The sun on Eden-3 finally seemed to have shed the sickly, grayish hue of the industrial mists, for Lohan, at least, though unfortunately not for everyone on the planet.
He woke up slowly in the bed of his new home, feeling the weight of his human body, denser and more robust than it had been weeks ago.
The integration of Halon’s stats with his actual physique was reaching a level where every muscle fiber pulsed with vibrant vitality; even minor upgrades already brought Lohan an incredible sense of accomplishment, to the point where he wondered how he would feel upon leveling up even further, reaching level 40? Level 60? Level 100?!
Lohan stretched, listening to the satisfying cracks of his joints, and stood up with a wonderful lightness.
After a hot, relaxing shower, where the clean, filtered water massaged his skin without the musty smell of his old apartment, Lohan put on comfortable clothes and made some coffee.
The aroma of premium ground coffee filled the modern kitchen, a luxury he could now afford without worrying about his remaining credits, and he walked out onto the terrace balcony, sitting down at the brushed metal table as he felt the sun’s warmth touch his skin.
It was a calm morning, but Lohan knew that on social media, the storm that Astralis Requiem had unleashed was only just beginning to bear fruit.
With a mental command, Lohan projected the Syn’s translucent interface through his ocular device. The screen glowed before him, displaying Astralis Requiem’s official account.
Even though he was already prepared for something like this, the initial shock was inevitable. The page, which just a few days ago had only a few tens of thousands of followers and a single cryptic post, now displayed surreal numbers.
"Three hundred and eight thousand followers..." Lohan murmured, watching the counter fluctuate in real time, with each update bringing hundreds of new people.
The growth rate was an upward curve that defied the metrics of any marketing agency in the world for such organic growth.
Lohan knew that the content posted that morning by Dylan and Alice’s team was the fuel for this explosion.
The main image of the new post captured a moment of triumph: the guild’s vanguard members gathered together, embracing one another, exhausted but radiating an aura of victory that seemed to spill off the screen.
Everyone’s faces were blurred by a privacy filter, a strategic decision by Lohan to maintain the mystery and safety of his members, but each person’s tough demeanor was undeniable.
Even though they were "just" Level 15 players, which might seem low and weak, given that 70% of the game’s players were still struggling in the beginner villages, seeing this group of veterans take on such a terrifying monster made viewers’ blood boil with excitement.
Behind the group, the colossal corpse of the Tree Guardian, the boss they had defeated in the Cave of Whispers, served as a war trophy. The monster’s petrified wood and black roots still seemed to emanate residual energy in the photo, making the scene even more mystical.
Below the image, the text written by Dylan and reviewed by the technical team read: "The orchestra of the stars has concluded yet another act. We thank our members for their exceptional work and the courage they demonstrated in conquering Level 15 Whispering Cavern Sovereignty, slaying dozens of Level 15 Elite monsters and even an extremely powerful Level 15 boss. We’ve shown the world that Astralis Requiem isn’t just any guild, but the undisputed elite of Elysium!"
Lohan scrolled down to the comments, feeling an incredible sense of satisfaction as he read the players’ reactions.
[My god, did they really kill that thing?! The global announcement wasn’t lying!] read one of the comments with over ten thousand likes.
[Look at the size of that boss! I’m still struggling to kill Level 5 goblins, and these guys are already clearing elite dungeons!]
Many comments were from people gushing over the group’s imposing appearance, even without the black biomass armor that Lohan had decided to hide for now.
[This monster is even scarier than I imagined, holy shit, if I fought something like that, I wouldn’t be able to sleep for a week!]
[Sleep for a week? If I’d killed that monster with my own hands, I’d brag about it for the rest of my life, hahaha!!]
[They look like characters from ancient legends. I want to be like them. What’s the average level of this group?]
However, what really sent shockwaves through the community was the final paragraph of the post, Astralis’s official recruitment announcement. The text was explosive and shattered all the paradigms of traditional corporate guilds up to that point:
"Astralis Requiem is opening its doors to new elites. Unlike organizations that seek only aesthetics and immediate profit, we don’t care about the appearance of your race or how different your class may be. We seek only your potential. If you possess extraordinary skills, whether in combat, administration, or production professions, there’s a place for you among the stars. We accept unrecognized elites, even those with Uncommon or Common Stats who can prove themselves superior to the system. Talent has no appearance, and Astralis values the Star behind the avatar."
The uproar in the comments following this excerpt was even more intense.
The common practice on Federation planets was for large corporations, such as the Hogue Group or the Vance Guild, to recruit only Players with "marketable" appearances or extremely high-rarity bases that could demonstrate power from the very beginning.
Since there had never been a game like this in this world before, production professions, such as blacksmiths, alchemists, and architects, were treated with disdain at lower levels, viewed as "risky bets" that took too long to generate value.
Astralis, on the other hand, was saying the exact opposite.
["They’re accepting production classes?!" wrote an Uncommon-tier blacksmith. "I got kicked out of my guild yesterday because I wasted too many expensive materials while practicing... will Astralis care about that? Where do I send my resume?"]
[Stop being stupid, who’s going to believe a guild this good even exists? This is just a marketing ploy to fool fools like you!]
[I’m a Level 9 Medusa. No one will accept me into groups because of my grotesque appearance. Do you guys really not care about that?]
Lohan took a sip of his hot coffee, feeling the warmth of the liquid slide down his throat as he watched the numbers climb again.
The post had already surpassed 60,000 likes. Followers had jumped to 316,000 in a matter of minutes.
Alice and Dylan’s marketing efforts were surpassing anything Lohan had ever imagined. Although he knew a little about marketing in the other world, seeing true professionals at work in their field made him realize that it really was better to focus solely on doing what he did best.
He knew that, while he was enjoying that morning of rest in the real world, millions of Players around the globe were receiving that notification.
Syn was flooded with Astralis Requiem. Friends were sending the link via private messages, Elysium news channels were hosting live broadcasts to analyze the Boss’s photo, and even paid advertisements for the guild were beginning to circulate in the most populous sectors of various planets and across the internet.
But Lohan wasn’t naive.
He realized, through the mentions and some verified profiles leaving sarcastic comments, that other guilds were watching this with deadly eyes.
To corporate leaders, Astralis Requiem was a giant competitor that needed to be eliminated.
They saw the recruitment of "unrecognized elites" as a threat to the talent monopoly they were trying to maintain.
Isaac Vance, Ernesto Hogue, and so many others were likely convening their councils right now to decide how to crush the Astralis players at the first opportunity they had in Elysium.
"They can try," Lohan thought, a faint smile appearing on his face. "But they haven’t even seen half of what this Slime and this Fox are capable of."
Lohan turned off the ocular projection and leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes for a moment to take in the calm before the next wave of activity.
He could feel the Mana circulating steadily within his chest, a silent engine that made him more powerful with every passing second.
The morning wore on as Lohan finished his coffee, watching the movement of the flying vehicles in the distance.
He felt at peace, knowing that every hopeful comment on Syn was a seed that he and Lisa had planted for the future of their guild.
Obviously, not even 1% of these people would be recruited by the Guild, as some had rightly pointed out, Astralis was not a charity, but still, Lohan knew that as long as the benefits were sufficient, those who joined the guild would be overjoyed, and those who didn’t make it would be desperate to achieve that in the near future.
When he logged into Elysium in a few hours, he would already have to start thinking about it.
Meanwhile, in abandoned hangars in Sector 4 and in luxury apartments in the Upper Zone, thousands of players were preparing their resumes, sending information about themselves, and even logging into the game from time to time to record videos or practice a little more.
The promise of a place where potential was the greatest determining factor, with corresponding rewards for each person, was the most powerful invitation any of them had ever received.
The fate of Astralis Requiem was now intertwined with the desires of millions, and Lohan Hayes, the Slime from the Lower Zone, was the architect of this new stellar reality.
Lohan rose from the table, sensing that his rest was complete. He walked into his house, preparing for the transition back into Halon’s blue, crystalline body.
The buzz on social media was satisfying, but real progress was happening under the starlight of Elysium, and his stars could no longer wait to shine.
"Get ready, darlings," Lohan whispered, mimicking Dylan’s playful tone. "The show is about to start again, and this time the stage is the whole world."
With a fluid motion, he put on his neural helmet and felt the familiar sensation of hyperspace pulling at his consciousness.
The sun of Eden-3 vanished, replaced by the mystical glow of Mythlorien and the sound of the ancient tree calling him back.