Back in Masteria, Lumi and Lena materialized in Elenora, their respawn tirs finally complete.
The mont they appeared, they were imdiately confronted by an extrely irate rath.
The ancient magician stood before them with his arms crossed, his usually calm deanor replaced by visible frustration.
"Explain." rath’s voice was dangerously calm. "Explain to why your airship ca crashing through my library window."
Lumi winced.
That was right. He did do that. The autopilot. He’d programd it to return to rath’s library, but he hadn’t exactly accounted for the airship’s approach vector. It had apparently taken the most direct route possible, which ant straight through the side of the building rather than any reasonable route.
"I an, what?" rath continued, his voice rising slightly. "Did you seriously send an unpiloted airship crashing through my window?"
The ancient magician gestured sharply toward the library behind him. Lumi could now see the damage. A large section of the outer wall had a massive hole in it, wooden splinters and shattered glass scattered across the platform. The airship itself was parked awkwardly inside, half in and half out of the building.
Lena tried very hard not to laugh. She failed, a small snort escaping before she clamped her hand over her mouth.
rath’s eyes snapped to her. "You find this amusing?"
"No, no." Lena shook her head rapidly, her voice muffled behind her hand. "Not at all. Very serious. Very bad. I’m so sorry."
rath’s expression suggested he didn’t believe her for a second.
The only reason he didn’t lose his mind on the spot was because he had seen them with that airship before and thus knew it was theirs.
If it had been so random airship from an unknown source, he would have assud it was an attack. He would have destroyed it imdiately, investigated the wreckage, and hunted down whoever was responsible.
But this was their airship. The one he’d seen them using multiple tis. Which ant this wasn’t an attack.
It was incompetence.
Or perhaps sothing else entirely.
"Why?" rath demanded. "Why would you do that?"
Lumi opened his mouth to explain, then stopped.
How exactly was he supposed to answer that question?
He couldn’t say they’d both died during a magical baptism process and programd the airship to return on its own. That would require explaining topics he absolutely could not discuss due to system restrictions.
He glanced at Lena, who looked equally stuck.
The system prevented them from revealing certain information to natives. Anything that would expose the true nature of Masteria Online, anything that would reveal players weren’t actually native inhabitants, anything that touched on Earth or the Dark One’s plans.
And of course, due to those system restrictions, neither Lumi nor Lena could actually give him a proper answer.
All they could do was skirt around the issue and say sothing vague.
Lumi took a breath and tried his best. "We had reasons. Trust us. But we can’t say them."
rath stared at him.
Lena nodded enthusiastically. "Yep. Very good reasons. The best reasons. But yeah, can’t tell you. Sorry about that."
The ancient magician’s eye twitched slightly. rath was silent for a long mont, his expression unreadable.
This was, of course, really frustrating for him.
He was an ancient magician who had lived for centuries. He’d seen countless mysteries, solved innurable magical puzzles, and accumulated knowledge that most people couldn’t even comprehend.
And yet these two strange adventurers kept doing inexplicable things, refusing to explain themselves, and expecting him to just accept it.
The worst part was that he could sense they were telling the truth. They did have reasons. They weren’t being deliberately obstinate or disrespectful. There was so genuine constraint preventing them from speaking openly.
Whatever was happening, it was beyond his current understanding. Yet, he hated that. How exactly was there sothing beyond his understanding? He knew almost all things magic, did he not? Unless it was the Dark One, then...
Oh, right.
rath exhaled slowly, his frustration giving way to resignation. Of course, he could only believe them and let them go.
After all, he did trust them. He had to.
"Fine," rath said finally. "Leave. But next ti, please land your airship anywhere else rather than through my wall."
"Will do." Lumi said quickly, already backing away before the ancient magician could linger on the incident too long.
Lena gave an exaggerated salute. "You got it, boss!"
They retreated rapidly, leaving rath standing alone in front of his damaged library, shaking his head slowly.
...
Once they were away from rath’s library, Lumi’s mind shifted back to more imdiate concerns.
The raid was soon. In just a few days, actually. Presumably, either today or tomorrow would be the last day with the pixies. That was good timing, since the raid was coming up and he needed to be ready for that.
Speaking of the raid, his follow up post on the forums had generated exactly the response he’d hoped for.
Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, had seen it.
The announcent had spread like wildfire across internet, every social dia platform, every forum where Masteria Online was discussed. Everyone knew about the upcoming raid. Everyone knew Lumi was organizing it.
That said, how many players would actually show up was severely limited by how many owned a ga pod and cared enough to participate.
The ga pods were expensive. Three thousand dollars, plus installation fees. That wasn’t pocket change for most people. Even with the recent price drop, it was still a significant investnt.
And the ga pod, as expensive as it was, had already dropped in price by two hundred dollars since launch.
Nexarch really wanted everyone to own one.
That much was obvious. The price reduction had co suddenly, announced without much fanfare, clearly designed to remove barriers to entry. The more people playing Masteria Online, the better for their plans.
Little did they know how badly that decision would backfire on them.
Beyond the price drop, Lumi had noticed sothing else suspicious.
His gold exchange platform had received so very convenient help recently.
On paper, it was just so interested investors who had reached out to his business partner Lucas and the others running the operation. They claid they believed it was a good investnt, that the platform had strong fundantals and growth potential.
That excuse made no sense to anyone with basic business competence.
The gold exchange platform wasn’t even a month old. It had no proven track record, no profit reports, nothing. Any legitimate investor would have asked for extensive docuntation, demanded detailed financials, and negotiated for significant equity in return for their capital.
These "investors" had done none of that. They’d simply offered money with minimal strings attached.
Luckily, Lucas had imdiately pointed this out to Renan.
...
The conversation had happened a few days ago.
Lucas had called him in the evening, his voice tense with suspicion. "Renan, we got an offer."
"What kind of offer?" Renan had been working on his posts in the forums at the ti, so he wasn’t paying that much attention to Lucas’s words. He could handle it.
Lucas explained. "Investnt. Big investnt. So venture capital firm wants to put ten million into the platform."
That got Renan’s attention. "Ten million? Are they crazy?"
"Yeah. And here’s the thing." Lucas paused. "They’re not asking for much in return. Standard equity agreent, minimal oversight requirents, and they’re fine with us maintaining operational control."
"That’s suspicious."
"That’s what I said," Lucas replied. "No legitimate investor would structure a deal like this. We’re too new, and too unproven. No one would think we’re worth ten million. Even I’m not sure we have that potential. They should be demanding way more control, way more information, and way more guarantees. Frankly, they should be demanding all we have and more."
Renan thought about it for a mont. "Did they say who they represent?"
"So shell company. I looked into it. The paperwork traces back to about five different holding companies, none of which have any public presence. Whoever’s behind this doesn’t want to be identified."
Lumi grinned. "It’s Nexarch."
"Huh?" Lucas was baffled. Nexarch? Like... the company that made the ga? Why would they fund a third party RMT operation?"
"Who else could it be?" Lumi asked. "They have a vested interest in making the platform successful. More players trading gold ans more engagent with the ga. More engagent ans more people getting pulled deeper into Masteria."
"Yeah, but..." Lucas was unsure. What exactly were they talking about? If Nexarch wanted a platform to exchange between ga currency and real currency, they’d host it themselves."
Renan shrugged. Of course, Lucas still didn’t know Masteria was a real world. He didn’t need to, not yet. Renan leaned back in his chair, considering the implications. "What do you think we should do?"
"Normally? I’d tell them to fuck off. This whole thing screams red flags."
"But?"
"But you’re going to tell to accept it anyway, aren’t you?" Lucas said.
Renan smiled slightly. "Accept it. All of it. Don’t negotiate, don’t push back, just take their money and run the platform exactly how we planned."
Lucas was quiet for a mont. "You want to explain why?"
Renan wouldn’t lie to him. Even if his answer made absolutely no sense to him. "Because they’re trying to help us, and they don’t even realize they’re shooting themselves in the foot."
Renan understood the logic perfectly. They thought a successful gold trading platform benefitted them. In a different tiline, it did. In this one, he would be using it to build infrastructure that would be crucial for breaking people out of the system’s control.
Of course, Lucas knew none of that, which is why he was silent for a while. "What?"
Renan could only push on. "Just do it."
Lucas couldn’t refuse. "Alright."
User Comments
0 comments from readers