Chapter 128: Opening a bank account

"What's the meaning behind this, Long Jing?" asked Lu Heibei, calling her over the phone first thing in the morning upon hearing she had resigned.

"It's as you know. I no longer think you need my help in running your business. If there's nothing else, I need to go," replied his ex-secretary with a cold tone before hanging up, looking outside the window.

"Wait. I won't approve..." As the call disconnected, Heibei finished his sentence slowly with a surprised look on his face, "your resignation letter… Damn, what's gotten into her all of a sudden? Resigning without a notice… Is it because of merging the guild into Dreamwalkers…"

After a while, the cab stopped and she stepped outside to see a 15-floor building with the company name in big letters, "Scarlet Gaming Corp" on top of it, which hasn't been inaugurated yet as the gamers are still in the training phase at HQ.

As she showed her ID card at the reception, the employee confirmed her identity, "Miss Long Jing, Director Wang has been waiting for you in his office. 8th floor, second left, third room. You can find it with the label on it," and then, she continued to do her work, ignoring Long Jing.

Upon hearing it, Long Jing was taken aback by the poor service, which was unexpected at a large company like Scarlet. After all, she was going to be one of the directors. 

Quickly understanding her thoughts through one look, the receptionist explained, "oh, we're currently understaffed because the office hasn't been opened. So, there were no interns…"

Long Jing waved her hand with a smile, "it's fine. I understand. Second left, third room, right?" But the smile on her face froze as she saw the receptionist wasn't paying any attention to her and simply nodded while focusing something on the desktop.

Walking towards the elevator, Long Jing shook her head, "the receptionist… Sigh… Which idiot placed her at desk… Just because this is a gaming company doesn't mean they should just go with anyone, unprofessional. poor management... Is it because they hired professional gamers as CEO and directors? Anyway, let's just do what I'm hired for. It's not like I was going to stay in this city for too long, either." 

***

*Welcome to War Online*

As soon as he woke up, Wil quickly logged in a hurry without even brushing because of the deadline for the quest and ran straight to the palace.

*Ding. You completed the quest…

"Phew. Just in the nick of time," mumbled Wil as he took his seat while greeting the other ministers.

A few minutes later, at exactly 9 a.m., Mirella arrived with Raziel and take their seats before starting the assembly with an announcement from the King, which brought a frown from Duke Nukegan but stayed silent.

*Ding. You are appointed as the Mayor of Eldershore City.

Taking the deed of 50 plots of land, and the key to Mayor's Mansion, Wil bowed, "thank you, your majesty," and waited patiently until the assembly is over before leaving to the bank and lined up in one of the adventurers' queues, equipping Mask of Tranquility, to not scare them away.

Just like other buildings, the system's bank staff was full of elf race beauties. There was a long desk stretching from left to the right wall, dividing the office into two areas.

The long table was then, divided into 10 counters, of which the last two on the right are dedicated to the natives and the remaining eight were for players.

Because the banks preserve currency, it was always one of the popular places inside a city i.e. it doesn't matter how much gold one invests, it'll turn into credits, and then, during the withdrawal time, the credits will be turned into the gold coins according to the exchange rate at that moment.

So, those who don't want to exchange the money and convert it into cash, they can preserve money like an emergency fund.

Ten minutes later, he got his turn and as he stepped forward, Wil felt as if he entered some sort of barrier, which is designed that way to safeguard one's privacy, the elf greeted him politely with a smile like she did with others and asked, "What can I do for you?"

"I want to open a new account."

"Please, put your hand, here. We need your handprint to record," said the bank employee as she took out a device that looked a bit like a tablet but instead of a screen, it's just a plain one.

*Ding. Your handprint is recorded in the bank. Your account has been created. You can store items, deposit and withdraw money from any branch within the kingdom.

Then, she asked, "Do you need a private Vault? It costs 10 silver and 1 silver per week as rent."

As Wil nodded in confirmation, she further asked, "Do you want to deposit any funds?"

"27000 gold coins…"

"Eh…" A look of a shock appeared on her face as she asked, "can you tell me once again? Did I just hear 27000 gold coins?"

Wil smiled as he took out more than 50 pouches, one by one with each containing 500 gold coins, and placed them on the desk before her while keeping the rest of 362 gold in his inventory.

She gulped her saliva as she stole a peek in the pouches and find the shiny gold before depositing them into his account.

As he turned around and walked away, she looked at his account details and stuttered while almost falling off from the seat in a shock, "prince T… Time… Traveler?"

Hearing her scream, the players standing nearby immediately turned around only to realize he already left the bank and hit the streets.

East Ocean City;

After finishing the first step, Wil left for East Ocean city's bank this time.

Unlike the capital, the bank wasn't that busy and don't have any isolated barriers. So, the players in the back or the nearby counters can see everything going on. 

Even though there are fewer people, Wil still waited for fifteen minutes until he got his turn because of fewer counters.

"What can I do for you? Is it a deposit or a withdrawal," asked the employee indifferently, maintaining her pride in being an official.

Wil replied, "I want to apply for a loan."

"Eh?"

Upon hearing him, the employee jerked her head back in a surprise while a peal of stifled laughter escaped by a couple of players, standing around.

Before the elf employee about to reply, a person, who was standing behind Wil whispered, "Bro, banks here offer loans at a very high-interest rate. You can go and visit Scarlet Bank if you need a loan."

As the bank employee repeated the same thing, Wil revealed his nobility badge and she immediately stood up with a shriek, "Marquis…"

The seat fell on the floor as the elf quickly stood up and bowed, "I apologize, Lord Marquis. Please forgive me…"

"Never mind," Waving his hand, Wil asked her, "Give me a form please."

"Yes"

Upon touching the parchment given by the employee, Wil got a notification from the system. 

*Ding. Please enter the number, you need as a loan.

Wil entered 1500 gold and pressed ok.

*Ding. Please scan your handprint to check your credit eligibility.

Upon pressing his hand on the tablet-like handprint scanner that was attached to the desk, a new notification arrived.

*Ding. You are eligible to take the loan. As a Marquis, you will be charged only 5% interest per week.

*Ding. Warning: The principal amount will be equivalent to the credits according to the exchange rate as of today. Proceed?

*Ding. 1500 gold has been added to your inventory.

*Ding. 75 gold has been deducted from the inventory for this week's interest.

Ignoring the gazes of the players standing around him, Wil exited the bank and opened the inventory and saw a big pouch was added to the inventory with 1500 number written on it.

The sizzling gold coins inside of it look almost the same as normal ones except for a winged lion engraved in the middle.

Llyne Gold.

Status: locked

Description: A locked gold coin that can be used as a replacement for normal gold coins in stores. It cannot be used in the exchange platform and paying interests to the bank.

"I wonder if I can buy that auto-debit feature for the bank. Now that I'm now a Marquis, maybe, it's possible? If I can't, then I will leave with no choice other than using my wish and ask Mirella." 

***

Eldershore city;

A level-1 Appraiser is roaming in the city, behaving like a country bumpkin who came for the first time to a city, curiously looking at the stores, trying his luck with NPCs to trigger any quest.

He stopped in his tracks as the players started moving aside while an army of nearly three thousand elite players of average level-138, wearing at least two epic-grade equipment, uniformly marching into the city like a real army of soldiers under the leadership of 'Sugar', Vice-leader of Dreamwalkers.

Quickly, he opened friends list and clicked on Aster, and sent a message.

Wishful Merchant: They are here.

Shadow Blade: Oh, right on time. What's the total number?

Wishful Merchant: According to one of my informers, there are three thousand in the Elite army. You can expect two more thousand to join as volunteers. And White Tiger is planning to use his entire guild containing 15800 players as cannon fodder.

Shadow Blade: Good Job. Now, it is time to give them a huge shock. Let our guys join them. When the army reaches the outskirts of the town, then, we'll counterattack from the back while they were busy fighting against the guardian beast.

A few minutes later;

As Wishful Merchant was carrying out the order, suddenly he received a message from Aster…

Shadow Blade: Never mind. We are canceling our current operation. Inform our guys to get ready to leave the guild, anytime now and regroup.

"Eh?"

As Wishful Merchant was taken aback upon reading that their plan to be stopped, he asked Aster once again whether something went wrong and they were exposed by one of their captains…

Wishful Merchant: What happened? Did our plan get exposed? Or is it because their numbers going to increase much further? 

A simple sentence as a reply from Aster made Wishful Merchant shut up his thoughts and start following the order…

Shadow Blade: Young Master's orders.

Meanwhile, White Tiger shook hands with Sugar and glanced at the army with a shock on his face, "you came quite prepared. However, don't you think this is overkill?"

Sugar smiled in return, "well, there might be a chance that Starlight can intervene in this battle. Not to mention, his allies from the East Ocean city… If not for the guild leader's orders, I would even bring more. By the way, how many on your side? I heard you lost a lot of people…"

White Tiger looked away in shame but without bring down his arrogance, he replied, "I still have 9000 loyal soldiers with me. As a Viscount, I can further hire 100 mercenaries. Even though I can't hire level-200 mercenaries, I can still hire 180-190 levels. Honestly, I think they were enough to…"

Before his words even finished, a shocking followed by a similar announcement has been made in the region.

*Ding. Player Time Traveler takes charge as the Mayor of Eldershore city.

*Ding. Player White Tiger has been blacklisted in the city.

*Ding. Dreamwalkers guild has been blacklisted in the city. Players belong to the guild will be teleported out of the city walls in 5 minutes while the branch will be disbanded.

"What the…"

As the entire city stunned, meanwhile, in the Administration building, Wil put his legs on the desk and clapping his hands with a continuous laugh as if he was in an extremely happy, "hahaha… hahaha… Now, then, what will you do now, Dreamwalkers?"