Second World

”Really? I heard that they are doing pretty well lately. They are the first one to have established their guild formally in this world, and I also heard that they will be building their guild base soon. By the way, you sounded to not have a good impression on that guild? Are they our enemy? Iʼm a new recruit so Iʼm still not familiar yet with our guild relationship with the others.”

”You can say they are our enemy, or maybe simply rival for now,” Earmouth said. ”You sound like you know them pretty well.”

”I did some research. Before I join this guild, White Scarfs and Death Associates are the two primary guild choices that I planned to join.”

”Then you had made the right choice, brother!” Earmouth clapped at Jackʼs shoulder. ”That guild only managed to be the first to establish their guild out of luck. But for guild base, they will be the sore loser. Their financing is not enough for them to buy a land before us.”

”Really? I know for a fact that they had been doing the same hunting route as us, since I saw their teams during my trip as well. So their speed of gaining coins shouldnʼt be far off. Now that we are having this meeting, I can see that most of our advanced class members are not out there doing the hunting quests. Wonʼt that allow them to catch up to us?”

”Hehe,” Earmouth gave an enigmatic smile. ”The coins they had accumulated so far were still not enough. They need at least one more day to accrue them, more likely two days. While we had gathered almost enough. Even if we put a stop to our coin gathering operation for half a day for this meeting, we can still collect the required amount faster than them. Furthermore, we have another plan in place inside White Scarfs in case anything untoward was happening. Even if they somehow managed to gather the coins first, we will still take care of them sooner or later.”

Jack maintained his expressionless face, but he was rather startled to have heard this chatty playerʼs words. From what this guy had said, it strongly implied that Death Associates had inside knowledge of White Scarfs guild.

He knew planting spies within rival guilds was a common practice for most large guilds, but exact information of finance within a guild was one of a guildʼs most covered secret. To know that would mean that the spy that Death Associates had inside White Scarfs was not in a low position at all. He or she would have to be at least a core member of the guild.

”Wow, I didnʼt know our guildʼs information gathering was so incredible. It must take quite a lot of manpower and connections to get such information,” Jack tried to probe without sounding too obvious.

”We have our way,” Earmouth replied with a proud smile. Unfortunately, the chatty guy didnʼt take the bait.

”I guess there is nothing to worry about then, we will surely surpass Silverwing in no time,” Jack exclaimed.

”Thatʼs right! And we wonʼt stop there. We will be the number one guild in the city sooner or later,” Earmouth laughed.

Jack laughed with him. He felt bad for White Scarfs, he considered informing Silverwing. But what would he tell him if he asked where he acquired this information? Furthermore, he didnʼt have the identity of the spy. He doubted Silverwing would go on a manhunt based on his dubious clue.

”I must say, you are not too bad,” Earmouth said. ”I heard that you are a difficult person to get along with, but you are pretty ok for me.”

”Iʼm actually a friendly person,” Jack replied. ”I will treat anyone with the same kind of respect that they show me. But if it was an arrogant person like this one beside me, I will not hesitate to crush them under my boots also,” Jack said as he gestured to Warpath who stood beside him. Warpath glared at him indignantly.

Earmouth continued to chat with him about some trivial matters. After another fifteen minutes of wait, the third group led by Corporate United finally arrived. Scarface was already starting to show displeased expression before when waiting, but when the Manager Steelhand who led the Corporate United group approached, he put on a delighted expression as if he was greeting his best best friend in the world.

Jack did not see Trustaide nor Faithstooge amongst the people of Corporate United. They might be busy trying to level up again as they had just died a few days ago.

The guilds brought by Corporate United followed the others that had come before them and took their seats on the elevated steps around the courtyard. Jack was surprised when he saw another person that he recognized. He didnʼt know that this person was a member of a guild. He was sitting with five other players nearby.

Jack inspected them, but he didnʼt see a guild name tag on their names. He guessed they were among the guilds who still didnʼt have enough gold coins to afford to make formal establishment on their guild yet.

But he was still surprised to find him here. The man didnʼt peg him as someone who was interested in a guild, or more accurately, he couldnʼt imagine a guild that would put up with his attitude. He scanned the manʼs name again to make sure that he didnʼt mistake him for another person. The name was written clearly as Saint John.

John was positioned at the front center amongst his group. And when the people in his group have a talk, Jack could see from their attitudes that John was the person in charge amongst the six of them.

John was also already an advanced class Mage at level 17. Jack thought it was not a surprise. With the manʼs photographic memory, the Mage test was a walk in the park for him. The five others in his company were strangely, all Fighters. John was probably the one that picked who to accompany him, treating the five others as his personal bodyguards.

Jack didnʼt go or make any gesture to the man. After all, he was here as Unrivalled Arcaner, so even if he went, John would not recognize him. So he just stayed in his position and observe.

Not long after everyone had settled down, some people from the three organizer guilds went around to have a brief talk with each representative of the guilds while jolting things down on a pad. They were probably recording down each guild that was present here.

After they went full round in taking the notes, they went back to the side of the organizers. Manager Steelhand from Corporate United came out and took a position at the center of the courtyard, where everyone could see him clearly. Jack Inspected him, he was a level 17 Knight.

”My fellow players,” he called out. His voice was firm, not too loud and not too soft, while everyone including the ones that sat at the back could still hear him clearly. His expression showed no anxiety. It was obvious that he was no stranger to public speaking.

”We are all fellow comrades in this foreign new world, which we have no say when we are thrown here. Nevertheless, the rules that govern this world are not so foreign to us. Most of us here are veteran players with long hours of experience in VR games, so I am sure everyone here is familiar with this type of world. The difference is, that we are stuck here, without the possibility to log off. Now Iʼm not saying that we are stuck here forever, but since none of us know the reason why the world has changed or how we are carried into this world, we should treat this world as the place where we will spend the rest of our lives on. In other words, the stakes here are much higher than any VR games that we have played in the past.”

Manager Steelhand made a brief pause as he surveyed his audiences.

”Everyone that presents here is a member of a guild. Most of you are well-known and well-established guilds in past games, some are new but fast-growing guilds. By way of explanation, you all know the importance of banding together. In numbers, we become stronger. No one can achieve anything great by being alone!”

”Due to the unknown mechanism that pulled us into this world, each of our guilds is not in our best strength. Many of our members are nowhere to be found. They are not in the city that we currently dwell in, but did they also come to this world but are placed in a different city? I can tell you for certain that the answer is yes. Itʼs not a certainty that everyone from our world was transported into this world, however, it is a certainty that there are other cities out there where people from our world had been transported to. In this meeting, we will show you the proof of it.”

Some murmur from the crowd upon the revelation.

Proof of other players at another city? Jack did suspect there was a possibility of such, but he didnʼt expect these guilds had already possessed such proof. Did someone already made it to another city and found other players there?

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