FB: Chapter 116 – Headaches

Getting someone to help me use consumables like the last time I had done something similar would have been nice, but it was too much of a hassle to have another person in the Goblin Tunnels. They would be a prime target. I had set up my inventory slots very carefully and had to keep a count as items were consumed.

I was grinding away at the goblins. It was day 93 of doing this. It was quite boring, but I wanted to be away from the drama at the moment. I got several messages about the situation in the Fanged Fox Guild as the US Government had slowly begun taking over.

John, or Patriot had taken up position as a Vice Leader. My father had already been replaced by a government stooge. I didn’t mind, since I knew this would happen. My bank account was massive at the moment and it was all tax free. Congress included a buried line about investing in Exponential and how all money used would be considered tax free.

Since the US Government had held up their end of the deal, I was staying out of the way. There was some outcry, but I sent out several messages and made a public statement in the guild chat that Patriot had my full confidence.

Clara had formed her own corporate faction that was focused on profits and benefits to resist John’s takeover. While I hadn’t explained everything to her, she had more than enough experience to work out exactly what was happening and what my lack of presence meant.

Quant Z was his usual self, insulting everyone, but his position was beyond solid with the amount of profit he brought in. It wouldn’t be a mistake to say that he was now more important to the Guild than me. It wasn’t obvious since I was famous, and he wasn’t known that well outside of the Guild. But he was the reason the Guild had operational funds in abundance.

With very little outside interference and a wide latitude, he had maximized the profits from Halfenbrook and was already creating a more family friendly environment in a neighboring town we had taken over. There were already investigations being done on the NPC in control of the city and region, with the goal of getting someone promoted to a high noble rank.

That wasn’t going to be me. I was too controversial in game with the Human Emperor. That was fine, a higher noble title only invited more complications. While the benefits were nice from the title itself, the political intrigue wasn’t something I wanted to deal with. That was the same reason I had given up a chunk of my control.

I only had so much energy and time. Fighting political battles, was like wrestling pigs in the mud. No matter the outcome, only the pigs would be happy since they loved mud. That was exactly like politics, with the politicians and bureaucrats being the pigs.

It was a shame that I would soon be forced out of what I had created. I might stay on as a mascot if the terms were good enough, but it was unlikely. While I might joke about being a mascot, I wanted to remain at the top of Exponential.

There was also the bomb of a contract I had left behind for the Guild to license my image. As long as I was part of the Guild there was no fee. But if the Guild wanted to keep running Halfenbrook, then I would be owed quite a bit. It took a bit of clever paperwork, but that was the power I had as Guild Leader to sign stuff like that before I had left.

Over time bombshells like the image contract and land ownership would come up. That was the danger of forcing me out of my own Guild. While I had others buying in to gain political cover, what they had forgotten was that if I lost my controlling stake, then there was a lot I could do to make things miserable for whomever took over in the future.

This was the main reason why top level executives got such compensation packages, including company shares. It wasn’t always about the value they brought, but the damage that would happen if they actively worked to drag their company into the mud.

While it might seem like others were losing money, the investors had gotten out early on. It would be the public that lost money and the government, which was ultimately the public. The rich would get richer, feasting off the corpse of the Fanged Fox Guild.

The goblins were screaming as they ran into the current aura skill I was using. It was giving me a slight headache since the sound was echoing in the caves. Long range attacks impacted my mega armor as more goblins rushed forward.

As for handling messages, they had tapered off fairly quickly. It hurt my brain to deal with them while grinding the golems. Not many people could send me a personal message and my guild wide message took care of the most pressing questions.

The Guild was very close to the one million mark. It was almost time to retire. I had been keeping a close eye on the member count. While a Guild Sanction was needed to grow beyond that point, there was a reason only super guilds with massive backing had grown that large despite the huge financial benefits.

Once a Guild hit a million members the Human Empire could take specific actions. The mobilization orders in the past were nothing, compared to what could be done. If I was still in charge I would have capped the Guild at 900,000 members and waited for other Guilds to overtake us in size.

While I could share this information with others, the Fanged Fox Guild was about to run into a brick wall, a very hard brick wall. That was another reason I was leaving everything to Patriot, the Exponential Tzar. His plan was to bring all the US based Guilds under one big umbrella.

Another foolish idea. That would invite the Human Empire to target all of them. That was why I had only arranged mercenary contracts in the past. Well, it wasn’t my problem and what did I know? I was only a young woman who got to where she was by leveraging pay to win strategies, at least that was what the press was reporting.

The goblins continued to scream and die as they constantly rushed at me. Each day doing this cost about 20 platinum due to all the consumables I was using up. Getting the title I wanted would end up costing 2,000 platinum. I guess I really was using pay to strategies.

For other people to copy me, there wasn’t enough money. But the price would only increase and I would run out opportunities to easily leverage my wealth like this. Pay to win worked, for getting ahead and catching up, but it was a losing strategy long term. Even for me, this kind of expense was horrendous.

Billions of dollars was being spent for a couple percentage points of improvement to streamline my entire build. While the exchange rate kept dropping, it was a brutal amount of money, but at this point it was more of a number, rather than an amount I needed to live off of. Especially for my in game money.

I wouldn’t waste my money, but stockpiling it wasn’t useful. At a certain point you needed connections and to complete quests to get items. I suppose if one was insane enough to personally accumulate an amount like 10,000 platinum they could leverage it as a strategic weapon. But that kind of thing was very cost inefficient.

It was better to spend money on consumables I could use directly to help improve myself until it was no longer possible. That was why-

My head jerked slightly as a blade was shoved into it. It was a weird feeling to be stabbed in the head, through the gap in the mega armor I was wearing. The blade didn’t penetrate my head as my vision was enveloped with sparks.

“Command, activate city teleport crystal,” I said out loud. I was transported out of the Goblin Tunnels, leaving the player assassin behind. It had been a player since my absolute level advantage had stopped them from damaging me.

Even with a surprise attack into my head, my Luck stat was strong enough to resist their attack. They were now left behind and would probably die shortly. Not that it would make much of a difference. What was concerning was that my location had been leaked.

Extracting myself from the mega armor, I messaged someone to come pick it up and deliver it back to my personal storage. I couldn’t be bothered to deal with it at the moment. There were only a small group of people who had my actual location and only one person had insisted on getting that knowledge.

If people wanted to play stupid games, then they would win stupid prizes. I called an emergency guild meeting for all vice leaders and officers. Getting on board an airship, I flew towards the guild headquarters.

I would have to find another location to kill around 700,000 more monsters while being heavily encumbered. That was going to be annoying. I had already created a working tactic to get the title I wanted and now it was ruined. As my airship was flying to Halfenbrook, I got a voice call.

“Patriot,” I greeted him.

“Why are you returning now Foxy?” he asked me.

“I should be asking you that question, Patriot. Only three people knew where I was. I doubted that anyone was willing to pay 10,000 platinum to an information broker and not hire NPCs. So that just leaves a leak,” I said curious to see what he would say.

“It wasn’t me. I didn’t leak anything,” he said.

“So quick to defend yourself. A guilty conscience? I stayed out of the way and even gave a statement supporting you. And I get betrayal in return,” I replied casually.

“Before you do anything drastic, I will have an explanation for you when you arrive,” he said.

“We shall see,” I said and then hung up the call. I hated betrayal more than anything else. I could forgive scheming and plotting. But betrayal cut much deeper. Arranging for an assassination attempt would have consequences. I didn’t think John would be able to survive the incoming fallout.

He might have been made Exponential Tzar by the US President, but that title had no power in Exponential itself. It didn’t give him any extra power or credibility. Only what people gave him. Now he would reap the whirlwind for the headache he just caused me.

It would be interesting to see how he tried to stop what was about to come down. I wasn’t about to forgive easily and I hadn’t forgotten the pressure the US Government had placed upon me to forcibly start taking over the Fanged Fox Guild.