Chapter 4

The Developers Guild was not as Vincent thought it would be. After seeing the Central Bank, he assumed that every building in the city would be some high-class structure but he was wrong. The Guild was not even a building, just an office in an office complex.

It was difficult finding it, his driver didn't talk much and just took him to the front of the complex where he stood for a while in confusion until he saw players come out of the ground floor lobby.

"Hey, do you know where the Developers Guild is?" he quickly asked one of them. A brunette in an off-shoulder red dress.

"I have a name" she replied in an annoyed tone.

"I'm sorry" Vincent was quick to apologize.

"Agnes" he added after seeing her player tag.

"Just go in the lobby and ask them. However, if you are looking for a company loan, I have a friend who is willing to give for company shares. The loaning system in the Developers Guild is horrible" she offered.

'Looks like everyone is adapting quickly to the game' he thought.

"It's fine thank you, I don't need a loan" he replied.

"Suit yourself," the red-dressed Agnes said and continued walking on.

Feeling that everyone else was progressing faster than him, Vincent hurried to the building. It was almost chaos inside, people moving about everywhere so much that getting to the receptionist's counter was difficult.

"Good day Sir, how may I help you?" the receptionist a blonde middle-aged woman smiled at him as if she was unaffected by the noise and stress around her. Vincent could even see some scolding her colleagues but they all had professional smiles on their faces.

'Are some AIs more advanced than others?' he wondered.

"Please can you guide me to the Developer's Guild Office?" he asked.

"I would love to come with you but as you can see we are swamped, it's on the fifth floor though, you can't miss it," she replied and was already looking at someone else.

Feeling that he'd figure out the rest after getting to the fifth floor, Vincent hurried along into the elevator just as it was about to close.

It felt a little awkward being among such baffling beings, the NPCs who seemed no less intelligent than the players. By now he had noticed that some of the service NPCs had less intelligence but the ones who roamed about like players were higher NPCs.

Looking around the other four people in the elevator as its altitude increased, he sensed a tension in the air. The NPCs seemed wary of the players and the players were so curious about the NPCs that their eyes spoke of danger.

Fortunately, he didn't have to be in here too long as the elevator soon stopped on the fifth floor and he hurried out. As soon as the elevator closed behind him and he was alone, he noticed a large sign hanging from the ceiling, 'Developers Guild'.

"Well it looks like the whole fifth floor is the Developers Guild" he muttered to himself and continued.

He entered a lobby no different from the one on the ground floor, but here seemed to have fewer people moving around which allowed him space and time to observe. Still, he couldn't stand long as a smartly dressed young man approached him.

"Good day Sir, are you looking to register a company?" he asked.

Vincent quickly snapped out of observation mode and replied.

"Yes I've done the preliminary registration on the website which directed me here"

"Alright, please come with me and we'll complete your registration" The young man smiled and led the way. Vincent did not hesitate to follow and was led to a much smaller and quiet reception room. There was no one else in here but him the young worker from the Developers Guild and a young girl who followed in behind them.

Sitting on one of the luxury couches, he relaxed for a little and a moment later, the young girl set a cup of coffee on the table. He had only just returned from school so he wasn't interested in that now, besides he didn't even know if drinking in a game would do anything.

She moved back and stood by the side while the smartly dressed man who brought Vincent into the room produced some documents from a file he had been carrying. He placed them on the table and taking a pen out of his breast pocket, he looked up at Vincent.

"What kind of organization are you registering?" he asked and prepared to write but Vincent was confused so he gave no reply which prompted the man to look back up at him.

"I'm sorry, I assumed you were familiar with the Developer's Guild. I'll give you a brief introduction.

"The Developer's Guild performs as a regulatory agency for all Private Organizations. There are a few organizations that can be registered which in turn affects how the game system works for you. A few options are, Private Military, Social, Finance, Companies, Guilds; which is basically a registered organization for player cooperation, and of course, if you have an original idea of an organization that doesn't fall under any of these, then we'll create a system for it. You can have an infinite amount of registered organizations under your name but I wouldn't recommend that since you have to pay a 12.5% tax daily from your profits.

"If you do wish to have multiple registered Companies under your name then I would recommend creating a Parent Company and others as subsidiaries. The 12.5% tax will only apply to the parent company while all the others will only incur a 5% tax.

"Also, if you wish to develop a company but have no funds, you can pitch your idea to us and we'll offer you a loan based on its profitability. The minimum loan we offer is one million dollars with no maximum, the interest is considerable too at 20%"

Vincent listened to all this and gained a clear understanding of this guild and how it worked. It wasn't a private or public organization as he had thought but was actually a government office. The tax was paid to the government while the loan interest went to the Developer's Guild to further its growth. It was interesting how it worked.

"What category would a Parent Company fall under?" he asked thinking that he could work with both

"Well, I'd suggest a Holding Company since your subsidiaries will fall under any of the categories. This would be in the 'other' category."

Vincent nodded and they proceeded with the registration. Through the process, he learned that this Manager's name was Eddard Rad. Vincent registered three Companies, Zero Holdings, Zero Construction and Realities, and Zero Designs. He had to pay $50,000 for each registration making a total of $150,000.

"Now that that's done, your company papers will be delivered to your address in 48hrs or you could come here to collect them. You also have within this time frame to deposit the Capital funds into the Company accounts. Don't worry about opening the accounts, the Developer's Guild already has that taken care of.

"Speaking of funds. We could offer you a loan if you'd like, I can see you already have a great business plan."

"No, that will be alright" Vincent quickly replied. He had more than enough and saw no need for a loan.

Eddard was visibly stunned but he recovered quite quickly.

"Alright then. Oh and a word of advice, take this how you will. I'm only telling you this because I see you differently from most of the rest. While others think they already understand how this game works, you seem curious"

Vincent was stunned to hear an intelligent NPC call this a game. Well, it was indeed a game and it wasn't surprising for an NPC to refer to it as such but he had assumed that the reason the NPCs were so intelligent was to make the players forget about the concept of a game, to heighten the realism.

"I can see you are surprised. If you really do have the funds to deposit into those company accounts, you might very well be the wealthiest player in the game which means your life is in danger. Of course, you players will always come back but you will lose everything you had and start over again. Okay, that's enough rambling, now to my warning. Be wary of every NPC just as much as you are of your fellow players. There is no game balance in play, the NPCs are not here to serve you and each one of us is seeking to live the best life possible, just like you. What that means is; greed is evident in us as it is in you. Do not forget that. Contract a security company, and protect yourself." Eddard concluded.

A grin spread on Vincent's face as he stared straight at Eddard. "You mean to say not to trust NPCs, so should I be wary of you too?" he asked.

Eddard smiled but he gave no reply to the question instead taking out a card from his breast pocket.

"Here, my number, in case you need help with anything," he said handing the card to Vincent.

Vincent did not hesitate to accept it this time. It was identical to the card Clara Hall had given him.

After he finished at the Developer's Guild, he left and returned to the car, taking in a deep breath as he relaxed in his seat.

"Where to? Sir" the driver asked.

"The place you picked me up from, take me home," Vincent replied lazily.

Thinking of what Eddard had told him, he quickly changed his mind about his destination and told the driver to go instead to XO Security Company. It was a government-owned company that spoke for its reliability. After all, who knows if a Private Company would not backstab him for his money?

When they arrived, he was taken to the top floor and met directly with the company manager. In the reception room, two black-suited men stood by both corners of the wall across from the door. A young woman who introduced herself as Hazey, the Company Manager sat, and behind her, another stood with a paper holder in hand as she watched them.

The Manager had just finished evaluating Vincent's worth and it was now time to talk business.

"We really appreciate you coming to us Master Vincent, and I understand you did so for the reliability. I can assure you that your confidence is not misplaced, you are in the right place.

"Based on your evaluation by the system, you are by far the wealthiest player in the game at this level, a fact which will soon be known to the world of players and Originals, which you call NPCs alike. Now this will put you in more danger, perhaps more than you are expecting. But worry not, taking care of you is our job.

"So we will assign to you six guards. Two will be by your side and follow you everywhere you go, and four to keep an eye on your environment to make sure there are no accidents. These guards will work together with our Surveillance Office to make sure that we are kept up to date with anything concerning you, be it in the government circle, the underworld, or among petty criminals. We will update your security level accordingly depending on the information we get from our sources, if you are worried about space, you have no cause for concern. Those four guards are all you will have around you, our other security agents will be around at all times but they will blend into the environment and will have zero interaction with you or your guards.

"As for our security agents, each of them has graduated from the military school with at least four points in every course so you can be assured that your safety is in great hands."

Hazey snapped her fingers and someone walked in with a small box. Vincent watched as she opened it and from it took out a pen which she handed to him.

"While your guards are around you, someone might slip through their observation and threaten your life, this pen will serve as your signal to the guards. A single click means to ignore a situation, two clicks would mean you are in danger and they are to respond discretely, and three clicks is an emergency in which case they will extract you from wherever you are. Now in the case, of the single click, please be lenient if your agents ignore your order, your safety is our priority and if they believe your life is at risk, they will do everything to protect it regardless of your wishes. We have a reputation to protect after all."

Vincent actually did not mind this. He couldn't think of any scenario where he would put his life in danger. And if he did somehow, he would also like to be extracted. His game progress was precious to him.

He accepted the pen and playfully clicked it then he saw something in the box light up.

Hazey who had expected this explained.

"Each time you click the pen, our Surveillance Office gets a ping on your location and they'll provide real-time assistance in whatever way your guards will need to ensure your safety."

Vincent nodded and she continued handing him a smaller box.

"In there is a licensed Glock 19, with a thirty-round mag. This is in a case where for whatever reason you have to protect yourself, we hope it never comes to that but it is better to be prepared."

Vincent was starting to get the feeling that the XO Security Company was in competition with others and that was why they seemed to value his life more than he did. He wasn't wrong, he had a VIP status because of his wealth, and losing someone of that status could very well crumble the entire company. While his life meant nothing to them, their reputation meant everything. This was impossible to explain to Vincent.

"Now we'll talk about the cost. As VIP, your guards might incur some expenses while protecting you. Like disguising, or getting information from establishment workers, changing cars, etcetera. Because of this, we'll take a deposit of one million dollars each year. At the end of the year, working with your accountant, we will calculate actual auxiliary costs, and if there is a surplus we will return this to you while a deficit will be covered by us."

That sounded like a really good deal to Vincent so he said nothing.

"Each guard costs $8,000 daily, you'll have six with you. That amounts to $1,440,000 monthly."

This caused Vincent to draw in a deep breath, that was a lot of money. However, he was still determined to go through with it after all, who knew what he would be facing? If in time he saw it wasn't worth it, he could always cut down the guards.

He picked up the gun box, studied the weapon, and set it back down.

"Your guards will train you on how to use it, and some self-defense techniques if you wish to learn" Hazey commented as she watched him.

Vincent nodded in understanding and soon a tablet was put in front of him with a code to scan with his bank app. He decided to pay for two months first and by then he'll know whether to extend or terminate the contract.

After paying the amount of $2,880,000. He was introduced to the two guards who would always be with him, Jim and Gavin.

When he walked out of XO Security, one of the four guards held the door open for him and he nodded his thanks as he got in. Jim entered the Passenger seat while Gavin sat with him in the backseat.

As Vincent looked up to study Jim through the rear mirror, he caught the driver with tears in his eyes which left him confused. Although this man did not talk much, he was still a good driver so far.

Without a word, the car got in motion as the driver already knew his destination. Home.