The IMO

Eo ran as fast as possible to the meeting room.

All the A-ranked meeting rooms were basically extremely large auditoriums. They could house thousands of people, and here in Meeting Room A-1 thousands of mercenaries fulfilled these seats.

In the past, the term "mercenaries" meant anyone that would pay to do any kind of job that involved fighting. More and more recently the jobs involving fighting were about pushing back the Horde. These types of mercenaries were usually related one way or another to the International Mercenaries' Organization, a global organization dedicated to setting up mercenary groups (or individuals) with their contractors. They centralized and solidified the idea of a "mercenary" as a certain title rather than some random term. They even had an academy to set up future mercenaries, which was where Eo was in. The decision to set up a mercenary academy was toted as "raising future heroes to fight back the horde" though not all mercenaries were dedicated to that. It wasn't exactly forbidden to mercenary factions within the IMO to fight and slaughter each other, so the fact that the academy raised a generation of people that would knowingly know to distrust and/or kill each other in the future made Eo often question why the academy even existed. He eventually settled on the conclusion that the IMO, acting as the middleman between the contractors and the mercenaries, would be able to reap in more money if there were more mercenaries.

Eo settled in one of the seats and squinted at the center which was far away. The speakers had brought a giant lensing display set, which magnified and lit up the presenters. Eo pumped his fist in relief.

"There has been an outbreak on the Dewspin Peninsula. An estimate of seven hundred thousand monsters are there, infesting the region from the coast to the farmlands to the urban heart of Dewspin City, the capital.

Almost immediately, a commotion broke out among the mercenaries. The speakers motioned for silence.

"The contractors are the Dewspin Royalty, which are currently hidden in a bunker deep underground. There are extra bonuses for managing to evacuate them."

Murmurs rippled across the audience. Extra money, of course, was a definite interest for mercenaries. Eo himself (and probably almost everyone else) applied to be a mercenary because of the money. Eo's house had burned down 6 months ago and he couldn't find any other jobs to pay for a new house. Ignoring the warnings of acquaintances and relatives, he applied to be mercenary out of boredom and curiosity as well.

Being a mercenary was definitely not heroic (for most) but, it was known that they were paid a lot. In order to facilitate the shady dealings of mercenary work, the IMO had simply overrun an entire country and had placed themselves on top. They had extremely powerful people and an even more powerful system, so no other countries dared to attack it. The IMO accepted anyone and everyone, and kept itself from toppling over with its absolute authority on power (the leaders were the plurality of the most strongest people all around the world).

"Now," the speaker continued, "the infested region has been sorted by proximity into Zones A, B, C, D, E, and F. The heart of Zone A is considered a Special Zone, and extremely powerful monsters have been observed there. All mercenaries except Black or White levels are advised to stay clear from there. Recruits can take the F zone, as usual.

Laughter rippled across. The Recruits were a special class of mercenaries that didn't even get their first rank yet. There were ranks, and then levels. The ranks counted from Yellow, Orange, and Red, which were collectively known as "Novice" level. From there, it would be Purple, Blue, and then Green, which were known as the "Intermediate" level. After that: Tan, Brown and Grey, which were "Expert" levels. Then it would branch off into two lines: Black/White-Bronze, Black/White-Silver, and Black/White-Gold, which together was known as the "Master" level. The leaders of the Black ranks (which were completely unknown) and the White ranks (which were the public face of the IMO) was known as Black-Diamond and White-Diamond. These two led the IMO as the leaders, and were insanely powerful. On occasion, a hero would rise from war and would either save or successfully resist the IMO. The IMO would inexplicably recognize this feat and would give a special "Ruby" rank to that person, whether or not the person wanted it. This was one of the reasons why everyone said the IMO recognized only two things: money and power. The Ruby and Diamond ranks were known as "Eternal" level—utterly untouchable.

Because Eo assumed Kyros was probably going to reach Ruby rank as the prophesied savior, he was imagining how he could somehow surpass that. Eo shook his head. He was still a Recruit. His test to become Yellow Rank was coming in 6 months.

"And," continued the speaker, "there are delays in funds from the contractor."

Grumbles could be heard throughout.

"and as such, contractors need to learn that the IMO respects money as an immediacy, so we will postpone our response to the crisis by two weeks."

Nods of agreement could be seen all throughout.

Eo sighed. These people were greedy to the point of being unnecessary.