Martial Online.

"Ngh…" Ambrose touched his head as he winced in pain. 'Pain, but how? Do I have a soul injury?'

"Why're you slowing down?" Moriarty asked, glancing back at Ambrose, whose pace had considerably dropped.

Ambrose shook his head, and the faint pain slowly faded off. It felt like he had a split-second headache, strangely enough.

'Weird.' He thought and followed after Moriarty as they headed towards a small, dilapidated town in the middle of the barren wasteland.

It was a desolate place, filled with broken buildings and dead-looking ground.

It was the half-way point between the starting line and the mountain in the distance.

They had already run over eight hours to reach this spot, and the ending was still nowhere close.

The night also started to creep in, casting long shadows over the weary runners.

After eight hours of running, gaps had started to form between the lead runners and the ones at the back.

Ambrose saw that all the players in front of him were exhausted and were just dragging their feet behind them at this point.

After all, most of them were gamers and not some fit athletes. However, there were also expectations, as there were some who had experience in martial arts and track-and-field events.

"Everyone in front is searching those buildings." Moriarty noted while panting heavily with a rough-sounding voice.

He was clearly extremely tired, and he was feeling very thirsty, as they hadn't found any water yet, unfortunately.

"W-we also have to." Ambrose breathed heavily as well.

He wasn't some superhuman and, of course, felt exhaustion. His feet were burning and his lungs were screaming for help, but he had no intention to stop.

However, even without all his stats that made him almost like a god, he continued to exercise and push himself to limits on a daily basis, and now he had developed a strong physique even without the help of the VR headset.

Also, he had Starborn Physique, which pushed his limits beyond human limits, and even though he still couldn't quite reach the top athletes in the world, he wasn't too far behind!

"Agreed…" Moriarty pulled out the interface and checked their current ranking.

***

[Team: Phoenix Quill]

[Ranking: 201,345]

[Teams Finished: 0]

***

Ambrose licked his lips as he felt thirsty and realized that it wouldn't be possible to reach the finishing line without proper hydration.

They would start feeling weak and sluggish in about one to two days if they didn't find some water soon.

They were also certain that it wouldn't be possible to reach the finishing line in less than a day. It was still a long way to go.

Soon afterwards, they entered the dilapidated town, and they heard the sound of screams and fighting coming from almost all the buildings.

"Oh, we can now hear everyone in the town." Moriarty said with a rough, tired voice. "It wasn't possible at the start because of some safe mechanism, I suppose."

"We wouldn't have been able to hear the Game Master's or even each other's voice if we were able to hear everyone." Ambrose said, and he looked around, wondering which building to enter.

"Look," Moriarty said, pointing to a rock-made well in the middle of the town.

Ambrose narrowed his eyes and saw that none of the players were going for it, but instead they were rushing inside the buildings to find any gear and loot.

"It must be dried up." He said after a moment of contemplation. "This whole place is suffering from drought; why would it be any different?"

"Maybe that's what everyone else also thinks; follow me!" Moriarty rushed forward, with Ambrose running behind him.

Moriarty shoved the players in front of him out of the way and continued charging towards the source of water.

They soon arrived at the well, and Moriarty peered inside with a hopeful gaze.

At the bottom of the well, he saw a glimmer of light reflecting off something metallic. It was something small, but unfortunately, there wasn't any water.

"Shit!" Moriarty slammed his hand on the edge of the well in frustration. "Quick, let's search one building!"

"Wait." Ambrose looked at the metallic object below and asked. "What could that be?"

"I don't care; we're running out of time!" Moriarty shouted and looked beyond the town towards the mountain. "There aren't any buildings after this town; I feel like it. I, at least, can't see anything. This might be our last hope!"

"I… I think it's a key!" Ambrose used his Starborn physique's increased vision to see an object similar to a key at the bottom of the well.

"A key?" Moriarty frowned, but he couldn't see anything at the bottom of the well because the sky was getting dark and the well was too deep.

"That must be able to open some doors." Ambrose made an obvious statement. "What if I'll help you go down there, and you go snatch it?"

"And how are we going to do that?" Moriarty showed their bound limbs. "I can't go even a meter away from you with these ropes tying us together."

"That's the thing." Ambrose slowly loosened up the ropes but couldn't remove them altogether, as if they were stuck to each other with some unseen force.

However, now that the rope was looser, they had more space to move around.

"All right, the plan is this." Ambrose leaned over the well and said, "You'll drop down, and I'll be up here, ensuring that you make it safely to the bottom.

"I'll use this rope binding our limbs to securely lower you down."

"Can you do it alone?" Moriarty asked. "I am not too light, and if you accidentally fall down as well, we'll be stuck at the bottom of the well."

"I got it." Ambrose replied confidently and also loosened up the rope that tied their legs together.

Moriarty had to go to the well at a very awkward angle because both his arm and leg was tied to Ambrose, which would make keeping balance extremely difficult.

"You ready?" Ambrose asked, and Moriarty nodded.

Moriarty took a deep breath and slowly hopped off the well's edge, slowly starting to fall towards the bottom, but then the ropes caught him.

"Argh…" Ambrose put his foot on the edge, and he used his arms to slowly lower Moriarty to the bottom of the well.

His muscles started to show themselves as he strained to keep Moriarty steady.

"Argh, lower!" Moriarty shouted and tried to reach out towards the key at the bottom of the well, but it had quite a bit of distance left before he could reach it.

"Ngh!" Ambrose grunted and loosened his grip slightly to lower Moriarty at a faster speed, hoping to get him to the key sooner.

At that moment, the sky above the tournament dimension turned pitch dark, and an eerie-looking crimson moon appeared in the sky.

Ding, ding!

A loud sound of a bell rang out, shocking all the players and viewers.

An enormous face appeared in the sky—it was the Game Master.

"Did you think the first round would only be running, and climbing?" The Game Master chuckled. "Well, prepare yourself. During night's, dead will rise from the ground."

After saying that, the illusionary face of the Game Master vanished, and eerie silence fell over the barren wasteland.

However, it didn't take long for eerie screams to sound in the distance, shattering the silence and sending chills down their spines.

"Hurry up, bring me back up!" Moriarty shouted.

"Not yet; get the key first!" Ambrose screamed, and his muscles swelled as he lowered Moriarty even further, but it started to put a lot of strain on his arms.

"God damn it!" Moriarty reached out towards the key, his fingertips barely brushing against it. "A little bit closer!"

"Aaargh!" Ambrose felt like his veins were about to burst, but then he leaned over the well, almost falling down, but it gave Moriarty enough leverage to grasp the key.

"I got it!" Moriarty shouted.

Without further ado, Ambrose started walking backwards while pulling the rope back up, but the difficult part wasn't yet over. It was incredibly taxing on his strength to pull a well-fitted body up the well.