FB: Chapter 100 – Celebration

Winner! Standard 1v1: 1,000-0 Champion 1v1: 120-0 Tournament: 4-0
Please return to the platform to leave the arena.

I finished off the last Champion that had wanted to fight me. Henry had arranged for twenty matches in a row with each Champion putting up merchandising rights if they hadn’t already and 50 platinum if they already had.

For each match, I just used the mega sword Slice and Blink to defeat them all fairly easily. If they used something to stop me from teleporting, I would use my poison skills and then go back to teleporting once the expensive anti-teleportation consumable ran out.

I needed more money since my personal funds in Exponential were running a bit low. Earning around another 500 platinum plus a bunch more merchandising rights was a good way to stabilize my cashflow. I didn’t use Visage of Horror in the fights. That was the kind of item I was going to put on once things started getting difficult once more, or in the next tournament if I chose to enter.

All those consumables and purchases from the information brokers quickly added up. My guild now had an honor guard of nine other people to act as my support which needed to be paid. As the Lead Champion I needed to have such a group to support my image and position. As I left the coliseum, they pushed the cheering crowd back so I could reach my carriage. I got on board while my honor guard climbed all over the carriage and it took off.

I didn’t really need them, but it was beneath my dignity to push others out of the way. Also, they had a lot of life saving and detection skills if there ever was a high-level assassination attempt on my life. My Perception stat was quite bad for my level, since I hadn’t invested any of my extra level up stats into it. That was why having a dedicated honor guard was important. Sure, killing me wouldn’t do much since almost everything was soul bound, but I didn’t want to drop Slice. It couldn’t be soul bound as a unique named item.

“Well, that was easy,” I said to Henry my secretary who was in the carriage.

“I will arrange the next group of challenges in a similar manner, batches of ten with a minimum of twenty,” he stated, and I nodded at this.

“Make sure to get profiles on the Champions and their preferred fighting style. I don’t want to go into any more matches unprepared. That one match against Sparkling Twilight was a massive headache with her light and illusion skills,” I said. I had almost been cheesed by the aggression meter in that match if I hadn’t gotten lucky after seeing some sand shift and using Slice to hit her from range.

“I understand and will make sure a detailed analysis of all future opponents will be provided,” he said. I nodded at that.

“Throw that at Vice Leader Clara. High level player analysis should fall under her analytics team. My requests and fights take priority. So, make sure that no one gives you the run around. Anything else on my schedule coming up?” I asked.

“There is a planned celebration for the completion of the quest. You already authorized the funds and that is later today after your matches,” Henry said.

“Already? How many members are we up to now?” I asked.

“We just passed a quarter million. Even with our high recruitment standards, people still want to join. With the canal done, we will be rotating more people to the mobilization after the celebration of the guild’s success,” Henry replied, and I nodded at this.

“We can’t afford any screwups. The Human Emperor has his eye on us. One wrong move and it will be a disaster for the guild and myself. Make sure everything stays legal and remind people,” I said.

“It is regularly repeated and covered. Vice Leader Clara has also put together an internal audit team and checks on all spending and income over a certain level to make sure that problems won’t develop.” There was a reason I hired that woman, she was on top of things right away. I didn’t need to hold her hand or watch her like Quant Z. If he wasn’t a one man money earning machine and a god of sim city in game, I would have probably strangled the man to death a couple of times already.

“Oh, there is one thing that needs your attention. Quant Z wants to hire the top Korean pop group in game, CXS Entertainment. We need another distribution of funds to hire them. A hundred platinum,” he said.

“What is that in USD now? Ten million?” I asked since the last time I checked the exchange rate was ten cents to a copper.

“Seven million. It is seven cents to the copper now,” Henry replied. The price would eventually stabilize at one cent to a copper. The entry of countries into Exponential was pushing the exchange rate down since people were trying to cash out faster than countries were pushing in money. The fees for exchanging money were why I wanted to avoid this kind of thing at all costs, unless there was absolutely no other choice. Exchanging money back and forth was a good way to lose a lot just from the transactions.

“It better be a good concert for that much money. Their music any good?” I asked.

“They are rated as the best music group in Exponential. We looked at getting a more American group, but there were no big names available in game,” Henry said.

“What about some older names? They might want to join Exponential?” I asked.

“Nothing that came up in the search for an entertainment group. Quant Z has been looking into this for Halfenbrook to drive up attendance,” Henry replied. I didn’t know that, but Quant Z was someone I could trust to handle the development side of things with proper oversight.

“Authorize the funds. The guild deserves a celebration and perhaps Quant Z can transform it into a long-term partnership. You know I should just sing myself. Maybe even bring out my new mask and give the guild members a treat,” I said with a smile.

“Please don’t do that. That mask, it gives me nightmares,” Henry replied with a visible shudder while I chuckled.

We arrived at the airship port. An airship was all ready to go as my entourage and I boarded. I wasn’t about to spend extra money for a personal airship. I did not want to pay 100 platinum a month for such a thing. In time, once the guild grew some more, it would be a consideration, but for now reoccurring expenses needed to be kept under control.

“Any political issues outside of the game?” I asked Henry.

“Nothing immediate. There is some ongoing discussion in America about how the military should treat soldiers’ downtime in Exponential. There is talk of different guilds forming for each branch of the US Military. There is some internal competition there. They are also recruiting prior service members into positions in these guilds for operations in game. They are matching the large foreign guilds at around 120,000 members each at the moment. Several corporations are also making moves into Exponential. We have been getting requests to officially ally which we have turned down,” Henry stated, and I nodded at this.

“We can be hired on a mercenary basis but will not be officially allying with other guilds. That would leave us far too exposed with too little benefit.”

“That has been made clear to Isabella and she has passed that along, but people are still asking,” Henry said. I just shook my head. “There are also requests from some rich and important people for power leveling assistance.”

“We need to transition out of assisting new players. We will maintain the locations around Halfenbrook for all people who choose to stay at the town. They can grind during the day and enjoy a pleasurable evening,” I replied with a smile. That was in line with the development plan I had discussed with the rest of the officers.

“Some of these people are quite important,” Henry stated.

“They know where they can go if they want to pay. They can go to Halfenbrook. We have personal build advisors to help these people with too much money and to sell them skill shards. Anything beyond that they can sort out themselves. We aren’t nannies even if they have wealth,” I replied. People with more money than common sense. I wasn’t about to power level someone personally, better to have specialized personnel for people like that. My time was far too valuable, and I didn’t want to deal with that kind of headache.

“There is also an invitation from Exponential Corporation. They have invited you by name to their Headquarters along with ninety-nine other top players from around the world as part of publicity stunt,” Henry said.

“That would be a trip, and I would have to take a plane to the mid-west where their headquarters are located. Is it just a meet and greet?” I asked.

“Yes. They wanted to get feedback for QAI to help improve Exponential,” Henry said.

“Then I am definitely not going. Send a reply politely declining, but I don’t plan to give QAI any assistance into my thought processes.”

“Even if it is constantly monitoring you right now?” Henry asked.

“Don’t underestimate what QAI can analyze if I show up in the real world with my physical body. Also, the risk of assassination is far too high. Even if Exponential Corporation will take offense, they won’t remove me from the game as long as I don’t mess with the capsules or the underlying programing.”

“I think it would be a good idea to attend. Make a show of it. We can arrange decoy transportation. A public appearance would be useful for the guild’s image along with some interviews,” Henry said.

“If you are putting pressure on me, then someone is putting pressure on you? Who and why?” I asked.

“The board wants you to boost your out of game profile a bit more. If you don’t show up, it would pressure on the stock price,” Henry said.

That was the downside of having a public company with rapid development. “Make it clear that it is a favor to the board. Arrange two decoy flights and a decoy ground transport. We will take a heavy ground transport for the trip. Make sure Secure Solutions goes all out with the transport and decoys. I want anti-aircraft missiles along with air support on call.”

It might seem excessive, but I had no doubt that if there was even a single opening an assassination attempt would be made to take me out in the real world. Right now, I was in a bunker deep underground next to my house underneath our main office building. If a nuclear bomb went off, I would survive.  Again, it might seem excessive, but already several Champions had mysteriously quit the game never to be seen or heard of again.

That meant they had entered a state of permanent retirement with a bullet in their heads and their body in the ground. The Champions that were part of our guild were physically invited and highly encouraged to go to our complex in upstate New York for their protection.

The construction of the two fusion power plants and the QAI quantum node had already begun. Once it was done, I would no longer have to worry about the risk of losing connection. While it hadn’t so far, it was better not to take any risks with my connection. That was what allowed me to have high level fights without any issues like micro latency, which made a difference in determining when hits and impacts connected.

Having the visual match up perfectly with the actions was very important for giving me enough time to react various attacks. Even a tenth of a second delay would be incredibly dangerous since I would have a tenth of a second less to react. That was easily the difference between life and death.