MONSTER MMORPG: Mayhem Online

The office of Kibea corporation had been very lively for the past month, all thanks to the first-ever international competition held by Kibea corporation and the government of the United States.

Only about three weeks were remaining for the competition, and there were many top players who still hadn't accepted the proposal to join the competition. Most of these rankers were hidden rankers who cared very less about the actual world and were devoted to raising their ranks in Mayhem without revealing their identities until they were confident that they were at the absolute top in this world.

Surprisingly, Mayhem didn't lack such rankers. Everyone wanted to be the best, yet they were unconfident and wary about the other hidden rankers, keeping them from revealing themselves on the official rankings.

"How's the situation?"

Terry asked the head of the events department. The events department was usually a barren place, and they rarely had any real work in the company until this sudden competition came. The director of the events department, who had been living a boring and unburdened life, was now suddenly the head of possibly the biggest event in the world's history.

"The situation is a bit iffy right now, and I can't really say how things are going to turn out with the players. On the other hand, the preparation for the locations of the events has already been completed and tested. Nothing should turn out bad unless there's some unexpected variable that we didn't account for."

Shaquile Hoodson replied, sweating a bit. He was a tall, young, black man. He had passed his university with high grades and was personally scouted by Terry in his university days. He was currently just 30 years old, yet was a department head in Kibea corporation, the world's undisputed number one business.

"Haha, if you're saying so, then I have no worries. These rankers are really troublesome though, it's always a headache trying to make them get out of their hidden holes. One thing that bugs me is Shura's response, though."

Terry said and wondered why the hell was Shura not planning to join the competition.

"I am surprised about him too. From what I have read out of Jacob's reports, he seemed like an individual who would jump on fire for money. Not only did he reject the $5 million, but he also rejected the Legendary eye power. He was the one with the highest bait offered to him, yet he ended up rejecting even that."

"Yes, that's what has been bugging me too. Either this Shura really doesn't want to join the competition to keep his information secret, or somehow his patience has increased by a lot."

Terry replied to Shaq's words. If these people knew that Shura was crying in regret while waiting for another offer, they'd have smashed their heads in indignation.

Although it really was a feat that Shura had rejected the invitation till now, even when such high stakes were offered to him.

"You people overestimate him a lot."

Jacob suddenly entered the conference room. He didn't need to knock because every person who was allowed in this room had a high ranking and was spared from unnecessary courtesy.

"What do you mean, Jacob?"

Terry asked curiously. He knew that Jacob was biased against Shura since, according to him, Shura had only gotten lucky with the legendary class and wasn't deserving of it. Terry understood his sentiments but sadly couldn't agree with them. But still, Terry knew that Jacob wasn't a person to downplay someone without evidence.

"We all have been thinking how could someone like Shura end up rejecting such a big amount of money. But we had been unaware of one big factor."

"Huh? What are you on about?"

Shaq asked confusedly. Even if he had played a dormant role in the company till now, he wasn't completely oblivious to what was happening inside the company. And on paper, his position was equal to that of Jacob, who was the head of the research and development department. So there was no need for him to act all polite to Jacob.

"Look at this."

Jacob showed something from his skreener device to the duo. And after going through the contents of the document on the skreener, Terry couldn't help but laugh uncontrollably, and Shaq shook his head.

The document that Jacob had just shown to Terry and Shaq was the agreement between Flynn and Scarlett and how much money he'd get from Scarlett for acting as her boyfriend. As the world's biggest business, they had the power to search for the most trivial of information, no matter how well kept it was. Not to mention something related to their own employee was impossible to hide unless the company itself wanted it to stay hidden.

"His immediate need for money was gone due to this agreement, and then he ended up earning several million from sold items. So obviously, he wouldn't be tempted by the $5 million that we were offering. Truly, this guy really was born with golden luck!"

Terry laughed, thinking about the hilarious situation. Who would have thought that such an unexpected variable would occur?

"I guess luck is a skill in itself, huh? This guy has plenty of it."

Shaq chuckled, and Jacob frowned. He really disliked people like Shura, who had ended up climbing high in life, all based on luck. These were the type of people that would end up becoming arrogant even though they didn't actually have any skills to back their arrogance.

"What should we do? We have already re-offered a higher invitation fee and a special grade item to everyone who had rejected formally. Only Shura and Able are remaining since their former reward was already too big."

Shaq told Terry. Previously, they had already offered a big invitation and compensation to both Shura and Abel, the first two legendary class holders of Mayhem Online.

Unlike Shura, Abel demanded his own compensation instead of letting the company decide the highest bid for him. Because, unlike Shura, he was an actual pro gamer and had been a pro player even in the previously popular Dungeons and Knights game, which was the game that had been popular before Mayhem but ended up losing the total number of players due to how immersive Mayhem was.

There was simply no way to replicate Mayhem's level of realism. And that was reason enough for people to prefer Mayhem over D&K. Most of Mayhem's top rankers were former D&K players and had experienced the fame of being a top gamer before this too.

Shura, who was but a young bud compared to these people, was waiting for the company to make an offer to him instead of bargaining with them himself.

But he didn't know that it would turn out to be another form of fortune for him.

Abel, who had requested at least a 5-star legendary item as a bargaining chip, had ended up capping his own price. On the other hand, Shura, who hadn't asked for anything, had no caps on the things he might receive as a bargaining chip, which could be both detrimental and beneficial to him depending on what the Kibea corporation offered him.

"Hey, Creation, what should we offer to Z9394HZ if he isn't agreeing to join the competition even after we offered the eyes of the wise?"

Terry asked one of his three beloved supercomputers, which had an AI installed throughout the whole company premise. Creation stayed silent for around 5 seconds, making Terry wonder what's taking the world's fastest supercomputer so long to answer a question.

After a while, Creation finally answered.

[We should offer him the 'Eyes of Arcana'. I am 97.9% sure that he'll end up rejecting this too, but this is the best choice according to my calculations.]

—-Heok!

Terry suddenly choked for air as soon as he heard the word 'Arcana' from the supercomputer.

It was the word that he couldn't forget even if he wanted to.

'Never dare to mess with the people of 'Darlack'. If the powers of Arcana choose someone, do not try to meddle with it.'

These were the words of the mystery supporter of Terry, who had made Mayhem a reality. Even though they can be taken as people who had worked together on the same project, they were from being colleagues who shared the same aspirations. Heck! They couldn't even be considered colleagues.

It was more of a relationship between a devil and a person who had sold his soul to that devil, even though nothing like that ever happened.

"Are you fine?!!"

Both Jacob and Shaq got agitated, watching Terry suddenly struggle to breathe.

"I-I am fine. Don't worry. It's just an old condition acting up."

Terry said as he struggled to get up.

After calming down for a while, he sat down on a chair, and both Jacob and Shaq looked at him nervously.

"What do we do about Shura's invitation?"

"Just do as Creation said."

Terry said as he heaved a big sigh.

"It's' approaching too fast. I wanted this to last at least for a few years.'

...

//DreamNote//

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