Second World

Bowler and The Man was in charge of collecting the loots. They were to decide the distribution of the loots later in the headquarters. Of course, a portion of it would be given to the guildʼs treasury before the rest was divided between the members participating in this raid.

Jeanny came to Jack. ”It was good that you came back as you did. We would have been in real trouble otherwise,” she said to him. ”Have you completed that ambassador quest of yours?”

”Not yet,” Jack answered.

”Oh? Then why do you return.”

”Something has come up. I have a matter to talk to you lots. I need you to arrange all our trustable members to gather inside our guild hall tonight.”

”Sure, I will spread the words. What is this matter? You sound quite serious.”

”It is,” Jack said. ”I will tell you about it tonight. I will go first. See you tonight.”

”Where are you going?” Jeanny asked as Jack walked away.

”Grinding,” Jack answered. ”I need to get my advanced class fast.”

ʼAdvanced class? Arenʼt both your classes already elite classes?ʼ Jeanny wondered. She didnʼt voice her thoughts since Jack was already far away. She guessed she would leave the questioning for tonight.

It was just a couple more hours before night arrived, but Jack didnʼt want to waste time by simply waiting. He felt like he was being chased by time. Masterʼs plan would continue to proceed, so he needed to also hurry up so he was more prepared for their next encounter.

The area around here was already a high-level area with monsters around level 30 to 35, but these monsters were too weak for him. He had Pandora take him to a neighboring area that housed level 35 to 40 monsters. These monsters should give him more exp and shorten the time he needed to level up.

Just from that few hours of grinding, his ranger level had gone up another level. Power-leveling a low-level player was truly easy when you were high-level.

When he thought it was almost time, he used the Guild Return Scroll and returned to Heavenly Citadel. He went directly to the Guild Hall.

When he entered, he saw everyone was there. Everyone who spread around the hall speaking in groups automatically end their conversation and came to him when they saw him enter. Jeanny had informed everyone that it was Jack who requested this meeting.

Jack went next to the guild core before he turned and looked at everyone who was now gathering around him. He had thought a lot about how he should break this news to the others. He cleared his throat before saying, ”My dearest friends. I have grave news. It is very sad for me to tell you that we are inside a game.”

The others were silent. Jack took it as they were still having trouble absorbing his information, until Swellgoing uttered, ”Are you high or something? Of course, we are in a game world. Are you wasting our time just for this nonsense?”

Jack looked at the man. He almost forgot this jealous man was also part of their core members.

”Do you need me to explain?” Peniel asked. ”You are not very good at this.”

Jack cleared his throat again. ʼArgh, f*ck it!ʼ He thought. He decided to just stop trying to be formal.

”What I am trying to say is, that this world here is a real game created by people! At least at first. Anyone here knows about the Second World game that was all over the news in our previous world?”

Almost all nodded. They were mostly gamers, after all.

”This world is that game being turned into reality,” Jack announced. He then reiterated what Wilted Tree had told him, including his encounter with Master and what that man seemed to be planning. Some interrupted him with questions during his talk. He answered them at first. But after a few times, he got annoyed. So he told everyone to just shut up and listen until he finished. Anyone still asking a question before he finished will be presented with a Mana Bullet.

After a long time explaining, Jack finally told everyone that he had finished and they were allowed to ask questions. Yet, everyone was silent.

A voice finally broke the silence, ”So, you are saying our old world is no more?”

”We canʼt go back?” Another asked.

”Yes and canʼt,” Jack answered both questions.

”You said that this Master fellow use some kind of a machine to alter our world, right? Canʼt we use this machine to change the world back?”

”Good question, but unfortunately, only that Master fellow knows the answer to this question,” Jack answered. ”If we want to try changing the world back, we have to first find Master and beat the information of the machineʼs location out of him. Anyway, that is a question after we defeat Master. At this moment, we need to hurriedly build up and increase our guildʼs power. Master will come invading the other countries once he takes control of Liguritudum Realm.”

”Country War? What can our guildʼs power contribute in there?” Someone asked.

”We can deploy our trained units to aid our home country when a country war happens,” it was Jeanny who answered. Peniel had explained this guild feature during their talk when they first formed this guild.

”Additionally, once our guild reached level 3, we will be able to summon our trained units when we invade other Guild Headquarters,” John added.

”Thatʼs right,” Jack said as he took out the Eagle Rider Hunter Insignia and Ice Cannon Tank Blueprint and handed them to John. ”These two items should help boost our trained units, but we need to reach guild level 3 and upgrade our Blacksmith Workshop to level 4 and also have a basic master blacksmith.”

”An aerial and armored units? This will open up a lot of strategic options!” John exclaimed. ”Good find!”

”Those were not found by me,” Jack said. ”Those were gifts from the game designer woman who I mentioned. We will need to defeat World Maker if we want to repay her.”

”Defeat them we shall!” Jeanny declared, then announced to the crowd, ”you all heard what Jack said. We need to hurriedly reach guild level 3. We will also be able to build our Legacy cave after that. Everyone, please work hard!”

”Thatʼs great! But I would like to add one more thing, apart from guild strength, we also need to strengthen each of our individual prowess. Our trained units might be useful in the war, but we still have to face the World Maker outside of it. From what I have seen, they are not what normal players can go against, we need to hurriedly improve ourselves not only in level and equipment but also in expertise. For that, I have one more thing that can help.”

Jack took out the Time Pearl and gave her to Jeanny.

”You certainly brought many gifts every time you return,” John said.

Jeanny read this Time Pearlʼs descriptions and gasped when she found out it was Legendary grade. She then shared it with the others.

”Time Chamber? What help will that bring us?” Bowler asked.

”How is your martial art and mana sense training going?” Jack asked back instead.

”Uh, tiring?” Bowler answered. He saw Domon glare at him and he shrank away.

Jack nodded. ”I expect none of you have made much progress. Only one month had passed since you started practicing. I myself took eight weeks to learn that mana sense and even that was because I have the basics from my childhood training. Most of you might need a longer time. Time, however, is a thing we lack. This chamber will assist in that department. Once this Time Chamber is built, you will all practice mana sensing and martial arts inside this Time Chamber. The time inside this chamber is multiplied by ten times. Meaning one day you spent inside will be ten days outside. This way, Domonʼs training session will be increased. I hope I can see some improvements soon.”

The faces of most that heard were getting pale after hearing Jackʼs words. They were already undergoing hell every morning from the training. Now the session was going to be extended by ten times?

But considering the stakes, they admitted that this was not the time to whine. If World Maker was allowed to have it their way, they would spend the rest of their lives living under tyranny. No one would want to live that way. Every free person had the obligation to prevent that from happening. Their pale expressions soon turned into determination.

Before, some of these core members only consider martial training as an obligation that the guildʼs three leaders had enforced. Now, they felt it was something that they should truly endeavor to learn seriously, for the sake of the current world they were living in.

They had some discussions after that, Jeanny dismissed them when the night was getting late. John immediately used the platform 3D interface to start redirecting the workers to work on the Time Chamber. Constructing this Time Chamber took priority now. The construction was surprisingly fast, only needed one day.. They would be able to start training using this chamber soon.

😉