His words caused a ripple of shock to move through the voice channel. Many of them who heard him couldn’t believe what they heard. This was because his words didn’t sound like something anyone who cared for their life would say.
Someone immediately asked him with disbelief, "Really? Are you out of your mind?"
A second person laughed and said, "This has to be a joke. Please, tell me it is a joke."
Another person snarled as they said, "You must be out of your mind if you think following Greg to do anything is a good idea."
A fourth person said, "Mark my words, anyone who follows Greg will not come back alive. They might not even come back as corpses at all because their corpses will be too broken to carry."
The fifth person said, "You’re better off following a bear into its den for a slumber party than following..."
Greg shouted back at them, saying, "What nonsense are you saying? What kind of leader do you think I am? I am a good leader that you can count on to lead you into and out of battle safely."
Then he said to Loki, "You have made a good decision. You will not regret this."
His words were excited when he said that. But after thanking Loki, he calmed down, and his voice became inquisitive as he said, "I am somewhat surprised, though. You are the last person I would expect to support me since I thought that you hated me."
"This suspicion of mine that you hate me has been reinforced by the fact that you have never obeyed my orders ever since you arrived. So I have to ask, why have you decided to follow my lead this time?"
Where he was in his room, Loki shrugged before saying, "My reason is simple. I want merit points, and I want them now."
"The other methods to get merit points are too slow. I can’t wait for recruits to be born and grow up. There is also the fact that we have to compete among ourselves for the recruits. It all sounds like a bother."
His words satisfied Greg a lot. Greg was so satisfied that he laughed and said, "It seems you have a good head on your shoulders. Who would have thought it?"
"Not me, that’s for sure. I thought you were stupid after you went out on your own like that. It seems that’s the second thing I was wrong about you."
Greg wanted to say more, but someone interjected, saying, "So what if it is slow and bothersome? What matters is that it is safe."
Another person said in agreement, "That’s right, it is safe to wait for the recruits. Not only do we not need to attack the Martial Body Sect, but it is also suicidal to do so."
So Greg shouted at them again, "Shut your mouth. Do you hear me? I said you should shut up."
"That goes for every one of you. If you don’t have anything helpful to say, shut up. If you don’t shut up, I can do terrible things to you. If I am as bad as you make me out to be, then you should know that I can do this."
They took his threat seriously, so his warning forced everyone to become silent immediately. This made the channel clear for people like Loki who had something favorable to say.
Loki said to the others, "You guys might have a point. So it is a good thing that you are not being forced to go with Greg. It is all a matter of choice."
"If you are content with earning one merit point every year for the next hundred years before you can acquire a rank 3 status, you can stay behind. But if you don’t have that much time to wait or don’t think you can survive for that long, then you should take the faster route."
"At least, let’s go and see the situation on the other side. If it is not as favorable as Greg makes it out to be, we can run away. As for hoping that they won’t attack us if we don’t attack them, I don’t think that will work out. The fact is that we are their enemies, and they will attack us no matter what we do."
Greg became more excited the more he heard Loki. By the time Loki was done, he had also become smug.
His voice was full of pride as he said, "Instead of antagonizing me at every step, you should listen to the words of this peer of yours and thank me for delivering such a great way to acquire merit points for you."
His smug words made it more difficult for them to accept that Greg was right. So someone still spoke up, complaining about what Loki said.
They said, "You are wrong to say that we earn one merit point per day."
In response, Loki said, "What I said was kind of an exaggeration. The truth is that the average earning rate is 10 merit points per year. But it is also the truth that most of that is earned from killing enemies, not from recruiting people for the sect."
"Admittedly, you only killed enemies because they attacked us first. But my point is that we earn most points from fighting, not from taking things slow."
This time, his words finally got through to them. So someone said, "Fine. I will follow. But I will run away as soon as I notice anything amiss."
Another person said, "I hope I won’t regret this, but it seems I will follow you."
A third person snorted and said, "You can all go and die. I will not be a part of this craziness."
Not everyone was convinced, but Greg was still satisfied that some people had decided to agree with his plan. So for a while, the channel was full of his smug laughter.