The Earth After Rebirth

Kiro looked at Lyle amused. At least the kid wasn't blindly arrogant. He could admit his faults and shamelessly beg.

He noticed that Jorge wanted to kick him senseless for how embarrassing he was being and the fact that he dared to challenge people who were willing to help them.

"You never even revealed the name of your guild. Who are we allying ourselves with?" Kiro instead said, ignoring the mutt that was begging to be taught.

"Oh, so sorry, sir. It completely slipped my mind. We are Chasing Madness. It's just a small guild that has nothing at the moment."

Kiro's brain went haywire after hearing that name. He'd heard it countless times in his previous life, and here he was meeting the monster that would be Chasing Madness.

He'd heard stories about how they started from the very bottom of the game. And slowly rose up, and within a year, they were part of the great guilds in Asgard.

He couldn't believe he was meeting a guild he was so much of a fan of in his previous life. He loved that they started from the bottom. They were underdogs that surprised everyone. They were people who gave him hope that one day he'd claw out of the lower district, but that was just wishful thinking.

'So this is Chasing Madness at its lowest point, I wonder if my butting in won't cause any problems in the game? After all, we're gonna make them rise the ranks quicker compared to the previous life!' He was getting excited but slightly showed it.

"Is that right? Well, our craftsman will give you guys armour and weapons free of charge. A show of good faith." He said, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Is that really alright? We can pay for everything." Jorge interjected, not wanting to be indebted to anyone.

"It's as you said earlier, money isn't everything. If we can trust each other even for a little bit, we will be able to work better with each other."

Jorge nodded in agreement. All this happened while Lyle was still on his knees. Though he wasn't saying anything, he didn't want to disturb his guild leader and new 'master'.

His guild mates were laughing at his behaviour. This was clearly a norm in the Chasing Madness guild. He always made trouble that came back to bite him in the behind, and he wasn't shy about admitting to his faults.

'Ren!' Kiro shouted from within, but there was eerie silence.

Ding!

[Tamed Beasts can't be used during guild wars to ensure that this rule is followed the feature to use and summon beasts have been restricted.]

Kiro wanted to scream curses at the system. His spectres would've been great for scouting and bringing them much needed information. He didn't like relying on his previous life's information, so he'd have to do it himself.

"F*ck!" Was all he managed to get out from his anger.

The others looked at him expectedly, but he never said anything, and they didn't ask either.

"Then, shouldn't we hurry up and head over to our guild building? I've played my fair share of games, and I know this means attacking each others bases!" Jorge proclaimed confidently, sharing his much unwanted experience by the looks of After Dark's faces.

"That won't be necessary," Kiro hushed him before he could disturb him. "I know what I'm doing. This is when you'll have to trust me." He finished simply.

"Okay then, as a show of good faith, I'll put my trust in you." He told him sincerely.

They spent the remaining hours discussing tactics. Doing last minute training for those who didn't have enough faith in their abilities, none of those were part of After Dark.

Kiro's tactics surrounded the stages the guild wars would be in. It wasn't his favourite thing to watch them in his previous life, there was nothing fun about watching players fighting other players.

But he watched them all the same. That's how boring and pathetic his previous life was. Jorge wanted to ask him why he chose these certain strategies, but knew better than to ask. He just nodded and went along with it.

The most important thing to him was getting reputation for his guild and build an empire within the game that would be feared amongst players.

In Kiro's previous life, he managed to do just that. Kiro was just pushing him a lot earlier than when he was supposed to blow up.

"You're doing it wrong still, a sword should be like a romantic partner. You can't just hold it anyhow." Said one of the guild mates scolding a junior that was also a swordsman.

"Do you have to put it like that when you know I don't have a lot of experience with that?" He whispered, but his voice was still heard nonetheless.

Kiro felt a ping in his heart, he didn't have experience either. From either life. He was a virgin through and through. But he hoped that would soon change.

"Are you sure you don't need any shoes?" Hiro asked him, he'd given him geta sandals but soon discarded them, saying they weren't comfortable enough.

It was too bad that, Hiro hadn't reached a stage where he pumped legendary and ancient ranked products. Kiro was well, at that level. Even the shabby robe was something special.

"I'll be fine, don't worry about me, worry about them." He pointed at the shame that was in front of them.

Chasing Madness was too disorganised. Kiro thought it was a wonder that Jorge was able to take this and make it into something legendary. Something people fought and killed to gain a spot for.

"Yeah, they really look bad don't they. They should let us do the work for them." Felix shook his head, butting into the conversation uninvited.

"And then what? What happens when we're not allied with them anymore?"

Felix's lips stretched into an evil grin, "why, of course, so they can keep coming back to us for support. That's how business goes."