Chapter 85 - Deal with the Redbulls (1)
1.
[Hyrkan]
- Level : 100
- Class : Necromancer
- Stats : Strength(991)/Stamina(445)/Intelligence(658)/Magic Powers(755)
[Skill List]
- Summon
[Skeleton Fragment(A)], [Madness Helm(B)], [Bone Armor(B)], [Skeleton Magician(B)], [Skeleton Science(C)], [Golem Summon(B)], [Hardening(D)], [Bone Explosive(C)], [Armament(D)], [Clay Play(E)], [Skeleton Knight(F)]
- Curse
[Demon Curse(B)], [Slow Curse(C)], [Corrosive Ghost(C)], [Blind(D)], [Curse Science(E)], [Lethargy(F)]
- Body Strengthening
[Skin Sewing(C)], [Leg Strength Modification(C)], [Fake Heart(D)], [Boiling Blood(E)]
Ahn-jaehyun checked his character's Stats and Skills through the Tablet PC, then he checked his youtube page. The number of people subscribed to his page had broken through the half million mark. His recent footages weren't all jackpots, but they showed a steady rate of growth in views. Moreover, there were too many comments below the reply button, so it was hard to go through them all.
Lastly, Ahn-jaehyun checked the summary of his bank account. He had been overwhelmed by the overflowing numbers before, but the numbers that came into his sight was quite poor. The amount of money he had was less than the number of subscribed viewers on his youtube page.
The moment he saw those numbers Ahn-jaehyun let out a long sigh.
“Uh-whew!”
The moment he became level 100 the first thing he did was to go through his Advancement. His character's class was finally changed from Magician to Necromancer. With his Advancement, his Stats had grown a lot. He also gained the Skeleton Knight Skill he had wanted so bad.
Afterwards, he gathered as much funds as he could, then he purchased the level 100 Items.
‘Whatever I earned had been squeezed out.’
Clear Spider Set and Golden Mantis' Scythe Sword.
Both were incredible items.
The Clear Spider set was made from Clear Spider's webs. It was so popular amongst the level 100 users that it picked up the nickname Ferrari. It was a very good defensive set. Since it was made out of spider webs, one couldn't feel its weight, yet its defense was superior to sets made out of steel. Its basic Stat Options were unparalleled amongst the Rare Items of the same rank.
On top of that, when one wore the whole set, it activated extra defense, increased movement speed, self-regeneration, and Stat increase options. All of them were quite valuable.
The Golden Mantis' Scythe Sword was top 5 in attack amongst the level 100 Unique Rank weapon Items. It was a very powerful sword. The ancillary options were worse than the regular Unique Items. However, the weapon had such a high attack that the other deficiencies could be ignored.
Ahn-jaehyun had to empty most of the money he had saved tenaciously to buy these two items.
The leftover money was used to buy new ingredients for the Skeleton Fragments, Golem ingredient gem, and consumable items. He had used all of his money. He didn't have a single gold to his name now.
If he told this truth to the people around him, they probably would have treated Ahn-jaehyun like a madman.
Ahn-jaehyun felt it himself.
‘I spent an incredible amount of money.’
The currency he spent wasn't just gold. He had spent hard cash, so Ahn-jaehyun shut his eyes tight as he calculated.
He really did spend a lot of money.
‘My preparation was perfect.’
On the other hand, Ahn-jaehyun felt a sense of confidence now. The fact that he had invested his money into Warlord meant he was that much stronger now. He had spent a lot, so that meant Ahn-jaehyun had become powerful.
No matter what stage he went to right now he was confident that he would be able to pull his own weight. If need be, he was confident he could eradicate the Black Hounds from the great Urugal mountain range.
‘I was perfect in my preparation. Perfect, but…….’
The problem was...
“Where the hell do I find the Corrupted Elf?”
He was all set, but he had no idea what to do now. He didn't even have a direction he could go towards.
He searched his memory about the content of the Corrupted Elf Quest. Ahn-jaehyun started massaging his temple with his hands.
‘So this is what it meant when they said it was random.’
Amongst the Immoral Prince episode, the Corrupted Elf Quest was one of the more important Quests. This was the reason why Ahn-jaehyun knew that the Baheim Elf Tribe was near the Baekong Falls inside the Clapper Jungle.
Moreover, if Ahn-jaehyun followed the thread of his memory, he remembered the location of the Corrupted Elf was chosen at random. He was sure of it. When they said random, Anhn-jaehyun thought the location would be set when he received the Quest. The game would choose one cardinal point of either north, south, east or west.
‘How can it be random to this extent?’
He would have never guessed the true meaning behind the word 'random'.
‘I want to see the guy who came up with this game..’
“Uh-whew!”
Ahn-jaehyun once again let out a sigh.
Fortunately, Ahn-jaehyun was well acquainted with the macro view of the Immoral Prince episode of the Main Scenario Quest.
‘Let's think this through slowly, Ahn-jaehyun. There must be a clue here.’
This was also why Ahn-jaehyun knew what role the Corrupted Elf played in the Quest.
‘Wasn't it the Corrupted Elf's role to train the Corrupt army?’
The role of the Corrupted Elf was to hide in forests and nurture the rebel force that'll help the Immoral Prince take over the throne!
The Helm Ogre killed by Ahn-jaehyun was a part of this plan.
It was a clue.
‘In Warlord events, Corrupted Monsters makes an appearance sometimes, so there must be a connection with the Corrupted Elf.’
When a monster was suddenly exposed to the power of Corruption, it will show up as an Event Monster armed with weapon, and it possessed black eyes. There was a high chance that the Corrupted Elf was there.
Basically, he would have to gather information on where and when all the Corrupted Monsters had shown up. If he could analyze those datas, he would be able to plot the route taken by Corrupted Elf. He would be able to find its location.
‘It isn't as if there isn't a method.’
The gist of his idea was to gather information, then he would have to analyze the information. If one could do that, anyone would be able to find the Corrupt Elf. For example, if one prepared and reviewed for the entrance test thoroughly, one would be able to get into the Seoul University. However, anyone else who studied hard could also get in. If he tried hard, would he be able to gather both the information and analyze it?
“Shit.”
It meant Ahn-jaehyun couldn't do it alone.
In the first place, the Main Scenario Quest wasn't made so a single person could complete it. Numerous users had to pool together information. The Quest was made in a way to make the users cooperate with each other, and the users had to put their heads together to come up with the answers.
However, Ahn-jaehyun couldn't just release all the information he had right now, and he couldn’t ask the Warlord players to finish the Scenario Quest with him.
After thinking it over, Ahn-jaehyun decided to go with the second best plan.
‘In the end, I have to make some deals with the 30 Great Guilds?’
He had to make a deal with the members of the 30 Great Guilds.
In his current situation, if Ahn-jaehyun really wanted to catch the Corrupt Elf by himself, he would have to make a deal with the 30 Great Guilds. Only then would it be possible to attempt this by himself.
“Chet.”
This was disappointing.
However, one thing was for sure, it was a waste to give up right now. Currently, Ahn-jaehyun was rapidly progressing through the Main Scenario Quest. He was well ahead of his competitions.
If he gave up early, he wasn't just giving up on the Main Scenario Quest. Ahn-jaehyun would be giving up on the reason why he had sacrificed everything he had to play this game.
‘I have no choice..’
If he wanted to step on the 30 Great Guilds and rise above them, he would have to make some deals with some of them right now.
Fortunately, he had enough bait to trade with them.
‘Fortunately, I had spread the identity of the Corrupt Count beforehand.’
Amongst the 30 Great Guilds, he had handed over the identity of the Corrupt Count to 29 of the 30 Great Guilds. He had excluded the Hydra guild. He could propose a deal using the the mail address he had used last time. Aside from the transaction, he needed a platform where he would be able to make a deal.
He needed a platform where he could make a deal with any guild. The only thing left to do right now was to choose a partner.
‘In terms of gathering information, the Hydra Guild is the best, but....’
Amongst the 30 great guilds, the Hydra Guild was the furthest along on the Main Scenario Quest. If It wasn't for Ahn-jaehyun, the Hydra guild would have taken care of the Corrupt Count.
This was also the reason why they weren't a suitable transaction partner.
‘If I offer up a proposal, they'll probably try to kill me during the transaction.’
From the Hydra guild's perspective, he had given the identity of the Corrupt Count away. He had suddenly given the information to the 29 guilds without asking for any compensation. They probably wanted to kill Ahn-jaehyun, who had handed this information over. They had suffered an incredible loss, because of him.
‘The next in line is the Storm Hunters and the Red Bulls?’
After the Hydra guild, the only guilds that distinguished themselves by catching the Corrupt Count was the Stormhunters and Red Bulls. When these two guilds killed the Corrupt Count, they pulled ahead of all the other guilds. Moreover, they had closed a significant distance with the Hyrda guild, who was furthest along the Main Scenario Quest. This caused the two guilds to shift their resources from Raiding into progressing the Main Scenario Quest.
‘The Stormhunters overlap with me in terms of the Quests.’
The Main Scenario Quest being carried out by the Stormhunters was the same as Ahn-jaehyun. If he requested a deal for information with them, it was basically grabbing the hands of a competitor, who was hot on his heels. It was basically asking the competitor to run together to the goal line.
‘Yes. I can never give up, because of those bastards. If I give up, the one that benefits the most is the Stormhunters.’
Even if that wasn't one of his reasons, he would never make deals with the Stormhunters.
So there was only one left.
“Red Bulls…….”
2.
- What do you want to do?
It was Red Bull's guild master Matador Chev.
As one of the most famous users representing Warlord, he was thinking very hard on the problem.
- Should we accept the proposed deal?
“When does he want an answer by?
- He didn't put a time limit on it, but if we are late in answering, there is a high chance that the dealer might ignore us later.
“How much time do we have to think on this?”
- Faster is better. This kind of information transactions has to be done in a swift manner.
Of course, Chev remembered it. Someone had sent him a mail, and thanks to the information contained within it the Red Bulls guild was able to catch the Corrupt Count.
A mail had once again come from the address that had given him such a valuable information before.
The content was brief.
[I have a customer, who wants to trade information regarding the Main Scenario Quest with the Red Bulls guild. Would you like to make a deal?]
‘Was he a broker?’
He wasn't requesting an info trade for himself. He explicitly said he had a customer wanting to do the info trade.
The information that was vital in the Corrupt Count hunt was provided by this person. However, it was apparent now that he wasn't personally providing the information. He was acting as the go-between in passing along the information. It was proof that this person was a broker.
This wasn't something special or weird. If it was profitable, a perfectly healthy person would even sell their own organs for money. Don't people sell other humans for money even in reality? Warlord was a marketplace where enormous amount of money changed hands. It would be weird if there wasn't any information brokers in Warlord.
‘Yes. It's better that he is a broker. The fact that he is a broker means that we can approach him for trades at any given time.’
Anyways, the proposal that was sent from the other side was decent.
Red Bulls used to be a guild, who only focused on Raids. Now their group, who specialized in Raids, were shifted towards progressing the Main Scenario Quest. They were putting a lot of resources towards this.
The problem was they couldn't recover what they had invested just from doing well. They couldn't be merely good. It was important that they were better than their competitors.
“How would you rate his credibility?”
- At the very least, we don't have to worry about his credibility. Also, didn't we gain a lot last time because of him? I don't think we'll come out at a loss from dealing with him.
This information merchant was the first one to reach out, and give them the identity of the Corrupt Count. The Corrupt Count's identity wasn't known by anyone at the time. As his adviser had said, there was no downside in cooperating with the information merchant.
Chev immediately gave his answer.
“We'll do the trade.”
- Yes! I'll immediately send the mail.
3.
Ahn-jaehyun read the mail sent by the Red Bulls.
[The information we want is regarding the dwarf of the Red mountain. We want to know the location of the Red mountain.]
The moment he saw the content of the mail Ahn-jaehyun rooted through his memories.
‘The Red Bulls are progressing on the rescue the kidnapped dwarf story.’
The Immoral Prince needed to arm the Corrupted Army, so he had kidnapped a dwarf to produce the weapons. The Red Bulls were on the Main Scenario Quest where they had to rescue this dwarf.
‘So they want the secrets of the Salt Mountain.’
The identity of the Red mountain that the Red Bulls wanted to know was the Salt mountain located on the south of the continent.
It looked like a mountain made out of white salt, but the Salt mountain contained a mine that produced red steel. If one followed the quests related to the Salt mountain, one would naturally find out about this fact.
Of course, this truth was spread at a slightly later date. The Salt mountain was a hunting ground where level 120 monsters appeared, so it was a very difficult place to hunt. There weren't a lot of users, who used that stage. Users started operating around that region only recently. This was why this information was known amongst only a select few lucky users.
It wouldn't be too long before the Red Bulls acquired this info on their own. It wasn't a long time for Ahn-jaehyun. However, the Red Bulls was in the dark as to when they'll find the info. This was why the deal would be able to be made.
‘I have enough to make this deal.’
At the very least, he had prepared some cards he could pull out. The only thing left was Ahn-jaehyun's final decision.
‘The only problem is that my identity might become known.’
Ahn-jaehyun had gone through all the bothersome steps to look like a broker for a very simple reason.
It would be a problem if the Hahoe Mask showed up at the designated location given by the Red Bulls. Unless the Red Bulls was stupid, they'll connect the dot between the Hahoe Mask, the information about the Corrupt Count and the mysterious information merchant.
Since he put up a front as a broker, the identity of the information merchant wouldn't be found out to be the Hahoe Mask. For the immediate future, he wouldn't receive any suspicion, but it wasn't a guarantee that it wouldn't happen. Still, the truth wasn't important here. If the Red Bull suspected that the Hahoe Mask and the information merchant ran in the same circle, then they might move against him regardless of not knowing the merchant’s identity.
Even if that doesn't happen, Red Bulls would most definitely hold more interest and wariness towards the Hahoe Mask.
If he was to go through with this proposal, he had to be ready for such eventuality.
Of course, Ahn-jaehyun's ultimate goal was to leapfrog the 30 great guilds. He was already receiving a lot of attention, but he'll had to set a goal to receive much more interest in the future.
“Hmmm.”
At that moment, Ahn-jaehyun thought about the Big Smile guild.
They hadn't shown their teeth towards Ahn-jaehyun yet, but the Big Smile guild had attacked him with the Hahoe Mask as their target. This meant they'll probably attack him once again in the future.
Currently, he couldn't go head to head with the Big Smile. In fact, the decision to fight them wasn't in his hands. Big Smile was the one, who had pulled the trigger first. From Ahn-jaehyun's perspective, it was best to make it so that they couldn't pull the trigger again.
“……should I go meet them once?”