Second World

Scarface expression turned dark upon hearing it. ”Do not think because we havenʼt done anything to you, we are afraid of you. Are you trying to pick a fight with us?”

”What if I am?” Jack was not backing off. ”Do not think I donʼt know that incident with Blackjack was orchestrated by your guild.”

”Letʼs fight then, you and me. Letʼs settle our bad blood,” Red Death uttered.

”Okay, letʼs head to the East Gate,” Jack agreed and started walking away.

Red Death followed him before getting stopped by Scarface, ”halt!”

Jack looked back. ”Whatʼs wrong?” He asked.

Red Death gave Scarface the same questioning look.

”Youʼve promised to hold yourself back,” Scarface said to her in a low voice. ”We have a bigger picture to take care of, do not let your emotions make you lose sight of what we should be doing. We will deal with him later.”

”You donʼt believe I can take him on?” Red Death asked.

”I believe there is a risk. I am not willing to take the risk yet unless absolutely necessary. You are needed for us to assert dominance in this city.”

”So we just let him go after talking that way to us?”

”I repeat again, do not let your emotions blind you.”

”Hmph!” Red Death harrumphed, but she did not insist. She turned around and walked away, no longer looking at Jack.

Jack was about to throw her some insulting remarks but decided against it. If he provoked them too much, they might forget rationality and gang up on him. He might not be afraid of them, but there was also no need for him to attract such trouble.

Scarface also didnʼt make any further comments. He turned to Silverwing and said, ”I will take my leave first, brother Silverwing.”

Silverwing replied with a smile, ”of course. I heard brother Scarface had an important meeting coming up. You must have lots to prepare.”

”That is true. Iʼm sorry that you are not invited, brother Silverwing. Itʼs for a limited community, but do expect big change to occur after the meeting.”

”Oh, Iʼll be looking forward to it,” Silverwing uttered.

Scarface turned and led their group away.

”You are truly amazing, brother Storm Wind. You have successfully pulled away their aggro in just a few sentences. I admire your taunting ability,” Silverwing teased. ”Do you really plan to kill their teams that are doing the hunting quests?”

”Of course not. Do you think I am such savage?”

”Ah, too bad,” Silverwing sighed.

Jack rolled his eyes at him. Did he think he had so much free time to just go and challenge an entire guild?

”You must work harder then if you want to compete with them for this plot,” Jack said to him.

”Itʼs not really a problem. We can just buy that plot opposite. Itʼs roughly the same size. It was just a matter of face who gets to choose first.”

Jack was speechless. Then what was the dispute before for? He had intruded for something that was meaningless in the end.

”You know their meeting is tomorrow?” Jack asked.

Silverwing nodded. ”You know as well? I am astounded by your ability to keep up with information despite not in a guild.”

Jack shrugged. ”So do you know what they are up to and where they will hold their meeting?”

”No, they keep a real tight lid on it, but we roughly have ideas on which guilds will be attending.”

”Are you going to send people to spy on the meeting?”

”I will try, but I doubt it will be easy. I bet they will be placing lots of sentry around the place.”

”I see. I will let you know if I find any information about it.”

”Oh? Are you saying that you are going to try to infiltrate the meeting as well?”

Jack realized that he might have talked too much. ”Iʼm saying that I will ask around in case the people I know are joining the meeting. Itʼs late already, I bid you farewell.”

Silverwing didnʼt hold him back. Their group also left soon after.

When Jack entered Amyʼs Bakery, Amy welcomed him and handed him a bag of coins. Jack looked at it in confusion.

”Itʼs your share of the profit,” Amy informed him after seeing his confused expression.

Jack counted the days in his heart, it was indeed seven days had passed since he made the investment. He looked inside the bag and gasped. There were 14 gold coins in there.

”So much?” Jack asked subconsciously. With this kind of earning, he would get back his investment in just four weeksʼ time.

”Business has been good lately,” Amy said. ”Come, letʼs have dinner. Mom had cooked an exquisite meal to celebrate our collaboration.”

The morning after, Jack transformed into Unrivalled Arcaner and went to the meeting point advised by Scarface. When he arrived at the place, there were already lots of people. He didnʼt know many of them, but he could see that not all were from Death Associates. They formed clusters with their own group. The largest was Death Associates. He could see also that only a handful of Death Associates members were there. He assumed most of them were core members.

After reporting his arrival to Scarface, he asked, ”are these all that are joining the meeting?”

”Yes, but not only the ones here. Corporate United and Wicked Witches were gathering other guilds at other spots. Once everyone had assembled, we will head out and convene at the final meeting place.”

It will be a large crowd, Jack thought. It was impressive that they had managed to invite so many guilds to come together. Scarface went around with Red Death to greet the other guilds and made headcount, leaving Bigarm and Stonecleave in charge to arrange the security details.

Stonecleave was also an advanced class already, he was a level 17 Warrior. Jack remembered him to be one of Death Associates members that were difficult to deal with.

”Hmph, make sure you didnʼt embarrass our guild,” Bigarm uttered grumpily, he clearly disagreed with Scarfaceʼs decision to include Jack in this meeting. ”You will be with Warpath. You will take the backside of the left-wing as we proceed to the meeting place. Make sure to pay attention to your surroundings. Take care of any monsters we passed and chased away players that came near.”

Jack turned and saw Warpath standing beside him. The guy had become a level 14 already. His speed of leveling was very fast, he might be challenging his advanced class trial soon. Jack was considering maybe he should find an opportunity to kill him again. The guy was sure to come looking for him to take revenge once he was strong enough.

Seeing his enemies growing strong, he couldnʼt deny that it put pressure on him. He would need to work harder to stay ahead of them. Otherwise, he would get swallowed alive if he gave them the chance to.

Some people came again to join their entourage as Bigarm and Stonecleave explaining about their security arrangement. After around half an hour, Scarface returned and told them that they would depart soon. Everyone spread out as they ushered the scattered groups to converge together, before they took positions as had been arranged beforehand.

After seeing everybody neatly getting into formations, Scarface gave the order to move out. They were very close to the city gate, so they were out of the city after a brief walk. Scarface and Red Death led the group in front as they eradicated any monsters that stood on their path. They headed in South Eastern direction.

A majority of the monsters seemed to be aware as to not try to provoke such a large crowd. They moved aside once the group drew near. Sparing Jack and the others the need to take action.

Jack could see from his radar several blue dots not far from them, most likely tailing them. Probably one of them was Silverwingʼs man. At one point he saw Bigarm took some men and broke off from the group, they went far away from one side of the group, while Stonecleave took another group of players and went to the other side.

They appeared to be out of view because the terrain was not flat. Hills and valleys with trees decorated the landscape, allowing people to sneak around unknowingly. However, Jack could see their movements clearly from his radar. The two teams from Death Associates roam around and clashed with the scattered blue dots. Either chasing them away or eliminating them on the spot.

The unknown blue dots dwindled as they progressed. Bigarm and Stonecleave teams continued to circle around by the sides, looking for any more players that were trying to tail them.

😉