Negotiations ended on an even note.

  A contract was put together with the agreed upon percentages, and sent over to Lucy so that she could have their lawyers look it over. Then, to Sam’s surprise, the older man spent a little time asking about Katie and how she was. Apparently, she didn’t like to interact with the man too much. Sam wasn’t really surprised.

  Returning home, he called up his friends for a little meeting.

  His home system lit up, and several screens appeared with Lucy, Liz, Tim, Lara, and Adam’s faces on them. Though Liz looked a little uncomfortable, which was fair as usually she wasn’t included in big meetings like this.

  “Uhm, why am I here?” she asked with a confused voice.

  Sam just smiled at her. “You’re here because you’ll be an important part of Phase 3.”

  She blinked in surprise but didn’t say anything. Sam then turned to Lucy. “I think we can begin.”

  Lucy looked around and nodded.

  “Yes. We can begin. Introductions are not needed as I assume nobody suffered retrograde amnesia in the last week, right?” There was a murmur of acknowledgment before she continued. “Then, we are here to discuss the acquisition of the Steel Lions, the finishing touches of Farabor and the next phase of our company. Before we start, does anyone have anything they would like to mention or maybe some questions?”

  Everybody shook their heads, and Lucy nodded again. “Alright, then as you all know, the owner of Steel Lions has recently reached out to us, offering the sale of their guild and associated assets.”

  “Why?” Adam exclaimed in disbelief. “They are one of the top guilds in the Emerald Kingdom!”

  Lucy let out an exasperated sigh and motioned toward Sam. “Him.”

  Adam just opened his mouth but no sound came out for a few seconds before he relaxed again. “Ah. That makes sense…”

  “Should I feel insulted by that?” Sam murmured softly, however, the others still heard it.

  “Yes. Yes, you should,” replied Lucy instantly, while Lara and Tim snickered. Even Liz was holding back the urge to laugh.

  Sam grumbled a little and motioned Lucy to continue.

  She cleared her throat and did so. “Thanks to some negotiations, we managed to acquire 69% - Sam thought it was funny – of the entity, with the remaining shares given to Katie, her brother and held by the original owner. Sixteen percent to David, five to Katie and the remaining ten to the previous owner. As soon as David settles in, Adam, I want you to start integrating them into our guild system.”

  Here Sam raised his voice and interrupted Lucy. “They’re mainly heavy armor and knight types, so leave them in Deepanchor and retool them into guards for merchants and defensive maneuvers. No need to reinvent the wheel. Stack them in a line, and those who chafe under the new leadership put them into elite groups and send them ahead as vanguards.”

  Adam nodded as he scribbled down his instructions. Then he looked up from his notes. “What about Farabor? That’s going to be the first target.”

  Sam tilted his head left and right a little before making a decision. “Work with David to select a few groups. The others should be positioned in key locations around the country. They’re better as a static defense than rapid response.”

  Adam grunted in understanding and Sam sent an apologetic look at Lucy. “Sorry about that…”

  Lucy nodded before continuing her own explanation. “I’ll be taking a look at their financial documents and doing my best to integrate that mess into ours. I’m expecting around thirty percent leaving now that the original owner relinquished their ownership, but even with that the numbers are good.”

  “What about the disruptive elements?” Tim interjected quietly.

  Lucy just smiled at him. It was not a nice smile. “That’s why you’re here, Tim.”

  “Ah, understood. Any specific targets?”

  Lucy nodded seriously. “Yes, David gave me a prelim list but he is going to update it after assuming control.”

  “Cool,” replied Tim with a thumbs-up. “That’s a good starting point.”

  Lucy looked around again and when she saw there were no more questions she continued. “With that done, let’s talk about Farabor. Lara, your report?”

  Lara straightened in her chair and began to talk. “We’re in a pretty good spot. Walls are done, with only a few enchantments missing here and there. The flora defenses on the outside area are hundred percent, but the inside is still lacking greenery. The druids have been trying to get me to let them do their thing, but until the sewer system is finished, I’m not letting them plant anything.”

  Sam furrowed his brows. “Let them go in and survey, without growing anything. We don’t want them as enemies.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah. If they break that we can just say ‘We told you so’ and ban them until the project is finished.”

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Lara gave him a thumbs-up and continued. “Good idea. Then, the next are support and utility. Thanks to Liz we have full coverage with the lights and heating systems, and the underground workshops and hydroponics are operating at peak efficiency. Even if we get fully sieged, we can last with our current reserves for years.” As Lara spoke, Liz began to blush.

  “Water treatment?”

  “Done. Some of Liz’s best work!” The blush on Liz’s face began to cover her ears and neck, too.

  “Excellent,” Sam replied proudly, then he turned to Liz. “How are the defensive measures you were building?” he asked with a smile, trying to put the young woman at ease.

  It was halfway successful. She started speaking, but her face was still fully red. “W-well, I managed to finish the base of the Aegis system, but the NBC system is half finished.”

  “Which half?”

  “Biological,” came the prompt response.

  Sam let out a relieved sigh. “Good. That’s one of the most important ones. Please, continue!”

  She cleared her throat, noticeably less embarrassed as the topic of conversation moved onto her preferred subject. “I also managed to install the railguns into the towers.”

  “Wait! Those were railguns?” exclaimed Lara in surprise, her eyes growing wide. “I thought they were some kind of fancy arrow cart or hwacha that Dan keeps showing me!”

  “Umm, no. Why would I build an arrow cart? Railguns are far superior,” came the matter-of-fact answer from Liz.

  Lara just looked at her as if this was the first time she saw her. “Wow… you think you know someone…”

  Lucy cleared her throat, gathering attention back to herself. “Good job, Liz. However, from now on, you and your workshop will be fully moved to Farabor.”

  “Does that mean…?”

  “Yes, we’re starting with rearmament.”

  “YES!”

  After finishing with the long meeting, going over every bit of minutea, Sam returned to the game with an action plan in his mind. The situation around Farabor was well in Lara’s hands, Lucy was handling the economic and political side, and Adam (or at least his assistants) were dealing with the influx of newcomers.

  They had to create three sub-guilds just to accept the sheer number of people wanting to join. He took a small tour of the headquarters in Ironwood, which had transformed into a pure office instead of containing training fields, vaults, and rooms for the guild members. The new vault was built under Farabor, with some smaller ones at more reachable locations. The housing was taken care of by the numerous properties of the guild, including some big ones in Farabor.

  Entering the building, he was struck by the sheer number of people simply existing in the space. People were lining up to register for tests, asking for resources or simply trying to find groups to adventure with, or getting their assigned tasks. He even saw some very happy people leaving with items they got via their guild contribution points.

  ‘Clearly Adam knows what he is doing…’ he mused as he took this all in.

  However, as he was indulging in his people-watching, a sheer rage-induced spike of emotion shot through him as a very familiar laugh reached his ears. His body instantly went into fight-or-flight mode, leaning very heavily towards the fight aspect of the bodily response.

  As he tried to calm himself down, he felt his teeth being ground together and the anger simply growing.

  Forcefully closing his eyes, he took several calming breaths as he tried to master his own emotions.

  It took a few rounds of breathing exercises before he realized what triggered this unusual response in his body and mind.

  The laugh belonged to none other but the future ex-girlfriend of the previous owner of the body. Whose memories were tainted with betrayal, rage, frustration, and a great amount of sadness. Looking over to where the sound originated, he found her in the midst of a group of young men, all of them standing around her, vying for her attention. Apparently, his dimensional crossing didn’t change much about her, she was still dressed as a mage, with a rather revealing dress that accentuated the shape of her body. Exactly what drew the original Sam to her.

  Seeing her now, with what he knew, it was exceedingly obvious what she was doing. Always going for the best target to achieve her goals, always making sure to manipulate events into her favor. Taking a discreet snapshot, he rang up Tim.

  “Yes, boss?”

  “Sending you a pic and name. Look into her,” he stated simply, his eyes never leaving the woman in question. She looked so young compared to his memories, less jaded, too. There wasn’t any of the cold, calculating lack of feelings behind her eyes that the other Sam got used to.

  Tim frowned. “Take out?”

  “No. Just scout. Also, look into associates.”

  “Any concrete info?”

  “Call it gut feeling. She looks like a busy bee, if you catch my drift…”

  “Flying from flower to flower… Got it. Anything else?”

  “If you find anything, then call me, please.”

  “Will do, boss!”

  Leaving the guild building with a heavy heart, he once again returned to the wilds beyond the walls of the cities, intent on acquiring his new sword. Currently, Moonlight was in the care of Liz, who was building it a nice comfy enclosure while he borrowed one of the fancier swords from the warehouse.

  His current target was a small village in the hinterlands of the country, where he knew a very special sword was hidden away. Finding it was very easy… well if you knew it was there. But most people, even those who found the hint of its existence, which was a poem of all things, wouldn’t be able to pinpoint its exact location.

  The other Sam only knew about it because there was a guy who roleplayed as an archeologist in the game and spent his time deciphering odd poems, prophecies, and ancient tablets to see if he could find one.

  It was one of those video series that people loved to watch while eating lunch or taking public transport.

  But even that guy took almost two weeks to find the first clue to the location. Sam simply ‘found’ the poem in the Nowhere library, acted out that he realized something, then spent some time ‘puzzling’ it out for the system to be satisfied with him.

  Granted, at this point he was pretty sure that both the system and the devs were onto him, but as they hadn’t said or done anything to him – beyond a few railroading incidences – he simply shrugged and did as usual.

  Though, he expected that sooner or later there would be a conversation with some people from the company, but for now he was just content with playing the game.

  He rode through the open plains, hills, and sparse forests on the back of the excited Lucky, stepping on smaller monsters and dashing past bigger ones before they even realized that there was something they could attack. Some time later they found a road and Lucky began to follow it.

  Unfortunately, almost immediately, the sound of battle reached his ears. Urging his loyal companion forward, he raised his arm, ready to unleash his new magic, while casting his senses forward.

  However, as soon as his senses reached the location of the battle, he lowered his arm and smirked. Apparently, he found a low-level battle.

  With a few simple Wind Blades, he decapitated half of the remaining goblins attacking the caravan, which allowed the players defending it to finish the rest.

  Arriving next to the caravan, he hopped off from the back of Lucky, who just stood there, almost towering over the carriage and watching the surroundings for more attackers, while Sam looked for the NPC leading the processions.

  However, before he could find them, a voice interrupted him.

  “Oh, my gosh! HI!”

  He looked over and saw a very familiar looking young woman rushing over to him, clutching a spear, and followed by two other women.

  ‘Huh, small world…’ he chuckled to himself as he went to greet Clarissa’s sister and her friends.

  Owed bonus chapters: ---

  Character Sheet

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