After Beating the Game, I Became the Villain BOSS-Chapter 212 - 172: Sharing a Pillow with Dong

(Three-in-one grand chapter)

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This month, besides taking the F1 driving license exam, Su Mo has been keeping up with the renovation of Edge Mansion and the mercenary corps' recruitment efforts proceeding simultaneously.

There's an unspoken belief in the mercenary realm — better be infamous than unknown.

Mercenaries fear bad reputation the least.

Even if your reputation is outrageously bad, as long as you know a few middlemen, you're sure to get dirty jobs suitable for such rotten reputations.

What mercenaries fear the most is having no fame at all.

Lack of fame means no one knows you exist, no one recognizes you, and you don't qualify even for dirty jobs.

Su Mo originally had pitifully small fame, only managing to regularly receive quality assignments through connections with Audiana and Dress, two important middlemen.

But with fame at this level, attracting other excellent mercenaries to join is impossible.

New Moon City, being the "Mercenary City," has so many mercenary corps, lots of them with high fame, who would bother with some micro mercenary corps like Edge, whose name they've never heard?

But after the hostage event at Xinghai Cinema, everything changed.

Su Mo's act of brutally wiping out Muto Dongying's entire family was broadcast to the world through media live coverage.

Regardless of whether this action was criticized by moralists or cheered by the masses, he has become a hot topic recently.

And to be honest, the vast majority of people are ordinary folks, without much moral purity, generally loving to watch scenarios involving violence being answered with violence.

There's big entertainment value even in movies showing a "chainsaw madman" performing live hacks on a bunch of people that deserve it, let alone happening in real life.

Just like that, Su Mo and Edge Mercenary Corps became the talk of the internet, with discussions staying highly intense.

Coupled with timely media interviews with Audiana and Dress awarding high praise to Su Mo, he immediately became a celebrity in New Moon City's mercenary realm.

Having fame means getting the most crucial thing for a mercenary, and the rest naturally follows.

Before Edge Mansion was completed, while Su Mo still lived in a rundown house in Rust Wall District, he would receive hundreds to thousands of emails daily.

Some were resumes from various mercenaries wanting to join Edge and work alongside Su Mo.

Others were introductions from middlemen, hoping to establish cooperation with Su Mo.

Even some mercenaries tracked down Su Mo's residence, visited with gifts, and pleaded to be accepted into Edge, refusing to leave until admitted, causing quite an awkward situation for him.

In just a month, Su Mo received over ten thousand mercenary resumes, including ones from mercenaries traveling from other cities.

Su Mo was extremely careful in selecting members.

Because having great fame also means attracting attention from various forces.

And these forces aren't all friendly.

His rescue of hostages at Xinghai Cinema indirectly thwarted Crow's Nest's grand selection plans, inevitably earning their deep hatred.

Other fringe groups likely won't have any goodwill towards him either.

After all, if Crow's Nest had succeeded, the fringe would gain full independence, granting violent groups countless benefits, which are now lost.

So it's certain that some of these resumes come from hostile forces wanting to plant spies early within Edge, waiting for the right moment to dismantle it from within.

To counter this phenomenon, Su Mo was extremely strict in resume selection and sought assistance from Audiana and Dress.

Those mercenaries with unclear backgrounds, especially ones unknown even to Audiana and Dress, regardless of how beautifully their resumes were written, were all disregarded.

Those whom Audiana and Dress had contact with but weren't particularly familiar with, or had made mistakes, were mostly eliminated too.

Only those highly praised by the two middlemen or whom Su Mo recognized from the original plot and deemed highly reliable were accepted into Edge.

Of course, there's no such thing as perpetual prevention against spies.

Even large companies with powerful intelligence departments are often infiltrated internally, and Edge can't forever maintain its purity.

Neglecting development to prevent spying is a bit of putting the cart before the horse.

However, for the first batch of accepted members, likely to become Edge's core in the future, careful selection is essential.

Once Edge scales up, selection criteria can be relaxed somewhat.

From the ten thousand resumes, Su Mo truly achieved "selecting one in a hundred," with only 167 accepted into Edge.

Among these, there are administrative clerks, accountants for finances, scholars assisting Future in research, with the logistics personnel totaling 42 accepted.

The remaining 125 are combat personnel, with seasoned veterans of the field and recent rising stars like Su Mo.

In the future, requests from various middlemen can be delegated to these mercenaries for execution, allowing Su Mo ample time to focus on other matters.

The first batch of personnel settled, Edge finally has a solid foundation.

The day after Edge Mansion's completion, on November 11, Su Mo hosted a grand party at the bar in the entertainment zone on the 80th floor, inviting Audiana, Dress, Sikinkov, Haywood, and many others who had helped him.

In the bar, laser lights flickered, casting colorful reflections, while the DJ on stage controlled the music rhythm, guiding people to jump and revel.

Edge Mercenaries donned stylish clothing, moving in the dance floor, merging with the music, everyone drinking exquisite wine, raising glasses in celebration, with cheers and laughter constantly erupting, the atmosphere vibrant and joyous.