Bo finally made it to the Massive Millionaire Market! He walked on foot many kilometers to get here. Albeit tired, he knew his luck held up since he didn't get robbed or attacked along the way. All Bo had left were some hard loaves of bread, sixty-six Tibia coins, and a canteen of river water.
Bo knew it wasn't much, so he quietly moved to the crowded MM Market. A group of Immortals stood near the entrance, split between talking about their next adventure, catching up with friends, or harassing Mortals. They waved flags, flaunted their trophies, and talked about politics.
Trickles of people entered and left. Bo watched two of Immortals split off from their group and grab a ragged man by his shoulders.
"Hey, Little Bro. Where do you come from?" said the hooded Immortal. He wore a Nirian garb, blessed by the God of Balance. It indicated he was one of His Devoted Followers. His Sect Cape showed he was one of the overbearing Birians.
"Yeah, Little Bro. Tell us what brings you here?" laughed the helmed Immortal. He wore Brovak's armor, which covered his body in Sluthrian-imbued metal. Yet, he lacked a cape. His presence loomed over the poor man.
"P-please don't hurt me!" cried the hopeless man.
"We're not going to hurt you, Little Bro," said the Birian. "We want to ask you a few questions."
Bo squirmed internally and stiffly walked past. Luckily, they didn't bother Bo. The two were too busy wrapping around the other newcomer.
Bo pushed past other Mortals in animal skin rags or minimally processed leather. He didn't dare to get near the imposingly armored, mystical wizards, or sharp rangers. Bo needed to get close to the front desk to interact with the MM Market!
Only then could he buy his first goods to peddle in this chaotic place! People shouted off buy or sell offers, advertisements of Sects or Casinos, and special deals. So many strong people and weak people clattered in this cramped place!
The Imperial Law of no killing or stealing allowed this to happen. No one knew what to do when the Third Imperial Majesty lost his ability! This is why all trade boomed to make the most of his lifespan!
Bo finally made it close enough! A transparent screen appeared, solely for his eyes. Bo's heart thumped in excitement. He immediately called up the cheapest items he could buy.
A plain stick for one Tibia coin!
A regular rock for one Tibia coin!
A wooden bucket for one Tibia coin!
A literal piece of crap for one Tibia coin!
People sold whatever they could bring at whatever prices they imagined. It was a free-for-all! If the MM Market thought someone wanted it, you could sell it! However, there was a limit to how many items one could buy in a day so the Immortals couldn't monopolize the whole MM Market.
Bo frowned. He realized people could sell their items, but they weren't the same quality as other items. Some shameless people even threw up shards of glass or pebbles as an offer for a Lacrimal coin!
There was no way Bo could scam any seasoned veterans here. Actually, if he tried buying any of these items, they were sure to be scams! After all, custom offers didn't guarantee the image or even the function was anything close to what was mentioned!
Wouldn't it be sad to buy a bucket but then Bo got a pile of sand? Scammers could use an infinite amount of proxies to sell their goods!
Bo searched the screen for sorting options. He scanned the long list. Bo discovered he could buy noted items! These were things offered by the MM Market and verified to be legitimate.
Whatever item it was, the note could be exchanged for exactly that! An iron ingot was a regular iron ingot. A hammer was a normal hammer. The MM Market made sure Bo didn't get scammed, but it also made sure Bo didn't get a treasure disguised as a pile of sticks!
After all, the MM Market wasn't stupid enough to mistakenly give a person an artifact instead of a plain pot! Bo understood these risks and swapped over to the noted items.
A bundle of ten grass strands for a Tibia coin!
A needle for a Tibia coin!
A rock for a Tibia coin!
Bo searched intensely for a standard item. Something he could sell based off any situation! Something cheap but always in demand!
Bo then searched through categories by use. Raw materials! Tools! Equipment!
Then, he found it!
Glass flasks!
Any Mortal or Immortal needed these! When brewing medicine, enhancers, and miraculous drugs, any apothecary needed a good old Glass Flask! Glass Flasks were cheap to replace and standard containers.
If any upcoming apothecary wanted to sell his brew, he needed a MM Market Glass Flask or the MM Market wouldn't register his medicine in the proper doses.
Also, many apothecaries used the MM Market to sell mass-produced batches made by apprentices. Any high quality concoctions had a Sect, City, or Kingdom's brand to back up the merchandise.
So, apprentices transferred their potions to notes and sold them to make quick money. For the MM Market to exchange their potions for a note, apprentices' hand-brewed potions had to be slightly better, if not equal to the MM Market's potions. It was a matter of pride, skill, and professionalism.
Bo noticed the Glass Flasks sold for a standard MM Market price of ten Tibia coins. He gritted his teeth but spent sixty Tibia coins to buy six Glass Flasks. The coins disappeared from his small bag on his hip.
Bo waited for the offer to process, yet, to his disbelief, the offer remained incomplete. This was also the problem with buying noted items. Instead of directly buying at a stated price from an individual person, sometimes an item didn't buy at the MM Market price.
Bo canceled his order and his coins were held temporarily in the MM Market system. He tried buying a Glass Flask at eleven Tibia coins. The offer buffered for a moment and then lit up!
Bo grimaced. He spent the rest of his Tibia coins on Glass Flasks. They also successfully processed.
Now, Bo needed to collect his noted items! He stared at the immobile people in front of him. He wanted to scream, and his confidence wavered.
Bo thought, "How can crazy people survive in this place!? Who can collect noted items if they won't move?"
Bo sighed and decided to throw away his pride. He squatted down and began crawling under people's legs. The stink burned his nose and Bo got kicked in the face or stomped on.
Bo felt time pass, grueling and unforgiving to his health. By the time he bumped his head against the front desk, Bo thought he already died.
Bo crawled up the wood and squeezed in front of two other scruffy men. They were too busy looking at their own transactions to notice Bo.
"Excuse me!" Bo shouted. "I'm here to collect my six noted Glass Vials!"
The receptionist adjusted her black suit and brushed her hair straighter behind her back.
"My noted Glass Vials, please!" Bo shouted again.
The woman stopped fiddling with her nametag and looked up.
"Oh!" she shouted back "I'm sorry!"
Her hands flew across her own transparent screen that was invisible to Bo.
"Bo! Buying one Glass Flask for eleven coins and another five Glass Flasks for fifty-five coins!" she shouted. "Here you are!"
The notes materialized in her hand and she gave them to Bo.
"Thank you!" Bo shouted back and also read her nametag.
She waved Bo forward and then informed him, "If you leave the MM Market, the note will transfer to your bank! If you tamper with the note, it will self-destruct! Please remember this!"
Bo waved at her and said, "Thank you, Elle!"
"Please have a nice day!" she shouted.
Bo turned around and almost cried. He was stuck in the middle of the MM Market and needed to get more space. Bo got shoved close against several other people and his body ached. It was tragic he wasn't strong enough to push right through.
Bo tossed his notes for sale at a Nasal coin each. It was easier for the MM Market System to hold his notes than risk dropping his precious items! It didn't count as stealing if Bo accidentally dropped his notes.
Bo also feared the crowd would crush him just to grab his notes. Everyone could sense a dropped item, but they didn't know what exactly it was in the mess of all these people. Even though the MM Market stopped killing and stealing, it wasn't perfect.
The MM Market detected intent. It was easier on the MM Market system to transfer damage to pain instead of nullifying the accidental hits completely. The MM Market penalized people harming others on purpose, but it didn't do anything if an Immortal pushed his way through the crowd of Mortals, or even picked a Mortal up and moved him a meter.
Bo once again crawled under people's legs and cried. After an indeterminable time, he bumped his face against a pillar. Bo rounded it and finally exited the thickest part of the crowd.
Bo ran over near the entrance of the MM Market. He knew those Immortals were intimidating to newcomers, but he wasn't a beggar! Immortals hated beggars and the penniless! However, Immortals liked new entrepreneurs.
Bo remembered Immortals had whimsical personalities and how they could change their mind at the drop of an item. Anything different from the screams of gambling, recruitment, or plain trade offers might have interested these bored Immortals. Who knew how much Immortals spent on a daily basis?
So, Bo stayed within the MM Market. He felt confident when protected by the MM Market system. Bo also stood outside of the crowd, adding more visibility and more comfort to himself. If he couldn't sell these noted Glass Flasks, he could always resell them.
Bo sat down and prepared his sales pitch. He didn't know how long it would take, but Bo sold his stuff and got richer and richer!
Bo breathed in and roared, "Oi! I'm selling noted Glass Flasks! Come on down and get them now! Spend ten Iliac coins and one of these can be yours!"
No one noticed Bo joining in the noise, so he continued.
"Limited time offer! I only have six noted Glass Flasks that can be yours for ten Iliac coins each! That's a total of sixty Iliac coins! Get them while you can!"
Again, no one cared. Bo continued, regardless.
"These noted Glass Flasks are legitimate! You can easily trade these for an MM Market standard Glass Flask for each note! No lie! No scam! No trouble!"
Bo frowned. No one noticed him. He looked around and paid attention to people's words. One chatty woman in enhanced Vralic robes caught his attention.
"These f*cking beggars! Get a job, you bozos! No one's going to give you Nasal coins! No one's going to give you Immortal stones! No one's going to care about you!"
"D*mn, Beth. Why're you getting worked up? This is the MM Market. We can always go to an Immortal Instance. These poor Mortals can't afford the Instance Travel Permit. They don't even have Immortality!" grumbled a grouchy man. He had a groomed beard and a Slovian Duke's clothes on. It looked too fancy, even for the handsome Immortal.
"If it happened a few times, I wouldn't care. But this happens every f*cking day!"
Bo raised his eyebrows.
"Are you disappointed in Mortals? Are you an Immortal with money? Are you wanting a change in pace?"
Bo raised his arms and struck a V-pose.
"Then come on down and buy my noted Glass Flasks! I have six, going for ten Iliac coins each! You'll remember this special moment! You won't regret paying an honest salesman! Trust me! No scam, no hassle!"
"Anyhow, Beth. Are you sure you don't want to come to my place?" the handsome Immortal mischievously smirked.
"No, Rob! How many times do I have to tell you this?"
Rob wiggled his eyebrows, "Ah, so you want me to come to your place, hmm?"
Bo breathed in deeply and struck another pose! His arms raised out, waving people towards himself.
"Are you getting hit on? Are you tired of saying no? Are you angry? Well, come on down and buy Bo's noted Glass Flasks! Spend ten Iliac coins and you can make that person eat broken shards!"
Beth's eye twitched.
She crossed her arms, "You have a wife, Rob. I'm single to mingle, but not with you. Go kill Baleric Abominations with Mitch."
Rob shrugged, "Aw, come on, Beth. We're close friends, too. It's nice to talk to you. Life's not all about killing the weak."
Rob leaned closer to Beth and whispered.
Bo crossed his arm and struck a solid pose!
"Are you a woman? Are you single? Are you scared of commitment because you probably screwed up your chances at love since you didn't speak your mind and now the love of your life is off playing hero?"
Beth began shaking.
"Have one of Bo's noted Glass Flasks for ten Iliac coins! I'm offering six, so get them while you can! Be awed when money can buy what you want! Feel complete when you finally get off your hesitant *ss and make a decision on your own!"
Bo snuck a peak over his shoulder. The Immortals didn't move. He sighed. Provocative marketing started looking bleak.
When he turned his face around, Bo found three women in steel armor. They looked like Morian Knights and part of the same group, nonetheless!
Bo was hit by a wave of trade requests from them. He stared in shock at the determined glint in their eyes.
"Jessica, give me these Glass Flasks!" one woman said, as she shouldered the other two aside. She hopped in excitement.
"Felicia, f*ck off! John's mine!" screamed Jessica on the left. She pushed back.
"He's mine!" screamed Felicia on the right. She started pulling Jessica away.
"Accept my trade, you f*cker!" hollered the woman in the middle.
Bo trembled in his worn clothes and accepted her offer. She tossed in sixty Iliac coins and after Bo put up his noted Glass Flasks, she hit the "accept" button. Bo stared in wonder as the trade completed and he was sixty Iliac coins richer.
"Yes! These noted Glass Flasks are mine!" gloated the pretty woman.
"You f*cking *sshole! Why did you sell them all to her!" yelled Jessica. She grabbed his collar and lifted him up.
"Yeah! You should've given them to me, you f*cktard! How're you going to make it up to me?" screamed Felicia as she also grabbed him by the collar. They both shook him in unison.
"I-I'm sorry. I'm all sold out," Bo said, sympathetically. He stomach started to turn. "But shouldn't you worry about your friend that's running away?"
""Ahhh!"" screamed the two women.
The prettiest Morian Knight already steamrolled towards a buff man. He looked like the Captain of their knights.
"Wait!"
"John!"
Bo breathed deeply and tried settling his stomach. He felt dizzy but also happy. He sold his first items! It only took a few minutes, too!