FB: Chapter 81 – Showing The Flag

I puked all over the group of people that had been headed out to the canal construction site. They screamed and died. This was the fifteenth group today that I had wiped out. I picked up the stuff they had dropped to have someone sell later to help fund the project. Player dropped items weren’t automatically picked up, similar to boss items.

There were hordes of people trying to visit the construction site and mess things up. I had been killing a large number of these idiots, but they still kept coming, day after day. I sent a message to Intelligence Officer Joker Seven asking if there were any more. He let me know that all other groups had been intercepted.

I made my way back to the construction area and did a sweep around it, killing off the high level monsters. While the construction crews used consumables to scare the monsters away, it was better to sweep the area whenever possible to save money and keep the construction on track.

Already the canal between the Mineral Springs and the Black Swamp was halfway finished. There were some cheers as I came over and grabbed a shovel to begin working. Having me join in on the construction raised morale for the people we had working out here. It was an unpleasant job, but one that needed to be done.

While I would only spend a couple of hours, this was the tenth time I had gotten into the mud shoveling out the canal. I had to use an SP regeneration potion after an hour to keep up my stamina. Even with my level, this kind of work quickly depleted the stamina meter. It wasn’t just the people, but the consumables needed that increased costs.

All told there were 10,000 people directly shoveling at any one time and another 1,000 people in support roles for this project. Once the shift was over, I got out of the trench and made my way back to the administration building. It was used for people logging out and storing supplies.

I went to the main office and took a seat. Joker Seven was personally overseeing the construction site. There were managers under Quant Z handling the schedules, but Joker Seven was responsible for the information and security of the operation.

“How are things looking?” I asked him.

“We are barely staying on track for the updated schedule. Outside pressure has been going up as well. We are looking at a consistent effort by the player base to find out what we are doing out here and interfere,” he replied.

“Can we finish in time?” I asked.

“We need more people, more money, and more security. The more we build, the longer our defensive line is stretched out. The monsters in the area are fairly high level. It helps scare away enemy guilds, but it also makes it difficult to protect the canal. Once we go onto the second part, our supply and defensive lines will be stretched to the breaking point,” he replied.

“But we are still on track?” I asked. That was the most important thing.

“Provided nothing happens. But that is unlikely. We are going through a tremendous number of stamina potions and other consumables. You tossed your winnings to help with the project, which is appreciated, but we need a lot more. Same with your presence. It is a nice morale booster, but it isn’t enough.”

“Funds are going to remain tight. We just have to work with what we have. Will other guilds be able to sabotage things?” I asked.

“Not easily. The connection to the Mineral Springs hasn’t been dug out yet. They would just be able to wreck parts of the canal. Still, it would cause delays. Delays we can’t afford since we are on a deadline.” He pulled out the project management sheet showing me the projected timeline for everything. It was very tight. We were going right up to the deadline.

“A couple thousand more platinum, then we could get some NPCs out here to help speed things up. Also, we could use higher grade construction materials as well,” he suggested. I shook my head.

“That isn’t going to happen. Cash flow is a struggle everywhere.” I could sell a larger percentage of my ownership and turn that money into coinage, but that was an absolute last resort. Better to keep coinage and cash separate if possible in order to avoid taxes and fees. “Well, I am going to be gone for a while. Keep up the good work.”

“I will try. Just know, we can’t go any faster and can’t handle a serious surprise attack. Joker Nine is keeping his eye out, but we are drawing a lot attention.” I nodded at this, but there was nothing I could do right now.

I used a city teleportation crystal which cost ten gold, so I didn’t have to walk back to civilization. Once I was back to the nearest city, I booked an airship to the Capital. I had more Champion matches lined up. There were a lot of people fighting in the arena and new Champions were appearing every week. It wouldn’t be long before I hit 100 Champion wins. If that didn’t unlock the next rank of the title chain, then I had no clue what would.

There was also the issue of where I could grind up levels and experience quickly. I was looking through the information Henry had gotten me on high level areas with monsters over level 140. There wasn’t much information unfortunately and all the areas had a mix of monster types.

I wanted to get to level 120 and then grind up experience, a lot of experience. I needed millions of experience, which was normally meant to come from playing the game. I wanted to cheese things and use an altar if possible to quickly grind up the experience I needed for high level skills.

I also needed a lot of money for those duplication shards, but once the canal was finished and the Unmentionable Horror permanently killed off, the guild budget should stabilize. Right now my pay and the pay of officers and staff members were being hit with a temporary reduction until we had the necessary cash flow. Everyone understood why it was happening, but the situation needed to be resolved and back pay paid off.

If this backpay wasn’t handled, then there would be problems in the guild. Thankfully everyone had been understanding and warned that if they were fired before things stabilized, they wouldn’t be entitled to their backpay in game. I had no doubt some staff members were betraying me for some side cash, but those people were found through counter-intelligence efforts.

Just have members of other guilds we controlled offer up bribes and see who accepted. Some members we deliberately had sell information. The ones we didn’t control were ‘discovered’ and fired. It was one big money sink, but absolutely necessary to counter other guilds. Thankfully the intelligence work mostly paid for itself, with my guild selling information on purpose.

With other countries and companies entering Exponential to get a piece of the market share, competition in the low-level areas had exploded, becoming a complete mess. It would remain a complete mess for years. Thankfully the Fanged Fox Guild had a strong organization, using high level people to sweep the low level areas around the Town of Halfenbrook.

We were almost done raising up all members to level 30 and selling out that grinding location for set rates. It was also why I had set the recruitment for level 30 and higher. Recruiting at a lower level just invited too many headaches and too much investment. It was better to have people pay for this privilege rather than wasting money ourselves.

Other guilds tried to use our model, but they were being overwhelmed. Some country based guilds were making some progress, but it was a struggle. China, India, and Russia were top contenders. But there were just too many people, and they didn’t have enough high level forces to effectively secure a low level area.

When people ran out of towns like lemmings to overwhelm defenders, you needed enough high-ranking people to kill the attackers without being dragged down as well. The Fanged Fox Guild had enough experienced people to handle these types of situations around our single town and people had gotten the message and moved on. Capturing people and then bringing them to black sites to torture them forced these people to engage an emergency logoff and penalized them heavily. Capturing people was a lot harder than killing them. Thankfully the criminals in the guild loved this sort of thing. There were some sick people on the payroll. Even with all of that there were constant troublemakers that needed to be dealt with.

That was why in the future only super guilds were able to hold low level areas. Smaller guilds just couldn’t handle the pressure. As for our prices, they were at the maximum rate of affordability for the moment and even then they were barely paying the teams that were needed to defend the low-level areas.

Still, it was cash flow and gave us absolute control over Halfenbrook. We were the undisputed number one guild, with a huge morass of guilds racing behind us. In a year we would probably be issued challenges and have to fight guild to guild battles like we had against Rebel Rising. Other guilds wanted more experience before challenging us.

Thankfully recruitment of level 30 and higher players was going well. People wanted to be part of the top guild. Already membership had increased to 135,000 people. The key was streamlined integration into guild activities and arranging teams for people to be a part of. Sure, some people had friends or family they wanted to play with, but often these groups weren’t that large or coordinated.

That is where we came in. For a fraction of their earnings we put people together on teams, advised them on builds that had good skill synergy, unique legendary skills, and key locations. If they ran into trouble, they could easily call on backup from other teams. There was an entire support network and they got to have pride being a part of the Fanged Fox Guild.

This provided the guild with a small but steady stream of income along with a large player base we could direct. The people who used our capsules were just locked in with the guild, but they got the same benefits. With the coinage being withdrawn automatically from any deposits into their account, the goal was to make things as easy as possible for people in terms of being part of the guild.

That was another reason why Champions were important. They were celebrities in game and headliners for the guild. While I was the biggest, having people like Storm Sword, Sunfold Illumination, Hammer Crusher, and Sectagon Ascendent were big draws to the Fanged Fox guild. It gave people confidence that our guild was a winner. That perception was critical for a guild that didn’t depend on a national identity like ours.

It was also why I was showing the flag at the construction site. My presence made things more difficult by drawing more attention, but it boosted morale. If Foxy Blight was willing to defend the site and shovel dirt, then other people had no right to complain. Also, the top contributors would be getting original signed figurines from myself personally. The value of them had skyrocketed after my wins in the arena and was only expected to increase.

I had planned on selling them but using them to motivate the diggers was also acceptable. There would also be other prizes available to the top contributors. Personalized combat instruction, guild resources to help get skills, an increase in ranking of top contributors who weren’t staff members or officers. All of this was to help motivate these people to work for cheap in game while earning the guild money.

Was it scummy? Of course it was. But that was the only way we were going to stay financially afloat. Also, the benefits were decent, since the Fanged Fox guild was well organized, and we had enough staff members to prevent a backlog of issues. And for large events, not everyone could be a Commander. If you wanted a top position, it was encouraged for people to win 100 times in a row in the arena. It wasn’t easy, but it was a clear way to earn a Champion position in the guild by showcasing one’s combat skills.