Fate Online: Shadow

Chapter 561: Eastern Guild!

"Greetings miss. Welcome to the only frontier village here in Neverwinter. I'm sure you've already heard a lot about me, but I'm not so sure about you?"

Arriving inside his Cabin, Shadow got his guests comfortable while one of the village women entered after them and served them tea. When she finally left, Shadow immediately addressed them.

Stepping forward, Haruke immediately showed her respect and introduced herself. "I'm Haruka. The current Guild Master of Orion Guild. It's an honor to finally meet you sir!!"

Anxious and excited, she couldn't help but raise her voice at the end.

Shadow smiled and muttered, "Hmm…Orion Guild. I see"

'Hmmm.. since it doesn't ring a bell. It's probably just a small guild like Maverick said, but…they were able to make it this far even if they had a little help from Flame Rose Guild. So that still does not diminish the fact that they are a skilled bunch. It seems like we at least managed to hook quite the catch, though we still had to verify what kind of people they are in real life'

Noticing the slight change in his expression, Haruka felt a little helpless inside.

'Sigh~ the plight of small guilds. If you didn't make enough fame for yourselves, people wouldn't even know you. It is clear that he never heard about us'

Shadow stared at tea in his hand, then back up at Haruka and asked, "How many people did you have leading up to this?"

She was a little confused about why he was asking about it, but when she turned towards Maverick, the latter just shrugged his shoulders as he also does not have an idea. So making a rough calculation in her mind, she answered, "Around 200 or so, why did you ask sir?"

Shadow followed it up with. "Players in the Top 10,000?"

"There's exactly ten of us, which is the main force of the guild"

"The Top 20,000?"

"Except for Lifestyle Players, it's half of the combatants of the guild. Numbering between 200 and 250"

Hearing her words, Shadow stared at her. Maverick also did the same thing, both were bewildered at the composition of their guild.

Shadow stared intently at her, trying to examine her face if there's any deception on it. 'Is she messing with us? With that kind of line up of players, how come it's the first time we're hearing about them?'

'With that line up, aren't they actually a borderline Elite Guild at this point? Even our guild doesn't have that kind of number of players in the Top 20,000!'

"You…who the heck are you?"

Confused at the sudden hostility in his voice, Haruka became flustered.

"I'm Haruka, the Guildmaster of the Orion Guild?"

She's not exactly weak willed for a leader. In fact, she's very headstrong, tenacious and not easily swayed by emotions and has a good head on her shoulders. That's the reason why her friends had chosen her as the Leader of the Guild.

But it's an undeniable fact that right now, she's feeling the pressure facing the person before her. She doesn't know why, there is no notification of a Skill being used, but the aura oozing from Shadow is making it uncomfortable for her.

"No, who are you outside of this game? Who sent you here?"

This time, Shadow made it perfectly clear to her what he meant by his earlier words.

Rattle!

Haruka took multiple steps back when Shadow suddenly appeared before her in the blink of an eye!

"I don't know w-what you're trying to want me to say, but I work as the General Manager in the S Company. Most of the executives in our Guild are my colleagues. Our guild consists of mostly white collared, followed by blue collared people, with a few pink collared mixed in! Most of us are only playing this game casually, just to pass time since everyone is busy with real life. Though there's a few of us who had made this game their job" Haruka shouted, almost drawing her weapon. Though she quickly restrained herself from doing it when she realized that there were no further threats towards her.

Maverick's eyes widened as he stared at Haruka in surprise.

'What the heck? Is she being serious right now?! If they were just casually playing and already reached that far. What about us then? What does this make us, who seriously plays and placed so much importance on this game?! Stupid greenhorns!?'

Shadow stared at her intently, still trying to see any shred of deception in her eyes.

'Interesting, so there are players like them too huh?'

"..."

Haruka looked at the two of them and felt like she had to say something to ease the visible awkwardness between them.

"So are there any more questions you want to ask me?"

"Is it true? Everything you've said? I'm not doubting you, but those numbers you mentioned are just impossible for someone whose life mostly revolves around their work" Maverick asked, he wanted to hear it one more time from her because it just sounds absurd!

"Yes, b-but why are we still hung up on this subject?" At this point, Haruka just feels genuinely confused about their reactions. It was because she thought that there was nothing with everything she said till now and just thought that other players are also like them. This just shows that she has an extreme lack of understanding of this game.

"Is this the first time you played a virtual game?" Maverick ignored her and raised another question, while Shadow at this point, decided to just listen.

"Yeah, my daughter introduce me to this game"

'Ohh, I see. This is an interview, isn't it?'

This time, a seed of misunderstanding had suddenly sprouted in her mind and she became more confident just looking at how her demeanor had changed from being timid to an aura oozing with confidence this time.

"You have a daughter?! Just how old are you?!"

'We look like the same age, but she already has a daughter at her young age?'

Maverick was startled with her answer, but there was one point he completely missed out on.

"I'm turning 36 this year"

She's an Easterner.