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

there been any news regarding the two people

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

few feet away from the muscular man, a man dressed

the reply, after a short pause, the tall

"...hmm, strange"

the guild master thinking, the

Master, what are your

-Bang!

speak, the sound of the door smashing reverberated across the space as an individual wearing a black suit hurriedly ran into the room with a report in

"Emergency report!"

gotten into a conflict inside of a

invisible pressure instantly bore down on the individual that had just rushed into the

"khhh..."

-Thud!

pressure bearing down on him, the subordinate that had just barged into the office felt his knees give out as he knelt on the ground of the

intrusion, Patrick coldly spat as he glanced at

is

-Gulp!

of saliva, trembling, the individual started

got into

-Gulp!

swallowing another gulp of saliva, the poor man

an arm

-Vauuuam!

-Bam!

tremendous pressure shrouded the whole office space as the furniture around the room was obliterated into dust. Papers flew everywhere, and

towards the kneeling

you said...recount

on him, without a second thought, the

to the report, Youn-g master Jacob got into co-nflict with Nolan Valdev...son of current guild

Patrick slightly dissipated as he

of light? Nolan?

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

told to continue, without a second

inside of the nightclub, out of nowhere,

a massive overbearing pressure started emanating from Patrick's

Since when was Sword of Light

to make a

daring of

like, Sword of Light didn't regard Luxious as

his fists tightly, Patrick turned towards Victor who stood by the

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

news, Victor's eyes opened wide as

"Guild master!"

once again stared at the city below

if you hurt my son, I'll make sure to return

...

-Tak!

glanced at Smallsnake and smiled

guild master of Luxious will most likely prepare for a

which was holding onto a pawn, paused. Looking at me, he couldn't

"A guild war?"

"Yes"

my head

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

This was inevitable.

only had one

would instantly try to

way he could do that was through a

the central government

guilds in the past led to a lot of deaths, the central government had no choice but to establish guild wars as a mean to legally allow guilds

specifically made to avoid deaths, as at the moment humanity could not afford to lose any more talented warriors. With the pressure coming from all sides, the more Heroes

lot of discussions, the central

guild wars like the name suggested,

all be done inside of a

state-of-the-art virtual machine that could replicate 99.99% of reality. The closest to reality

virtual world, the guilds could compete against each other

of the guild war would gain something that

the central government acting as the intermediary, there was no need to fear for the other party not holding up on

to

was once again confused, looked at

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 a lot of things that don't

Smiling, I lazily yawned

spot on...After a bit of thinking, the guild master of Luxious, Patrick Reid, will instantly realize that something was wrong with the events that led to his

curiously

wouldn't

-Tak!

queen a few