Second World

”Here,” Jack said as he tossed the God-eye monocle to John, who was still scowling from all the punches. Most of the core members had dispersed by now, leaving only the three leaders and a few others. ”By the way, why are you making an enemy out of Saint Edge? Itʼs not like we are lacking any enemies from the coalition. Now we add Saint Edge to our hostile list. Are you bitter because your father tried to force you to return to Saint Edge?”

”No one can force me into doing anything,” John said. ”I target them because they are already enemies, the rest of you just donʼt know it yet.”

”Oh? How so?” Jeanny asked.

”They were already in talk with the coalition to mount a joint attack on us,” John answered. ”The coalition had been planning for an assault out of the urging from Corporate United after you took their guild hostage token. They were simply not confident yet to mount another assault all this time. When Saint Edge came to them, it bolstered their confidence. Hence they moved forward by using the challenge from Wicked Witches to draw most of you out.”

”Saint Edge came to them? Why did they want to make an enemy out of us?” Jeanny asked.

”Well, I might have something to with that. You see, my father never really agree for me to leave the guild. But since Iʼd never joined any other guild before this, he left me alone. Now that he found out that Iʼm in a guild, he probably wants to prove to me that no guild is better than his.”

”How do you know all those things about them meeting the coalition anyway?” Jack asked.

”I still have my eyes and ears within Saint Edge,” John replied.

”Huh? Really? Who is willing enough to betray that guild for the likes of you?”

”What are you saying? I have my charm. Furthermore, she didnʼt know that she was betraying Saint Edge.”

”She…? Are you talking about Diana?”

”Oh? Have you met her?”

”Good Lord! You even use your own sister! What a fiend!” Jack exclaimed.

”This awful man has a sister?” Bowler asked.

”Go away! This is a talk between leaders,” John shooed Bowler away.

”You want another punch?” Bowler threatened.

”Try it. See if I donʼt retaliate this time,” John threatened back.

”By the way, your status is only a common member at this time,” Jack reminded, which drew a laugh from Bowler.

”Then what are you waiting for? Hurry up and reinstate me as co-leader again,” John said.

Jack looked at Jeanny, who gave John a hard stare before using her authority as the main leader to reinstate Johnʼs co-leader status. John returned his laugh to Bowler.

”So, you devised the plan to cause Saint Edge to back off from the joint attack and at the same time steal their guild hostage token?” Jack asked.

”Thatʼs correct,” John answered.

”But the coalition still attack in the end,” Bowler reminded.

”It was expected. I told them that Jack had come to Saints Seat. So that was the best opportunity for them to strike with him being unavailable.”

”You told them?!” Bowler exclaimed. ”You want us to get attacked? Do you know that we almost lost?”

”I am confident this guild is strong enough to hold out before Jack and I returned. If this guild is that weak, I wouldnʼt have bothered spending time here. Additionally, with another failure like this, I doubt the coalition will dare to mount another assault again. The weakness of a coalition is that they need almost unanimous decisions. One party decided not to join, others who are on the fence will pull back, which causes the entire operation to be scrapped. Iʼm sure there will be some in the coalition that will refuse to join the next time the proposal to attack us surfaces.”

”Whatever your reasons, as Jeanny had said, the next time you pull this double-cross stunt again. Donʼt expect to be let off lightly,” Jack said.

”I think It should be triple-cross?” John said.

”Whatever. I can promise you, any funny move, you wonʼt have a chance for a quartet-cross.”

”Is there even such a term?” Jeanny asked.

The Man, who had just listened all this time, said, ”Itʼs good that we didnʼt lose the battle just now, but isnʼt it time we talk about hitting back on those guilds that attacked us?”

”Thatʼs right. I know John said unlikely for the coalition to attack again, but we will send a stronger statement if we retaliate. Just like last time when Jack retaliated by himself after their first attack. This time, we should do it together. We are strong enough for that, arenʼt we? ” Bowler said.

”We lost quite a number of native soldiers and players in this attack. Out of the guild members, around 1,300 had joined this fight. Around 600 died, almost 100 of them didnʼt even wear the amulet of rebirth. Stupid pricks. Didnʼt we already stress out that the amulet is mandatory whenever we have guild wars? For the native soldiers, we lost almost 200 units. With the majority of the lost on the squires and bandit archers. Re-recruiting them is no problem with the resources we had. Retraining them to decent levels will take some time. Good thing the surviving ones received decent exp points, so we can save the training hall to focus on new recruits,” John reported. ”All things considered, we are not exactly in the best fighting shape.”

”They lost more,” Bowler countered.

”The one who lost the native soldiers is only corporated United. What use are we for attacking them again? We wonʼt get a second guild hostage token from them,” John said.

”Then letʼs hit Wicked Witches,” Jeanny offered.

Everyone turned to her. She was the last one everyone expected to call for retaliation and to offer in striking the guild where her family was in.

”You okay with that?” Jack asked.

”Why shouldnʼt I? They had gone back from their words in attacking us after losing the challenge they proposed. Such a dishonorable guild need to be punished.”

”Despite your eagerness, we canʼt hit Wicked Witches at this time,” John said.

”Why?” Everyone asked.

”Because we have no access to Aurebor Dynasty, the country of the elven race, yet.”

”Eh? I thought their guild headquarters is at…”

John interrupted Jack before he completed his question, ”They had one in this country before. But once they got into contact with their main guild members in Aurebor, they found out that the one in Aurebor has a guild headquarters already, and the one over there has better developments. So they forfeited their headquarters here when they merged their guilds.”

”How do you know that?” Jack asked.

”I ainʼt exactly staying idle when Iʼm in Saint Edge. That guild has an extensive information network. I learned as much as I can in the limited time I have there.”

”Well, then Wicked Witches is out for now,” The Man said.

Jack saw a slight disappointment in Jeannyʼs expression. It seemed that whatever happened during the battle just now still left this girl with some bitterness toward her past guild.

”What about Death Associates,” Jack offered.

”They are a viable option. Their headquarters are called Death Hall, itʼs located nearby the main city of Theneward,” John said. ”However, I donʼt know the details of their native soldierʼs strength. Considering their soldiers are not involved in the battle just now, they are still at their full strength. So, we should be at a disadvantage.”

”Then we pick a weaker opponent?” Bowler suggested.

”I didnʼt find any detail on the coalitionʼs each guildʼs power level when Iʼm in Saint Edge. Itʼs hard to determine which guild is weaker or stronger. I personally didnʼt recommend going on the offensive at this moment.”

”What if I cause havoc from inside Death Associatesʼ headquarters while you people attack from the outside?” Jack asked.

”Do you have an invisibility scroll again?” John asked.

”No, but I have something better,” Jack said and turned into Unrivaled Arcaner.

The others were startled by Jackʼs transformation. Jack removed his Cloak of Shadow, allowing everyone to inspect him. They were even more surprised after reading his description as a member of Death Associates.

”Ah! I remember seeing you during the top guilds meeting. So, that is you in disguise. Thatʼs how you know about them coming for me at that time,” John said.

”Yes. With this disguise. I can easily enter their headquarters. When you people are ready to attack. I can start synchronizing my attack from the inside,” Jack said.

”Hm… In this case, I think it can work. You can go for their guild core while we draw their forces out. Okay, let me organize people who we can trust, we canʼt have too many people for this surprise attack. I think we will need until tomorrow evening before we can depart, we will mask our movement at night. You can probably head there earlier to check their forces first.”

”All right, I will go there tomorrow morning,” Jack said.

”By the way. I know you are almost never present here. I bet your disguise is even more so. How do they allow you to continue in that guild for so long? If it is me, I would have kicked you out already,” John said.

”Iʼm not sure. I have been expecting that as well. In fact, Scarface had sent several messages asking to meet from time to time, but I continue to ignore him.”

”Hm… Odd.”

”Never mind. Once we do this operation. Iʼm pretty sure my cover is blown anyway.”

Jack then looked at where his grandfather was standing. ”Are you coming for this attack?”

”No thanks. No exp in killing players, right? I will just leave these war games to you kids. I will play defense and help members level up,” Domon said. ”By the way, you kids should be careful just in case you meet those people from Jackal Crews. They are real-world soldiers, true killers who have gone through real war. Your war game can turn for the worse if you just treat them as your usual opponents.”

”Thatʼs right. We lost quite a lot of members to them today,” Jeanny added.

”Donʼt worry, they wonʼt be there,” John said. When he saw the othersʼ inquisitive glances, he explained, ”Iʼve learned this from Saint Edge information network as well. They are a mercenary guild. Unless Death Associates know we are coming for them, they wonʼt be enlisting that guildʼs help. Also, they are not the only mercenary guild with real soldiers. There are a couple of other guilds. I want to send someone to make a contact with one of these guilds as well, one that is called Dogs of War. We could probably build a good relation with this mercenary guild just in case we need their services.”

”I donʼt want to burst your bubble, but I want to tell you people one thing,” Peniel said.

Everyone looked at her.

”If you people go on the offense at this time.. You will lose your current one-week protection status.”

😉