( One week ago, Terra Nova Online )
Leo's text to ChaosBringer was over a week ago and since then, ChaosBringer had introduced a new member to his team of core managers which was 'Leo Skyshard' the financer.
By integrating him into his core-team, ChaosBringer gave Leo access to all the inner-workings and information network of the 'Uprising' guild, giving him a seat at the highest table where decisions were made regarding the organization's future.
ChaosBringer labeled Leo's entry into the group as an order from 'Upper Management', which immediately quelled all rebellions regarding his direct appointment to a high seat.
In private however, ChaosBringer had already revealed to Leo that there was no 'Upper Management' and that this council was actually the highest echelon in the organization.
On his first day, a lot of members pinged him in the core-management group chat, however, Leo did not reply to anyone.
Instead he took his time to soak in all the information about the organization's size, its scale, its goals and the challenges that it was currently facing.
It was a lot to take in, and had he not undertaken the work of a Baron for the past few months, he would not have understood just how impressive the 'uprising' was shaping to be.
The group had millions of active members, a healthy reserve of money, high capabilities of infiltration into any government organization, and they were virtually impossible to sniff-out from amongst commoners.
Unless the government turned tyrannical and started to heckle common citizens, it would be impossible to figure out who were rebel sympathizers and who were not and this was the biggest advantage that 'The Uprising' guild currently held.
Overall, Leo was very impressed by how the group was progressing, however, he could also notice the blatant challenges that they were currently facing.
Firstly, the group did not have support of the masses, and hence any region that they did take over essentially went into a stand-still with no economic activities taking place, since the only way the uprising could maintain public order was through enforcement of strict curfews.
Secondly, although they had the numbers, the group did not have peak level fighters that could combat 'master' level opponents.
The Vice-Commander of the Empire's forces, and the Supreme commander of the Southern Duchy, was one such elite fighter, who could single handedly push back tens of thousands of rebel soldiers alone and the group currently had no deterrent to fight against them.
Thirdly and finally, the group had no allies.
After their victory on 'Milwaukee Viscounty', the Empire had carefully decided to not send its military into the region, but instead cut- it off from trade.
This meant that the in-flow of food and grain into the region had grinded to a halt and the existing stock was dwindling quickly.
At this rate, in the next 30 days, there would be no grain left in the region to feed the population, which would automatically cause a social revolt.
On the bright side, the region had access to the open sea and a vibrant trading port for ships to dock. However, without allies willing to trade, the ships and docks were useless.
Since the Empire was most likely never going to trade with the rebels, the only option they had was the open sea, however, not much was known about the land beyond the Empire in the world of Terra Nova, with not many players having ever sailed beyond its boundaries.
"At some point, we have to look for new trading partners outside the Empire. We have no other choice.
We have to send out an exploration mission to the seas, and find new partners willing to trade with us–" A core member of the uprising said within the group chat.
"I agree, but sending someone off into the open sea without having any knowledge of where to head is dumb. We need a map, a proper NPC ship crew and reliable people to send on this adventure"
"We have already gone over this before, the ship-crews here all only said along the southern coast line from city to city.
Nobody ventures into the open sea.
The locals say that going westwards will make one encounter large sea monsters and typhoons, they say no ship makes that trip, so going west is a no-go, whereas they say that if one sails south and goes across the Empire towards the East, they will only encounter the dense forest for until the continent ends.
So there is no obvious route to travel"
"It's obvious we should go west. Monsters and Typhoons? I say that's just a gaming boundary the developers set-up to lock the region's until the game is ready for a map-expansion…."
A heated discussion broke out inside the core guild chat, over the issue of exploring new territories and Leo found the whole conversation to be extremely amusing.
The 'uprising' was a group that had a very happy-go -lucky approach to their rebellion and it was not like the group was ever planning ten steps ahead.
They solved problems as they arose and kept taking it a day at a time, which was perfect for Leo, since he could always manipulate the group to suit his needs without altering their future plans.
"I have a suggestion….. I can solve the food crisis for the 'Milwaukee Viscounty' if the organization provides me with the funds to purchase it from the open markets.
I have my ways to smuggle them into Milwaukee, however, you just need to prepare a proper ship crew, and wait for the cargo on the Southern Duchy's Capital port" Leo wrote, as his first official message in the group caused the entire chat to go dead.
Instead of sourcing the food from other countries, Leo instead proposed smuggling them from the Empire itself, which would just risk bringing the food from the southern port back to Milwaukee.
Almost immediately, everyone agreed to this proposal, with the plan to explore new territories being dropped.
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/// A/N - That's it for the recap guys, we will be back to present day from the next chapter, with action resuming on all sides. ///