Martial Online.

Chapter 188 Popularity

At the dawn of the new morning, countless people were woken up by an unexpected sight in the ForeverTube.

They couldn't believe their eyes at the title of one of the featured videos.

While the rest of the featured videos were getting very few views, which was surprising for a featured video, that one video's view count continued rising and rising!

At a random household, one of Olympos' longtime viewers finished watching a video from a person called Ambrose.

"O-Olympos looked rather pathetic..." He thought out loud while remembering his arrogant words at the halfway point.

He also thought about hunting Ambrose for that prize and maybe getting into Olympos' good books, but after seeing the video, he didn't feel like helping Olympos bully him.

This was how the announcement now looked to him.

Olympos' attempt to bully a person who managed to best him in combat

Therefore, Olympos' previous elegant appearance crumbled in his mind, replaced by a pitiful bully.

He then went to check the comments on Olympos' server and saw that it was currently very busy, even though it was only morning.

During the morning hours, the server would be quieter as people were preparing to go to school.

Olympos' fans mostly consisted of minors of school age.

Therefore, it was an unexpected sight but somewhat expected after seeing the video.

As he read the messages, he frowned, as many of Olympos' fans were still protecting him and promising to kill Ambrose for him.

However, there were also people who didn't like Olympos' words in the video, and the number of people on the server continued decreasing as his fans continued leaving!

After reading a few more messages, he grabbed the computer mouse, hovered the cursor over the "Leave the Server" button, and clicked gently.

He also left the server, and after him, many thousands of people did the same.

...

"Argh!" Olympos smashed his keyboard against the edge of his desk in frustration.

The keyboard keys flew off and scattered across the room.

The monitor showed a decrease in his subscriber count.

He had reached over twenty million subscribers a few days ago, and now it had gone below that once again.

Since the release of Martial Online, he became quickly famous and continued earning millions of new subscribers every day.

Now, most of his hard work plummeted down like a rock in the ocean.

He felt defeated and lost, but also incredibly angry.

When he woke up and saw the featured page, he felt like his blood vessels were going to pump.

He even sent many angry messages to Forever Company, telling them to remove that video from the site.

He expected them to at least consider him because he was a popular ForeverTuber with over 20 million subscribers and was among the top 55 streamers in the world.

It gave him a lot of influence.

However, they bluntly said no and disconnected the phone call!

"Ambrose..." Olympos muttered hatefully.

...

At a certain household in Thunderdome.

Jason silently watched the video on his phone, examining every frame and movement.

'His swordsmanship is still sloppy.' He thought. 'He continues dropping his elbows, leaving himself open.'

Jason, also known as Cerberus in the gaming world, had spent the entire morning examining Jesse's swordsmanship and came to one conclusion.

He was still rather weak.

He then pocketed the phone and opened the door to check out the living room.

His father was passed out on a reclining chair with a bottle of whiskey in his hand.

'He won't be awake for several hours, at least.' Jason thought and closed the door, then took the VR headset from the worn-out chair before laying down on his bed.

'Warhaven...' He thought and then entered the majestic world of martial arts.

...

At Rothsmith Estate.

Jesse sat on his gaming chair, looking at the screen with a speechless expression.

He was looking at the stats of his previous and new videos.

[The Method to Acquire an Upgraded Class]

[Views: 29,123,001]

[Comments: 21,045]

[Like Ratio: 59,99%]

The views and comments had increased rapidly, so the ratio had increased, but it was still rather low.

'I wonder how much money I am earning?' Jesse thought, but it was still early, as there were a few more weeks until the paycheck came.

He then checked the new video's stats and was utterly shocked.

[Challenge Vs. Olympos]

[Views: 38,745,524]

[Comments: 55,456]

[Like Ratio: 77,45%]

Jesse took a cold breath and laughed in disbelief.

'That is unreal...' He scratched his hair and was also surprised by the like ratio.

He expected the video to be heavily disliked because he attacked a very famous person, but to his surprise, it was more liked than his previous video!

Jesse then wondered if he had earned more subscribers and went to check it out.

After the number appeared on the monitor, a laughter escaped Jesse's lips.

[Subscribers: 1,023,435]

He now has over a million subscribers!

That made him a popular ForeverTuber!

And he managed to do that in a span of two days!

It was unreal speed, but it spoke volumes about his videos' impacts.

Jesse leaned on the backrest of his chair, reflecting on his incredible achievement.

That made him quite popular, but he was still far from the top.

The person at the top of the streamer rankings had nearly half a billion subscribers.

In front of such popularity, Jesse was nothing.

However, he was still incredibly happy and had already begun thinking about his next video.

'What should I make...' He thought as his next video was also important.

Making one popular video could be considered lucky.

Making a second popular video could be considered also lucky, but three popular videos in row would ensure his success in ForeverTube!

While thinking about his next video, he caught a glimpse of the clock and almost froze.

"Shit, I am almost late!" Jesse hurried to his bed, grabbed his VR headset, and plopped down on the bed.

He forgot that he still had swordsmanship training.

He had been so occupied and somewhat drunken by his sudden success that he forgot about the importance of his training.

'I am happy about my success, but I can't forget what is truly important: becoming strong!'

...

Tap, tap—a lone player with a hood covering his head trekked down arocky and deserted valley road.

It was surrounded by two tall mountains, seemingly piercing the sky.

Shortly afterwards, he came across an old arc-shaped entrance.

However, strangely, the arc-shaped entrance was in the middle of the valley, with nothing on the other side.

It was just standing there among the rocks and emptiness.

"Hmm?" The lone person hummed with a deep tone and approached the arc-shaped entrance.

He could easily walk around it, but he decided to walk through it.

After stepping through the arc-shaped entrance, he heard a voice.

"Who might you be?"

The lone person raised his gaze and saw a bald-headed person sitting on top of a boulder situated on the mountain wall.

It looked extremely dangerous as the boulder could suddenly fall down, also causing the bald-headed person to fall to his death.

"Is this where Dojo Temple is?" The lone person asked.

"Who is asking?" Honorable Zhen asked with a mysterious gaze as he scanned the hooded person very closely.

After a while, he closed his lips as he looked somewhat impressed.

"My name is Julian." The lone person said, exposing his piercing gray eyes below the hood. "I heard that it's possible to learn anything you want in Dojo Temples, as long as you're willing to put in the effort."

"That is correct, but are you willing to?" Honorable Zhen asked with a mysterious smile.

"I am," Julian said with a deep tone.

"Hmm..." Honorable Zhen chuckled and pulled out his shortsword. "Very well. However, to be able to enter the temple, you have to pass my test."

"I am ready." Julian said and pulled out his sword from his inventory.

The sword was majestic.

The sword was cruciform, almost resembling a cross, and it was well-ornated with a curved, single-edged, black blade.

It was over two meters long, towering over Julian as he gripped it firmly in his hand.

"What a unique sword." Honorable Zhen grinned. "This might be interesting."