Martial Online.

407  Call With Moriarty

Drip, drip.

Jesse washed his hands on the faucet and glanced at himself briefly in the mirror. His purple eyes stared back at him.

After that, he closed the faucet and dried his hands with toilet paper.

"My hair is quite long." He saw that his hair was already reaching his lower neck and was almost shoulder-length. 'I need to visit the barber, I suppose.'

Brr!

His phone vibrated in his back pocket as someone tried to call him.

He pulled out his phone and saw that Anna was calling for him.

'Why is she calling for me?' He wondered. 'Maybe because she didn't see me anywhere?'

As he was about to accept the call, it suddenly disconnected, even though it was only ringing for barely five seconds.

"Hmm, strange." He was about to try to call her back, but then another phone call came.

This time, it was from a foreign number, and the name showed that the call was from a person named Moriarty.

'Oh, him.' He leaned against the bathroom tiled wall and accepted the phone call.

"Hello, this is Ambrose."

"Ambrose, hmm?" The voice on the other side of the phone sounded perplexed. "Do you often respond to phone calls with your Internet persona?"

"Only those who I don't know." Jesse said. "I am sure you know me as Ambrose. Therefore, I'll be referring to you as Moriarty."

"Sounds good to me." Moriarty's chuckle sounded. "Did my manager tell anything to you?"

"No, only that this phone call should be very worthwhile." Jesse said with a sigh. "So far, I am not convinced."

"Mm, I like your tone." Moriarty's voice didn't sound like he was annoyed or irritated, but rather somewhat pleased.

"You've been a hard man to reach. I thought you would contact me within a day, but it has been five days."

"I was unavailable." Jesse responded. "I would've called if I had known. I am interested in why you are calling me, after all."

"I'll cut to the chase; I want to team up with you in the upcoming tournament." Moriarty didn't beat around the bush, and he simply stated his reason for calling.

"What?" Jesse was taken aback. "Why me? Wait, is this some kind of scam? Are you asking for money next?"

10:48

"Haha, nah." Moriarty chuckled on the other side of the phone. "I know what you have accomplished in Dark Waters. I was in Dark Waters around the same time, and news travels quick there."

Jesse scratched his chin thoughtfully. 'He must have done his own investigating because even the newspaper wouldn't tell everything as they didn't have all the information about what had happened.

'Therefore, he must've gotten the news the other way. Perhaps from one of the men of the Sea King's pirate crew? From what I heard, they escaped after seeing their captain die.

'Some of them must've sold the news to some black market dealers, and if Moriarty had contacts there, which I believe he had, it wouldn't be a surprise that he knows.

'What happened on that island must be an open secret, and only the general public doesn't know. It's hard to keep everything secret.'

"So, what is the answer?" Moriarty asked.

"I am honored, and I don't mean to be rude, but why would I team up with you?" Jesse asked. "I don't know you. I don't know how well we would work together. I don't know how strong you are."

"…" Moriarty stayed quiet on the other side.

However, then quiet laughter came from the phone before the laughter turned louder.

Jesse listened silently as Moriarty laughed as if he had heard a very good joke. He wasn't irritated by his laughter and instead was curious about whether he said something funny.

"Ahah… sorry." Moriarty finished laughing, and it sounded like he laughed so much that he had to wipe tears. "Good, that's a very good question!"

"I suppose you have answers to my questions." Jesse said, and the corner of his lips turned into a small smile.

"I indeed do." Moriarty said. "You indeed don't know me, and I don't know you.

"Teaming up is a gamble—a very big gamble. It would be much wiser to team up with a friend or with a person you know who is a very capable fighter.

"You don't know how strong I am, and I don't know how strong you are except for a few rumors I heard, but I don't foolishly believe in rumors. I need to see to believe."

"I agree." Jesse said. "I could, of course, check out your streams, and I could record some of my fights, but I suppose that isn't satisfactory."

"It indeed isn't." Moriarty clearly smiled on the other side of the phone. "Let's meet up."

"When and where?"

"Your call."

Jesse pondered for a moment before pressing the phone against his ear and saying, "Hightown, after the update."

"All right."

Jesse looked silently at the phone and then pocketed it with a curious frown.

"I already thought about joining the tournament, but I thought I would have to invite someone random. Now, I do not need to do that.

"Moriarty, huh. He is fifth ranked in the streaming rankings, and even though I am fairly famous on ForeverTube, I am nothing in front of him.

"I suppose meeting with him isn't a bad idea." Jesse left the bathroom and put on his shoes. He didn't want to ruin the nice-looking carpet, so he took them off while he visited the bathroom.

'The tournament's starting date isn't exactly known yet, and not much is known about it except that it's duo format, and the finals take place in Loch City.

'However, the tournament for sure will start soon after Christmas, perhaps in the New Year?'

Jesse put those thoughts to the back of his mind for now. He still had to somehow survive through this Christmas dinner.

He had plenty of time to think back at home.

Creak—he softly opened the door and said:

"Emily, I have a questi—"

His words got stuck in his throat as he came across a scene of a young woman sobbing on the ground with an armed man pointing a fully automatic rifle against her forehead.

"?!" The armed man looked shocked that there was someone else here.

He was wearing a black military vest, with several mags in the pockets and several hidden knives hanging from his belt.

The automatic rifle in his hands was locked and loaded. It didn't even have a safety on.

He also wore a black mask that covered the lower half of his face, from his nose all the way to the chin. There was a strange sigil of a white eye on the mask and also on the military vest.

A radio phone in his chest pocket crackled with a sound before a voice came.

"Phoenix, have you secured the second floor?" The voice sounded electrifying, and it was hard to hear his words clearly, but it was clear that the voice belonged to a man.

"Hands up!" Phoenix moved the rifle in Jesse's direction, his finger touching the trigger.

Jesse's eyes shrunk, and he instinctively lunged forward, grabbed the rifle by its barrel, and pointed the barrel towards the ceiling.

Phoenix fully pressed on the trigger, and bullets shredded through the ceiling with incredibly loud banging sounds. Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"Aaaah!" Emily covered her ears and screamed loudly.

Crack—Jesse accidentally squeezed harder on the barrel and destroyed it.

The gun immediately jammed, and no more bullets flew out.

"Fuck!" Phoenix pulled out his hidden knife and slashed, but Jesse quickly pulled his head back and narrowly dodged the sharp blade before it could slice through his throat.

"What the…" Jesse's voice trembled with fear. 'That was a real fucking gun. What the fuck is going on?!'