"Sir, I have left the guild." Derek's message was short and simple. He hadn't contacted him for this long and now all of a sudden he replied? What could have possibly changed? Liam silently pondered for a bit and then a thought entered his mind. He had just now contacted several guilds to make his trade arrangements. But he hadn't contacted two for obvious reasons. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞 One was his old friends' guild, Divine Retribution and the other was Derek's guild. He wondered if this for some reason affected the flow of things and ended up being in his favor. Knowing how his guildmates treated him, they most probably would have blamed him for everything and once again harassed him. But this was the usual occurrence? What could have been the breaking point? Maybe there was some huge altercation resulting in Derek getting kicked out or him leaving voluntarily? "Well, whatever." In reality, Liam couldn't care less about what exactly happened. The most important thing was that he now had this person beside him as one of his strengths. Except for his sister, he probably would never trust another person in this world but if there was an exception it would be this guy. "Your timing is good. Where are you right now? Can you get over to Yleka city?" Liam knew that he was probably desperate at the moment. So even though he didn't say any details or explain anything, Liam also did not dig into the dirt. He just sent the short message to which he instantly received the reply. Coincidentally, Derek as well, was in the city right now, so he promptly replied back. "I am here, sir. Where should I meet you?" "Oh, you are here. That's perfect then. Come to the entrance of the PVP tower." Shortly, in just a few seconds, a tall and muscular guy jogged towards the PVP tower entrance. Even without all the gear his figure was fearsome and very obviously suited to be a tank. Waving his hand at this incoming person, Liam grinned ear to ear. He did nothing to hide his happiness. "Hello. Welcome to the dark side?" Liam chuckled. Derek also squeezed out a smile though clearly he was currently very down and bothered about something. Noticing this, Liam neither asked for any explanations nor bothered to comfort him with empty words. He directly hit the nail on the head. "How urgently do you need the money? Is it okay if it takes a couple of hours or do you need it right now? ASAP?" Huh? Derek stood frozen. For the nth time, he was shocked by the person in front of him. Until now in his life, he had begged for money several times from different people. Their family was below the poverty line and yet they carried a burden of complicated illnesses that even middle-class families would struggle to deal with. Both his mother and his brother were right now suffering from this cruel fate. Their disease was not fatal and something incurable. At least if it was like that, then everything wouldn't be this bad. They could have accepted their fate and made peace with things. But the thing was their disease was completely curable. They just needed money and lots of it. However, in their family's condition, this was no less than a death sentence. Their father was a useless asshole who took off a while back when things went to shit. Their relatives had all turned their backs to them in fear that they would ask for help. In the end, everything fell on his shoulders and his elder sister's shoulders. How could two people who didn't even have the opportunity to go to college bear such a big burden? Derek could only find odd construction jobs to make whatever money he could and his sister worked in a maid service. In this situation, one of the other guys from the construction business had introduced Derek to this new game. One of his former friends was also in-game and when they randomly met each other on the street, he had told Derek about his guild that paid a hefty salary, almost equal to a blue-collar job. Hearing this, Derek immediately bought a cheap helmet and tried his luck to earn money in the game. Without any education or backing, he knew that this was the best chance he was going to get to earn decent money and he readily jumped on the opportunity. However, everything after that did not go so smoothly. He was humiliated, demeaned, and treated like a slave day in and day out. He did not know why or what exactly happened, but somehow their team's star player had it out for him and he belittled him every chance he got. Derek bore all of those insults, but this they went too far. They did not give him his salary blaming him for whatever happened in the recent past. And when he told them about the business deal, Liam offered, they laughed in his face saying that he was trying to rob them and steal from them. And finally today, the person had gone too far. His exact words were… "Dude, is your sister also big like you? I have a fetish for big girls. You should bring her in-game and we can pay you double of what we are paying right now." This was the last straw that broke his patience and Derek instantly quit the guild without turning back. After that, he contacted Liam and came over to him directly. Previously, Liam had mentioned to him many big things, had spoken big words, and had made big promises. Derek did not know how much of that was true. There was no free lunch in this world. He was not that naive teenager anymore. He knew how people were. They might speak flowery words but the cold truth was always fucking ugly. From the beginning, he did not have any expectations from Liam. However, he also couldn't shake off the feeling that he had gotten from their last conversation. So he had come here despite his better judgment. But… this person did not even ask him for anything. They did not speak of any terms or discuss how much he had to work or what work he had to do. He didn't even ask him the reason for taking this long to respond to him. He just directly offered him help… Derek was truly dumbstruck. This person was either naive or … "Sir." Derek gulped. Since the other party was offering him a hand, he did not intend to refuse it. He already decided to walk in this path, so he also went all in. "Sir, even a few days is good. But it is for my family's emergency so the sooner we-" "Got it," Liam interjected. He then paused as if he was thinking about something and then once again asked Derek. "By the way, did you tell your ex-guild mates about me? I mean the fact that you are planning to leave them in order to join me?" "No, sir. Absolutely not. I would never do that." Derek resolutely replied. Liam flashed a smile, patting the big guy. Since he replied so quickly, anyone else might doubt him but Liam knew that he was saying the truth. Unfortunately, this was not a world for the good and that is why he was in his current state. "Ok. That's good then." Liam responded. "If everything goes well, you can earn more than enough by the end of the day." "And as a special welcome gift, I will also make sure that most of this money comes from your beloved ex-guildmates." "Sir?" Derek's eyes widened. "What? Stop looking so surprised every time. You should have more confidence in yourself. Come let's go and get this started. You can earn the money you want on your own.. You will see."