Avilien

Islington park

Lunch hadn't gone how Luke predicted, or how he wanted it to go, he mused as he sat with Brit at one of the many picnic tables outside the cafeteria. He felt like the more he involved himself with her, the more problematic situations arose. To even suspect that the Guild of Daggers had converted themselves into a real-world guild and were using the school and Avilien as a means to garner wealth—an unbelievable amount—seemed as farfetched as the entire world being converted into data.

Real-world guilds were not uncommon, given the popularity of gaming. Most of the thirty-million players had real-world guilds, since you could augment buildings and houses to represent you in the game. Forest of Winter could also net you a small fortune outside of the game if you were willing to sell gold, information on legendary items and equipment, or certain special augments. Luke's character profile would be worth a fortune if he had a pair of GTs to set it all into augment and get it ready for sale. The players that set up real-world guilds ran huge companies and corporations usually, and employed players to farm for them on a nine-to-five basis, like a real job. Luke just couldn't see the fun in that, but often came across those people while he farmed in the wilderness for materials to create items.

In the two years Luke had been at Islington High, he had never so much as heard a murmur about a secret black market or the Guild of Daggers making a guild in town. He didn't even know that the Guild of Daggers was from Islington; that made him thankful they didn't know who he was in the game.

Looking across to the bleachers at the other end of the football pitch, Luke ate another fork-full of lasagne as Brit rambled on about her favourite colour and what foods she loved. He wondered what happened to the secret market on weekends when football games were held. There was also the thought of Mr. Mock helping set Lance up and becoming a financial backer for his own greedy needs, but the real question lay underneath. Why go to such lengths? And why employ teens to do it? Luke would have never considered Mr. Mock to be a greedy money-grubbing pig, and a sword worth thousands—if not millions—hung in his office led him to believe otherwise, meaning another motive could be behind it all.

Luke also wondered which side and guild Mr. Mock aligned himself within Forest. Average people expressed their darkest or truest of desires within a vast open-world game where you could essentially do anything. The majority of victims turned into the very things they hated—bullies or trolls. There were also keyboard Warriors and pretentious knights that believed in every word they spewed.

Lance, Anna, Cissy, and Nagori did the same as what any other guild did that resided in the forbidden lands in Forest. Stealing, camping, brokering, and selling of stolen items or information. Information being the most lucrative business. Luke had lost count how many times he'd had to purchase information and on some accounts, he sold it too to make up his own coffers. Information could range from epic monsters, special dungeons appearing, rare equipment, quests, or easy guild targets. Information sold higher than any other item inside and out of Forest, as long as the information proved to be legitimate, and that's what Lance had set about doing.

Thanks to Brit, Luke swallowed down his second school meal. He'd failed to listen to a word she said, as he had been in such deep thought. How she took it all with a pinch of salt and acted like nothing had happened amazed him. Placing the lid back on the now-empty box of tasty lasagne, Luke wiped his mouth with his hand. The four layers of cheese and oozing tomato sauce wrapped around lumps of minced steak, all topped off with one final layer of mozzarella cheese, tasted divine. They had other foods on sale behind clear glass counters like mashed potatoes, steamed veg, and chicken, but Luke didn't want a repeat of the other day if Nebs came back around and found him eating mashed potatoes. The day when Nebs found out about mashed potatoes was the day Luke's ears hurt the most. Nebs had watched a woman on the internet make cheesy mash, and became so hysterical and frantic Luke had to stay away from him.