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Homecoming (3)

“That child—Cha Si-eun, was it? It looked as if she had made a decision…” the Frost Queen muttered, peeking through the crack of the door as it closed.

“Well, I’m an inspirational quote machine. She probably felt touched.”

“You talk as much as always.” She shook her head and took her regular seat on the sofa. She hugged the remote and looked up at Seo Junho.

“Haa, give that to me.” He was going to turn on the channel she liked, but she shook her head.

“No. I can do this myself, so make some tea.” She worked the remote skillfully and switched it on to the drama channel. Seo Junho stared in awe. She did it so naturally.

“…You know how to use the remote?”

“I am not stupid. Did you think that I would not be able to work a device of this level?”

“Then why have you made me do it for you this whole time?”

“Because it’s fun.” He didn’t know what to say. She held up her finger to her lips. “Be quiet now. It is time for me to watch my dramas.”

“……”

Forget the Agarit tea. He dropped bitter ginseng into the boiling water and went back to his room. A moment later, the Frost Queen called out.

“Contractor! This tea… tastes strange. It makes my tongue pucker.”

“Really? It’s the tea that nobles on Earth drink. Do you want something else?”

“…No. I think the taste is beginning to grow on me.”

She scrunched her face as she drank the ginseng tea. Now that she was taken care of, the Frost Queen was no longer his opponent. Seo Junho checked his inbox on his Vita. There, the six messages he was waiting for appeared.

[This is Silent Moon. We wish to propose…]

[This is the mercenary guild Hallem.]

[The Dokkaebi Guild wishes to inquire with Seo Junho-nim…]

[Silver Constellation…]

[Labyrinth…]

[Sky Soul* wishes…]

(TN: This is likely a reference to the idiom “All human lives are in the sky”, which means that fate is predetermined.)

The Big 6 had responded to his proposal with Specter’s name on the line.

“Well, I already know what they’re gonna say.” Still, he read them out of courtesy. They were full of long-winded rambling, but they all came to the same conclusion.

[We will follow Specter-nim.]

“Not that they ever had a choice.”

When he got caught up in political conflicts as Specter, he’d learned something important.

“When I offer a choice, I make it so that they’re forced to choose what I want.” It was simple but effective. Seo Junho smiled, satisfied. Even though it was temporary, he now had the six best information networks in the palm of his hand. He flopped down onto his bed and stared up at the ceiling.

“It sure took a while…”

It had been seven months since he had broken out of the ice. The memories of the time flashed through his head.

Zombies, Leufs, Cinder Fox, Nameless Dragon, Watchdogs, Dark Elves, Rome, and now, the Winter Castle… He never noticed when he was running about, but they all seemed so long ago. His seven months was probably the equivalent of several years of activities for the average player.

“Still, I reached level 34 after seven months… That means I’m going several times faster than the past.” Of course, there was no use in comparing those two eras. His previous experience as a player was immeasurably valuable.

If I want to, I could go to the 2nd Floor Frontier as soon as tomorrow… Of course, he had no plans to go up—whether he could or not. Now that he had access to the Big 6’s information, he needed to organize the data.

“First…” Seo Junho skimmed their emails again. They all spoke proudly of their information networks. “Just as I thought. Even though they’re all part of the Big 6, they all collect different kinds of information.”

He divided them into three types. “Hm, I suppose they’re either affiliated with the royal, noble, or religious factions.”

There was a large empire in the Frontier called Ruben. Most of the explored areas on the 2nd Floor were controlled by it. Guilds on the scale of the Big 6 were already deeply familiar with the empire. After all, they’d worked their way up for 25 years.

“Silent Moon and Dokkaebi are affiliated with royalty.” They’d focused a lot on fostering their relationship with the royal family in order to give a positive impression and receive noble titles. As a result, these two guilds had the most nobles.

And the second is the nobility. The empire was ruled by the Emperor, but the power of the nobility couldn’t be disregarded. After all, the ocean was made up of countless drops. Labyrinth and Sky Soul are in the talks with the nobility. They were establishing themselves by absorbing provinces. They had enough authority to compete with Dokkaebi and Silent Moon, who were affiliated with the imperial family.

“The third is the religious faction. The only guild affiliated with them is Silver Constellation.” There were many religions in the Frontier. Each god communicated directly with their believers and gave them divine power.

Silver Constellation is building a place for themselves in the Ruben Empire’s official religion: the [Church of the Sun].

The Church of the Sun was just as powerful as the royalty and nobility. “The three main powers of the Empire keep each other in check…”

The last guild was Hallem. They were irrelevant to the others. “They’re a mercenary guild. They’ve already claimed a territory and started cultivating it.” They didn’t even need to worry about vested rights. 25 years after their founding, the mercenary guild was quickly gaining newfound power. They used to be easily overlooked, but they were quite famous now and carried out their activities all over the Empire.

It might not be the best quality, but they’ll be able to get me a variety of information the fastest. Seo Junho finished organizing his thoughts and closed his eyes.

“Hm, then… let’s give them a test.” Which guild would get him information the fastest? Seo Junho smiled and wrote up an email.

Knock, knock.

Dokkaebi’s Guildmaster, Shin Sunghyun, spoke without looking up. “Come in. What’s the matter?” he asked, his eyes still fixed on the documents he was working on.

“Specter responded.”

His hand stopped. It’s been around three months since we received his proposal. Specter had finally replied.

He finally looked up at the messenger. “What did he say?”

“He requested that we gather information about the fiends and send them to him. The time limit was thirty minutes.”

“An easy request. Send him all the information that’s mid-rank and below.”

“Understood. But…” The messenger hesitated before speaking. “I believe that the other guilds have received the same request.”

“Why do you think that?”

“The other guild messengers rode in the elevator with me to the 2nd Floor.”

“……”

The 2nd Floor didn’t have internet, so they couldn’t communicate directly with the 1st Floor. To take care of the issue, each guild always had members on standby in the Dimensional Elevator. Messengers delivered information between the Floors.

“Hm. So that means Specter has requested information from the other guilds as well.” Shin Sunghyun gave an amused smile and spun the pen in his hand. So he wants us to compete.

It was easy to see why. Specter was probably primarily concerned that the guilds would communicate and restrict the information they would give him—and he was right to be worried. He had given them three months, which was plenty of time for the Guildmasters to meet and discuss. They had decided to give him mid-rank information and below.

But Specter had sent the request to the Big 6 at the same time. Shin Sunghyun could only see one reason as to why he would do that.

…He already expected that we would be cooperating. So he’s going to compare our information. Since they’d already come to an agreement, there wouldn’t be much difference between the information they gave him. Ironically, giving him the same amount and level of information would still reveal what he wanted.

If that happens and he compares the information we give him, he’ll be able to see which guild has the best information network.

But there was another interesting factor that came into play. If one guild’s information was far worse than the others, they would likely be kicked out. In other words, he would only work with the useful ones. Considering Specter’s previous display, it wouldn’t be unlike him to do that.

“Haa, really… His arrogance knows no limits.” But even if they didn’t want to, they had no other choice but to follow him.

As guilds grew in size, they started to prioritize quality over quantity. The standards for each player kept growing. And talented people won’t join guilds with bad reputations. No matter how many benefits they offered, that wouldn’t change.

But Specter’s second condition was greatly beneficial for the guilds. They would easily be able to shake off the smaller guilds that were always chasing after them. Their guild’s reputation would improve without them having to spend a single penny.

“So… I suppose it turned out for the better.”

Like the other Big 6 Guildmasters, Shin Sunghyun was proud of his information network. Our guild’s is one of the best—even among the Big 6.

If he broke the promise with the other guilds and gave Specter higher-level information, the others would pale in comparison. He wasn’t stupid.

Six guilds is too many for him to work with.

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Shin Sunghyun made his decision. If things proceeded as planned, Dokkaebi would be the only guild that would end up working with Specter.

“Give him everything except classified and top-secret information.”

“Then… does that mean I should give him everything from the lowest to high-rank information?”

“Yes, everything.”

“Y-yes, sir!” As the startled messenger left the room, he went back to his documents. A satisfied smile curled at his lips.