Unwilling Eldritch Horror of Fortune

“I can help you with that,” the receptionist answered with a practiced smile, “And as the first party to create a guild, you will receive a 95% discount on registration fees and essential purchases!”

Was this why the Regressor wanted to hurry so fast? It’s a nice incentive, but we were way, way ahead of everyone else, and I doubt new Aspirants would be able to find this hidden building even if they came here. There must be something else.

The Regressor took out a small sack of coins and handed it over to the woman, “That’s enough for the fees, please officially establish the Abyss Guild.”

The woman nodded, “And who will be the leader?”

Jae-Hyun glanced at us, his intentions obvious, and we all nodded quickly. No sense rocking the boat now, he can take the position.

“I will be,” he said, “And my sister will act as the vice-captain.”

“I will?” the girl said, obviously confused. Guess he didn’t tell her that part of his plan.

“You will.”

Yoona made a move to protest, but Noel quickly dragged the girl away and gave the Regressor a thumbs up. He gave a quick nod of thanks before turning his attention back to the receptionist.

“Alright, and the other five will be a part of your guild?” she asked politely.

“Yes.”

“Perfect! Payment is received, and everything is set up.” the woman took out a small golden trinket and handed it over to Jae-Hyun, “Abyss Guild is now officially registered under Kim Jae-Hyun and Kim Yoona.”

“Good,” he said without stopping, “And I would also like to purchase a base of operations for the guild.”

“Of course, would you like to see our catalog before making a choice?”

“No, I have the location in mind.”

The woman gave a quick nod, “What location would you like to choose?”

“This one.”

The woman frowned, “I beg your pardon, sir?”

“I said I would like to purchase this building as our base.”

“I’m sorry sir,” she continued, quickly putting her professional face back on, “But this building is owned by sir Raffiel, the host for the Trials, it isn’t available to purchase.”

“Are you sure?” Jae-Hyun asked, “Why don’t you check your systems and see if that is the case.”

“I don’t see how I can be wrong, but let me check in any case.”

She typed a few commands on her computer, frowned a bit, then typed a whole bunch more. Eventually, she had to excuse herself to talk with a higher-up, and only came back after several long minutes.

“Well…” she began, “The building currently is listed as available, but that is only because sir Raffiel did not have the time to complete the application process, as he is currently busy welcoming the new Aspirants. However, he should be back any minute to sign off on the ownership.”

Jae-Hyun raised an eyebrow, “But he’s not here now.”

“No,” she answered, a hint of bitterness starting to surface.

“And this building is available,” the Regressor continued.

“Yes.”

“So there is nothing wrong with me wanting to buy it off now, right?”

“Well, that is technically true,” she muttered, but then, as if a new thought occurred to her, a little bit of her old fighting spirit came back, “But even with your 95% discount, the cost of owning this building would be impossible for a new Aspirant to acquire… sir.”

She gave the Regressor a mocking smirk.

Jae-Hyun ignored the provocation and proceeded to take out sack after sack of coins, piling them all on the counter much to the growing horror of the poor receptionist. I don’t think he needed to physically take out all that money since he could just transfer it over via the Trash Matrix, but I guess even the normally stoic leader could be petty at times.

The receptionist didn’t need to count them to know that the man was loaded, but that didn’t make her any happier.

I knew that he got over 20k gold between his sister and himself just from killing zombies in the first Trial, and probably a hefty reward for coming in first and second in the world, but even then, the amount of money he had defied logic. He must have been really busy during that second Trial as well scrounging up the necessary funds for this little plan of his.

“That should be enough, right?”

“I-”

He glared at her.

“Yes, that is enough,” she said finally.

“Then please finalize the sale, I would like this building as the base of our operations.”

“Yes, sir,” she answered reluctantly before forcing her professional smile back on. With a sweep of her hands, the various bags of money disappeared, and she produced a crisp piece of paper. The Regressor signed it without hesitation.

“Well,” the woman said with mock cheer, “Congratulations, you are now the owner of Pandora’s Administration Building.”

Damn, did he just buy one of Q’s buildings? No wonder Anomalies were treated so strictly, I can only imagine the harm others like Jae-Hyun could do to a site. Good thing he was on my side.

The receptionist continued in a monotone as if she was reading off a script, “My team and I will help you integrate yourselves into this new location free of charge for the first month, as that is another perk of being the first guild registered, and you may renew our services at the end of that time if you wish. Do you have any questions or concerns that you wish to address now?”

Jae-Hyun gave her a genuine smile, “No, but I think you should go report what just happened to your bosses. And I thank you for giving us such a great deal on this purchase; I’m sure your managers will love to hear about your wonderful sale.”

Did the Regressor have some kind of personal grudge against this woman from his past life? It wasn’t like him to openly mock someone like this. Well, whatever you did in that other timeline, receptionist lady, I hope you can survive the Regressor’s displeasure!

“You are most welcome, sir, and I think I will,” she answered politely, and I could see the growing frustration appear on her face, “Would that be all for today?”

He nodded, “Quite so.”

She gave a low bow, and I swear I could hear teeth grinding, “Then please have a wonderful day, Guild Leaders and associates.”

“Toodles!” Noel answered with a wave, and we left before the receptionist exploded in anger.

Once the door was completely shut behind us, Vadeem and Noel burst into laughter. Raffiel’s huge projection was also gone, so I guess he had finished his speech. Let’s just hope that I can apologize to him and Q later on about stealing one of their buildings. I’m sure they’ll contact me once I’m free from the others.

“Oh man, did you see her face?” Vadeem chuckled, “I didn’t know our silent leader had it in him!”

“Absolutely vicious!” Noel added.

Yoona was the only one who didn’t look amused, “Why were you so rude to her, Jae-Hyun? She was only doing her job.”

“Oh come on, Bestie,” Noel added in, “Live a little, these people kidnapped us and put us here, so anyone working for our kidnappers deserves a little bit of rudeness on our part!”

“Still…”

Yoona didn’t look convinced, but she also couldn’t argue back with what Noel said.

“Was that the only thing you needed to do here, Jae-Hyun?” I added, trying to get our conversation back on actually important topics.

“For now, yes,” he answered.

Noel hopped over and joined the conversation, “Then should we go explore the cool new building you just bought? I always wanted to explore one of those!”

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” agreed Vadeem, “Something that big must have a gym as well! Probably a nice one too!”

“Later,” the Regressor said, his unusual mirth gone now, “give the staff in there some time to finalize the transfer, I expect some backlash from their managers soon, but I can deal with that on my own. For now, let’s rest up and get something to eat.”

“I’ll never say no to food!” Vadeem grinned, “And look at Ana and Eva, we need to get some meat on their bones.”

I looked at the twins, they were always shadowing Vadeem nowadays, and saw that he was right. They were awfully thin, and add in the ill-fitting clothing and scars, one would rightfully think that we were some kind of child traffickers.

“And get them something proper to wear as well…” Yoona quietly added in, “I had to make do with what I had on me, but the girls are too small for anything I wear.”

“I just wish they could understand me,” Vadeem said with a sigh.

The Regressor furrowed his brows, “They can. They’ve been able to understand everything we’ve been saying since we came to the main stage.”

“What? Really?” I asked.

“Yeah, and it makes sense if you think about it,” Jae-Hyun added, “They’re sticking people from all over the world into the Main Stage, so there’ll naturally be a way for all of those people to communicate. It’d be a waste of time if everyone had to learn a common language. The system responsible for our trials is translating everything we’re saying.”

Huh, I hadn’t thought about that. I mean, if Noe could translate everything, the Trash Matrix could possibly do the same.

“But I am better than it, my Host,” Noe said in answer, there was a hint of undisguised pride in her voice, “Its language database is woefully short, not to mention outdated, and it does not have the ability to translate gestures as I can. Therefore, Unit Noe is better than the Trash Matrix in every fathomable way.”

You are the best Noe, you’re much better than the Trash Matrix in every department!

“It is good to know that my Host realizes this fact.”

“So they heard me when I was making fun of Vadeem’s tiny brain?” Noel said, looking at the twins.

They returned her question with a death glare.

“Um, I didn’t mean to compare you two to Vadumb, I swear! You’re clearly smarter.” the redhead continued, raising her hands up in mock surrender.

They were practically snarling at Noel now, and Vadeem had to put himself between them and Noel.

He chuckled warmly, “Don’t mind her, we’re always like this, Noel doesn’t mean… well, she probably doesn’t mean most of what she says.”

Ana glanced back at Vadeem, trying to see if he was being serious or not, but nodded slowly. Eva didn’t look quite as convinced.

Noel finally let off on the remarks, “He’s right, I’ve known the big dude for years, this is just how we are. And he’s saved my beautiful butt a handful of times to boot, so we have a mutual understanding.”

Both of the girls slowly lowered their guard and accepted the strange dynamic between Noel and Vadeem. I guess they were not used to friendly banter and jests given their upbringing. Then again, I don’t think humor was in high demand back there, but let’s hope they can adapt soon.

They deserved a better life than what they grew up with, and although I wasn’t sure what the Trials and Main Stage would bring, I’m sure that anything would be better than living in that darkness and gloom.

“Wait, do you think we can do something about their voices here?” I added. It hadn’t seemed fair that they were the only ones who couldn’t talk, and it couldn’t be too hard for Central’s insane tech to heal a minor injury like that.

The Regressor thought for a moment, “It depends on the severity of the wound, and when their vocal cords were taken. I’ll have to take them in for a thorough medical checkup soon anyway, so we’ll know more then.”

Vadeem agreed, “Good idea, and is that ok with you two?”

The two shrugged but seemed to trust Vadeem’s decision. I don’t think they knew what a medical check-up was in any case.

“I’ll take that as a yes!”

“Anyway,” Yoona added, “how about we get some food first, everyone’s hungry, and we skipped a lot of Raffiel’s speech. I think my brother owes us all an explanation on how this new stage works.”

“Agreed,” I answered, “I think we all need a bit of rest and relaxation.”

“Walter’s treating!” Vadeem boomed, “Find us the fanciest place, oh mighty guild leader!”

I sighed, but I had agreed to treat everyone to food earlier, so I agreed. Jae-Hyun took the lead with his sister, and we slowly made our way towards whatever restaurant or pub the Regressor was guiding us to.

Now that Vadeem knew that the twins could understand him, he practically dragged them along and started to recount random stories from his past. His tales all seemed fantastical and utterly nonsensical to me, but the two girls seemed enraptured by his boasts. Soon, a pair of faint smiles adorned their normally blank features, and that infectious joy spread to everyone present. We were all left in high spirits.

 

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