Trash in the Apocalypse

Chapter 163: Black Haven Guild

Inside the municipal mayor's office, the top echelons of the three powers were gathered on a long table. There were only eight people sitting around the table but dozens of people were standing by the side. 

Jun sat on the most prominent seat and glanced at everyone who were waiting for his words.

On his left side were The Frontier faction while on his right were the PNP faction. They each have three seats while the last seat was taken by a nervous looking man. The man probably felt pressured being around powerful and influential people, as he couldn't help but act fidgety while looking around. The man jolted when someone patted him from the back. He sighed in relief when he saw a familiar face, which made him calm down.

It was Emman, the representative of the small parties, elected to join this meeting. Standing behind him were Erin and Anna, watching over his shoulders. A few leaders from the small parties also volunteered to act as his bodyguard. Not because they care about him, but because they want to experience what the meeting would feel like.

Jun coughed to catch everyones attention and said, "I'm not interested in politics nor do I like playing games. I think everyone here in this room already realized that personal strength is the only thing that could keep you alive. Even if you have an army of people around you, when something unknown appears everyone would just die."

"Even myself. I never thought that I would able to deal with everything. But I knew for a fact that I'm the strongest person here, currently. I may have ignored this issue recently, but I think we need to helo each other."

"We've been hoping for that since the very start. But before we move on, please give us an explanation on how you get to know that there are enemies coming." said Alday.

Upon consideration, Jun chose to speak of the truth. "I'm a Lord. I don't really understand the position fully, but I have some speculations. I won't go in further details but I can give you a brief overview. A lord has a territory and citizens. A lord's territory prevents enemies from entering and respawning the area. My territory is this town and I currently don't have citizens, so I have no idea on how that works. I can also build territory architecture inside my territory."

"Is it a rare title?" someone muttered as if probing, but Jun ignored the utterance and glanced on his left and right.

"Let's stop pointing fingers. Everyone should be leveling instead of being here. What do you want?"

Jun stared at Paolo Canlas since he was the one who insisted on this meeting. 

"I want information. Information about the enemies and how to learn useful skills, especially that water walking skill you have."

After listening to Paolo Canlas, Jun turned to Alday Ruan and said, "And you? What do you want?"

Paolo Canlas and Alday Ruan felt that there was something wrong as they took a quick glance at each other. The two had some small chat on the way up and were both shocked when they realized they have the same intentions in mind. To force Jun to help the people, either by equipment or with information.

With Alday Ruan's earlier defeat, he realized that being stocked with multitudes of weapons could increase everyones prowess and survivability. If they had crossbows when they fought the earth-element carrier, he was willing to use every last arrow they had if it meant that they could easily deal with the enemy.

He stared at Jun and said, "I want to partner with Black Haven in crafting tools and weaponry. The Frontier would supply the materials and Black Haven would produce it. The people currently don't have the luxury to buy high tier equipment and being able to turn their loot to something they could use would be best for them."

Jun nodded his head in agreement. He said to Paolo Canlas, "Regarding the request for information, I can agree with that but with certain conditions," he then turned to Alday Ruan. "Do you also want information?"

Alday Ruan frowned but still replied amicably. "Yes."

"Then listen, I will give you the result of our research in exchange of everyone's information. Knowledge for information, isn't that a good trade? I want names, traits and skill sets of everyone of your members, including yourself. I want to see every title anyone of you might have and your previous occupation. That's the price of our research. If you think that I'm asking for too much, then reject it. You said your piece, I stated mine. Do we have a deal?"

"Its good for me." said Alday Ruan. He doesn't have anything to hide nor his faction. He knew that agreeing with this would mean exposing everyones ability to Black Haven, but unless they become enemies, they would have no use for those information.

Unlike the casual Alday Ruan, Paolo Canlas had a difficult time agreeing with Jun's offer. He was a police officer. It was ingrained to his mind how knowing certain informations could turn a losing battle to victory. Even if they were acting chummy right now, things could change in the future and those information would be valuable.

"You don't want it?" said Jun to Paolo Canlas.

As the two leaders were having their battles, their subordinates were fighting their own staring contests. But in the end, Paolo Canlas agreed. He weighed his options right now, and increasing everyone's strength is his current priority.

"Uhm... I... also want to join the exchange."

The three faction leaders turned towards the voice. Emman had his hand raised up as if asking whether he could talk or not.

Jun said, "What do you mean? The information exchange? Sure, we'll discuss the details later. Is there anything else you'd like?"

Emman shook his head as he lowered his hand. "Nothing else."

"Okay, since the three of you wants our research, you could talk to Evo later," Jun faced Alday Ruan and said, "Partnership? No. How did you even think that I'll agree to that. We can procure our own materials. But that doesn't mean we can't have cooperations. Black Haven's market is closing effective right now."

A few gasps could be heard on the crowd as the announcement was truly abrupt. Even his guards were surprised about his proclamation.

"On the other hand, I'm glad to inform everyone of Black Haven Guild's grand opening. Taa-daa." Jun clapped alone inside the room.

When Marianne left, Evo and Jun had some time to be alone. Evo recounted numerous flaws with their current system and suggested to dismantle it at its roots. After Jun got drunk, he narrated how the people even tried to impeach him from the mayorship that they forced on him. It was then the Black Haven Guild was proposed. A Guild system where everyone would rely on Black Haven, financially, socially and even on material needs.

The fiat currency was already set. The credit points system was generally accepted by everyone. With a simple and easy to use Black Haven card, anyone could transact anytime safely. The only problem was the marketplace. Since the Black Haven's marketplace only caters to the rich, due to mostly having high quality items, the regular people who only earns enough credit for their daily spending would never step back to Black Haven's marketplace and would prefer the cheaper alternative, the night market.

Evo insisted that for the people to become obedient to them, Black Haven must make itself the only one place that the people could rely on.

Currently, the people outside were already in clamour as the news of Black Haven Guild spread around. The news didn't came from the meeting room but from the advertisement bus. Along with it was the Guild's recruitment flyer.

All skilled individuals are invited to join the recruitment. The main attraction was the high base salary with work guaranteed. A note also said that they would still be paid for the day even if they have no works scheduled. For further information, look for Black Haven's recruitment officer, Evo.

"That's everything, right?" said Jun.

"No, we still have one more thing to talk about," rebutted Paolo Canlas. "We need to decide on whom will defend where. If we assume that those waves of attack were caused by you being a lord, wouldn't that mean that anytime soon, an attack would come again?"

"You have a point. We don't really know when it would come, so assigning places is a bit... Nah, let's just do it. I claim west."

Paolo Canlas furrowed his brows as he glanced at Jun. He uttered, "You won't take south?"

"What, why would I do that? Have you ever tried fighting underwater? It was troublesome. Let's leave that to the experts."

"The Frontier will defend the north."

"Haa... the National Police will defend the east."

"We'll roam!" Emman shouted. "We'll primarily defend the south and roam when we get the chance."