FB: Chapter 65 – The Board Of Bothering

“Why didn’t you act sooner?” one of the board members questioned me.

“As I already explained, I needed to make preparations before attacking the enemy camp,” I replied tiredly.

“Preparations you won’t share,” another board member said.

“There is no need for any of you to know about my personal build and combat strategies. Unless you plan to call for a vote to oust me, then you can be quiet instead,” I said rudely.

“We are just concerned about the massive financial losses the guild has taken and what can be done to mitigate such things in the future,” a third board member commented.

“It is the cost of doing business. Like a hurricane or an earthquake. Financially we have stabilized our position going forward and we are in a strong position with our current mobilization position. I am happy to bring in the Officer of Development to speak more in regards to our long term outlook,” I said, and I could the visible shudders around the room.

“No, that won’t be necessary. Now is anyone going to motion for a vote, or can we move on from this topic?” Anthony asked. No one motioned for a vote, since they knew it would fail. I was too important for them to try and remove from my leadership position. I did not have a non-compete contract with my guild and refused to sign one.

If they fired me for some nonsense after a huge victory, I could walk away, which would cause the guild to instantly collapse in game. The only thing these people understood was money and they didn’t want their shares of the Fanged Fox Corporation to decrease in value.

“The next topic is medical nanites. Testing has been completed along with independent studies. Exponential Corporation will soon be offering capsules that makes use of this nanite solution which ties in well with our expansions into the prison and elder care sectors of the market,” Anthony said.

I tuned out the ensuing discussion, while I used my computer to look up information about Exponential and how to mitigate weight. I really wanted to wield Slice. There was some deep primal need that would be satisfied by whipping out an oversized blade and beating down my enemies with it. One hit and they would instantly be killed and sharded with a super critical hit.

The meeting soon ended, leaving only myself and Anthony in the conference room. “You seem focused on something,” he asked me.

“Just trying to figure out how to use this weapon in Exponential. Unfortunately, it would require me to change my entire build. I will probably have to trade it away,” I said with a sigh.

“What weapon?” he asked.

“Just a little something I picked up from the Dark Saint,” I replied. I had shown the board a short clip of my battle with the Dark Saint Gamabuturon. My active effects were blocked out and no one was allowed to take the recording with them. I didn’t want my best combat strategy easily leaking out beyond rumors.

“You have his sword, that massive blade?” Anthony asked in surprise.

“Yes, it was one of the drops I managed to get,” I said with a smile.

“One of the drops, of course. It must be really good if you want to use it,” he said.

“It is the unique blade Slice. The problem is the encumbrance it gives. I would need too much weight reduction to use it properly unfortunately. It would be a waste of skill slots, but it would make me very hard to kill in melee,” I said. That was my biggest weakness, melee fights.

“Selling it?” Anthony asked.

“No. I have a use for it, don’t worry about that. Now what did you want to talk to me about?” I asked.

“You are putting a lot of pressure on me by antagonizing the board,” Anthony said.

“Then they can fire me,” I responded flippantly. He glared at me. “I am a winner. If they want to start their own guilds, or break apart the Fanged Fox corporation, that is up to them. But I still retain 42% ownership and don’t have a non-compete. Do they really want to go up against me in Exponential?” I asked.

“No. But they won’t support you either,” he replied.

“Possibly, but then I would just override their vote with my veto. Then there only option would be to vote to replace me. I haven’t mis-stepped yet.”

“Some would argue that this war mobilization and the losses associated with it was a misstep,” Anthony countered.

“And I won decisively. I am a winner, and these people like winners. They might complain about how things worked out, but I still won,” I said.

“You won’t always get so lucky. And if you fail or make a single misstep, you will be removed from your CEO and Guild Leader positions incredibly quickly,” he said.

“Which means I will leave and then the Fanged Fox Corporation will be broken up,” I replied.

“Do you want that to happen? If so, then why am I working so hard?” Anthony demanded.

“I can buy out your shares, if you are worried,” I said with a smile.

“The valuation is hovering around 200 billion. And I would want a premium price, triple the valuation for my 5%,” he said.

“So, thirty billion?” I asked and he nodded. I considered that amount. It was a lot. But it would bring me back up to 47% ownership. I would need to get someone else to manage the real-world operations of the Fanged Fox Corporation. “Your management is more important,” I said, indicating I was backing down and accepting the chastisement he was giving me. I also didn’t have the money to spare.

“Which brings up the next issue. We need to take the company public. It would reduce a lot of the pressure I am facing. The board is hesitant to bring it to a vote, but after your victory, now seems like the right time,” he said.

“You want to split the shares,” I said, and he nodded.

“The valuation will spike to one trillion most likely once we go public,” he said. That would make me one of the top five richest people in the world with 420 billion dollars worth of shares in the company. Exponential was way bigger, but the shares were massively spread out at the moment. One serious loss and the share price would instantly bottom out which would be a disaster if we were a public company. Right now, I could fend off the board members for the most part, but I wasn’t an idiot. Eventually there would be a loss, and I needed to be ready.

“If you want to take things public, go ahead. I won’t sell beyond 35%,” I replied. Maybe it was time for me to start exiting from such a large stake and collecting a big pay day. I could invest in Exponential itself. These idiots still didn’t realize you couldn’t swap out a Combat Leader like swapping shoes and pivoting quickly was key. They just saw profits and revenue before getting excited. This was the chain around super guilds and their main weakness.

“Really, you were adamant about getting more shares?” Anthony asked.

“I was, but the people will support me. If people want to remove me then go ahead. Having cash on hand would be useful. However, I will require that all votes are done to remove me are done on a percentage basis across all shareholders,” I said. Currently, a vote to remove me, required a 50% vote of all shares. I owned 42%, which meant a large percentage was needed to oust me.

“That would mean a vote to remove you would require 73.5% of all shares not under your control,” he replied, and I nodded.

“Exactly. That is the price for me agreeing to go public with the corporation,” I said.

“I can make that work.”

Going public wouldn’t change anything too much, but it would increase the pressure I was facing. Even if I mis-stepped slightly that wasn’t the same as a loss. I had too many wins in Exponential to be removed for minor things. While the recent conflict had come close to sinking the entire guild, I had turned things around single handedly.

Now, I just needed to keep increasing my strength and leveling up. I didn’t get that much experience in the last battle, since it was capped at 250 experience per kill. I was only level 58 at the moment. I needed to get to level 120 so I could unlock the rest of my skill slots.

Also getting more special legendary skills would be useful. Replacing Sample Poison with Black Salamander Poison would boost up my chance of a critical hit with poison damage. The skill slots I used for Invisibility would stay for now. That left seven skill slots left I could unlock, since the rest were taken up by skill shards that I absolutely needed.

I could get my weight reduction up to 44.22%. I needed to double that to use Slice. I still had not given up on finding a way to use that massive blade. It was almost twice my height and twice as wide as my arm. Once it was light enough, I would just swing it in front of me and use it as a vaulting pole to kill and move about in a fight.

It would allow me to dominate in melee combat. Also, the combined bonus from my titles gave an additional 30% melee damage, which would multiply against the base 500% damage Slice would do. Physical damage was counted by impact speed, location, and a range of other complex calculations. But at a higher level, those two percentages would raise the base damage the mega blade did to 650%.

A regular sword that size hit for around 1,000 damage would change into 7,500 damage after all the modifiers were applied. That was an immense amount of damage. While there were countless other modifiers that would come into play, that was a good mental estimate of how much damage Slice would do if I was able to wield it.

But that was also why there was the weight limitation, so people would be forced to use their skill shard slots to wield the blade in combat. I could probably get away with 80% weight reduction, but that would still make the blade unwieldly to a degree. Something that large required a high degree of control or you would leave yourself open to a counterattack or force a person to use two hands, restricting the use of consumables.

Why couldn’t Slice have been a bit lighter for a weapon? Hmm, well I did have an idea about how to grind up some levels, while also getting access to the high level weight titles. I sent a message back to Jacklyn Fox, telling her to find out the heaviest equipment, besides a weapon, out there and procure if it wasn’t that expensive.