The New Guild Showdown
Nickname: Mussung-i
Original New Guild: Muah
He shouted that he would take everyone into consideration, and then he even went so far as to plant a mole. This really was a clash where schemes and tricks ran wild. It wasn’t even some huge-scale event, and yet they were going this far in a new guild conflict?
Fine. Let’s all go crazy together, then.
I was going to use this spy as a double agent. Of course, he would never realize that he was a double agent.
Meanwhile, he started babbling away, not knowing that I had already figured out who he was.
"Nice to meet you. First, I’d like to tell you some very important information before the interview."
Well, look at that.
Still, I’d play along.
"You’re in the middle of a broadcast. Are you sure this is okay?"
"Yes. You know the Destruction Guild, right? Or rather, there’s no way you don’t. You directly said you were going to crush them."
Why would I know? When I asked back, I got a pretty interesting reaction.
"At first, the Destruction Guild ignored it. There were always a few streamers stirring up attention like that, and if you react to every single one of them, only you lose out. But then Haruru-same became the first on the entire server to hit +10 enhancement, didn’t she? That was when they started feeling threatened. A few guild members couldn’t hold themselves back, tried for +10, blew up their +9 gear, and got kicked out of the guild."
That was a lovely thing to hear. Though, this didn’t sound like a lie. Come to think of it, they say lies need a little truth mixed in if you want them to work. For now, I’d keep listening.
"The problem starts now. Do you know what they did while recruiting guild members? They made a sub-account and are trying to set up a new guild just to target Haruru-same’s guild."
"Oh. You don’t know where that new guild is, do you?"
"No... I only barely managed to get that information."
He reacted a little too dramatically after looking at the chat.
"Aha! I am not a mole. I just plunged into barren territory out of my love for Haruru-same and secretly gathered information before coming back."
This guy was doing it for my sake, but honestly, that information was completely useless. He hadn’t told me the guild’s name. If I were making things up, I could spin a hundred stories. But I already knew that guild’s name. I confirmed it through Insight. New guild, Muah. I’d have to check it after I turned off the stream.
"Good. Mussung-same. Thank you for bringing back information for our guild. Come along with us."
"Yes! Thank you."
He sounded ridiculously excited. It wasn’t because he’d been accepted into our guild. He was probably thrilled at the thought of fooling me. I’d pay that feeling back to him in full during the clash.
Before taking the next guild interview candidate, Mone quietly spoke to me.
"They were actually talking about that already. The Destruction Guild seems to be planning to keep an eye on our guild. Something about being irritated that you hit +10. But to think they’d go so far as to create an entirely new guild."
"Mone-same. Later, at lunchtime after the stream ends, let’s hold a guild executive meeting."
"If we do it while the broadcast is still on, the new guild might overhear our plans, so please understand. And calling it an executive meeting is a little much anyway. It’s just you and me, Mone-same, so there’s no chance of anything you’re worried about happening."
"Jeong-yong-ham is on a shift, so he’ll be back tonight. He’s still a regular guild member before that, though..."
"We’ll do the executive meeting at lunchtime. Then tonight, after I turn the stream back on, I’ll gather all the guild members and hold an emergency strategy meeting with the Harusalidan too. That should be fine, right?"
"It’s fine. I’m a black fox, so chaos is fine."
"Shut up."
Fortunately, no other moles were found besides that one. Everyone else was here with nothing but pure enthusiasm, wanting to scheme and struggle along with me, so I let them stay. After the morning guild interviews ended, I started the lunchtime mukbang before going offline.
"Today’s morning mukbang menu is~."
"Since I didn’t eat breakfast, it counts as breakfast."
Clatter! Clatter!
With sounds full of anticipation, I took out several side dishes and a bowl of rice. Just by the containers, you could tell it hadn’t been bought from a restaurant.
"This is a lunchbox made by Chae-sajang just for me."
"Oh? A few of you know about it. That’s right. The boss did a cooking broadcast yesterday. And since this is a short break, let me plug our boss’s NewTube too."
Our boss’s NewTube subscriber count is currently 1.91 million. The cook stream hit pretty hard, and the channel gained a full 10,000 subscribers. Ten thousand is a huge number, but because her base is so massive, it only looks like a slight increase.
"That’s what they call a ripple effect, right? If I become even more famous than I am now, won’t Chae-mone hit two million someday too? I really want to spoil our Chae-mone someday. I’ll work even harder for the boss too."
"Ugh... how did you know?"
"No. I’m going to pay it back! Even if the speed at which the debt grows is faster than the speed at which I pay it off..."
"They said they won’t charge interest. If I keep paying down the principal little by little, I’ll eventually see the end of it. Probably... maybe... this is practically the final boss of content..."
"The thing is... because I said I’d invest 170 percent of the first month’s revenue, every time I receive donations, my debt increases."
"Honestly, whoever said that..."
While chatting with the viewers, I emptied Chae-mone’s lovingly prepared lunchbox cleanly. The amount was perfect for me too, so not a single bite was left over. It was one more place where her consideration showed through.
"All right, now that I’ve eaten, I’ll be back for tonight’s stream."
"Night Haruru is stronger than morning Haruru."
I ended the broadcast right away, but I didn’t turn off the computer and went back into Unknown Universe.
Inside the guild hideout, in a suitably quiet place. Mone and I met there alone.
"Did you enjoy lunch, Haruru-same?"
"Yep."
After a brief exchange, we quickly got to the point.
"About what Mussung-same said earlier, I looked into it. There are a total of 13 guilds with combat strength similar to ours, and one of them deliberately adjusted their power to match us for the sake of getting matched against us."
"So it was the Muah Guild, right?"
At that, I could feel a flinch of surprise in her voice.
"Oh? How did you know that?"
"Heh. This is what it takes to be a guild master."
Well, it was really just Insight doing the work. I couldn’t say that outright, so I told her a viewer had reported it.
But wait. Once I stopped puffing myself up, I realized something else. Isn’t this Mone person even scarier than I am? How did she find that out?
"I’m. Well. Similar, I suppose. Haruru-same, there are more people who hate the Destruction Guild than you’d think. They’re keeping it hidden because making it public would only cause trouble... so I got a little help from them."
Still, she didn’t seem to know the most important part. What I was about to say was the critical thing. After checking once more that we were really alone, I spoke.
"Do you also know that the person called Mussung is a spy from the Muah Guild?"
"What? No. That’s my first time hearing it. Come to think of it, there were a lot of suspicious parts. But your voice sounded like you already knew when you accepted him?"
"Yes. I want to turn the tables on them."
Then she sent me a voice full of a smile.
"As expected, you’re a reliable one. How should I help?"
Without question, I’d be the trickiest enemy for them, so they’d probably prioritize tracking my movements above everything else. How could I turn that around? Ah. Maybe like this.
"Operation name: If you want to fool the enemy, fool your own allies too. First, we’ll say we’re doing a space defense battle. And at the start, I’ll claim I’m not going out because I need to conserve mana."
"Then the Muah Guild will probably go for an all-out attack at the beginning."
That was exactly what I wanted. If they were going to rush in with an early full assault, then before the guild clash even started, every guild member would have to gather at their base and get ready to board the spaceship.
"During that time, I’ll secretly infiltrate the Muah Guild’s hideout planet and..."
As the old military sayings go, if you’re going to fight a war anyway, do it on someone else’s land.
"I’ll wipe them all out by myself."