Riveting Night sat in her seat quietly, not moving an inch. The Five Generals sat across from her with pained expressions. They looked like they were being stared down by a godly beast, unable to advance or retreat.
Cobra was sweating profusely as he panted heavily, while Uno and Boyd had ferocious expressions on their faces, as if they were trying to release a huge turd. Rina was breathing erratically as well as whimpering, while Kiran was grimacing heavily.
Sublime Notion wasn't here though, otherwise she might have it worse.
What was the cause of this scene? Well, the simple answer was that the stationary Riveting Night was releasing all of her acc.u.mulated killing intent freely!
It was so thick and potent that the poor Five Generals, whose hands were steeped in blood, were on their last legs before it.
What had they done to receive this response? Absolutely nothing!
They were totally innocent and undeserving of such a treatment. As far as they knew, after Riveting Night had set the guild recruitment scheme, she had led them on a tour of the various properties belonging to Umbra in Cario City.
Their eyes had almost popped out when they saw the shop.
Brother, how can you call that big thing a shop? That's literally a mall!
Of course, they weren't shown the Castle because that was private property and not guild property. If they had seen their Boss' castle, then they might just kowtow and cling to his feet like shameless dogs.
They had then returned to the Guild Hall to screen through the few who had passed the test, becoming official members of the guild but…
The moment they had entered the Guild Conference room, Riveting Night had sat down in the first vice-guildmaster's seat and had quietened down, releasing this bizarre and terrifying aura.
The Five Generals would absolutely have loved to get up and leave, but they couldn't! It was similar to when Mephisto imposed his killing intent on everyone! They had frozen and been in the throes of fear, unable to move.
However, the most important fact was that the Lady Boss hadn't spoken or moved. If it weren't for her chest going up and down, one would think she was dead.
In their minds, they had probably done something wrong and the Lady Boss was too angry to speak. Or more likely it was another test from the Lady Boss!
If that was the case, we would pass it for sure! We have to prove our worth, or the Lady Boss might get rid of us!
Hence, the current scene.
However, let us take a peek into the mind of Riveting Night to see what was the cause… Just a quick look…
What the f.u.c.k?
WHAT WAS THIS CHAOS?!?
Inside her mind, the council of Riveting Nights were locked in a brawl that looked no better than a bunch of drunks trying to duke it out in a tavern. They all wore snarling faces with extremely malicious intent, trying to rip each other to shreds.
This was because Riveting Night had suppressed her hesitation and worry, choosing a recruitment scheme for Umbra. After she had managed to do that, she felt relived for a while as she led the Five Generals around.
However, after she returned, she realized that her suppression of her madness was futile. It broke through and a plethora of doubts and self-recriminations assailed her mind, like torrential waves on a small boat.
Her council of Riveting Nights, who had been arguing heatedly but somewhat reasonably, suddenly became like feral beasts as they attacked each other.
The murderous aura was leaking out of Riveting Night ever so slightly, but this feeling was enough to give the Five Generals a tough time.
This Riveting Night girl… just how many people did she kill? How many lives in their past life had been ended for her to gain this kind of aura? One could only wonder the kind of jubilation going on in the old timeline after they died…
Eva's face, which was hidden under the darkness of her hood, was locked in the rictus of a snarl, her eyes bloodshot and her abyss-like pupils spinning like a murky pool.
It gave one the feeling that looking into those eyes would send one into an instant samsara cycle.
Her aura kept increasing every second, and Rina was groaning audibly now as she folded in on herself. Uno and Boyd had veins popping on their forehead, twitching and vibrating so strongly that one would think they were about to burst.
Cobra's teeth were chattering as his pale skin became like ice, his body starting to lock up and freeze over. Kiran had closed his eyes and was rubbing his temples firmly, trying to withstand the pressure of Riveting Night's aura.
Just when it looked like they would die from it, Sublime Notion burst into the room, her bombastic chest jiggling so strongly that a small tornado whipped around the chamber.
"Hi-Hi~! Is everyone having a good time~?"
Immediately, Riveting Night's mind stabilized when she heard her best friend's voice. The aura that was pressing upon the Five Generals vanished immediately, and they all breathed a sigh of relief.
They all gazed at Sublime Notion with gratitude and reverence, an act she felt baffled by. Still, she was happy though.
'Truly, this Big Sis is too lovable, tee hee~'
"Sublime, you're here. Good." Riveting Night spoke slowly and hoarsely. Her body felt uncomfortable after being so still for so long, so she used her Body of Godliness to jolt every muscle into optimum capacity.
She looked around the room, spotting the aggrieved Five Generals and could easily tell what happened while she was facing her mental crisis. She felt apologetic, but of course the five fellows couldn't see that, only her eerie hood facing towards them.
Their faces became white as snow as they felt fear. Was the Lady Boss going to test them again…?
Riveting Night decided to get to the matter at hand. "Sublime, report."
Sublime sat down gracefully and smiled lightly as she began to speak. Even though she was slightly serious, that playful smile was like it was drawn onto her face. Her sweet and cute voice just made one lower their guard totally and feel like kissing her chubby cheeks.
"We initiated the Guild recruitment exactly four hours and 13 minutes ago. There have been over a 12,529 applications since then and only 413 managed to pass the various tests."
The Five Generals took in a deep breath at that. Only 413 out of a whole 12,000?? That was a passing rate of just over 3%!
My Lord!
Imagine if a real world scenario like this occurred. There would be intense protests and heavy social repercussion from that, but in Boundless, one could only swallow their grievances!
Truthfully, the circ.u.mstances were the most potent factor of this. If Umbra was an average guild with such a passing rate, they would be bombarded with scorn and disdain.
But since they were the first guild with the most potential to grow and the most lucrative benefits (seemingly), it was accepted as normal.
It was similar to how one would just take it with a grain of salt if they saw loli stuff emerging from countries with a low age of consent as opposed to countries with a proper age of consent. In the case of the latter, it would cause an outrage!
(Author's note: This King did not mention names. I repeat, THIS KING DID NOT MENTION NAMES!)
But still, only 3%…
Truly, these fellows were the elite few. And even then, these elites were separated into grades, or to put it harshly, into castes within Umbra.
So even the normal members would be skilled elites, while the higher rank members would be the elites of elites. Honestly, this style of recruitment wasn't so unique, but it was definitely clever to use at this stage.
At the end of the day, Riveting Night was still one of the five Divine tier guild leaders from the old timeline. Her ability to manage guilds with the knowledge of Boundless' system in mind was matchless.
"Among those 413 who passed, 378 passed the basic test. 23 passed the advanced test and 11 passed the expert test. Only one person passed the core test at this time."
Sublime Notion finished her report with a snicker. In her mind, she was laughing at all those failures for being such losers.
Such a mean yet cute girl… sigh. You got to ride on the coattails of nepotism to reach heaven from earth, and now you look down upon those who are struggling reach your spot…
Truly, life was never fair!
The Five Generals were so numbed that they could hear static in their ears. Only one person passed the core test…?
What a Guild needed most was core members, who were their direct underlings and handled a bulk of the tasks that were absolutely crucial to the guild.
Having such a low passing rate for them was…
They felt it should be the other way round. These elites should be admitted as core members mostly, with the weaker ones being sent down the hierarchy. They could then fill the lower ranks with numbers that would act as their fodder.
After all, Riveting Night's recruitment scheme missed out on one crucial category of players…
Harveeys!
The bottom feeder losers who were nothing more than serfs for the guild, spending their every waking moment harvesting gold for the guild through intense battle, very little of it being sent back to them.
The benefit of this was that they were allowed to wear the guild emblem and use certain extremely basic amenities. To qualify as a harveey one must either be a total noob, utter trash or just a loser. If one had talent, the tough situation would temper them and create a genius! If they were truly just a piece of chaff with no talent, they would remain such till the day they died!
Boundless… A friendly and stress-reliving game with excellent graphics and immersion? What a joke!
This was a second world, virtual or otherwise. There was a brutal and cruel fight for resources and land at all times, and many people died out of game for mistakes made in-game.
This game was not for the lighthearted!
Yet, people still flocked to it like flies. Why!?
Because of the immersion.
Because of the lore and amazing abilities.
Because of the depth and limitlessness of the world.
Because of the ability to carve out their own piece of territory if they had the ability.
But mostly because of the life extension.
It wasn't as pronounced now as it would be later. Now, there were VR helmets that limited the ability of a person to stay connected. They had to log out every 64 hours in-game, which was 16 hours in real life.
Draco and Riveting Night had been logging out over the past week to just sleep and eat before re-entering the game. They didn't have time to do other things.
(Authors note: Hence why I didn't bother to include those scenes. Draco's recent logout in the last chapter though, was with the intention to do some… conquering… in the real world.)
But when the Gaming Pods come next year, there would be a massive influx of new players when its benefits were advertised.
Being able to stay under for more than 6 months at a time as long as enough NuSmoothies were provided?
Being able to experience quadruple the time of the real world in a fantasy world where one can be a princess, mermaid, elf as well as magician, swordsman, knight?
Count me in!
What was the point of this so called 'real' world anyway? The roles had been decided and the world's resources had been shared. It was no longer the time of Christopher Columbus and his fellows where one could sail, find new lands and claim them, building a civilization.
All of that was claimed and now, everyone had to abide by various rules, social or legal, otherwise they would be penalized. They had to live dreary lives as cogs in the wheel that was society, as the general will to live and motivation dipped constantly till almost every average man was living life on auto-pilot.
But no more!
In Boundless, one could be anything as long as they earned it with their own effort! The son of the President? The Richest man in the world?
All meant dogshit in Boundless! The AI followed its directives only and the developers were a no-name studio that couldn't be traced for some reason. One wondered how these VR helmets were being distributed…
Also, how was the server hosted? It must have some sort of signal right? So why did the helmets not require an internet connection?
Hm…
The studio couldn't be pressured into acquiescing and the game still existed even though some parties wanted it gone.
If you can't beat em, join em!
Better to try your hand and see if you could carry on being a paragon in the game.
Nope! Sorry! This game only recognized talent and hard work! Money and external influences meant dog shit!
President of a first world country? Sorry, but you're going to have to lick the boots of this 21 year old edgelord boy, who created a… what did those kids call it again? … Divine-tier guild!
The social hierarchy would be thrown into chaos as positions were re-arranged, those on top falling and those who were at the bottom rising rapidly.
The Five Generals of course, did not know all this. No one did, and that was why Draco was so pressured until Eva came.
He could do these one-time unique quests and gain amazing rewards while leaving the guild's development to his woman, who possessed every single bit of knowledge he did minus a bit. Likewise, she also knew things he didn't like the Dragoness in the Aether mine.
Look at the boons Draco had gained from just one early game unique quest. One could only shiver when they realized that he had three other unique quests in the bag, as well as a map to a Divine Vault.
Riveting Night nodded. "Where are they?"
"They're waiting in the Guild Assembly room." Sublime Notion answered while yawning.
"Let's go meet them then."
They left the Conference room and headed down to the Assembly room, which was just one floor below them.
The Assembly Room was a wide area that looked like a school's gym room, with polished wood flooring and a wide open space. There was a small stage near the eastern side of the room which allowed for key personnel to make announcements easily.
The walls were painted a deep red, with murals of battle and bloodshed. One couldn't help but feel ready to battle and fight to the death for a cause when looking at it.
The elites gathered here were no exception! Many of them were breathing heavily, their eyes red and their fists clenched. They wanted to battle heroically and die like champions at war!
But when Riveting Night entered, her aura stifled those thoughts as these elites became solemn. They weren't like Sublime who was too carefree to feel these things or the Five Generals, who had been bullied into fear of their Lady Boss.
They were experiencing her sharp and malevolent aura for the first time at such a close range. Unlike Draco, whose aura was more dominating and arrogant, Riveting Night's was cold and eerie, making one feel like they hand been dumped into a haunted forest without any weapons or protection.
She gazed at them all slowly, her dark and abyssal hood passing over the arrayed people here. Of the 413 people, 230 were male and 183 were female. It was an impressively similar division that showed that within Boundless, the disparity of in-born fighting strength was no longer a limiter.
After all, everything boiled down to stats!
You could be the buffest piece of meat, the one and only absolute unit of the world, and still be beaten like a pubescent teen boy's meat at the hands of a scrawny child, as long as his stats were higher than yours!
Finally, she spoke. Her clear and sonorous voice, which sounded like a reincarnated goddess, created a dissonance for the assembled players in the room.
"You are here, in the Guild Hall of Umbra because you passed one of our tests and are now eligible to become a member."
Riveting Night stopped looking around and trained her gaze towards the lot of them in general. Her tone became harder and the temperature on the room dropped further.
"However, Umbra is a guild that is destined to reach the pinnacle! All you have proven is that you aren't common trash by the roadside and nothing more! You haven't proven your ability to manage people or resources! You haven't proven that you have the ability to craft or perform any service, or simply put, a Tradeskill!"
"You haven't proven whether you can think outside of the box! All you have proven is that you have good talent for combat, which is the most basic requirement."
She paused for a while to let her words sink in as the faces of the arrayed elites changed multiple times in a minute.
"Still, you have passed and are technically members of Umbra. You will be given the most basic necessities of your caste until you can prove that you deserve more. Of course, these necessities outclass what any other guild can give you, so I have one last test for you all."
Her voice became like the seventh level of hell as the area began to frost over.
"You haven't proven your loyalty and I will not tolerate rabid dogs in Draco's guild!"
Her expression became manic as her aura pressed onto those elites in the room, like a ten tonne weight dropped onto their shoulders. Her voice became intense and fanatical, as if she was thoroughly excited by something.
"Prove your loyalty to the guild! Prove your loyalty to Draco!"
"Do this and you shall be admitted into the First Guild! Fail and you shall die!"
She began laughing dangerously, much to the fear of the Five Generals and the worry of Sublime Notion.