GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

Black Axe continued to speak his thoughts out loud, “Unless there is greater wealth to be had somehow, their motivation should be the acquisition of more power.”

“Power makes sense as a motivation for cooperation. Everyone wants to advance and become more powerful, but how would eight epic beings working together help them advance?”

He couldn’t think of an answer to that question, so he tried from another angle. “If there is a telepath, then the telepath shouldn’t be able to secure their cooperation with the promise of power. After all, they can always pay money to other telepaths to help them fortify their minds when they advance.”

“That should be the case unless this telepath has an unknown benefit that that can’t get from someone else and unless they trust this telepath more than others. Without something unique and indispensable, they give up money and authority and won’t work for the telepath.”

“If the telepath doesn’t have anything indispensable, and maybe there is no telepath in the first place, then there had to be a reason why the three of them suddenly became epic beings and were able to help five others to become epic beings too and were able to keep everyone working together.”

He muttered to himself, “What could it be? What could it be?”

He kept muttering that over and over again. While he was doing so, the snoring had stopped. He didn’t notice because he was too deep in thought.

The White Cape had been awake for a while now. He had heard all the theories and had had enough of them.

He decided to interrupt the noise maker so that he could go back to sleep, so he said, “There is no use hurting yourself on this. If you can’t figure it out, find the person who can.”

Black Axe stopped muttering to consider what White Cape said. He couldn’t figure it out, so he asked White Cape, “But who knows what exactly happened in the Golden Hammer gang that made eight epic beings suddenly appear and work…”

The more words came out of his mouth to outline that question, the more he understood about the suggestion. So towards the end of the question, he had understood the suggestion completely.

He decided not to finish asking the question and decided to say something else. His eyes lit up again, and he said, “Of course. One of the eight should know what happened.”

Then his eyes dimmed after he stumbled onto a big problem.

He asked, “But how do I make them tell me?”

The white cape shrugged and said, “You need to figure that out on your own. We are a team here. Don’t rely on me to do everything. I do 10% of the work, and you do 90%.”

Black Axe became exasperated when he heard this. At any other time, he wouldn’t bother White Cape, but this time he couldn’t let White Cape return to his sleep.

He pleaded with White Cape, “Please. You have to help me. Not only is there the Golden Hammer gang looming over us, there is even a new gang with five districts. We are in trouble and are likely to lose this round.”

White Cape snuggled deeper into his cape as he replied, “That sounds like a you problem. I don’t care if we win or not. What we have is already more than good enough for me.”

Black Axe couldn’t refute that statement. White Cape truly had a low threshold for satisfaction.

What White Cape wants to do the most is sleep, and he doesn’t need a large gang to do that. So he is very content with his current situation and doesn’t feel any pressure that they will lose this round.

This reason is why the two of them can work so well together. Only one of them cares about having more money and gaini more authority. The other one doesn’t care much, so they don’t fight.

Black Axe knew that he couldn’t convince his friend otherwise, so he sighed in disappointment and gave up. But then his expression brightened when he heard White Cape say, “I take it back.”

White Cape went on to say, “I was wrong. This isn’t just your problem. It is your problem and that sneaky, sleazy guy that calls himself our patron’s problem. So you too should deal with this.” ThiscontentispresentedbyM4VLEMPYR.

Black Axe couldn’t take it anymore. He grabbed White Cape’s cape and said threateningly and angrily, “You didn’t have to tease me. Now that you have, you have to tell me something useful for the situation. You have to tell me, or I will pull off your blanket.”

White Cape corrected him, “First of all, it is a cape, not a blanket. I am not a child. I am a grown man.”

He saw that Black Axe’s face was getting darker and more ruthless, so he decided to say something useful as soon as possible.

“Don’t try to make one of them help us. When you meet them and speak to them, speak as if you want them to help themselves and that you want to help them. Do anything you can to help one of them. so that they break up their alliance.”

Black Axe’s eyes lit up with the light of understanding the more he heard. He let go of the cape and said, “Yes. I shouldn’t try to make them tell me what happened or what the benefit that is motivating them is. All I should do is help one of them hoard the benefit for themselves.”

“As long as I make them break up, the Golden Hammer gang will fall apart. I might be able to find out what that benefit is then and take it for myself.”

“Even if I can’t keep the benefits for myself, at most the secret will become public information. But no matter what, the Golden Hammer gang will fall apart and we will be there to benefit from it. It is genius.”