There was something really beautiful about watching a guy wrestle with incoherent rage – his hands spasming with the need to wrap them around a throat – and sheer befuddlement at Sam's actions.

It really was like a balm to his soul.

Glancing quickly around, he noticed that they had gathered a sizeable audience and, from what he could see, a few people even recognized him, as he had forgone his usual disguise. Still, the majority of the crowd was just looking at the situation unfolding before them, clearly expecting a fight. He could clearly hear the whispers and murmurs of the people.

"Isn't that the leader of the Demon Destroyers?"

"That guy has the biggest balls!"

"All of this over a chick?"

"Do you think he will drop something?"

Sam, very dramatically, raised the cup a little, shook it, listening to its contents, then maintaining constant eye contact, took another sip.

SLURRRRP

'Oooh! An eye twitch!' he internally celebrated before frowning. 'Aw, man… I ran out…'

Oddly sad at the loss of a delicious drink, he simply vanished the cup back into his inventory. Just in time for the guy from the supposed Demon Destroyers to finally find his voice.

Shaking with anger, he raised a hand and pointed, rather menacingly, at Sam.

"You…you! Do you know who I am?" the man demanded, eyes almost bloodshot with anger. Sam only felt pity that the game didn't allow burping, as it would have been perfect for the moment.

'Maybe I should write a letter to devs?' he mused. 'They do owe me, after all…'

Instead of saying that out loud, he answered the question. "Not at all, why?" Just for effect, he even tilted his head to the side. Quite adorable, if he said so himself.

Sam could hear a small titter of laughter from the crowd as even the man's other companion became angry at the disrespect.

"You dare to talk to me like that? I will have your head for this!" the man exclaimed angrily. The group of young women he was so intent on harassing took several steps back, but he was so focused on Sam, he didn't even notice.

"Why?" Sam asked the single most infuriating question ever invented.

The man's eyes widened. Sam watched, almost in slow motion, thanks to the differences between their attributes, as the man's body simply spasmed as if he didn't know if he should charge at Sam and try to throttle him or not.

"You don't know who I am?"

"Nope!" Sam replied, popping that p sound just in case.

"I'm Sebastian, the leader of Demon Destroyers! The greatest Fracture-clearing guild in this country! We even hold several speed records!"

"And? That makes it okay…wait, let me check my notes…" he made a show of looking through some imaginary cards. "…to harass women?"

The man spat. "It's not harassment. I'm just reminding them of their duties!"

"Which are?"

"To do what I tell them to do!" Sebastian replied, clearly confused by the discussion. He visibly shook himself before pointing at Sam once again. "But enough of your insolence! Let me show you what my guild can do! Boys! Get him!"

There were audible gasps coming from the crowd upon that announcement. Sam watched for a second as the group began to prepare to unleash, no doubt rather devastating attacks at him, before shrugging and lashing with a hand.

FLASH

Following an intense flash and several screams, a new scene revealed itself to the watching crowd.

The group of miscreants was nowhere to be seen, only slowly vanishing rainbow pixels showing their previous location, and a slightly smiling Sam standing there as if nothing had happened. Most of the people were agape with surprise, and only the few people who recognized him were nodding as if they expected this outcome from the start.

Sam did not doubt that by the end of the hour, everybody would know that he had returned to the game.

As the group was struggling with the realization that the much-feared group was nothing before one of the top players, a voice cut through the dramatic silence.

"Oh, hey, Solar! What's up?"

Sam turned and smiled at the sight. Stepping out of the crowd was Cynthia, Clarissa's sister, wearing some strong-looking leather armor, with a few metal plates here and there, and a massive spear, decorated with all sorts of runic iconography along the shaft, attached to her back.

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"Hello, Cintee. Nothing much, just walking around. You know how it is…"

She smirked. "I can guess… But, hey, did you see my friends? We're supposed to meet up here."

Sam just stepped to the side, showing Cynthia the group of young women, huddled together and blinking owlishly.

"Nice, thanks!" she replied, then began to walk over to them, offering a high five to Sam as she walked by, which he, of course, returned. "See you later!"

"Yeah! Have fun!" he replied, before starting to walk away, hands stuffed into his pockets. Behind him, he could hear several feminine voices whisper furiously, before Cynthia's laughter broke through the stunned silence permeating the square.

The crowd, still staring at him, some in horror, some in excitement, and some in pure envy, simply parted before him, as he tried, and failed, to whistle some kind of jaunty tune.

'We really need to revamp the system here… I doubt this was a one-off…' he mused, while also making a note to ask Tim to look into those girls. There was some kind of real-world connection, and he wanted to make sure that idiot wouldn't lash out.

"Ahh…" he let out a small sigh. "Who am I kidding? Of course, he is going to lash out…"

The next few steps of his journey were without much adventure. He checked the supermarkets, all of them teeming with customers and shops, money flowing just as fast as gossip. The crafter's district was busy generating enough equipment to supply several armies, while countless caravans kept bringing in raw materials.

If it weren't for the fractures, Sam suspected that with the way they were using up raw materials, they would have been missing several mountains.

The Heavenly Forest hotel was still as pristine as ever, with almost no presence near the building, as the wards and stern-faced, and visibly armored and armed guards made sure that nobody loitered around. Though it helped that Lucy made sure there were no important shops or ones with high traffic around the hotel.

Using the backdoor, he took a quick tour of the lobby, watching as several people dressed in very expensive clothes that provided nothing gaming-wise, lounged around with other pretty people, as they clearly waited for somebody. Around them, maids fluttered, almost invisible, making sure that every whim of theirs was fulfilled before they even voiced it.

A fascinating trap for all the young masters who would otherwise be out there and try to face-slap their lesser. At least some of them…

Opposite that, the auction house was busy as always, filled with people hunting for that one elusive thing that would make them rich or ultra powerful, while several hundred people gained and lost fortunes in the blink of an eye.

He was tempted to take a dip into the mire of useless items, but that felt a little risky. He had been out of commission for a while, so if he returned and immediately bought some clearly important item, then he wasn't sure he could explain himself. Additionally, he was also sure that the company was paying extra attention to him, both in-game and in real life.

Leaving behind the hustle and bustle of the area around the auction house, he headed for their HQ in Ironwood. Most of the bureaucratic processes, vaults, storages, and other miscellaneous stuff were slowly being moved to Farabor, but they still maintained the original building as a satellite office and as a base for Tim to do whatever he did when not seducing women.

Opening the door, he was immediately met by one of the servants and directed to one of the elevators. Apparently, he didn't even need to talk with one of the receptionists. Awesome!

Soon, he was walking toward a familiar office, though the secretary was notably absent.

'Already moved to Farabor, eh?'

He opened the door without knocking and saw that the office had changed in his absence. The usual piles of documents had been removed, and altogether, the entire thing was cleaned up and set up for some high-level meetings.

Lucy was leaning against the desk, looking over the city.

"Welcome back!" she spoke up softly as he entered the room and closed the door behind him.

"Thanks… Finished moving?"

"Mhm. The office is much bigger in Farabor. Plus, I got an attached building filled with people going over paperwork."

"Slave labor? In this economy?" he asked with a chuckle as he walked next to her and leaned against the desk, too.

"They get paid!" she replied, scandalized.

"With what? More paperwork?" he asked with a smirk.

She just reached over and punched him in the shoulder.

"Ow! What the hell, woman! I'm wounded!"

"Leave the dramatics to Katie, she is much better than you…"

Sam pouted. "So not fair…"

They stood there, in friendly silence, for several minutes, watching the bustling life of Ironwood.

"Things are going to be hectic, huh?" she asked.

"They're going to want to show us up."

"You could have stayed lowkey…"

"But that's boring…"

"My heart prefers boring," she spat, then sighed. "Was that really necessary?"

Sam shrugged. "Necessary? Not particularly. Funny? Hell yeah!"

"People are going to analyze the video of that fight to hell and back," she pointed out.

Sam just chuckled. "I wonder when people are going to realize that we are abusing misdirection to the maximum…"

"Probably the day most of them take a bath," came the rapid reply from his friend.

Another bout of silence followed before Lucy spoke up.

"We are almost ready to call the city finished. That will bring its own challenges. Do you have anything big in your stupid brain that would help with that?"

"Well, first of all, my brain is not stupid but special. Thank you very much. And secondly, sure. What do you want? Bombastic? Fantastic? Or fabulous?" he asked with a grin.

Lucy just looked back at him with a tired expression. "Whichever gives me the least amount of work."

Sam nodded and pushed away from the table.

"Then we will go with the sneaky-sneaky. I will need a gallon of lube, two boxes of glitter, and the rest of the team."

She eyed him for a moment before nodding. "If it's not long, then we can go without them. Adam managed to put together several competent teams. Plus, with your instructions…"

"How long?"

"How long can we go without our ace team?" She asked, crossing her arms in front of her. "Depends. We went for quality over quantity. If one of our enemies – which we have many – decided to show up with an army of fodder, then maybe a week or so. Lara did a good job on the defense."

Sam scratched the side of his neck and nodded. "That's probably enough for what I am planning. Have Tim do a little sneaking around when he is not drowning in his harem, and we can stretch that to two weeks."

"We already used the auction, do you think it's wise?"

"Eh, just buy some random info from the neighboring countries on Shadowland and leak it. We can use a little bit of fun money on this…"

She thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "Why not?"

Then she stood from the spot they were leaning against and began to gather her things, ready to leave. Sam leisurely began to follow her, taking another long look at the city in the light of the setting sun. The game was truly beautiful…

"Are you coming tonight?" Lucy finally asked as she was ready to leave.

Sam just snorted. "And miss Clarissa's birthday? No way…"

The two of them chuckled and left the office behind, as the last rays of the sun disappeared over the horizon.

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