The Earth After Rebirth

[I don\'t know if this is clear or not. But guild wars here are a little different. The number one guild will be the only one eligible for rewards.

Only the top 5 guilds will be eligible for the title of \'greatest of asgard\' \'second of greatest\' and so on and so forth. Anything else, if you want it you\'ll have to fight for it the next time these games are held.

Remember this one crucial detail, the next ones will vastly differ from these ones. So it will be useless to work on strategies based off the stages from this first guid wars.

Now then, onto what those who only contend with gods, have won, our great champions...]

As it turned out they got land within the capital, along with land of the guilds they\'ve eliminated. Jorge wanted to give Kiro one of those lands but refused him.

"Remember our deal, we don\'t get anything from the rewards, we only get the coin rewards you give us after we\'ve made you the champions of Asgard." Kiro reminded him, punching him lightly on the shoulder.

Jorge smiled lightly. He understood why he turned it down, they had to be mercenaries of their word else nobody would give them the time of day. But he deep down wished they\'d accepted the gesture, he\'d hoped that their friendship went on.

"What Kiro means is, he enjoyed working with you and would love another collaboration later on." Isla couldn\'t exactly help herself, he explained to Jorge because Kiro was being vague and causing unnecessary misunderstandings.

Jorge nodded at Isla, "nice to meet you, sister-in-law." She hadn\'t expected that to come out of anyone\'s mouth, she flushed red and no longer had an interest to converse with either of them. She robotically walked away from the situation.

While Kiro could hear their funny argument, he was once again in his mind. It was the last thing the system had said about guild wars.

In his past life, guild wars were always the same. Just two guilds having an all out war and the loser lost everything. From their base, to their bank, to their armour, everything. This would go on until there was only one guild standing.

This thing of having three stages of the war, most of all, making it so that each month has its own stages was very different and weird to Kiro.

All this started to feel like drills, like the system was creating soldiers out of them. And it was obvious for what, harbingers have most likely infested the whole of Asgard.

Probably why they had given Hiro the true blood potion recipe, hoping to make more guardians to fend off the danger that was still very unknown to them.

Did the system not understand that, people were generally selfish hoggers. Nobody would willingly give away their advantage, so that everyone was at the same starting line.

Kiro laughed at its stupidity. They\'d obviously never just give away Hiro\'s hard work to people they didn\'t even like. If they however wanted to spend millions of coins, it could be considered. But even then, it would be very few and specific people.

People like Chasing Madness. Kiro liked them but not enough to give them free potions that were worth probably more than his life.

But he still didn\'t like that they were being used by something within a supposed game. A bunch of coded data, nothing but a computer was ordering them around. That didn\'t quite sit right with him, but he didn\'t feel like he had a choice. He now wanted to see where this was going.

"Thank you so much After Dark, we wouldn\'t have done this without you."

That was the only thing Kiro heard from Jorge\'s winner\'s speech. He walked down the podium. He looked at him weirdly, he hadn\'t expected that there would be something so formal from winning. Regardless, he had given them credit in front of most players in Asgard. That in turn gave them exposure.

"Dammit. That could\'ve been us if our guild leader was more lenient!"

"You mean if your guild leader was a logical thinker at all? I mean, I don\'t really understand the concerns around privacy, and we\'ve all seen After Dark fight."

"Better shut your mouth kid!" He didn\'t think his guild leader was being logical either but he didn\'t want anyone else to insult him.

"Better, your guild leader didn\'t give him the time of day. What about mine? Who straight up challenged him and got his behind handed to him—"

The speaker wasn\'t done yet, but he was cut off by a hand chop on the neck, making him choke on his own saliva. When he looked up to tell whoever off, he continued his coughs realising it was the vice guild leader of Valhalla.

"Mind what you say in public." He scolded elegantly.

"Of–of course sir, of course I\'ll be more careful—I mean, I\'ll never do that again sir. Gossip is beneath the greatness of Valhalla."

"You had better remember that!" Just like that he walked away from the problem that was their lower rank in their guild.

\'System what happens when we can\'t defeat a harbinger?\' Kiro asked not expecting anything in return. There was silence for a long time, then.

[The next time you have to fight one, don\'t, or lose on purpose. You\'ll find out just how dire not ending those things is.]

\'Pipe down there, I\'m just asking. As part of guardians of Asgard, don\'t I at least deserve to know?\'

[You make a fair point. But that\'s not up to me, I don\'t know anything. I was just programmed to tell you that, the consequences of failing to kill a harbinger are undesirable.]

\'Hah, so the system isn\'t the boss around here. It answers to someone or something else too. Something that wants us to fight these harbingers off. Maybe something bad will happen or maybe it won\'t?\' Kiro pondered, completely blocking out the system from reading his mind.

Weak as he physically felt at that moment, he still had quite the impressive mental fortitude. Whenever he didn\'t want a prying eye, he put the walls up so high that not even the system could penetrate through.

\'I don\'t know if you know this, but we failed to kill about 99 of them?\'

[The guardian doesn\'t need to worry about this situation. You were there, no wonder you don\'t know that only two guilds encountered harbingers.

Yours and Dragon\'s Tail. You both put up quite the fight. The others were just in the normal final stage of the guild wars. They were just too weak. Some couldn\'t do anything even against the winds in the beginning.]

The system sounded very annoyed as it said. Kiro thought it chatting way more than usual. He wasn\'t sure what was happening.

Now Kiro understood how they won against Isla\'s guild. They were both facing a nightmarishly strong foe. One, neither couldn\'t seem to do away with.

[In case you\'re wondering, which I think you are. There won\'t consequence this time. The forest unknown is some kind of protective gate.

When everything that shouldn\'t, enters Asgard, that\'s considered too strong for guardians is immediately transported there. They think they can leave, but they really can\'t. That\'s why knights are sent there occasionally, to test the limits to their power.

If a Knight of a certain level were to return, that would be the equivalent of the harbingers strength, well, generals.]

Kiro didn\'t care that it didn\'t seem like their system. He liked this quite well, the previous one was too stingy with information.

\'So, what are you preparing us for?\' Kiro decided to ask a very daring question. He wasn\'t expecting an answer, he figured he wouldn\'t lose anything by asking anyway.

[...]

As he expected, nothing came. He thought it was a bummer. It could be much easier if they knew what they needed to do, as of now, they couldn\'t entirely focus on this game. Not when they didn\'t even know what was at stake.

\'Well, then, keep it to yourself.\'

Kiro felt that these wars lacked by a margin when compared to the ones from his previous life. Even the rewards were kind of crappy.

"Well, are you guys ready?" Hiro said more excited than he intended.

Kiro couldn\'t wait to get of the tired body that was his character. He felt like if he didn\'t, the exhaustion would transfer and it would be a mental issue. He was the first to log out.

He was lucky, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary on his real body. It was Sunday morning, he knew they\'d get punished for skipping meals but he was willing to take it. He stretched and yawned.

\'Well then, let\'s start with the mysteries within our world, shall we?\'