One of the guild leaders I had known in my previous life had been greedy and had wanted to conquer a dungeon a class higher than was rated for his guild. It had been before the Eight Virtues and Eight Evils revealed their real natures, and seized them all by force majeure (then fighting over them), and publicly owned dungeons were sold by auction. Dungeon conquests and gate battles had begun from being managed exclusively by the military to the Private Sector.
The guild leader and other core members manipulated the guild’s data in the databases in order to get the rights to the dungeon.
However, the result had been that the guild members who had gone in there had all died. While they had brought the disaster upon themselves, it was not the case for many companies, notably Korea’s Daehoo. Daehoo had manipulated its ledgers to lessen their losses and lied about their profits. If Daehoo had been the only one to fall down, things would not have gone badly. However, the problem was that Daehoo had swindled government funds and civilian investments. The massive accounting fraud scandals had shocked the American Financial community, which was another reason why the US government did not pay attention to us as we prepared to enter the banking business.
As Jonathan Investments had not released an IPO yet, we had no motive to deceive our investors. That was why the investigator from the Department of Treasury had left without finding any problems. However, Jonathan seemed annoyed just by their presence in his offices.
“I feel my blood boil whenever one of them comes walking in, acting all high and mighty.”
“However, they had not said anything about banking, so it seems like we can begin.”
History was in the making as Jonathan Investment was moving into the institutional sector.
“Will you come with me?”
However, I had a more important business to attend to.
“No, get as much money as you can.”
“Do you have a hot date with your teacher?”
Jonathan’s smile was wicked.
“I won’t be available for a while, so do as much as you can.”
“What is it?”
“A trip to Germany.”
**
Yeonhee seemed better than she had been before as we sat down in a restaurant with jazz music. I could not read her mind, so I had to guess.
“It’s alright if you want another member in our team.”
“What?”
“If it’s really necessary…”
“Don’t be like that. Let’s not think about this for a while.” I meant what I said when I declared a moratorium on new members.
Yeonhee hesitated like she wanted to say something else but changed her words at the last moment.
“I thought a lot during my stay in America. I want to prepare better. If it’s like this after just terrorism, then…”
I had kept my plan a secret, but Yeonhee’s expression shook me.
“I have a plan.”
“What?”
“There’s a guy who can evaluate a pre-Awakened person better than us. He’s the right person to train people.”
I had received reports that this guy had started moving as a prior Awakened starting last year. He had gathered others who may be prior Awakened, and I heard the number was nearing thirty last week. He was aggressively gathering European prior-Awakened using his money and status. It was no surprise to know that I was already thinking about the Second Virtue. Revolucion was being born, and I knew this was the time to move when he finally sold his business and bought a German Telecom firm. (EN: Chapter 106)
“Is there a person like that?”
“That’s why you can rest easy and go back to Seoul.”
**
Now was the right time, as the Second Virtue’s group was still weak. I had received reports that his ‘private security officers’ were increasing in number and had not decreased yet. That meant they had not gone into a dungeon, and suffered the inevitable casualties, and I had refrained from buying the dungeons near his field of activity in preparation for today.
I met the agent who had infiltrated the Second Virtue’s mansion as a security officer in Berlin. He reported that many outsiders visited the mansion and were doing something there. The agent had not been able to see more.
My problem was how to get into his group. It was only guesswork on my part that the Second Virtue was monitoring BBS’s(Bulletin Board Systems) and the still nascent Internet Chat Boards on servers that used Berlin Telecom’s services to discover potential prior-Awakened. He would then use his ownership of Berlin Telecom to intercept their private emails and chats to confirm. I had stayed in a hotel and left hints on one of the boards I suspected, but there had been no response. I finally ended up infiltrating his house, and after rifling through his office, I realised the problem was the search protocols he used to look for keywords in the BBS’s and Chat Rooms, which left gaps.
I just added my posts to a Chat Board I knew he was monitoring, added the right words, like “quests”, “menus”, and waited until a stranger called me.
<Berlin Telecom>
A beautiful female voice spoke to me in English, which made me feel like something was finally happening.
<We have called to apologise and inform you that the data communications service you’re using is malfunctioning. If you inform us where your hotel is, our employee will visit to confirm a few items and compensate for your inconvenience.>
<Will that take long? I am in my hotel now but have to go somewhere soon.>
<Where are you staying?>
<Wilson Gardens in Berlin.>
<Our employee can visit you in ten minutes. Will you wait in the lobby?>
<You guys are fast. That’s manageable.>
They must have already placed people around hotels, and I could see the hotel entrance from my seat in the lobby. However, my spine tingled on recognizing someone who had just come in.
He was the Fourth Virtue! He had gained his position through sheer stats and fighting skills as his skills and items had been inadequate. In a world where skills and items had triumphed, the Fourth Good had overcome his bad luck through sheer talent.
I had not expected him here all the more because the Fourth Virtue and the Second Virtue had been bitter enemies so that they had only met to fight the Seven Demon Kings.
Was the Fourth Virtue in Revolucion? I had not known that in my past life. The Fourth Virtue spoke to the lobby employee, who then pointed to me.
I saw the Fourth Virtue approach me and I remembered that I had admired him in my past life before he became obsessed with the system.
“Are you Leonard?”
His strong voice and muscular body did not fit a communication firm employee. I observed that he was not wearing any notable dungeon items.
“Are you from Berlin Telecom?”
I pretended ignorance, and the Fourth Virtue told me his name was Mikhail. However, I knew that he was born in Hong Kong, and his Asian looks were similar to mine.
“What’s the problem? Can’t you act quickly as I’m going to be late?”
“Are you in a hurry?”
I held a tourist pamphlet, as Leonard was a Korean American who was on a backpacking trip in Germany. I made sure I seemed vulnerable to the Second Virtue’s group.
“I apologise, and we will make sure that you’re well compensated…”
The Fourth Virtue looked me over, and I knew that there was another person who was observing me now. While that guy would not know I had noticed him, he had been in my sights after he had come in a bit after the Fourth Virtue.
The man touched his hair, which seemed to be the sign. It seemed that he may have that Ranger trait. The Second Virtue’s group was well-formed, and it had been fruitful I had left them to do so. Things were going well. I opened my mouth. (EN: Chapter 119)
“Can we move to a different place if we’re going to talk for a while?”
Jonathan was going after banking and Jillian the oil money from America. The Fourth Virtue agreed, and now I was on a path to conquer the Second Virtue and his group.