Chapter 82: Damian Sterling’s Ambition

"Mr. Sterling. I imagine you already know by now Kael Mercer is Unrivaled."

"I know exactly where he is tonight. Interested in working together? Let’s reel in this particular fish before anyone else gets the same idea."

Sterling went rigid at the first sentence, every trace of casual irritation burning off in an instant.

He straightened on the sofa, expression hardening into something far more deliberate. "Who is this. Why should I trust a word of it?"

"You don’t need my name.

You don’t need to trust me either." The voice on the other end stayed perfectly even, unhurried, carrying the particular calm of someone who’d already won the conversation before it started.

"You just get one chance to say yes. Decline, and I find another partner."

Sterling’s expression cycled through several calculations in quick succession before settling into resolve.

"How does this work."

"Simple enough. Send someone down to collect the package waiting in your living room. It has his exact location."

"Send a team capable enough to take him alive. From that point forward, the server’s number one player belongs to us."

Sterling’s pupils contracted sharply at that.

Since the merge, he’d taken his own security more seriously than almost anything else in his life relocated to a villa known to no one outside his innermost circle, every precaution taken to keep that address from reaching anyone who might use it against him.

And somehow, this stranger had placed a package inside that villa without a single person noticing.

Whoever was on the other end of this call operated with resources most organizations would kill for.

A cold unease settled through him despite himself. He waved Ashley over without a word and sent her down for the package.

What came back up was a tablet. A map filled the screen, a single red marker pulsing steadily in one corner.

"You’re with the government." The words came out flat, certain. Satellite-grade signal tracking, precise enough to pin an exact location from nothing but a phone that kind of capability belonged to exactly one institution in the country.

Silence answered him for a long moment.

"Who I am doesn’t matter. What matters is the arrangement." The voice finally continued, unbothered.

"Take him alive, and he’s ours to direct. With Ironclad’s existing infrastructure behind that leverage, your organization becomes the strongest guild on this server inside a week."

"All I ask in return is your help, when the moment calls for it."Sterling’s pulse spiked. Whoever this was, the implication landed clear enough someone inside the official structure, chasing something well outside any sanctioned mandate.

This wasn’t a request that could survive daylight. Whatever happened next had to stay buried.He understood exactly how dangerous this partnership was. One miscalculation, and it could end everything he’d built.

But the upside dwarfed the risk. Control Kael Mercer the way Ashley had already been brought to heel, and the door that opened afterward had no visible ceiling.

As the merge deepened, the line between game and world kept thinning further every day. Someone standing where Sterling could potentially stand wouldn’t just run a guild. They’d sit somewhere close to the top of everything.

"Fortune favors the bold." He said it low, almost to himself, resolve settling fully into place. "I’m in."

"How do we coordinate?"

"Simple. Grab the package, follow the marker, bring him back breathing."

"One problem." Sterling’s jaw tightened. "He’s the top name on the Ascendant Rankings, and those three companions of his aren’t a joke.

The handful of men I have on hand aren’t close to enough for a clean capture."

"Any chance of real backup?"

The voice turned cold. "I provide the location. Everything past that is yours to solve."

"Fail at something this simple, and you’re not worth my time going forward."

"I’ll call again tomorrow. I expect good news."

The line went dead.Sterling sat with the phone in his hand for a long beat, thinking, then picked it back up and started making calls.

Half an hour of careful arrangement later, seven of his most trusted operatives slipped out into the night, dispatched to hunt down Kael Mercer under cover of darkness.

Sterling watched them vanish into the dark with something close to hunger behind his eyes.

"So what if you’re Unrivaled," he murmured, a thin smile spreading. "Hide in the middle of nowhere all you want."

"Satellites don’t care how far off the grid you think you are."

Every one of the seven he’d sent counted among his most trusted Ironclad veterans alongside a handful of top-tier talent poached at considerable expense over the past few days, each one bound to Sterling through leverage solid enough to guarantee their silence and their loyalty both.

Following the pulsing marker, the team made their way into the hill country outside Ironport City, staying low, moving carefully through the tree line to avoid any chance of early detection.

A hundred meters out from the marked coordinates, the team’s archer sharp-eyed, trained for exactly this kind of reconnaissance spotted the shape of a tent tucked behind a large outcropping of rock.

A ripple of quiet satisfaction passed through the group. The intelligence had held.

None of them carried any illusions about a fair fight.

A straight confrontation against Kael at full strength was a fantasy none of them entertained for a second.

But a player deep in a grinding session carried a blind spot that worked in their favor real-world awareness dulled, reflexes slower to engage, attention split somewhere else entirely. That narrow window was the only opening they’d get.

Three of the seven were Assassins. They traded a single glance and slipped into stealth without a word, vanishing from sight as they closed the remaining distance toward the tent in total silence.

The other four fell in behind, picking their way forward with careful, deliberate steps, tightening the circle one position at a time.

Once every member had reached their assigned spot, the operation’s acting lead issued the final order over the team’s private channel.

"Julian. The moment you’re inside, activate the item. Once he’s locked down, it doesn’t matter how strong he is none of it works anymore."

"Copy that."

Julian Vale’s eyes carried a cold, focused glint as he closed his left hand around a dull, gray-toned jade the Stillstone, specially procured for exactly this purpose.

Dagger in his right hand, he worked the tent flap open without a sound, and stepped inside.