Martial Online.

Jesse stood on his room's balcony, overlooking the scene happening on the road that was leading out of Rothsmith Estate.

There, hundreds of reporters with cameras flashing were desperately trying to catch a glimpse of him, the newly-crowned Hero of Nocklund.

They saw him standing on the balcony, leaning against the railing, and started snapping pictures.

Jesse went to the balcony so the reporters could snatch a few pictures and perhaps leave and stop bothering his family and the servants.

However, he had a feeling they wouldn't leave without getting his interview first.

They didn't care that it was freezing outside, as they had built tents and brought space heaters to keep warm while they waited for him.

It had been two days since the end of the tournament, and there still hadn't been any news about the finals.

After he finished up with the tournament, they had a party on the estate that lasted long into the night. It was mostly within the family and among servants.

Matilda, his grandmother, also visited and told him some good advice about fame and how to handle it gracefully.

After all, he was Rothsmith and had to carry the name with a straight back and proud posture.

'It seems these vultures have no intention of leaving.'

Jesse left the balcony and closed the balcony door behind him.

After trekking to his bed, he pulled out his phone from the charger and pocketed it before sitting down on the bed.

He then opened his bedside drawer and grabbed a book before lying down on the bed.

It was his favorite book—Ambrose, the Immortal Man.

It had been with him since he was a child, and he loved to read it whenever he needed a break from reality.

He hadn't read it as much lately as there was another way to take a break from reality—Martial Online.

Which, to be honest, had been much more effective.

As he started reading, time flew by as he entered the magical world of magic and knights, but after a while, someone knocked on the door and shook him back to reality.

Jesse closed the book, placed it inside the drawer, and said that the door was open.

The door opened, and surprisingly, it was the doctor, dressed in his usual white coat.

However, Jesse had been waiting for him.

"How's the test result?" He asked curiously and moved closer to the end of the bed.

After the end of the tournament, he went immediately to get his body checked up, as he didn't think his strange episodes of nose bleeding and passing out were normal.

So far, he has been fine in the real world, as he hasn't gone to either All-Online or Martial Online.

He had a hunch that the VR headset was to blame for his strange, new disease.

If it wasn't, he wanted to at least check his condition before playing again.

"Well, I saw something abnormal, that's for sure."

The doctor took a chair to sit on and scratched his cheek as he tried to arrange the papers in his hand.

Jesse quieted down and listened to what the doctor had to say.

"First of all, your brain activity is all over the place." The doctor started with. "It's as if your thoughts are constantly racing, without any stopping.

"Your body is also showing physical signs of stress and anxiety.

"Let me explain it better. In your brain, it looks like dark clouds are looming over, with thunderstorms raging. It seems as if you are in great anger all the time."

'In great anger? I don't feel anger, though.' Jesse frowned.

"I am not a therapist, but I know some really great therapists to help you work through these feelings."

"Thanks…" Jesse frowned and held his head in his hands.

"So, I have been nose bleeding and passing out, but I am fine?"

"From what I've seen based on my tests, you were fine." The doctor said, "You said it happened in Martial Online, correct? I am not too familiar with the video games, but is there a way to get some kind of disease there or something?"

"I don't know…" Jesse whispered.

There might be a way for the player to have a skill that could create something like that, as he could also inflict others with Humanoid Imperfecta.

However, he doubted that, as it first happened in the presence of Moriarty, Cleo, and Leo.

Then, in the presence of Moriarty, Zadkiel, and Julian.

The only person that was present in both scenarios was Moriarty, and he doubted that he would be the kind of guy to sabotage his own teammate.

'Well, it never happened after logging out of the game, so perhaps it is a game issue? Hard to say…'

"In all, you are in pretty good health, young master." The doctor stood up and bowed slightly with a smile. "From a physique standpoint, you are in perfect health."

"Thank you." Jesse nodded and watched as the doctor left his room.

He then let out a sigh and glanced at the bedside drawer where his headset was lying. It had been a few days since he last touched it, and he was quite missing it already.

'Well, it seems I am fine, so I might as well.'

Jesse took the headset, laid down on the soft bed with a pillow under his head that felt like marshmallows, and then placed it around his head.

After pressing a button on the side of the headset, his consciousness transferred to the virtual world.

…

Ambrose appeared in the world of white, with an endless white sky and white land.

As he looked around, he brought out the interface and again saw Martial Online on the front page.

When he was about to press it, his fingers twitched, and he remembered that there was something else to do.

He moved past the front page and found another game—All- Online.

There was still the murder of Falco Arundell that he had to uncover.

'I discovered the name—Zane Grimm the Third—and today I'll find more about him.'

With a single press, his body turned into a pixelated mess of colorful pixels and got sucked into the video game world.

…

"Ah!"

Ambrose woke up on the sidewalk of a bustling, Victorian-style city, bewildered and disoriented.

He was pretty sure he didn't log out on the sidewalk and thought he would've logged back in at the previous spot where he left.

However, now he remembered that he didn't put any temporary spawns. He wasn't sure whether it was even possible.

As he got a sense of the surroundings, he bumped shoulders with some rude pedestrians who minded their own business, with the exception of one who angrily shouted at him to watch where he was standing.

Previously, he was in All-Online when it was night with a starry, foggy sky, but now it was sunny morning with factories pushing black smoke into the blue sky, unaware of the pollution they were causing.

The windows in the nearby houses closed and opened, and people were throwing dirty water onto the dirty alleyways below. Some homeless people were unfortunate enough to be caught in the line of fire.

Ambrose fixed up the dirty mask on his face to hide himself better, as it was harder to blend in than during the night. It was clear that he was already attracting attention with his dirty clothes.

'I have no money, so I can't afford any clothes. There is only one place I know how to get easy information and perhaps money—

any tavern.

'That's where I should begin, as blindlessly moving down the city won't do me any good and just increases the risk of me being discovered and then tagged as some witch.'

With the destination in mind, he trekked down the cobblestone streets of the Great City, taking in the sights of dirty alleyways, smoky factories, and stores with dirty glass windows.

All the citizens seemed to live their own lives, but he noticed one thing that was different from Martial Online—the lack of players.

It felt very strange to be in a world without any other players around or real people, as one would say.

After a few hours of walking around the Great City, with a little help from few locals, he found a smoky tavern tucked away in some back street of the city.

The street had a one-way road leading out, some alleyways leading to who knows where, and a few stray cats wandering around.

There were shady characters everywhere, smoking and playing cards in the open, some even drinking heavily in broad daylight.

As Ambrose walked down the street, he was clearly treated as an eyesore by the locals, who glared at him with suspicion and disgust.

Eventually, he reached the front steps of the smoky tavern, which had a reputation for welcoming the most unsavory characters.

He pushed open the easily-openable doors and entered the dimly lit establishment. It was still somewhat empty as it was still a little bit past morning, but in the night, this was one of the most popular places in town for criminals and outlaws to gather and scheme.

As Ambrose took one step forward, he heard a loud, banging sound that seemed to errupt his eardrums.

Bang!

A bullet hole appeared in the wall, just inches away from his head.

Ambrose's eyes widened, and he looked at the bullet hole before turning to look at the bartender, who was holding a smoking gun.