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Chapter 6 – Echoes in the Fog
The sky above Halros burned crimson as the sun dipped below the horizon, its dying light casting long shadows across the city's ancient stone walls. While most players flocked to taverns or auction houses at this hour, one room remained cloaked in silence — a private guild chamber concealed within the upper floor of a merchant's estate.
Inside, Klaus, as One, stood before a curved table surrounded by projected interface windows. Each one streamed live data from regional trade hubs, monitoring item movements, economic fluctuations, and name trends in real-time.
The Ouroboros insignia flickered above the central window.
Iris stood nearby, arms crossed, her sharp gaze following the graphs. "The ripple's spreading."
Klaus didn't answer immediately. His eyes were locked on a single point — a surge of purchases from the western district by a set of accounts he recognized from his past life.
Silver Dawn Trading Company.
A mid-tier guild in the previous timeline, but one that eventually rose to become a financial power after monopolizing rare alchemical recipes. For them to notice his items so soon…
"They're probing," Klaus muttered. "Trying to trace the origin."
"Should we cut the supply?" Iris asked.
Klaus shook his head. "No. Feed them just enough. Make them think they're chasing a lead."
He flicked his fingers, changing the display. A map of hidden resource nodes appeared — areas not publicly catalogued, known only to players who had stumbled across them in previous cycles or read deeply buried guides.
This was his current battlefield. Not the frontlines of combat, but the arteries of the world — the veins through which coin and influence flowed.
'In my past life, I fought on the surface,' he thought, 'but this time, I'll fight beneath it, where empires are built long before swords are drawn.'
---
Far from Halros, in a different quadrant of the world, inside the towering obsidian fortress of Blackspire Citadel, another meeting was taking place.
pov: Darius – Guild Leader of Blood Oath
A burly man clad in full plate sat on a throne carved from dragonbone, his presence filling the room like a thundercloud. Around him sat his lieutenants, each powerful in their own right, yet silent under his gaze.
He tapped the armrest with a gauntlet.
"You're telling me," he growled, "that someone launched a mid-tier trading operation... inside Halros, under our noses... and no one noticed?"
One of the lieutenants, a dark-hooded assassin named Venn, nodded.
"They're calling themselves Ouroboros. The frontman goes by One, but no class info, no background. Their items are showing up in secondary markets — too refined for this stage of the game."
Darius leaned forward, eyes gleaming. "Then either they're cheating… or they're dangerous."
Another member, a tall woman with silver tattoos, chimed in. "They don't recruit, don't advertise. No flashy PvP. Just clean, clinical market control."
Darius smirked. "Then let's smoke them out."
He opened a system menu and initiated a bounty protocol.
[New Guild Order: Identify and Eliminate any Ouroboros Operatives in Halros. Reward scaling with confirmed intel.]
"Let's see what this One does when the rats start sniffing at his door."
---
Back in Halros, Klaus was already two steps ahead.
He sat in the underground Sanctum of Dust, where newly installed terminals now housed logistics interfaces and guild contribution systems. The chamber had become the beating heart of the Ouroboros network, silently growing beneath the streets.
Silence, the archer he recruited earlier, stood at a distance, polishing her bow. She hadn't said much since joining, but she never missed a task or deadline. Efficient. Professional. Dangerous.
"New bounty protocols have been issued," Iris said. "Blood Oath wants us flushed out."
Klaus didn't look concerned. In fact, a smirk curled at the edge of his lips.
"Good," he said. "That means they're nervous."
"But we're still exposed. We need a counter."
He turned to Iris. "Activate Phase Two."
Her eyes widened slightly. "You're serious?"
"Send out anonymous quests. High payout. Masked drop-off points. I want to draw in mercenaries, freelancers, and disillusioned players."
He stepped toward the forge, placing a dark crystal on the anvil.
"Let them come chasing coin. And while they gather…"
He raised his hammer and struck.
"…we test them."
---
Two days later, Halros' underbelly transformed.
New quest boards popped up in alleys and slums, offering lucrative but obscure missions. Escorting mysterious packages. Clearing seemingly pointless ruins. Gathering uncommon materials with strange restrictions.
None of them bore a guild name.
Yet players who completed them received strange messages.
[You are being watched.]
[You have caught the eye of the Ouroboros.]
Among the many who took those jobs, one in particular stood out.
A cloaked figure with dual blades and a tracking score unmatched by anyone in the area. His movements were efficient, his kills clean, and his curiosity deadly.
Klaus observed from his private channel as the assassin cleared his fifth test in under four hours.
"Who is he?" he asked.
Iris pulled up the file.
"No known guild affiliations. Last name used: Reaver. His playstyle matches one of the top fifty solo killers from the previous timeline, but… the path he's on now diverges from what we remember."
Klaus narrowed his eyes.
"Then maybe I just changed his future."
He tapped a command, issuing the final test.
---
Reaver arrived at a hidden shrine deep within the Halros forest outskirts. There, a single player waited for him, face obscured by a silver mask.
It was Klaus.
"You've completed five contracts," he said, voice modulated.
Reaver drew his daggers slightly. "You're the one behind this?"
Klaus threw a scroll between them.
"A job. Real one this time. High risk. High reward. If you live, you join."
Reaver snorted. "And if I kill you?"
Klaus laughed softly. "Then I die, and you inherit something you don't understand."
The assassin paused… then opened the scroll.
As he read the contents, his expression slowly shifted from amused to focused.
He looked up, eyes gleaming with something sharp and cold.
"I'll take it."
---
That night, as Klaus returned to the Sanctum, Iris was waiting.
"Two new assets recruited. Four merchant branches established. The bounty hasn't caught us yet, but Blood Oath has moved a scouting squad into Halros."
"And?" Klaus asked.
She smiled.
"We already replaced their local blacksmith."
He chuckled.
"Good. Let's tighten the noose."
As he walked deeper into the shadows of the Sanctum, the faint light from the forge danced on his face. The seed he planted was growing — twisting its roots around the foundations of the game.
Soon, those roots would become vines. Vines that strangled.
---
End of Chapter 6
[Word Count: ~2,100 words]