Author’s Note: that title is ominous!
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Chapter 425: One Month Pregnant
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“But why? Why would the Conclave invite me? I’ve never achieved significant merits to earn myself one of those Invitations.”
Volt was flustered. This was the reason he logged in today and hoped that Siva was here.
“Well, it’s not that surprising.” Said Coralline.
“How so?” Siva asked, looking at her and waiting for an explanation. His expectant gaze was curious and she scoffed at the sight of him.
“You! You aren’t even interested on coming so why are you asking as if it has something to do with you?”
Volt was stunned by her aggressive tone while the man in question cleared his throat and declared in a matter of fact and honest tone, “I am really not interested in coming but knowing the how and why of things is human nature. Life is full of surprises.”
“…” Volt felt like his numb just went scalp. The wrold was in rverese and the ltetres were jmulebd for some raeosn.
Since when did he become a philosopher?
Coralline’s face turned red and her fists clenched hard while her breathing shortened. She was really beginning to be triggered by this twisted bastard.
After breathing heavily for a while, she managed to calm down, and then said, “It’s only natural for the people around you to be famous. I wouldn’t even think it’s unnatural that not only him, but also some of the people in your group who had a public info would be invited as well. That’s just how the event organizers work. They will invite anyone who had managed to distinguish themselves to attend the Conclave, regardless if one had an achievement worth mentioning or not. All that matters is your fame and how much of a ‘figure’ you are in public.”
“Hey, I thought only those with either Academic Achievements like you or someone perversely so good at something like this guy here can be invited to the Conclave? So why has it become a celebrity gathering and not an intellectual one?”
“Did you just hear the words I’ve said? What is the title of the gathering?”
“Youth Conclave of Achievers.”
“Do you think achieving worldwide fame is not an achievement?”
Volt and Siva nodded weakly with an “oh” face.
She added, “Also, as for the reason, didn’t you just realized now… everyone in your group aside from you are the envy of the players playing the game. I wouldn’t call yourself famous since you yourself is a wanted man, but the people around you are on a different perspective. To the world, they are worth the admiration because they managed to hook themselves to your thigh when you started this so called Grand Quest. Take for example those three great guilds in Warjillis you took away. Right now, their official page had tons of applications and is now expanding to become a Major Power as well.”
The Nine Dragons Gate…
The Valkyries…
And the Ebony Sanctuary…
Before their powers were only concentrated in the City of Warjillis. But now, they’ve began to expand in all continents as all applicants wanted to have a chance to ride on the fame-bus called [Siva].
(AN: Bus = gamer’s term. When a ridiculously, well not actually ridiculously strong, but if a relatively very proficient gamer tries to help a newbie or a weakling to become strong (usually through getting higher levels by fighting monsters way beyond the capabilities of the weakling to defeat), the entire process is called “riding the bus” and the person doing the helping is of course the “bus”)
But although Siva had never told the leaders of the three guilds about “who he really is”, they do know the sensitive information about him being hostage of some organization with his brother as collateral.
As such, even though they carried their expansion in a wide scale, only those originally belonging to the “Warjillis Branch” are allowed to enter and even become aware of The Asgard and its situation, and only the leaders themselves are aware of how big and dangerous his circumstances are.
Siva had long since placed his trackers in the Net about the possibility of a leakage and that’s why he had Cortana establish the “Echelon Network” and even bought a large amount of “Servers” installed with Cortana-improved security measures to serve as his eyes and ears in the Net regarding relative terms, violators, and even news about things that mattered to him.
Just like how the townhouse area he was located to have now become like a spider’s net, anyone or even a tiny bit of anything that entered the scope of his detection will be traced and scrutinized.
—but even so, the way she put it really leaves a bad taste on his gums.
“So that means that everyone around me, aside for me, are now practically all celebrities and so they can be invited to the gathering?”
“Well, at least those who were publicly known to have come with you from Warjillis and onwards are all eligible to the criteria I explained.”
Warjillis onwards…
Back then, he forced the players of the guilds to be his ‘slaves’ but now, they suddenly became his lapdogs and instant celebrities because his fame had skyrocketed in a short amount of time.
“Does that mean that everyone might get their red envelopes as well?” Siva asked her.
“Like I said, only those publicly acclaimed to be on your side are probably going to be invited —ONLY THOSE WITH PUBLIC PROFILES CAN GET AN INVITATION. Do you get it?”
Siva ignored her sarcasm. When Siva realized this, he then thought of something that made his eyes went wide. Oh shit.
“Amanda!”
His mind worked, Cortana followed, a video call was established as the entire throne room was now locked as the flow of time was locked in this room to synch with the real world.
The call got picked up.
“Mandy.”
Amanda yawned and then gazed at him lovingly.
As Siva had chosen to show the call to the two, this sight was caught by Coralline and she blushed with a gaze of reverence at the mature woman she was very close to amongst the rest of Siva’s entourage.
“I’m really sorry for the call but this can’t wait. I just wanna ask you something very important.”
Siva went to the point, “Have you received any red envelop or something before? It should be a red unnamed envelop with a piece of hologram paper inside it with only an emblem of a pyramid.”
“…” “…” “…”
No one spoke for a moment. Loading all necessary data for processing…
“Yes.” Siva eventually said.
Actually, as soon as Amanda spoke of it, the three of them had already assumed that she was already invited into the Conclave.
Siva felt like laughing while Volt was already on the road and Coralline had a look of shock on her face but soon after became an idolizing worship.
“No, Mandy, nothing’s wrong. It’s just that I should have guessed it before.” Siva said, smiling warmly and continued, “Actually, Mandy, that invitation is not for a birthday party of some rich kid or noble, it was an invitation for a congregation of the world’s youths with outstanding achievements. It was an event to socialize and familiarize with each other, nothing more.”
“And it was to make friends and yes, party.” The Little Loli couldn’t help but correctly add.
Amanda’s eyes went wide when she processed it.
“Yep.” Volt was the one to answer since he’s right behind Siva, “It is a social gathering for the world’s most outstanding youths in a generation. Ages 25 and below are invited.”
Amanda blushed but Matt didn’t notice her worry so it was actually Coralline who pulled his ear down to her level and started chewing on his shoulder.
Siva just let them be and asked, “Do you want to come to that gathering?”
“Nothing else aside from the fact that you get to meet and greet people of the same age that had a few noticeable fame and glory to their names.”
“Hey!” Coralline shouted while head-locking the poor Volt on the ground, “It’s also about expanding your contacts and meeting new friends! MEETING NEW FRIENDS! Do you hear me?”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Just from her fixation to the importance of this gathering event, one can already imagine just what kind of person this Little Loli was during this event.
“I am.” Coralline said, “And this guy too. And if my guess is right, a few in our group will be invited as well… you should come with us! It’s your chance to meet other people of the same age and make friends of future leaders of even personalities…”
“I am not going.” Siva said flatly. “Firstly, I am not invited. Secondly, even if I am invited, I am still not going solely because I am very busy with so many things right now.”
“Whaaaaaaaatttt?!!!” Coralline broke out of her lock and floated towards Siva, “Why?! I wanted to meet you in person!”
Coralline looked really pitiful and she was just like a little sister begging her grown up elder sister to bring her to the prom with her only to be rejected despite already wearing a little miss’s attire.
Amanda had a touched look. If she was here in now, she would have hugged the girl tightly.
“You don’t have to worry about it. The organizers always send private jets to pick up their invitees with all accommodations and expenses answered in all varying levels. You don’t even have to worry about any ID, passport, or VISA because as soon as you are an invited guest of the Conclave, your invitation itself is already an ID-proof that will work in all countries, regardless of whether you have the necessary papers or not. You will always be accommodated to the highest degree of service.”
Volt already had a few ideas as to how BIG the event was but Siva was still surprised.
Private Jet —just the words alone was as luxurious enough already, what more if said jet was solely there to pick you up like a service vehicle.
“What about pocket money?” Volt asked. Siva was beaten to the chase. He really wanted to ask the same thing to her.
“Certain items not exceeding a specified price is also covered by the invitation. Like I said, this was an event that is more than just a simple gathering.”
The girls’ eyes sparkled and this glint frightened the boys severely.
Coralline declared proudly, “70% off.”
“I don’t want to. Please underst—“
“Sorry, but I’m still not coming.”
PFFT…
Volt couldn’t help but bite his lips from laughing while Coralline’s face paled, then turned red, then turned extremely hostile black… towards Siva.
Siva hesitated but looked straight at Amanda. “He will know you’re lying.”
“He will find out the truth.”
Amanda’s eyes narrowed and it was both cute and adorable, she was really beautiful.
But that rare look of defiance in her eyes that made her hundreds of levels cuter than before is actually sending shivers down Siva’s spine right now. Is she really going to go with that lie?
She stood up and stared at Siva. Behind her was the door.
“You wouldn’t dare…”
FUCK!!
“You… You wouldn’t dare… you wouldn’t…”
As soon as his words finished, the door opened up with a rushing Russell and saw the active video call of Siva with the demonic black face.
Russell squinted his eyes at Siva then looked at his own daughter,
Amanda glanced over at Siva who swallowed, then she beamed playfully. It was a really rare sight to see her playfully look at him like that. Perhaps the fact that she got the consent of her parents to now officially have a boyfriend had loosened some of her reservations towards him.
Still, as out of character as it was towards the usual girl with a strong yet beautiful gaze that contained bravery on them, this side of her still made Siva feel warmth in his heart.
Then, very gently, Amanda put a hand on her tummy which made Siva’s black smoke skin almost turn white in fright.
“I’m going.” Siva weakly said.
Amanda laughed heartily and hugged Russell’s left arm adorably,
Having awakened from her angry-trance, Coralline beamed merrily at Russell, “Yes sir. Anything that is above a certain price, depending on the brand, will get a maximum of 70% off on their selling prices.”
Russell was quick to pick up something,
“As far as I know, there was someone who bought a Ferrari using the invitation’s authority at 30% off the base price.”
“Maximum discount. All Top-class brands.”
“Same.”
“All Class-A brands and above gets 50% and 70% discounts respectively.”
After confirming, Russell patted Amanda’s shoulders and made a vigorous thumbs up.
After patting Amanda in the head, Russell got out of the room but before he closed the door, he bid Siva one last sharp glance… and closed it.
Since Siva had already signed the warrant, he had to follow the word without complaint.
Coralline said, “The Conclave is already starting in five days so on the fourth day, we should be ready to move… oh, I am British so I’ll probably arrive at the venue sooner than you guys. The event will last for an entire week so if you want to go on a shopping, it would be better to get there as soon as possible.”
“We don’t even know where it’s going to be held this year.” Siva complained.
“Ah, I forgot. It’s going to be held in Sweetzerland, in Lausanne, this year… and the event venue is a courtesy of Panorama Corp, in—”
“—Grand Torino Hotel.”
“—otel... yeah, that’s right. Hey, I thought you said you didn’t know about the venue?”
Volt and Coralline was surprised but Siva didn’t make a reply and only quietly sat back to his throne as if all energy had left him.
“I’m okay… it’s just that… it brings back memories.”
“Is it?” Coralline was clueless to his predicament.
“So, Rex, you’re really coming, huh?”
“Y-Yeah… I don’t have a choice, do I?”
“No, I’m coming.” Siva forced a smile but to the two with him in the room, it looked scary, “It’s just some memory, nothing to be worried about… I promised to come and since it’s to spend some quality time with you… and just like the Little Lo—Coralline had said, why not use this chance to expand the names in our contacts list? Who knows, maybe we might even find other people to join The Company.”
At this point, Volt suddenly remembered something and hit his fist on his left palm.
“Ah!”
“What is it?” Siva asked.
“I just remembered. Fuma said earlier before he logged out that the videos and the preparations are all ready. Just give him the signal and we can now officially launch the Black —I mean The Company.”
Coralline, remembering it, glared sharply at Volt who almost slipped his tongue.
When Siva turned to her, she was all smiles and Volt was too.
He knew something was up but he chose to not dwell on it and sent Fuma an email.
“Now that that’s done, we can just wait for the next phase to activate the next step of the plan. Hehe, The Company will become the greatest company both in the game and in the world! Hahaha… I have also finished my preparations on my side.” When he spoke to here, he then flipped his hand and at a distance 20m away from him, piles upon piles of ‘edited’ weaponries were stacked together —these are all the rest of the items that he received from Warjillis, the supposed ‘Products’ of The Company that he envisioned.
Seeing that his mood wasn’t as dismal as earlier, Amanda smiled at Siva and bid her farewell for the night.
“Don’t forget to exercise.”
“I didn’t say anything!”
The call ended.
“But I meant it in goodwill…” Siva was stunned.
Women are really the hardest Math to compute in the entire universe.
Coralline shut him a “serves you right” gaze before she went to the pile of equipment items.
Volt and Coralline checked them all and noticed that aside from the fact that they are greater in quality in terms of the other Inventions they’ve seen so far —and also heavier— there was actually something else ‘embedded’ on the core of their item introductions.
There was a physical insignia of The Company in the bodies of these equipments, and in their Flavor Texts, there was also a brand name and symbol on them.
(AN: just so some of you guys know, “Flavor Text” is a gamer’s term used to define the descriptions about the items when viewing its properties. It gives flavor to the item’s origins or unique details about it that’s why it was called Flavor Texts)
Volt and Coralline frowned. The name written on them was called “Black Sieve Company” which was Siva’s first choice for The Company’s name.
“(Ack… it leaves a bad taste in the mouth. It sounds so…… oriental. We’re already an oriental country and our products are oriental still…)”
(AN: dear readers, please do not be offended by my use of the term here since I can’t really find a proper word to describe the Taste of Asia. Please do not take the term offensive. I beg you. It’s just for the sake of the context)
Volt was inwardly cursing while Coralline was on a deep thought, then faced Siva, “Hey… this brand name can still be changed, right?”
“Yeah, well, at least until The Company is officially registered. Since they were refurb—I mean, since they are newly created products, and is integral to the plan, I connected their Flavor Text info to the Global Database through the [Item Identifier]. Once the Company is officially registered, the details on the items will also be permanent. Since it cannot be upgraded further in addition to the high demand to the encoding of my PNF in it, the items’ details will never be touched and that’s also why they will be a mainstream item our Company will be selling.”
Volt finally understood.
Because the level of Siva’s PNF is higher than perhaps any other [Builder] out there, in addition to the fact that these items’ upgrade slots had already been maxed out, these items will never be stolen and edited by another Builder (just like what he did to them) and these items will be in an “as is” basis as the customers will get exactly what they bought.
The best part of it all is that the prices of all these equipment items will not be below average though not actually priced high that they’re expensive. At best, they are in the grey zone between affordable top-grade products and expensive branded names such as products produced by The Union’s “United Builders Company” and the “Blue Card Merchant Group” to name a few.
In short, if said companies are S-Class in ratings, then Siva’s products are top-grade A-Class items.
For Hunters and the usual Warriors, one of the best features of an “as is” product is that if they’re upgradable or not and if they are expensive.
Upgradable Equipment costs higher because of the flexibility of their futures that will depend on how they are upgraded by their owners.
But the casual players aren’t elites who can hunt monsters for the sake of upgrading their equipment so where there is an option of a strong yet affordable as is equipment, any normal player who’s aware of his limit would always choose the latter option.
It was this market that Siva was targeting.
“At best, there are around 1000 of them.” Volt said and then added, “This will sell like hot cakes in just a few minutes. Can you keep up with demands if you’re the only one who can make them? But what if you’re not even here in person?”
“Don’t worry. I will let Akhenaton handle the stock.”
“Stock?”
“And why Akhenaton?”
The logistics and administrative stratum of The Company had already been in place and all of the members of the core group has their places and are entitled to a share of the profits —they are the Share Holders of the company.
Of course, the biggest shareholder was him, Siva, since Amanda had given up on any share of any kind of profits from this and gave it all to him.
Siva’s share is 75% since he owned The Company and has the 80% of the entire workload that makes the company earn its Credits.
—yes, Credits.
This “Black Sieve Company” of his is a counterpart of the Real World Electronics Company that he had planned to establish.
When asked with the question, Siva flipped his left hand and in it was an oblique “item” of sort, white in color, and looked like a seething mass of Mana that had its edges seeming to blend directly to the very fabric of this world’s aspect of [space].
“What is that thing?!” Coralline’s curiosity peaked.
“This is a Time-Space Cabinet.” Siva said and then on his other hand, he summoned another of the same kind of ‘object’ which seemed to blend into the fabrics of space yet is still looking like a very tangible item.
“Space Time!” Coralline was an academic genius and the reason why she was invited to attend the Conclave was because she wasn’t just a little pretty flower, she was also a smart girl. “Expound. Quick! I am curious!”
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Time-Space Cabinet… the Inventory Plus Ultra is upgraded at last!!
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Next Chapter: “Abilities” of the Inventory Plus Ultra