127 Played

"Guild Master, RedQueen and her team have betrayed Samar. They have sent over the video of their hunt!"

Blue Moon rushed excitedly into Le Grande's office, knowing he would want to watch this video. She projected it from her smartwatch on the wall before them and started to play it. 

In a ravaged wasteland where vegetation had died and ground was cracked, four players surrounded a lone Ranger. There was no bow in his hands and neither did he have a decent piece of equipment on his body. 

"RedQueen, Zamir, Hardbro, BigSoftie! You guys have decided to betray me as well? How dare you? After all we have been through, you chose the Grandeur Guild!" 

Blue Moon and Le Grande watched with a pleased smile as the anguished voice of Samar cried in the video.

His four attackers were unmoved by his cries. They did not even deign to give him a reply. RedQueen, Zamir and BigSoftie surrounded and blocked his way while HardBro chanted incantations of the spell that would claim his life once again. 

Le Grande reveled in the helpless expression shown by Samar. He licked his lips as the Fireball descended, killing the Ranger for the 11th time. 

"Haha! Fantastic! Give the four an extra reward of 1000 Musks each! Ask them to continue tracking that worthless bastard and kill him back to Lv1." said Le Grande, feeling a hint of joy after a long time. 

"Yes, Guild Master," Blue Moon cheerfully agreed, as she felt she had been avenged.

She immediately transferred the money to their Dreamverse Accounts, with a message relaying the Guild Master's commendations. 

Then she posted the video on the forums with a simple title, 'Consequences'.

Any activity from a Guild was watched closely by the players. The video quickly blew up with views increasing by thousands per minute. Yet, the comment section was cold. 

Hardly a hundred people had commented on the video and most of them were from Grandeur Guild's sycophants. 

"Well done, Grandeur! Dogs need to learn who is the master."

"This is what we should do to those who bite the hand that feeds you!"

. 

.

The forum, mostly thriving on the activities of the independent players and lowest ranked players, had lost its liveliness. This video once again reminded the players that no matter what they did, they were but a bounty away from being chased away from the game. 

Just as the post was starting to gain traction, another post appeared with a clickbait title, "Thank you Grandeur for the 25,000 Musk Gift!"

The post was a picture of the five people cheerfully clinking glasses in an Elven Tavern. These five people were none other than RedQueen, BigSoftie, Zamir, HardBro and Samar; the same players in the video Grandeur Guild had posted earlier with arrogance! 

Below Samar had even put a caption saying - 

"I am very thankful to Guild Master Le Grande for issuing the Bounty. Just by losing a level, I am earning more than his Guild's R1 members!"

It was clearly a recent picture as Samar was wearing tattered pieces of equipment and his level was also at Lv 11. This shocked everyone! 

Players were doing their best to improve their levels and increase their Rankings and yet, here there was one Ranker who was exchanging his levels for thousands of Musks! 

Guilds only issued bounties on players who they considered as threats. These players desperately protected their levels as each time they died, they would lose out on precious time and fall behind the populace, losing their rank. 

They might also lose out on some valuable weapons and equipment which was usually hard to replace. 

However, if one did not care about levels and the Bounty Hunters were his buddies who would return the equipment, did Samar still have to care about the bounty?

It was just free money sent to him! 

Yet, neither the ordinary players nor the Rankers could make sense of this play! 

In a moment the quiet forum erupted as the players once again found their voice. 

"Fck! You can also play like this?" 

"Haha! They thought they were making him pay for his mistakes but they were actually just paying him!" 

"This is genius! He made a profit of 1000 Musks for a level."

"Damn! Why won't a guild issue a bounty on my head? I also want to earn 1000 Musks doing nothing!"

"Fck off! Do you think you are Samar? First conquer a Dungeon on your own!" 

The comments on the post continued to increase and life returned to forums. 

Blue Moon and Le Grande soon found out about it and they sat in the office fuming with anger. The moment they saw the post, they knew they had been played. 

"Damn that bastard!" Le Grande cursed, unable to feel any joy or satisfaction even though Samar had lost 13 Levels in a day! 

Since he was helpless to do anything about him, he redirected his anger towards his accomplices. 

"Kick all the other four out of the Guild. Take back the amount issued to them and limit the bounty rewards to R3 and above members." Le Grande announced. 

Blue Moon coughed softly with embarrassment. Finding Le Grande's attention on her, she reminded, "Guild Master, we are not a Faction Recognized Guild yet. We cannot control who the system releases rewards to…" 

She felt a blast of chilling aura directed her way and she withered under his gaze. A few moments later, Le Grande looked away. Facing the wall, he said in a resigned but cold voice, "Withdraw the bounty." 

This was the start of a downfall of a Top Guild.

—-- 

In the tavern, Samar, Stivi and others clinked their mugs once more. They were joined by Poh, Romero and Mochi. 

"To the gains from the Bounty!" 

"To severance pay!" 

After they had emptied their mugs, Stivi looked at Samar and said, "What do you plan to do next?" 

"I have received a solo-quest. It may take me two to three days." Samar said, hiding the nature of the said solo quest. 

"Do you have any instructions for us?" Romero asked, disappointed they were not going to raid another dungeon. 

Samar looked at him and said, "Yes, I do have some tasks for you. Take as many quests as you can from the Quest branch related to Rajni City's reconstruction and go there to help."

"We are Saviors of Rajni City. The sooner that City opens, the sooner we will be able to see the power of our titles."