Chapter 47: Biting the Bullet (2)
A scroll of oath was written between Skies Above Skies and Large Golden Mountain.
The contents were simple. Skies Above Skies would buy items from the vendor NPC that Large Golden Mountain had set up and in compensation, Large Golden Mountain would sell the items at a much higher price to Gold Rush.
Skies Above Skies had to buy items that usually cost around 20~50 gold for around 280~700 gold. And these weren't things that they bought in ones, but in bulks of thousands at once, so they had to use nearly one million gold every time they bought things.
That was enough to empty the entire emergency funds they had gathered up until now.
It was to the point that Taemin said they would go bankrupt regardless of the outcome of the war.
However, the reason they were trying to hold on right now... was because Gold Rush would be in a worse situation than them.
No matter how much gold they had as a mining guild, having to pay nearly 4 million gold every time they had to buy things in order to battle should be a huge burden on them.
Of course, if they refused Large Golden Mountain's proposal due to the burden, they may collapse without being able to do any battle.
Healing potions were one thing, but an even worse problem was regarding mana stones. Once a guild war occurred, there would be various outbreaks of big and small clashes in various places, but if they could not use the marking book to return, then they would definitely lose.
As a large-scale war occurred between Skies Above Skies and Gold Rush, any stock of mana stones on the market had disappeared, so even the other users were having a hard time, but normal users wouldn't go bust just because they couldn't use recalls for now.
Only Gold Rush would be in the ditch if they could not use recalls.
This situation was like Gold Rush deciding between a poison that would immediately kill them or kill them a week later.
Of course, there was a path to survival as well. They had to defeat the other before they died... then they would be able to steal the antidote and save themselves.
"F*cking scammer. How dare you try to sell drugs on me."
Kim Daeshik, one of the mid-level managers of Gold Rush, otherwise known as 'Black Dog', roared as though he would kill Large Golden Mountain immediately.
"I'd be rather thankful if you think I'm selling drugs... you don't even have enough resources to catch the forces of Skies Above Skies. You should be seeing many reinforcement requests...."
Large Golden Mountain ended on a vague note and a vague smile. He didn't come to Gold Rush immediately and waited on purpose.
About now, it was about time they were running out of war goods that they had gathered up until now.
"F*cker...."
Black Dog was closer to a thug than a gamer. Sanghyuk, who was disguised as Large Golden Mountain right now, knew that the best.
'This dumbass meathead is the same as ever.'
The one that battered Sanghyuk the most in his previous life was also this Black Dog. He nitpicked on him on every single one of his actions.
Sanghyuk could feel a hot rage welling deep within him as soon as he met him.
"I don't think you get the situation here... You just report to your master 'Golgers'. Don't roll that stupid head of yours. It won't get you anywhere."
Sanghyuk mocked Black Dog.
If the counterpart was Black Dog and no one else, then there was no need for any respect.
"You are getting cocky."
"So what? You'll put me in place?"
Sanghyuk knew that Black Dog had nothing like a calm mind so he just mocked him outright.
He only wanted one thing.
For Black Dog to erupt.
"Yeah f*cker! I'll put you in your place!"
*Swoosh*
In the end, Black Dog erupted. His subordinates, who were watching from the sidelines attempted to stop him, but Black Dog was much faster.
He swung his large saber towards Sanghyuk. The moment Black Dog emitted his killing intent towards Sanghyuk, EL's justified self-defense protocol activated.
Black Dog was now releasing grey light. Of course, this was only visible to Sanghyuk. This grey light meant that there would be no penalties for Sanghyuk to attack Black Dog due to the justified self-defense protocol.
*Bbbooom!*
Sanghyuk simply took a step back to dodge Black Dog's large saber.
'You really attack without looking around once you get agitated. Damned pig.'
"You dodged? C'mere, you bastard!"
"Hyung-nim!"
"Team leader!"
Black Dog's subordinates tried to stop him, but Black Dog was faster than them this time as well.
Black Dog wildly rushed towards Sanghyuk. He was a warrior-class user, so his charge attack was actually very intimidating.
Black Dog's subordinates judged that it would be bad if Black Dog actually blew Large Golden Mountain to pieces and had reported to their higher-ups.
However, they had to stop Black Dog from killing until someone capable of stopping him came.
Black Dog started rampaging around like a mad bull.
And his subordinates were desperately attempting to stop him.
And lastly, a completely normal bystander(?) standing next to the mad bull.
This scene was naturally merged into one, and then changed into something completely different.
Sanghyuk very narrowly dodged Black Dog's charge attack by twisting his body sideways by half a step.
This was a Soul Skill called Marginal Stride.
To be exact, it was one of the Soul Skills Sanghyuk had acquired after Sanghyuk's first Ancient Knowledge 'Knight' advanced to 'Bladeknight', and its effects increased dodge rates drastically for a very short amount of time (1 second), so it suited him a lot.
Like right now.
*Fwoosh, bbbbooom!*
Sanghyuk too easily dodged Black Dog's charge attack. Not only that, he threw a fusion card to Black Dog as he did so, and it was 'Spear of Zeus'.
*Flash! Pzzzzzt!*
"Urgh!"
Thanks to Sanghyuk dodging, Black Dog could neither avoid crashing into the wall nor dodge the streak of electricity that flew at him.
Thanks to that, his HP bar was shaved off a lot along with a slight electric shock.
There was nothing like pain when HP went down. Instead, there would be just intense discomfort.
"This bastard..."
Black Dog glared at Sanghyuk while gritting his teeth.
However, no matter how intimidating the glare was, Sanghyuk, no, Large Golden Mountain's expression was full of leisure.
"Why? You don't feel so good being beaten up by a merchant?"
"Sir Mountain! Please stop!"
"Hyung-nim, you should stop as well!"
At that moment Black Dog's subordinates came and blocked the path between them.
"Out of my way! I'll definitely beat the crap out of him today!"
"Whew, a big talker. I said okay, so you can try?"
Sanghyuk didn't stop mocking him. Whatever happened, Black Dog rampaging more would make him more advantageous.
'Thanks to this monkey, it looks like my business will become smoother.'
There was a reason Sanghyuk kept provoking Black Dog, and that was to make an excuse.
The urgent one right now was Gold Rush.
Even though Gold Rush was based on a workshop, their losses would be huge if they lost this guild war.
Especially since there were 'ranks' in the world of workshops as well. Right now, Gold Rush was in the overwhelming lead, but there were many workshops which were waiting for an opportunity to rise to the top.
If Gold Rush lost this war, then the other workshops that were eyeing their areas may invade them.
Once that happened, even Gold Rush would be put to dire straits.
Actually, the winner of this war was Gold Rush in Sanghyuk's previous life. And at that time, this resulted in the collapse of Skies Above Skies, no, the entire Sky Line itself.
It wasn't like the guilds were completely destroyed, but their influence kept declining as an effect of the loss and the 5 Great Lines of EL decreased to 4.
'Would a lot change if the outcome of the war changes?'
Actually, the change of the future wasn't such a good thing for Sanghyuk. However, it would be foolish for him to do absolutely nothing.
It wasn't like cooks stopped cooking in fear of bugs. And most importantly, Gold Rush was an enemy Sanghyuk had to trample on very thoroughly.
"Let me go! I'll have that bastard...."
"Kim Daeshik, what the hell are you doing!"
With his appearance, a man shut Black Dog's loud mouth. Sanghyuk also knew who this guy was.
'The 'Goldbug' Golgers! He's finally here.'
The 'Goldbug' Golgers. He was the guildmaster of Gold Rush, as well as the Line master of the Gold Line. He was also the owner of the workshops that operated in Korea and China.
He was very rich in real life as well, and even when Sanghyuk's workshop was broken to pieces in his previous life, this guy walked away like nothing with no punishments.
'At that time, I could only stay still since I couldn't do anything, but this time….., it will be different.'
Sanghyuk looked at Golgers with a very suspicious expression.
"You can see me later."
Golgers spoke with a very stiff expression while looking at Black Dog. Black Dog couldn't even reply and stood like a defeated dog.
"Are you Large Golden Mountain? I did see your proposal through the mail...."
Golgers looked around to see Large Golden Mountain and started talking. Befitting of his personality, he skipped all the minor talk and went straight to the topic.
"Did you think we would accept this proposal? It's 40 times. And I heard you only receive 14 times for our enemies? Do you think I'll really accept this injustice?"
Golgers looked at Large Golden Mountain with a very serious expression. He looked as if he would go crazy at any moment.
Normally, a person would take a step or two back. If the counterpart went crazy, then it would be his loss, so they would take at least a step or two back to prevent that.
However, Large Golden Mountain didn't seem to mind and nonchalantly continued his act.
"You will. Well, if you plan to surrender, then you don't have to accept it."
"What guts.... If we really surrender, wouldn't it be a huge loss for you? In our view, even if we win the war after buying those items at 40 times the normal price, it won't be our win at all. We might as well give up."
"Sheesh, you talk a lot. Then you can surrender for all I care. Just open the guild menu right now, press the surrender button, compensate your enemies, embarrass yourself in public, get smashed on the head by the other workshops and let go of a few sneaky guild members that can leave at any time.... Whew, you sound busy."
"...."
Golgers momentarily couldn't react to Large Golden Mountain's words.
"And you can't take the burden of 40 times the market price when you are the one and only Gold Rush, the richest guild in EL? That's an overstatement."
"Who says such nonsense? Gold Rush is also on the same level as other large guilds...."
"Nah, you can't do this to me. Should I recite some of Gold Rush's biggest mines? Honestly, if you run 'Abandoned mines workshop', 'Dark hill workshop', and 'Doomed ocean workshop', you get a minimum two million gold every day, no? Should I recite some of the minor ones as well? And now, now, don't deny it in front of me. If you do deny it, I'll just share the locations and the methods of grinding all on the internet."
Golgers was at a loss after Large Golden Mountain's sudden attack. This information wasn't something he was supposed to know.
This information was only known to the important manager-level members of Gold Rush. However, the other had so easily, and precisely named the workshops.
That was a too big of a strike.
This strike decided the outcome in one go.
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