Chapter 44: the choose

The room fell silent as everyone waited for Smith to make his decision. According to procedure, the ten items retrieved from the nine chests were pushed toward him, signaling that he was free to choose. Once he made his selection, they would discuss the composition system.

​Although the gesture seemed fair, Smith noticed that Jacob pushed the other items slightly forward while delaying the 10 percent enhancement stone as he slid it toward Smith’s side. This subtle hesitation revealed Jacob’s reluctance to part with it. Seeing this, a playful smile crossed Smith’s face. He began examining the items one by one, spending two to three seconds on each before putting them down.

​Even though he had already analyzed the items when they were first opened, he inspected them again. He picked up the first eight items from the bronze chests one by one, checked them briefly, and set them aside. When he reached the Necklace of Spring, he inspected it for three seconds—slightly longer than the others—before setting it down as well. Finally, his hand moved toward the enhancement stone.

​Smith noticed a slight twitch at the corner of Jacob’s mouth. Despite his stoic expression, Jacob was clearly anxious, desperate to see if Smith would choose the enhancement stone. Smith picked it up and inspected it slowly. While the previous items took only a few seconds, he examined the stone for over ten seconds. When he saw Jacob’s eyelids twitching slightly, he knew he had pushed it far enough.

​Setting the stone down, Smith said, "Okay, I have decided which item to choose."

​The room went entirely silent; you could have heard a pin drop in the corner. Everyone looked at Smith with intense stares. They knew that if he continued to toy with them, even though they might not beat him immediately because of his status but they will clearly curse him to dead. So with out Wasting any more time, Smith declared, "What I choose is the Necklace of Spring."

​Upon hearing those words, Jacob visibly breathed a sigh of relief. Smith knew he could have chosen the 10 percent enhancement stone, but doing so would have been disrespectful to his client. From the very beginning, Jacob had made it clear how important the enhancement stone was to his faction.if he had Insisted on taking it they wouldn’t object because he it was his right but even if they agreed on the surface it would cause the other side to lose face,which will damage their relationship, and brand Smith as ungrateful. Choosing the Necklace of Spring was the right call.

​To tell the truth, Smith was deeply tempted by the stone. Yet, the Necklace of Spring was also a practical item, especially for Brenda. It would help her recover stamina during the restoration period after battles—something that previously caused their dungeon clear times to drag on. Usually, their battles took under three minutes to kill all the enemies, but Brenda needed time to recover her spent stamina so as to return to her optimum condition for an another battle.This time Smith was confident that with the Necklace of Spring, they could have cleared the dungeon in under three hours.

​While Smith contemplated this, his thought if heard by an outsiders like Jacob and Apollo it would have left them completely speechless about his thought process on the difficulty of that dungeon. To them, clearing the dungeon in five hours was an extraordinary result—a feat that would take any other team, even one led by a Golden-Titled Queen, several times longer and the wouldn’t be sure if the could came from it without paying a price. The fact that Smith believed he could have cut that time in half would have sounded insane to an ordinary person, and he was lucky no one could hear him, or they might have strangled him out of envy.

​Meanwhile, Jacob smiled even brighter. By choosing the second-best item, Smith had saved face for him and his associates, proving he understood how to handle delicate situations and knew when to compromise show that Smith had sharp mind and was not blinded by immediate gains. Highly satisfied, Jacob said, "Smith, because you have chosen that artifact, and after calculating our spoils and by your share, we know your portion isn’t quite enough to cover it. However, using my authority, I will do you a favor and waive your remaining debt so you can take the artifact freely."

​Smith smiled genuinely, knowing this favor was earned by giving the other side face. "Thank you, Mr. Jacob. I will remember this favor."

​With the spoils distributed, Smith said his goodbyes and left the room. Diana and the escort were waiting outside the exit. Without wasting time, since he came out pushing his own wheelchair, Diana stepped behind him to take over. Surrounded by his personal guards and army personnel, they boarded his luxurious SUV and they headed back to the city.

​Back inside the room, an oppressive atmosphere hung heavily over Jacob, Apollo, and Alexander. Jacob instructed his secretary to enter. Upon seeing the heavy tension in the room, the secretary immediately knew something serious.

​Jacob looked at her and said, "Issue a Code Black emergency situation right now."

She was first surprised but she didn’t ask anything.

​Taking out her tablet, the secretary used various biometric security measures—fingerprint, retina scanner, and face scan—to open a restricted chat group. She typed two words: Code Black, and sent her current location inside the channel.

​The message spread instantly. Within the core areas where the other six families resided, six different people received the alert. Opening their communication devices, they saw the emergency code and the location of the dungeon Smith had just cleared. Without hesitation, they went directly to their respective masters. After relaying the information, the masters asked no questions; they simply memorized the location.

​Jacob turned back to his secretary. "Did you send the message?"

"Yes, I did," she replied. "Judging by the situation, they should arrive shortly."

​She then remained silent, and the heavy atmosphere returned. Less than ten minutes after the message was sent, Jacob—the highest-ranking player in the room—stood up. He looked at Apollo and Alexander. "Wait for me in this room and do not go out, or there will be major consequences."

​The two young men nodded solemnly. Jacob walked out of the building toward the clearing where the dungeon had been located, followed closely by his secretary. While the camp was filled with ordinary personnel packing up tents and loading vehicles to return to the city, only Jacob, Apollo, Alexander, and Smith’s pesonal guard team had been players.

​Suddenly, a heavy pressure washed over the entire camp. It felt like a mountain pressing down upon them. Some of the ordinary people collapsed to their knees, completely breathless, gasping as if someone were tightly gripping their throats and scratching at them from the inside.