The next day, outside the hospital operating room.
"The surgery was successful, but for now, we need to monitor the patient in the intensive care unit to observe for any kidney rejection reactions."
"Thank you so much, Director Zion."
This scene had appeared in Orson's dreams more than once, but each time he woke up, he was met with overwhelming despair.
Now, the heavy weight in his heart had finally lifted, and Orson struggled to contain his excitement.
"Now you can rest easy, right?"
Bradley laughed loudly and gave him a big hug.
Orson's eyes turned red, and he couldn't say a word, repeatedly nodding and choking back tears.
"Quit dragging it out, stop wasting time! Get back and keep grinding, how could a lousy warrior pass you in levels? I'm not happy about this!" Madman cursed.
Bradley chuckled proudly, "How embarrassing! We're a melee army, and with Stewart as our violent healer, we'll bulldoze everything!"
Everyone had stayed offline this morning while Sienna underwent surgery, accompanying Orson to the hospital.
"Great! By the way, do you know Sienna's number? Once she wakes up, I'll stay on the phone with her all day," Stewart said, pulling out his phone and shoving it in front of Orson.
"I'll hit you!!"
Ruby leapt up and kicked Stewart squarely in the rear.
Stewart looked innocent. "What did I do?"
Ruby rolled her eyes and showed him their chat records on WeChat. "This is how you treat love? Are you even human!?"
"Fu*k! You're chasing my cousin?" Bradley said as he read the text, his face turning bright red with anger.
"I didn't! She's the one who's been casting a wide net, trying to groom me to be her backup!"
Stewart quickly sprinted away, but Bradley, enraged, shouted, "You're full of shit! My sister isn't like that…"
He suddenly paused, thinking of Ruby's various bad habits. His raised fist relaxed. "Wait, she might actually be like that."
"Vance! I'm going to strangle you!" Ruby, furious, grabbed onto Bradley's side and wouldn't let go.
Dancing Giant Boobs fluttered her eyes and smiled, "Alright, Ruby, weren't you supposed to be gentle and ladylike? If you don't follow through, it'll be hard to find someone you like."
"Okay, Dancing Giant Boobs, you're right. I won't waste time on disgusting men," Ruby said with a sly grin, pretending to be an aloof little girl, and coldly muttered, "Backup number one, eliminated! Backup number two, entertain me!"
As Ruby's gaze swept over, Orson quickly noticed Nightshade turning his head, curling up in fear.
Taking out his phone, he quickly changed Nightshade's contact note from "Pure Lolita Type" to "Do Not Touch."
At the same time, he deleted the photo of Ruby from his phone's screensaver and muttered, "Please, Goddess of Protection, keep me safe."
"Nice work, in just one day, both of my top generals have been taken down by you," Orson said with a smile, teasing them.
"What, jealous? You should be, I mean, look at you! How could I not charm you?" Ruby laughed, making everyone burst out in laughter.
Orson had three black lines on his forehead as he started asking about everyone's progress from the day before.
Bradley said, "Ruby's S-Secret class is almost done. We cleared a lot of dungeons yesterday, and we harvested six Soul Seals."
"Good luck, huh? What quality are they?"
Orson was slightly surprised. Purple Thunder Fortress and the Holy Maiden City regions are known for producing Soul Seals, but to get so many in one day was unexpected.
"One Lord-class, three Spirit-class, and two Common-class which I threw away."
Bradley thought for a moment and said, "I plan to use this Lord-class one. The life-steal effect fits my build."
Orson shook his head lightly. "Throw it away, it's useless."
Madman's eyes went wide. "What the hell? Throw it away?!"
"I don't mean it like that," Orson explained. "Lord-class Soul Seals don't give much of a boost to you guys."
"Sell off any Lord-class or lower Soul Seals you come across quickly. Once you hit level 50 and unlock the Holy Soul Seals, the prices for regular Soul Seals will drop."
Orson explained, casually. Aside from Madman and Stewart, the rest of the group still didn't have Soul Seals that matched their classes.
Everyone was eager to improve their strength to avoid getting caught off-guard when facing NPC armies or other guilds.
"True, we need to get a Soul Seal like Stewart's 'Cursed King' if we want to get somewhere," Madman said, nodding.
With the game's progress, some mainline players were already clearing new maps, nearing the capital of the Light Dragon King.
The Soul Seal drop rates were higher now compared to before. Even if it wasn't through hidden tasks or lucky pulls, just fighting monsters yielded Soul Seals occasionally.
Orson knew full well that once a Soul Seal was bound, its effects were permanent—it was a lifelong commitment that couldn't be removed or destroyed.
Regular Lord-class Soul Seals could give a decent boost early on, but as the game progressed or in hardcore modes, they'd become increasingly ineffective.
In the U.S. region, many wealthy players had invested heavily early on, hoping to gain power quickly, but now their Lord-class Soul Seals had become useless junk.
Bradley said, "Just throw it in the guild warehouse. If someone wants it, they can sign a contract."
Madman replied, "Exactly. Lord-class and Epic Rank don't match my style. I'm going after a God-tier Soul Seal!"
"We're life players with Dancing Giant Boobs, so Lord-class is fine for us..." Nightshade began, but before he could finish his sentence, Orson and the others shot him a cold look.
Bradley said, "No way. Life players need to have some standards!"
Madman added, "If you put a Lord-class Soul Seal on a core member, they won't even be allowed to speak to me anymore."
Dancing Giant Boobs winked at Nightshade, who blushed and hurriedly shouted, "We life players have high standards too! What's wrong with being a little extravagant!"
"Lord-class Soul Seals… They think it's trash," Ruby muttered, and in the corner, Charles and Lauren looked on in shock, speechless.
At the auction house, Soul Seals were being listed at a high price—Spirit-class ones went for 3,000 gold, and wealthy players scrambled to get them. Lord-class Soul Seals started at 10,000 gold, and all the big spenders kept an eye on the auction house, willing to pay top dollar for one that fit their needs.
Yet, despite all this value, these people scoffed at them.
"What kind of guild is this?" Lauren thought, her face flushed with embarrassment. She couldn't help but want to shout, "No! I'll buy them all at the low price!"
After confirming Sienna was doing well, Bradley and the others headed back to continue grinding dungeons.
"Thank you, Lauren. Sorry about my friends. They've never seen much of the world," Orson said, apologizing with a smile as he boarded Lauren's car.
"Never seen much of the world...?" Lauren thought, her heart racing as she glanced at Orson's strong legs, thinking she really wanted to hold onto them tightly.
This time, she was never letting go.
"Here's the intel from Naoko on the UJ region forum, Orson... Master, please take a look," Charles handed over a file.
Orson opened it and saw his character information listed at the top:
ID: Orgod
Titles: Crimson Butcher, Heretic of the Beast Clan, Dragon Slayer, Flying War Beast Owner...
Danger Level: ☆☆☆☆☆
Panel Strength: ☆☆☆☆☆
...
All his stats were maxed out with five stars, followed by Bradley, who had three to four-star strength.
And then, Madman, the vice president, was simply described with a single line: "Thief, do not approach."
"Madman would kill me if he saw this," Orson almost laughed out loud.
He glanced through the information and calmly said, "Naoko is very thorough. This intel is pretty comprehensive."
"They got this info from somewhere. Even your usual login times are included," Charles remarked, puzzled.
The paper was just a small part of the intel, and the rest was stored on a USB drive.
It contained detailed analysis from top analysts in the UJ region on the Godslayer guild, its members, professions, and combat styles.
"It's not hard to understand. You can get this kind of information by paying an operations company," Orson said casually.
Before battles between regions, both sides would gather intelligence on the opposing targets—it was standard practice. However, such valuable intel normally wouldn't be leaked to a forum, but it seemed Naoko wasn't following the usual rules.
Orson's eyes narrowed as he thought of the time Wedge had tricked him with an E-class job.
"I understand now. She's trying to find the best person to deal with me."
"Are you saying that leaking this intel is a way to gather the right people to fight you?" Lauren asked, her sharp instincts catching on quickly.
"Exactly. And it's also meant to provoke hostility toward me
from UJ region players."
Orson pointed at the forum screenshot in the intel, where the headline read: "The Invincible Sorcerer of the Dragon Empire!"