Re: Evolution Online

"Sorry… I mean. Ummm… Mia wanted to start her quest soon. Since you asked me to rest, I decided to do some of the work before heading to the divine temple."

"I… I didn't mean to overstep my… I mean if you don't want me handling all this then I will stop."

Alex started fumbling and explaining as soon as Liam walked over to her. She looked extremely nervous to be talking to him in person, one on one.

Her lips were trembling and parted. Her voice and face looked anxious. Everything about her was different. 

There was no trace of the previous arrogant and headstrong girl that Liam was familiar with and more importantly, she was no longer looking at him as the enemy.

He almost couldn't believe that this was the same person. Could someone really change that much?

His question was soon answered when the redhead's face started quickly changing. 

She looked very flustered almost as if she was regretting behaving this weak and vulnerable in front of someone and kicked a small stone to the side.

"I have run a guild before. I won't do a bad job." She looked away and mumbled.

"I didn't say that you would." Liam chuckled. "Actually, I have been meaning to send you both a message. Good job on the interview. I heard good things?"

Alex quickly forgot about her nervousness. She opened up the guild interface and shared it with Liam. 

"Yes, see we have applications coming in every minute. Before it was even crazier. In total, we got like a million applications. Isn't that crazy?!"

Liam chuckled. "How many followers do you have on social media? Give it time and the total number will probably equal that."

"What? Are you serious?"

"Of course, you two are big celebrities now. I don't expect anything else."

Alex blushed, but then she realized that the person was simply making fun of her. She narrowed her eyes, deciding to let that slide, and changed the topic.

"Ummm… Can you see this? Mia gave me permission to be a guild admin. I can give you permission too."

"No need. I can already access it." Liam shook his head.

"How? I mean you are neither guild leader nor vice-leader?"

"Mmmm. There is actually another position in the guild. Not many people know about it."

"What position?" Alex was nervous to pry for more details but at the same time, she was also curious.

"Do you really want to know? Alright. Since you are an admin you should be able to check it. Go to the top right corner and select guild details."

Alex nodded, her hands simultaneously tapping on the screen. She pulled up that list as she was already aware of that.

However, as soon as she opened it, she was shocked!

How did I not see it before! Alex blinked in disbelief.

There… in the pop-up box… right below guild leader and guild vice-leader, there was another small line, Guild Owner.

And next to it, Liam's name was written in bold letters. 

Fuck me. She had been playing the game until now just like Liam, but she had no clue such a thing existed.

Liam chuckled. He could read the woman like an open book so he added. "This is only specific to S-Rank guilds. That's why you probably did not know."

"Ah. I see." Alex nodded dumbly.

She had always assumed that the guy had simply handed over the responsibilities to Mia and Derek because they were basically his slaves.

What difference did it make if he was the guild leader or not?

But still, it was weird that he did not want any part of the control of the guild. It did not match his personality.

And now after seeing this, finally everything made sense.

Alex smiled bitterly. This guy hadn't handed over the guild entirely after all.

"What? You have something to say?" Liam grinned.

"Nope, boss. Nothing at all." Alex quickly shook her head. There was also a small smile on her face.

It was clear that she now felt more comfortable talking to him and did not act very stiff and rigid, unlike her usual self. This was also why Liam had spent some time chatting with her.

"Ok, so what problem did you want to talk to me about? Did someone place a bounty on our guild members?" Liam quickly moved on to the main topic.

"How! How did you know that?" Alex widened her eyes and stared at him. 

Though she knew better than to be surprised at this point, she still couldn't help it. Even before she opened her mouth, this person already knew the issue.

Could be possibly read minds?

"Who is it? Should be the Jade mountain guild?" Liam said as he continued scrolling and vaguely looked at the names of the different applications.

"Yes! I asked around and they are indeed one of them."

"Mmmm… we just clashed with them outside the dungeon so this is to be expected. Let me think. Then the second guild must be stormtroopers?"

This time, however, Alex shook her head. "No. Not them."

"Hmmm?" It was now Liam's turn to be surprised. This was something he expected especially after seeing Derek's name as the vice-guild leader.

But why did they suddenly decide not to get involved?

"Well whatever, less headache for us." Liam shrugged.

"Mmm. There are also some other smaller guilds. Some of them placed bounties and some of them are directly ganging up on our guild members as they leave the city."

"So soon? Interesting."

"Yes. This is what I am concerned about. We faced similar issues in heavenly retribution as well but that time we had a chance to stabilize the guild foundation."

"Now, these guys are attacking us from day 1."

"If this continued, then even with Mia's influence… I am afraid no one will join. We will be labeled as a weak and namesake guild."

"I agree." Liam nodded. "So, do you have any suggestions?"

"I…" Alex hesitated a bit. 

She was also a guild leader once so she did have some solutions, but she suddenly felt like a student being questioned by a strict teacher and put on the spot.

"We can maybe attack them back? We can call back some of our stronger guild members from the nether realm and take care of the annoying pests?"

"I mean if we kill them repeatedly, they should back off."

"Ok. That sounds good, but not now. Let's wait for a bit before directly engaging. I don't want to scare them away just yet." Liam grinned. 

"I have other plans for these guilds, so the more the better."