A long-haired Hunter moved through the corridors of the Devastators HQ, he was looking at the paintings and statues hung on the walls of the hallways. Curious and interested, the player continued down the hallway accompanied by two other players that had the Devastator Emblem on their chests.
"So why"d you guys call me over for?" The Hunter asked.
"Warlord said he wanted to meet you. You"ll know why when you get there," one of the accompanying players said in a relaxed tone.
The Hunter shrugged and continued walking. Soon the three were next to a closed door. The Devastator players opened the door for the Hunter, and let him in while they closed the door behind him and left.
The player found himself in front of a group of other players. His jaw threatened to drop to the floor upon seeing the lineup of players in front of him.
He had expected to see Warlord, but there was also the Heaven Dawn Guildmaster and right-hand man, w.a.n.g Yi, and White Ghost. Zhang s.h.i.+ was sitting at the far left, both hands crossed and looking intently at the Hunter. Warlord and Valentine were sitting on the other side of the table from across the room.
While a man wearing blue hunter garb was leaning on the wall, this one was Demetri.
These were all the most important players in the whole game.
"Jeffery," Valentine spoke, "I suppose you know why we invited you here," Valentine added.
"Not really, no," Jeffery shook his head.
His answer caused the rest of the people in the room to frown. They didn"t know if this person was acting idiotic or was really an idiot.
Valentine kept the smile on his face and said, "We invited you here so you can join one of our super guilds. All the people here have come with their own personal offers, and we want you to help us in conquering The East." Valentine said.
"Oh, really? I tried joining the Devastators a few months ago but got turned down, and now I"m being welcomed by the guild"s heads. Don"t you think it"s kinda fishy?" Jeffery asked.
"Not really," Demetri said, "A few months ago you were not of much value to the guild, but now you are the only player who has a robot and have enough firepower to overpower an S cla.s.s legacy holder. You now have value," Demetri pointed out.
"That"s not a robot, it"s a Mecha," Jeffery corrected. He felt offended at his Mecha being called a robot. His facial expression showed it clearly.
"Tomato, tomahto. It"s all the same. We need that thing and your help in raiding the East. This is the contract for my deal." Demetri pushed a paper toward Jeffery.
It states several terms, benefits, and even a salary and opportunity to join the European Guild as a high ranking officer after it is established in the East.
The other Super-Guild guild masters all pushed their own contracts toward Jeffery. They all wanted to obtain this lone player and add him to their power. This will increase their guild"s might, and no one was willing to let go of such a powerful a.s.set.
"These offers are tempting. I"ll have to think a bit." Jeffery said.
White Ghost and Valentine"s gazes met, and White Ghost smiled and asked, "Before you agree to any of the terms, we would like to know how you obtained that Mecha."
Jeffery"s face was glued to the extravagant offers the guilds had placed before him, and subconsciously answered, "I got it from a quest."
"What kind of quest?" Valentine asked.
"It was something I got from a dwarf," Jeffery replied as he looked at the offer from the Devastators, the benefits offered were even more shocking.
"Do you think there are more of those Mecha out there?" the White Ghost asked.
"No, there"s only one. It"s unique." Jeffery looked up and noticed everyone staring at him intensely.
Some players frowned, they probably felt disappointed that there were only one of these units of ma.s.s destruction. This only increased Jeffery"s value.
"Then what about the skills on that thing and its cooldown, I don"t think it can beat an S cla.s.s legacy holder even if the hype about it is great. I mean you still got downed by one of those knights," Valentine asked casually.
"Well, I still have more skills, like a laser cannon attack and the new [Ma.s.s Destruction] Skill I obtained, they are quite powerful, but they have a 72-hour cooldown." Just as Jeffery spoke these few words, he realized that he was telling them too much.
He then quieted down and frowned.
"Why are you asking all these questions?" Jeffery asked.
"We just want to know what we are dealing with and to judge and give value to your mech accurately. We don"t want to be unfair in compensating you," the White Ghost said.
But Jeffery remained unconvinced. He felt like he was being played. He then remembered the time where Mr. Skeletal was offered the chance to join the Devastators, Mr. Skeletal handled the situation like a pro and didn"t give them any information about his cla.s.s and the Underworld. Jeffery felt like a failure in comparison.
"Anyway, that"s all I"ve got to say. I"ll take another look at these contracts and inform the guild I"m willing to join later."
"Alright, you can go," Valentine said.
The player took the contracts and left. He had a sour taste in his mouth, he felt like he had been tricked.
The rest of the players resumed their meeting. Wan Yi asked, "Why did you stop asking him about his robot? We could have gotten more information from him."
White Ghost shook his head and said, "That wouldn"t be wise. He isn"t the smartest person in the bunch, that is clear, but he still noticed we were interrogating him. If we pressured him more, he would have given us false information. Now to more important matters, Skeletal."
"Yeah, I invited Satan Slayer, and he should be here soon." Just as Warlord finished his words Satan Slayer opened the door to the meeting and took a seat next to Warlord.
"What did you find out about this David Ruster?" Valentine asked.
"Well, nothing more than what"s in the papers. He was a n.o.body but used his character to obtain a lot of power. He isn"t strong enough to threaten our economic superiority."
"For now," Valentine said. "Skelly is gaining a lot of momentum, his affiliations will increase, and he will obtain a lot of support from many of the world"s companies. He will soon be a power to reckon with. We need to conscript him to our guild no matter what."
"You are talking like Skelly is already in your hands," Zhang-s.h.i.+ said.
"Well he bought my shares, and one of his closest friends is a member of the Devastators, buying his friends.h.i.+p shouldn"t be that hard." Satan Slayer said.
"I thought the Sigma-Electronic would have been a ma.s.sive blow to your funds?"
"I have a lot of money, and that"s only one of my many companies. Giving it to Skelly is not a bad trade if I could use his fame." Satan Slayer taunted the other guild masters. He knew most of his words were nothing but smoke and mirrors. There was no reason for Skelly to think of the Devastators as allies, but Zhang-s.h.i.+ didn"t know that.
"I"ll have to excuse myself, contact me when Jeffery decides on which guild to join." Zhang s.h.i.+ said and teleported out.
"I suppose we should leave you to talk about your business. Farewell." White Ghost teleported away. w.a.n.g Yi didn"t talk and just teleported away.
Demetri sighed and said, "I still have a lot to do. I"ll be expecting your cooperation in attacking the East again."
"Yes, our deal still stands. We just need the player base to grow stronger. We don"t know much about the East, but now we have learned a bit more. With enough time we"ll have the power to conquer it." Valentine said.
Demetri nodded and disappeared using a teleportation scroll.
The room now only contained Valentine, Warlord and Satan Slayer. The pink armored Guardian spoke, "I"ve heard that the Silvana Devil Lawyer is taking Jason Webb to court. If he does that he will take over the rest of the company shares, leaving us with no opportunity to become partners with Sigma-Electronics."
"I know, but I don"t think we have the capital to contend with him. That lawyer is evil, he somehow managed to freeze all of Webb"s a.s.sets so he couldn"t even sell his shares before going to court. We don"t have a chance to obtain these shares at all. I guess Skelly"s going to gobble up the whole enterprise alone."
"I know of a person who has obtained 6% of the Sigma Electronics Shares," Satan Slayer said.
"Who is that?" Valentine asked.
"I only know him by his in-game name, Long-Zhao."
"Oh, I know him, he is a legacy holder. We should get him to sell us his Sigma Shares." Warlord said.
"Yeah, we can use that 6% and be partners with Skelly, we might not have any say in his company, but in time we can slowly chip away at his cut and take it all. Using his fame that is," Valentine said.
"Well, sorry to inform you guys, I already had the same idea before. But Long-Zhao is strong-headed. He refused to sell the shares even after I offered him ten times their value." Satan Slayer said.
"Hmm, he is smart. The way the hype about Skelly is going. His shares will surely be more than ten times the value in no time. Anyway, no matter. We need to prepare for the incoming event." Warlord said.
"Yeah, I didn"t see that coming. What"s our power capital?" Satan Slayer asked.
"We have many players above level 400, but level alone is not enough. We need our strongest line-up of Legacy holders." Warlord said.
Valentine leaned back in his chair and said, "We can only send in 20 at most. That"s the limit of every guild. Adding the ten guilds under us, that 220 players. We have 130 Legacy Holders that are level 400 and above. Most of them have a C rating. Only a dozen or so have a B ranked Legacy and even less that have an A rank Legacy."
"Do you think Skelly will join?" Warlord asked.
"You wanna fight him there?" Valentine responded .
"Yeah, this time he can"t use any tricks. I already know all of his skills." Warlord said.
"I suppose, but this is a Guild-Wars event. Unless Skelly forms or joins a guild he won"t enter."
"Let"s hope he does." Warlord said. He antic.i.p.ated an opportunity like this. He wanted to fight the legendary Mr.Skeletal and remove that stain of having lost to him once. Even if it was a low-blow, and even though Skelly had been a much lower level than him at that time, he shouldn"t have been careless.