The "battle" of Covan was coming to an end, and there was one clear winner.
"Are you kidding me..."
"They monopolized those damn quests and took everything good!"
"Maybe there's a chance we can still secure some items at the auction, but it looks like the best ones will go to them..."
Yes, *them*, the singular org that managed to take everything important from everyone else.
Shock Collar reigned supreme while many others remained dejected.
However, there were 3 players scurrying around striking up conversations with zeal.
"Hello, I'm from Ravaging Crows," Jiel told the nearest player who looked to be the commander of a small group. "How about we band together to take down Shock Collar?"
"What, are you crazy? How are we going to do that?"
Obviously, the small group's commander wasn't thrilled at the proposition. However, that changed when Jiel shared a snapshot of a coin pouch...
*>Copper: 520*
When the commander saw this, his eyes widened in disbelief.
"Haha, what's that? You don't know how we're going to do it? Doesn't this answer your question? This is only one of our members' coin pouches, so this isn't even all we have. If you want to join us, collect all the money you have from your members and give it to me," Jiel commanded.
"What? Why would I do that?"
To the commander, this "order" wasn't even worthy enough to consider. Giving up all of your money? No one in their right mind would do that...
"Because if you don't, we'll outbid you on every item you want. You'll walk away from the auction with nothing."
"... That's not possible. There's no way you have enough money for that!" the commander denied.
"You think I'm making an empty threat? We have more money than you think we do. Like I said, that's simply the pouch of one of our members, and we have 20."
"What...!"
"Shhh... there's no need to be startled. You see the independent players around you? Which of them are a part of the Ravaging Crows? There's no way for you to know. If you don't accept our offer, not only will you lose out on valuable items, but you may suffer unintended consequences when you try to set foot into the frontier..."
The commander shivered.
"W- Wait a moment. I'll discuss this with the team..."
"Oh? Was that not convincing enough?"
"N- No, it's just-"
"Then how about this? Remember how we said we have 20 members? That's just counting the members of the Ravaging Crows. It doesn't count the other small orgs we've joined up with. We've already collected their cash, too. Didn't I tell you? We have more money than you think we do."
"Shit!"
The commander frantically messaged his subordinates in a group chat.
*>Hutian Crest: Everyone, listen up! Give me all of your funds NOW! Here's what's going on...*
The commander gathered the funds and sent them over to Jiel's account.
"Copper received. Thanks for your cooperation," Jiel said with a smile. "Please add the player named Fae Sol to your friends list if you want to see this money again."
With that, he quickly departed.
Jiel, Brusse, and Declan were all doing the same thing to a number of groups around the hamlet, and by now their coin pouches were bigger than ever before.
But there was one thing Jiel was still doubtful about.
*Will this amount really be enough to outbid Shock Collar?*
---
Jisha merrily made her way to the hamlet's bank. It was quite easy to spot since it had the word "BANK" embedded on the front of the building. Banks at starter hamlets were only able to exchange basic currencies for a small service fee. If you wanted to exchange currencies beyond Silverium or store your money for safekeeping, you would need to visit a village bank at the very least.
The NPC greeted her, and Jisha commenced the trade.
"I'd like to exchange 1 Silverium for Bronzium, please."
"Sure thing, young lady. Since you are our first Beyonder customer, there will be no service charge for this transaction."
*>-1 Silverium*
*>+100 Bronzium*
The reason Jisha exchanged the Silverium for Bronzium and not Copper was because Synergy had a strange mechanic where you couldn't buy anything of a higher denomination with a lower one. In other words, if an item was worth 100 Copper, you could purchase it with 100 Copper or 1 Bronzium. However, if an item was worth 1 Bronzium, you could not purchase it with 100 Copper. This mechanic was a reason why higher-valued denominations were even rarer than they first appeared.
Beyond Silverium, there was Aurite, Star Gold, Plate Core, Diamond, Amazonite, and Mythos Coin. Each one was worth 100 times more than its predecessor. Star Gold was the most widely used currency in Synergy and was often just referred to as "gold". Many players would eventually reach 1 Plate Core in their bank account. If you had 1 Diamond, you were considered extremely wealthy. Deals between supermassive Guilds, Kingdoms, Empires, etc. were dealt with in Amazonite. And Mythos Coin was so rare that it was incredibly rare to even see one, much less own one.
The 100 Bronzium Jisha had on hand was worse than pocket change for high-level players. She sighed and made her way over to the frontier shop as quickly as possible.
*Alright... I'll need another map. Stupid Brookie, how could he just walk into the wild like that?*
She browsed for a bit before finding the sheets of blank paper on a shelf.
*Okay, it's time to- wait, they sell these here?*
Jisha was mildly surprised to see this item in a frontier shop of a starter hamlet.
*I guess it's worth it to look around shops even if they are mere hamlets, huh...*
What was this item?
*>Small Lightweight Tracker: 1 Bronzium*
It was an item that could be paired with a map. Once paired, this small device would relay its position to the map it was paired with even if the terrain was unknown. It had quite a long range, so losing it wasn't an issue for now. It had many uses, but the primary one was sticking it on players to follow them around...
*Hmm...*
As Jisha considered whether or not she should purchase them, she received several friend requests she had been waiting for.
*>Friend request received from user "Dolphin Killer".*
*>Friend request received from user "Aphro Expo".*
*>Friend request received from user "Hutian Crest".*
*>Friend request received from user "Simulator Child".*
...
*Alright, it's decided.*
Jisha accepted all of the recent friend requests, purchased 7 trackers, and headed towards the auction house.
---
There were things Jisha hadn't told Jiel, and she was sure he was doubting her at this moment. For example, she had only shared the fact that she had 520 Copper with her and hid the fact that she owned Silverium. But it didn't matter what he thought. At the end of this auction, there would only be one true winner.
Jisha opened her private messages with Jiel and confirmed the situation.
*>Fae Sol: Are you done?*
*>Jiel: Yes. A total of 7 organizations were willing to cooperate. 2 said they would abstain from the auction and 3 were adamantly against us.*
*>Fae Sol: Good. Give me the names of the ones who refused!*
*>Jiel: ... Sure. Here they are: ...*
Jisha smiled as she received the names of those who she would crush in the auction and started a separate group chat with all of her new allies.
*>Hutian Crest: This better be worth it...*
*>Dolphin Killer: Are you kidding me? It'll be more than worth it! I can't wait to see the looks on that stupid guild when we beat their faces in...*
*>Aphro Expo: Agreed. There's no better time to come together in a truce than right now. We are all struggling together, so we might as well do something about it while we can!*
*>Simulator Child: You guys are too optimistic. Whoever organized this didn't even tell us the catch. What if they run off with our money?*
*>Dolphin Killer: You say that, but you still accepted...*
*>Censer: I wanted to decline, but we didn't really have a choice! It would have been every one of you against us! Of course it's worth it to truce up for now!*
...
Jisha silently observed the chaos that unfolded in the chat as she approached the auction house. She noticed the 7 allies were in the process of gathering up. Once she was near the door, she revealed her name.
*>Fae Sol: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen! Are all of you near the auction house? I'm the spooky and mysterious player whose level you can't see! What level am I? 3? 5? 7? That's a secret~*
When this message was sent, the chaotic chat went silent for several seconds. Obviously, none of them believed her level claim. Not only that, her chat behavior left everyone speechless!
"Are you a child? You took our money and you're acting like this? What's wrong with you?" Censer yelled.
"Come on, stop delaying and get straight to the point already!" another skeptical ally said.
"If you don't tell us what's going on, we're leaving!"
Jisha pulled down her hood so everyone could see her face and narrowed her eyes at the dissenters.
"Are you stupid? Did I hear that right? You said you're going to leave?"
The aesthetics of Jisha's avatar were breathtaking, and the men around her were subdued into silence once again.
"I have all of your money, you know."
A skeptical ally gulped.
That's right, there was no backing out now. He had only said that in the heat of the moment, but it was obvious who was in power if you stopped to think for one second!
"Enough of that, what are your conditions?" Simulator Child asked.
"My conditions, huh... How about I tell you after the auction?"
"That... That's simply too far! Tell us now! Or..."
"Or what? You're going to leave? You'll turn against us? Are you sure you can do either of those things right now?"
When she said this, Fae Sol radiated immense pressure. The near future of all of these orgs were in her hands at this very moment, and they had no choice but to do what she said!
"If anyone wants to leave. You are free to do so."
...
Silence. Of course no one took her up on this offer. Backing out now was suicide!
"It looks like you are all very obedient! Then shall we head inside and wait for the auction to start?"
With that, Jisha strode into the Auction House leaving the seven leaders outside.
They looked at each other and walked in together as if they were prisoners heading into a cell.
---
*>Fae Sol: Jiel, you're inside, right? Where are you?*
There were still 15 minutes before the auction started, but the inside of the auction house was starting to get crowded.
*>Jiel: I'm on the far right wall.*
Jisha looked over and saw three players waving at her.
"Give me the money," Jisha said as she approached them.
"..."
Jiel didn't respond.
"Did you not hear what I said? Give. Me. The. Money."
"... Why should I?"
This response caused Jisha to smirk.
*Is he gonna try to betray me?*
Jisha had half expected this to happen. It would have been stranger if he were 100% obedient; this was why Jisha hadn't revealed all of her cards in the beginning.
"Didn't I tell you to worry about yourselves if you betrayed me? I wonder if you've thrown caution to the wind..."
"..."
Jiel still didn't respond.
"Well, you've probably earned over a thousand Copper and are feeling pretty high and mighty, aren't you?"
"..."
"Hmm..." Jisha put a finger on her chin and tilted her head in mock contemplation.
"I guess it can't be helped! I didn't think this far ahead... It looks like you'll have to keep the 1,000 Copper," she shrugged her shoulders in an exaggerated manner.
Seeing Jiel's demeanor relax, she almost burst out laughing. She widened her eyes and grabbed his collar before he could react.
"Did you really think I would say that?"
If this were a real-life situation, Jiel might have been sweating, but it was easier to fake complacency in the game.
"I... It's like you said. You only had 520 to begin with, and we have over a thousand. We are an organization while you are an independent player. Isn't it you who doesn't know their place?"
"Ha... Hahahaha...!"
Hearing this canned response, Jisha couldn't hold back her laughter.
She then sent him two pieces of information that she had been withholding: her true net worth and level.
When Jiel received this information, his eyes widened in shock.
"Don't make me repeat myself. Give me the money."
"Yes," Jiel obediently responded.
A system message appeared on Jisha's HUD.
*>+1,204 Copper*
Jisha grinned when she saw the money enter her account.
"Let's get some fine seats to this show, boys."