Martial Online.

Chapter 5: Amaterasu

There was a single hovering item in the inventory. In the inventory, it looked like it was smaller than a pinky, but once Ambrose took it out, it grew in size.

Ambrose looked at the item with a twitching eyebrow. The item was a wooden sword.

"This is my only weapon? How could I possibly kill anything with this?" Ambrose held it and swung it across the air.

"It is light, but still..." He turned back to the dojo and noticed that the doors had been mysteriously closed. It was a signal that he wasn't allowed in there anymore.

Ambrose stored the wooden sword back in his inventory and began walking down the long stairway. However, when he stepped onto the first stair step, he felt like his body went through some kind of invisible bubble.

The empty stairway wasn't empty anymore. There were thousands of players walking down the stairs.

Ambrose turned back to the dojo, and suddenly, a person appeared out of nowhere and almost walked into him.

"Huh?" The player looked confused as he looked around. "Where did all these players come from?"

'I see. No one saw each other during the dojo; otherwise, there would be over a thousand people in the dojo, and we would never be able to leave that place. I guess everyone also met with Kiryu privately.'

Ambrose turned back to the stairway and followed after the rest of the players, heading towards Amaterasu.

At that moment, a player accidentally bumped shoulders with Ambrose. The player didn't stay behind to apologize and instead continued running down the stairway as if he were in a hurry.

Ambrose flinched and looked at his shoulder, imagining pain. However, he didn't feel anything except a slight numb sensation.

"Haah..." He breathed heavily and relaxed significantly. "I didn't feel pain... Hahahaha..."

He turned his gaze back to the path in front of him and noticed many players running. They were too excited to see the city of Amaterasu, and many had planned beforehand to grind levels to become strong.

Ambrose didn't have any specific plans in mind, but after his shoulder didn't break, he also wanted to try things he couldn't do before, such as fighting.

He stepped forward and followed after thousands of players. This time, he jogged with the wind blowing against his face. He smiled and thought that it was a good feeling to be able to run.

'This is life!' Ambrose looked across the vast city of Amaterasu and grinned. "This game fucking rocks."

...

Loch City. Martial Company's Headquarters.

"The servers are running well?" The gray-haired man asked. He was a tall, thin man with a long face and a sharp nose that seemed to have been broken at some point in his life.

He was also Martial Company's chairman, Graham Loch.

"Yes, sir!" Dozens of workers echoed as their hands moved across keyboards. There were hundreds of screens showing different scenes from Martial Online.

"Good." Graham nodded and pulled out his phone. He dialed a number and then pressed the phone against his ear.

The call connected.

"Hello?" A voice answered on the other end of the line.

"It's Graham. The servers are running well." Graham said, and he rubbed his sharp nose. "Have you prepared the VR pod?"

"Yes, sir. Is she ready?"

"Soon, I will take her there. Are you sure it works?" Graham wanted to make sure before doing anything irrational.

"Yes, it worked with the previous test subject."

"Alright, have it ready." Graham disconnected the phone call and looked at the thousands of screens with a nervous heartbeat. "This game will change lives."

...

"Ah." Ambrose took the last step in the long stairway and saw streets filled with players and netizens of Amaterasu, also called NPC—Non-Player Characters.

He entered the streets and headed down the main street. He saw players entering stores, some selling weapons, others selling food or other items.

However, none of them had money, so they were only window shopping.

'Right, silvers are this game's currency. There seem to be only a few ways to earn money: kill creatures.'

Ambrose also came across different dojos and fighting schools. He saw men and women training on the yards, and they all looked stronger than level 1 players.

'We players are at the bottom of the strength hierarchy.' He thought and stopped in front of a weapons store.

He saw different-looking swords hanging from walls—longswords, heavyswords, short-handed swords, rapiers, sabers, broadswords, etc.

'I should aim for a better weapon.' Ambrose wryly smiled after remembering his pathetic wooden sword. 'At least, other players must also have similar starting weapons. Whoever earns enough to buy a better weapon will have a huge advantage over other players.

'Maybe some players will make groups. Solo players seem to be at a huge disadvantage.' Ambrose thought. 'Even though this is a game, I am not a good people person, so I will play solo for now.'

He left the vicinity of the weapon store and headed towards the exit of Amaterasu. It was the same direction that most of the players were going.

There were wheat fields near Amaterasu's entrance, and there, players were fighting against small animals—mostly red-eyed bunnies and blue-eyed squirrels.

Ambrose arrived at the entrance and saw many players running towards the wheat fields. There was loud shouting and screaming in the air.

Players were desperately trying to kill those animals; some ended kill stealing and fights between players happened as a result. It was a messy sight.

At that moment, a wooden sword appeared in Ambrose's peripheral vision. He quickly moved his head out of the way, and the wooden sword barely missed his cheek.

"What the heck?" Ambrose wobbled backward and looked at the person who attacked him. It was a player with an average-looking face and brown hair.

"Did you know that attacking NPCs or players inside the city is forbidden. It is possible to be thrown into jail for a few days. However, outside the city, everything is allowed!" The brown-haired player shouted and rushed after Ambrose.

The nearby players backed away from the fight, but others agreed with the brown-haired player's words and attacked fellow players that stood beside them.

Killing animals and creatures wasn't the only way to gain experience.

Killing players also gained experience points!

Ambrose awkwardly dodged the wooden sword and shouted. "Inventory!"

However, before he could take out his wooden sword, the brown-haired player lunged forward and smashed the wooden sword into his gut.

"Ouch!" Ambrose cried out as he fell to the ground with a thud. He felt a numbing sensation spreading across his stomach.

[You lost 5 HP!]

[HP: 25/30]

The brown-haired player raised his sword above his head and smashed it down.

Ambrose's eyes shook, and then everything turned dark.

'What the hell happened?' He looked around and saw black space all around him.

Then a notification appeared in front of him.

[You are dead!]

[Do you want to revive?]

[Yes/No]

'I already died? Damn it!' Ambrose pressed "Yes" and again disappeared from the black space.

After opening his eyes, he was standing in the middle of Amaterasu's bustling market street.

'He must be still in the entrance area...' After remembering the brown-haired player's face, he opened his inventory and wanted to take out his wooden sword.

However, his inventory was empty!

'No way. I lost it because I died?!' Ambrose massaged his temples. 'Great, I don't have a weapon anymore.'

At that moment, he had a crazy idea.

'What if I go steal a wooden sword from someone? The wheat fields were such a messy place. If I die again, it doesn't really matter; I just have to try until I am able to steal one. I need a wooden sword; I am Swordsman, not Brawler, so I am quite weak in unarmed combat!'