Martial Online.



Jesse opened the file the artist had sent and saw the thumbnail in all of its glory.

It was just like he wanted it to be—maybe slightly better, even.

The thumbnail had a breathtaking backdrop with bright colors, and then replacing the sun was the brown upgrade token that added a warm and earthy touch to the entire work.

The clouds formed almost like an arrow pointing at the upgrade token.

Jesse was clear that if he saw this kind of thumbnail anywhere, he would most likely click on it.

"That's perfect." He quickly went to send a message to the artist and gave her a five-star rating before moving onto ForeverTube's website.

It was time to finish uploading the video.

He went to his videos and the edit section.

There was one video ready to be uploaded.

He double-clicked on it and then added a thumbnail to the video.

Once the thumbnail finished downloading, he pressed the "upload" button and saw the download bar go from 0% to 100% in mere seconds.

The upload was completed.

On his page, the first-ever video appeared.

"Ah, finally." Jesse then left the browser and closed the PC.

The night was late, and he had another long training day once he woke up.

"I hope it will do good." Jesse thought out loud and then flicked the lightswitch, which killed the light and engulfed the room in darkness.

He then went to his bed, snuggled under the blanket, and closed his heavy eyelids.

It still took him several dozen minutes to fall asleep because of his nervousness and high expectations for his video.

...

In the dim room, Mello saw that she had received her first five-star rating from the person called Ambrose.

'Oh, he liked it.' She thought with a small smile creeping up on her face.

The ones she did lettering for gave her four and three stars, which didn't bother her, but receiving a five-star rating was true validation of her hard work.

She then saw the message, and her heart fluttered for a moment.

'He really liked it.' She smiled and then tapped her chin as she pondered something.

'Right, I wonder if he has uploaded his video and used my thumbnail.'

With her fingers dancing across the keyboard, she typed ForeverTube's website name into the search bar and pressed enter.

After the website opened up, it showed all the special front page videos specially chosen by Forever Company's employees.

The video department of Forever Company often chose videos to be displayed on the front page.

They were called as the Featured Videos.

It was the greatest honor any ForeverTuber could achieve since there were only twelve spots every day and millions of new videos appeared every day.

She then found the search bar and typed Ambrose's name, thinking it was also his nickname on ForeverTube.

She received a list of results, and most of them talked about the Ambrose and Zahhak incident.

'Hmm?' Mello tilted her head and saw that it was something that happened in Martial Online.

Most of those videos had nearly half a million views, with the most popular one having two million.

Mello then scrolled further down, thinking that the Ambrose in those videos wasn't the one she was looking for.

Soon, she found the channel belonging to Ambrose and clicked on it.

There was only one video with a familiar thumbnail.

Mello immediately smiled. "He used it."

She then clicked on the video and took out a bag of snacks.

For the following ten minutes, she watched the video silently while eating her snacks.

Once the video was over, she put the bag of snacks away and frowned.

'Was he speaking the truth about the upgrade class token?'

She had grown used to the fact that many of the ForeverTubers were lying for views these days.

She was also a Martial Online player, even though she was only level 16.

Yet she hadn't heard anything about this upgrade class token but knew that there were special classes that some of the most famous streamers have.

'So, according to him, there aren't special classes but only upgraded ones.' Mello frowned but decided to give the video a like and then also subscribed, becoming Ambrose's first subscriber.

However, she did not truly believe the content of the video.

...

At the video department of Forever Company.

"Haaaa!" A messy-haired man let out a long yawn while watching a video playing on the screen.

He couldn't help but roll his eyes at the boring content of the video.

"Trash." He clicked away from the video and took out a candy bar from his pocket.

While munching on it, he clicked on the next video on the list and began watching it.

The video department often worked overnight shifts, and during that shift, they had to choose the twelve featured videos for the next day.

They had already chosen eleven and had one left.

After a while, the messy-haired man scoffed and left the video after not a single thing happened in five minutes.

"Yo, Jacob, want to get some coffee?" His co-worker said from the desk behind him.

The messy-haired man, Jacob, turned around to look at the clear-eyed man and responded, "Sure, I could use a break from this boring video."

"Oof, that bad, huh?" The clear-eyed man laughed and stood up, then walked over to the resting room with Jacob.

There, they put the coffee brewing and sat down on the comfortable couches while a TV mounted on the wall showed yesterday's news.

"Honestly, all videos are about Martial Online these days, and I am getting tired of them." The clear-eyed man sat while looking at the beautiful news reporter on TV. "They should at least make a video from Dark Waters, some horror stuff.

"Perhaps it would help keep me awake."

"Yeah..." Jacob scratched his hair. "I hope I am getting promoted soon. I am getting tired of this shit."

"Hah."

The door to the resting room opened, and a tired-looking woman sauntered inside, carrying a phone in her hand.

"Jacob, you have a friend inside Martial Company, right?"

"That's right." Jacob looked at the tired-looking woman and nodded.

"Well, can you confirm the truth of this video?" The tired-looking woman handed him her phone and said, "I think it's a very informative video."

"Y'know, people don't like to watch informative videos." Jacob said and glanced at the phone. "They want something to keep them entertained for a few minutes since most people these days have the attention span of a goldfish."

"I am tired as hell, yet I enjoyed the video." The tired-looking woman then saw that the coffee had finished brewing and went to get a cup.

"Hmm, fine. Pour me some coffee as well while I am watching this." Jacob then rubbed his eyes and began watching the video.

A while later, the tired-looking woman gave him the coffee cup, but he didn't notice as his eyes were glued to the screen.

Once the video was over, he frowned. "Is it true what he said?"

"I am not sure. I was hoping you would find out." The tired-looking woman said while sipping on the coffee.

The clear-eyed man curiously looked at the phone screen.

"Hmm, let me make a call." Jacob handed the phone back to her and pulled out his own phone from his back pocket.

He then dialed a number.

Click—the call soon connected.

"Hey Jacob." A voice on the other side of the phone said.

"Yo man, hearing from your tone, you are still awake."

"I finished washing my teeth and was about to go to bed. What's up?"

"I want to send you a video, and can you tell me if the things the person said were true?"

"Oh, send it."

"Thanks." Jacob disconnected the phone call and sent the video link to his friend.

While enjoying the coffee, they waited for his friend to reply back, who was on the developer team at Martial Company.

After a while, he received a message.

Jacob checked it quickly and looked surprised.

"What did he say?" The tired-looking woman said in a hurry.

"He said yes..." Jacob looked at the tired-looking woman and said, "Let's put his video on the front page."

"I had the same idea if his words were deemed to be true." The tired-looking woman smiled.

"Ah, what was that person's name?" Jacob quickly asked, as he forgot to check it.

"Ambrose, I think it was."

"Did he have any other videos?"

"No, that was his first one."