I’m renting a room upstairs in the pub so we can discuss it more securely and privately. Aven and the others are still downstairs so I’m on my own in the room while staring at players outside. The auroras aren’t there and there’s no snowfall since the sky is gone because of the preparation of the invasion.

I look at the time and it has been 3 hours since we came to this town, and there’s no report from Allen yet other than him having to wait.

I lay down on the bed and stare at the ceiling, I look at the debuff status on me and it’s still 264 days until the seal breaks. This is sucks and not to mention if I die, it will prolong the duration so I need to be careful. If I can’t die, then I won’t be able to help them fight Letrax, I can’t even be near the battlefield because Letrax’s skills are AoE. I guess I should let them handle Letrax on their own, and will give them some ideas on how to defeat it.

I hear knocks on the door and I lift my head to look at the door.

“Who?”

A woman’s voice is coming out from the door.

“It’s me, Mister Trevor.”

I sit down and brush my hair.

“Come in.”

Ilvia and the others are coming into the room and they’re all sitting at the table, I look at them and raise my eyebrows while rubbing my cheek.

“Any news from Allen?”

Aven nods.

“He’s coming here now, he managed to join the Segregate.”

I smile and nod with understanding.

“That’s great.”

Aven and the others are having a conversation while I keep staring at the scenery from the window, then someone is knocking on the door. Aven approaches the door and slowly opens the door while staring at who’s knocking on the door. Allen comes inside the room and he looks so pale while he’s rubbing his arms because he’s cold.

Allen sits down and grabs a hot coffee from his inventory, I let him rest for a bit since he needs to warm himself first. I’m worried about Avriel since she hasn’t come back ever since she investigate something that seems to pique her interest.

“Mister Trevor, I did it, I manage to join the Segregate.”

I look at him while smiling and nodding.

“Good job, I know you can do it because you’re confident when you voluntarily scout the Segregate.”

Allen is nodding while grinning happily.

I approach them and grab a chair to sit with them.

“So, are you ready to tell us what happened?”

Allen nods.

“When I entered the building, there were so many players and they were wearing the same ring on their left index finger. I’m not sure what are those for but I think it’s to identify themselves to each other that they’re a part of the Segregate. I was guided to one of the rooms and there I met the player that the guy from Sarkh Village mentioned. He immediately asked me so many questions on how I know about the Segregate, why do I want to join the Segregate, and what was my goal if I joined them.”

Ilvia is leaning her head back while raising her eyebrows with a surprised expression.

“That sounded like you were having a job interview…”

Everyone is laughing while I’m just smiling and then I put my hands on the table while leaning forward.

“Then what happened?”

Allen nods and continues.

“Something that surprised me was that he knew about my activity, he even knew that I’m often playing with Aven and the others, even they knew that I was invited into the Black Oath Clan by Miss Cecilia. When he asked me the reason why I left the clan and want to join the Segregate, I was panicking but then I told him that I’m dissatisfied with their way of doing things in the game. I told them about the clan is mainly to help players but only a few of them were being helped while the rest did everything on their own. Of course, I was lying and pretending that it was how I felt in the clan. He bought it and then he asked me to leave the building.”

I smirk while staring at the table because I’m amazed at how good he is to lie and it sounds like he could think of something and lie about it while at the same time making it believable.

“Then he let you in again?”

Allen nods in agreement.

“That’s right, after a few hours waiting, he let me join the Segregate and the funny thing is that I had to cancel my oat to the Alliance Kingdoms because he asked me to do it in front of him. After that, he gave me a coordinate and told me that will be the base where I will be hanging around with the other Segregate members. At first, I thought it was the place where all the Segregate members are, but then when he walked to the wall with the map of Orion was hung, I saw so many circles and he pointed at one of the circles and told me that the coordinate will lead me to that area. Oh, and one more thing, they called themselves the Segregate Guild.”

I’m humming with understanding and then Aven tilts his head with confusion.

“Wait, does that mean there are so many bases of the Segregate around the Orion? What’s this? It feels like they’re an underground and hidden syndicate to destroy a nation or something.”

Allen is nodding in agreement and then he grabs something from his pocket.

“I know what you’re thinking, and I think I know why they did that. Here take a look…”

A piece of identification paper with Allen’s IGN written on it, the date he joined, and there’s a long column on the back of the identification paper with a title written on top of it, a ContributionSheets. At the bottom, there are rules and rewards explaining how to get those contribution points, and how much it needs to get the rewards. There’s a list of ranks for players who reached a certain amount of points and it seems that the higher their ranks, the more rewards and can get a position in that organization.

I’m pressing my hands together and putting them in front of my mouth.

“So basically, you give certain items to them and it will give you points. When it reached a certain point you will be rewarded and recorded in that contribution sheet. The higher your rank, the more privilege you get from the organization, isn’t that what it means from the explanation on that paper?”

Allen nods in agreement.

“Yeah, I think this is like Fame system in the game, and if you have played a certain MMORPGs, there’s something like this called an adventurer’s guild quest where players can do quests from the NPCs they provided and get rewards from completing it but this time it’s between player and player. I think that’s why they called themselves the Segregate Guild, and the problem is, I think I won’t be able to get any information since I still don’t have any contribution to the Segregate. So I think we have a problem here.”

I’m rubbing the tip of my nose while humming.

“I see, that’s a problem… do you remember where are all the circles are pointing at when you looked at the map?”

Allen is furrowing his forehead while thinking, but then he shakes his head.

“I’m sorry, I don’t think I remember any of it because I was nervous and relief at the same time that I don’t think about anything else but to leave and tell you about the information I got…”

I raise my eyebrows while leaning on the chair.

“Well, it’s okay, you did an excellent job so don’t feel bad about it.”

Ilvia looks at me while raising her eyebrows.

“Why do you want to know about the rest of the base of the Segregate guild, Mister Trevor?”

I tilt my head and raise my eyebrows.

“There might be a lead on where the leader of the Segregate and his or her higher-ups are staying since one of the circle might be their main base.”

Ilvia is humming with understanding.

I sit straight while exhaling deeply.

“Well, that’s that, let’s find about that information for another time…”

Everyone nods with understanding but then I hear footsteps coming from behind me. Avriel is leaning toward my ear from behind and then slips a paper on the table while smiling.

“Is this what you are looking for, Trevor?”

I look at the paper and then lean forward to check what’s written on the paper. It’s the name of towns, villages, and forests then I look at Avriel while raising my eyebrow.

“These are the places where the Segregate’s bases are?”

Avriel smiles and nods.

“It is….”