Evelyn was in the Helios guild hall, a private, instanced space within the capital city of Aethelgard. She and her core officers were reviewing logistics for their next guild war, the holographic map of a fortress projected between them.
Then, the message arrived. It appeared in her vision with a quiet chime, but its words landed with the force of a thunderclap.
I'm calling in the debt. Create a diversion.
The sheer, unmitigated audacity of it almost made her laugh. He wasn't asking for an item, or for gold, or for help on a quest. He was asking her to move her entire guild—one of the most powerful organizations on the server—like a piece on his own personal chessboard, just to cover his escape.
"Captain?" her second-in-command, Marcus, asked, noticing the sudden change in her expression.
Evelyn read the message aloud. The room erupted.
"He's insane!" a mage officer declared. "He wants us to risk our members and resources to save his own skin?"
"We owe him, but this is too much," Marcus argued, his face grim. "Creating a diversion that can pull the entire PK community's attention will be costly and will draw the eyes of our rivals. It's a massive strategic risk."
Evelyn held up a hand, silencing them. She looked at the message again, a slow, dangerous smile forming on her lips. They saw it as a liability. She saw it as something else entirely.
"A debt is a debt," she stated, her voice cutting through the tension. "Helios always pays. But you're all looking at this the wrong way."
She swept her hand, dismissing the holographic fortress map. "For weeks, our rivals have been whispering. They say we got lucky. That we used an exploit. That our server-firsts weren't earned."
She looked each of her officers in the eye. "He's not asking for a chore. He's giving us an opportunity. An opportunity to remind this entire server what real power looks like. We're not going to create a small diversion. We're going to create an earthquake."
She brought up a new map, one of a fiery, volcanic region dominated by a single, massive peak. "We're going to attempt a world-first on the Crimson Dragon of Mount Cinder."
A stunned silence fell over the room. The Crimson Dragon was a legendary Level 30 World Boss that no guild had even dared to scout, let alone challenge.
"It's suicide," Marcus whispered.
"No," Evelyn corrected, her eyes burning with a competitive fire. "It's a show. We'll make a global announcement. 'Helios will be attempting the world-first kill tomorrow at noon. The event will be live-streamed.' We won't succeed. We're not even going to try to succeed. We're going to make a grand, glorious, and very public failure."
The strategy clicked in her officers' minds. A world-first attempt on a legendary boss was an event no one would miss. Rival guilds, freelance players, and every bounty hunter looking for glory and a chance at epic loot drops would flock to Mount Cinder. They'd come not just to watch, but to try and steal the kill or pick off weakened Helios members. The potential reward would be infinitely greater than the bounty on a single Tamer.
The announcement hit the server forums like a bomb. Global chat channels exploded.
In the Ashen Fields, a group of bounty hunters who had been cautiously preparing to enter the wasteland got the notification.
"Forget the Ash-Wolf!" their leader shouted. "Helios is going for the Dragon! The loot drop alone will be worth a thousand of that Tamer's bounties! To Mount Cinder!"
All across the region, the hunt for Lucas was abandoned. A bigger, more glorious prize was now on the table. Rive, tracking the bounty's status from a nearby town, watched in a state of pure, seething rage as the interest in his contract evaporated. He knew, with an unshakeable and hateful certainty, that this was the Tamer's doing. This was his "diversion."
Back in the Ashen Fields, Lucas stood at the edge of the zone, the [Bounty Puck] in his hand. He watched as the glowing red dots that represented his hunters, once clustered around the perimeter, began to blink out or move away at speed.
He opened the forums and saw the headline announcement from Helios. A slow, appreciative smile spread across his face. She hadn't just created a diversion. She had created a spectacle. She had paid her debt with style.
He and Kael stepped out of the desolate wasteland that had been their fortress for the past week. The air was clear, the path was open, and the world was looking the other way.
He set his course for the Ironpeak Mountains, completely unopposed. He was free, for now, and the entire server was unknowingly dancing to the tune he had composed.