Early the next morning, Feng Ye stood outside the Adventurer's Guild Branch building that he had seen the previous day. The building was one of the more well-maintained buildings within Redwood Town. It was tidy, clean, and built with purpose.
He walked up to the entrance merging with the steady flow of adventurers coming in and out. Feng Ye pushed through and the massive wooden doors swung open.
Inside, it was busy despite being in the early morning hours. There were a few key areas inside.
Resting area: Numerous wooden tables were placed here. A majority fully occupied by adventurers sorting loot, and discussing commissions.
Guild emblem: Engraved in the center of the hall's wooden floor. It consists of a shield, sword, and coins (?). It is very large and a reminder of the guild's purpose.
Job board: Rows of requests pinned onto numerous job boards. Each had an official seal marking that it had been vetted and approved by the guild.
Service counters: A long curved desk at the far end where receptionists handled registrations, requests, and payouts.
On the right, a winding staircase led to the second floor.
Feng Ye's eyes scanned the crowd. No visible ranking system. No symbols of hierarchy. There were no badges, trinkets, rank plates, or armbands as he had seen in other stories. At a glance, everyone looked the same whether they were veterans or rookies.
That's when he realized.
The guild deliberately kept information hidden.
Feng Ye took his place in line while listening to the chatter around him.
A group of adventurers near the counter were finishing up a request turn-in. One of them, a scarred man in full plate armor, grinned as he handed over a token.
"That's another High-Risk Quarry Hunt. Log it down as a weighted job."
The receptionist nodded, marking something on a ledger.
Nearby another adventurer leaned on the counter, smirking. "How many points is that for your record now?"
"Enough," the scarred man replied with a shrug. "Not like they put our numbers on display."
Feng Ye's eyes lit up. So that's how it worked.
The guild didn't publicly rank adventurers by strength. Instead, it logged completed jobs, each assigned a weight multiplier depending on the difficulty of the job.
Simple tasks like escort and gathering would be one point. Riskier jobs had a multiplier like 3x or 5x. Long term high-risk missions could be as high as 10x.
There was no E-Rank to S-Rank. No bronze, silver, or gold classifications. Just experience was necessary through a number of job completions.
This meant a weak adventurer who had completed a hundred low-level jobs might have a higher job count than a single S-tier mercenary who took only elite assassination contracts.
More importantly, this information wasn't freely available. The guild monopolized all the data. They knew who was active, who was profitable, and who had influence. This wasn't an organization built to promote heroes. It was a business.
It's a business that is able to monetize by keeping adventurers blind to their own rankings. This was speculation, but Feng Ye was pretty confident in his analysis. He'll ask to confirm.
Keeping adventurers blind to their own ranks meant no one could judge others purely based on records. It also meant the guild had the upper hand. An incredibly clever way to minimize conflicts between adventurers due to rank.
--
It was finally his turn, the receptionist, a sharp-eyed woman in a simple uniform, glanced at him.
"New registration?"
"Yes."
She slid a wooden plaque towards him. "Sign here with your name or alias. Place your thumbprint below."
Feng Ye picked up the stylus and hesitated for a moment before he wrote Ye Feng. A reversal of his name, a minor precaution. He pressed his thumb on the plaque. It glowed for a brief moment.
"Alright, you're in." The receptionist barely spared him a glance. "No starting fees, but you'll need to complete at least one job within the month to stay on active status."
She handed him a thin metal card with his details. It wasn't an identification badge, just a job tracker. It contained his name and a unique serial number that tied back to the guild's internal logs.
Feng Ye took it and placed it in a pocket within his robes. "Is there anything I should know?"
"Nothing important," she replied in an uninterested tone. "Your record updates automatically whenever you complete a job. You can take requests from the board, but if you want higher-paying work, you'll need to build your job count. To mark job completions, you come back and report here at the counter."
"What if I want to see someone's job record?"
The receptionist snorted. "Unless you're willing to pay a hefty fee, you won't. That kind of information is private unless the Guild chooses to disclose it."
Just as he had predicted. A monopoly on adventurer rankings. A perfect business model.
"How does the guild track progress?" he asked. "I don't see any type of ranking system." The receptionist smirked. "We don't do public ranks here. We care about job history, not labels."
She gave a follow up explanation. "Jobs have a base value, but difficulty determines the weight." She pointed towards the job board.
"A simple escort or collection job? That's 1 job count." "But say you take on a high-risk bounty or a dungeon dive? That could be a 3 to 5 multiplier, depending on the danger."
Feng Ye nodded. "So the more difficult the job, the faster you progress?"
"Exactly," she said.
"But if you bite off more than you can chew and die? That's on you. No search parties. No rescue teams. Just a name that gets wiped from our records." She shrugged. "Most fools that try to cheat the system don't last long."
Feng Ye tapped the metal card against the counter. "So what's the point of raising my job count? Just better pay?"
The receptionist now looked slightly annoyed with all his questions. "Better jobs, better money. What else do you need to know?"
Feng Ye leaned in slightly, his voice lower. "I'm sure there's more to it than that."
Without another word, he slid a handful of grey beast cores across the counter.
The receptionist raised an eyebrow. She stared at the cores, then at him, then let out a small chuckle.
"Now we're talking."
Her fingers swiftly pocketed the cores before anyone else could see. Then, she leaned forward slightly, tone shifting from indifferent to mildly amused.
"You're not wrong. The guild isn't just here to hand out jobs, we invest in talent. But that's not something we throw around for free."
She held up three fingers.
"First, adventurers with higher job completions get priority access to rare or restricted jobs. Big clients don't want rookies handling their problems."
"Second, you get better commission rates. The guild takes a cut from completed jobs, but the more you work, the smaller that cut gets. Senior adventurers keep more of their earnings."
"Third, access. Higher job counts open up special privileges such as guild-owned shops, private auctions, and even high-value commissions from nobles or factions."
"And if you're really good? You get access to things that money alone can't buy."
Feng Ye leaned back slightly before replying quietly. "Sounds like a good way to keep people locked into the system."
She grinned. "Welcome to business, sweetheart. The guild isn't a charity, we invest in people who prove they're worth the trouble."
Her voice lowered. "But if you know how to play the game? The guild can be the best backer you'll ever have."
Feng Ye thought for a moment. He had no plans to stay in one place, but leveraging the guild system could be useful.
--
As Feng Ye stepped away from the counter, his mind was already summarizing the information he got.
The guild doesn't publicly rank adventurers and only internal records exist.
High job counts meant priority jobs, better commissions, and exclusive access.
The guild controls everything but sells info for a price.
This was great news. it meant Feng Ye could operate in obscurity for now. However, one problem remained. The guild would know everything.
For now, let's take a look at the job board. Requests were posted in different categories such as basic jobs like resource gathering, beast extermination, bounty postings, and high risk missions.
One posting caught his interest. A bounty hunt poster.
--
Target: Unnamed Bandit Leader
Danger Level: Moderate
Weight: x4 Completion Value
Reward: 75 Grey Beast Cores
--
So, that's how the multiplier system worked. This one had a 4x multiplier. If someone wanted to climb the system quickly, multipliers are necessary.
Grinding these out would be pretty slow. He needed a loophole. Time wasn't exactly on his side. He needed resources and information fast. There was one way.
An insider.
Back in his old world, insiders and insider connections were key. Ever heard of insider trading? Deals out of the public's view. Exchanges of favors for benefits. Corruption ran deep and it was a great way to get ahead.
He needed an informant inside this system. His gaze fell back to the receptionist. There was one way to make that happen. Feng Ye turned around and returned to the counter. The receptionist glanced at him silently.
Time for the real deal.