After the territory challenge, Dream Avenue's name once again rang loudly through the Falva Star server, even more prominently than before. By winning a big war against Galaxy, they firmly cemented themselves as the number one guild. Only Graveyard of Heroes belonging to the chaos faction could barely contend now. They were similarly dominant among the chaos faction guilds.
Morale amongst Dream Avenue's players was at a resounding high. After the war the players felt a stronger connection to Greypine Town, working even more diligently to improve the territory. Although Greypine Town had been rebuilt by C thanks to the forced contribution of Galaxy, it still suffered loses.
The territory's army had been reduced to about 1500 soldiers, which was a dangerously low number. It would take quite a while to recover their ranks. Especially since even the non-combatant NPCs suffered some casualties. The territory's inhabitants were reduced to 16.000 people, which was even lower than when Dream Avenue took over. However, the resource gathering rates had improved thanks to the guild members' efforts in completing various quest. Now that the territory couldn't be challenged it was time for a period of rapid development.
Furthermore, such a stable time was great for business. Many companies announced their interest to rent land in the town to construct some shops. Of course, Dream Avenue welcomed them with open arms.
Even Liam and his friends helped out in the territory. After the successful preparation for the war, they decided to grant themselves a few days of relaxation. They didn't chase for level 50 and instead gradually accumulated EXP through quests. They even left the game early to take care of things in the real world. Now that they had such a modern training area, Liam implored everyone to hone their skills. Exercising in real life was highly effective and shouldn't be neglected.
Two and a half days passed like this. During this time the guild house welcomed new residents. Silva Colville – Silver Blade and Rachel Dourand – Fortune had moved in. For a while it was uncertain if the two rich ladies would leave their palaces but under Cyclone's urging they couldn't say no.
Of course, their old apartments were still there. For them the guild house was more of a fun experience like renting a house with one's friends for a month. They could return home at any time.
The same was more or less true for everyone but Liam and Serena. Kel, Domenic, and Mel all had family in Red Oak City and could return to them. Cyclone could either go back to her parents, although she would be extremely unwilling to do so, or live in her 'secret' second house. Quiana and Adrian could return to the central star system. With their reputation now, they wouldn't be ridiculed again. However, this was not really an option considering that during the journey the connection to the game was not guaranteed.
Thinking about all of this, Liam felt some pity for Serena. He himself could deal with the situation but it was his sister who didn't have a secure harbour. She only had her brother. Liam was even more determined to protect his sister's happiness.
However, despite Liam's worries he was already doing a good job. After getting used to the new environment Serena was quite content. She was still learning from a private teacher every day as long as there was no tournament or war scheduled. She had even found two friends in the Crunaboul Discovery Group, who had already visited her once in the guild house.
Liam was glad to see Serena finding genuine friends of her age. Other than those two, most kids in the discovery group were somewhat pretentious, trying to get close to Serena on behalf of their parents. Liam found this quite sad and with the agreement of Serena he eventually cancelled her membership. After all, Serena didn't necessarily need the group in order to meet with her friends inside and outside the game.
Without the group Serena spent more time with the guild. She still didn't like to fight, exploring different professions. Since she excelled as a chef some people hinted at Liam to tell his sister to focus her efforts there, but Liam dismissed these suggestions. Serena had a special status in the guild. She was partially a core member and partly a tier 4 member without responsibilities nor a wage. She was supposed to freely enjoy the game, and Liam would make sure that she could do so. After all, if Serena was happy, Liam was as well.
And while Liam was happy, his friends were as well. Especially since today was the big house-warming party in the guild house.
Cynthia stood in the lobby with a tablet in hand, pointing at a few burly men delivering supplies.
"Are those the fruits I ordered? Put them in the fridge!"
"Ah, the DJ is here, you can go with Mel over there."
"Hm? Silva? Uncle and aunty have agreed to come? Great."
The young woman was organizing everything meticulously. Boxes and boxes of goods were carried around. Liam was somewhat exasperated. He didn't expect Cynthia to plan such a big celebration.
"Cy, do we need all this?"
"Hm? Of course! I want to throw a party we will never forget!"
"But… why does the party need to be so big? Isn't this a bit of a waste?"
"No. This is already efficient! We are combining multiple celebrations into one. Our success during the tournament, the recent guild war, the territory challenge, and the fact that we all moved into the guild house. Everything deserves to be celebrated!"
"Ok, ok. I'm just afraid that we aren't enough people. If we prepare so much but only invite a few guests, the atmosphere might be off."
"That's why I told you to invite everyone you know!"
"I don't know that many people… only my old community."
"Great. Invite them over!"
"Are you sure?"
Upon hearing this question, Cynthia frowned. She stared intently into Liam's eyes.
"Are you looking down on your old friends after you found success?"
Liam opened his mouth but didn't know what to say. Was he looking down on them? Or was he afraid that they would feel bad, unable to integrate? Was it a mix of both? Liam turned contemplative. This was not a question he had to deal with before. In his past life he only frequented the highest social circles and never formed a solid opinion on poorer people. However, obviously some prejudice existed in his heart.
As he came to this conclusion, Liam admonished himself. This old community, who took in Liam and Serena after they lost their home, were some of the nicest and most generous people he knew. They barely owned anything and still didn't hesitate to share their food.
Although this happened before Liam arrived in this new life, and reading the memories about that time felt more like watching a movie, the feelings were still there. He was deeply grateful. Without them, Liam and Serena of this life might not exist at all. Liam took a deep breath, adjusting his mindset.
"You're right. I will invite them over."
Immediately a smile bloomed on Cy's face. She nodded, saying:
"That's it! More people, more fun. Also, you can tell them all to pack up everything. From now on they can live in the guild house. It's time for us to hire some staff."
Liam was surprised for a moment before nodding. It was indeed time for Dream Avenue to hire staff. Now that the guild house was ready it would open to the public in about a month. They needed shopping assistants, cleaning personal, etc.
He knew that in the homeless community at least two people even had experience in management. They were doing well for themselves before their lives crumbled apart due to the deaths of loved ones. With the help of psychological counselling they might be able to overcome the shadows in their hearts and play an important role in Dream Avenue.
The guild not only needed people to take care of the guild house itself. It was also time for them to start operating like a real gaming club. They had to create a marketing department, hire some people to assist Sun's Knight in taking care of the finances, design and sell their own merch, probably even assign some people to HR. There was a lot of work to do if Dream Avenue wanted to be taken seriously in the business world.
As Sun's Knight discussed these issues with Cyclone and Balm, the two guild leaders were somewhat overwhelmed. Previously, when they watched these glorious guilds and dreamt about one day creating their own guild, rising to the top, they obviously never considered the business side of it all. Luckily the two young women didn't need to micromanage anything. The business would be taken care of by their trusted aides.
So far, the main manager was Sun's Knight, but even he couldn't deal with everything by himself. He was also looking out for promising talents at his university who could be hired by the guild. For now, the priority was the opening of the guild house in a month. But afterwards it was time for Dream Avenue to expand!