Infinite Realm

While everyone watched as the other players were rounded up by the NPC guards, the cause of all this as well as the centre of attention, Sato, had already finished up with the attendant and sneaked out of the trade-house.

All Sato needed to do was to sell his weapons to the trade-house and leave but as he wanted to avoid the attention of so many players on him, he just handed the weapons to the clerk and said he will come for the money later. He wasn't worried about not getting it as first of all, these were NPCs and though programmed like humans, they were still more trustworthy than humans. Also, he would still be doing a lot of businesses with the trade-house and so, be visiting the place over a long period. Hence, collecting his money now or later made no difference to Sato.

Rather than get stuck in the 'sticky' situation at the trade-house, where everyone's eyes were on him, Sato decided to sneak out of the place. Once he was outside, he then donned on a black cloak that prevented his facial features from getting spotted.

'I can see the forums blowing up now.' Sato sighed.

How could he not understand the thoughts of those players? Some of them might have already recorded the confrontation back then and had uploaded it on the forums for content and publicity.

Sato wanted to keep a low-key and he would have continued to do so if Blue Flame, the lanky youth, as well as the black-haired young man didn't force his hand. Even a monk wouldn't tolerate such incessant bulls**t much less Sato, who wasn't one. Though he would have liked to have a faint presence and remained low-key, that doesn't mean that Sato would simply bow his head just to any player. In fact, he didn't mind risking his current condition to vent his anger on those who offend him. In other words, even though he would become popular on the forums for a while, Sato didn't mind it as long as he had taught those guys a lesson.

Regarding being popular on the forums, Sato was right; he had indeed become popular.

Just as Sato had thought, some players had recorded the entire confrontation between him and Blue Flame. The players who did so were either streamers or gaming bloggers. There were also a few of them who just wanted to upload something fun on the forums and gain a few new followers while at it. These players had originally started recording Blue Flame since he was somewhat of a celebrity. Getting Sato in the shot was unintended until he had clashed with Blue Flame over the right to the counter.

Smelling drama with a hint of explosive confrontation, a bunch of other players had joined in and began recording the event. As a result of this, there were more than just a few copies of the confrontation that had made their way to the forums. The forums were packed with a lot of active fellows who began discussions on the 'true' identity of Sato, as well as the reason why the NPC guards had sided with him. While this turned out to be a simple discussion for some, to the guilds, this was an all-new threat.

Sato's existence meant a jarring possibility for these guilds. Unlike the less experienced players, these guilds had quite a lot of senior members so they figured out that Sato was able to get past the rules by gaining certain privileges. There were many ways of getting them but the most common and direct one was to become a noble.

A noble. This was a character who could influence the lives of the NPCs and even the players. Every guild would want a noble in their ranks as this meant that they would be able to receive some privileges from the town, city, or area the player has been assigned. 

The route to becoming a player was obvious to many but the part of becoming a noble was an unknown, even for the topmost guilds. However, now there existed one in front of them, why wouldn't the guilds of Riverdale undergo a mass search for the figure. If the player was a solo player, then they could simply recruit him and there would be no worries. However, if they turned out to be a member of a guild already, then the other guilds would either try to partner up with the said individual's guild or eliminate the player and make him worthless to his guild.

Of course, Sato wasn't aware of this but even if he was, it would make no difference.

Right after selling off the weapons he had forged, Sato made his way to the Blacksmith guild, which wasn't that far from the trade-house. Till the others were prepared, Sato planned on using most of the low-quality materials to forge equipment and weapons which he would put up for sale. Since he would be soon leaving for the city, didn't want to go without enough having money. There would surely be a lot of opportunities and treasures there, and monopolizing as many as he could was his goal. However, doing this would be impossible if Sato didn't have enough funds.

As for why he was confident in his works being able to sell well, this was just a craftsman's faith. Sato had yet to compare his works with that of any player blacksmith as he always aimed to be at the system basic standards at the very least. As a result, not only was Sato unknown in the blacksmithing industry but he also wasn't aware of the achievements of other blacksmiths. But Sato didn't care about any of this. He just wanted to sell his works and go.

Sato was quite confident in himself and his ability, and this confidence surged a bit after he realised that Blue Flame made weapons barely on par with market standard but was still wanted by quite a few guilds. He could make better swords than that dude but that person was being regarded as a "Forging Genius" by some naive players.

'Oh well, I have to put them up for sale. I just need to return to the trade-house tomorrow.' Sato thought as he walked through the doors of the blacksmith guild.

Unbeknownst to Sato, after his works had been sold to the trade-house and put on display, a small commotion had already broken out between the players in the trade-house.