The madness had finally begun.

I stood at the rear end, observing everything before me in silence.

Heads flew from their bodies, while people fell at the blades of my men.

We were currently in one of the main branches of Syma Royal Bank.

All the individuals here were below the Platinum rank, so the fight was pretty easy.

Though it wasn’t like there were many Gold cores among them.

Silver cores were the only ones dominant in the area, while my men...

I had included mainly Silver and Bronze cores in my team, but there were some Gold cores too, who were now fighting the customers in the Gold rank.

There were no Platinum experts in my team, as all of them had been distributed evenly among all the teams currently participating in this operation.

I had Arthur by my side, so there was no real need for me to take the Platinum-ranked soldiers with me.

"How is everyone faring?"

I spoke into the communication device, with Julien being on the other end.

"Everything... at present it’s going fairly well. All the major and minor branches have been attacked, and we have managed to limit the rank of the customers to the Silver rank. Though some Gold cores have been spotted among the customers too. I have sent more reinforcements to such branches."

That was good.

All the cultivators at Gold and above ranks had been given special newly created potions in the name of a quality test.

They had been asked to report all the benefits that the potions had given them and also tell about any side effects that might have occurred in some cases.

That had kept everyone busy, allowing us to limit the level of our enemies to the Silver rank.

Still... it wasn’t like the plan would yield a hundred percent success.

Some Gold cores were still present in the branches, leading to more soldiers being sent to those areas.

Though the number of Gold cores among the customers was far less than the normal count... in the entire world, even that low number meant that a considerable number of Gold cores had clashed with my soldiers.

Despite everything, the situation was under control.

As for the Platinum- and above-ranked experts... those individuals didn’t have the time to visit the branch themselves.

They would either always be busy in their line of work, or else would remain cultivating behind closed doors.

Increasing power at higher ranks took a considerable amount of effort, so the cultivators at those ranks had to constantly squeeze time from their busy schedules in order to cultivate.

That meant that even in normal circumstances there were hardly a few cultivators who visited the guild... and now even those should have stayed at their homes, testing the sample potions that had been given to them for free.

"Authorities?"

I asked the second important thing to Julien.

Though I had many plans for them... those plans were still in theory, and the actual effectiveness may vary, as dealing with the authorities was far more difficult in reality.

"That had been a success too."

Julien spoke with a raised voice, probably being proud of himself for managing everything to such minute details.

"All of them had been engaged, and no reinforcements from the authorities had been sent to any branch of the guild or the bank."

Haa...

Everything was going fairly well according to my expectations.

Every city, whether it was a major one or even a small town, had the presence of authorities in it... some had multiple bases depending on the size and population of the area.

So... it was a given that any attack on the businesses in the city would attract the attention of the respective authorities stationed there, which could have created complications in my plans.

Though that issue was easier to solve than what I had initially assumed.

The Authorities always had their level of priority set.

So, who would they actively protect between a business and a noble house?

The question had already been answered by the lack of support that the authorities had provided to Syma and the businesses aligned with Syma’s charity campaign.

"As for the noble houses... they are still observing the situation. Though currently they are busy protecting their own houses, I believe after some time reinforcements will be sent to earn goodwill from Syma."

That was expected.

But—

"Wait for some time, and then destabilise their areas again."

"Alright."

Closing the device, I leaned on the wall, observing the slaughter before me.

At first, I had wanted to participate in the battle, but seeing the enthusiasm shown by many of my soldiers, I had decided against it.

It wasn’t like I was a battle maniac, wanting to feel the pleasure of killing people.

"Aaarrrrghhhh!"

Another scream tore through the chaos, as a man had his leg cut off.

The entire branch had been dyed red, with many corpses sprawled on the floor.

Though the scene looked gruesome, in reality I had informed all my soldiers to limit the number of their kills.

My main priority wasn’t to kill people, but to make everyone understand the gravity of the situation.

For that, the survivors were necessary.

Though many were killed... the number of dead was still below the number of those who were alive.

Still, it wasn’t like the survivors had it easy.

Many had one or the other part of their body cut off, with some of the soldiers even going out of their way to torture them.

I didn’t stop them.

I mean... why would I?

After all, that was what I had wanted.

Everyone present here, and also the ones currently present in all the branches of Syma, was an important part of society.

Though there were many commoners among them, leaving those people aside, the number of nobles and merchants present at the scene wasn’t something to be scoffed at.

And with these elites of society suffering painful injuries... the success of the operation would only be boosted with every tiny bit of pain passed down to the rich.