Martial Online.

Chapter 15: Flower Guardian

Inside a dark room, a young man lay under the blanket with his phone in hand. A light coming from the phone touched the young man's average-looking face. His blue eyes could barely stay open, but he couldn't tear his gaze off the screen.

'As expected, Amaterasu is one city out of many. Players were sent to different parts of the continent. They are calling it the Light Continent. According to NPCs, there is also a Dark Continent, but no one has traveled there and returned.

'This game seems to have its own lore. The NPCs are acting like they have lived there for thousands of years and have their own history, even though the servers opened today.'

Jesse rolled down further to learn more about Light and Dark Continent. Unfortunately, there wasn't much. The NPCs were very secretive about what they should reveal.

However, he discovered three city names where players were sent.

'Amaterasu, Yatagarasu, and Tsukuyomi.' He thought inwardly. 'Those three are the biggest cities in the Light Continent; the rest are smaller towns and villages.

'Each city has its own main dojo. Amaterasu has Kiryu's Sword Dojo. Yatagarasu has Karasu's Spear Dojo. Tsukuyomi has Yuna's Archer Dojo.'

There wasn't anything else that piqued Jesse's interest. Instead, he went to check what players talked about in public chat.

There was a lot of arguing as most players complained about getting PK'd—player killed—which hindered everyone's progress.

Those who had previous experience with Virtual Games and had equally experienced party members had an immense advantage.

Jesse remembered the three guys, who were obviously close friends. They were all in their early 20s and must have earned a crazy amount of silver by PKing.

'I am not sure if I can continue playing alone.' Jesse thought with a frown. 'RedBand was a great help, but it was slow when XP got split. Those three guys were already level 2, maybe even level 3.

'Just how many they actually killed...'

He scratched his head. 'I would be a target if I was alone, but earning experience points in a party is painfully slow. I need to acquire a proper weapon; a wooden sword won't cut it. Also, the clothes might have some defensive attributes.

'When I landed my hit on that guy, the black cloak might have absorbed some of the damage. If I had a proper steel sword, I should have been able to slice through his shoulder.'

Jesse closed the phone and placed it on the bedside table. His fingers accidentally brushed past the VR headset, and he happened to press the start button. The golden visor lit up, sending a very small ray of light across the dark room.

'Ah, should I?' Jesse bit his lip gently and then took the VR headset. He turned it around and looked at the golden visor, which reflected his pale, sickly face.

'If I achieve level 3 and get the steel sword quickly, I would be way ahead of the average player base. I can survive with an hour of sleep. During night, there won't be as many players, the somewhat empty streets proved that.

'However, tomorrow, there will be even more players as more and more people receive their VR headsets. There were still relatively few people in the forests today, but tomorrow they will be filled as the wheat fields around the city are going to be filled by new players.

'Therefore, from a logic standpoint, I should skip one night's sleep for this.'

Jesse wryly smiled as he tried to convince himself.

'I am not addicted; this is just a smart move.'

He put the VR headset around his head and closed his eyes.

After opening his eyes, he was again standing in the empty white space. Then he opened the store window and pressed on "Martial Online."

As soon as he did, the white place disappeared, replaced by a narrow street surrounded by traditional and quaint buildings. The nearby metal fence surrounding the park was decorated with flowers and decorative lights.

Ambrose touched his legs and pinched them. He couldn't help but smile, and then he crouched and touched the ground with his open palm.

It felt so real, as if he were touching real paved ground.

After straightening his body, he turned around and embarked on his journey to the end of the city.

As soon as he arrived there, there were sounds of fighting coming from the wheat fields.

Ambrose glanced there and saw a large number of people chasing after red-eyed bunnies.

'There are quite a lot of players left, but I doubt there are many in the forest. I just hope that those three guys have gone offline. It would be a tragedy if I ended up meeting them again.'

Ambrose sighed and looked at the distance between him and the forest. He would have to walk for slightly over a kilometer to reach his destination.

He slowly began moving faster and faster, and soon his arms also moved at a synchronized pace. He started running while the wind blew against his face, making his messy hair flap around his face.

Without him even realizing it, the forest was approaching at a scary speed, and after who knows how long, Ambrose noticed that his surroundings had been filled with trees and rustling leaves.

He slowly stopped running and caught his breath while looking around.

"Ah, I've already arrived. I guess I lost track of time." He said out loud and used the back of his palm to wipe the sweat off his forehead.

He then focused his gaze on the dark forest. The glow of the crimson moon gave the surroundings a rather creepy-inducing effect. It really looked like he was in a horror movie.

The distant sound of the river flowing and crashing against shores and rocks didn't really help either.

'This world is beautiful, but it can also be quite creepy.' Ambrose thought and pulled out his wooden sword. Then he began walking into the forest.

After only walking for one minute, he came across a strange scene. There was a glowing flower in the middle of ordinary-looking flowers. Its petals were blue, but they were glowing like moonlight.

Ambrose crouched before the flower and gently touched its petals.

'Strange. This doesn't seem like an ordinary flower. I wonder if I can sell it...' He thought about plucking it from the ground and storing it in his inventory.

But at that moment, the nearby bush started wiggling creepily.

Ambrose carefully turned towards the bush and tightened the grip on the sword.

A strange-looking creature casually walked out of the bush. It was standing on two legs, but its skin color was green, and its head was round with flower petals growing out of it. Its pupils were shaped like four-leafed clover.

The creature looked straight at Ambrose as if it could see straight into his soul and desires.

It then turned back to the blue-petalled flower and back to Ambrose. Its expression turned angry, as if it had just seen his mother insulted right in front of it.

"Craaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Its ear-splitting scream echoed across the forest.

After the scream, the flower monster fell to its four limbs, looking like a wild dog. Then, the flower petals growing from its head started glowing like the blue petal on the ground.

The glow was mesmerizing, but then a strange greenish smoke drifted out of those flower petals. Whenever the smoke touched something, everything in that area turned into dead flowers.

Ambrose slowly backed away from the smoke. He didn't want to wait and see what happened once the smoke reached him.

The flower monster seemed to be struggling, and soon its flower petals lost their mesmerizing glow. It slouched down and looked very exhausted. The smoke also disappeared into thin air.

'Eh, it is exhausted?' Ambrose raised an eyebrow and looked for signs of that strange smoke. The smoke left behind a trail of dead flowers and grayish grass.

'Well, it is a monster, so it should give experience.' Ambrose shrugged his shoulders and jumped forward. He lifted the wooden sword and smashed it into the flower monster's face.

The flower monster crashed into a nearby tree and looked like it was dead.

[You killed a Flower Guardian!]

[20 XP Earned!]

[XP: 20/125]

'Eh, that's it? It also gave me a lot of experience points.' Ambrose was surprised, but he didn't complain. 'Free XP, I take it.'

As he walked to the flower monster to see whether it dropped anything, the blue-petalled flower suddenly lost all its luster and turned into a normal flower once again.