Chapter 31 - Oracroft

Hikari official: Guilds have officially been added to the game players! Guild tokens are now available through different quests and certain purchasing options.

Will you remain as the solo player or will you become a strong team player?

Enjoy your playtime!

*

'So it's official now.' Zack thought with an interested look as Guilds had finally been implemented into the game.

Though the surprising thing was that arenas were still not added to Hikari. The white-haired boy remembered that arenas and guilds had been added to the game at the same time in his previous life.

But there was no news about arenas in his new ones.

'Since new variables have been discovered, maybe they are trying to get a little more stabilized global rankings.'

Only the top three players were above level 15 and the rest of the players on the global rankings were between level 7 to 14.

Maybe the game developers were hoping to have all of the top 100 players at level 10 or above before releasing the arenas.

But in the end, the longer they waited for it, the more time Zack would have to build an unshakable foundation.

He then turned towards the two boys standing behind him and smiled.

"May I know what your names are?" Despite knowing what their names were, the white-haired boy was going to do things less creepily.

"Marcus." The boy on the right spoke first. He had curly brown colored hair and a pair of black glasses highlighted in his bright green-colored eyes. Marcus was the more social person in the duo and was the one who did most of the talking.

"Jack…" The second boy spoke, or rather, whispered his name. Jack had faded blond colored hair and handsome sea blue eyes.

He was the perfect definition of the handsome friend who girls would ask for a drop-off on their valentine's date with their boyfriends.

Despite how different they looked, Marcus, Jack, and Zack had been good friends in their previous life and had faced many things together.

That was another reason that Zack wanted them to join his guild since they had helped him a lot in his previous life. Despite what little money they had, they had still donated some money to help Zack cure his sister.

Unfortunately, his sister had died despite the money but neither Jack nor Marcus had ever asked him to pay them back. So in a way, he was repaying his debt to both of them.

"Marcus and Jack, I have heard some rumors about both of you. Do you mind telling me whether they are true?" Zack asked while raising his eyebrows as the two players exchanged a glance.

They knew that many people in the inn had seen them using their abilities but they had never thought that rumors would spread so much that the top player would come looking for them.

"If you are talking about our alchemy talents, then yes, both of us have a high efficiency for alchemy," Marcus replied but the number one player shook his head.

"I am talking about your sense of smell Marcus and your hearing ability Jack." Zack pointed towards both of them one by one as they were shocked.

They had never used those abilities in front of anyone and even Ash hadn't known about them. But somehow, the number one player had gotten to know about these skills.

[ Do you think he had a higher version of the inspect skill? ]

[ There have been rumors and leaks of such a skill but I thought it was fake. Maybe he really has that skill and could have used that on us in the inn. ]

[ And because of that, he is trying to take us under his wing so that he would not only gain good allies but also gain some people who would actually be helpful for him. ]

[ No wonder he is the number one player. ]

Zack was completely unaware of this conversation as he had never gotten to know how smart the duo was. But despite that, he had gotten himself two new admirers.

"Yes, we do have those abilities." The brown-haired boy replied as Zack smiled.

"Then I would like to invite you to become members of my guild." He extended a hand forward as the two boys grabbed it without a second thought.

Unfortunately, the white-haired boy didn't have a guild because WolfHeart wasn't online. However, Zack suddenly received a message from the pink-haired woman after thinking about her.

[ I will be coming online in an hour and we will create our guild then. ]

So till the time she was not online, Zack decided to help the two boys level up.

"You guys don't even have high level of weapons or armors. Here, take these." Zack looked through his inventory and gave both of them rare armors and rare swords.

The two boys were left stunned by the 'gifts' the number one player had given them. And a moment later, they also received friend requests from Lin Fan.

They quickly accepted the requests before looking at the white-haired boy with wide eyes.

"You do know that our job class is alchemist?" Marcus asked as the white-haired man nodded.

"You can always unlock a fighting subclass and you should know basic combat skills anyways. They will always be useful for you." He then looked at the map before deciding that Acidlent forest was probably one of the best places to go and train with the two boys.

'Speaking of acid, I should probably learn that Acid drops skill book.' Zack remembered that he had gotten the acid drops skill book after killing the guardian of insects.

He took out the skill book from his inventory and was surprised to see that the color of the book indicated as though someone had puked on it.

[ Acid drops: Shoots 10 drops of insect acid in a particular direction.

Cooldown: 2 minutes

Remaining uses: 5 ]

Zack immediately felt as though he had just gotten a golden ring hidden in the middle of puke when he saw the remaining uses section. This meant that five people could learn the skill.

Zack quickly learned the skill before he passed the book to the two boys.

"This will be a skill that you can use in battle." He explained as the two boys exchanged a glance but learned the skill regardless of that.

After all, who would leave such a gift?

After that, the three of them traveled down towards the Acidlent forest where their training would start.

***

Back in the real world, Evangeline was sitting on her chair with a bored expression. But all of a sudden, she received a call from a very familiar person.

The owner of Telsa and her current biggest rival.

"Hello, uncle Ray," Eva said with a wave as the owner of Telsa appeared in front of her through a hologram.

"Hello Evangeline, looking as beautiful as ever." He said with a smile though Eva could tell that something was off. Her uncle Ray hardly called her but when he did, it was usually about important stuff.

"Tell me what's wrong?" Her carefree demeanor suddenly vanished as the owner of Telsa sighed.

"Orange and Miscosoft are merging together."

"WHAT?!" Eva immediately scrolled through her phone watch and opened a new channel. A hologram appeared above her watch where the news person was talking about the biggest merging ever.

"Such a thing has never happened in the history of the world and just like you, I would have never expected this! The world's third and fourth biggest companies are merging together to form Oracroft. Here is a clip of their CEOs talking about this!"

A video then showed the bald CEO of Miscosoft standing beside the CEO of Orange.

"We have thought this through and after many meetings, we have decided to go ahead with this plan. Our new company, Oracroft, will rise from the bottom and move towards becoming the biggest company in the world." The bald man said with a grin as the video stopped playing.

"The company is currently sitting at the 2nd place but if they rose like this, they are expected to cross Doogle in two days and become the biggest company in the world!"

Eva then closed the news and looked at Ray who had a grim expression on his face.

"You know what this means, don't you?"

"There might be a huge shift in money coming over and they are going to buy a whole lot of things. There might be a new faction rising in Hikari too."

Money exchange worked both ways in Hikari so a person could even buy money in-game. But to keep things fair, a person could only exchange 10 thousand dollars a month.

But those 10 thousand dollars were still enough to give a player a huge advantage, especially at the beginning of the game. This meant that they would grow to be more stronger and bring back much more money.

"Uncle Ray, I think we need to talk."

"I think the same thing Evangeline. We will meet in 4 hours at your place. Make sure that you have Zack with you as well. We are going to need his help too."

"See you in a few hours then."

Ray then ended the call as Eva stood up from her seat and went near the glass windows of her room.

While looking down, she wondered what would happen now that Oracroft had been created.

"Something big is about to happen…" She muttered before she decided to go and visit Zack.

The black-haired boy was in for a whole lot of surprises but because of the merging, he would now play a very major role in the fight for the top.