FB: Chapter 105 – The Illuminati

“This just in. The dark guild Illuminati has flooded the Shimmering Mine that HeroTen had taken over,” Dave reported on ENN as I watched outside the game in my personal office. “Current estimates put the loss at around 12,000 platinum and that is expected to rise. The price of light skills has spiked, we will continue to monitor the situation.”

“That was well done,” I said to the other occupant in the room.

“Thank you, Foxy. Your insight on where to strike was quite invaluable,” Tim replied. He was the leader of the Illuminati and we only would meet and talk outside of Exponential for safety reasons. I was not going to give an excuse for the Human Emperor to take action against me.

“Just an understanding of how high level guilds operate. HeroTen will be struggling for quite a while, their entire development plan will have been ruined,” I said with a smile. “Any other dark guilds reach out to you?”

“A few. Same with forces hostile to the Human Empire. Our attack has brought the Illuminati quite a bit of attention,” Tim answered. I nodded at this.

“Good. I wish to avoid becoming a target and knowing what the other side is planning is critical. What about the dark gods?” I asked.

“Recruiting and building up strength. The god of darkness has made me an offer. I have been promoted to Herald with the flooding of the Shimmering Mines,” he said.

“Good. Very good,” I said with a smile. It was important to have a dark guild with such connections. While they wouldn’t get all the information, they should hear about any major moves that the dark guilds or dark gods made collectively. That was important long term to avoid being blindsided if my guild or my character were a collective target.

“There was talk about going after the Fanged Fox Guild. A small successful operation would be useful,” Tim said, and I shook my head.

“If individuals want to do so, that is fine, but the Illuminati as a whole should avoid targeting the Fanged Fox Guild. There are a lot of other guilds out there,” I answered. While other forces might guess we had some connection with the Illuminati, it would be impossible to prove.

“Very well. Do you have a suggested target then?” Tim asked. That was an interesting question.

“Focus on gaining strength and smaller operations. Ambushing high level teams is always useful and funds shouldn’t be an issue for the Illuminati now. I would target some of the US government guilds as well,” I replied. The Illuminati had stocked up on a lot of light skills before the destruction of the Shimmering Mines, so they would have a source of funds to fuel their terrorism in game.

“Those guilds are incredibly organized, since they have military backgrounds,” Tim replied, and I nodded at this.

“Russia’s guild made a mistake with the Human Emperor, and HeroTen, which represents China, just had a massive setback. Now all those military guilds of the US need to be put on the backfoot. It doesn’t have to be much, but enough to draw their attention and resources,” I replied. Tim nodded slowly at this.

“I will herd my members in that direction,” he replied. Unlike regular guilds that had rules, contracts, and regulations, dark guilds operated much more loosely. It was akin to herding a bunch of cats in a direction. While they might not reach the destination or even stay on the track at least they would be headed in the right direction.

The destruction of the Shimmering Mines was another huge source of credibility for The Illuminati. The Order of Chaos had done it in my last life, but now the Illuminati had done it before them. The Order of Chaos had done it about a year from now, but my dark guild had acted earlier since I had supplied Tim with critical information on how to accomplish the destruction of the Shimmering Mines.

While the immediate financial blow was less than it could have been since HeroTen had only just started investing into the mine, it was a bigger overall setback for HeroTen due to happening earlier than before. Those light skills were quite useful. Director Han would be facing quite a bit of pressure.

This was the kind of thing super guilds got up to in my last life. They would rarely fight directly, instead they would use proxies or have minor skirmishes. There was just too much risk for the main guild to act directly. That is where I came in. My presence was enough to carry my guild through rough patches and conflicts unlike the other soon to be super guilds.

While the Fanged Fox Guild wasn’t the largest anymore, we had the best average player level in our guild. The other guilds had a lot of new members, while the Fanged Fox Guild was more selective about recruitment.

Tim left my office and then Anthony showed up. He hadn’t been on my schedule, so it was probably something important. “April, how was your meeting with Tim?” he asked as he took a seat.

“It went well. You have his real-world position as something innocuous?” I asked.

“A consultant, same with the rest of the Illuminati. There is nothing connecting us together in game and out of game they are sub-section of our analytics team. We just have an AI spit out their daily analysis which gets buried, but looks legitimate,” Anthony replied, and I nodded at this.

“That is good. Plausible deniability is important. Now what did you want to talk to me about?” I asked.

“You are selling stock,” he said, and I nodded at this.

“Yes. Slowly. About 1% every month. I considered holding onto my ownership share more tightly and buying up stock, but I have had a change in perspective recently.” My meeting with QAI made me relax surprisingly enough. It had been stressful going into the meeting and during it, but afterwards I felt like a weight had lifted off my shoulders.

Now that the Unmentionable Horror had been dealt with, it was time to take a step back from the guild and reap the benefits from my hard work. While losing my ownership stake would invite interference, there was only so much that could be done. Even if the guild suffered, my position was unassailable.

It was better to bring in more stakeholders who had a vested interest in the guild’s long term success and become more hands off. I had been thinking that I might have went the other direction, taking more control, but I was already incredibly wealthy. Trying to hold onto too many shares would make it difficult to translate that into actual money long term. With my recent successes, now was the time to sell before something happened publicly.

“The board is concerned, since your sales are depressing the stock price and lowering confidence,” Anthony said.

“I am confident, and you can let everyone know that I will be retaining at least 10% ownership. I am merely cashing out a bit later than everyone else. As for the long term prospects, we have reached the stage where the guild needs to undergo long term development. I am too far ahead in game compared to everyone else. The Unmentionable Horror pushed the limits of the guild too much. It is better to have a quiet period and stabilize,” I replied.

“Selling shares isn’t helping,” he replied, and I shrugged.

“There is never a good time to sell shares from the main owner and leader of the guild. I will hold a press conference to address the issue. As for dividends and stock buyback, well the company itself can consider it and the board can vote once we have gotten passed the initial period,” I explained.

“You are stepping back,” Anthony said as realization crossed his face.

“A bit. Having the guild focus on me long term is not sustainable. I might have won every fight up till now, but the problem is that I am too far ahead of everyone else. It has been about three years since the game launched and the top players are just hitting the low 70s in terms of level at the moment. I am level 120. Until I have a team that has leveled up more, it is very hard to do anything on my own,” I replied.

This was faster than my last life. With my leading level, everyone else felt the pressure to gain more levels in order to compete with me. At least the leading players did, since the average player level hadn’t changed much from what I remembered. The leading players were 10 levels ahead of where they were last time.

“You are stepping back from the company and the guild, then what are you planning?” Anthony asked.

“Working on some skills and my build. I am not leaving the guild, but I want to take a step back. I know you have delegated most of your work. I am doing the same to an extent,” I replied. I wasn’t going to retire, but I wasn’t going to work myself to death to hold onto the Fanged Fox Guild.

“As long as you aren’t planning to leave,” he replied, and I shook my head.

“No. We are past the point where the board would want to force me out as well. I am too valuable as a mascot. I also want to avoid mobilizing the guild as a whole going forward,” I replied.

“But you got a lot of benefits from killing the Unmentionable Horror,” Anthony countered, and I nodded at this.

“I did. But that was a do or die situation. I had no backup plan, and we had to invest far more than we should have, since our guild was under leveled for that kind of quest. While me being ahead of everyone else allows me to pull the guild out of a sticky situation on an individual basis, that means we have a poor foundation for that type of activity. It is better that I step back, and give everyone else time to breathe and develop,” I explained.

While I had overcome all the challenges sent my way, that was me personally overcoming them. Becoming the focal point of the guild was not something I wanted anymore. The pressure and stress were too much. If I wanted to change things, I had to start with myself.

So, while I was stepping back and selling shares, the Fanged Fox Guild wasn’t about to fall apart, and I wasn’t about to leave either. It was just a realization of the fact that being the pillar of the guild made the guild unstable and was a huge burden for me personally.

I wasn’t going to get weaker or quit. I had invested too much time and effort to just leave. Exponential was the future, and I had made my mark on the game. What I needed now was to focus on my skills and equipment. Shoring up previous weak points in my build in game.

Using the absolute level advantage to win, wasn’t a long term winning strategy. I wanted to look at the poison skill rainbow and getting better armor.