The Author's POV

"...hm? Hold up"

Just as Smallsnake was about to place his piece down, he frowned.

"Did you just say that a camera caught you taking off your mask?"

Lazily supporting my chin with my arm, I nodded.

"Yup"

Confused, Smallsnake tilted his head and frowned.

"...isn't that bad? I mean-"

Seeing Smallsnake's confusion, before he could continue, I cut him off

"Well that is if what they saw was my real face"

Coming to an understanding, Smallsnake's brows relaxed

"Ah...so you didn't reveal your face?"

Nodding my head, I pointed at the board. Urging for him to continue.

"Don't you remember the photos I sent you? The ones you used to create multiple facemasks for me?"

-Tak!

Moving one of the pieces, Smallsnake nodded his head.

"Yeah"

He did.

Although he didn't know who the people in the photos were, Smallsnake remembered receiving a text a couple of days ago regarding the creation of a couple of skin masks.

With current technology, creating such high detailed masks didn't take much, so he had it promptly made the next day.

Seeing that he understood, I lethargically said

"...well I was wearing two at that time."

-Tak!

With one of my eyes closed, I moved my bishop diagonally across the board.

"I see...and who's mask does the other one belong to?"

Hearing his question, I didn't answer immediatly. Instead, I answered with another question.

"Smallsnake, who do you thinks stands to gain the most from the conflict between Sword of light and Luxious?"

Getting answered back with a question, Smallsnake thought for a moment before hesitantly saying

"...errr, the ones who wins between them"

Shaking my head, I lightly smiled.

"Tut, tut, tut, not necessarily true..."

-Tak!

Moving one of his pieces, Smallsnake frowned.

"...then who?"

Smiling, I glanced at him and said

"Have you ever heard of the term, 'the mantis stalks the cicada unaware of the oriole behind?'"

Nodding his head, pausing and thinking for a moment, Smallsnake's eyes widened

"...you don't mean"

-Tak!

"Yup"

...

Luxious Headquarters, 80th floor.

Overlooking the city from the tainted windows of the highrise building, a tall muscular man interlocked his fingers behind his back.

A cold and indifferent aura exuded from his body. Briefly glancing towards the bottom of the building, towards the busy streets of Ashton city, the tall man coldly spoke

"Victor, has there been any news regarding the two people we sent to recruit that kid that caught my eye?"

"No, we tried contacting them, but so far, we haven't heard from them yet"

Standing a few feet away from the muscular man, a man dressed in a simple grey suit curtly replied.

Hearing the reply, after a short pause, the tall man's brows furrowed

"...hmm, strange"

Noticing the guild master thinking, the grey suit individual asked

"Guild Master, what are your orders?"

-Bang!

Just as the guild master of Luxious, Patrick Reid, was about to speak, the sound of the door smashing reverberated across the space as an individual wearing a black suit hurriedly ran into the room with a report in his hand.

"Emergency report!"

"Young master has gotten into a conflict inside of a nightclub!"

Frowning, an invisible pressure instantly bore down on the individual that had just rushed into the room.

"khhh..."

-Thud!

Feeling the pressure bearing down on him, the subordinate that had just barged into the office felt his knees give out as he knelt on the ground of the office space.

Obviously angered by the sudden intrusion, Patrick coldly spat as he glanced at his subordinate.

"You better have a good reason for suddenly barging into my office like that...How is this piece of news deemed to be an emergency? Speak your next words carefully"

-Gulp!

Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, trembling, the individual started speaking

"Y-young master got into a conflict and..."

-Gulp!

Hesitating, swallowing another gulp of saliva, the poor man continued

"lo-st an arm in the process"

-Vauuuam!

-Bam!

Instantly a tremendous pressure shrouded the whole office space as the furniture around the room was obliterated into dust. Papers flew everywhere, and the whole room shook.

Trembling, Patrick looked towards the kneeling subordinate and slowly said

"Repeat what you said...recount me everything carefully"

Feeling Patrick's gaze on him, without a second thought, the subordinate nodded his head

"Y-es...A-ccording to the report, Youn-g master Jacob got into co-nflict with Nolan Valdev...son of current guild master of Sword of Light"

Frowning, the aura around Patrick slightly dissipated as he said

"Sword of light? Nolan? Continue..."

Repeating the words inside of his mind, nodding his head slightly, Patrcik gestured for his subordinate to continue reading the report

Being told to continue, without a second thought, the subordinate instantly started speaking again.

"Y-es, according to the reports, as the two were in the middle of a conflict inside of the nightclub, out of nowhere, someone attacked Jacob...the result was his arm getting detached from his body--khh"

Once again, a massive overbearing pressure started emanating from Patrick's body.

"Oh? Since when was Sword of Light that impulsive..."

To think they actually dared to make a move against their son...

How daring of Sword of light.

It looks like, Sword of Light didn't regard Luxious as an opponent

Clenching his fists tightly, Patrick turned towards Victor who stood by the side and coldly said

"Immediatly summon all of our high ranking members...in a week's time, I want everything prepared...prepare the paperwork. We are going to declare a guild war against Sword of Light!"

Shocked by the news, Victor's eyes opened wide as he couldn't help but exclaim

"Guild master!"

With an expressionless face, Patrick once again stared at the city below him.

'It doesn't matter if the opponent is another gold grade guild, if you hurt my son, I'll make sure to return everything with interest!'

...

-Tak!

Placing my pawn down, I glanced at Smallsnake and smiled as I spoke

"...and so the guild master of Luxious will most likely prepare for a Guild war"

Taken aback, Smallsnake's hand, which was holding onto a pawn, paused. Looking at me, he couldn't help but ask

"A guild war?"

"Yes"

Nodding my head I confirmed.

If everything went according to my predictions, as soon as the guild master of Luxious found out what had happened to his son, he would without a doubt start preparing for a guild war.

This was inevitable.

He only had one son.

Now that he lost an arm, he, without a doubt, would instantly try to fight against the person responsible for crippling his son.

...and the only way he could do that was through a guild war.

A guild war was something that the central government established to legally resolve conflicts between guilds.

Because several conflicts between guilds in the past led to a lot of deaths, the central government had no choice but to establish guild wars as a mean to legally allow guilds to fight each other without suffering any casualties.

This set up was specifically made to avoid deaths, as at the moment humanity could not afford to lose any more talented warriors. With the pressure coming from all sides, the more Heroes they lost, the worse they would be.

...Therefore, after a lot of discussions, the central government set up a system called 'guild wars'

In guild wars like the name suggested, guilds would compete with each other.

...and this conflict would all be done inside of a virtual world.

After investing billions and billions of U, the central government managed to create a state-of-the-art virtual machine that could replicate 99.99% of reality. The closest to reality to date.

Through fighting in the virtual world, the guilds could compete against each other under fair rules without losing any member of their guild.

The winner of the guild war would gain something that was agreed upon prior to engaging in a guild war.

Moreover, with the central government acting as the intermediary, there was no need to fear for the other party not holding up on the agreed terms.

"...are you really sure he's going to declare a guild war so suddenly?"

Smallsnake, who was once again confused, looked at me and said

"I mean, if the Guild Master wasn't stupid, he would instantly notice a few irregularities in the events that had happened in the nightclub...I mean there are a lot of things that don't make sense if you think about it rationally"

Smiling, I lazily yawned

"Huaaaam, you're spot on...After a bit of thinking, the guild master of Luxious, Patrick Reid, will instantly realize that something was wrong with the events that led to his son losing an arm..."

Nodding his head, Smallsnake curiously glanced in my direction

"...if he realized that, wouldn't that mean your plan failed?"

-Tak!

Moving my queen a few squares diagonally, I smiled

"Fail? No, that's exactly what I'm hoping will happen..."

...

"Victor, pause everything that you've been doing"

Frowning, after a couple of hours of deep thought, Patrick realized that something didn't add up with the report he received from the incident.

He had let his emotions get the best of him.

Because of how much he loved his son, as soon as he heard of what had happened to him, he immediately mobilized the guild into partaking in a guild war.

He didn't even check the full details of the situation...

"Hmmm, something just doesn't add up to this story...the heir of Sword of Light shouldn't be this impulsive"

The more Patrick thought about it, the more the story didn't add up.

There was no way, the son of the current guild master of Sword of Light would be impulsive enough to suddenly resort to removing the limb off of a direct heir of another gold-graded guild.

No.

He was an elite trained since birth.

There was no way he would be irresponsible to the point he would actively seek to fight against the whole guild directly...

...yeah, this definitely didn't add up.

As they were both heirs of gold-graded guilds, they should obviously know when to attack and when to retreat.

Turning towards Victor who was wearing the same grey suit as before, Patrick ordered

"Victor, get someone to collect all of the reports regarding the incident. From eyewitnesses to cameras and anything that can be useful in getting a better idea of what happened"

He was going to get a real look at what had happened.

If he caught sight of anything remotely suspicious, he would immediately get to the bottom of it.

He was not going to let someone who hurt his son get away with it

...

"Guildmaster, everything regarding the incident is here"

Thirty minutes after issuing the order, Victor walked next to Patrick and handed him a tablet

"Thank you"

Taking the tablet, Patrick looked through the files and numerous footage. As he looked through the files, Patricks' expression would change from time to time.

-Click!

Soon, after reviewing the data for an hour or so, he turned off the table and solemnly said

"Most likely, someone is trying to instigate a conflict between us..."

"What?!"

Standing next to Patrick, Victor couldn't help but exclaim in surprise

"Are you serious?"

Solemnly nodding his head, Patrick placed the tablet down on his desk

"Yes"

"Then we need to report this to Sword of Light, maybe they know something regarding the situa-"

Freezing half-sentence, Victor's brows twitched as he recalled something.

"Err, actually, now that I recall...I remember hearing that young master Jacob, in his rage, used the artifact that you had given him and almost crippled Nolan...

"Right now according to the reports, he is bedridden with no signs of waking up"

Without saying a word, Patrick fell into deep thought.

It seems like both sides suffered losses.

His son lost an arm, whilst Nolan, the heir of Sword of Light also seemed to have been heavily injured...

...if Zack Valdev, the current guild leader of Sword of Light didn't lose his mind, he too would have reached the same conclusion as him. Someone had instigated the conflict...

Reaching this conclusion, Patrick's aura intensified

"Now, I really am curious as to who's daring enough to mess with two gold-graded guilds..."

Glancing at Victor, in a deep voice, Patrick ordered

"Take all of the video evidence of the conflict and analyze it frame per frame, Don't miss anything"

"As long as something looks suspicious immediately report it to me..."

"There definitely might be something we overlooked..."

Nodding his head, Victor took the tablet and left the office.

"As you wish"