Martial Online.

Rothsmith Estate, Nocklund.

The flatscreen television showed the last team walking out of the door, and as soon as they appeared, the whole mansion was silent for a short moment.

Ring.

At that moment, several phones started ringing at the same time, causing chaos in the otherwise quiet mansion.

"He made it…" Anna covered her mouth in surprise and felt her ears moisten as tears of joy filled her eyes.

Jack clenched his trembling fists in excitement and took a deep breath to calm himself down.

At the moment, they were alone in the room, but then they heard some faint cheers coming from all around the mansion.

It wasn't only them that were spectating the tournament; the servants were as well, and they started celebrating as their very own young master appeared on television.

Jack pulled out his phone and sent a message to Mark.

After pressing send, he pocketed his phone and turned to the television with a small smile on his face.

…

Buzz… A phone vibrated in Mark's chest pocket.

However, he was too occupied to care about it, as his gaze was glued to the screen.

The room was eerily quiet, with all the members of the Rothsmith family looking at the screen with jaws dropped in shock.

"What the…" Mark whispered, but then his face turned red, and he stammered out incoherently. "Yes!"

His shout took others by surprise, as they didn't expect their lofty patriarch to show such emotion.

Not even when Sunseeker and Moonshadow qualified.

However, now he did, and it didn't come as a surprise as to why.

A person who carried the name Rothsmith was going to stand on the biggest stage in the world.

Mark then pulled out his phone with his shaky hand and read the message that Jack sent to him.

After reading it through, he answered back and turned back to the screen.

'Very well, you've proven yourself.'

…

Meanwhile, the Internet was exploding with activity.

The Martial Online forums were buzzing with excitement as the final qualified teams were finally revealed.

In Moriarty's community, his fans were celebrating the qualification and eagerly anticipating the finals that were going to happen in Loch City—the center hub of the tournament.

At one of the chats of a popular streamer.

[Chatter1: I thought Zadkiel and Julian were the winning candidates, but there are so many powerful teams!]

[Chatter2: I knew Malach and Evangelia would qualify! They were also very dominant during the entire tournament]

[Chatter3: Yeah, I wonder what would happen if they clashed with Julian and Zadkiel!]

[Chatter4: Samuel joined up with Cracklol, it seems. That is an unexpected alliance, not going to lie]

[Chatter5: Cracklol is quite… something, but they are clearly a powerful team as they also qualified!]

[Chatter6: I know that Moriarty and his teammate lost to Julian and Zadkiel, but they are also incredibly powerful. I think they can reach the top 5!]

[Chatter7: Difficult to say. We still don't know what the tournament's format will be]

…

In the final room of the tournament, Graham snapped his fingers, and an illusionary door appeared behind him that looked like a door to heaven.

"The first phase of the tournament is concluded." He stepped aside and pointed at the door. "This is the exit. I will contact each one of you soon regarding the finals."

As some players started to depart from the tournament with excited looks, one of the players walked to Graham.

Graham sensed his approach and looked at him with a curious look.

"May I ask a question?" Ambrose looked at Graham, one of the most influential people in the world at the moment.

Also, Bella's father, which made him slightly nervous.

"You may," Graham said.

Moriarty, who was about to walk through the door, turned around with a raised eyebrow, wondering what Ambrose was asking.

"This tournament felt odd to me." Ambrose said, "We could've just had teams facing each other in a normal bracket-styled tournament to decide the strongest 32 teams. It felt like this was an unnecessary complication to the process."

"Hmm…" Graham mumbled, looking like he was contemplating his words.

But, then, he nodded in agreement and said, "You make a good point."

Before Ambrose said another word, he raised another finger.

"However, since the creation of Martial Online, there is one thing I value as a skill; do you know what that is?"

Ambrose shook his head, even though he thought he could guess and perhaps get it right. However, he wanted to know from his mouth.

"The skill of the real person behind the avatar." Graham said, "That is something that has been criminally underrated. It's a shame, really.

"To weed out the 'Level-Abusers' as I call them, I created the first round to be something different. Of course, I believe some really powerful players were disqualified because of that.

"Therefore, I gave them some leeway and created the Wild Card competition to give them one final chance. Still, I think I succeeded in having the best thirty-two teams compete in the finals.

"Does my answer satisfy you?"

"It does." Ambrose nodded, understanding slightly the thought process behind the great genius, Graham.

Graham nodded and also walked out of the door.

"I'll call you later." Moriarty said to Ambrose and walked through the door, disappearing as well.

Ambrose was about to leave the room as well, but then he heard a voice behind him.

"You're Ambrose, right?"

Ambrose turned around and saw a pair of players looking at him. They didn't look like they knew who he really was, but he knew who they were.

'It's them…' Ambrose's eyes narrowed, and he nodded. "Yes."

Anthon smiled and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Have we met before?"

"Perhaps," Ambrose replied vaguely.

"…" Cauldron looked coldly at him and could feel that he was hiding something.

'He must know us, so we have met before. However, how come I don't have any recollection of ever seeing him before?'

"Are these meanies bothering you, Amb Amb?" A chirpy sound came behind them.

Ambrose's eyebrow twitched slightly, and then he turned to see Cleo approaching them with her usual giant smile on her face.

Leo followed her with his customary cold expression, but when he noticed Ambrose, his eyes slightly squinted.

"I suppose this place isn't the proper place to have a conversation." Anthon chuckled and walked past Ambrose with a smile on his face. "I hope we see each other in Loch City. Maybe I'll remember you by then."

Cauldron walked past Ambrose, almost bumping shoulders with them, but at the last possible moment, Ambrose slightly shifted to the side to avoid the collision.

It was a very minor and subtle movement, but it was enough to prevent the two from colliding.

"…"

Cauldron planned to bump shoulders with him, as he wanted to see something, but it was as if Ambrose sensed his intentions and intentionally dodged it.

He then turned his gaze away, followed Anthon through the illusionary door, and vanished from the tournament realm.

"What's Amb Amb?" Ambrose turned to Cleo with a twitching eyebrow.

"Since I call Moriarty as Mori Mori, I should call you Amb Amb!" Cleo said happily. "It's good, right?"

"Never call me that again." Ambrose stated firmly with a wry smile.

"Mou…" Cleo pouted and put her hands on her waist. "You're no fun, Amb Amb!"

Ambrose rolled his eyes, but at that moment, he saw two players walking past him.

Cerberus passed him without taking a second to look at him, and he stepped through the door.

Redheart followed right behind him, but she couldn't help it and shot a poisonous glare in Ambrose's direction before disappearing into the door.

"You're popular one, aren't ya." Cleo smiled cheekily.

Ambrose sighed and shook his head.

"Well, see you in Loch City." Ambrose turned around and walked to the door.

"Bye bye!"

Cleo shouted behind him, and then, as he was about to step through the door, he quickly checked his current level.

A level that he received after many hours of grinding in the underworld.

[Ambrose - Level: 86]

He jumped an amazing 13 levels in just a few hours!

'I'll assign my stat points later; now, I am too tired to do anything else here.'

Ambrose stepped proudly through the door and vanished like a fleeting cloud.

…

Jesse opened his eyes tiredly and took off his headset before sitting down on the edge of his bed.

He had clear black hair that fell in waves around his face, giving him a mysterious and brooding appearance.

After hours of countless fights, he was finally free to just relax!

He laid straight down and let out a relieved sigh.

It was still unknown when the finals would start, but if he had to guess, it would still take a few weeks to finish everything before the tournament could begin.

From what he has heard, the stadium hasn't finished construction.

It gave him a few weeks of relaxing time and a chance to increase his level even further.

He planned to go into demon mode, push himself through limits, and reach an even greater level of strength.

However, before that, there was something he wanted to finish.

All-Online's quest to find the killer.