The long corridor branched into several rooms, and one of the room doors was wide open.
"This must be where they are." Liam walked over, and he saw Alex and Berat sitting inside.
The duo saw him too, and Berat immediately shot up from his seat, waving his hand vigorously. "Boss Liam, we are here! We are here! Please don't go."
The last few words came out very quietly, but both parties heard him. Alex rolled her eyes, and Liam chuckled.
However, he did not stop there and prickled her a bit more. "What happened? Did you scare Berat too much?"
"Excuse me? Are you sure you should be asking me this question! You are the one who is scary!" Alex chewed her lips and turned her head to send another glare to Berat.
The poor guy got even more spooked and started laughing awkwardly. "Boss, please don't joke anymore." He did not have enough strength to bear this kind of dangerous humor.
"Ah, I have some more gold coins with me from the last transaction. Shall I send it to you to now or put it in the guild vault?" He quickly changed the subject.
"Mmmm. Keep sending it to me." These funds were his personal funds and he did not want to mix them both unless required.
The two of them finished the transaction while Alex sat quietly and finished the drink in her hand.
"Done, boss. I sent everything. When is the next batch arriving?" Berat rubbed his hands and asked.
"Should be soon," Liam said as he sat down. "Did you both take the tour yet?"
"AH! YESSS! Boss, this guild residence is amazing!!! I didn't expect S-Rank to be so awesome. Did you see other guild residences? They are all living in the slum compared to us."
"The cooking hall, the alchemy laboratory, even the massage parlor!" Berat grinned ear to ear as he continued rambling on.
Liam as well simply smiled and continued patiently listening as if he was not in any sort of hurry.
Only Alex was restless and shifted in her seat. It was a rare opportunity to meet with this guy like this and she couldn't believe that it was being wasted away talking about random nonsense.
She waited a couple of minutes but eventually set her glass on the table and looked at Liam firmly.
"Why are you grumpy? Did you not like the guild residence?" Liam chuckled.
"I… ummm. What? I am not grumpy. Who said I am? I mean, I also like the guild residence. A lot. Though honestly, we could have done without the massage parlor."
"Eh? A massage parlor is important." Liam shook his head resolutely with a smirk.
He was about to add something, which clearly was going to be inappropriate so Alex jumped the gun and interrupted him.
"Can we please talk about some important issues first?"
Liam raised his brows and smiled. He already knew what she wanted to talk about. "Ok sure? Is this about the spatial rifts again?" He asked.
However, unexpectedly Alex shook her head, "No."
"Hmmm?"
"This is about guild recruitment. Have you seen the numbers? At this rate, we are going to get overrun!"
"I see." Liam nodded, still with a smile.
"Huh? I am not saying this happily."
"We should do something to tone it down. Most of these people are completely useless. If we make our guild too bloated with this kind of people, it won't end well."
"I completely agree. No arguments here." Liam flashed another smile.
"Huh? I-" Alex opened and closed her mouth wordlessly.
She took another breath, paused for a second and then continued. "Ummm… Ok, so one suggestion I have is to open the 'inner guild membership' to the public?"
"This can help us solidify some sort of base numbers?"
"Too many people are coming and going. If we don't do something to stabilize soon, things are going to become difficult." She suggested.
This was the best option they had available. If they could organize more dungeon runs and raiding parties with these trustworthy inner members, they could grow solidly.
The sooner they do this, the better. She had already been itching to do this and was only waiting for Liam's 'yes.'
She even opened the system interface when discussing and looked at Liam, fully expecting him to agree to this as well.
However, unexpectedly, Liam simply shook his head. "Oh about that. Leave it for now. We are not opening that yet."
Alex almost spat out the drink in her mouth. "What? Why? Shouldn't we separate inner and outer members and incentivize inner members more so that everyone would work harder?"
"No." Liam replied flatly.
"I… I think you are wrong. What is the point of putting in this feature if we are not going to use it?"
"Nope."
"Can you give me a reason?"
"Hmmm…"
"It would be nice if you did that once in a while!"
"..."
Clearly, the tension was increasing and Berat who was sitting quietly near the duo and watching their discussion started sweating.
It was too late for him to leave the room. Or was it?
Just as he fidgeted with his fingers and shifted awkwardly, suddenly he saw Liam get up and walk over to reach for another drink.
And when he returned, he flicked Alex's forehead and casually replied, "Do you want to become a mass murderer or what?"
"Don't you know what would happen when we open up that feature for everyone?" He shook his head and sat back down, taking a few sips.
Berat was utterly confused.
He looked at Alex to see if she understood something, and surprisingly she also had a confused expression which quickly turned to one of realization.
"Ah. I didn't think about this." She lightly nodded.
"Hmmm… what you said is not wrong, but leave things be for now. In a few weeks, some truths should come out, and at that time, we can set our clause as well."
"Otherwise, there would be unnecessary friction with the government and things might become messy. Do you understand?"
"Yes, sorry." Alex hurriedly nodded again. She definitely did not think about this aspect. Even imagining the consequences was scary.
Berat still looked confused, no longer understanding what was going on. Was he missing something obvious?
He steeled his nerves and decided to voice out his doubts rather than remaining dumb. "Boss, what is this? What government? Are we doing something wrong?"
"Hmmm?" Liam turned to look at him. He then added a few words with a stern look. "If people took a soul oath and betray us anyway, what will happen?"
"They will die?"
"Yes, that's right. And if a huge number of people die, won't the government question us?"
"Ah… government…?" Berat still did not understand. "Wait… why will the government get involved?"
Then the words slowly sunk into his brain, and he asked again. "They will only die inside the… game? Right?"
With his eyes widened like big footballs, he looked at Liam and then at Alex.
The two continued casually sipping their drinks, not caring in the least about what they had just spoken about.
"They will die only inside the game right?" Berat gulped.
"What do you think?" Liam chuckled wryly and then stood up.
"Alright, I have some things to finish up. Alex, why don't you fill him in? Also, in a while, some things will happen. It's best to stay calm and do nothing."
"Huh? Is this about the spatial rifts?" Alex had a bad feeling.
"Yup," Liam answered and then walked away.
He had only just left the room when Alex received another message.
"Boss! Big NEWS! Something is happening. All the other guilds are getting massacred in the spatial rifts!"
"What the hell…?"
Alex looked up at Berat, and now both of them looked utterly shocked, though for very different reasons.
