"How many coins do you get for going through this plan anyway?" Jack asked.
"I'm not sharing my income," John said.
"I'm not interested, I'm just curious."
"I was given 15 gold coins deposit which was also to cover any expenditure for my operation. Once the mission is completed, I will be paid another 15 gold coins."
A total of 30 gold coins, Jack was amazed. Saint Edge was a rather wealthy guild from the look of it. They should be the same as White Scarfs and Death Associates, competing to build a Guild Base. And yet, they could still afford to spend so many coins for this covert operation.
"So what now? Are you going to their place to cash out your reward?" Jack asked.
"That I am," John answered. "After that, I will go to White Scarfs and sell this Recording Stone."
He took out the Recording Stone that Jack had given him prior.
"What's the point? They are not involved in this conflict. Why would they want that Recording Stone? It would just implicate them."
"That's why I said you are a newbie," John said while giving Jack a condescending look. "The three guilds are sure to know that a force is behind this incident. Who do you think the three guilds would suspect most? Saint Edge or White Scarfs?"
After hearing John's words, compared to Saint Edge who had not shown any aggression, he did think that the three guilds would more likely suspect that it was White Scarfs who had messed with their plan. They were the only large guild that was not invited to the meeting. It was also the dominant guild in the capital in terms of quantity of members, which made them the most likely to not want the three guilds to grow surpassing them.
But after a glance at John and remember which guild he had represented, he blurted out, "Why does it have to be those two guilds? The most likely that will get blamed is the guild you represented, Handy Craftsmen!"
"Oh, that guild just recommend us. Same as those other guys that came to the meeting with me, they are actually from Saint Edge. After this, they will lay low for a while. Which is what I will do as well."
"The Handy Craftsmen allow you to use their guild for this plan? Aren't they afraid of the aftermath?"
"They can easily deny any knowledge of this. They will say this is an independent act of their rogue members, which they had severely punished and expelled from the guild. They will proclaim that our act has nothing to do with them."
"Aren't that a bit too simple? I don't think the three guilds will still let them off that easily with that kind of excuse."
"It doesn't matter to them. They are Handy Craftsmen, they are a special group that focused on their non-battle auxiliary skills. They can stay forever behind the safety of the capital's walls. The three guilds won't be able to do anything to them."
"But what's the benefit of them going with your plan? As you said, they aren't competing with the other guilds in the conventional way. There is no impact at all for them whether the three guilds succeed or not."
"Same as me, Saint Edge's order. Oh, in my case, it was more like a request than an order."
Jack was bewildered by the statement. "Why would they listen to Saint Edge's order?" He asked.
"Well, unknown to public knowledge, Handy Craftsmen is actually the subsidiary guild of Saint Edge."
Jack thought about this piece of information, and thought back to his experience in past VR games. In the past, these two guilds indeed had a pretty harmonious relationship. But at the time, he only thought of them as good business partners who supplemented each other. He didn't know that there was more than what was shown on the surface.
"So the Handy Craftsmen never had anything to worry about," John continued. "Even if those three guilds tried to get in the way at them for procuring rare materials for their auxiliary jobs, they could still get their supply from Saint Edge. And even if the three guilds didn't believe in Handy Craftsmen's innocence, they would still think there is another player behind them. After all, Handy Craftsmen is just a specialized medium-sized guild. There is no way that the three guilds will believe that this guild will dare to stand up against them on its own. And the history of White Scarfs' relationship with Handy Craftsmen was also not so bad."
"I see… so Saint Edge had set up for White Scarfs to take the blame."
"That is one way to see it," John commented.
"Wait, White Scarfs could also deny that they have no connection to all this," Jack said.
"Are you truly that naïve? it was still reasonable to do that under normal circumstances. But their enmity with one of the three, Death Associates, was already public knowledge. As I mentioned, they will be the first one that the three guilds will suspect, the same as any other players who know of the current guild politics. If they deny it, it will only make them seemed as if they are afraid of the three guilds. Handy Craftsmen have no problem admitting their inferiority to those three guilds. However, it will be a different case for White Scarfs. Rather than appear timid, the most likely move they might take is riding the tide, and strike while it's hot. That's why I'm going to offer them this recording stone. They can use it to sow more disservice to the three guilds' reputation."
After thinking for a while, Jack took out another recording stone. It was the one that he had been using to record the meeting. "If you are going to give them that, might as well add this," Jack said.
"I'm not giving them, I'm selling it to them," John corrected as he accepted Jack's recording stone. "What's in this one?"
"It was the recording on the meeting proceeding."
John inspected the stone before looking at Jack silently. He didn't utter any word, he stored the stone in his inventory.
"Don't charge them too high a price," Jack said. He was originally planning to give the recording stone directly to Silverwing, but since John was going to give the other stone, he should just let this one tagged along. He had also been considering messaging Silverwing and let him know about the possibility of a spy inside his higher-ups. But after some thoughts, he decided against it. If he had some clues regarding the spy's identity, it would be a different story. But if he was just giving vague info like this, it would instead cause disharmony amongst the guild's higher-ups. Silverwing would be suspecting everyone and didn't know who he could trust. It would instead cause him more harm than good.
Perhaps Earmouth leaked this info to him not because he was being careless, but he wanted to use this chance to check if Jack was someone that could be trusted. Even if this info leaked, it would not be a problem for them. Instead, White Scarfs would suffer due to this info. Hence, Jack decided to just keep this info for the time being.
"Don't worry, I know you have a good relationship with them. I will give them a reasonable price," John said.
"That's not the only reason," Jack said. "They are currently competing to be the first to build a Guild Base. If you charge them too high, they might instead refuse to buy it."
"I see."
"And I want 70% of the coins you got from them."
"Wow, and here I thought you are not interested in coins."
"Those two stones are mine. I just don't like it that you are the only one profiting from them."
"You've given them to me, so they are technically mine already."
"Give them back to me!"
"Didn't you hear it is not polite to ask for things that you have given out? I will give you 50% of the profit from these stones."
"60%."
"Can you two please not haggle like women buying vegetables at a street vendor?" Flame interjected.
"What she said. 50%," John said.
Jack didn't argue further, he was not too interested in taking the profit anyway. He was just irritated by the guy's profiteering mindset.
"You know, I was actually planning to include you in my plan from the start," John said.
"Me?"
"Well, I didn't know it was you at that time."
"What do you mean?" Jack was puzzled by John's words.
"The player who put an end to the robbers," John said. "If you bother to hang around with other players more, you would find out that you were rather famous. Many rumors have been circling around regarding the robbers and how they were defeated by a single player."
"That was you?" Fierce Flame uttered with surprise.
Jack just shrugged.
