Of course, since Jack didn’t join White Scarfs, Silverwing would need another method of communication when they wanted to contact him.
Jack agreed to the request, and now had a total of three friends on his Friend list.
They went to rest afterward. Silverwing didn’t invite them for another chat as he had many things to do. The noon tomorrow was the deadline given by the system, they need to organize everyone to make sure all would be present tomorrow morning. Since there was no proper guild system in place yet, they had to do everything manually.
The next morning, everyone gathered on the field. No one went out of the safe zone to hunt monsters anymore. Since the deadline was at noon, they didn’t want to miss the time just because they came late from hunting. The numbers of people on the field were staggering. It was probably five times the number compared to when Jack first arrived. When he came out of the City Hall building, he could see carpets of people everywhere he saw.
Members of White Scarfs were lined up neatly in front of the City Hall. There were probably three hundred people just from White Scarfs alone. It was impressive under the circumstances that they could still find so many of their members. Other guilds also had their members in formations. It was pretty obvious the difference between guild members and independent people, as the latter were in a much more chaotic arrangement.
Silverwing invited Jack to stand next to him in front of the City Hall. He was flanked by the same five people who accompanied him when Jack saw him the first time. There was another one who Jack didn’t recognize among them. The person glanced at Jack disdainfully, clearly not understand why their co-leader put so much importance on this outsider.
Silverwing caught the tension, he introduced to Jack, “this is Grimclaw. He is one of the strongest members in White Scarfs.”
“Nice to meet you,” Jack tried to be civil despite Grimclaw’s show of open hostility.
Grimclaw just snorted as a reply.
Silverwing shook his head helplessly. He said to Jack, “please don’t mind him. He is not a bad person once you get to know him.”
Jack nodded.
Silverwing then told him, “I’m not sure if you were a regular in past VR games, but some of those you see gathered here in this field are from several well-known guilds and organizations. Many small ones that don’t worth mentioning, but some are actually larger guilds compared to my White Scarfs guild. One of which is your enemy Death Associates. They are actually a very large guild, it’s just that their base operation is not within this city, so their current numbers are not as impressive as they should be. But I’m not sure if in the future the situation will stay that way.”
“Why do you say that?” Jack asked.
“Well, how do you know what happened here is just limited to this city?” Silverwing answered with another question. “My guts told me that what happened here also happened at other places. And I bet they also had the same tutorial period as here. The sky announcement mentioned a gateway to the Main World. If other places had the same thing, then we will most likely meet in this so-called Main World.”
Jack contemplated Silverwing’s words. There was much logic in his thought. What he said could be a real possibility.
“That friend of yours is rather smart, unlike you.” Jack heard Peniel’s voice.
‘Do you confirm what he just said?’ Jack asked her telepathically.
“You will find out soon,” she replied.
“@#$*,” Jack was helpless with this guide of hers.
Silverwing made some gestures towards several groups visible, “some of the guilds you should take note of are Saint Edge, Corporate United, they are some of the largest and wealthiest guilds known. Wicked Witches, they mainly accept female. Warriors of Solidarity, contrary to Wicked Witches, this guild mainly had male members, and they are very brutal and savage. And Black Cloak, they are a well-known assassin group, they could be considered the smallest size in term of number of members but they are also the hardest to deal with, because they only accept the best. Their members are mostly ex-military and martial art practitioner in real life. If possible, please try not to provoke them. Actually, try not to provoke any of them. One Death Associates is already enough to make your life difficult.”
“I’ll try to keep that in mind,” Jack replied. He was actually not foreign to those guilds mentioned by Silverwing, as they were also quite well known in the past VR games he played.
“There are still other notable guilds,” Silverwing said. “But I don’t see any of their representatives here, so let’s not talk about them. There are, however, several individuals that are also famous in their own right. Independent or under close-knit communities. They avoid guilds as they valued their freedom. They dislike being chained by guild rules and also thought themselves skillful enough not to require guilds’ resources. One of the famous ones is the one there in full armor gear.”
Jack looked over where Silverwing had pointed and seen a tall man in complete leather armor, with a helmet and brown cloak which were the remaining two armor pieces that Jack was still missing. To be able to complete those sets was quite impressive. He either had killed innumerable monsters or rob many people in order to complete the set, both of which required real skills.
“His name is Warpath,” Silverwing continued. “He was famous for his mercenary works. He sold his skills in past VR games to help guilds in completing their quests, with payment in real-life money or in-game equipment or items. He had been a member of some workshops in the past, but never really stay long in one place. Many people tried to curry favor with him in hope that he can help them with their quests in the future.”
“Just like what you are doing with me?” Jack smiled.
“Just like what I am doing with you.” Silverwing didn’t deny.
Grimclaw who listened, gave a disdainful snort, “What is a nobody like you good for? Any of our White Scarfs members is a better player than you. If you didn’t end up dragging us down, we would be thankful already.”
Bluedaze who was standing next to Grimclaw, said to him, “stop it! He is our guest. You are being rather impolite.”
“What? Don’t you feel dissatisfied our guild put importance on someone who we have never heard of? I don’t have a problem if he is someone famous with real skill, but look at him, he just looks like a country bumpkin. Why are we having a fall-out with a big guild like Death Associates just for the like of him? There are many brothers and sisters in the guild who agree with me.”
Grimclaw didn’t bother to lower his voice, thus everyone heard it clearly. Bowler, who never backed down from an oral fight, immediately fired back, “and you think yourself so impressive? What strongest member, you completely lack the aura of it. You are just a whiny little wimp! If you go one round with my big brother here, you won’t even last half a minute!”
Hearing that, Grimclaw’s face became red from anger and embarrassment. No one had dared to talk to him that way, not when he was around his fellow guild members. He immediately lost his temper. “What did you say, you punk! You wanna have a go? Let’s have a go! Do you think I’m afraid? I’ll hack you with this rare sword of mine!”
Bluedaze and dashrunner were holding him, preventing him from lunging at Bowler. Everyone looked over due to the commotion.
“Enough!” Silverwing reprimanded him. “You are making a scene! You realize that makes us look bad?”
Grimclaw was dissatisfied, but he didn’t retort. There was a reason Silverwing was their leader, he still held him in high respect. Bowler didn’t say anything to add fuel, but his face was showing a smug look at Grimclaw. Jack pushed him aside to prevent him from escalating the tension further.
“Well, with that unpleasantry out of the way, let’s us continue with our discussion,” Silverwing said. “Where were we? Ah yes, that’s Warpath there. There are another two that you should make note of, one is that woman there called Trinity Dawn. She specialized in magic-user class in almost every game, and almost always got ranked amongst the top players. But like Warpath, she prefers freedom, so she didn’t join any organization. The second one is that Ranger in black suit, called Blackjack. You should be careful of him.”
