The Author's POV

"...hm? Hold up"

Just as Smallsnake was about to place his piece down, he frowned.

"Did you just say that a camera caught you taking off your mask?"

Lazily supporting my chin with my arm, I nodded.

"Yup"

Confused, Smallsnake tilted his head and frowned.

"...isn't that bad? I mean-"

Seeing Smallsnake's confusion, before he could continue, I cut him off

"Well that is if what they saw was my real face"

Coming to an understanding, Smallsnake's brows relaxed

"Ah...so you didn't reveal your face?"

Nodding my head, I pointed at the board. Urging for him to continue.

"Don't you remember the photos I sent you? The ones you used to create multiple facemasks for me?"

-Tak!

Moving one of the pieces, Smallsnake nodded his head.

"Yeah"

He did.

Although he didn't know who the people in the photos were, Smallsnake remembered receiving a text a couple of days ago regarding the creation of a couple of skin masks.

With current technology, creating such high detailed masks didn't take much, so he had it promptly made the next day.

Seeing that he understood, I lethargically said

"...well I was wearing two at that time."

-Tak!

With one of my eyes closed, I moved my bishop diagonally across the board.

"I see...and who's mask does the other one belong to?"

Hearing his question, I didn't answer immediatly. Instead, I answered with another question.

"Smallsnake, who do you thinks stands to gain the most from the conflict between Sword of light and Luxious?"

Getting answered back with a question, Smallsnake thought for a moment before hesitantly saying

"...errr, the ones who wins between them"

Shaking my head, I lightly smiled.

"Tut, tut, tut, not necessarily true..."

-Tak!

Moving one of his pieces, Smallsnake frowned.

"...then who?"

Smiling, I glanced at him and said

"Have you ever heard of the term, 'the mantis stalks the cicada unaware of the oriole behind?'"

Nodding his head, pausing and thinking for a moment, Smallsnake's eyes widened

"...you don't mean"

-Tak!

"Yup"

...

Luxious Headquarters, 80th floor.

Overlooking the city from the tainted windows of the highrise building, a tall muscular man interlocked his fingers behind his back.

A cold and indifferent aura exuded from his body. Briefly glancing towards the bottom of the building, towards the busy streets of Ashton city, the tall man coldly spoke

has there been any news regarding the two people we

them, but so far, we haven't heard from them

muscular man, a man dressed

the reply, after a short pause, the tall man's

"...hmm, strange"

thinking, the grey

what

-Bang!

speak, the sound of the door smashing reverberated across the space as an individual wearing a black suit hurriedly ran

"Emergency report!"

gotten into a

on the individual that had just rushed into

"khhh..."

-Thud!

the subordinate that had just barged into the office felt his knees give out as he knelt on the ground

the sudden intrusion, Patrick coldly spat as he glanced at his

have a good reason for suddenly barging into my office like that...How is this piece of news deemed to be an emergency? Speak your next words

-Gulp!

mouthful of saliva, trembling, the individual started

master got into

-Gulp!

another gulp of saliva,

arm

-Vauuuam!

-Bam!

the furniture around the room was obliterated into dust. Papers flew everywhere, and

looked towards the kneeling subordinate

what you said...recount me everything

a second thought, the

Jacob got into co-nflict with Nolan Valdev...son of current guild master of

aura around Patrick

of light?

inside of his mind, nodding his head slightly, Patrcik gestured for his subordinate to continue

to continue, without a second thought, the subordinate instantly

as the two were in the middle of a conflict inside of the nightclub, out of nowhere, someone attacked Jacob...the result was his arm getting detached from

massive overbearing pressure started

when was Sword

dared to make

of Sword

of Light didn't

his fists tightly, Patrick turned towards Victor who stood by

of our high ranking members...in a week's time, I want everything prepared...prepare the paperwork.

the news, Victor's eyes opened wide as he couldn't

"Guild master!"

again stared at the

opponent is another gold grade guild, if you hurt my son, I'll make

...

-Tak!

I glanced at Smallsnake

the guild master of Luxious will most likely prepare

holding onto a pawn, paused. Looking at me,

"A guild war?"

"Yes"

head I

soon as the guild master of Luxious found out what had happened to his son, he would without a doubt start preparing for a

This was inevitable.

only had one

an arm, he, without a doubt, would instantly try

way he could do that was through

something that the central government established to

of deaths, the central government had no choice but to establish guild wars as a mean to legally allow guilds to fight each other without

to avoid deaths, as at the moment humanity could not afford to lose any more talented warriors. With the pressure

after a lot of discussions, the central government set up a system called 'guild

suggested, guilds would compete

conflict would all be done inside of

and billions of U, the central government managed to create a state-of-the-art virtual machine that could replicate 99.99% of reality. The closest

each other under fair rules without losing any member

the guild war would gain something that was agreed upon prior to engaging in a guild

was no need to fear for the other party not holding up

you really sure he's going to declare a guild war

was once again confused,

mean, if the Guild Master wasn't stupid, he would instantly notice a few irregularities in the events that had happened in the nightclub...I mean there are

Smiling, I lazily yawned

will instantly realize that something

curiously glanced in my

that, wouldn't that mean your plan

-Tak!

a few