Dave followed after Zoe and Samuel as they headed to the parking.
He was thinking hard about all that just happened and couldn"t help but ask," Why"d you take them to court even after they agreed to sell?" Dave asked.
Samuel Silvana stopped and turned to face Dave, "Son. Listen, what you just saw now was completely normal. The world has grown into an eat or be eaten world. Being kind to those who do you harm is not a show of kindness, but it shows weakness. Weakness that others will abuse and use against you."
"Uncle is right," Zoe said, "If you uncle didn"t do this, you may never know how the Webbs would have acted. They might show a friendly face to you and sell you the shares, but once you are their partner, they will do their best to take you down and retake what was "theirs." You are one of the rare kind souls I"ve met in my life, Dave, and I can tell you, there aren"t many like you left nowadays."
Dave silently contemplated what Zoe and Samuel just told him. It was true, many have treated Dave beneath the dirt, from his abusive father, his former employer, the mafia goons, even the majority of the player base had acted this way when he was just an unknown person.
He had to endure before because he couldn"t stand up to them and say no. He didn"t have the capital to do so. But now, he was Mr.Skeletal, one of Conquest most influential figures. He was somebody. And he needed to act the way.
Being kind and forgiving to those who wrong him will only bring him more trouble. He had a lifetime of that, and it was time to say enough.
"You"re right. Guess I didn"t think about it like that. I"ll try to act upon my current status more."
"Good. Also, the real reason I took them to court was mainly to preserve my own reputation," Samuel said.
He revealed an evil grin that was comparable to Dave"s draugr smile as he said, "If we agreed to settle, that would have given them a bit of leeway, and they would have tried to negotiate the price of the shares and hold hope that they could still be partners of Sigma-Electronics. Yet now, I"m about to drive their faces in the mud. I"ll make them miserable enough that they"ll beg for us to take their stocks for free."
Looking at Zoe, with an expression of "He can do that?"
Zoe smiled understanding and nodded to Dave.
"Scary uncle!"
The three left the company and headed back into Dave"s hotel.
They were riding with Samuel as Lone brought her Lambo and it was a two-seater.
This was one of the rare drives Dave had had with this family, as Samuel was a perfect law-abiding citizen. The kind that didn"t go above speed limits or through red lights.
Dave occasionally looked at Zoe in a "You should learn to drive from your uncle!" gaze. And only received rolled eyes.
"Uncle, you drive like an old lady!"
Samuel shook his head; he had enough adventures and close shaves with Zoe to care for her opinion about driving.
When Samuel dropped Dave off, Zoe asked, "When are you going to see your new penthouse?"
"I"ll head there tonight. I"ll give you guys a call later today. For now, I"ll log in. It should be about time that the Eastern Raid event is over. I"ll want to get some more Contribution Points."
"Yeah, right. I"ll log in too. See you later," Zoe waved her hand at Dave and the two of them separated.
Dave went upstairs and logged in in the game.
Somewhere in the real world, a person was typing furiously on his keyboard. He was writing an article that was about to shake the whole Conquest and real-world on a full scale.
He was uploading pictures of the confrontation between a young man in white and the son of Sigma Electronics company. And above the text wall, a t.i.tle was written in bold,
"Mr.Skeletal, Ident.i.ty REVEALED!"
After typing the last few words, the man pressed on the publish b.u.t.ton. It didn"t take his article more than minutes before it spread like wildfire through all of the internet. Anyone who ever played Conquest these last few months had only one thought in mind when it was regarding the Undead Mr.Skeletal.
The unknown player that shook the whole of the player base game, who was he? But this article seemed to reveal this man"s ident.i.ty. Was it a lie?
It didn"t take more than hours before many reporters ran toward Sigma-Electronics demanding the overseers to give them the truth. At first, they were ignored, but the more of these reporters gathered, the harder it became to control the situation.
Finally, an exhausted old man came out of the establishment. He was the current CEO of the company. And after a few words, the truth was revealed.
The man that was Mr. Skeletal, the current majority holder of the company shares was named David Ruster.
The news spread on a wide scale. The reporters used all of their networks and channels to do thorough research on this David Ruster. The most they found out was that this David Ruster was an unknown person. Not the son of some famous family, not someone with significant influence, he was just a n.o.body. A person that the most eventful part of his life was an accident of unknown causes that almost led to a permanent disability, but at the same time, was the reason for his rise to fame.
Yet this didn"t make them the least bit enthusiastic. It even made them more thrilled to write about Mr.Skeletal"s true ident.i.ty.
Who didn"t like an underdog? The black horse of the track. A n.o.body that made himself famous starting from scratch. Who didn"t love to hear the story of someone going from Zero To hero?
The reporters worked overtime to get their articles out. Using Dave"s past and his future as a total contrast of extremes to show how one with nothing can end up having everything if they tried hard enough.
The E-Papers were released, and the issues were sold on a world-wide scale with translations to most of the world"s used languages. In less than half a day, everyone knew about Mr.Skeletal"s dark past and his bright future.
This increased Dave"s likability to the low-level player base, which made him both a hero in-game and outside of it. But the smartest of people were the ones that turned their gaze at Sigma-Electronics. They had to invest. Mr.Skeletal"s current fame was like a galactic rocket that was going far. They had to have a seat on this rocket no matter what.
All of this was happening while Dave was inside the world of Conquest.
He was beside hundreds of undead as he waited for the last few seconds before the event of the Eastern Raid would end.
Looking up, a notification appeared in front of Dave.
***
Server Announcement!
The East has invaded many of the world"s cities. Yet thanks to the capable and mighty players, they have been repelled. However, the lands taken by the east will belong to them from now on.
Adjustments!
Areas taken by the Eastern Kingdom of Qin will have a minimum level requirement to access.
Players cannot teleport to the Kingdom of Qin beyond the Wilds, but they can still access the occupied cities if they respect the following conditions.
Players need to be at least level 300 to enter these areas.
Players need to successfully complete the quest [By the King] to gain access to the occupied areas.
Players must not be aggressive toward the NPCs or guards controlling these areas or else they will suffer a ban of 7 days and will have to redo the quest [By the King].
All of the monsters, creatures, and NPCs in these areas will have their level increased and will now generate more quests.
***
Another notification soon showed up.
***
The 10 players with the most contribution will be portrayed in the following list and their total contribution level.
10- Satan Slayer 1,211.
9- Mercy 1,883.
8- Zhu-Lu 2,000.
7-Fantom-Pain 2122.
6-White-Ghost 3,220.
5-Wan-Yi 3,661.
4-Zhang-s.h.i.+ 5,551.
3-Warlord 6,778.
2-Kis"Shtiengbrah 12,555.
1-Jeffery 61,000.
All of these players will receive the t.i.tle: [World"s Blade]
The top 3 players will receive the unique rune [Doom]
The number 1 player "Jeffery" will receive the Ultimate Tier Skill [Ma.s.s Destruction]
Thank you for joining this event and best of luck while playing Conquest.
***
Dave was genuinely surprised. He didn"t think that even with his tens of thousands of Undead that someone else would manage to kill more Qin warriors than him. But not just a bit more, the person had killed six times the numbers that Dave and all of his army had killed.
"Well, that"s alright. I can"t have everything. But this Jeffery name sounds familiar…" after thinking for a moment, Dave remembered, "Oh, that"s the guy who unlocked the Age of The Machine Expansion."