Martial Online.

Chapter 441 The Titans

?Moriarty and Ambrose rushed down the cloudy road with a thrilled feeling in their hearts.

The cloudy road's surface felt like a soft cushion under their feet.

It was firm enough to provide a steady grip, yet gentle enough to give a slight bounce with each step.

They couldn't see anyone in front of them or behind them because of a strange, white mist that came out of nowhere, obscuring their vision completely.

However, they were able to see one thing, and that was a bright golden light beyond the mist, which was the finishing line.

At last, they ran through the thick mist and pushed through the golden finishing line.

Ding, ding!

Moriarty and Ambrose looked around with a rough breath and saw the mist clearing up in their vision.

They saw thousands of players running down the cloud road with exhaustion in their faces as they were trying to push through other players to reach the finishing line before others.

They then looked down from the cloud road and saw the barren wasteland in the far distance, with many towns and buildings strewn across.

It looked like the wasteland was an impossible distance away, but finally, the strainous journey was over.

In front of Moriarty and Ambrose, a holographic screen appeared.

[Team: Phoenix Quill]

[Final Ranking: 102]

"102…" Moriarty laughed and scratched the back of his head. "Not bad, not bad at all."

"Whew…" Ambrose held his chest and felt his racing heartbeat.

They had actually qualified through the first round with room to breathe.

"Good job, man." Moriarty patted his shoulder and saw that a golden door had appeared a slight distance away from them. "Shall we go to the next destination?"

Ambrose nodded, and followed after him as they stepped through the golden door and disappeared from the tournament dimension.

…

Ambrose opened his eyes and felt a soft cushion under his head and a soft bed.

'Did I log out accidentally?' He wondered, but then he saw an unfamiliar ceiling and room.

The room was elegantly decorated with rich tapestries and ornate furniture with a hanging chandelier and gilded mirrors.

The room had an air of opulence and grandeur, making him wonder how he ended up here.

"Ah, where're we?"

Then, a familiar voice popped out of nowhere.

Ambrose looked to the side and saw that there was another bed in the other corner of the room. There, Moriarty slowly sat up to look at the grand-looking room with a curious frown.

Moriarty slowly approached the door and opened it to take a peek outside.

"Uh, Ambrose, come here."

"Huh?" Ambrose raised an eyebrow and joined him at the door.

After Moriarty stepped aside, Ambrose peeked outside and looked shockingly surprised.

There was probably a kilometer-long hallway with hundreds, maybe thousands, of rooms.

"I suppose all the qualified teams appear here." Ambrose said and stepped back inside the room.

"That's my guess too." Moriarty said, and he traced his hand across the wall's painted surface. "Is this a resting dimension before the second round?"

Ding, ding.

On the room's wall, a holographic screen appeared as if it were mounted on the wall.

[Amount of Finished Teams: 5,667]

[Please wait inside the room till the first round is finished!]

Moriarty closed the door, and they settled in for the wait.

"The number is going up quick." Moriarty mentioned, while checking out the holographic screen.

With each passing second, hundreds of teams finished.

"Yeah." Ambrose took a seat in the nearest chair and watched the numbers climb higher and higher.

"What do you think about the first round?" Moriarty asked curiously with his arms crossed.

"What do I think about it?" Ambrose rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I don't see what the point of it was. I know the physical fitness of the player matters, as that can also influence the avatar.

"However, is it important enough to determine the outcome of the tournament?"

"I think everyone misunderstood this tournament." Moriarty said. "Some strong players definitely got disqualified in the first round.

"After all, gamers don't have the best physical fitness in most cases, especially for those who have grinded levels and spend most time inside the game.

"The strength of the real body was important earlier on, but its importance is decreasing as time goes on because it's more worthwhile to increase levels than try to build muscle in the real world.

"That takes time—months even. It's possible to level up much quicker in the game and assign stat points to Strength which will be much more useful."

"So, what's the point of the tournament?" Ambrose asked with his arms crossed.

"To weed out the players that are only about high-level and not actual skill." Moriarty said. "There's quite a few of those who spent all their time grinding levels.

"However, one thing I don't understand. There're definitely high-level players with plenty of skills who might've started much further back than we did and get disqualified as a result.

"That is incredibly unfair, so I don't understand what the Game Master was thinking."

"There must be something else happening." Ambrose said. "I guess we'll see soon enough."

Moriarty nodded and nonchalantly glanced at the holographic screen. However, then his eyes bulged, and he called out:

"Oey, only 100 players remaining!"

Ambrose stood up and walked over to the holographic screen.

Just as Moriarty said, about 9900 teams had already finished, with 100 remaining.

In the following seconds, the number climbed at an incredible speed until it reached the special 10,000.

Ding, ding!

A dinging sound reverberated across the entire room.

At that moment, a voice came that sounded like it came from hidden speakers.

"Qualified teams, please walk down the hallway to the left and proceed to the meeting hall.

"I repeat, qualified teams, please walk down the hallway to the left and proceed to the meeting hall."

Moriarty nodded and left the room with Ambrose.

Creak—at the same moment, hundreds of doors opened at the same time, and players rushed out to the hallway.

Everyone eyed each other curiously, as everyone here was part of the group that would fight for the crown of the best players in the entire world.

And then they followed the arrows on the floor and started walking in the same direction that led to the meeting hall.

After over ten minutes of walking, they came across stairs that went straight down. The arrows also led straight down, signaling that it was where they had to go.

After walking down the stairs, they walked through a door and entered a massive meeting hall with enough seats to fit over 20,000 players.

Moriarty and Ambrose found their seats near the front row, as they wanted to have a clear view of the stage.

They then watched as players continued to swarm inside the meeting hall and fill up the chairs.

It took about half an hour for all the seats to be filled, and players chatted with each other, talking about the first round and their experiences.

At that moment, the door on the stage opened, and a middle-

aged man with a slightly crooked nose walked to the middle of the stage.

He was the Game Master, Graham Loch.

…

In the outside world, the viewers exploded in excitement as the broadcast of the tournament showed the scene of Graham Loch's dramatic entrance.

However, at the same moment, all 10,000 registered teams were revealed on the internet, and all the news stations excitedly started to gather the teams with the strongest line-

ups on paper.

Immediately, one team captured everyone's attention with their star-studded roster.

Team name: The Titans.

Members: Julian + Zadkiel.

It was a monstrous line-up, and everyone started to wonder: how was it even possible to beat such a team?

Julian had long been considered the strongest player in the world, no matter what he played, and Zadkiel was the world's most famous streamer with strength that might be able to rival Julian!

However, one team caught the attention of a certain community.

Team Phoenix Quill, with its members Moriarty and Ambrose.