. Students of his age walked on the sidewalk. A few female students turned to him and shyly waved their hands.

The black-haired young man dropped the cigarette and put his feet down on it. After putting it out, he heard a voice.

"Yo, Anthon." A handsome young man with curly brown hair walked out of the school with a backpack hanging loosely over his shoulder. "Has Cal arrived yet?"

"Not yet." Anthon said, but then he saw a figure exiting from school with a girl chasing after him. "There he is."

"Hmm?" Ignite turned around and sighed as a tall, blond-haired young man walked out of the school with a backpack in hand. A cute brown-haired girl was chasing after him, shouting, but she didn't get any response back.

"Cal, come one; it was your turn to clean the classroom!" She shouted with a red face. She pouted and wanted to kick him in the leg.

"I will clean tomorrow." Cauldron said with a cold expression. He saw Anthon and Ignite wait for him. He then stopped walking and looked at the cute girl.

"You said the same yesterday!" She argued. "It won't take long. Hour max!"

"I am busy today, so I will do it tomorrow." Cauldron said coldly.

"Nngh..." The cute girl bit her lip and sighed. "You promise?"

"Yeah, whatever." Cauldron brushed past her and left the school through the entrance.

The girl clenched her fist and stomped the ground angrily before turning around and running back to the school building.

Anthon yawned and scratched the back of his head. "Are you guys done? We have a fucking quest to be completed today."

"Yeah, yeah." Cauldron said and received a cigarette from Anthon. He then lit it up and took a puff. "Fucking honor students, man, clean that, do that, help that. They are tripping if they think I will stay in school any longer than I need to."

"She is into you, man." Ignite said with laughter. "Anthon and I aren't honor students either, and yet she doesn't chase after us."

"She is annoying." Cauldron scoffed. "Should leave me fucking alone."

Anthon chuckled and fidgeted with his phone. He was scrolling through the Martial Online forum. But then he saw a post that made his eyes widen in shock.

"You alright?" Ignite stopped walking after Anthon. Based on his expression, he knew something was wrong.

"Check this out." Anthon turned around the phone and showed the post to the two young men. Cauldron and Ignite exclaimed in surprise.

"So, someone also found it and is seeking profit." Cauldron said.

"Damn, we should have done that." Ignite sighed regretfully. "We definitely could have sold it for 300 crowns at least!"

Anthon read the post slowly and frowned. "Remember what happens if someone fails the trial. It's often weaklings who have the biggest wallets. When they go there, they will make a mess out of it."

"Right, that fucking disease thing." Ignite whistled. "That is a problem."

"It doesn't bother us, though." Cauldron said. "It's regrettable that we can't make a profit out of it, but a few dead NPCs won't make a difference. It would have been bad if we failed because of the whole NPC reputation thing, but we completed it and it can't affect us anymore."

"Well, yeah..." Anthon sighed and pocketed the phone. "However, if the disease kills an NPC that can give quests, it's going to be annoying."

"Yeah, that, but there are always more NPCs." Ignite laughed. "Anyway, we should be able to complete our quest today. See you in game; I've got to visit a store first!"

He crossed the street, waved his hand towards the two young men, and began running through the alleyway.

"He is definitely going to be late." Cauldron said and smoked the cigarette. He also started crossing the street. "See you inside the game."

"See ya." Anthon put his hands inside his pockets and walked in another direction. 'Ambrose, huh. That is a name I must remember. He isn't weak if he manages to complete the trial.'