Yeung-Sung wished that the majority would go. His request for privacy was, as it turns out, one request too many and although many people did get up, many stayed. At the corners of his eyes, he could feel them watching him, anxiously waiting to see whether he could actually do it or not.

Or perhaps I’m giving myself too much credit. They could just be waiting for me to fail.

As for the other request, the few officials he called for -it must have been them- switched to his table. Or the main table, as he did share it with Luke. Keeping their distance, the waiters reached around him as they stacked and cleared plates. Watching the PM speaker creaking back his chair, Yeung-Sung wiped the sweat off a hand under the table. He took a look at the new arrivals and matched their faces to their usernames -Kelly, Moon, Vanessa.

The three sat equally far from Luke, which was still considerably far, given the ludicrous length of the hall’s dining tables. The exception was Kelly-Ann, who was on Luke’s side, eyeing the coloner to his right as if they didn’t deserve to sit so close. Amber Moon and Vanessa were friendlier than most, though; They waved over to him and mouthed hello over the chatter that persisted.

Even if Yeung-Sung wasn’t sure what the most of PM thought about his chances, the officials near him made it very clear where they stood.

“Why were they involved in this?” one said, nodding to the Amber and Vanessa.

The official next to him nodded, replying, “Are we not important enough?”

“Luke better have a good plan,” echoed a sentiment from the other direction, “Giving this outsider a chance. Good grief!”

Strange, thought Yeung-Sung, He is taking quite a risk here. Even if I fail, he can still show off my strategy as a way to get the officials’ approval

-But what if I intentionally fail? Fail so horribly that Luke would like a fool for allowing me to waste so much time.

Coinciding with this thought, he saw Luke jerking his eyebrows, obviously catching wind of some of the comments about him.

Luke cut through the table, his voice like a powerline just restored. “I did what you asked of me.”

“Yes,” Yeung-Sung said with a bow, “Now, you’re under contract to give me whatever I need to beat the Gauntlet.”

At the far end, Luke flexed his eyebrows like a whip.

“Within reason,” snapped a familiar voice. Kelly-Ann speared her stylus in the centre of the table.

“This might be more interesting than I thought,” mumbled the cherry-headed official from before.

The table had all but died down now, necks swishing from one end to the other. In that silence, Luke shifted forward in his seat, making an ominous squeak.

“Remember, you only have today.”

Today. Not…a day, as he previously promised. He scanned the contract. Even if some of the English is too complicated, I need to be more careful with the terms of agreements.

As he slid the obtuse thing aside, Kelly got his attention.

“What do you need, Yeung-Sung? You know our stores are in shambles, right now. With only the rest of the day, I don’t know how much I can feasibly acquire for you.”

She shrugged. “Different players respond at different times -and some might not be so willing to withdraw their held stock for your sake.”

Pa-king! Yeung-Sung swiped open Airgead. Steph messaged back, excellent.

“Well?” Kelly-Ann asked.

Yeung-Sung smiled as he scrolled through the conversation.

Hey, Steph want a drink? I’ve found you a buyer for your ore.

Even if Darnes would let me back in I heard you’re with PM now. They only buy the cheap quality shit, what use would they have for my high-mastery ore?

That’s all going to change,

Just trust me; put the ore for sale, but not too low. Once I execute my plan they’ll want more.

Very well, Yeung-Sung. I’m going to hope you know what you’re at…I really need that drink.

Looking up from his phone, Yeung-Sung ignored Kelly-Anna and asked Vanessa, “You’ve told me you tried using better quality equipment before. Who’s your highest mastery armor smith?”

Stirring a milky cup of tea, she clinked it off the side. “Oh…Give me a moment, I think it’s”

“—Me, actually,” spoke up a woman in the table by Vanessa’s back. “Leslie is my name, spelt like—” She stood up and walked over to Yeung-Sung as he began to type it in. “Yeah, like that.” She gave a one-armed bow, and walked back to her spot behind Vanessa.

The rest of the table panned their attention like the glare of a headlight, following Leslie before centring back onto Yeung-Sung. Swallowing. He sweated under the pressure of so many expectant faces, and missed the few lucky moments before when it had been swung away.

Makes sense that everyone I need is here. I’d probably hang around too if I thought my skills would be of use. And I will need the use of every single one.

Kelly-Ann tapped her stylus against the table again, like the mic of an impatient reporter.

Glancing down at his conversation with Steph, he reminded himself of the next step.

“Look for the highest quality ore on the marketplace right now and buy it.”

Small dessert plates and snacks were laid around the table, of course walking past the entire length of the table to present it to Luke first.

“Nobody would be selling any decent ore at any useful quantity,” said Luke, waving the sweets away.

Kelly-Ann grunted. “Well, actually, there is one. Higher than anything we have -and the quantity of it is incredible!”

Snatching an array of almond fingers, Yeung-Sung thanked the waiter with a bow that they did not acknowledge. Sighing he turned back to the conversation at hand, saying, “Don’t worry, it should be affordable enough.”

Although he enjoyed the nutty biscuit, Yeung-Sung did not grab them out for pleasure. Rather, he kept an unwavering grin as he mashed the soft flakes, enjoying them to an over-the-top degree while exchanging stares with Luke.

The PM speaker’s hands were bright red from crushing each other. His officers transferred the funds to Kelly-Ann, who bought Steph’s bundle of ore, switching ownership to Leslie who popped her jaw open when she found that what they had said was true. They did this without asking Luke. Without so much as looking at him as Yeung-Sung sat there, stuffing his face.

“What do you want made?” Luke asked him.

“A tethplate,” Yeung-Sung answered. He licked his teeth clean. “Sorry. A chest plate is what I’d need, but whatever you have at the highest mastery should work.”

“My masteries are all balanced, so a chest plate is just fine,” Leslie said. Then hesitated. “How many? A hundred?”

“Make enough to level up your mastery for that specific recipe, then hand me the next one.”

Leslie still looked uncertain, glancing over at her peers at the main table. “Just one? Are you not going to enchant it?”

“Just get on with it,” snapped Kelly-Ann. “Enough questions.”

The armor smith gave a salute and swung her chair back around to begin her task. The table once again burst into murmurs, the officials forming bigger huddles, more frantic than before. But Kelly-Ann sat out of those. Her arms folded, she eyed Yeung-Sung.

“A breastplate is not going to win a Gauntlet on its own,” she said. “What else?”

Yeung-Sung found a napkin to wipe his hands with. Once clean, he picked up his phone. “Does this mean you’re taking me seriously now?”

She smirked back at him. Luke did not.

“Do you remember, Vanessa,” Yeung-Sung began, “in the early gauntlets when players would wear as many bits of armour as possible, simply to soak up hits?”

Vanessa nodded. “Yeah, but that became irrelevant pretty quickly after we discovered blessings, and that smaller trinkets couldn’t be repaired.”

He waited for her to catch on.

Vanessa scrunched up her face. “You want them?” What for?”

Kelly shook her head. “This is ridiculous. You’re just wasting our time, Yeung-Sung, why would you ask for a single piece of the strongest armor we can make, unenchanted, and then also weigh yourself down with bracelets?”

“She’s right,” Luke said. He stated his words carefully before dipping them into the conversation. “Even if you do enchant them, they would be broken and irreplaceable after one use. What a waste of time!”

He slammed his hands flat on the able. “Like I said; arrogance! I was wrong about you, you won’t even try to beat the Gauntlet, just bring down PM.” He threw aside a silver plate, clattering across the hall. “And you know of their tactics, you’re a Champion spy”.

Yeung-Sung shrugged. It’s down to the rest of you now. Do you believe me?

“Twenty or so should do, Kelly,” he told her, then turned to Amber. “Amber, how’s your reading of blessings going? Level it up much?”

She looked like a child beside Vanessa’s weathered features beside her. They were evidently good friends, though, and Vanessa nudged her on. She gripped her own cup of steaming green tea.

“Relax on that teacup, you wouldn’t want to break PM property,” he noted, sneaking a look down the ned of the table.

She fluttered her eyelids, fidgeting now around the tea saucer. “Good. I have mastery five levels.”

Yeung-Sung bowed, keeping eye contact. “That’s nice to hear,” he said,” Now, you told me that a lot of the blessed equipment is either Area of Effect or Regeneration based.”

Several officials bent toward her, “You told him that? That’s private!”

“Sorr-ee,” she squealed out hiding her hands under the table. Vanessa flung herself into the official’s face and they very quickly shrunk back into their places. Leslie was also half-turned towards them, going back to her work once she satisfied that Amber was safe.

Pa-king! Yeung-Sung had a feeling he knew who it might’ve been.

You need them? I put on market right now.

Thank you for teaching me. Good luck (^-^)

Scrolling through the linked store, Yeung-Sung selected the ones he thought he’d need. Bowing again, he smiled gratefully at her. “Thank you, Amber,”

“Hey!” Luke shouted. His elbow spiking up, he held himself up over the armrests, ready to lea out of his chair. “What did you just do? Amber!”

The lamp of the table swung over to him.

“This is getting out of hand,” muttered the cherry-headed coloner.

Watching Luke all night, Yeung-Sung had anticipated this would happen. “Shirley,” he called out over his shoulder. He almost laughed when he saw Luke’s face.

“Yes?” came the response.

“I need something handled.”

“Who?”

“Umm…” Yeung-Sung hesitated. “That’s not what I meant. I mean can you put a handle on something. Like, a wooden one, in Airgead?”

He came over and wove a finger through his curls. “Oh, well, yeah, I guess I could…” Behind him was a row of toppled seats and one very shocked PM member. With a soft grunt he righted the chair closest to him and went onto Airgead.

Yeung-Sung spread his elbows out onto the table. The lamp was hot; all the attention was on him, but he was starting to enjoy it. In his own Airgead inventory he counted his stock:

Potions, more potions; herbs, roots, vials and empty bottles. Hardly the stock of someone preparing to take on thirty barbarians at once. Even with all the help, even if this idea works, I don’t know if it will be enough.

“Kelly,” he commanded, “Link me whatever you can access at the moment.”

She raised her eyebrow up at him. “Everything?”

“Everything,” Yeung-Sung nodded.

Kelly-Ann looked to Luke, who slipped back in his chair with a sigh and agreed.

“Everything.”