GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

She was hoping someone would be more angry than her and angry enough to actually stand out and fight. She was also hoping that she was wrong about Legion-5's ambitions.

Then she saw Legion-5 leave the base of the third Supreme beast he visited. He didn't leave empty-handed. There was a large batch of resources and manpower outside this base. The manpower are mana entities that have been forcefully recruited. So they are slaves.

The Supreme beast that owned them gave them to Legion-5 with some ores. Legion-5 ordered them to carry his newly acquired resources to his base while he flew towards a fourth base.

She saw the train of slaves and resources moving toward his base and Legion-5 moving toward another base. This was too much stimulus for her non-existent heart. It dropped from her chest and sank into the pit of her stomach. Dread began to rise up from within her.

She couldn't help but ask her base, "This can't be allowed right? Surely, it must be against some rules."

Her AI assistant replied. [It is not against any rules to trade or give points for any reason. Generosity and cooperation among the participants is encouraged]

"This is not generosity. He is stealing from us."

[Stealing points is not possible. Points can only be transferred willingly. As for resources, it is possible to steal them. Since you are competitors, stealing of resources is allowed]

She didn't get the answer she wanted so she began contacting the other Supreme beasts in her alliance.

She told them, "He must be stopped at all costs. There are several reasons to do so. He will accumulate a lot of points and resources if he is not stopped. It will make him grow too much and too fast. He will become unstoppable then and will be able to steal more of our resources so we must stop him."

"That's in the future. If we don't stop him now, we will lose our resources and points. That should be enough reasons but there's more. If we stop him now, we will also get the resources he has just acquired. It will not be a waste of effort if we stop him. So we must do something."

She made a lot of good points. There are a hundred of the Supreme beasts in total. If he gets one point from all of them, he will have 99 points. That is enough to tempt them.

If they cooperate to stop him, they will be 99 against him. They should be able to win then. Unfortunately, her audience is not blinded by wealth.

Someone complained. "But he is too strong. We might die and be eliminated."

"He isn't killing us if we don't fight him. He just wants some resources and a point. We have points and we can spare them. That's better than risking our life and our future."

She roared at them, "It is our resources and our points. Do you hear me? It is ours, not his. We must fight to keep them."

"We can fight but we might also lose everything. You have seen the consequences of that. Let's just give him what he wants."

She roared again, "No we can't give him what he wants. The fact that he is not eliminating anyone is not done out of kindness. He is raising us like livestock. We can't allow this to continue. Let us go and fight him."

"I beg to differ. I believe that we can in fact give him what he wants. That's the easiest thing to do right now. I think what you meant to say was that we "shouldn't" give him what he wants."

She roared at him, "Shut the fuck up."

Someone asked her, "Why don't you go and fight him? We will follow your lead."

That silenced her. Then they saw the Shadow of Despair casually slap another Supreme beast into the ground. The poor Supreme beast was slammed against the wall of the base. Then the Supreme beast stood up, went into the base, and brought out a lot of resources. They saw Legion-5 nod before he took the resources and left. Then he went for another hex.

She couldn't contain her anger anymore. "We don't need to fight him alone. We don't even need to fight him at all. We just need to band together and show a united front. If we refuse together as one, he won't be able to single us out like he is doing now. He will back off when we threaten him with a combined response from all of us. Besides, he doesn't want to kill us so he might hold back even if we fight."

The person who corrected her earlier coughed again and said, "I think you meant to say "He should back off." I think so because you have no way to say with certainty that he will back off."

She had to ask, "What is wrong with you?"

The Supreme beast said proudly, "My mentor said that I should pay attention to what I say as the utilization of words is the root of wisdom."

She scolded him, "It is a pity that your mentor didn't teach you to have a spine."

The Supreme beast didn't get angry. He said with genuine pity, "And it is a pity that your mentor didn't teach you the values of wisdom. It is why you are about to risk your life and future for 1 point and 10% of your resources. Tell me, is 1 point and 10% of your current resources more valuable than your life and future?"

"My pride and honor as a Supreme beast are worth more than everything I own. I am also sure that we will not lose anything. If the Shadow of Despair is smart, and I think he is, he will back off if we show a united front. I might not be good with words like you but I know that in most battles, half of it is won with bravery and morale."