The darkness of Dylan’s office was broken only by the cold, bluish glow of the six holographic screens floating around him.
If Lohan had been there at that moment, he would have been deeply shocked, though not entirely surprised.
In the mind of someone from the Lower Zone, the life of an heir to a powerful family, a direct partner of the Vances, should be surrounded by majestic luxury, with walls of gold, nonstop parties, and a horde of servants ready to cater to his every whim.
But Dylan’s reality was a wasteland of silence and isolation that Lohan found all too familiar.
Dylan’s mansion, though located in one of the most expensive sectors of Eden 4’s Upper Zone, wasn’t that large by the elite’s standards.
It was a Brutalist-style building, with exposed concrete and tinted glass that blocked out natural light, keeping the interior in almost perpetual darkness.
Dylan lived there practically alone, with no laughter in the hallways, nor the sound of music or casual conversation, as one might expect from a place like this.
The place exuded only a coldness that didn’t come from the air conditioning system, but from the total absence of familial affection.
Dylan adjusted his position in the black leather ergonomic chair, his fingers moving with ease across the virtual keyboards.
His face, which in Elysium had been the epitome of androgynous beauty under the ID "PrettyBoy", now showed signs of intense exhaustion. Although subtly concealed by makeup, it was still clear that in recent days he had devoted himself entirely to something, even depriving himself of sleep.
He lived like this, a life entirely different from what anyone in the Lower Zone would imagine, because of the weight of his last name.
Although the Human Federation was a civilization that claimed to have overcome primitive prejudices through technology, the inner circle of high society was still governed by archaic and cruel traditions.
A family like the Vances, where a woman was the head of the household and Isabella could be the heir to the entire empire, was already considered the pinnacle of progressiveness.
For Dylan’s family, the fact that the firstborn heir was gay was treated as a huge stain, a disgrace that brought shame and ridicule upon his parents during gala dinners.
From a young age, Dylan showed signs of being different, he was much more sensitive and effeminate than the other boys in the family line, which made him the prime target of physical and psychological abuse at home.
His father saw him as a flaw in the family’s genetic code, while his mother treated him with an indifference that hurt even more than the beatings he received from his father.
In this sea of rejection, only two people treated him like a fully human being: Alice and Isabella.
Dylan let his mind wander for a millisecond, a childhood memory surfacing in his mind for an instant.
He remembered a dinner celebrating the opening of an Atlas Bank branch, where his younger brother, egged on by their father, had pushed him into a decorative fountain in front of dozens of guests, laughing at how his silk clothes had become soaked.
Dylan was about to break down in tears when a little red-haired girl with an icy stare, Isabella, walked over to his brother and, without saying a word, poured an entire glass of juice over the boy’s head.
Alice, who was already a notorious little troublemaker known for her explosive temper even at the age of seven, appeared right after, pulling Dylan out of the water and daring anyone there to laugh again.
It was Isabella who, years later, prevented his family’s council from sending him to an isolated mining planet under the pretext of "learning to manage the family’s assets," a move that was obviously intended only to make him disappear from social circles.
She made it clear, through the authority of the Vance Group, that Dylan was a valuable asset to her interests, forcing his parents to keep him at their current mansion, even if it meant a gilded house arrest.
Because of this, his loyalty to Bella was something that transcended anything Lohan could even imagine; he would give his life to ensure that her vision for Astralis Requiem was realized.
The soft sound of footsteps on the thick carpet snapped Dylan out of his thoughts.
The office door slid open silently, and an elderly housekeeper, Mrs. Martha, entered carrying a silver tray.
She was the only staff member Dylan allowed into his personal sanctuary, the only one who had known him since he was still in diapers and who had never looked down on him.
"You haven’t eaten anything since you logged off Elysium, dear," Martha said with a loving smile, setting the tray on the side table. "I’ve prepared the dish you’ve been asking for lately. Grass-fed beef, rare, almost seared."
Dylan looked at the plate and felt an instinctive surge of saliva that startled him for a moment. "Thank you, Martha. You’re an angel."
As soon as the housekeeper left, Dylan picked up his fork and knife.
The meat was red, swimming in a dark, myoglobin-rich fluid, what many laypeople mistakenly called "meat blood."
Before entering Elysium, Dylan had always preferred well-done meats and delicate dishes, but since his integration with Level 11 Evolution, the Double Rara foundation had manifested even more intensely in his physical form, causing his tastes to change drastically.
He cut off a generous piece and brought it to his mouth, closing his eyes as he savored the intense, metallic flavor.
The myoglobin seemed to satisfy a deep need at his core, a thirst that did not come from the human stomach, but from the Mana now coursing through his veins.
He knew, from the hints Bella had secretly given him, that the game brought about permanent changes, but he hadn’t expected the instincts of a bloodthirsty predator to become ingrained with such intensity.
Fortunately, the mental resilience he had developed to endure his own family’s abuse had become the perfect tool for controlling these new impulses.
He ignored the urge to simply devour the entire plate in a savage frenzy and continued to eat with pleasure, maintaining his refined demeanor as he refocused on his work.
The thirst was still there, constant and pulsing, but his duty to Astralis was the absolute priority.
Dylan opened the recruitment interface. At that moment, there were over 9,000 applications, and the number kept rising.
His job now was to separate the wheat from the chaff, ensuring that no spies from the big corporations or unstable players entered the guild’s inner circle.
He swiped his finger, opening the profile of a player named "GigaChad_99."
His base was Common, his stats were mediocre, but his introductory text exuded such arrogance that Dylan let out a snort of amusement.
"I’m the best DPS in Vila Novata 402. I demand a salary of $5,000 credits and priority on boss loot. I’m going to take Astralis to the top."
Dylan didn’t hesitate for a second and deleted the application. Bad applications like this one, from people who thought Astralis was a get-rich-quick scheme, made up the vast majority of the profiles.
Another profile, belonging to a girl named "Lia_Rose," was also rejected. Although she had an Uncommon Archer Base, Dylan’s background check revealed that she was a junior marketing employee at the Hogue Group, clearly sent to act as an inside informant. Dylan smiled as he added her ID to the guild’s blacklist.
"What a lousy attempt, Ernesto... you’re going to need more than that to fool this PrettyBoy..." he muttered.
However, from time to time, the brilliance of a true elite would appear on the screens.
Dylan opened the profile of a player with the ID "Iron_Hand." He was an Uncommon Basic Blacksmith, but the screenshots of the items he had crafted at Level 5 showed durability 20% higher than the system standard.
The man wrote a simple message: "I don’t care about fame. I want a place where I can forge weapons that kill gods. Give me the materials, and I’ll deliver everything to you."
Dylan approved Iron_Hand’s profile instantly, scheduling a meeting with him for two days from now, on Tuesday.
Next, he found a Rare-tier Player, a "Field Strategist" who provided a detailed tactical analysis of the Astralis Boss battle based solely on the shadows and movements shown in the blurry video.
Dylan was impressed by the analytical skills of that kid from the Lower Zone and also moved him on to the interview phase.
For each approval, Dylan sent the data package to the private intelligence agencies he secretly controlled.
He didn’t just take the players’ word for it; he wanted to know who their parents were, where they lived, whether they had debts to loan sharks, or connections to other guilds.
He had already done this with every player currently in Astralis, including Alice’s and Halon’s soldiers, one by one.
As for Halon, he could only conduct a superficial analysis, since Lisa had ordered him to stop the investigations and block Halon’s profile so that no one else could investigate him in the future.
Despite his doubts, Dylan didn’t hesitate and followed the order to the letter.
So, for the rest of the night, he continued analyzing the most promising profiles and discarding the least useful ones.
While Dylan was working hard on the administrative side of the Guild’s development, Alice, on the other hand, was dealing with the "more fun", but just as labor-intensive, part, at that very moment, in a mansion on a nearby planet.