At the courtyard of Mehelvian’s High School.
A group of students had gathered around a park bench, intensely looking at the phone in their hands.
The phone showed a stream with several people walking down a dark tunnel.
Curiosity filled the air as they wondered what awaited them at the end.
“Kerrie, what do you think Warhaven is going to be like?” A male student asked a girl beside him.
They were currently on lunch break, but rather than going to the cafeteria to eat, they left with their friends to go to the courtyard to watch the stream.
“Hmm, didn’t the patch notes say that it is home to the most dangerous criminals?” Kerrie said curiously.
“They must’ve exaggerated it.” A young man with a square-shaped head said. “I wonder what kind of quests that place has!”
As their curiosity continued to rise, they noticed a small light coming from the end of the tunnel.
The group of players had finally arrived at Warhaven!
Millions of viewers all around the world tuned in to watch the discovery of Warhaven.
It didn’t matter if they were at school, at home, or at work.
Because of copyrights, most of the news anchors had to carefully describe the scenes and events happening in Warhaven without directly showing any footage.
It was a very interesting event.
…
“We have arrived!” ShadowBlade shouted.
The players departed the dark tunnel and came across the narrow alleyways of Warhaven.
When they looked at the ceiling, they saw bright lanterns lighting up the place.
Even ShadowBlade was surprised by that sight, as when he last visited Warhaven, the lanterns weren’t lit.
“Ugh, what is this stench?” After PinkDragon walked into the open air, she pinched her nose and asked loudly.
It wasn’t only her who felt uncomfortable smelling this air.
Many others around her were also grimacing and covering their noses.
“God damn it!” Olympos pinched his nose and shouted, “What is that horrendous smell?”
The viewers, who couldn’t physically smell anything, wondered how bad it could be.
ShadowBlade walked over to the hidden minecart and threw away the scratched curtain that blocked the cart underneath.
He then flicked the switch, and the minecart began slowly returning to above ground.
“You.” A member of one of the groups pointed at Shadowblade, then approached him while asking. “Where to go next?”
“If we go down this alleyway, we will reach a street…” ShadowBlade pointed at one of the alleyways.
However, when the person who asked began approaching that alleyway, ShadowBlade stopped him in his tracks.
“However, I don’t think we should go down that path.” He said with a whitened face.
He believed that the zombies might still be there, lurking about.
“?” The person looked strangely at the clean-shaven young man. “What are you talking about?”
“We ended up getting ambushed when we went there.” ShadowBlade laughed nervously and then pointed to one of the other alleyways that seemed to take a longer route to a different street. “Let’s use this one instead!”
The surrounding groups looked at each other with uncertainty but ultimately decided to follow ShadowBlade’s lead.
There were hundreds of players following ShadowBlade as he entered the filthy alleyway.
Their thundering footsteps echoed through the narrow space, drowning out any other sounds.
The floating cameras buzzed about like a swarm of mechanical insects, capturing every move and broadcasting it to the eager spectators.
A while later, ShadowBlade saw the end of the alleyway and eagerly exited it, entering a street with bustling sidewalks.
After dozens of players exited the alleyway simultaneously, the pedestrians looked at them with suspicious gazes.
In front of a worn-out cafe, a group of tattooed and pierced individuals were gathered, smoking and chatting loudly.
When they saw the influx of players, they scoffed and showed murderous expressions.
It was clear that they were not welcoming newcomers.
The players at the front paled and lowered their heads instinctively.
It was like they were shy students in the presence of their bullies.
They couldn’t muster the courage to raise their heads.
“T-they are looking rather scary, don’t you think?” One player stammered, voicing the fear in the air.
“N-not really.” His friend answered, trying to show his bravery in front of the girls in his group, but he couldn’t hide the shakiness of his tone.
The top streamers handled it better.
They had grown used to being watched by millions of people every day. Therefore, they had grown thicker skin and managed to handle it better.
However, PinkDragon and a few other female streamers felt their hair rise on the backs of their necks.
The tattooed men undressed them with their gazes, making their skin crawl.
“ShadowBlade, where are we now?” One of the players asked.
ShadowBlade helplessly sighed, as he did not know.
“So, this is Warhaven.” 89John looked around. “What a shithole.”
The group then continued to explore the grim, dilapidated streets as unknown figures, lurking in the shadows, continued monitoring them.
After a while, they noticed the light from the street lamps turning from yellow to red.
The smell had also changed from a pungent stench to sweat, filling the air with a heavy, musky odor.
As they moved a little further in the street, they noticed buildings—stores—having naked figurines displayed in their windows.
As most of the young men’s gazes lingered there, they came across a much wilder scene.
They had arrived at the heart of the Street of Sex, and the sight made all of them speechless.
“W-what is this?” Beehave asked, stunned, as he watched drunken men and women committing acts of prostitution outside in the streets.
“Diabolical.” 89John muttered in shock and quickly moved the camera away.
The rest of the streamers did that as well.
Their streams weren’t specially rated as R-18, so they weren’t allowed to show nudity.
“I can’t believe Martial Online is allowing this kind of content.” Olympos said loudly while his eyes continued to linger on the bodies of naked women.
At the nearby entrance of a brothel, a middle-aged prostitute saw the group of players and whispered to her colleague, “Looks like we’ll be having a busy night.”
She then wobbled towards the yellow-haired player and seductively said, “Hello, handsome. Want to purchase me for a night?”
“W-wait, we can?” Olympos asked in shock, as he thought this kind of service was only for NPCs, while players could only watch.
If it were possible, it could cause outrage in the media and lead to debates about the ethics of such transactions.
“Of course…” She said seductively while trailing her hand across Olympos’ muscular arm. 𝐎𝑽xt.𝚘𝑚
Olympos gulped dryly.
“Let’s leave. This place makes me vomit.” PinkDragon said with a disgusted expression and walked by the brothels, followed shortly afterward by other streamers.
Olympos unwillingly followed, still remembering that he had his stream on.
They left the Street of Sex and arrived at the Street of Alcohol.
The air was full of the stench of alcohol.
“This place is insane.” 89John said with a chuckle and looked at the absentminded Olympos. “Don’t you agree?”
“Yeah…” Olympos nodded and looked around the streets with a mixture of curiosity and desire. “Very much so.”
As the players passed by one of the bars, inside, Isaac watched as they walked by and shook his head.
“More players. They will be like lambs delivered for slaughter.”
