Child of Destiny

...

Later that night, the server of «Destiny's Fate» went up once again after the major update. A lot of new places were unlocked just like the newly discovered 'Sky Island' just before the major maintenance.

There were also some changes to the gameplay as the movements of every player need to be more realistic. Though, the further details about it were left to be discovered by the players themselves.

But the thing that made the leading players jump for joy was the fact that they could get a lot of experience points right now.

The experience points given by the monsters might be the same, but the drop rates of special items and rare materials was a rate higher than before.

Moreover, the Adventurer Guild was now offering some daily and weekly quests that could be done by everyone; and the experience points given by those quests were decent enough to satisfy even the high-leveled players.

At the same time, the border regions of every kingdom and empire also became opened, which meant that a lot of high-leveled monsters and top-class materials were now available. This also meant that some of the territorial spots on these places became claimable.

Shin was currently reading the new updates on the game while waiting for his gaming cabin to start its system up.

If he didn't have any plans when he got back in the game, then he was probably going to visit those places. So, going there needed to wait for a while before he had time to take a look at them.

Not long after, Shin finally heard the familiar sound that he was waiting for. And immediately after that, Shin quickly hopped inside the gaming cabin and moved his hand with great precision.

Then he closed his eyes along with the closing of the door of the gaming cabin. And when he heard that the door was locked, he immediately muttered with a soft voice. "Initiate Login."

Swoosh!

On the next moment, Shin felt that very feeling that he only hated from the game. And the moment he reopened his eyes, he found himself standing in the middle of his room at the Mayor's Residence.

He shook his head to shake off the dizziness that he was feeling before muttering to himself. "Why the heck did the developers didn't improve this system? Did they think that the players love the feeling of being in a spinner?"

After that, he walked out of his room and headed to the Mayor's office to check on the progress of his town.

When he stepped inside the office, Shin immediately saw Ribbit who was busily reading the piles of papers on the table.

Seeing that, Shin couldn't help but shook his head helplessly. He was feeling a little guilty for leaving all the works on managing the town.

Shin planned to walk out and come back after seeing all of those papers. But before he could even turn his body around, Ribbit suddenly raised his head and looked at him. "Oh! Town's Mayor! You are finally here at last! There are a lot of things that I wanted to consult you about."

After that, the two of them sat on the sofa before Ribbit started briefing Shin about the progress of the town.

There were a lot of improvements in the town. They had a stable income for running the whole town. They were even earning more than what they needed to add more improvements and modifications that could be done.

But they were also facing a great problem at the same time.

Most of the mainstream players in the Saint Heaven Kingdom were starting to catch up with the leading players due to the recent events that happened just recently. And due to that, Calderock Town was starting to lose its popularity.

The only purpose of most of the players coming to this place was to train at the Battle Arena that the town had. The mana density within the city was quite high which was why the Battle Arena became a perfect place to train.

Moreover, the fee for training here was much cheaper compared to the Divine Colosseum in the Holy City. That was also the reason why these players chose to come here instead of going to that place.

'Looks like I really needed to hasten up the relocation of the Town and also turn it into an Intermediate City as soon as possible,' thought Shin to himself before looking at his inventory.

In fact, he already completed all of the blueprints required for the promotion of his town since Arthur and Leonard helped him find those for him.

So, even without the help of the 'Eternal Hope' and 'Secret Society' to look for those blueprints, promoting the town was already good to go. What he really lacked right now, was to find a good place where he could relocate the town.

What he needed for those Adventurer Teams was them garrisoning on his City. After all, there were a lot of greedy powerful guilds that might set their eyes on his City if ever it became public.

And they might team up with each other once again when that time comes – just like what happened in the last major event that took place at the Holy City just recently.

Moreover, it was going to be a City Siege which would surely involve an even larger group. So, Shin was quite concerned that they might be unable to defend the City properly even with the help of the 'Hand of Midas Guild' and 'Assassin Union'. 

He was also quite stubborn to owe a favor to the top guilds like the 'Wing's Alliance', 'Dragon Pavilion', and 'Titan Guild'. After all, he was quite greedy to share his own pie with a stranger like them who would think about the interest of their guilds first before anything else.

So, what he needed right now was to find some reliable people that he could trust and count onto. The 'Eternal Hope' and 'Secret Society' were candidates for that spot.

He already worked with the members of the former group. They had a decent strength with trustable Commander and Vice Commander. As of the latter group, the Commander of that Adventurer Team was someone he knew, so he could at least put his trust in that person.

Aside from those groups, Lawless' group would naturally have a spot for the 'garrisoning rights' in his City. He only needed to discuss the details with them personally.

What's more, there was also his plan to create an Adventurer Team together with Arthur, Leonard, Cloe. If things went smoothly, then the combined reputations of those three were more than enough to ward off the greedy guilds that might target them.

Though, they might also need to face the enemies of those three who were even more troublesome to deal with.

'Looks like I also need to make haste at looking for some good Team members,' thought Shin after organizing all of his plans inside his head.

He then looked at Ribbit and finalized all of the preparations that they needed for the promotion of Town, before leaving the office.

After that, he immediately opened his friend list. Then he immediately contacted Owen the moment he saw that he was online.

After a couple of rings, Owen immediately picked the call before saying lazily. "Hey, long time no see! But if you want to invite me for a sparring match, then let me reject that offer first. There are a lot of things that need to take care of here on my side."

Shin couldn't help but chuckle a little after hearing all of those. After that, he immediately went straight to the point so that they would not waste each other's time. "Then I will cut off the chase. You are still a solo player, right?"

Hearing that unexpected question, Owen couldn't help but knit his eyebrows for a moment before asking. "What's with the sudden question? Don't tell me you are going to invite me to join a Guild or something?"

Shin didn't reply to him directly and just formed a mysterious smile. And when Owen saw that, his eyes suddenly went wide before asking with a disbelieving tone. "What the heck? You really are going to invite me to join a group? What kind of Powers that managed to convince you to join them!?"

This time, Shin just waved his hand while saying. "Don't misunderstand it. I am just planning to create an Adventurer Team together with my friends. So, want to join us up?"

Owen suddenly calmed down the moment he heard that. If a superstar like this guy really joined a major organization in the game, then that would surely be going to become a headliner for the news networks of the game.

After all, his name was still a hot topic after all of the amazing feats that he did during the last Shadow Ranking Cup.

"So, it was a casual group. If that is what you are planning, then I don't have any problems with that," said Owen in a nonchalant manner.

He then took a brief pause and looked at Shin suspiciously before adding. "But if it happens to be a big organization that requires some long-term contracts, then let me say that 'pass' with that one."

"I'm sure that you know me. After all, we are quite the same. I don't plan to become tied with any organization. I prefer being free and moving without any restrictions."

Shin nodded his head after hearing all of those but still did not give up. "As I said, it is not what you are thinking. Though, you do need to sign a contract after joining."

"Here is the draft of that contract," he added while sending the contract that he drew earlier.

Owen wanted to reject the offer right after heard about the contract. But since they could still be considered as friends, he still took a brief look at the contract that Shin had sent as a sign of respect.

But didn't expect that he was going to get hooked the moment he saw what was written on the contract. If fact, his eyes were turning wider and wider the more he read the content of the said contract.

"Hey! Are you serious about this?" asked Owen right after reading the entire content.

He couldn't believe what he just read. It was as if the contract would never exist even if he signed it up right now.

There were very few restrictions in the contract. Aside from the phrase that was saying, 'every member needs to put the interest of the team as first priority before anything else', the other conditions writtened in the contract were too good to be true.

"Are you guys letting yourselves get scammed? What kind of contract is this?" asked Owen while shouting at Shin.

On the other hand, Shin just chuckled at him before answering. "This contract is only for the founding members of the Team. But if you want to sign this one, then you need to pass a specialized test we prepared first."

"But let me warn you, it is not going to be easy to pass those tests. After all, our judges are pretty troublesome to deal with."

"Moreover, this is an Adventurer Team that will only have trustable members. That is why we are going to invite some like-minded individuals like us. But most importantly, those members need to have a 'decent' strength first before being chosen."

"And if that chosen member still has a questionable loyalty, then they need to sign another contract with tighter restrictions than this one."

Hearing that, Owen finally able to have a sigh of relief before saying. "Let me see the other contract first."

Then Shin immediately complied after hearing that. And when Owen saw the new contract, he couldn't help but nod his head repeatedly.

This contract had a pretty harsh penalty after breaking it, but they were quite reasonable enough given the benefits that someone would get after joining the Team.

After that, Owen fell into deep thought. He was trying to consider whether he wanted to join or not.

He still wanted to stick to his philosophy and continued to become an unrestricted solo player. But for some unknown reason, his gut feeling was telling him to grab this opportunity no matter what.

On the other hand, Shin stayed silent as he was patiently waiting for Owen to come up with a decision.

Few more moments had passed and Owen finally had a decision after long contemplation. He looked at Shin with a determined face while asking. "You said that I need to pass a certain test to sign the first contract, right?"

He then took a brief pause before continuing. "Then let me finish off all of the things on my side before going there."

Hearing that, Shin's mouth suddenly curved into a huge grin before replying. "Thanks for choosing us. In exchange, I will make sure that this is going to be the best decision that you will have in your entire life."

Though, he was adding a few more words in his mind. 'But before that, I need you to suffer some hellish experience while taking the 'test' from those two.'

...…