Liam did not mind paying the fees to register the guild, but if they again had to pay a ridiculous amount of fees to claim a foothold on the planet that originally belonged to them… that did not quite sit well with him. Thankfully, it did not come to that. It looked like setting up a territory was free of charge. It was more of a first come, first serve arrangement. He observed it for a few more minutes and then realized something else. Wasn't this a recipe for war? At least if they had to pay fees, then there would be some sort of threshold to cross. Liam gave a sideways glance to the fairy, who was still smirking and continued browsing the system interface. These seemed to be the main changes after the upgrade. They were a little underwhelming at the moment, but he did not care. Setting up a territory could potentially lead to many more things. They probably have to keep unlocking higher tiers to get more features. There was a lot of work to be done. Liam sighed, and just as he was about to turn and walk away, he noticed something strange. There was actually another small change that he almost missed! He clicked on the notification blinking in the corner, and his eyes immediately widened in shock. "Alex! Rey! Come here and take a look!" Liam immediately called the duo over. Since Liam was calling them, they naturally became curious and peered over the status screen quickly, and the next second they also revealed stunned expressions. Was this for real? The three went through the message several times over, and the implications of this were glaring right at their faces. "Bro, does this mean we will now be able to communicate with other guild members who are stuck in different parts of the world?" Rey exclaimed in shock. "Yes. That should be possible." Liam scratched his chin. They would finally be able to set up proper channels of communication with everyone who survived. Not only that, but they would be able to provide them with help and perhaps even do some sort of mana core transfer or item transfer through the guild warehouse to aid them. The possibilities were endless. The only problem was that this would alert both friends and enemies alike to their guild's existence. And Crimson Abyss, or rather, Liam, had a lot of enemies. This single notification essentially accelerated everything. They would once again be on the hot plate before even the second wave of the apocalypse hit the planet. "This is not good." Alex also spelt out what was on his mind. Mmm. Liam hummed as he lifted his head up to look at the fairy hovering silently in front of him. Grin! It was only for a second, but there was an unmistakable smile on the fairy's face, which quickly disappeared when their eyes met. "Good day, Mr Liam. May I help you with anything?" Tilia flashed her usual flirtatious smile and asked, though it sounded more sarcastic than helpful. "Perhaps you want to sell us some weapons like that to make preparations for the future?" The fairy pointed at Alex's shield and sword, which she was hugging closely to her body. So you are enjoying my misery, huh? Liam silently smiled and then shook his head. He was not hit hard enough in the head to make the kind of transaction the fairy was suggesting. The resale value would be dirt cheap. Instead, he fished out the two small mana cores. "I am not interested in selling any weapons, but you can help me after all." He showed Tilia the mana cores. "Can you tell me how many common-grade mana cores these can be exchanged for?" The fairy's face twitched as she gazed at the two bite-sized crystal pieces in Liam's hand. It was clear that he had managed to achieve a breakthrough somewhere and had started putting down dungeon bosses. "Each of these can be exchanged for 10,000 tier 1 mana cores." She professionally replied. However, there was definitely a hostile vibe to her tone. Liam did not care about that and handed over his store card. "Add the balance to the card." "Sure thing, Mr Liam." Tilia as well flashed a cold yet polite smile as she waltzed back inside, throwing the card to another fairy to process. Standing next to Liam, Alex looked at the two mana cores, then at Liam, and then at the fairy who was walking away. She chuckled inwardly. "Women seem to either hate you or love you? What do you do to them?" She was very much enjoying the icy treatment Liam was receiving. For once, there was justice in this world. Hmmm? Liam snapped out of his thoughts and turned to look at the snickering redhead, who seemed to be really enjoying herself. "Which category are you?" He raised his brows. Alex immediately flushed a little and turned away. "I am leaving." She took her shield and broad sword and ran out of the shop in a hurry. Only Rey and Deming still stood with Liam, one barely holding back his laughter and the other clearly confused about what was going on. "Well, 20,000 mana cores is not that much. I don't think that I will be able to buy anything with it. So let's make a move as well." Liam also started walking out of the shop after the fairy returned his updated store card. "Bro, what about our guild members?" Rey whistled and walked next to him. "The guild upgrade just got activated. So let's give them some time to notice the guild first. We can try communicating with them tomorrow. I am pretty sure that we can see some names by then." "Oh. That makes sense. Do you think they discovered some dungeons too? I wonder how they are doing." Rey started casually discussing various things with Liam. Lan Deming also walked behind them, silently listening to their conversation. He couldn't help but regret that he had missed out on being a part of a game that had such huge global ramifications. And from the looks of it, it was not a simple game. The entire situation was shrouded in mystery on many levels and even gave rise to a monster like Liam. From everything that had happened so far, Lan Deming was sure of one thing. He might have been born naturally talented, but it was abundantly clear to him that the person next to him had worked hard to get where he was today. He respected that a lot. The three of them continued talking about various things as they walked out of the shop. However, before they could step out of the magic shop, another notification flashed in front of all three of them.