22 We Have a Deal

(BM) "What about yourself? Are you confident in air battles?"

(YF) "It's not that I'm confident in winning the air portion, I'm just not confident in winning the other two battlefields right now. You see, this time around there are multiple elders in each of the three competitions. All of them are higher ranked than me. I'm no fool, I've faced off against some of these fellows before, let me tell you something, they are all monsters."

(BM) "You have difficulty defeating them too?"

(YF) "You are too naive to think in such a way. These people that are competing this year have hundreds of blueprints in their arsenal. The only advantage that a start up faction like us have is that everyone who has competed before has to register what battlefield they plan to fight in."

(BM) "And the majority of them are competing in the land and sea battlefields?"

(YF) "Yes, and there is something else you should be aware of, there are plenty of people who don't carry the title of elder but are still plenty stronger than me. The elder ranking system is based on contributions and not just about strength."

(BM) "Do you know exactly who is stronger than you that is in the faction selection competition?"

(YF) "It's not a definite answer but I believe there are 33 groups we would have some sort of difficulty in beating. 15 of these groups will be competing in the land battlefield, 12 of them will be competing in the sea battle, and the other 5 will be in the air battle."

(BM) "No wonder you wanted to go for the air battlefield."

(YF) "Yes, although there is less honour in winning the air battle, that doesn't mean much to me."

(BM) "Nor should it. Honour may be important here, but strength is still absolute. What better way to prove our strength than to form our own faction."

(YF) "There is just one more matter we need to discuss, who will be the faction leader?"

(BM) "I'm afraid i'll have to rely on you for this position. After all, no one will respect us if someone who hasn't been here very long becomes a faction leader, even if they have an elder on board. However, you are already famous here, a lot of the lower tier factions will respect us just with that one point. Plus I need to lay low for the next little bit."

(YF) "That's true, Madam Zheng and her group rose to prominence a little too quickly, that's why they are being targeted by the Vesper's and their allies. Things aren't looking good for them at the moment."

(BM) "Yea that's exactly what I mean. What about resources, once we have a faction we need resources to run it and everything right?"

(YF) "Yes, that's the other thing. Running a faction takes a huge amount of resources. An amount that we need to be ready to pay once we actually start one."

(BM) "How do we acquire the necessary resources?"

(YF) "There's lots of ways, the fastest of which is selling blueprints. The second way is to contribute towards the Chinese community and they will reward you handsomely. Lastly, you can enter into competitions, both within and outside the community, and enter the top 5. The top 5 places will have the best rewards while everything under it pales by comparison."

(BM) "I see, then we'll talk about this later. You have no doubts about your ally that will be joining us?"

(YF) "None, he has been with me ever since I got here, I knew him back when I was alive too. Don't worry he is as trustworthy as they come."

(BM) "That puts me at ease. How long is it until the next faction selection competition?"

(YF) "About 120 or so years."

(BM) "Oh, then it's still quite a ways away then."

(YF) "All the more time for us to get prepared."

(BM) "That's true."

At this moment a person came in wearing an outfit with a battleship logo on it came to where Baron and Yue Fei were talking. This battleship represented anyone from the Red Flag Faction, aka Madam Zheng's faction.

(M) "Please come with me Baron, Madam Zheng has made a decision regarding your proposal." The messenger said to Baron and beckoned him to follow.

(YF) "You better go, best not to make one of the top 20 elders wait for you."

(BM) "Alright then, I'll be off."

The messenger and Baron went all the way back to Madam Zheng's headquarters and the four of them began to discuss.

(BM) "So tell me what you've decided to do, senior."

(H2) "Well, we've decided to take you up on your offer. We hope you won't go back on your word?" The second husband said politely.

(BM) "Hehe senior, I won't ever go back on my word."

(MZ) "Well that's good, so bring out your blueprint and we'll announce that you are under our protection from now on."

(BM) "I'm sorry to say that I must have to change our previous agreement. You'll still get your blueprint don't worry, but instead of protecting me you'll have to extend that protection to the faction that i'm starting with Yue Fei. This can possibly turn into an alliance between our two groups."

(H1) "Absolutely preposterous. I won't have such blatant disrespect coming from someone as young as you." The first husband practically yelled at Baron.

(BM) "Now let me explain first, senior." Baron said in an attempt to calm down this angry bear. "I don't expect for you three to do this without extra compensation I'll throw in something extra for you guys."

(H1) "Now you're speaking my language, what have you got in store for us?"

(BM) "I'm sure you guys will love this. I'll give you guys the blueprint required for the basic sea mine that I promised, plus an upgrade to the sea mine."

(MZ) "Oh? You've piqued my interest. What kind of upgrade?"

(BM) "I'm afraid I can't tell you guys anything until you agree to the terms of my proposal. Would you like me to leave the room for a bit before you seniors discuss?"

(H2) "No need, I think I speak for the other two that we are ready to accept your newest proposal."

Baron looked at the two others in the room. The first husband wasn't even looking at Baron while Madam Zheng could only lightly smile towards Baron's direction. Clearly they weren't too happy with what condition they had to uphold. This was because they would lose some face when news of this eventually went out to the general public.

(BM) "Well if that's that i'll give you guys the blueprint in a matter of days. While you guys don't officially announce anything of this conversation to the others."

(MZ) "Worry not, this isn't the first time we've had to make such deals."

(BM) "Alright then, i'll be off seniors."

Baron quickly exited the room and sighed a sigh of relief. This was just the first step of his plan to become the champion of the Death Match Tournament, he needed to constantly remind himself that everything he was doing on Planet 4 was for Roxi, whom he had for the first time in his life felt alive. He was doing all this so that he could get back to Earth, it might be a long shot but he knew it was either that or continue to live here and rot away like countless before him.

The next few days were frantic for Baron, Yue Fei, Xu Da, and Ban Chao. Baron was having the other three teach him how to make a blueprint. Now, he knew how to make weapons, but translating that took a bit more time than just showing another person how to do it. Plus, there were all the small little details that tell the schematics of the contraption that Baron was making, and all the other little details were extremely important for every blueprint. Since this was Baron's first time making these schematics, he decided to practice it on a few other much simpler weapons like basic bows, and regular swords and shields.

By the time he had finished he had well over 200 blueprints lying all over the table of where he was working. The three around him were all astonished to see that Baron could manage to create such a numerous amount of blueprints all from memory, and all of them unique too. Granted, most of them were fairly low quality but still impressive nonetheless.

By the time he had finished he had well over 200 blueprints lying all over the table of where he was working. The three around him were all astonished to see that Baron could manage to create such a numerous amount of blueprints all from memory, and all of them unique too. Granted, most of them were fairly low quality but still impressive nonetheless.

The days went by more and more blueprints began piling up. Yue Fei had elder business to take care of so he didn't stay like Ban Chao and Xu Da. These two just spent every moment looking through the vast amounts of blueprints that Baron was producing and had their jaw drop every single time.

(BC) "Scottish dirk? Macedonian long spear? Japanese katana? There are so many from so many different countries. How did you get ahold of such marvellous blueprints?"

(BM) "Didn't I mention already? Back when I was alive I studied all sorts of strategies and weapons, even non lethal weapons that have been used in the battlefield. After all, any side is only as good as their technology."

(XD) "Do you plan on selling these blueprints to the Chinese community?"

(BM) "Not all of them no. From what I hear, the most common blueprints here are from China, then Korea, then Mongolia. Based on that i'll only sell blueprints from those three countries. I would raise too much attention if I sold blueprints from any other country."

(YF) "Are you going to make me sell all of these for you?"

(BM) "Close, but no. The three of you will have to sell these for me. Before you go can you explain the monetary system here?"

(XD) "To put it simply, everyone on planet 4 uses the same currency. Which reminds me, here take this."

(BM) "Oh what is this? A coin pouch?"

(YF) "Haha no. That is a pouch that can fit an infinite amount of stuff in there. So its quite useful for us here since the currency we use here are coins and coins can get very heavy. There are two main types of coins that we use on Planet 4. One is Gold currency and the other is Silver currency. Gold currency is what everyone on Planet 4 uses to exchange goods with one another. While the Silver coins are only for within communities. You can compare it with the different currencies of each country on Earth. It's different for every community, and it can be traded for gold coins."