Martial Online.

In Martial Online's forums, players started searching for their partner for the upcoming tournament.

Some already had friends to ask for, but others, who desired victory, wanted to partner up with the strongest players.

Among them, families belonging to the High Society started building up their own teams for the upcoming tournament. They wanted the team to compete under their name, which would in turn increase the prestige of their family.

Alongside them, the Rothsmith family had an emergency meeting in Nocklund's highest skyscraper, which was also Rothsmith Headquarters.

In the office room, the patriarch of the Rothsmith Family, Mark Rothsmith, looked at everyone in the office with a serious look.

The atmosphere was heavy and suffocating.

"As most of you've heard, the tournament is coming." Mark leaned on the chair and said, "We wouldn't care if it was the tournament of any other game, but this one is special.

"All eyes will be on this tournament. It's the perfect chance to increase the prestige of a family."

"What should we do, father?" Percy, Mark's son, asked.

"We'll need to start recruiting people to our ranks." Mark intertwined his fingers and continued. "The money is not an obstacle, so start sending messages to all the strongest players."

Percy nodded, as did everyone else in the room.

Jack stood in the corner of the room with the help of his walking cane and looked thoughtful.

'Maybe Jesse wants to participate as well? He probably can't make it very far, but it will be nice to experience something like this.'

"If any of your children are playing the game, they should join the tournament." Mark looked at Jack and Percy before moving his gaze to the more distant relatives, who had big families as well.

"If even one member of the Rothsmith family manages to qualify for the finals, it will skyrocket our prestige."

After the meeting ended and the members of the family started departing from the office, Mark called out to Jack and Percy to stay behind.

"What about Nyx and Zach?" Mark asked with his fingers digging into his palm. "Have they tried this game?"

"No." Percy shook his head.

"No," Jack repeated.

"Sigh…" Mark pinched his glabella and shook his head in disappointment. "Shame."

"I want the Rothsmith family to succeed in the tournament.

"It's fine if our 'Purchased' players reach the final while having the name 'Rothsmith' on their banner, but it would be even better if a person who has the name Rothsmith reaches that stadium.

"However, my true desire is to have someone from the main family in the final. However, it does seem like that was a fool's dream."

"Sorry, father." Percy sighed.

"…" Jack stayed silent, but deep inside, he was slightly angry. 

'He still doesn't think of Jesse as a member of the main family. It would take a lot from him to get into Mark's good books, but I don't think that is sadly possible.

'Sigh, if only Zach had played the game before and managed to reach the finals, the side of my family would become more valuable in Mark's eyes, and then he has no other choice but to approve Jesse.'

"You two may go." Mark waved his hand in a dismissive manner. "I'll have to start recruiting players for the Rothsmith team."

Percy and Jack nodded and then departed from the office.

In that same moment, the same scenario was happening among every High Society family.

They weren't planning to compete in the tournament for the money, but because of the prestige it would bring them. To them, it was more valuable than money.

…

At the Rothsmith Estate.

After the visit to Rothsmith Headquarters, Jack returned home and lazily walked down the hallway.

Soon, he arrived at the lounging area, where Anna was already seated near the fireplace with a book in her hands. She looked very lovely as the flame's golden hue touched her fair-looking face.

"Ah, welcome home." Anna smiled and looked at her husband with a soft look.

"Mm." Jack removed his coat, took a seat beside her, and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

"What did Mark want?" Anna asked as she leaned against her husband and slowly closed the book.

"It's about the upcoming tournament." Jack massaged his temples. "He wants to purchase powerful players to play the upcoming tournament with us."

"I cannot watch even one minute of TV without the news about the tournament appearing on the screen." Anna wryly smiled.

"Mm." Jack nodded and asked. "Have you seen Jesse today?"

"No." Anna shook her head. "Why?"

"I want to ask him whether he wants to participate in the tournament as well under the Rothsmith name." Jack scratched his forehead.

"Oh, do you think he'll do good?" Anna asked.

"It doesn't matter," Jack said. "If he does well, that's very good, as maybe Mark values him higher then, but if he doesn't, that's fine as well."

"Mm." Anna nodded. "We can ask him."

At that moment, Jack felt his phone vibrate in his trousers pockets. He took it out, and he saw that it was an unknown number.

He frowned and answered the phone call.

"Jack Rothsmith, who is this?" Jack asked.

At that moment, an unknown voice came from the other side of the phone.

"Hello, my name is Daniel Greedforth. I am the manager of Moriarty."

"Moriarty?" Jack frowned, as that didn't ring any bells. "I am sorry, but I am not aware of who he is."

"The gist is that he is a very successful streamer, ranking fifth in the ForeverStream rankings. You may check it out!"

"Hmm…" Jack frowned, wondering whether this was a scam, and quickly checked whether it was true.

Soon, he checked out the rankings and saw that a person named Moriarty was fifth in the streaming rankings. He was clearly one of the most popular Internet personalities.

"And what is this about?" Jack asked.

"Does a person called Jesse Rothsmith live in this household? Before, he was known as Jesse Kraham."

"He indeed does; what do you want?" Jack was contemplating whether he should just hang up.

"Well, my client, Moriarty, wants to talk to him personally. Do you mind if I give you his phone number and you will give it to him?"

Jack crossed his legs and glanced at Anna, who was staring back at him. She clearly heard the phone call and wore a frown on her beautiful face.

It sounded very suspicious because why would such a popular individual want to speak with their son?

"Fine." Jack replied and picked up his notepad and pen.

As Daniel gave out the phone number, he wrote it down and bade farewell to him before disconnecting the phone call.

In order to prevent his son from falling for a scam, he made sure to check out whose phone number this really was.

"What does he want with Jesse?" Anna asked suspiciously. "This sounded very shady."

"I don't know. Maybe Jesse knows." Jack said and pocketed his phone. "I'll check out whose number this really is."

"Mm." Anna nodded and pulled out her phone.

She also started to check out information about this person, Moriarty, and she was surprised to see just how popular he was.

She also found a picture of him, and he was a very handsome young man with a charming smile. It made her even more suspicious about this person's intentions.

'Rothsmith family is indeed popular, and they might think Jesse is an easy target to scam for money. I'll need to warn Jesse just in case.'

Jack sent a message to Sebastian and gave him a task to figure out the real owner of this phone number and whether it really belonged to Moriarty.

'What do they want from my son?'