War Online

"You…" Tang Lei got angered upon getting reminded of his past scandals. Just as he was about to stand up from the seat, his father grabbed his arm and pulled him down while refuting, "These little things are common in this business circle. Don't believe everything in the articles.

Some will be exaggerated articles, some will be half-truths and some are fake rumors like for example, some say the Scarlet group has links with western mafias, some say the company's founder Ms. Scarlet Smith is dead. That's why she never appeared in public. Some say she's a beloved of some diplomat or top businessman, etc… 

If people like us put too much attention on such baseless things, it will only cause us a headache."

Tang He countered Wil's statement with a smile, defending his son and attacking at the same time using the same method of mentioning the articles. 

He wanted to let Wil know that he isn't a pushover like others. Tang Lei also smiled a bit, thinking that his father is indeed awesome to deal with the situation in such a calm manner.

While Storm was triggered by Tang He's words, Wil, on the other hand, nodded calmly, "What you said is true. I guess I have to find the complete truth from the Galaxy Net before making the statements from now onwards."

Wil replied to his counter with a simple threat and wiped off the smiles from Tang Lei and his father, even if it's just for a moment.

The Texel group's chairman controlled his expression and nodded while maintaining his smile once again, "Ah, yes. I watched the interview. Congratulations, by the way."

Wil responded with simple thanks and ended the conversation.

After a brief silence, Tang He once again tried to resume the conversation. "So, I heard that you recently decided to move the company headquarters to Leafway city. Is it true or just another baseless rumor on the internet?"

Wil didn't know how this old man knew of it as they only decided in the board meeting and never made the news official, but still, he tried to keep his face calm and collected as usual before confirming the news, "Yes."

"Then, are you intending on selling the building?" With real estate booming in the Ares city, Chairman Tang really intends to buy it. 

Moving the company from Ares city to a first-tier city like Leafway, intending to sell one of their subsidiaries, calling a meeting for negotiation, all of these coincidences made this old man believe to some extent that Scarlet group might be facing difficulties.

So, he wondered whether he could buy the building at market price while compromising at the negotiations. 

However, his hopes were dashed away with Wil rejecting it in a firm no. Chairman Tang fell into a bad mood once again and this time, to save his face, he didn't continue the conversation about the other things.

After a while, the food has been served.

Focusing on weight loss lately, Wil only ordered a simple grilled chicken and broccoli. On the other hand, the other party ordered a mouth-watering hotpot with dozen ingredients and few other eastern specialties.

Wil resisted the temptation of eating the unhealthy food and stuffed the broccoli in his mouth.

Everyone finished their lunch in silence as Wil had nothing to talk about while Chairman Tang doesn't seem interested in entertaining Wil any longer.

"So, let's get to the point, Mr. Ravens." Chairman Tang then asked Wil the reason for this meeting.

Wil proceeds to talk about the deal. "Then, let me get this straight, Chairman Tang." His voice no longer appeared calm and casual. His expression was rather serious. "Your Ex-CEO basically stole our money through the bank owner. But, I'm not naïve to think that you will return our money just like that. So, here's my proposal.

Our Scarlet group intends to save the Ark bank. I need Texel group to back off the case and return those four billion dollars to the bank.

As the new owners, we will have to pay off the debts of the bank too. So, your money won't go anywhere.

For the next two years, Texel group will not ask the bank its principal amount as long as the bank continues to pay the agreed 1% monthly interest every month.

In the meantime, Scarlet group will invest five billion dollars into Texel Electronics and will not withdraw the shares at least for a year. This is my first and final proposal. Either agree to these peaceful terms and we will sign the contract or reject it and we will go to war. I have nothing to lose either way.

Anyway, I'm short on time. So, Chairman Tang only has 6 hours to decide. If you agree with it, please arrange a dinner meeting. If not, then, I'll treat that this meeting has never occurred."

Now that he finished the lunch, Wil didn't wait for his response and stood up to leave the place as he had more pressing matters to deal it. It's been several hours since he last logged in. Wil was in hurry to login into the game and enter the dragon world.

Watching Wil's back, Chairman Tang narrowed his eyes as he mumbled, "this kid sure has temperament."

***

*WELCOME TO WAR ONLINE*

After leaving the restaurant, he immediately left for the headquarters and logged in the game with enthusiasm, putting away all other tensions aside.

As soon as he logged in the game, Wil found himself on the same spot, standing on the round stone slab while receiving a series of notifications.

*Ding! You crossed the limit of underwater depth.

*Ding! You are at a depth of 5738 meters under the ocean. Your HP will decrease by 57,346,056 per second.

*Ding! The Angelic wings were completely drenched by water. Your flying ability with these wings is restricted for 2 hours.

Due to the latest maintenance, along with the damage cap, Aria also tweaked a few things. One of them is the effect of water and fire on the wings of Angels and Demons where they can be temporarily drenched, burn, or can be cut off as long as the requirements can be met.

Another of them is the high altitude and sea-depth debuffs where the decrease in the HP will vary according to the perpendicular distance from the ground and surface of the water respectively.

Thankfully, Wil had billions of HP. So, he didn't have to worry about dying because of such debuff. 

However, right now, he wasn't in a mood to care about notifications as he no longer stood on the stone slab. Instead, he was experiencing the same thing others experienced when he unleashed Gravity Suppression skill.

Every second, more than 57 million HP was deducting while his body was stuck on the ocean bed due to the enormous amount of pressure.

Since 12 hours cooldown has already been passed, Wil immediately unleashed the bubble skill and nullified the pressure. 

"Well, that was some scary experience." Healing himself, Wil then summoned the Imperial sword from the inventory and held the handle, and touched the tip of the sword at the dragon.

As soon as the Imperial sword touched the mural, an expected reaction appeared.

The sword and the mural glowed in the pitch darkness. The intensity of light sharply increased enveloping Wil.

Suddenly, the ocean bed started to shake before a chunk of the land ascended slowly towards the surface of the ocean.

An hour later, a tiny island was floating in the middle of the Xynnar Ocean. However, Wil was nowhere to be seen.