Might as Well

They made sure to watch the press conference until the conclusion, but it was mostly ‘journalists’ asking lowball questions. Sam suspected that most of them weren’t even journalists, as the camera made sure not to show most of their faces.

Then both Lucy and Sam hopped on the internet on their respective devices, screens, and whatnot to see how the populace at large reacted to the news.

Predictably, there were some people who overanalyzed the press conference, going over every word spoken, even going so far as to try to explain the blinks of the presenter as some kind of code. There were the paranoid ones who declared it was a cover. Naturally, they couldn’t really agree on what the company actually was covering up.

Just after a cursory check, Sam saw people calling it an alien hoax, lizardmen exerting influence, garden gnome uprising, and simply the elite of the world suppressing the hard workers.

Of course, people were already digging into it, trying to find the culprits of the gold crash and the people behind them.

Sam gave it a few days before the names were leaked ‘accidentally’.

Even Shadowland was full of posts of people looking for the perpetrators, either to ‘thank them’ for their efforts or to link up with them and make big bucks, thinking that there was always time to make more money in their delusions.

He knew some of those were made in jest, but a depressing number of them were honestly trying to do it, and that made him weep for humanity.

While Lucy was going over the economics forums – which were abuzz with speculations about the crash reversal – he sorted out his incoming emails on the shady website.

Most of the questions were about the people behind the crash, so he simply deleted them. Then there were the usual scammers and malcontents that he didn’t have time recently to delete, so those went into the trash too.

Surprisingly, it still left him with a sizable list of messages.

He quickly went through them, erasing those who wanted to sell him stuff – mostly ‘secrets’ he already knew or were obviously not secrets – leaving him with a few legitimate messages.

For those, he made sure to read them carefully and send back a price for the information requested or a polite rejection email, as he either didn’t know or more likely couldn’t share if he didn’t want to be pegged as a cheater.

Still, even if only half the people answered his offers, that would net him a decent amount of money. Not that he needed it.

With only a small rise in the price of in-game gold, they had already made enough money to make several guilds jealous.

“How are the people handling the gold price changes?” he asked after a quick look at the account that was connected to the RMT market.

Lucy hummed for a few seconds before answering.

“The people who listened to us, or knew to do it, are very happy, or suspiciously silent. Already have a few messages of people wanting to leave the guild.”

“That was fast. Did they sell the gold as soon as the price rose?”

“Doubt it, even a blind person can see that the price is going to grow further…” she replied with a shake of her head.

“Do you think it will reach the same price as it was?” he inquired curiously.

“Nah… confidence is shaken. I think…maybe seventy-five percent of the original price?”

“Huh…we shall see…” he replied without looking up. From his memories, he remembered that the price shot up higher than it was originally for a little time, netting a good amount of profit for those who were patient.

However, he changed so much that he didn’t have the confidence to say that it would happen again. Economic markets were volatile on their own, taking into account time travel shenanigans they were inscrutable…

Lucy sent him a suspicious look, but he just shrugged.

“Don’t look at me like that. I have no idea what’s going to happen. There is a chance it could shoot up, but also that it will falter.”

“Mhmm…” she hummed suspiciously.

Sam just huffed and then chuckled a little.

“I hate when you do that…”

“Now you know how I feel when you do anything…” came the cheeky reply from a grinning Lucy.

Returning to the game, Sam made sure to quickly check over his gains from the experimentations with a happy look on his face while squishing Lucky’s face between his hands, to the delight of the wolf. ‘God damn, the fur is super silky…’

“Who is a good boy? Who is a good boy?” he asked, while Lucky’s tail thumped rhythmically on the floor.

“Woof! Woof!”

“Yes, you are!” he cheered, making sure to run his hands through the silky-smooth fur.

With his experiments, he mostly wanted to practice the basic runic circles, going through the list to make sure he knew how they worked and to be able to recognize them on sight and with his magical senses.

Then he used the available materials to see if some of his thought exercises were viable or not.

Finally, he tried to create a small runic circle that he could use to anchor his own illusionary runes. When he did the ritual to look for the Valley of Distortions, it worked as though the runic circles carved into the stone slab were done by a master.

His experiments were fruitful, and he managed to find a circle that would allow him to anchor an illusionary runic circle for at least some time. Thus, while he waited for the signal that would indicate that somebody was attacking, he used different materials to carve the anchoring circle onto them. Later, when he needed them, he could just throw them to the ground and start casting.

It was a little wasteful, using them as disposable items, but with the current skills he had that was the best Sam could do.

Still, even with that, the gains were very respectable.

[Shadow of the Dragon is now Level 12!]

[Greater Shadow Affinity is now Level 56!]

[Journeyman Runecarver is now Level 48!]

[Illusionary Runes is now Level 41!]

[Corporeal Illusions is now Level 11!]

[Lingering Effects is now Level 23!]

[Carving is now Level 3!]

Good enough for now. He still had the recommendation from the library, so after this whole chaos was finished, he planned to take a short trip there and see if they could help him improve. Unless something came up…

He was about to head out to walk a little with Lucky when he heard an incoming message.

“Yes?” he answered immediately when he saw it was from Lucy.

“They started moving,” came the answer without any preamble.

He was instantly checking his gear, while Lucky, sensing the change in his mood, went into lookout mode, his head swiveling around, looking for threats.

“Where?”

“Not the HQ as we expected…”

“Well, it took time, but they realized that’s an impossible task,” he answered with a chuckle while heading out of his room. “Where are the others?”

“I sent Katie and Izzy to one of the warehouses on the outskirts with some guild personnel. Less chance for damaging the surroundings.”

“Mhm. Dan?”

“He is with Lara. Clarissa is staying here in the HQ, just in case.”

“Got it. Where do you want me?”

“The newest warehouse. It’s the least upgraded one…” came the prompt reply. Sam could hear Lucy also walking around, no doubt putting on her armor and other equipment.

“Any idea who is doing it?”

There was a moment of silence before Lucy answered. “From what I can see there’re several groups, but…”

“But it’s probably one instigator covering their tracks…”

“Yes,” she said with a sigh. “I’m going to try to figure out what they’re after while you keep them occupied…”

“Not Katie and her friend, who is a girl?” he asked sarcastically.

Lucy just laughed a little. “Do you expect her to play with her food?”

He stepped out of one of the hidden entrances, nodding to Tim, who was skulking around and laughed a little.

“Touché!”

Then, with a twist of his mana, he vanished into the shadows.

He appeared near the target warehouse, his sensing skill firing at maximum, trying to suss out any attackers. Around the building, he could see several guild members and NPC guards patrolling, while he could feel another group inside the building, no doubt, there to react in case of an attack.

Thanks to his badge and Lucy calling ahead, he was allowed in almost instantly by the guards. Inside, he was met with a group of players, lazily sitting on crates or leaning against shelves as they talked amongst themselves.

Entering their sight, he was greeted with a few half-hearted waves and plain indifference.

The supposed leader, clad in very shiny and visibly enchanted gear, gave him a once-over and shook his head.

“Hey, buddy… I don’t know how you joined this guild, but going around with that kind of gear is practically offensive…”

The surrounding people chuckled at his ‘witty’ remark, while he seemed proud of his accomplishment. Sam just gave him a small smile.

“I don’t need anything more…”

“Sure, sure, buddy…” came the condescending answer from the guy. “Just don’t expect to be saved…”

Sam was about to retort when he heard some noise outside.

At the same time, he could feel through his senses as several people appeared after removing whatever hid them. He rushed over to one of the few windows near the door. Around it was a desk and a filing desk, probably a station for the guard.

Outside, he could already see the players and NPCs getting ready to confront the approaching cloaked people.

He quickly dialed Lucy.

“Hey, just out of curiosity, how important are the items in here?”

“Mostly raw materials, why?”

“I’ll tell you later,” he replied, then canceled the call and reached for his sword.

Behind him, there was a motion, and then the rush of magic. However, thanks to his own skills he was already out of the way when the magic, some kind of ice magic splashed against the wall, creating an area filled with extremely sharp ice crystals jutting everywhere.

He landed not far away, sword unsheathed, but pointing downward, looking at the group of people in the middle of the warehouse.

One of them was holding a staff, pointing exactly where he stood a moment ago, while the group leader was grinning.

“It seems, today is not your lucky day, buddy!”

Sam just arched an eyebrow. “So, what? Kill me, then rob the guild?”

The idiot just nodded. “Of course! Everyone knows that AFK has the best stuff. The things here should be worth a lot of money!” he declared while casting a greedy gaze at the crates.

Sam had to hold in a tired sigh. Instead, he asked a question.

“Did anyone pay you to do this?”

“Hah! I’m Boris, and I only work for myself!” the guy declared proudly while his men shifted around him, getting ready for a battle. Meanwhile, outside the warehouse, the battle had begun in earnest.

‘So, he is not the mastermind behind this… great…’ Sam mused as he used his own senses to get a measure of the people in front of him. All of them were around level eighty, with a nice selection of elemental leaning. One was obviously an ice mage, but he could also feel the icy grip in Boris’ mana, while one of the others was a water mage, their mana feeling fluid. ‘Good synergy…’

Boris took his silence as an affront to his manliness. Or something equally asinine and began yelling while pointing at Sam.

“Kill the bastard and we can start looting!”

Instantly, half a dozen weapons were aimed at Sam, letting loose a barrage of icicles, water, wind bullets, a few arrows, and some more esoteric effects that would affect his mind and root him to the ground.

Sam had around half a second to make a decision.

In the end, it was about the reputation of his company, so he chose to stay put.

They were level eighty, but their control was atrocious. They still had to yell the skill names…

He simply raised his shield spells and ignored the mind-affecting spell and rooting spell. Not like he needed to move to deal with this group of imbeciles.

The spells crashed into him, creating a great deal of steam, fog, and cloud of detritus as they destroyed some of the boxes around him, as the bastards couldn’t even aim properly.

He watched as his mana dipped to around half, then began rapidly regenerating with a grin. ‘It was worth investing so much into that…’

Another twist of mana caused the appearance of a well-directed gust of wind that dispersed the cloud of icy air.

He looked directly into Boris’ eyes, watching as the realization dawned on the man.

“My turn.”