FB: Chapter 126 – Impossible, Very Impossible

“Well, we are screwed. Like a cactus shoved up one’s-,” Quant Z said.

“Thank you for the vivid imagery,” I said, cutting him off. I didn’t need to think about something like that. My brain already had enough contamination from the nonsense I had heard from members of my Mercenery Guild.

“Of course. I find it quite helpful to use vivid imagery in communicating. I am glad it is working,” he replied. I resisted the urge to puke over his smug face.

“Our business ventures should provide a solid cash flow,” I said.

“Yes, but as you can see the ratio between our combat power and our business income has skewed into dangerous territory. Right now we are seen as too vulnerable. The super guilds will be able to make the same calculations. With the large group leaving, there is a crisis of confidence. Other people are looking at leaving as well. Important long term members that act as core nodes inside the guild to maintain stability in combat situations. The situation is rapidly compounding. We are in what I would call the yellow zone. If we reach the red zone on this chart in terms of combat to income ratio, we will be ripped apart, even with your reputation,” Quant Z explained while holding up a chart.

He wasn’t wrong. I knew that, but I didn’t think the situation would get this bad. The super guilds were looking to squeeze me dry. I guess I had stepped on a couple of toes with my actions. Now I was reaping the price. I was too difficult to target directly, so they were adopting a kiting and exhaustion plan at a strategic level to isolate me.

“Any suggestions?” I asked Quant Z before I made my own decision.

“The super guilds are going heavy to recruit Champion level combatants and making sure the Mercenery Guild has no room to maneuver. Can you do anything through in game mechanics?” he asked me.

“No. That would involve going to the Imperial Court, which would create problems I can’t handle. Best to avoid that,” I explained.

“Then I don’t see any good options. Either go under financially, compromise the structure of the Mercenery Guild, or bend the knee to one of them,” Quant Z said. Each of those suggestions wouldn’t work for various reasons. The Mercenery Guild was still necessary. It acted as the nexus for my connections. Once it disbanded and I took another step back, then other players would start disassociating with me.

As for comprising the recruiting requirements and letting less capable people join, that was the same as going under but with more headaches. That wouldn’t work either to salvage the situation. Bending the knee was also out of the question. I would not submit to any super guild I wasn’t in charge of. Being a wage slave would never happen ever again.

It was clear that the powers behind the super guilds had created numerous circumstances to target me long term, and I was only realizing now as the metaphorical walls were closing in. That meant I needed another solution, an out of the box solution I could use.

A public win was critical right now. But I had just won a major battle, but the super guilds still pushed forward. That was the main strength of the super guilds, being unstoppable juggernauts once they were focused on something. While I had public opinion, it wasn’t strong enough to reverse my current situation. My strength was being hollowed out incredibly quickly.

Perhaps I had been wrong about letting Hammer Crusher go, but keeping him would have destroyed the Mercenery Guild, violating one of its core policies. I had built a house on an unstable foundation, and now the super guilds were shaking everything until it collapsed, crushing me.

I knew the super guilds had people to run a personality profile on me. They knew what I would do before I would do it. The best way to strike back was at their bottom line and steal the three items I needed to complete the poison rainbow. Being the first player to get a divine skill.

But they were clearly waiting for me to attempt such an action. They had leaked information on purpose. The theft of the Blue Tear vials during the battle was all the confirmation they needed. Stealth was not my strong suit, which meant a frontal assault. Apex was focused more on crafting and making money, not enough on defense. They had bureaucrats not fighters in charge of that battle and Super Guild Apex.

Unfortunately, the other three super guilds were not as foolish. China, Russia, and the United States were the powers behind them. They were ready and would be moving soon to crush the Mercenery Guild. “If I were the super guilds, challenges are soon going to be issued. Challenges we can’t easily refute,” Quant Z said exactly what I was thinking. They would only increase the pressure to try and crush me and my popularity.

“I know. But the Mercenery Guild has burned a lot of bridges,” I said.

“They weren’t bad policies at the time and made sense, but now we are in an unfavorable situation with no way to reverse things. The powers that be are cutting every avenue you have off. Foxy, you are quite skilled and sexy, but I got an offer as well,” Quant Z said. I looked at him in surprise. “If you don’t have a plan to reverse the situation, I am accepting the offer.”

Neither of us said anything for several minutes as I considered my options. “The problem is twofold. The first is the monetary attack, recruiting out too many Champion level players to balance out our recruitment in the short term. The second is the perceived weakness from losing so many core members. Is the Mercenery Guild just me? Or is it everyone else?”

“You are good Foxy. But you can’t win on your own, or even with the handful of people we have left. They want you to make a desperate move and defeat you,” Quant Z said, and I nodded at this.

“But the reverse is also true. If I win, my legend will be even stronger,” I replied.

“And how will you win? The big three are ready for you. I saw the intelligence report about the poison rainbow. They are waiting and ready,” Quant Z replied. While I didn’t like him, I did trust Quant Z implicitly. “And even if you do win in the assault, they will have legal remedies ready through the Human Empire.”

“You think I should give up,” I replied. Quant Z gave me a shrug.

“I admire you, Foxy. You got gumption and a sexy body. But right now, it is you against the superpowers of the entire world. Beating the super guilds would propel your reputation into the stratosphere, but the higher you fly, the further you fall. Right now, you are Icarus, and I am telling you the sun is about to melt your wings, sending you plummeting back down,” Quant Z replied.

“That just means we break the problem down. We can bunker down as a guild. We don’t have to accept challenges. If we don’t do anything, there are limited actions the super guilds can take. It is a race to get a divine skill first and the prestige that will come from that. I will go public and call out the super guilds. Then I go in and get all three remaining items needed for the poison rainbow. With that kind of public pressure, they would lay them out as bait, inviting me to make a move,” I said.

“Public? Bold. Very bold. But it all comes down to if you can pull off your plan to slap the super guilds in their collective faces. The fact they are all united to isolate and trap you shows that they are taking this seriously. They are taking you seriously,” he replied.

I shook my head. “Not really. For those super guilds, it is a game, but a game with major implications. If I am defeated and they beat me to a divine skill first, then my legend will fall apart and it is all over. But that is just for me. For the super guilds, it is a way to create weak points in their enemies using me as a stalking horse. A gamble on what I am going to do. With their profilers, they will know I won’t take things sitting down and will have prepared for every eventuality, even me going public. They each think they can take me on, while their competitors are ravaged.”

“A rigged game,” Quant Z said with a frown.

“Of course it is rigged. The Mercenery Guild was the only real threat to the stability of the super guilds. That is why we were targeted. I am seen as the instigator and targeting the super guilds for the more lucrative contracts that they want to both end me and target their enemies at the same time. It is cooperation, not an alliance. This scheme is a multifaceted move, not just against me, but their competitors. Individually their plan isn’t the best option if you look at any one outcome, but they are hedging their bets across all outcomes,” I explained. Quant Z got a thoughtful look at this explanation.

“Interesting. Using a sub-optimal strategy, in order to ultimately win,” he said. The super guilds could afford to gamble and lose. While it would hurt if they lost, they each thought they could do better than their competitors. I knew this from last time, being part of a super guild and seeing how it was run. It was less about winning, instead it was about winning more than the other super guilds. The comparison between super guilds was the most important thing.

“More like minimizing risk and loss exposure. These super guilds are run by bean counters. You are good at optimization in a closed system, Quant Z, but these super guilds, well they are run by bureaucrats with over inflated egos,” I explained.

“So, you go public, calling out the super guilds. What if they move the items to a hidden location?” Quant Z asked and I shook my head.

“They might, but it is unlikely. The high security vaults of these organizations are their most valuable resource. A strategic resource to store other valuables. Moving the items creates a huge risk that they are stolen or replaced. There is a reason why there were very few Champion level players defending Apex during the assault. They were all off guarding the vault items they evacuated. And they aren’t going to let any one player hold onto them all the time, due to the risk after the Illuminati managed to steal everything from the Orange Guild,” I explained.

That had been a huge scandal. A dark guild stealing all the high value items from a legitimate guild. They managed to impersonate another player and then target the player that the valuable items on them. I had offered a few suggestions to Tim, and they had pulled off one of the largest heists in Exponential in a very simple manner. That was why vaults were in favor now. The recent theft from Apex would only reinforce this notion of vault storage.

Now all super guilds kept all items in vaults instead of with a specific player. Some people might ask why they didn’t just spend that wealth, was due to wanting to get the most value out of the items they had, or waiting for the right player to make enough contributions to get the items to make certain unique skills. If a super guild didn’t have a Champion level lightning mage, then they might keep a set of armor in storage waiting for one or to offer up in trade with another super guild, instead of trading with the NPCs which saw a lot of the value lost in such a transaction. Again, the bean counters, not fighters were running things. Otherwise they wouldn’t hold onto any of that wealth but use it to strengthen their key players, even if they took a financial hit.

If the super guilds wanted to fight, then I would make it a spectacle of the greatest proportions. Now I just needed to arrange an ambush of the super guilds. I had lots of friends over at ENN and they just loved to create drama. Inviting the super guilds’ representatives to a panel, and then having me come out would be something they would salivate over in their dreams.

“Well, this is going to be a huge hassle, to get these items. Do you have any idea how you are going to pull it off?” Quant Z asked me. I smiled at him and grinned.

“Not one clue. That is what is going to make this a fun challenge,” I declared.

“I suppose I should stick around to offer my perspective and advice. I know you won’t have a chance without me,” he declared. Quant Z liked to stir up trouble as well. He didn’t want or need money from a super guild. He just disliked boredom and enjoyed lording his power over others. While he might not say so, I had known him long enough to know his deeper motivations. He was the ultimate troll. As long as I was creating drama he would stick around and keep things running to get a behind the scenes look at all the action.