Ch 16: The Dragon Chain That Wrapped Around The World (6)

"You... Shadow Soul the dungeon? What is that supposed to mean?" Kaori cannot help but ask

"What, you never heard of Shadow Soul before? It's a legendary game, you know?" Hao response back

"Of course, I do know what Shadow Soul is. I am confused that you are using it as a verb. This is my first time hearing someone using Shadow Soul as a verb."

"Well, too bad. I'm not explaining it; figure it out yourself if you want to know." Hao said

Kaori seemed to be visibly annoyed before doing a small and turning back toward the scene before them, in which Valka had finished cleaning up all of the trash, or in other words, had killed all the players in the area.

"Miss Kaori, I have finished my task," Valka said, standing beside Kaori while bowing a bit.

"Good job Valka," Kaori said with a slight nod before turning toward Hao with an umbrella over her head, blocking the sun. "Now, shall we begin our business conversation?"

"Sure", Hao response. "But you sure you want to have a conversation here? In the middle of nowhere?"

"Of course, trying to find a suitable location is no point. Besides, our conversation would not be that long, I imagine."

"Well, if you said so," Hao said while shrugging.

"Good. Now, I am here and trying to find you because I have a request I want to make." Kaori said

"A request, you said? What makes you think I will accept this request in the first place? You seem to assume I would do what you ask me to do. Why of all people, your butler should be enough to do or get whatever you want. Am I that special or something?" Hao cannot help but immediately ask, hearing how Kaori have a request for him.

While he was asking, Hao's mind was already working at an insane speed, trying to figure out why or what request he was trying to make with him.

'Why would someone like her make a request or try to get someone else helps? I mean, considering what I heard about, this seems to be very out of her.' Hao thought

"Oh please, you think you are a special player because you get that achievement? While I certainly admitted for a low-level player like you to clear a dungeon solo, it is not something that is that impressive. It is only a matter of time for players to get to a high level before doing a low dungeon and getting that achievement. Did you think you are the main character in fiction or something? Don't be ridiculous." Kaori's lecture seemingly doesn't care what she said about Hao.

"Oh jeez, thank you; I think you have just shattered my none existing pride that I have," Hao muttered sarcastically while rolling his eyes.

"As for why I chose you, well before, I was not going to choose you, but your recent action just so happened to align with my goal; that is why I decided to make this request toward you. Before, I wanted to meet and learn more about you, but that just changed, that's all."

"My recent action?" Hao asks, tilting his head slightly

"Indeed, it was your declaration of war toward the Asgard guild that I changed my mind toward you and decided that I would make this request toward you."

"Ho? I admitted that it is interesting, but you still haven't answered my question. What makes you think I will accept this request of yours?"

"Don't be like that; I know you will certainly accept this request of mind." Kaori said while twirling her umbrella a bit, "For my request is simple, and that is I wish you to help me to defeat, no, that not the right words, I want you to help me crush and destroy the Asgard guild." Kaori said while crushing her fist, with a slight smile on her face.

"You want me to help you destroy the Asgard guild? Now, you certainly have my attention, but I gotta ask, why?"

"There guild leader, that worthless piece filth, had been bothered me none stop the moment he learned about. It was certainly quite amusing at first when he tried to act all cool to get my attention and make me join his guild. However, it starts to get quite annoying as time goes on." Kaori said before continuing.

"I was confident that he would give up after some time had passed; he would have given up, but apparently, I underestimated that filth stubbornness, and he decided to act more rash and annoying.

It started as nothing more than a useless gift to try to bribe me into joining his guild. But it starts to escalate to the point where he tries to sabotage me with his guilds member so that I will have an unpleasant experience, and he will certainly not stop unless I join his guild.

At this point, I wish to crush that worthless piece of shit and destroy everything he had spent his time and money on!" Kaori ends her monologue while stomping her foot at the end and her hand clutch on her umbrella tightly to the point that her knuckle turns visibly white.

"Miss Kaori", Valka, who had been silent until now, finally spoke up, causing Kaori to calm down seemingly.

"My apologies; it seems that I have lost my composure there. Thank you for calming me down, Valka."

"It was nothing, miss. I understand why you would act like that when talking about that worthless boy."

"Still, it is bad for me to lose my composure like that," Kaori said before sighing a little and looking straight at Hao, who hadn't said anything yet. " That is my request. What do you say?"

Hao stays silent for a bit before answering.

"While I certainly want to stop that guild from harassing me. I have my way of dealing with this guild, so I have no reason to accept your request. Unless there is something, I will get from this request." Hao explain

Kaori only raised her eyebrow hearing Hao answer while having an amused smirk on her face.

"As expected, you want more from this; while certainly annoying, it's not something I unexpected," Kaori said before snapping her finger before opening her palm, in which Valka suddenly took what seemed to be a piece of paper before handing it to Kaori.

"Thank you, Valka. Now, here is a writing contract, signed by me. You probably know what it does, right." Kaori said before handing the contract to Hao, who immediately took it before reading the content.

A contract is one of the many systems in-game where two or more players can sign. The moment they sign that contract, a quest or restriction would pop up on their menu screen.

For example, let's say the contract wants player A to want player B to gather X amount of ores while player A would reward player B the moment player A received that X amount of ores. Both players would sign the contract, and player B would then have a quest to gather X amount of ores for player A.

If player B decides not to gather the said ores, or player A chooses not to reward player B, either player would have an option to punish the player that breaks the contract. The punishment would depend on what is said in the agreement; if the contract has no explicit punishment written on it, the system would then punish the person who breaks the contract automatically; as for what kind of punishment the system would, that would depend on how important the contract was.

Another type of contract doesn't have a name in-game, but a player likes to call it an agreement contract. It is a type of contract where a group of players would agree on not doing something or saying something; if they do or say something that breaks the agreement contract, they would be immediately punished.

Suppose some players decide they cannot fulfil the contract agreement for whatever reason. In that case, they can disband a contract by having all of the players that sign the contract decide on disbanding it, in which the contract would immediately dissolve, and no punishment would occur.

This is probably one of the most popular systems in GEP; it is why this game, in the future, will become more like a business than a game for players. With this system, people start to conduct business in games like how they work business in real life.

'Let's see here...' Hao thought while reading the contract. 'Destroy Asgard bah bah bah, the reward...'

"That is a lot of gold... that's like a lot of zero. How much money do you spend to get this amount of gold?" Hao asks after seeing the reward before looking at Kaori

"Oh please, this is nothing more than pocket change for me. So, what do you say? Will you agree with this contract?"