Chapter 39: Buying the plots
Soon, the auction completed with Swallow Phoenix, who is an unnamed 9th ranker and one of the guild leaders who rejected Will's invitation, winning the first legendary armor for an outstanding amount of 92 gold.
As Will exited the auction house, he saw Aster and the five NPC guards waiting for him as he ordered.
"Aster, what's the progress?"
Aster replied with excitement, "Young master, so far, we have acquired 236 gold grade equipment and 378 Silver grade equipment."
Upon hearing the amount, Will was taken aback, "that many? How? The imperial guild shouldn't have that many members left, right?"
Aster replied, "that's because we killed the same person more than once. Some people are foolish to try again with huge numbers while some tried to level-up in the lower zones.
Some high-level players belong to none of the guilds who tried to ambush us with a huge 200 member army but all were massacred instead. I think they might belong to those 11 guilds who rejected our invitation to the meeting.
And, as for the guild, according to our spies, White Tiger decided to shift to another city after the update. A few of them didn't agree and some left because of our killing.
By the way, a lot of people are complaining of harassment against us in the forum."
Will waved his hand, forget it. No gaming company takes it seriously. It's not like we went against rules or morals. Everything will be calmed down in time.
Anyway, since Imperial is pretty much out of the picture, the first place is empty. There will be a lot of competition. But, the only thing we need to focus on is whether there is any chance of ambush against us from the allies?"
Aster shook his head with a smile, "there's no chance. Even if there is, it will happen a week later. They aren't fools. They can understand that all the guardians are under the young master's control."
Will grinned, "I guess so." Then, he suddenly stopped walking, "Ah, that's right. I almost forgot."
Aster asked, "what is it, Young Master?"
Will replied, "you need to buy shares of Heibei Corporation. Contact HQ and convince dad if necessary. So, research about their company's potential."
Aster was taken aback, "Heibei? White Tiger's company? Why do we need to buy it? If you order it, within a week, our Scarlet Company can destroy it for good. All it needs a few threats to the internal staff."
Will shook his head, "No. You see, even though I hate potential troubles, I'm not a bad guy. So, instead of destroying his company over little feud, we might as well as become the biggest shareholder and control his movements even in the real world.
We shouldn't destroy him but he should understand that we can destroy him at any time we want whether it's the game or the real world.
That way, he'll forget of thinking trouble and even become our puppet in this game world. You get more satisfaction to make your enemy kneel rather than to kill them.
Until then, let him think I'm an owner of a small internet cafe."
Upon hearing his plan, Aster let out tears of happiness in his mind and thought, "if Lord Phillip hears it, he will be happy."
Aster then bowed to Will, "it shall be done, Young Master."
Then, Will once again gave an order, "tell everyone that they can either take rest or they can level up with the guardians. Give the equipment to the boys how you fit it. Remia, you stay with me."
After giving all the needed instructions, Will and Remia changed his directions and made his way towards the City Administration building.
Looking at him again, Milena bowed and greeted with a smile just like always, "Welcome Lord Time Traveler. Do you wish to employ more guards?"
Will shook his head, "no, I'm not here for that. I'm here to buy lands."
Milena nodded, "sure" and she took a city map out of nowhere and projected it.
"The grey plots are 10 gold and tax is 1 gold per week. There are 63 available.
The green plots are 30 gold and tax is 3 gold per week if you buy the land or you can rent the store for 5 gold per week. There are 11 empty plots available and 16 stores available.
The red ones aren't available for sale. You can only rent the stores for 10 gold per week. Only 9 are available.
Will glanced at the map again and thought, "Hmm, honestly, red ones are great as they are in the core areas but the stores are too expensive to maintain. Flame Emperor's weapon store is also located here.
Green ones are optimal. They are a bit distance away from the center of the city but they have a nice flow of residents and players.
Grey ones are a bit farther away from the center but they are empty plots and have potential growth.
So, I can construct anything I want as long as I have enough gold.
Hmm, if I have a large capital, I can make an entire shopping district here but a low population."
After thinking for a while, Will spoke, "I wish to buy all of these 15 plots."
"As you are a Vicount, you get a 30% discount over purchases in the city. So, it will be 105 gold."
Will handed over the remaining 105 gold to Milena while she handed him a stack of deeds for the lands with an excited expression as she was about to get her commission.
"Good, I bought 15 out of the 63 available grey plots. Now, all I need to wait until the update is over for the currency exchange and buy the gold to develop a shopping district and also buy more lands if possible. I also need to hire experts to implement it so that I can get a maximum profit from the stores."
After settling with everything, Will looked at the friend list and saw the daughter and father pair are still online.
He sent a message to Snow Dew, "Hello."
"Hello, Big Brother Time Traveler. It's been a while."
Will smiled and send, "are both of you free, right now?"
"Of course, we are just lazing around in the store since dad said that we aren't allowed to go to level up. Those big guilds are bullies."
Reading the message, Will can't help but felt a little bit guilty as the master behind this bullying but still grinned as if he can imagine SnowDew was puffing her cheeks while she was complaining.
Will then sent a message, "say, do you want to do a high-level quest?"
"High-level quest?"
Will then sent, "not sure how big it is. But, the quest is in the new wild zone."
"New wild zone? Seriously? Let's go. I'm in."
As Will grinned, "this little girl is very simple," he suddenly received a message from Flame Emperor, "let's meet."
After a while, at LittleSnow's weapon store, while Remia was standing outside, Time Traveler sat before Snow Dew and Flame Emperor.
Looking at the helmet, Snow Dew asked curiously, "Big Brother TimeTraveler, aren't you an Archer? How come you have a helmet?"
Will immediately unequipped Sauron's crown and let them see his face as he replied, "no, it's an accessory I got from level-100 dungeon."
While SnowDew was impressed as accessories are very rare, FlameEmperor squinted his eyes and then asked, "now, come to the matter."
Will immediately shared the quest to both of them as he can bring to more with him.
Looking him in the eyes, Will asked, "there will be even three elite guards to join us in this quest. Now, are you interested?"