Hear ye, hear ye!

The Overlord, Cat has returned! The traitor and thief, random leecher, has been banished from the Kingdom! We will resume our normal operations!

(What? I've been labeled as a traitor? How can this be? This is incrimination! Incrimination, I tell you. Well, it's true that I did steal a couple of chapters to please my fellow leechers, but traitor?! Never! Since I've already been wrongfully accused, it won't be a problem if I were to make it to be the truth. I shall overthrow the corrupt Overlord and place myself on the throne. Just you wait and see Cat. Be afraid. Be very afraid. MUUHAHAHAHAHA!)

About 100 people were gathered on the wide balcony of the Magic Tower's top floor. They were players who passed the level 60 restriction screening of the Magic Institute.

As expected of a next generation game, New World offered countless variables within the system. To put it simply, the level of freedom was high. Of course, since there were countless variables in raising a character, simply hunting wasn't everything. That said, the unchanging basic formula, which applied to all games, also applied to New World.

It was 'time spent equals level'. If your level is higher than others, then it means you spent more time than others!

New World had been out for a little over four months. Moreover, it was three to four times harder to level up in new World compared to other games. This meant the players would have raised their levels to 180-240 in four months in a different game. 100 such extraordinary high-leveled players had gathered in Giran alone. This was the result wrought by New World's strong addictive nature, which exceeded all imagination.

Of course, everyone had their own know-how. It was the reason why they were overflowing with confidence despite receiving a quest where they didn't know what kind of enemies would appear.

However, Ark wasn't at all interested in their confidence. He was just drooling over their equipment.

'This is no joke, just where did they get such items?'

Ark thought he was pretty lucky with items in his own way. But after looking at the gathered users' equipment, his confidence vanished.

'That one's definitely at least a Rare item.'

A brightly shining, horned viking helmet, gloves studded with sharp blades from the back of the hand to the elbow, shoes made of bones as read as dripping blood, a two-handed sword with a saw-like blade; they were all unusual pieces of equipment.

In addition, although there were 100 users gathered, he didn't see any pieces of the same equipment. It felt like he'd come to an exhibition of high-class items.

He was gulping down his drool. 'If you converted all the items into money, just how much would it be?

Ark's keen eye was further honed at the blind auction. After making calculations on the spot, each person was wearing equipment worth around 400-500 gold.

'With 100 users, that's at least 40,000 Gold. 400 million when converted into Won (~$40,000)!' An unreal estimate.

Ark was just a commoner who sighed when the monthly utility bills came. Though they said the value of money wasn't the same as it used to be because of the soaring prices, for a commoner, hearing the word "million" was still enough to make them cry out. "Millions" in gold were swimming before his eyes.

[T/N: The author includes a pun here, where the Korean word for million, pronounced "ugk," is like a sound of surprise, like "ah!"]

News he'd seen recently came to mind the auction site specializing in New World items had already hit 10 billion won in market size. At the time, he just thought, "whatever." It was unimaginable anyways. But now, it didn't feel like someone else's matter.

'Ack, if all those people were monsters...'

"Please lend me your attention for a moment." Just then, the Magic Institute NPC appeared at the top floor after finishing the screening process. "New information has just come in. The Magic Institute isn't the only one who thinks this is a bad situation. A renowned Merchant guild located in the Commerce District south of Giran, 'Midus', has sent an Armed Merchant Ship loaded with already recruited militia to Jackson territory. In addition, the renowned Warrior guild of the Northern area, not far from here, 'Sword X' has also sent militia to Jackson."

"The Merchant and Warrior guilds?"

"If you add the Magic Institute, then doesn't it mean all 3 Great Guilds are making a move?"

"As expected, this wasn't an ordinary quest." The players chattered in surprised tones.

Ark had also seen information about the 3 Great Guilds on the message boards in each village. In New World, there was a concept of top guilds managed by NPCs. No matter the race or Kingdom a player had chosen to start in, they had to receive permission from one of these top guilds in order to start a guild. In other words, a guild started by a player was affiliated to one of the organizations, the top guild they had submitted their application to. So they had to pay a fee to the top guild if they made a guild, but they also received various support and guild-exclusive quests in exchange.

The unique aspect was that the influence of these top guilds wasn't set in stone. The influence of the top guilds was similar to the market shares of Merchants. Therefore, the more users chose them, the stronger the top guild became.

Presently, the most popular professions with users in New World were largely these three: Warrior, Magician, and Merchant. New World's 3 Great Guilds were naturally decided as a result.

The top Warrior guild Sword X, top Merchant guild Midus, and top Magician guild Magic Institute!

Of course, when a user makes a guild, there's no need to choose the related guild in accordance to their profession. But if they had to choose, they might as well. There were many cases where the support or quest rewards from the top guild were valuable for a related profession. So a guild was chosen matching their profession. Thanks to this, the current 3 Great Guilds wielded influence second only to the royal family and the church.

The Mage continued to speak. "There is probably no need to repeat this, but saving Jackson is our first and foremost priority. But then again, it is also a battle where the 3 Great Guilds have put their pride on the line. Of course the status of the Magic Institute will change in relation to how well our militia fares in the battle. You will definitely be rewarded based on your efforts, so we hope everyone will do their best."

It was the reason why the 3 Great Guilds had scrambled to organize militia. Jackson Castle was the first place where players, who started in the Schudenberg Kingdom, changed their profession and became interested in guilds. If they raised their status there, then the allure of a newly formed guild would rise as a result.

Users were not the only ones competing with each other. NPCs also competed against other NPCs endlessly; that is New World.

However, users were not interested in the competition between the top guilds. All they wanted was experience and the rewards!

With the mention of the 3 Great Guilds, players conversed with very excited expressions.

"If all three Great Guilds are participating, then the rewards are bound to be huge as well."

"You might even receive a Magic weapon."

"I'm glad I leveled up like crazy these past few days."

"I just dropped by Giran to clean out my bag, but to think I would get such a quest! Jackpot!"

The grander the scale of the quest, the larger the rewards.

But Ark was worried instead. 'This isn't something to be needlessly happy about. It just means there's going to be more competitors.'

Even if one received the event quest from a different guild, the basic quest contents would be the same. In the end, the EXP and contribution points would have to be split with hundreds of users. As a result, the contribution he could earn would be reduced, so the reward would also inevitably fall. Granted, it would be easier to succeed in the quest with more people, but it wasn't something to be needlessly happy about.

"There are only about 30 minutes until the airship arrives now. It may be small, but the Magic Institute has prepared some supplies for the people participating in the militia. Please come and get them in order. We couldn't fully prepare since we were short on time, but it will be helpful."

The Magician handed out supply boxes one by one. Upon opening, there were several items to be seen inside the box.

Intermediate Recovery Potions (3)