"I apologize, but this is more comfortable for me. I understand where you are coming from and I understand your conditions but I must refuse."
Taemin quietly nodded his head after hearing Sanghyuk"s reply. He had expected things to reach this point. In the first place, it was rare for such a high-ranking user to be working as a mercenary.
"Understood. I will not bother you any longer."
Taemin gave up. It wasn"t like him to drag things on, and he also knew that nothing would change that way.
"Instead, I"ll do my best as a mercenary while I still am."
"Thank you. I will also pay you properly. Also, if you need anything, then please speak. We"ll support you with consumables."
"Ooh! Then I"ll take that."
Blake nodded with a smile. He wouldn"t refuse someone who would buy things from him and give them back to him.
"Oh, I"m also planning to move your group to somewhere else. Is that okay with you?"
"To where?"
"To A-S. It"s a group comprised of the elites of our guild."
"So First Team Above Sky isn"t created yet."
Sanghyuk nodded his head and spoke.
"I don"t really mind, but…… I wish to ask you for something."
"Please speak."
"I don"t really mind which group I belong to, but I wish to be able to act alone once a battle starts without being ordered by anyone. My fighting style isn"t really suited to parties."
"Oh…… you wish to be a free role?"
"I only need that during battle. I will naturally follow the leader"s orders when we are not battling."
Taemin thought back to the video footage that a guild member had sent him after the last battle. Blake definitely did seem to be used to fighting alone.
"Very well then. I"ll see what I can do. However, can you follow orders on emergencies?"
"Of course, a leeway like that is naturally okay."
"Then that"s fine. I"ll send the word beforehand, so you just have to meet up."
"Understood."
There were no conflicts. Since the two wanted the same thing, the conversation went well. Sanghyuk then went to the guild"s office in order to finish up what he wanted to do.
Of course, he couldn"t make a guild immediately. A mercenary could not belong to a guild.
That was why he only bought a guild creation permit and planned to sign it after his work as a mercenary was over.
"As for the guild name…… let"s just go with [One]."
He named the guild without thinking this time as well. Fortunately, the name [One] was not taken by any other guild.
After buying the guild creation permit for 50,000 gold, Sanghyuk left the guild office.
Creating a guild required a considerable amount of money, so the number of guilds was actually not that high.
There would even be some websites that sold guild names after that guild was brought to practical disbandment.
After preparing to create the guild, Sanghyuk returned to Skies Above Skies. After that one mission, Sanghyuk"s treatment became very different. Taemin changed Sanghyuk"s group to A-S, and this was currently the group with the most elite members of the guild.
When the First Team Above Sky was created later, 70% of the members of the A-S team would transfer there.
Moving to a team with better members meant that he would get opportunities to fight stronger enemies.
Sanghyuk didn"t really care about this, as long as he could just rampage around. Thanks to Taemin setting the battlegrounds, he now just needed to fight to his heart"s content.
Blake"s true appearance.
The legend of the Sky-Gold war began with this.
"Are you 100% sure about that?"
"Yes, I am. I"ve already talked about it. If he lied, then the scroll of oath would activate…… there"s no way he would lie risking his own account."
Blackie, in charge of leading the strongest group of Gold Rush, the Alpha team, nodded after listening to a member under him.
The war between Skies Above Skies and Gold Rush became a war between lines; Line Sky and Line Gold.
This happened ten days after Skies Above Skies and Gold Rush went into war. And now that ten more days had pa.s.sed…… the flow of the war was actually very tight.
Even though they had fought for twenty days, neither side took a lead.
Gold Rush was on the advantage at the beginning, but with a freak appearing from the Skies Above Skies side, the war became balanced again.
"Blake…… I will smash you for good today!"
Muttered Blackie while gritting his teeth.
The freakish Mercenary, Blake, had ruined everything. The number of kills by his sword numbered 1,147.
This was normally impossible by a mere mercenary.
It was to the point that Blake had practically changed the flow of the war.
Just once - killing him just once was enough to make him retire from this war, so Gold Rush tried numerous times to kill him, but all of their attempts had resulted in failure thus far.
Instead, they gave him more heads to kill.
In fact, this kill count was even a pressure for Skies Above Skies as well.
This was obvious since according to their contract, Skies Above Skies had to pay him over 10 million gold. This was just as large as how much Large Golden Mountain took from them.
Naturally, this was a huge burden on them. In fact, many people inside the guild inwardly wanted Blake to die.
Although not so blatant, they pushed Blake and the First Team Above Sky to more dangerous battles as well.
However, Blake survived to the bitter end. In fact, the other members of the team were helped by him in surviving as well.
In the end, Taemin negotiated with Blake to pay Blake 5 million in gold, and the remaining amount in items worth just as much.
Since they were being ripped 1~2 million gold every other day, this was the best they could do.
They were running so low on money that Chunwoong and Taemin were buying gold with real cash to give him the required gold.
However, they wouldn"t even last a week at this rate.
Perhaps thanks to that, Taemin could only make the worst choice.
"Let"s go over the scenario once again. So, once we lure that guy, the rest of the First Team Above Sky would fall back so we just have to surround him and kill him?"
"Yes. Even though Blake is called the immortal mercenary, we would be able to beat him if the Alpha team surrounds him.
"Well, yeah. Even he wouldn"t be able to endure that. But why did the Skies above Skies guys suddenly give up on him?"
"I don"t know exactly, but from what I"ve heard…… the amount of gold they are paying Blake is actually astronomical. So, they have no choice but to make him retire here."
"They must be crazy…… they acted like the smart guys but now they sound more stupid than me."
"Oho, you knew you were stupid?"
"Shut up."
Blackie smacked his junior on the back of his head and stood up.
"Guys. It"s finally our chance to pay our debts. Blake this b.a.s.t.a.r.d…… I"ll definitely get you today."
Everyone from the alpha team stood up from their seats. 14 members including Blackie. Their abilities were quite top-notch.
However, they were crushed three times by the First Team Above Sky alone. All the members here were killed at least twice by Blake as well.
Especially in the case of Blackie, he was crushed three times, all miserably, by Blake since he was so adamant about battling him. He was almost traumatized by that right now.
"This time for sure!"
Now that there were only 5 minutes until the promised time…… Blackie gritted his teeth and looked ahead.
[I really don"t think this is a good choice.]
Jetty, one of the core members of Skies Above Skies as well as belonging to the First Team Above Sky, was skeptical about this plan from the very beginning.
Honestly, there were users who were thinking the same within the guild as well. However, they all felt that this had to be done for the sake of the guild.
[Jetty, we can"t help it. Me too, I honestly…… don"t think making Mr. Blake forcefully retire like this is not a good choice, but what can we do? The burden on the guild is so high.]
[But this still isn"t a good choice. Honestly, how many times were we helped by him? But now we"re…….]
[Hey, stop acting like you"re a good guy. We only do what we were ordered to do. Why are you so naggy? Honestly, how much do you think that guy earns? That guy should be thankful to us instead.]
Not all members of the First Team Above Sky liked Blake. In fact, more than half was jealous and did not like him at all.
[True, that amount is insane. Ten million gold. Isn"t that like 500 million won (500,000USD) right now? No matter how well he fights, ripping half a billion in less than a month is a total scam.]
[Half a billion? Seriously? That"s insane.]
[But it"s us who accepted the contract.]
[Don"t sound naïve and if you don"t like it, just go away. Don"t ruin the plan.]
No matter how hard Jetty objected, it was useless. This codename "Branching" plan was already in progress, and Blake would be in grave danger at this rate.
"Fuu…… so I must make a choice as well?"
Jetty started seriously considering what to do while looking at the chat logs between his guild members.
The clash between the Alpha team and the First Team Above Sky. This was the fourth clash, so there was nothing strange about it.
Well, at least, it started like that. However…… the battle turned quite strange as it progressed.
The way First Team Above Sky fought was Blake rampaging around all by himself, and the other members taking advantage of the opening he created.
So, Blake fighting all by himself was very natural. However, something was different today.
The other members of the First Team Above Sky did not take advantage of the opening Blake created, but kept going around to the outside.
And eventually…… they all disappeared as though they couldn"t keep up.
Blake was now really all by himself.
The members of the Alpha team of Gold Rush surrounded Blake in a circular manner to cut any path of escape.
Now Blake was surrounded by 14 enemies. This looked like he was going to die here no matter what happened.
"Blake! It"s so nice to see you here."
Shouted Blackie at Blake with a very joyous expression. He was acting as though Blake was already captured and in his knees.
However, Blake only smiled after looking around.
"Sheesh…… they"re acting just as I expected them to."
His smile meant one thing.
Everything went exactly as he had expected, and it was so obvious as to what was happening, so he ended up laughing.
"So even you can utter nonsense when you"re about to die."
In fact, Blackie didn"t feel like his resentment towards Blake would disappear just because he killed him once. Honestly, there were almost no penalties for dying as a mercenary.
So, he was just trying to relieve some of his stress by making Blake feel inferior through this conversation.
"You talk a lot as always."
Blake smiled once again while looking at Blackie.
It was always like this. Blackie always talked a lot at critical moments.
"What? Do you still not get the situation you are in-"
When Blackie kept on talking, Sanghyuk quickly took out some fusion cards and inserted them into his own body.
*Ziiin, flash! Flash!*
At that moment, the Alpha team prepared to a.s.sault at once.
Blackie also realized that this was not the time to talk and took out his weapon. However, Sanghyuk had already drugged(?) himself during that time.
"I"m thankful that you made a place for me to die…… but what can you do? I don"t plan to die just yet."
*Srrrr, clang!*
Blake laughed evilly as he took out the Ogreslayer.
Since everything was going as he had expected, he didn"t feel confused or panicked at all. In fact, he even waited for this moment. With this, he now had an excuse, and with an excuse, he could do a lot of things.
So for now…… he just needed to dance wildly with his sword.
Nothing had changed from his previous life. This was a place of fierce compet.i.tion where people betrayed each other with no remorse if it was for profit –
– The world of EL.