FB: Chapter 17 – The Fanged Fox Corporation

“Why Fanged Fox Corporation?” Anthony asked while our teams of lawyers were busy crafting a contract with both of our requirements. I had instructed the team of lawyers I had hired to keep it simple and clear cut. Their main instruction was to not over complicate things if at all possible. I had also given them a list detailing specific items regarding how the deal should be structured.

“I am going to be the Guild Leader. Since we aren’t backed up by a massive corporation or nation, that means I have to headline the Guild. My in game name is Foxy Blight,” I said and Athony chuckled.

“Like a mascot?” he asked.

“Like a super star. I would act as the main Champion for the Guild as well as the Guild Leader. It is a much riskier position to take, since that means I will be a key target. If I am killed, the entire guild will lose prestige and could collapse,” I explained honestly.

“And you don’t plan on being killed,” he said with an amused smile.

“With how my build works, it will be very difficult to counter and will only get stronger the higher my level becomes at a greater rate than other builds. The hard part is the start, which requires a large investment of time,” I replied.

“This clause about illegal activities in game?” he asked.

“Reputation with the non-player characters or NPCs is important. If guild members become criminals in game, then that will impact the guild as a whole. With the Eye of Vigilance and how high level the guards are, it isn’t worth being a criminal at the start or for the next year at the very least The Penitent Mine is one of the worst areas of the game to be stuck in,” I explained.

“And how will the guild earn money?” he asked, grilling me to check my answers and my confidence.

“Half of all coinage earned will go back to the guild. Since we are paying for the capsules. This guild money in turn will be used to build more capsule complexes and get more people into the game under our banner. Once I go public in about nine months from now, we will set minimum quotas on the amount of coinage earned. In six months the first capsule complex will be completed. That will give people three months to familiarize themselves with how Exponential works. Also, we can rent out a temporary building for the capsules we purchase ahead of time, for your key people to familiarize themselves with the in game mechanics,” I said.

“You mentioned another way to earn money,” Anthony said, and I nodded at this.

“Once we are able to get 100 people in game, we can make an official guild. From there land can be purchased from the Human Empire. I know a couple places with high yield mines that can be exploited. We can then look at hiring NPCs to work. While not as profitable as actual people, they complain far less about such repetitive work,” I replied.

“What kind of returns are we looking at?” he asked.

“It depends on how long we can keep the mines secret and how well we can protect them. If we pay for NPC soldiers to be on the safe side, we are looking at least a platinum a month in terms of pure profit I would estimate. But getting to that point isn’t cheap, since everything will cost around five platinum to set up. You have to spend a lot of money to make money,” I replied.

“Acting sooner would be best then. The main bottleneck would be capsules since we can use a temporary building,” he said. He clearly understood that getting people into game and earning coinage was the best way forward to build up a guild.

“Have your men place the orders themselves. There are limits on how many one person or corporation can purchase at the moment. They will technically own them, that won’t be a problem?” I asked.

“My people won’t make a fuss, but the rest will be an issue. We could have people order themselves, and give them a zero interest loan,” he suggested.

“Don’t underestimate QAI. It will figure out what we are doing when all those people join our Guild from the same geographical area.” That was how you got put on the banned list. “Exponential could stop selling capsules for violating their terms of service.”

“Five a month isn’t going to cut it,” he said.

“That number will go up in time but is limited by production capacity right now. I suggest we each order five capsules for this month and then order the maximum per month. In half a year, that number should go up to around ten capsules per month. That will be around the time the first capsule complex is finished as well,” I replied. Since we would both be owners of the cooperation it wouldn’t send up a red flag hopefully.

“What about the other two thirds of the capsules? How do you plan to fill them up?” he asked.

“You can handle filling up the capsules for now. Once we have enough, we can begin hiring people from outside the game,” I said.

“Not as trustworthy as people I could recruit,” Anthony replied.

“I doubt you have 20,000 people you can hire,” I countered.

“Just hire kids right out of high school. Work them to the bone in game and lock them in with our guild,” he said. “We can easily fire the ones that don’t earn enough and churn through them as quickly as possible to find the best.”

“A tentative yes from me, for now, we can revisit that issue once we have the capsules. I would go the other direction and target older people in retirement homes, who are bored out of their mind. Veterans and hard workers instead of young kids, who will cause trouble.”

“Oh, now that is interesting. Since they don’t have to use their body, they can earn some extra money,” Anthony said.

“Also, there are ongoing developments with medical nanites. In the future I expect this innovation to be combined with the capsules. No one else is currently building capsule complexes like we plan to do at the moment,” I said.

“You see Exponential making in roads into nursing homes. Millions of people. We aren’t thinking big enough perhaps, if that is the case,” Anthony said.

“Having 20,000 people as core guild members should be our target. Once we are on track to reach that, then we can look at rapidly expanding by converting existing buildings and bringing on external members. Going beyond that might not be the best thing,” I replied.

“Why? The more people that work for our guild, the more money we will make. What is the problem?” Anthony asked.

“There are issues in game with passing with 20,000 number for guild members. Smaller guilds just need a Guild License, which can be purchased. But to be larger than 20,000 a guild needs a Guild Charter from the Human Empire, which also comes with responsibilities and other requirements. That isn’t something we should worry about right now,” I said.

“Outside the game, plans can still be made for rapid expansion, so once the guild grows larger we can bring in more people,” he said.

“Just purchasing all the capsules, we will need to reach 20,000 people, which will cost around ten billion,” I replied.

“We could bring in other investors, once the guild shows long term profitability,” Anthony explained.

“And where would shares come from?” I asked.

“An equal percentage split from current shareholders to new shareholders. Once we can purchase more capsules, it should be possible to raise ten billion dollars for 30%. You would have 42% and I would have 28%,” Anthony explained.

I let out a sigh. “It is a good idea to help us grow rapidly, but in game it will bring a lot more complications the more shareholders we have.”

“Other people will make moves once they see our success. We need to be positioned ahead of time if we want to take advantage of such a scenario,” Anthony explained. In the future, the US Government would try and nationalize ten percent of all guilds based in the country. There were a lot of excuses made, regulatory oversight, making sure people weren’t taken advantage of, but it was a power grab on a large scale.

“So, you see it operating like a company. Each person appoints a board member based on the number of shares they control while I would handle the direction of the Guild in game?” I asked.

“Yes. Setting it up like a corporation would provide the best governance structure,” Anthony said.

“Very well, but I want a 60% majority to have any changes passed in how the guild operates or to switch out guild leaders. Not a simple majority,” I countered. I wanted to maintain control, Anthony wanted to make more money more quickly. This was the best compromise.

“It will be harder to get investors if such a rule is implemented,” he said.

“If it isn’t, then I won’t be diluting my shares. I refuse to be micro-managed, second guessed, or sabotaged by how I handle things in Exponential. I won’t turn down good ideas, but there will be points where I will have to make quick executive decisions if a conflict breaks out in game. While you are thinking of it like a corporation, you need to think of the guild more like a nation that is constantly at war. There will be a lot of fighting in the future, and I won’t have the patience or time to go over my strategies when I need to act quickly,” I explained.

“Also, there are some decisions that will cause the guild to take a financial hit, but make our position in game more stable,” I added.

“And you don’t want to share such information?” he asked.

“QAI is adaptive. Nothing is for sure. But I need the freedom to make gambles with how the guild operates and the direction it takes. Explaining my reasoning each time I need to make a massive move and get approval is not a good idea,” I explained. That was the one major weakness of super guilds. Their slow reaction times. They could leverage a tremendous amount of power and resources, but they had a very hard time pivoting or adapting to changing circumstances.

While it would be preferable if I could keep as much control as possible, there had to be some give. My control would be held onto by the smallest of margins. But I could play this game as well. Once Anthony brought in other investors, the clause I insisted my lawyers include in the final wording would see me triumph. I would have first refusal to buy any shares of the Guild that people wished to sell, matching any current offer, or at ten times the initial buy-in whichever was more.

Also, my personal wealth and items would be separate from the Guild’s wealth and items. There would be a separate account set up in Exponential that coinage would go into. Guild officers and higher would not be subject to the guild tax, since their contribution was the time, they helped spent running the guild and possible salaries that would one day be implemented.

In exchange I would be getting billions of dollars. It would be a dangerous tightrope I would have to walk. Any sign of weakness and these future investors would be like sharks, looking to replace me or subsume the Fanged Fox Guild into another organization.

I was going to take their money and then look at removing troublesome investors at a later date. I knew how the super guilds did things, having worked for one in the past. I needed to remain adaptable if I wanted to be able to compete against these future behemoths.