Martial Online.

In the Forever Company.

Jacob tiredly scrolled down the batch of new videos.

None of them interested him, and it made him feel sleepy instead.

"What is the time…" He checked his wristwatch and saw that he still had 20 minutes before his night shift ended.

It was already sunny outside, and the daytime workers were entering the video department through the open doors.

The sleepy-looking night shift workers were stretching their limbs while just waiting for the clock to tick down. None of them wanted to watch a single video anymore.

'Maybe I should just quit.' Jacob thought while scratching his small stubble. 'I don't have time to play Martial Online, which frustrates me.

'I have to watch people enjoying it daily while I can only play a few hours at night before I have to go to work.'

He then moved his hands to the keyboard, wrote a certain name on the search bar, and pressed enter.

He again checked the channel named 'Ambrose' in case there were any new videos, but it only had the two old videos.

'Why did he quit making videos so suddenly? He had potential for a bright future.'

Jacob shook his head in disappointment.

'I have heard rumors about him being the player with the highest bounty so far.' Jacob thought. 'Like me, no one thinks he'll survive long with such a high bounty.

'Most players are searching for him day and night, but no one has discovered his whereabouts yet.

'Such a shame.'

…

At the inn of some random town on the Light Continent.

A group of cloaked players had gathered in one of the inn's rented rooms. They were standing around a small, knee-high table that had a map.

The map had parts that were colored red, as if they were places where one shouldn't wander off to.

"We've already searched this area." One of the cloaked players pointed at areas colored green. "He isn't anywhere here."

"We also know he isn't in Dark Waters anymore." Another player said: "He must be on Light Continent."

"We shouldn't underestimate him." A player with a deep voice said: "He is, after all, a person with over two million bounties."

"Exactly, two million bounty." A player licked his lips. "That kind of money was thought to be impossible to get while playing a video game."

"Mm." A player grabbed a knife from his inventory and threw it against a wall. The knife stabbed through a certain wanted poster.

It was a wanted poster of a handsome man with bright purple eyes and a devilishly charming smile. It had an insane bounty that had attracted the attention of thousands of players.

"Let's start the hunt!"

"He will show himself in no time. He couldn't possibly resist the desire for player contact!"

…

At the dark harbor of the Dark Continent.

Rows of Viking ships were lined beside each other. They were rocking back and forth while the tall waves struck the hulls.

In the harbor, menacing-looking creatures walked back and forth with heavy backpacks on their backs. They finished their packing and then entered one of the hundred ships.

"The voyage will start!" A sharp-horned man stood in front of the ship, the bull's head acting as the ship's front.

It looked like the man was a mix of a high-horned bull and a muscular man.

The sharp-horned man raised his arm, and then the ship pulled the anchor from the water and started sailing towards the fog-shrouded waters.

At that moment, a young man with smaller bull horns approached the captain of one of the ships and asked.

"I am here on behalf of Lord Ravan!"

"Hmm?" The sharp-horned man looked down at the young man, who was head shorter than him and looked rather neat, as if he were living a good life for now.

He looked vastly different from the sailors on board, who had bushy beards, rough-looking countenances, and rags as clothes. It was as if a noble man had entered a town full of poverty.

"And what does he want?" The sharp-horned man, named Kyleman, looked down at the young man with a sharp look.

"He said, and I quote, good luck." The young man said without fear in his face.

"Good luck?" Kyleman laughed raspily. "Who needs luck? We'll crush those Lightmen like ants!"

"…" The young man didn't speak another word and instead jumped off the ship and then started swimming back to the harbor. He didn't seem to care that the nearby seas were full of sharks.

There were even fins that appeared from below the fog-shrouded waters and started chasing after the swimming young man.

However, when the young man glanced in their direction, all the sharks scurried away as if they were looked at by a much more powerful being.

"Hmph, Lord Ravan is being too respectful towards those Light ants!" Kyleman crossed his bulging arms and laughed.

"The Lightmen will die under our blows; the Lightwomen will be ours to use for pleasure; their lands and riches will belong to the Viking Armada!"

As the Viking ships crashed through tall waves, the people of the Light Continent still had no idea that the first-ever attack from the Dark Continent was heading their way.

…

Rumble!

City of Verhan, the heart of the Dark Continent.

It was a sizable city that was completely in the dark and surrounded by what appeared to be thick black smoke. It was the Black Smoke of Verhan!

Whenever someone tried to enter the city without going through the gates, they would be killed by the Black Smoke of Verhan. It was the greatest possible defense.

At the center of Verhan, there was a black castle that was currently the center of an ongoing lightning storm.

Streaks of silvery lightning moved across the sky, obscured by black clouds, and then suddenly, a silvery bolt of lightning shot through the layer of clouds and smashed into the black castle.

However, the black castle seemed undamaged as it continued to stand without any trouble. The silvery lightning that struck the black castle's pointed roof didn't even cause it to char. 

Currently, inside the black castle's throne room, demonic-looking creatures stood in front of stairs that led up to the high-end throne, where a single figure sat.

The figure had dangerous-looking black eyes, and he was red-skinned with two black horns protruding from his forehead. His sharp teeth looked sharp enough to bite through the ship's hull.

He had long, flowy black hair that reached his lower back, and he wore an open-buttoned red vest with a blood-red shirt below and black trousers.

"The Viking Armada has set sail." A blind-eyed demon said.

Even though his eyes were white, caused by his obvious blindness, he could still see the ongoings of Dark Continent, and currently, he saw the hundreds of ships departing from Dark Harbor, even though it was thousands of kilometers away.

"Mm…" Lord Ravan leaned against the back end of the throne and looked at the demons in the hall. "What will be their first obstacle. The Pirate Battleground?"

"Most likely, sire." The blind-eyed demon said. "Our scouts managed to enter Light Continent since they moved alone, but a whole armada… hard to say.

"They will definitely end up in a fight with the Inquisitors."

"Kyleman is a fool." Lord Ravan sighed and touched one of his horns with an absent look. "I am so close to figuring out the secret of the world beyond…"

"Why didn't you stop him, sire?" The blind-eyed demon asked curiously. "You could've."

"I don't care what they'll do." Lord Ravan said and tapped his finger against the throne's arm rest. "The Viking Armada consists of Half-Men, after all. They might be a sub-race of demons, but they are still not part of us, not really."

"Mm." The blind-eyed demon nodded wisely and asked. "What happens if they reach Light Continent?"

"I don't know." Lord Ravan said and chuckled coldly. "However, I am very interested in these players. They are, after all, residents of that other world."