Chương 272: Chapter 261 - Interlude 26

"What do you mean, you don't know him?"

"I said what I said! I have never met the guy!"

"But he saved you! You, specifically! When he avoided helping dozens of people!" She scowled and looked across the table, where the bedraggled leaders of her guild were sitting and had been grilling her for the last hour. Sometimes, she really wished those idiot cultists sacrificed her, even with the expected debuffs and detriments, because this was much worse. Her esteemed 'seniors' had decided that she must have some kind of relationship with Solar, and that is why he went out of his way to save her.

Even if he left her there, laying on the cold stone, cursed to nine heavens. And now they wanted her to use her 'relationship' with him for something. They were never really clear what that 'something' was. But they kept mentioning power, might, and authority. Someone even mentioned leverage and synergy. They were, however, convinced of one thing. That is, she had some power over Solar. The most famous player in their corner of the world. The man everyone was talking about.

The player who managed, on his own, to prevent the complete destruction of a city against the assault of the full power of the blood magic guilds. And there were even rumors that he was just in the city for a stay-over. She had seen the numbers on the bounty aggregation site and had even taken a glance on Shadowland at the figures there. It was mindboggling how much one man's death or information about his action, was worth.

She had a sneaking suspicion that her 'superiors' were after that money instead of elevating their frankly third-rate mercenary guild. Hell, she only joined, because at the time that was the easiest thing to do. She only started to play to check out the game, and she simply stayed, as searching for another guild was too much work. Here she was one of the more senior members and with that, she enjoyed some privileges that she wouldn't get somewhere else.

However, as she continued to listen to the prattle of those buffoons, she felt the urge to look for another guild to grow and grow.

"I'm glad you agree!"

'Wait, what?'

"Wait, what?" she asked out loud, as had been simply nodding and adding an occasional 'ah', 'I see', 'oh yes', 'for sure', or 'definitely'. The knucklehead sent her a scathing look before – presumably – repeating herself.

"We talked about sending you to Ironwood to set up a forward base for our guild. The situation here in Sunspot is not ideal. And you, with your contacts, would be the best for it," came the explanation, followed by some heavy eye-rolling. She opened her mouth but as she saw the faces arrayed against her, instead she closed it and nodded for a final time. That's how she found herself walking into a much-changed Ironwood compared to the last time she was here.

There were many more guards on the walls, guarding the gates and even patrolling. There was construction going around the gates, guarded by even more soldiers and players as more NPCs and players toiled under the sun. From what she could see, they were building new towers and some reinforcements to the weaker parts of the walls. She even saw groups of druids – once again being escorted by even more guards – relocating the local fauna farther from the wall to decrease the chance of it being used by the enemy.

It seems the Blood Surge as the people of the internet were calling it seemed to have shaken the rulers of the city. Although she wasn't really surprised as coming up from the border, she saw several hastily abandoned towns and villages, some areas of devastation where some kind of battle occurred, and similar constructions occurring around other towns. Apparently, they were expecting the blood mages to attack them. In her humble opinion, that was smart.

This meant, that whoever was making these decisions was also smart. She kinda wanted to see what happened when the bloody idiots decided to move against them. Originally, she wanted to directly head to the town that AFK was setting up.

'And isn't that crazy?' she mused as she navigated through the crowd, heading for one of the shady taverns she knew was still standing after the purges.

'While morons out there are fighting over fractures, Solar is setting up a fucking town for himself…' She kinda wished she started out in the Ironwood area so that she had the chance to meet him when he was smaller. From what she had heard over the grapevine, the top people in his guild and company made bank. Like big enough that you needed your personal bank advisors. She didn't know how much weight that rumor had, but just the fact they owned Heavenly Forest made sure that they would never be poor.

Several other guilds, companies, and people had tried to replicate the success of the high-quality services the mysterious Heavenly Forest provided. They were pale imitations compared to the scant pictures that the high-rolling clientele of Heavenly Forest deigned to share with the population. There was no game system enforced ban against taking pictures and sharing them in the hotel, but apparently, those who managed to gain access felt that sharing information about it would diminish the value.

She could only applaud Solar and his people, they really did some genius marketing and PR moves with that business. Entering the tavern, she looked around, quickly spotting an empty table conveniently in a dark corner, and headed toward it. Surprisingly, she didn't even have to raise a hand before a drink was deposited in front of her. She loved this feature of the game. She could drink and eat anything her black heart desired and not one iota of fat touched her hips.

Not to mention she didn't need to pay attention to her nut allergies. Truly, the most glorious feature.

"Enjoying it?" Hearing a voice coming from next to her, she jumped into the air, bumping her knees on the table and almost knocking over her drink if it weren't for a quick hand reaching out and steadying it. Spending a few seconds cursing and massaging her aching knee – cursing the game for the same realism she was exalting a few seconds ago – before looking to the side where she saw a cloaked individual. Upon further look, she saw that under the cloak he was actually wearing an actual suit.

Taking her cup, she raised at the man.

"Well, mister super spy, what do you want from me?" The man quickly placed a small device in the middle of the desk, then she felt a weak pulse of mana wash over her before the sound of the tavern was almost turned down to an indistinct whisper. The man looked around before simply removing his hood, revealing a somewhat average, maybe a bit bookish or owlish, look. Though his eyes shined with intelligence and a spark of humor as if he found something rather funny.

'Hmm, he is kinda cute… I wonder if he is single…'

"I heard you're looking for Solar," the man replied with confidence. She just snorted.

"Yeah, and I'm here to buy a yacht, country, and inherit three million gold coins. Try something more original next time…" He just continued to smile ignoring what she had said.

"I don't really go for the whole double speak, that's more Solar's area of expertise, but I have been tasked by my bosses to get you."

"Get me?"

"Yes. You have information and we want that information."

"Who is this mysterious we?" she asked sarcastically as she eyed the door and wondered how fast she could escape the guy.

"AFK." She snorted.

"Yeah, and I'm the head of CIA." Instead of answering, her notification screen appeared in front of him. [You received an invitation to the AFK guild! Would you like to accept it?] Per the rule, one person could only belong to one guild, so if she accepted that request then she would immediately be ejected from her original guild. She quickly checked the Guild ID, then spent a few seconds comparing it to the Guild Registry. It matched. She blinked, then looked back at the guy who held out a hand.

"Name's Tim. Looking forward to working with you," he declared with a rather charming smile. Acting purely on instinct, she accepted the handshake.

"Flora and m-me too…"

'What the fuck did I get myself into?'

"Sir."

"Report, please."

"Player interest has increased massively after we put together the promotional materials. That, plus the few leaked hidden recordings, had elevated it to one of the top stories of the week. Adding Solar to it just made it even better. The people upstairs are very happy." He tried not to grind his teeth.

"What about in-game? Reactions? Effects?"

"Well, sir, immediately around Sunspot is still a full-on war between the people of Sunspot – both players and NPCs – and the blood mages. Behind the blood mages, it's a massacre. Nearby kingdoms are fortifying their defenses and preparing countermeasures. Most of the guilds tasked their researchers to figure out how to no-sell the blood magic." This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"So, everybody is against them?" Selene, listening as always, chimed in from a nearby projection spot that was built into the meeting room that they were using. He simply didn't want to see the screens showcasing the game, it just made him irrationally angry.

"On the surface, yes. But there have been several guilds who reached out to support them or to join them secretly. Several smaller kingdoms decided that the blood mages knew something, so they're planning to side with them."

"Let me guess… Most of them led by a power-hungry despot?" he asked, massaging his temple. Selene shrugged elegantly.

"You're truly a visionary for the ages, sir."

"Har-har. Very funny," he replied sarcastically, before turning back to the guy doing the reporting.

"All right, we talked about everything but the Emerald Kingdom. Lay it on me… what did that fucker do?" Selene rolled her eyes and his underling continued.

"Well, sir. Ironwood is spending a lot of resources to reinforce its defenses and is stockpiling food, water, and other things as if preparing for a siege. The kingdom itself, mostly due to the distance, has currently settled into the wait-and-see approach. However, with the Church of First Drop appearing – brilliant idea sir, by the way – they are currently heading toward declaring total war on anyone who even touches blood magic."

"No need for the sarcasm… What about their town? Have they named it yet?" he asked, waving away the very pointed critique. The other man just shook his head.

"Not yet, sir." He turned to Selene.

"Hey, can you engineer a situation so that the town's name is irrevocably Fuckerville?"

"I could…" she replied airily.

"But I won't." His eyes narrowed.

"Is this still about me refusing the vampire idea?" Her eyes also narrowed as she looked directly at him, hands on her projected body's hips while the other man stood to the side awkwardly.

"Why, because the fanatic cult of communists is much better? It ruined several pre-planned events both in that area and around the world. We even had to modify several world events to account for them. The entire schedule for the game is thrown off thanks to those fanatics." He looked at least a little chastised.

"We could delete them?"

"Not anymore, now that players had interacted with them. We are limiting their effects, but they already inspired several player-made guilds and we cannot touch them."

"Can we blame the fucker for it?" he asked hopefully. She just shook her head.

"Not likely." He let out a long and deep sigh. Reaching over to the table, he took his half-empty cup of coffee and took a fortifying sip before turning to the man whose report he had been listening to.

"How is the players' response to the Blood Surge?" he asked thoughtfully looking into his cup. The man spent a few seconds looking through his tablet before answering.

"Well, sir, it appears, aside from the usual grumblings, they are all excited. They're in the belief that we planned all this. Like the Fracture."

"Hmmm…" For a long minute, nobody spoke as he contemplated everything. Then he put down his cup with a quiet clink and turned to Selene.

"How hard would it be to place a few fractures where the blood mages did their thing and have them blood-themed?" Selene tilted her head to the side, contemplating the idea – no doubt running several simulations – before smiling.

"Very possible. Which way do you want to go?"

"Have them be the type of 'evil juju accumulated in the fractures and players have to cleanse it'."

"Should we direct the Church of First Drop toward them, sir?" asked his underling as he furiously made notes.

"Exactly. That would occupy them, then in turn they would make less chaos."

"Got it. Sent to the design team," came the reply instantly. Then a ding from the tablet.

"They approved it. Seems they like the idea."

"Good, that would get us some time." Selene chose the moment to interject.

"What about the Fucker, sir?" she asked with a smile. He took a deep breath and then let it out slowly.

"Leave him for now. Let's focus on fixing this mess, then we can return to dealing with him and his usual shenanigans."

"Understood," she replied before her smile grew to a rather unusual size. His heart almost skipped a beat as he saw it.

"What is it? What happened?"

"I just read the most fascinating report from the observation team." He closed his eyes, leaned back in his chair, and began massaging his temples again.

"All right, what did the Fucker do again?"

"Well, apparently he knows we leaked those recordings," she answered with an angelic smile, making him dread the rest of the answer.

"It took him barely a few minutes to figure it out."

"It was the ritual recording, right?" She just gave him a cheeky finger gun.

"Ugh, I knew it was too much, but the video looked so good…" Darell put his hands on his hips and looked over their new workshop. It was filled with boxes, some being emptied currently, some half empty already and some being put in piles next to the wall. It was bare bones, but it was theirs. The people at AFK insisted on signing a separate contract for the land and building to clarify the ownership and things like that. Apparently, they were planning to sell to other people and this would make it easier.

Or something like that. He was good at engineering and physics, but he didn't care much for economics besides understanding that black was good and red was not good. Though, based on Brad's muttering, that wasn't even correct… Still, they managed to get from their original location to this new, half-built town. According to Lara, who he definitely recognized from that infamous party, there were already jobs and tasks waiting for his people.

They were going over the schedule and assignments with Brad while he directed the setup of their main workshop. It was refreshing to work in a situation where he didn't have to worry about saboteurs, malcontents, or other shenanigans. He wanted to build a damn magic spaceship and not deal with people! Thankfully, with leadership came a few perks. One of them was that his office was one of the first rooms to be set up. Walking in, he closed the door, sat down behind his desk, and began to go over the paperwork.

The faster he managed to get them to Brad – who would no doubt complain about several errors – the faster he could get back to inventing. Hell, Lara and the AFK representative even hinted that they had something very special hidden away. He couldn't help but want to see it. From what he saw so far, they were the 'money doesn't matter' and 'very few questions asked' type of people. Not that he expected something else from people who were led by Solar of all people.

Honestly, the sheer adulation the man experienced online was something else. Naturally, his move under the aegis of Solar and subordination wasn't exactly a big secret, but the number of messages he received to his 'public' Shadowland account was staggering. There was everything from bribes to betray the man, to requests for shirtless pictures. Somebody even asked if he could steal the man's boxers…

'Man, people are sick…' Just as he was musing about the abominable nature of the netizens, the door swung open and Brad strode into his office, the door closing behind him as he plopped down in the only available armchair.

"Man… these people really don't fuck around." Darell held out a hand and Brad slapped the stack of documents he was holding into it. He put it in front of him and began to go through them while Brad continued to be dramatic.

"When they said money doesn't matter, they weren't kidding. We have work for everybody. Hell, they even asked us to look for more people."

"What are we doing?" Darell asked absently as he read over the schedule.

"What do you think? Preparing for a war… Those bloody blood cultists had spooked everybody." Darrel looked up from his perusal and took in his friend.

"You look happy." Brad just grinned and crossed his arms.

"Of course I'm happy. This is what I live for! Imagine the enemy's face when they meet with our creations!" Darell couldn't help but nod, the excitement of the idea also grabbing his imagination.

"Did they say anything about siege weapons?"

"That's Phase Two. For now, we are focusing on finishing the town and making sure the defenses are strong enough to withstand a proper siege," he explained with a grin.

"Did you know they actually have a Runemaster NPC doing the wards?" Darell blinked in surprise.

"Didn't those asshole nobles quote us millions of gold coins just for an hour's consultation?" Brad grinned.

"Apparently, Solar befriended him or something. Lara said that technically Solar is also a Runemaster, but I think she just wanted to impress me."

"Lara? That Lara? The Astran heiress, impressing you?"

"Well, a guy can dream…" Brad replied, a smidge embarrassed. Darell thought about teasing his friend a little longer, but his hands itched for work. Clapping them together and then rubbing them excitedly, he spoke up.

"What's first?" Brad took out another stack of documents and spent a few seconds leafing through them before finding what he was looking for.

"They need someone to make sure the irrigation system in the city works properly. They want to make sure it stays green."

"Excellent!" Cynthia sat with her family, listening as her sister presented her latest adventure without much joy. Even then, she couldn't help but feel excited. As her sister finished, she couldn't help but exclaim.

"Man, what I would give to go on an adventure like that…" Clarissa just glared at her while their parents chuckled. Her Dad had successfully begun his horse business on a farm near Brightgarden as an apprentice while her mom settled down in a nearby inn as a drink slinger. Hell, she even got a skill for it. Cynthia laughed for almost half an hour when her mother showed it to her.

[Drink Slinger: Level 14/100 (14%) (Active/Passive) Your precision while mixing drinks, your hard work, and your dedication allow you to sling your drinks with supernatural precision and strength. Increases your accuracy when making drinks and makes your bar skills more effective. Performing behind the bar requires less stamina, mana and allows you to gain an increased reputation from those who see it for the first time. Activating the skill puts you in a heightened state where your focus is on your drinks and craft, doubling every bonus this skill gives for a minute. Furthermore, the skill grants you the Alcohol Affinity and the Fruit Punch skill.] [Alcohol Affinity: Level 3/100 (75%) (Passive) You have a great affinity for alcohol. Beings born of alcohol or alcoholics will be very favorable to you. The cost of alcohol-type spells and skills is reduced and their power is increased by 1% for each skill level.] [Fruit Punch: Level 2/25 (19%) (Passive) You coat your fist with a punch and use it to punch your enemy. Upon contact, the attack has a 10%, plus 1% per skill level, chance to make the recipient drunk. If performed from behind the bar, the chance and power are doubled.]"No, you don't," replied Clarissa with her usual excitement. That is, none.

"Oh, come on, Cissa! I know you don't like these kinds of things, but I'd love to do something like that. Maybe even save a princess from a dragon…or… OH! Save a dragon from an evil princess!" she mused out loud.

"I wonder what dragons drink…" her mother added cheerfully while her father nodded.

"Indeed. And maybe we could make them into mounts…" For a moment, Cynthia imagined herself riding on the back of a dragon, wielding a spear that pierced the heavens and decimating her enemies with a swipe of her weapon, before deflating. She was behind the curve, so by the time she reached the strength to tame a dragon, there would be no doubt countless guilds selling them at exorbitant prices… Clarissa looked at her for a moment before snorting.

"If you're so excited then you can write Sam and ask him for a task. I'm sure he has something squirreled away just for you…" she said, her words heavily laden with sarcasm. However, Cynthia's eyes lit up at hearing that.

"Thanks, sis! I didn't even think about that!" With a quick motion, she pulled out her phone and quickly began to type as she ignored her sister's widening eyes.

"You know I was just joking, right? He is very busy–" Sadly Clarissa was muted as Cynthia's phone dinged, indicating that she received a message.

"Got it," she reported happily, almost vibrating with excitement as their parents watched on with amusement.

"He had something for us to do!" Clarissa just closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh, as if nothing could surprise her anymore.

"Is it hunting a dragon?"

"Totally!" Two people, sitting in a rather spacious but sparsely decorated room across from each other, looked at each other. The room was full of VR equipment, both digital and analog whiteboards, and several screens that showed figures, statistics, or simply videos and recordings from the game, Magic Unbound. Despite that, everything was clean and no trash could be seen anywhere.

"Bro..."

"I know bro…"

"It should have worked…"

"I know, bro… We even bribed some of the nobles."

"Do you think Solar is spying on us?"

"How? Only the two of us know the full plan. We used all the compartmentalization techniques we could find. I really think it was just a coincidence that he was there."

"Still, we failed because of him," he stated with a frown.

"Indeed, that is a fact." The two of them looked at each other, silently communicating, before nodding.

"Then it's agreed. Next target, Emerald Kingdom."

"We need to do some research. We don't have many people there…"

"Already started. A few guilds reached out for cooperation."

"They don't like Solar?"

"That's underselling it," the other agreed with a grin.

"Well, that makes them useful for us," replied his brother with a grin on his own.

"Right, you are, bro." They then fell silent for a while before one of them sighed with joy.

"Damn, this game is amazing. Haven't had so much fun since forever…"

"You got that right, bro!" They stood up and stretched before one of them headed for the kitchen.

"Hey, do we still have the pie that Mom made?"

"Nah, I ate the last slice last night while watching compilations!"

"Ugh, you bastard…"