The Official Guild Creation Order was an item many sought to obtain, but failed to come across. The chances of it dropping were abysmally low, and if one wanted to obtain it from Treasure Chests, it'd required an absurd amount of luck.
In fact, Kieran obtaining the orders from his chest had something to do with his newly unlocked Enhanced Hidden Attribute, Karma.
As stated once before, Karma was similar to Luck in effect. However, it was more complex, even including some adverse effects should Kieran's Karma dip into the red.
Then again, because he was considered a Neutral Aberration, the system treated him as being someone or something led by fate. Hence, it delivered items that would suit him.
Of course, it didn't account for the fact that he already possessed one.
Or perhaps it did and determined those items held the most value to him at the time.
Many players ignored their current activities after learning that the Player Auction would include an Official Guild Creation Order. Instead, they searched for a method to join the Player Auction immediately.
Clearing a Hell Mode Dungeon was beyond many of them.
Despite their several attempts, many players failed to defeat the bizarre Mini-Bosses. Indeed, they had not even reached the Bosses.
This led them to question how Kieran managed to solo one. A Release-type skill wasn't enough to bridge the gap; there had to be more to his power that he didn't reveal.
And this omission of details was perhaps why he battled against Soulless for so long.
Either that… or perhaps Soulless was truly a worthy opponent at the beginning of the fight.
As the Player Auction was set to begin in less than two minutes, Kieran swiftly finished all the configurations. He chose to use a bidding system that would best suit the Player Auction, as well as the current condition of the player economy.
'This auction will be a good way to generate cash, considering my debt. Then, there's the matter of acquiring a proper building. Perhaps even more than one if I'm to situate a large guild and have a proper company under it. Plus, the mystery of the X-hancers…. I intend to unearth it,' Kieran thought, clenching his fist.
The time of X-hancers was far too coincidental for him to ignore. If he set aside the presence of Zenith Online, there was still the fact that X-hancers existed for up to 10 years prior.
Even though Zenith Online was a gateway to requiring X-hancers, that didn't explain how or why these X-hancers came to be. Furthermore, how were they perfected to accomplish these remarkable effects?
Every drug required testing to iron out the kinks through pure trial and error. That would also mean that, because of those errors, some disastrous fallout would require making amends.
Thinking further into this matter, Kieran's eyes narrowed as he covered his mouth pensively. 'Could it be? The government issued funds to children that lost their parents due to a supposed terrorist act. But… where are those children? Who are those children?'
Left with these questions, Kieran could only lift his head and look into the distance, wondering if there were others like him in his timeline who unknowingly suffered from H-COS.
However, even if that were true, Kieran doubted that they suffered the same fate that he did.
As far as he knew, there was no news of another top expert falling terminally ill.
It was likely that only the vile and insecure Golden Brigade manipulated his access to X-hancers and knowledge of the Inhuman Threshold.
Eventually, to stop himself from falling down the speculation rabbit hole that he almost subjected himself to, Kieran shook his head and pushed the matter to the back of his mind.
He needed concrete evidence, not pure speculation that his mind worked up due to his experiences.
A few seconds later, a large digital screen appeared before Kieran. The layout was similar to a selection menu within the Merchant Association.
However, the difference from that was that in the place of items was the name of several players, as well as a summary of interesting information.
'Oh? I can see everyone's World Fame and Membership Level with the Merchant Association. No wonder people said this function was too transparent in the past. Once you join… there's no hiding anything. Not even cloaking items can mask this information. After all, it's not like it's a player responsible for revealing the information,' Kieran thought.
As he perused the names of people that joined, Kieran found that it included many First Class and Overlord Guild Masters.
Yet, it didn't stop there.
There were also a few members of known Behemoth Guilds.
For example, Mors—Vice Guild Leader of the Behemoth Guild, Apocalypse. Mors was an individual capable of commanding respect from every place he visited.
It was also one of the reasons why Soulless was so docile in his presence. That, and Mors was also responsible for some of his early training, which fostered deeply embedded fear and respect in Soulless.
Aside from Mors, Kieran also noticed other familiar names—Khaos, Ezra, Vendetta, and Solomon. ραпdαs `n?ν?| сom
The last name, however, made Kieran's eyes narrow and fists clench.
Solomon was Charles' chosen in-game name. In other words, this was Kieran's first sighting of Golden Brigade in this timeline.
Charles chose this name for reasons that were briefly mentioned in the beginning. Stemming from an inferiority complex, Charles believed that he was destined for greatness.
Hence, he adopted a name that was synonymous with something great.
'Oh, Golden Brigade. So you show your weaselly little face now? This is all too good. Very good, even,' Kieran inwardly muttered, his grin becoming sinister as his eyes shone with a wicked light.
He had promised to raze Golden Brigade to the ground and he intended to do so in all aspects without fail.
Today could very well start the beginning of his plan.
All of a sudden, a notification was sent to all of the players attending Kieran's Player Auction.
〈System: The very first ?Player Auction? hosted by player: Aatrox, will now begin!〉
After the notification, a screen appeared before everyone. It was similar to the one that Kieran possessed, except it gave details on the Official Guild Creation Order, such as its uses and how rare it was.
There were only 5 in possession thus far.
Unfortunately, it was clear that those 5 still needed to be used. Otherwise, there would have been a system alerting everyone of the first guild being created.
As the host of the Player Auction, Kieran was the first to speak. "In light of the newly updated Universal Currency Exchange Trading System, I'll be allowing Fund Substitution to purchase this creation order. However, please note that I'll still be partial to Gold. So offers with higher Gold content may prove superior."
"Eh? What exactly does that mean?" One of the auction participants asked.
In return, Kieran replied through the interface. "Bid, and you shall see. I'm sure the interface will explain everything about the auction I've designed. Now, let's not delay any longer. Let's begin."
Surprisingly, rather than the heated and aggressive that one would expect from these guilds, they were quite silent. Or at least, it looked that way.
Naturally, they weren't truly silent. Many of them were simply getting their funds in order to ensure their limits, whether it be through guild or money.
For some, this was not a simple process. In fact, the allotted time before the Player Auction's start was not enough time. Nevertheless, as the auction had yet to erupt in a frenzy, they felt they still had time.
All of a sudden, the first bid was made through the interface, and surprisingly, it was for a whopping 25,000 Gold.
'Oh? It seems like someone did their fair share of gold buying,' Kieran thought.
To possess this much Gold and use it as a first bid, it was evident that this person used the new currency exchange system to buy Gold from the UCETS. This Gold was the same Gold that impatient people sold off in bulk.
Sadly, 25,000 Gold was merely the tip of the iceberg when it came to this item's worth. Many guilds couldn't be bothered with trying to clear Hell Modes to have this item drop when it was available for purchase.
In their eyes, money was meant to be spent. Thus, why not use it to get an undeniable advantage?
Following the first bid, many of the Guild Leaders and Vice Guild Leaders in attendance began to voice out their offers. After countless of these offers, they began to realize what Kieran meant regarding being partial to Gold.
In terms of the bid, $10,000 was recognized as a 1 Gold increment, which meant money was roughly 25% less valuable in this auction than it was in the trading system. Yet, many of them found this difference acceptable and showed that they were willing to ignore it.
"40,000 Gold and $4,000,000," Mors offered, keeping his presence minimal.
However, as if showing that he needed to one-up this guy, Solomon bid after. "Same Gold, but a $5,000,000 offer."
"Hoh? I recognize those two names. Is that Golden Brigade and Apocalypse? Two Behemoths are actually going toe to toe for an item? This will be pretty interesting," another participant voiced, unable to contain their excitement and intrigue.
"I'll double the cash offer," Mors said, choosing to speak again shortly after. "You shouldn't desperately chase after greatness like that. Sometimes you become blinded and fall."
"I don't need advice from you," Solomon replied scornfully. Afterward, he raised the bid once more. I'll double his double."
"40,000 Gold and $20,000,000, is it? Quite a sweet offer. But I'm sure you guys can do better than that, no? This is the first Official Guild Creation Order we're talking about, after all. That's an advantage no other can claim! I'm sure it'd be… great."
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