An hour passed after Chan Si's party teleported out of the Grotto of Endless Emotion. During this time, she leveled her party to 28 hunting progressively stronger packs of enemies in the Laughing Forest, including many of its only animal enemy, the Laughing Hyena.

Gearme, Sunshine, and Ulna each acquired an additional [Skill].

Gearme's was a Ballista's signature [Skill], [Siege Tower]! It was a passive [Skill] that, for every kill the Ballista achieved without moving regularly, would grant them a stacking 5% damage reduction against all enemy attacks, to a maximum of 50%! However, the buff did have a duration limit of five seconds without a kill.

Other classes had similar [Skills], but Ballista was the only dedicated ranged class with it, making it extremely tough to take down in ranged battles. Best of all, it did not count any movement due to [Skills], only regular movement.

Sunshine acquired [Northern Lights], it would chain heal the entire party and grant them a ten second buff against fire damage. The overall amount of healing was very good, but it had [E] force scaling and poor mana efficiency, so Harsh Light was still the preferred heal.

Ulna's [Skill] was [Unleashed Marrow], a very powerful self-buff that would temporarily break a random stat-granting bone in the True Totem Demon's body, providing thirty seconds of triple its normal stat bonus, but preventing its bonus from applying until the [Skill] came off cooldown thirty minutes later.

During Chan Si's farming, Ulna's in-game messenger lit up.

[Zemlette]: “This is the leader of In Paradise, and I wanted to discuss your potential membership. Do you have time?”

Chan Si had not used the in-game messenger to that point, instead relying on a third party chat program to occasionally send meaningless messages between her characters like ‘Plan T', or ‘here’, or ‘next one’. The purpose was to leave a trail in case anyone chose to observe her, especially the AI, so it would appear as though her team merely had great coordination and planning. She intentionally left the chat program unsecured, though she would be alerted if anyone, other than possibly the AI, did attempt to read it.

As such, she was already heavily practiced in typing out short messages without slowing her farm and crafting routine at all.

[Ulna]: “yes”

===

Sat in her grand and opulent guild hall filled by servant NPCs, sipping from a goblet of blood, and taking a break from her many regular duties of managing one of the strongest guilds in the game, Zemlette the Dhampire [Magic Duelist] nodded at Ulna's short and informal response.

Zemlette had been informed by Ludwig at how Ulna had acted towards him, and was prepared to deal with a blunt personality. From managing a company to managing a guild, Zemlette had great experience in dealing with all sorts of people, especially the talented.

[Zemlette]: "Great, let's not waste any. I decided to contact you because I saw your practiced patterns in looting and crafting. I want you to fulfill a front-line crafter position in our guild. Most important question first, are you the alt of a top 1000 player, or player in one of the top 100 guilds?"

[Ulna]: “no”

Zemlette was a bit surprised. It was fine if Ulna was an alt, she would just want her main to join instead, and the guild might need to grease some palms to steal her away without incident. It was conveneint she wasn't though, and Zemlette was pleased.

She wasn't worried that Ulna might be lying, as it would be easy to confirm after she filled out the paperwork to join the guild.

[Zemlette]: “Did you train yourself to such a level? Or are you just naturally gifted?"

[Ulna]: “gifted"

[Zemlette]: “That's amazing! Next question. Should you join, are you okay signing an exclusive contract with our guild for the next three years?”

[Ulna]: “if join"

Zemlette sighed in amusement. Was Ulna roleplaying an orc? Talented players who liked to roleplay weren't unheard of, though Zemlette had yet to meet someone bold enough to do it during negotiations. She had no problem with it as long Ulna did not take it in inappropriate directions. That sort of behavior was strictly banned in the guild, for sanity.

[Zemlette]: “Of course. Let me tell you the benefits of joining. Like most guilds, we choose to use a Guild Contribution system. The more you contribute to the guild, the more contribution points you will receive, which you can then exchange for money, items from the guild bank, or use to hire other guild members for important tasks. As a low level player, we want you to level up, so you'll receive contribution points just for doing that, up to level 500. As a crafter, we'll also give you contribution points for leveling your crafting, until you get to the point you're able to contribute through item requests. What's your current level? Also, what did you select as your background, and what's your current level in it?"

[Ulna]: “28 fletcher 48”

Low, very low, but expected from the footage she'd watched, and Ulna's own description of being a natural.

[Zemlette]: “Great, we need a fletcher. We'll also pay to have you learn a second set of crafting skills. Finally, you can expect a weekly stipend of 100 platinum, which will increase vastly each time you're promoted. Any questions?”

[Ulna]: “what else”

Two words. What else! Zemlette immediately labeled Ulna as the most arrogant newbie she had ever met. Here she was, guild leader of one of the strongest guilds in the entire game, going out of her way to recruit an unheard of talent with extremely favorable terms, and it apparently was not enough for the greedy orc.

However, she was not upset. Ulna could have her reasons, and Zemlette planned to get to the bottom of them.

[Zemlette]: “Is there something wrong with the offer?”

[Ulna]: “not enough”

[Zemlette]: “Why's that?"

[Ulna]: “worth more”

Ulna's response had three possible interpretations to Zemlette.

It could be pure arrogance. She felt this was possible, but ultimately unlikely.

It could be a negotiation tactic. The short speech pattern that let the other person do most of the talking, combined with sheer confidence, she was seeing how much she could get out of Zemlette without actually demanding anything specific.

It could be another super guild could have already contacted her, having seen the same clip, and offered her better terms.

Zemlette decided to make a probing offer of low cost.

[Zemlette]: “We can give you a sign-on bonus of 1000 platinum. I also want to emphasize you'll be earning a lot through guild contribution points due to your low level. I'm sure with your abilities you'll be promoted in no time."

1000 platinum - otherwise known as 10 Violet Steel, but the bigger number sounded more impressive - was a huge offer for such a low level newbie. It was actually less than the guild would pay for Ulna's second crafting skillset, but Zemlette was banking on Ulna be someone with a short-term focus.

[Ulna]: “10000"

Zemlette smiled and took a large drink from her goblet. While adding an extra 0 on the end was equivalent to 100 weeks of stipend - 1 dragon brass, the second highest tier currency discovered in the game so far - that was the lowest level stipend for the least beneficial guild members, and this was only a one time payment. Paying such a small amount for a long term investment, she was more than willing as long as Ulna could impress her in the guild's entrance test.

[Ulna]: “weekly”

Zemlette spat out a mouthful of blood.

She reigned in her impulse to shout. After all, she had appearances to maintain, and she was meticulous about doing so even when the guild hall was empty of other players. An NPC butler of the guild walked over and began cleaning the blood.

Only the #1 and #2 ranked guilds would pay that much weekly to a new member, and then only if that new member was a talent among talents. This all but confirmed to Zemlette that Ulna had another offer.

It wasn't that In Paradise was unable to pay that much, but they had long ago standardized their payment-by-rank, choosing to reward more at the top tiers to promote ‘competitive approaches in professional development for synergistic outcomes'.

In other words, internal competition.

If Zemlette brought Ulna in at that amount, she would need to be two ranks higher than the lowest, which was reserved for the top 10% of contributors.

The backlash of other members alone would cause Zemlette endless headaches.

It wasn't worth it!

That was, unless Ulna could prove herself beyond even what Zemlette had seen in the video.

Zemlette carefully composed her response before sending it.

[Zemlette]: “By our own standards we choose to reward dedication and ability. I can tell you have a lot of ability, but the guild needs proof. If you can beat one of of our top crafters in a crafting competition, I can convince the rest of the guild you're worth at least that much. We'll also need you to sign a five year contract instead. Does that work?"

[Ulna]: “easy”

That was enough for Zemlette. Ulna would prove herself a worthy investment, settle for less, or not join.

[Zemlette]: “I look forward to seeing your performance. When would you be able to participate in the competition? It will be in Gallford."

[Ulna]: “tomorrow 9am est”

Negotions completed. With twelve minutes open until her next appointment, Zemlette listened to calming lofi music through the in-game music interface, set to 2x speed to relax faster.

===

Chan Si had no grand negotiation plan. She simply knew the minimum she needed to receive to make the consequences of her eventual abandoning of the guild worth it, and demanded that. Had Zemlette not been open to consider it, Chan Si would have turned down joining the guild.

She made adjustments to her overall farming plan to be near the city of Galford for the competition. It was slightly less effecient, but worth it for the amount of money she would receive. She knew she would not lose.

Chan Si wasn't worried she would be discovered when she had to fill out the contract, as she planned to use one of the many fake identities she had established shortly after escaping the United States government, the one she had used to register Ulna's account.

Guild contracts weren't part of the game, but something top level guilds did separately to prevent schemers and scammers like Chan Si from running away.

Breaking the contract would likewise have no consequence for her.

In any case, Chan Si finished up her farming in the Laughing Forest, and prepared to move further south towards Gallford for a better farming spot. She still needed to get to appropriate level before fulfilling the conditions of Gearme's rare subclass, plus the first subclasses of her other characters, though their need was less immediate.

===

The city of Gallford was famous for its player competitions. There were several arenas, large and small, to fight in, along with many stages for competitions of other sorts. Oddly enough, the game of chess was popular to play; in a super advanced VRMMO where you could do any number of things, some people chose to play chess, and that was okay.

It was a peaceful, dusky hour in the city. Competitions were still ongoing, but they were the sort people would only passively watch. Smokey stacks of aesthetic food sat at NPC stalls, and occasionally a player or two would walk up to sample some.

At the gates of the city, twenty or so NPCs walked in after a short conversation with the guards.

[Mysterious Soldier]

They fanned out through the city, catching the attention of many players. Games were abandoned and arenas emptied to watch what these npcs were up to.

The npcs questioned other npcs, and the npcs questioned the players.

When they didn't receive a satisfying response, they began putting up posters.

WANTED

ORANGE RABBITKIN FEMALE

DARK WEAVER

FOR CONSPIRACY

With a sketch exactly in Pickapart's likeness.

Then the mysterious soldiers picked spots to station themselves, and waited.