“Greetings, Mr. Anderson. I am glad to finally be able to meet you once more. Finally, we have some good news. I am Silas, a guild representative in America. You must be Mr. James, am I right? Greetings to you as well, Mayor Douglas!”

  “Have a seat. My office is closer to here than yours so i arrived first. We are elated the traffic didn't hold you up that badly.”

  “Yes.” James was miffed that everyone seemed to know him, even though he used to be a nobody. His mismatched arms—one from a golem and the other from a minotaur—proved to be a challenge when he used them to grab the small knife and fork before him.

  “So, Mr. James. Are we here because you are excited to join the guild?” Silas smiled. James’ mood worsened as he was disgusted by how certain Silas seemed that he was already in a guild.

  “No.” James said flatly. Silas’ smile disappeared as he glanced toward Anderson.

  “Ahem. James needs to know his… terms of employment before joining us. Especially regarding remuneration.”

  “Money? Well, of course, we pay our survivors. Name your price, Mr. James. Hahaha.” Mr. Silas relaxed at once when he realized James was merely after the money. His confidence irritated James so much that he wanted to ask for an incredulous price. At first, he wanted to ask for $200K per year, negotiable to $100K. Getting a five-digit salary was a luxury in James’ mind, reserved only for high earners and capable people. But seeing Silas’ confidence, he decided to raise his price.

  “One million dollars,” James said.

  “We shall pay you ten million. Per dungeon. Especially that dungeon.” Silas countered.

  James was slack-jawed as his mind processed his words. Ten million dollars? Per dungeon? James looked at Kaina, Sanders, and Anderson, asking them whether this was normal. It wasn’t. James knew because Kaina and Sanders also widened their eyes when they heard the price the guild was willing to pay.

  “Ahem. Assuming he can pull his weight. Mr. Anderson, I assume that you have become a survivor as well? How was Mr. James’ performance inside that dungeon?”

  “Of course! It was all thanks to him that we cleared that dungeon. I can guarantee his skill. And yes, we have also become survivors.”

  “Great. Wonderful! Now, without further ado, let us go to the airport. To be honest, the guild is not faring well these days. But the news that our guild members finally cleared a dungeon should lift our morale!”

  “No. I get to choose which dungeon I conquer. You have no say in it. I won't take a dungeon above Novice.” James was finally back to his senses. No matter how much money the guild offered, he still valued his life. He knew that any dungeon above Novice was out of his league.

  “Wonderful. As long as the dungeon is inside California, you may conquer them at your leisure. We shall take everything we can get. Land prices have more than quadrupled in these two months alone, and almost all businesses have come to a halt.”

  “That complicates things. To be honest, the reconquest project is not faring well. We have lost more than 30 high-level survivors there. Something worse than Chernobyl might happen to us anytime soon. You should know the importance of this project, Mr. Douglas.”

  “Well, of course. That project is the most important. I was merely offering Mr. James alternatives since he said he wanted to explore dungeons of his own accord.”

  “Hm… what about Kouki?” Kaina asked.

  “He hasn't cleared his dungeon either. And we have ten casualties there already. We have decided to stop sending more survivors there because the effort did not seem to bear fruit,” Silas said.

  “What? Are you leaving Andrew and Kouki to their deaths?”

  “We are down to less than forty available survivors, all below level 15. Almost fifty survivors had died in those two dungeon alone.”

  “Well, should we start there? That dungeon is Novice, after all.”

  “If I may ask, what level are you now, Mr. James?”

  “I am level 38,” James lied. He didn't trust them, so he gave them a lower number.

  “Excellent. About as strong as Kouki then! We knew it was harder to level up the higher your level is. Well, if your requirement is a Novice dungeon, that dungeon is Novice as well. I shall prepare the supplies. Guns and their ammo are free standard MREs are included. But if you need anything more, I shall cut them from your pay. Our budget is not infinite, after all.”

  “Well, I won't be needing any of that,” James answered. “No guns either.”

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  “Eh?” Silas widened his eyes.

  “Mr. Silas, our supplies were gone when we transferred inside the dungeon. James explained that only tools and equipment registered by the system could be brought there—except the very basics of necessities like bread,” Anderson explained.

  “...What?” Silas was agape at the sudden news. He then caressed his forehead at the massive blunder he had committed.

  “Mr. Silas, did Andrew and Kouki's team bring their original weapons given by the system?”

  “Shit! I should have known! Fuck! Fifty people!” Silas slammed his clenched fist on the table. He then bit his thumb. The composure he had a while ago completely disappeared as he started to panic. After a few deep breaths, he continued.

  “Some of the original team brought theirs, including Andrew and Kouki. But none of the reinforcements brought theirs. Damnit! We even prepared medieval weapons, but they were all crafted on Earth! Those fucking private guilds! Did they know? No. They just cleared their dungeons last week too. We should be able to confirm this information with them. My apologies, let me make a call. The guild needs to know this information as soon as possible.” Silas quickly stood up and brought out his cellphone.

  James was savoring his steak, uncaring of the serious tone the meeting had taken. “What's that project about? It sounds important.”

  “James, do you know about nuclear reactors?”

  “Of course. Who doesn't?”

  “You see, dungeons have taken over the world right now. Some of the nuclear reactors were taken over. Most of the engineers inside managed to press a scram button, turning off the reactors before they teleported out. But there are three reactors that are confirmed to be active right now, and we do not have access to turn them off,” Anderson said while eyeing Silas who talk on the phone mere steps away.

  James widened his eyes at the mention of nuclear reactors going meltdown. The delicious steak suddenly turned stale on his tongue when he heard such grave news.

  "That's terrible."

  "That’s why I plead with you to help them. I know the Hard difficulty dungeon might be out of reach right now, but maybe the Medium."

  "No. I won't go above Novice. No matter what," James said. As much as he would love to help, he was not suicidal.

  "May I ask why?" Sanders asked. He seemed to expect more of James, but then he nodded. "Well, I guess you just wanted to be sure. There is nothing wrong with that."

  "The system is lying. You see, I have met and killed all the boss monsters—from the trial dungeon to the Novice dungeon. I can safely say that the trial dungeon floor boss was much easier than the Novice dungeon floor boss. If the Medium dungeon is stronger, just like the difficulty rose from the trial to Novice, then this Andrew—I don't think he made it.

  "It was similar to how you were supposed to face the floor boss when we first met. I don't think you would survive even if you faced a floor boss right now. Can you beat that snake in the desert? The kraken? The minotaur? The robot? The demon? Any wrong move and you die."

  James's words took the breath out of everyone present. They knew what he said was true. They were woefully underleveled.

  "... I see," Sanders nodded, and Anderson nursed his head at yet another piece of bad news.

  "Then… will you help Kouki? I know he tried to kill you last time, but I swear it was an accident," Kaina asked.

  "As long as it is a Novice dungeon," James sighed at the girl. Kaina was too good at begging.

  "Alright! The next dungeon is a nuclear reactor complex!" Sanders pumped his fist. "one step at a time,"

  “Well, I am glad that you guys managed to persuade James. The airplane will arrive in three hours. Let us dine for the freedom of the Earth!” Silas came back with a smile.

  “Eh? We are diving right back in so soon?”

  “The faster, the better,” Silas said.

  “The money,” James said.

  “Of course. It has been transferred to your account. You may check it.” Silas handed him his phone. Through the internet, James checked his account balance and was surprised that the money had really been transferred.

  “How did you…?”

  “Well, we have some connections with the government. It did take a long time to find out which James you were among 300 others. We have investigated your background. Um… due to the sudden situation, we understand and are ready to grant you clemency. But can you promise not to do it again? Guild members may not kill civilians out of spite. If you have a dispute, we could help you with lawyers and such…” Silas said.

  “As long as they don’t fire a shotgun at me first.” James scoffed.

  “Well. That was a very convincing self-defense alibi you got there. It should make a lot of things easier. We knew a shotgun was fired from our investigation, but we didn't know when. Of course, self-defense was a perfect excuse to kill a person even before the apocalypse. I suppose special clemency is not necessary after all.” Silas smiled.

  He had already investigated James before, and so he also knew about Frank's actions. He wanted to make it such that James felt gratitude toward the guild, but apparently, James wasn't moved in the slightest.

  “Three hours?” Kaina said. “The airport is three hours away. Shouldn't we move right now?”

  “Relax. It's a private plane. They will wait for us as long as we don't take more than a day. Come on, don't let the delicious steak and expensive wine go to waste,” Silas chuckled. James felt dizzy at the new billionaire mentality he was suddenly thrust into. When he glanced at the others, only Anderson appeared to keep his cool as the others gawked at him.

  “Well, I suppose I have to excuse myself. I have a press conference in an hour. The news about the first dungeon cleared in America is important. Um… can you at least show your face before the press for ten minutes?” Douglas said.

  “If you can move the press conference to the airport, sure. We can spare a few minutes. Our project is important after all. The UN has been pressing our backs to clear those three dungeons, and we had nothing to give them even after we wasted two billion dollars equipping those survivors to raid it.” Silas said.

  James suddenly felt the urge to ask for a pay raise when he heard that two billion dollars were wasted on those two dungeons. How many zeroes were in a billion dollars again? Nine zeroes. Let alone a million, James couldn't even remember seeing a hundred thousand dollars before.

  James didn't speak anymore and continued to dine in peace. As he left the building, he brought his leather bag. Silas offered to put it in the trunk, but James refused. The long limousine Silas used really hammered it home that James had moved up in the world.

  “We are going to rescue your sweetheart, Kaina. You have nothing to worry about,” Sanders teased her along the way.

  “Kouki is not my sweetheart. We just traveled the dungeon together!” Kaina said. However, her words were hardly convincing when her face was red down to her neck.

  If one has a will, one will find a way. Douglas really moved the press conference to the airport.