Second World

Of course, since Jack didn't join the White Scarfs, he and Silverwing would need another method to contact each other.

Jack agreed to the request, and now had a total of three people on his Friend list.

Silverwing couldn't stay to chat as he had many things to do, so Jack's group bid him goodnight and went to their room to rest for the night.

The deadline given by the system was noon the next day and Silverwing needed to organize everything to make sure everyone would be ready in the morning.  Since there was no proper guild system in place yet, all this had to be done manually.

The next morning, everyone gathered on the field. No one went out of the safe zone to hunt monsters; they didn't want to miss the noon deadline because they went out hunting.

When Jack came out of the City Hall building, the ground was carpeted with people everywhere he looked. The number of people on the field was staggering. It was probably five times the number that had been there when Jack first arrived.

The members of White Scarfs were lined up neatly in front of the City Hall. There were probably three hundred people just from White Scarfs alone. It was impressive under the circumstances that they could gather so many of their members. Other guilds also had their members in formations. The difference between guild members and independent people was pretty obvious, as the latter were in much more casual groupings.

Silverwing invited Jack to stand with him in front of the City Hall. Silverwing was flanked by the same five people who had accompanied him when Jack saw him the first time, as well as a sixth person who Jack didn't recognize. The person glanced at Jack disdainfully; clearly not understanding why their co-leader put so much importance on this outsider.

Silverwing caught the tension and immediately made introductions, "Storm, this is Grimclaw. He is one of the strongest members in White Scarfs."

"Nice to meet you," Jack tried to be civil despite Grimclaw's show of hostility.

Grimclaw just snorted as a reply.

Silverwing shook his head helplessly. He said to Jack, "Please don't mind him. He is not a bad person once you get to know him."

Jack nodded amiably; not really caring, but not wanting to make Silverwing uncomfortable.

Silverwing then told him, "I'm not sure if you were a regular in past VR games, but some of the players you see gathered here in this field are from several well-known guilds and organizations. Many small ones that really aren't worth mentioning, but some are actually larger guilds than my White Scarfs. One of those is your enemy Death Associates. They are actually a very large guild; it's just that their base of operations is not within this city, so their current numbers are not as impressive as they might be. But I'm not sure if the situation will stay that way in the future."

"Why do you say that?" Jack asked.

"Well, how can we know that what happened here was just limited to this city?" Silverwing answered with another question. "My gut tells me that what happened here also happened to other places. And I bet they also had the same tutorial period as we had. The sky announcement mentioned a gateway to the Main World. If other places went through the same thing, then we will most likely meet in this so-called Main World."

Jack contemplated Silverwing's words. His reasoning was both logical and compelling. What he said could be a real possibility.

'That friend of yours is rather smart, unlike you.' Jack heard Peniel's voice.

'Are you confirming what he just said?' Jack asked her telepathically.

'You will find out soon,' she replied.  Jack could imagine the evil smile on her face.

'@#$*,' Jack was helpless to deal with this guide of his.

Silverwing made some gestures towards several nearby groups, "These are some of the guilds you should take note of. Saint Edge and Corporate United are some of the largest and wealthiest guilds known. Wicked Witches mainly accepts females. Warriors of Solidarity, as opposed to Wicked Witches, is a male bastion and they are very brutal and savage. And, finally, we have Black Cloak, a well-known assassin group. They could be considered small in size if judged by number of members, but they are also the hardest to deal with, because they only accept highly trained and experienced players. Their members are mostly ex-military and martial art practitioners in real life. If possible, please try not to provoke them. Actually, try not to provoke any of them. One Death Associates is already enough to make your life difficult."

"I'll try to keep that in mind," Jack replied. The guilds mentioned were not actually foreign to Jack, as they were also quite well known in the past VR games he played under his old in game name.

"There are still other notable guilds," Silverwing said. "But I don't see any of their representatives here, so let's not worry about them. There are, however, several individuals, famous in their own right, who are independent or in close-knit communities. Like you, they avoid guilds as they value their freedom and dislike being chained by guild rules. They're also skillful enough not to require a guilds' resources. One of the famous ones is the one over there in full armor."

Jack looked to where Silverwing had pointed and saw a tall man in complete leather armor.  He had both a helmet and a brown cloak, which were the two armor pieces that Jack was still missing. To have a complete set was quite impressive. He had either killed innumerable monsters or robbed many people in order to complete the set; both of which required real skills.

"His name is Warpath," Silverwing continued. "He became famous for his mercenary work. He sold his skills in past VR games to help guilds in completing their quests, with payment in real-life money or in-game equipment or items. He briefly joined some workshops in the past, but never really stayed long in one place. Many people have tried to curry favor with him in the hope that he will help them with their quests in the future."

"Just like what you are doing with me?" Jack smiled.

"Just like what I am doing with you." Silverwing didn't deny, returning the smile.

Grimclaw, who was listening, gave a disdainful snort, "What's a nobody like you good for? Any of our White Scarfs members is a better player than you. If you didn't end up dragging us down on a quest, we would be thankful already."

Bluedaze who was standing next to Grimclaw, said to him, "Stop it! He is our guest. You are being rather impolite."

"What? Don't you feel dissatisfied that our guild is putting importance on someone we have never heard of? I wouldn't have a problem if he was someone famous with real skill, but look at him; he just looks like a country bumpkin. Why are we having a fall-out with a big guild like Death Associates just for the likes of him? I don't like it and there are many brothers and sisters in the guild who agree with me."

Grimclaw didn't bother to lower his voice, thus everyone heard his opinion clearly. Bowler, who never backed down from an oral fight, immediately fired back, "And you think yourself so impressive? What strongest member? You completely lack the aura of a winner. You are just a whiny little wimp! If you sparred one round with my big brother here, you wouldn't even last half a minute!"

Hearing that, Grimclaw's face became red from anger and embarrassment. No one dared to talk to him that way, not when he was around his fellow guild members. He immediately lost his temper. "What did you say, you punk! You wanna have a go? Let's have a go! Do you think I'm afraid? I'll hack you with this rare sword of mine!"

Bluedaze and Dashrunner were holding him, preventing him from lunging at Bowler. Everyone around them looked over at the commotion.

"Enough!" Silverwing reprimanded him. "You are making a scene! You realize that makes us look bad?"

Grimclaw was dissatisfied, but he didn't retort. There was a reason Silverwing was their leader and Grimclaw still held him in high regard. Bowler didn't say anything to add fuel to the fire, but he looked smugly at Grimshaw. Jack quickly pulled him aside to prevent him from escalating the tension further.

"Well, with that unpleasantry out of the way, let's us continue with our discussion," Silverwing said. "Where were we? Ah yes, that's Warpath there. There are another two that you should make note of.  One is that woman, there, called Trinity Dawn. She specialized in magic-user class in almost every game, and almost always got ranked amongst the top players. But like Warpath, she prefers freedom, so she hasn't joined any organization. The second one is that Ranger in the black suit, called Blackjack.. You should be careful of him."