Martial Online.

Slam—the doors blasted open by a strong push from a metal-armored guard.

"Sir!" The guard shouted in alarm, but his voice echoed down empty, identical-looking hallways.

The place was dark and gloomy-looking.

'Where the hell has he disappeared to?' The guard wondered with a frown, searched throughout the first floor, and moved to the second floor once he was done.

He cautiously moved onward until he finally reached the town mayor's bedroom. The door was tightly sealed shut, and there was no sign of anyone inside.

"Sir?" He raised his hand and knocked on the door, but there was no response.

"God damn it..." He whispered and then shouted. "I am sorry, sir, but I am coming in!"

With a sense of urgency, he smashed into the door with his left shoulder making the first contact, causing the door to fly off its hinges.

He burst into the room with his hand caressing the hilt of his longsword, but once he saw the situation inside, he let it go and said.

"Mayor, there is a problem."

The mayor sat beside the ornate window, looking towards the gloomy, dark sky.

He wore nothing but pajamas and slippers.

"What is it...?" He asked with a lazy tone—that single sentence took him three seconds to say.

"We found traces of blood in the church, and the traces led all the way to the confession booth, where we found the half-eaten corpse of the town priest."

The mayor's eyes looked shaken, and he caught a glimpse of the crescent moon in the distance.

"Does this mean..."

"We can assume that there are zombies walking rampant around the town." The guard said with a sweaty forehead. "I have already sent other guards to look for them."

"All right." The mayor didn't tear his gaze off the crescent moon. "Good, good..."

The guard frowned as he thought the mayor would be more concerned about the well-being of the townsfolk.

"You may leave." The mayor sighed.

"All right..." The guard nodded and left the room with a heavy heart and a sense of disappointment.

'What is the point?' The mayor wondered. 'He will kill everyone anyway, so everyone might as well enjoy the last moments of their lives while they still can.'

...

Inside the bedroom of one of the rented houses, a group of female streamers had gathered on top of a bed.

The floating camera captured their slender figures, chatting and laughing with each other.

The chat went crazy as so many familiar faces gathered in the same room, but not a single man was present, which didn't mind the male-oriented audience that came to the stream to watch the pretty women.

PinkDragon smiled casually while watching her streamer friends talk, but then she caught a message from one of the viewers.

"Where is Sapphire? She was seen walking in Hightown?" PinkDragon paused for a moment before smiling. "I don't know."

Her friends kept their mouths shut as they were aware of the rocky relationship between Sapphire and PinkDragon.

They were like cats and dogs; they couldn't stand each other, and whenever they saw each other, it often ended in a heated argument or confrontation.

Their content was rather similar, and their audience was very similar.

Some fans of theirs even thought they could be sisters, as none of them were aware of their horrible relationship.

Sapphire was the last person standing in PinkDragon's way of entering the top 10 ranks, which would easily double her status and also make her get better deals with sponsors, allowing her to make much more money.

Because she was ranked in the top 10, Sapphire had gotten deals from movie producers to be part of their movies, enraging PinkDragon to no end as her long-time dream had been to become a movie actress.

Sapphire's reason for hating PinkDragon was unknown.

Even PinkDragon herself didn't know why she hated her.

"Ahhh!"

Out of nowhere, a fading shout seemed to echo from outside.

"What was that?" One of the female streamers, seated closest to the window, stood up and checked the window.

The fog was nearly overwhelming, but she managed to catch a glimpse of several silhouettes running.

Strangely enough, following them were more silhouettes; however, they were strangely failing their arms around in a chaotic manner.

As the screams faded far into the distance, one of the silhouettes stopped before their building and began approaching the front door.

As the silhouette got closer, the female streamer's eyes almost popped out as the silhouette stepped on the front porch's light.

It was some kind of rotting creature with decaying flesh hanging off its bones.

"Oh my god!"

"Lana, what is it?" PinkDragon asked with a frown.

The chat also sent question marks.

"It's a zombie!" The female screamer screamed and fell on her back.

"What?" PinkDragon stood up and walked over to the window, then saw some kind of rotting creature scratching the front door.

The floating camera was right beside her, allowing the chat to see it all.

The chat became both anxious and excited, as this made them feel like they were watching a zombie apocalypse movie!

Most weren't even aware that the game had zombies, so this came as a surprise.

"It's just one." PinkDragon said and pulled out her polearm.

The polearm had a serrated blade at the end, perfect for slicing through flesh, and it looked majestic and deadly in her hands.

This was one of the rare times that the chat saw PinkDragon pick up her weapon, as her stream wasn't fighting-related.

Therefore, she rarely fought in her streams.

However, that didn't mean she didn't know how to or was weak.

In fact, she has 10 years of martial arts experience under her belt!

She was simply more focused on entertaining her audience than engaging in combat.

Her chat grew excited, and after seeing PinkDragon act confidently, her streamer friends also picked up their weapons.

However, they were vastly weaker and clumsy at using weapons compared to PinkDragon; most of them haven't even reached level 10 yet!

...

"..." 

Ambrose silently peered around the fog-engulfed street. 

It made him wonder whether this was another game event or if it was actually possible for so much fog to appear at such an important moment.

He couldn't shake the feeling that something big was about to happen.

The zombies had already made the night quite eventful, and he was still not sure whether there were more.

"Hmm?" Ambrose looked straight forward and came to a stop.

His eyebrow twitched, and he let out a small laugh.

"Look what the wind has brought." He covered his eyes and laughed. "And I didn't expect the day to get messier!"

"Jesse..."

A silver-haired young woman whispered gently, standing on the same sidewalk, the fog lightly caressing her beautiful face.

She was not alone.

From behind her, a green-eyed man with sword-shaped earrings and long black hair walked past her, a large grin spreading across his face.

"Ambrose, Ambrose, hahaha!" Cerberus laughed madly. "I knew you were here."

Behind Serenity, other members of Zahhak revealed themselves, all of them holding their weapons.

"..." Andromeda silently looked at Ambrose, her thoughts unknown.

Swoosh—Ambrose drew his sword and pointed its curved edge towards Cerberus.

Cerberus rubbed his neck and pulled out his sword in response.

Both still kept their second swords hidden.

Their eyes locked in a fierce yet unreadable gaze.

At the exact same time, both lunged forward and clashed their swords together.

"Hahaha, I have waited for this!" Cerberus shouted with a large grin.

"You should've waited longer." Ambrose scoffed and stepped back, ending the first clash. "Did you forget about your punishment? I know that each player from Yatagarasu suffered a punishment for the failure!"

"So what?" Cerberus laughed. "Do you think I need my full power to defeat you? What an absolute joke!"

"You'll regret that!" Ambrose lunged forward.

Cerberus grinned and raised his sword high.

"Hell Merchant!" After shouting, his muscles grew and bulged with immense power.

The fiery veins pumped energy into the blade, turning it quicker and stronger!

Ambrose roared and put his sword into a slashing stance, then grabbed his bulging muscle with his left hand and let out a triumphant cry.

The right sword-wielding arm approached Cerberus' sword with lightning speed.

"Slash of the Six Worlds!"

Clang!