Chapter 351 Progress
Alex shared his plans with Venedikt, telling him the gist of everything he wanted to achieve and informing him that being in the limelight would pose a problem.
At first, Venedikt had few suggestions, but after Alex told him about how the government and other big powers treated anyone they felt they didn't have influence over, he quickly realized that his suggestions wouldn't work.
Alex knew the greed and malice humans had, and those in power had more than one could imagine, and to keep their power and influence, they would go down any dark roads they needed.
So he knew that now, because Shiekh's persona was a spotlight, it would garner the attention of big parties, and they would monitor all his dealings.
They would do so to gather information because, at higher levels of society, information held more value than anything, and Alex knew it was impossible to escape the eyes of big parties, but he knew it was very much possible to keep a few things secret.
Alex shared his plan of how they would deal with the big powers prying eyes, and for the most part, it was a simple strategy to let them know everything, from what guilds the mysterious man was investing in and also what mercenary groups worked for him.
However, he would spread rumors that there were more guilds and mercenary groups both belonging to NPCs and players working for Shiekh, and the big powers would easily find the two guilds from the original six he planned to keep hidden and even several mercenary groups.
As for the source of the vast funds he would funnel into the guilds and mercenary groups, it would be the Mystium Ore that he recently created and gave the formula to the Thogrim, the dwarven Forging king.
Alex would tell his source of income to the guilds by telling them how he had acquired the creation method of the legendary Mystium Ore, but it needed a Forg king's help to create, and he made contact with the dwarven Forging king named Thogrim Brightstone.
They made a deal that the creation method would only stay with him, and in return, he would give 50% of all the Mystium Ore he would create and also entertain his request of forging every now and then.
Alex wouldn't share the details, but as he had already made Thogrim agree to his plan and meet a few high-profile individuals to confirm the details, everything would go smoothly.
Alex proposed this deal a few weeks ago when he contacted Thogrim to tell him where he needed to send the flying war shifts and battle puppets.
The dwarf, who always has a fiery temper, swiftly turned into a merchant and told him that he would agree to the deal if he would make his fake story a reality.
Alex had given Thogrim the formula, but he could only create Mystium Ore for his own use, and although he could sell items forged from it, he couldn't directly sell it, and after seeing the opportunity, he couldn't hope to miss his chance.
Alex agreed to the offer in a heartbeat, not asking for anything extra in return, but he did tell Thogrim that he would need to forge many items in the near future, so he should keep his schedule less crowded.
The big powers would confirm the information from Thogrim, and the new supply of Mystium Ore in the market would dispel any doubts that anyone else would have.
After that, it would be smooth sailing, as no one would know how much money Sheikh was earning from the sale of Mystium Ore, and Alex could put as much money as he wanted into various projects without raising any alarms.
The issue that the popularity brought was not that Alex would need to sell Mystium Ore to big parties and even accept their custom equipment requests every now and then, as he was already planning to do it.
However, the challenge lay in managing the number of parties that would be involved because, currently, close to ten big builds were showing interest, and as time went on, more would follow.
Aside from maintaining a delicate balance of neutrality, Alex needed several reliable individuals capable of handling various responsibilities, and at present, the only person he trusted who could handle such tasks was Venedikt.
Venedikt was at first surprised by the preparations Alex had made as they were bulletproof and would make the persona of Shiekh a separate entity that no one would connect to any single power.
But after a few moments, he shifted his focus to the problem at hand and agreed that staying neutral was the best option as that was the only way to keep things secret, and moments later, he came up with a good idea to solve the issue that was plaguing Alex.
As for handling sensitive work, like the creation of Mystium Ore, that would be done solely by NPCs bound by a strict blood oath, which was cruel as any breach meant death but necessary, and for their corporation, they would be compensated fairly.
To handle the guilds, they should contract new capable individuals bound by strict contracts, and even then, they would obviously become moles of big powers, but that wouldn't affect them as they would never have any sensitive information.
This would remove the need to monitor everything, while Venedikt would handle the sensitive things like dealing with various hidden groups himself, acting as Sheikh.
It would still be a lot of work, but it was the best option for the time being. As time would pass, he could create a solid team of trusted individuals not linked to the organization to manage things, and if they prove themselves, we could add them to the organization.
The big powers could do their research, and in a few months, they would be satisfied that the figure Sheikh is a businessman and is not solely working for any of the big powers.
Alex told Venedikt that he should handle things according to the suggestion with Shiekh while keeping him updated, and he would help him manage things the best he could, with both of them staying in contact to handle any issue that needed attention.
Alex understood that Venedikt would be under a mountain of work, but he wouldn't be roaming free because, besides helping manage things, Alex would be hunting down big legacies he knew about to create a group of solid individuals who could act as pillars of his organization.
Venedikt agreed without question, and with just a few minutes left before the meeting time, he started sharing the organization's recent developments.
Venedikt shared that after the agreement they made with the Italian Mafia Donatelli family, the entire Twilight Embers school has pledged loyalty to the organization, and even though only a tenth of their students were able to join after clearing the first Rank promotion with hidden conditions and those that already had a legacy.
The number still reached closer to a hundred and eighty new members, and because of their name and connections, they had attracted other skilled individuals to join.
Ultimately, over two hundred more new members joined because of them, most by acquiring a hidden class, but many of them had a legacy.
The total number of members of the organization had surpassed a thousand, reaching closer to eleven hundred, ten times the number that it was a little over three months ago.
The number of legacy holders was closer to seventy, with six SS Rank and one SSS Rank, obviously not including Alex and the other three members who held an SSS Rank legacy.
Venedikt also shared that one of the six managers Alex appointed to manage things had become a mole, and the reason why he believed that was because he was trying to befriend him and asking many questions about the higher-ups.
The man was named Jeremy, and he cleared the first rank promotion as the seventh fastest individual from the first batch. Alex understood him from his past life as a talented archer, one of the few individuals to pick random classes and make good use of them.
Alex understood that even with the threat of offending the organization, few among the big guilds would make contact with his organization members, giving them benefits in the real world to make moles to gather information.
Alex understood that none of the guilds liked the offer he had made, and even though they would keep silent and accept it with a smile, that wouldn't stop them from gathering data on the organization to know what they were up against.
Alex also understood that soon, the presence of the domain would be revealed to the world, and this would piss off every player, putting a target on the back of his organization, but he was not worried about any big party coming after them.
Even if the whole world started looking, they had zero chance of finding the truth about the organization, and even if the governments started using their newfound technologies to track down the organization members among the billions of players and did find some that would be of no help to their cause.
They would be looking for something that didn't exist, and as the organization grew, Alex planned to keep that secret.
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