Soulless Soul

Chapter 46: Treaty

Sky leaned against the edge of the stone table, his posture deceptively relaxed as his eyes locked onto Arthur, tracking every micro-expression on the veteran Paladin’s scarred face. He watched the slight twitch of Arthur’s jaw and the tightening of his gloved fists, reading the data of his frustration. "I have three fragments right here in this machine. I also happen to know exactly where the fourth and final piece is spawning within the inverted sectors of Floor 1-4. Your Order has the massive mountain of raw materials needed to craft it, but you completely lack the operational blueprint files. We have the blueprint files, but we currently lack the high-grade iron and energy batteries required to finish our current setup. It’s a classic supply-and-demand problem, Commander, and right now, my supply dictates your demand."

Crazy Hope looked sharply at Sky from the side, her piercing gray eyes narrowing in swift, cold calculation. She hadn’t known he possessed the high-tier blueprint fragments—he had kept that trade with Nix entirely to himself—but she immediately and seamlessly understood exactly what he was doing. He wasn’t just throwing a tantrum or showing off to a room full of lower-tier recruits; he was forcefully carving out a sovereign treaty using the only currency the Vanguard Order actually respected: absolute structural leverage. She adjusted her stance, aligning her presence with his to present a united front against the towering Paladin.

"A compromise," Crazy Hope added, her smooth, cutting voice stepping into the silence like a well-timed blade. Her tone was completely level, carrying a weight that demanded attention. "The Vanguard Order provides the high-grade raw materials necessary to fully upgrade our current independent loadouts to official Green-tier status at the forge table. In exchange for those materials, once we successfully descend and retrieve the final fragment from Floor 1-4, Chloe will forge the fully compiled Meat Grinder weapon and hand it directly over to your frontline assault team for the main raid. You get your vanguard weapon, and we get the stats we need to survive the drop."

Arthur stared intensely at the glowing green hologram of the heavy axe-shotgun hybrid, the emerald light casting long, dramatic shadows across his silver breastplate as his mind raced through the logistical constraints and political fallout of the deal. He deeply hated independent players and solo operators who refused to bend the knee to his military order, viewing them as unpredictable liabilities in a system that demanded absolute uniformity and strict adherence to the chain of command.

But he was a appointed commander, and he couldn’t deny the basic mathematical reality staring him in the face. An Uncommon, green-tier weapon sitting in the hands of his primary frontline Knight would drastically and undeniably increase their statistical chances of clearing the corrupted floor-boss and saving thousands of innocent souls from a total power grid collapse back in the Central Sleep Cages. If he refused, his entire faction might stall out on this floor, rotting from the inside out while the dimensional rifts expanded.

"You have exactly twenty-four hours," Arthur finally growled, his deep voice carrying a dangerous, low vibration as he took a heavy step back from the stone table and allowed his suffocating golden aura to slowly fade from the room. The oppressive weight lifted from the air, the golden particles dissolving back into his armor.

The sudden drop in atmospheric pressure caused several nearby players to let out a quiet, ragged breath of relief, their shoulders dropping as their stamina bars stopped ticking downward.

"My personal guild smiths will deliver the requested high-grade raw iron and energy batteries directly to the Engineer girl’s workbench by the end of the hour," he continued, pointing a massive, armored finger straight at Sky’s chest, the steel tip gleaming in the fading green light. "But listen to me very carefully, Skies. If you fail to bring back that fourth fragment from Floor 1-4 before the sector collapses... I will personally ensure that you and your crazy priestess are locked out of the Sanctuary safe zone permanently. Your access keys will be revoked. You’ll be forced to live out in the hostile biomes until your armor integrity breaks, your health bars flatline, and your physical brains completely rot in the cages."

"Fair enough," Sky said, a cold, sharp smile cutting across his face beneath the dark fabric of his crimson scarf. He didn’t show a single trace of fear, his mind remaining perfectly calm and quiet as the Paladin’s immediate killing intent subsided into a low simmer. He knew the risks, but in a death game, a calculated gamble was the only way to stay ahead of the system’s tightening noose.

He reached out, casually sliding the green data chip back out of the receptacle and stowing it away in his tunic pocket, breaking the holographic connection. "Pleasure doing business with you, Commander. Try not to let your men choke on their common iron while we’re gone."

The crowd of Commons began to murmur quietly, the tight circle around the Forge Table fracturing as players slowly dispersed into the shadows of the lodge to digest the news of the treaty. The Vanguard Order had officially blinked first, a historic shift in the hub’s power dynamic, and the independent duo had just secured the raw resources they needed to survive the upcoming descent into the deeper, more volatile sectors of the array.

Chloe let out a massive, dramatic sigh from her corner, her visor flickering rapidly through string lines of code as she wiped a thick layer of cold sweat from her pale forehead. She sprinted over to her workbench, her boots clattering against the loose metal scraps on the floor, her fingers already tapping furiously against her diagnostic tablet to prepare for the massive influx of vanguard iron and high-capacity batteries.

"You are an absolute psycho, Skies," Chloe whispered loudly as Sky and Vesper walked over to her station, her voice a tense mix of lingering terror and profound awe. She looked over her shoulder to ensure Arthur was out of earshot before continuing. "You just blackmailed the strongest man on Floor 1 using a blueprint you didn’t even finish collecting yet. If you can’t find that fourth fragment, he’s going to use our skulls as decorations for his tower shield."

"It’s called efficiency," Sky murmured, his eyes tracking the red time remaining on their sector countdown clock floating at the top edge of his vision. Every second wasted was a second closer to the hard reset. "Vesper, get your staff ready. The moment Chloe finishes upgrading our weapons to green-tier, we are heading straight back into the ice. We have a fragment to hunt, and the clock is ticking."

Vesper simply adjusted her grip on her wooden staff, her silver hair catching the warm, amber light of the forge fires as she looked toward the shifting purple vortex spinning in the center of the lodge. The treaty was signed, the resources were officially secured, but the true nightmare of Floor 1-4 was still waiting for them in the dark, and the system was already preparing its countermeasure.

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