My Life In A Fantasy, Women-Dominated World-Chapter 120: It gives me an Ick

Jaq smiled. "When did I say I had good news? I just said I know who that drone belongs to."

"How big is that information guild? Can we buy our way out of it?" Claire pondered, tapping her chin in thought.

Hearing this, Jaq laughed out loud, looking at Claire with a playful smile.

"Of course, my dear leader. There are rarely any things that money cannot solve. But at our level and financial condition, no. We cannot buy it out."

Eva sighed. "What do you suggest then?"

"Nothing?" Jaq shrugged. "I was just informing you people who that drone belonged to. There’s nothing you can do except wait and find an edited version of Aaron’s goblin massacre going viral."

Aaron was standing at the side, his eyelids twitching in irritation when he remembered how randomly this setback came to screw them over.

He was literally just hunting for some levels and testing out his new skill when this happened.

He looked around, noticing that both Claire and Eva were frustrated about the news, Jaq was just being Jaq, while Katie and Lia appeared neutral, not very caring but not completely dismissive either.

They had accepted that there was nothing they could do, and they were going with the flow, not trying to put in any real effort either. Not like he could blame them for it either.

"Let’s not mope and be depressed about what happened, girls," he said with a calm, serene smile on his lips. "Let’s continue with our hunts."

Claire turned to look at him, staring into his eyes to search for any sense of false calmness or a fake strong front, but she didn’t find any.

It really appeared that he had come to terms with his situation and wished nothing more than for them to get over it as well.

"Alright." Claire nodded, clapping her hands twice. "Let’s move on to the next nearest target. I can see two options. Both are equally distant."

Jaq, Lia, and Katie were all surprised at how quickly Claire switched topics. She didn’t even ask him if he was sure about his decision, but then again, it wasn’t their place to interfere.

Eva wasn’t the same, however. She moved closer to him, raising her head and staring at him. "You sure?"

Aaron smiled, chuckling lightly. "Yes. You already gave me a long summary about it in the car. I am prepared for it."

She blushed slightly when he so casually mentioned the car, coughing and nodding. "Good then."

And before Claire could get irritated about those two getting distracted, they dropped their light talk and joined in her discussion, continuing with their hunt as if no drone had ever been found...

In the UHRA:GB building.

Unlike the overcrowded waiting area and the swarm of raiders in the halls, the inner rooms of the building were occupied exclusively by bigger guilds and government affiliates.

Buzznet was one of them. Being a decently large information-gathering guild and also having some connections with the government, it was easy for them to secure a private room.

The room was painted in a milky white color, classy and sleek furniture gracing the room’s features, which made it look very professional and modern, giving off a high-end corporate feel.

In the center of the room was a desk, stretched wide and covered from the bottom with their guild’s crest printed boldly on the front.

The crest looked like a honeybee getting trapped in a man-made trap, helpless and completely at the trapper’s mercy.

After all, that’s how they treated the victims of their news.

The room’s door was knocked twice, waiting until a voice answered, "Come in."

"Good evening, leader." A young woman walked in, her clothes betraying the amount of respect she was supposed to be showing, since from every angle of her appearance, she was dressed like a delinquent. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Neon jacket, ripped jeans, a flipped cap, aggressive bubblegum chewing, and an assortment of piercings.

Yet that delinquent-looking woman was now bowing toward her leader.

As for the leader, only the torso was visible, the rest hidden behind the huge desk.

She was dressed in a brown robe, covering her entire body along with her face, which was forever darkened in the shade of perpetual darkness.

None of her features could be determined perfectly—be it her age, gender, or even race.

"At ease," the leader said calmly, her voice soft and feminine, which would put any person’s heart at ease.

"The leader’s foresight is impeccable." The delinquent-looking young woman stood up from her bow, her hands clasped behind her back as if she were a young student standing in front of the school’s principal after causing trouble in the classroom.

"Explain properly, Rye," the leader replied mildly.

Rye nodded, slowly walking toward the desk and plopping down on the chair in front of it. "In the morning, the leader told me to keep my drone squad on that young man’s team. Claire’s Cohort."

The leader nodded.

"Then after that, I tasked two of my drone operators to keep recording them, but they were really average. The man, Aaron Cross, only seemed to have a couple of utility skills that could greatly improve hunting efficiency." Rye shook her head. "And his teammates have a good skill set and are strong, but nothing too out of the ordinary."

"Okay." The leader nodded once again, as if she couldn’t care less about the useless details that Rye was sharing, and Rye seemed to understand that as well.

"Uhm, so yeah, we continued to tail them secretly, but then we found a clip that looked quite interesting to us, and that’s the reason I am here right now, leader." Rye said, pulling out her folding phone and unfolding it into the size of a tablet.

Once that was done, she pulled up the video recorded from the air, featuring Aaron standing in his stupid-looking leather armor and walking toward the goblins after requesting Lia to hold them back.

The leader held the tablet and moved it toward herself.

Her hands were revealed for a tiny moment, showing pale skin, whiter than snow and shimmering gently as if glitter rested within her pores.

Rye refrained from speaking when she saw that her leader was focused on the recording, watching as Aaron summoned his aura and sliced down the goblins with ease.

In the middle of the recording, his teammate even stopped supporting him with wind magic, and yet he seemed to be fine.

His aura skill alone was enough to subdue those weaklings.

In the ending, all the goblins were killed and he turned to look directly at the camera, freezing before saying something that caused a blonde young woman to swing a mana projectile at the drone.

After that, the quality became blurry, and the leader paused the video, sliding the tablet back toward Rye silently.

"Keep tailing them," the leader said. "And the video is good. Edit it. End it at the part where he turns around to look at the camera. That was a perfect scene. Talk to Adita regarding that."

"That’s the problem, leader." Rye sighed in frustration. "Their team is now taking proper precautions and keeping an eye out for drones. The only drones we can use are distant ones, but those have really bad quality."

"Does it matter?" the leader replied in a flat tone. "You have a good quality video that shows every member of their group with utmost clarity. Now even if you record from a distance in bad quality, the public will believe they are the same group they just saw in HD."

Her voice developed a slight sweet edge to it. "And in addition, you can even sneak in some fake generated and over-the-top videos for clout. Don’t be so close-minded, Rye. That’s why you’re not getting promoted."

Rye’s eyes widened, her lips curling into a grin as her brain spun with ideas to make Aaron trend.

"Should I share this news with our allies first, leader? I will let them know that recruiting this whole team could be good, especially that man."

The leader hummed softly, her face still hidden behind the darkness, but it wasn’t hard to guess that she was thinking hard about the question she had just been asked.

After a brief minute of thought, she nodded.

"Do it. But," the leader paused, her voice dipping to a more mellow tone, "try to recruit him first. He gives me an interesting feeling."

Rye was surprised, to say the least. "H-Huh? Didn’t the leader not like men?"

The leader’s head tilted up, her tone chilling and cold.

"Rye. Silent."

Rye coughed, getting off the seat and bowing as she took her foldable mobile. "I am sorry, leader. I will ask one of my subordinates to give a recruitment offer to that man."

"Give him the offer yourself. Also, when you talk to Adita, tell her to get rid of that stupid armor he’s wearing. It gives me an ick."