“I was planning to recruit the player who was responsible for it. After all, the player had already offended Corporate United due to that robber incident. I figured that the person wouldn’t be too reserved to go up against the guild again. But the player was too mysterious, I couldn’t find out about the identity. Until you gave me this Recording Stone.”
“Wait, you already know they were connected to Corporate United before the meeting?” Jack asked.
“They are?” Flame joined.
“Don’t lump me with you lot. My intel network was something you two can only look up to.”
“Pah!” Flame spat. “What intel network? I bet it was only spending time with scoundrels in the bar for cheap rumors.”
“There is no hope for you unbelievers,” John said as he stood up. “I’m heading back to the capital to get my rewards. What are you two going to do?”
“I will go monster grinding,” Flame said.
“I will go back to the meeting place, I’m still curious about the rest of the meeting. They still have something up their sleeves after you left,” Jack said.
John nodded. “Let me know if there is any juicy tidbit. Good luck to you two,” he said. He then took out a Town Return Scroll and activated it.
After he vanished, Jack also bid Fierce Flame farewell before heading in the direction of the meeting. Before he came out of the rock formations, he looked for a secluded place and transformed to become Unrivalled Arcaner.
He also took his time to check on the Container of Souls, previously there were 271 souls. Now there were 541 souls. Killing players despite granting no experience, would still yield souls. But comparing the degree of difficulty, he could still farm more soul points from grinding monsters. Probably when mainstream players become higher level and higher-class, killing players for the soul points would be more effective. Not that he planned to just randomly went around killing players just to collect their souls though.
He had no time to tidy up the fifty common equipment he had gotten from John, so he just left them in his bag. He closed his inventory system and headed towards the direction of Starlight Ruin. If he was lucky, the last phase of the meeting could still be ongoing. But there was a chance that he could be asked to use the Shackle of Vows before he was allowed to rejoin the meeting. He wondered what he was going to do if that happened. Well, it didn’t matter, it was fine if he was allowed to stay as a member of the guild, it was no problem if he was chased out as well. He didn’t plan to spend too much time in Death Associates in near future anyway, he had to focus with his own development.
—————
While Jack was having a chat with John and Fierce Flame. The last phase of the three guilds’ meeting was still ongoing, Scarface was the one making the speech for this part as the content was closely related to Death Associates. At the back of the stage where the rest of the three guilds were gathering, Selena was having an argument with Queen Magenta.
“Using strength to control others is one thing, but striking them for rejecting our offer is crossing the line,” Selena said with a stern voice.
“Keep your voice down! You are embarrassing our guild,” Queen Magenta uttered as she dragged Selena to a corner.
“We are already embarrassing our guild with this action,” Selena shot back.
“Might is right! As long as we are strong enough, why does it matter what we do? They can only blame themselves for being weak and not appreciating our kindness when we gave them the choice to join.”
“You should know that there are some in our guild that didn’t agree with your decision. If the leader…”
“The leader is not here!” Queen Magenta cut Selena’s words crudely. “Who knows which town she was thrown to, or if she was even in this world. For now, I hold the highest authority, so what I say goes! If there are those that don’t agree with me, they are welcomed to follow Jeanny’s footsteps and leave this guild!”
Selena frowned at the mention of Jeanny. Even though she was not especially close with her, Jeanny was one of the few in the guild which she thought of highly. The girl was driven, caring, and responsible. She was good at working with others. Selena was not the only one who thought that way. In fact, when she left, a few of her closest friends had chosen to quit the guild as well and follow her.
When Selena heard of her quitting, she had looked for her to try to persuade her to change her mind, but the girl was determined. What the girl said at the time had notably stuck in her mind. She had told her that their current lives had changed. They could not treat it the same as what they had been doing in past games.
In the past, games were secondary, despite some of them spending more of their time inside the games because they were doing it for a living, Selena was one such person. Now, this was their real lives. They were not bound by the past guilds anymore. If the guild was not against their own moral compass, then they should not force themselves to stay in it. What they did now would be the foundation of how they live in this world for the rest of their lives. Thus, they should think carefully for themselves about what they should do.
Selena had been working in the gaming industry since a teenager. She had been an employee of the company who was behind Wicked Witches guild for a long time. She couldn’t imagine working as anything else. As fate would have it, her expertise as a gamer had become the main qualification to thrive in this new world.
However, she still could not imagine herself away from the guild or company she had already been involved with for so long. She admired Jeanny’s courage to break away from the guild. Despite the girl had not been with the guild as long as she, her connection with the guild was actually deeper, due to her family being one part of the company behind the guild.
Seeing that Selena did not argue any further with her, Queen Magenta was about to walk away. However, she was only a few steps before she came to a stop.
“No, that’s not possible,” Selena heard her muttering.
She was about to ask when she received a message from one of the teams that were sent to intercept the departing guilds. She opened the message and was stunned by its content.
—————
Jack took his sweet time as he made his way back to the Starlight Ruin where the meeting was held. After some thought, he didn’t place too much hope of finding out about the last phase of the meeting. He walked leisurely and eliminated the monsters that came his way, he didn’t bother to avoid them.
On his way, he met some group that had gone after the other guilds. A part of this group who were members of Death Associates approached him when they saw him alone.
“Aren’t you that Unrivalled Arcaner?” A ranger from the approaching group asked. “I saw your initiation test, you are very impressive. By the way, aren’t you with the main team? Why are you going back by yourself?”
“I was separated from my team,” Jack simply answered. “How goes your side?”
The ranger made a gesture that had his thumb moving around his neck, imitating a throat slash sign. “There is no way those bunch of losers can stand the combined might of our three guilds,” he said. “I am just regretting not getting picked into the main team. I would love to see the face of that arrogant fool, who is his name again…? Oh, yes, Saint John! I would love to see his face before he was cut down. Tell me about it, will you?”
Jack made an awkward laugh. “Well…,” he was not sure how to respond.
“Hm? Something has gone wrong?” The ranger asked.
Jack looked down and remembered that he was currently in the Unrivalled Arcaner persona. He should act more arrogantly! He gave the ranger a disdainful look, and bellowed, “why do you want to know? My report is for Scarface only. Why do I have to tell a lowly-nobody like you anything? Now, go away! Do not bother me.”
Jack strode forward faster, leaving the guy with a bad taste in his mouth. The Starlight Ruin was already coming into view not far in the distance.
