The "battle" of Covan was coming to an end, and there was one clear winner.

"Are you kidding me..."

"They monopolized those damn quests and took everything good!"

"Maybe there's a chance we can still secure some items at the auction, but it looks like the best ones will go to them..."

Yes, *them*, the singular org that managed to take everything important from everyone else.

Shock Collar reigned supreme while many others remained dejected.

However, there were 5 players striking up conversations with zeal.

"Hello, I'm from Ravaging Crows," Jiel told the nearest player who looked to be the commander of a small group. "How about we band together to take down Shock Collar?"

"What, are you crazy? How are we going to do that?"

Obviously, the small group's commander wasn't thrilled at the proposition. However, that changed when Jiel shared a snapshot of a coin pouch...

*>Copper: 492*

When the commander saw this, his eyes widened in disbelief.

"Haha, what's that? You don't know how we're going to do it? Doesn't this answer your question? This is only *one* of our members' coin pouches, so this isn't even all we have. If you want to join us, collect all the money you have from your members and give it to me," Jiel commanded.

"What? Why would I do that?"

To the commander, this "offer" wasn't even worthy enough to consider. Giving up all of your money? No one in their right mind would do that...

"Come on, you guys are beta players right? You know that Copper is worth virtually nothing in the long run. By taking this gamble now, you can catapult yourselves above the competition. Besides, if you don't, we'll outbid you on every item you want. You'll walk away from the auction with nothing."

"... That's not possible. There's no way you have enough money for that!" the commander denied.

"You think I'm making an empty threat? We have more money than you think we do. Like I said, that's simply the pouch of one of our members, and we have 20."

"What...!"

"Shhh... there's no need to be startled. You see the independent players around you? Which of them are a part of the Ravaging Crows or one of our allies? There's no way for you to know. If you don't accept our offer, not only will you lose out on valuable items, but you may suffer unintended consequences when you try to set foot into the frontier..."

The commander shivered. 20 players in the wild against their small organization? It would be impossible to defend against!

"W- Wait a moment. I'll discuss this with the team..."

"Oh? Was that not convincing enough?"

"N- No, it's just-"

"Then how about this? Remember how we said we have 20 members? That's just counting the members of the Ravaging Crows and our allies. It doesn't count the other small orgs we've made a truce with. We've already collected their cash, too. Didn't I tell you? We have more money than you think we do."

"Shit!"

The commander frantically messaged his subordinates in a group chat.

*>Hutian Crest: Everyone, listen up! Give me all of your funds NOW! Here's what's going on...*

The commander gathered the funds and sent them over to Jiel's account.

"Copper received. Thanks for your cooperation," Jiel said with a smile. "Please add the player named Fae Sol to your friends list if you want to see this money again."

With that, he quickly departed.

Jiel, Brookie, Dharr, Brusse, and Declan were all doing the same thing to a number of groups around the hamlet, and by now their coin pouches were bigger than ever before.

But there was one thing Jiel was still doubtful about.

*Will this amount really be enough to outbid Shock Collar?*

Jisha merrily made her way to the hamlet's bank. It was quite easy to spot since it had the word "BANK" embedded on the front of the building. Banks at starter hamlets were only able to exchange basic currencies for a small service fee. If you wanted to exchange currencies beyond Silverium or store your money for safekeeping, you would need to visit a village bank at the very least.

The NPC greeted her, and Jisha commenced the trade.

"I'd like to exchange 1 Silverium for Bronzium, please."

"Sure thing, young lady. Since you are our first Beyonder customer, there will be no service charge for this transaction."

*>-1 Silverium*

*>+100 Bronzium*

The reason Jisha exchanged only 1 Silverium for Bronzium and not Copper was because higher denominations were inherently worth more than lesser ones. For example, if you wanted to buy an item worth 100 Bronzium, you could easily purchase it with 1 Silverium. However, if you wanted to buy an item worth 1 Silverium, 100 Bronzium may not necessarily be adequate. This was because service fees for exchanging currencies were a bit higher if you wanted to exchange lower denominations for higher ones. Not only that, but these service fees varied quite a bit from location to location.

*Now that I think about it, it's kind of... maybe like a local tax?*

Beyond Silverium, there was Aurite, Star Gold, Plate Core, Diamond, Amazonite, and Mythos Coin. Each one was supposedly worth 100 times its predecessor. Star Gold was the most widely used currency in Synergy and was often just referred to as "gold", and beyond this currency, you couldn't trade lower denominations for higher ones, exponentially raising the value of the currencies above Gold.

Many players would eventually reach 1 Plate Core in their bank account. If you had 1 Diamond, you were considered extremely wealthy. Deals between supermassive Guilds, Kingdoms, Empires, etc. were dealt with in Amazonite. And Mythos Coin was so rare that it was incredibly rare to even see one, much less own one.

The 100 Bronzium Jisha had on hand was worse than pocket change for high-level players. She sighed and made her way over to the frontier shop as quickly as possible.

*Alright... Need to buy another map and take a look around to see if there's anything useful in here...*

She browsed for a bit before finding the sheets of blank paper on a shelf. After buying another Medium sized map, she noticed another interesting item.

*Hm... It's interesting they sell these here...*

Jisha was mildly surprised to see this item in a frontier shop of a starter hamlet.

*This is why you should never skip out on browsing shops, even if they are in mere hamlets...*

What was this item?

*>Small Lightweight Tracker: 1 Bronzium*

It was an item that could be paired with a map. Once paired, this small device would relay its position to the map it was paired with even if the terrain was unknown. It had quite a long range, so losing it wasn't an issue for now. It had many uses, but the primary one was sticking it on players to follow them around...

*Hmm...*

As Jisha considered its uses, she received several friend requests she had been waiting for.

*>Friend request received from user "Dolphin Killer".*

*>Friend request received from user "Aphro Expo".*

*>Friend request received from user "Hutian Crest".*

*>Friend request received from user "Simulator Child".*

...

*Alright, it's decided.*

Jisha accepted all of the recent friend requests, purchased 7 trackers, and headed towards the auction house.

There were things Jisha hadn't told Brookie and Jiel, and she was sure the latter was doubting her at this moment. For example, she had only shared the fact that she had 492 Copper with her and hid the fact that she owned Silverium. But it didn't matter what he thought. At the end of this auction, there would only be one true winner.

Jisha opened her private messages to confirm the situation. She had also accepted the 5 players' friend requests so they could communicate in a group chat.

*>Fae Sol: How's the situation looking?*

*>Brookie: I think we've talked to all the potential candidates.*

*>Jiel: It appears so. A total of 7 organizations were willing to cooperate. 3 said they would abstain from the auction. 2 declined the alliance, and 3 were adamantly against us... and it seems like they might make their own alliance in an effort to copy us.*

*>Fae Sol: Good work. Give me the names of the ones who refused!*

*>Jiel: ... Sure. Here they are: ...*

As Jiel sent the list of dissidents to Fae Sol, he wondered once again whether everything would work out. He remembered the value of Fae Sol's total currency and compared it to the amount he currently had after compiling it with everyone's efforts.

*>Coin Pouch*

*>Copper: 1,204*

"Alright, great work everyone. Let's head over to the auction house to give Shock Collar a taste of their own medicine, shall we?" Brookie enthusiastically said.

"Ah. Of cou-"

"Go ahead, Brooks. I want to discuss something with our new friend here real quick."

Just as Jiel was about to respond, Dharr cut him off. Jiel looked at his two clanmates and then glanced at Dharr.

"Brusse, Declan. Go on ahead. We'll be right there."

"Alright."

Once the three were out of earshot, Dharr spoke up.

"Look here, Jiel. My bud Brooks has got a couple screws loose ever since he laid eyes on that Fae Sol. He blindly trusts her, but I think something's off."

"..."

"You don't fully think this is gonna work either, right? Ever since I saw how much cash we robbed from those fools, I made my own plan. Normally, I'd let Brooks in on it, too, but... The new plan means we gotta betray that b*tch."

When he heard this, Jiel was taken aback. Though Dharr was somewhat confirming his suspicions, Jiel wasn't on board with the idea of betraying their benefactor.

"... No, I don't think-"

"That's the problem, man. You don't think! Look how much money we got and compare that to how much she has. What if we make our own little alliance, huh? Just us? Screw Shock Collar. With how much we got, we can bag a couple of items for ourselves and call it good."

When it was put like that... It was a little *too* tempting for Jiel. It wasn't like he didn't want to trust Fae, but there were too many holes in the plan. Dharr's escape plan seemed much more reliable and would benefit them more.

"Yeah... That makes sense. I thought there was something fishy about this in the first place."

"Great. Relay the info to your buds, doubt they'll trust me right away."

"Sure thing."

With that, Jiel opened up a new group chat with only Dharr and the Ravaging Crows to discuss their new plans.

*>Jiel: Alright, guys. Change of plans...*

Jisha smiled as she received the names of those who she would crush in the auction and started a separate group chat with all of her new allies.

*>Hutian Crest: This better be worth it...*

*>Dolphin Killer: Are you kidding me? It'll be more than worth it! I can't wait to see the looks on that stupid guild when we beat their faces in...*

*>Aphro Expo: Agreed. There's no better time to come together in a truce than right now. We are all struggling together, so we might as well do something about it while we can!*

*>Simulator Child: You guys are too optimistic. Whoever organized this didn't even tell us the catch. What if they run off with our money?*

*>Dolphin Killer: You say that, but you still accepted...*

*>Censer: I wanted to decline, but we didn't really have a choice! It would have been every one of you against us! Of course it's worth it to truce up for now!*

...

Jisha silently observed the chaos that unfolded in the chat as she approached the auction house. She noticed the 7 new allies, along with Brookie and some of the Ravaging Crows, were in the process of gathering up. Once she was near the door, she revealed her name.

*>Fae Sol: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen! Are all of you near the auction house? I'm the spooky and mysterious player whose level you can't see! What level am I? I could be stronger than all of you combined and you'd never know~*

When this message was sent, the chaotic chat went silent for several seconds. Obviously, none of them believed her level claim. Not only that, her chat behavior left everyone speechless!

"Are you a child? You took our money and you're acting like this? What's wrong with you?" Censer yelled.

"Come on, stop delaying and get straight to the point already!" another skeptical ally said.

"If you don't tell us what's going on, we're leaving!"

Jisha pulled down her hood so everyone could see her face and narrowed her eyes at the dissenters.

"Are you stupid? Did I hear that right? You said you're going to leave?"

The aesthetics of Jisha's avatar were breathtaking, and the men around her were subdued into silence once again.

"I have all of your money, you know."

A skeptical ally gulped.

That's right, there was no backing out now. He had only said that in the heat of the moment, but it was obvious who was in power if you stopped to think for one second!

"Enough of that, what are your conditions?" Simulator Child asked.

"My conditions, huh... How about I tell you after the auction?"

"That... That's simply too far! Tell us now! Or..."

"Or what? You're going to leave? You'll turn against us? Are you sure you can afford either of those things right now?"

When she said this, Fae Sol radiated immense pressure. The near future of all of these organizations were in her hands at this very moment, and they had no choice but to do what she said!

"If anyone wants to leave. You are free to do so. No refunds!"

...

Silence. Of course no one took her up on this offer. Backing out now was suicide!

"It looks like you are all very obedient! Then shall we head inside and wait for the auction to start?"

With that, Jisha strode into the Auction House leaving the seven leaders outside.

They looked at each other and walked in together as if they were prisoners heading into a cell.

*>Fae Sol: Jiel, are you inside already? Where are you?*

There were still 10 minutes before the auction started, but the inside of the auction house was starting to get crowded. Jisha hadn't seen Jiel or Dharr in the group outside, so she assumed they must have already entered the building.

*>Jiel: I'm on the far right wall.*

Jisha looked over and saw him waving at her. Dharr stood next to him looking quite unenthusiastic.

"Let's get this show on the road, hm?" she said as she casually approached the two of them.

"..."

Neither of them responded.

"What's going on, guys? Did you forget the last step of the plan? Come on," she said cheerily.

"..."

Silence once again.

Witnessing this reaction, Jisha's expression turned serious.

"Come on. Hand over the cash," she said with an outstretched hand.

"... Why should we?" Dharr asked.

This response caused Jisha to smirk.

*Are they gonna try to betray me?*

Jisha had half expected this to happen. It would have been stranger if they were 100% obedient. Not everyone was Brookie; this was why she hadn't revealed all of her cards in the beginning.

"Didn't I tell you to worry about yourselves if you betrayed me? I wonder if you've thrown caution to the wind..." she said dramatically.

"..."

No response.

"Well, you've probably earned over a thousand Copper and are feeling pretty high and mighty, aren't you?"

"..."

"Hmm..." Jisha put a finger on her chin and tilted her head in mock contemplation.

"I guess it can't be helped! I didn't think this far ahead... It looks like you'll have to keep the 1,000 Copper," she shrugged her shoulders in an exaggerated manner.

Seeing Jiel begin to relax and Dharr begin grin, she almost burst out laughing. She widened her eyes and grabbed Dharr's collar before he could react. His smug demeanor crumpled in an instant.

"... What, let go of me you b*tch...!"

Dharr attempted to break free, however, his lack of understanding of Safe Zones caused all of his attacks to become neutralized.

"Did you really think I would say that?"

If this were a real-life situation, even Jiel might have been sweating, but the technology for advanced facial features didn't quite exist yet.

"Of course! You only had less than 500 to begin with, and we've got over a thousand. I've formed an alliance with the Ravaging Crows, who are an organization, by the way. Asunder plus Ravaging Crows. That's two organizations. Meanwhile, you are just an independent player. Me and Brooks don't even know where you came from. On top of that, Stein's got a kill order on you. Why do you think we'd go along with this stupid, nonsensical 'plan'?"

"Ha... Hahahaha...!"

Hearing this canned response, Jisha couldn't hold back her laughter.

She then sent them two pieces of information that she had been withholding: her true net worth and level.

When they received this information, their eyes widened in shock.

"Didn't I tell you not to betray me? Some incredibly bad things might happen to you outside if you do! Don't make me repeat myself. Give me the money."

"... Yes," Jiel obediently responded.

Dharr wanted to object, but he couldn't argue with the numbers he had just seen. He wanted them to be fake, but the system was telling him that they were indeed genuine.

A system message appeared on Jisha's HUD.

*>+1,204 Copper*

Jisha grinned when she saw the money enter her account.

"I'm glad we have an agreement. Why don't we get some fine seats to this show, boys?"