I don't like fighting in close range since I get easily exhausted. I window-shopped for the guns available in the market and found their expensive price tags ranging from 2000 gold to 10,000 gold quite reasonable. However, the energy ammunition they sell are too expensive.
A Powered Energy Pistol, which is a standard common pistol was priced at 2000 gold. It's regular magazine costs 100 gold, while the rechargeable one costs 5,000 gold. Even if you happened to buy a rechargeable magazine, you still need an Energy Refiner Device to collect refine your energy and recharge the magazine. There are different quality of Energy Refiner Devices and the lowest tier costs around 50,000 gold. Plus if you can't afford the device, you could just pay for a recharge at half the price of the regular magazine, which would be 50 gold.
I understand that people need to live but these merchants are practically scamming people!
One rare thing that I noticed about ranged weapons are the lack of bows. It's as if they were the hardest weapons made on earth and no one can make it. Maybe it's because making guns has become easier thanks to 3D Printing Devices and Blueprint Databases. One practically only needs to have a few sets of machines and they're good to go in manufacturing their own guns.
But that would be too far for me right now.
After learning of these things, I realized what to build to earn more money.
The freshest bow in the back of my head, a mechanical crossbow—the RevolBow.
With a plan in mind, I began scouring the marketplace for the materials that I might need. I disassembled every part of the RevolBow by myself and knew what I needed to make them.
I bought five energized rotors, five cogwheels, five thick malleable metal pipe, a fitting sturdy string and an automatic repeating puller.
With these items, I can create a basic prototype blueprint of the Revolbow and improve from what it lacks further. Now, I just need to rent a workshop with a 3D Printer to finish the job. As for bolts, I would have to make do with sticks for now. Unless people specifically asked for better bolts, I won't process any iron bolts at the moment.
On the way to the administration building, a question popped up in my head. Can I sleep at the workshop? I'm renting the place, so it's possible, right?
I need to find out!
—
At the Administrative Building's front desk...
"Yes, we are sorry. You need to be at least a Rank 1 Agent before accessing Maharlikan Nation's other facilities. You could increase your agent points by doing missions. However, Rank 0 Agents can still receive help from us. Every Agent is entitled to have private storage for one month. After one month, you could choose to continue availing the feature and pay rent. Also, Rank 0 Agents can access the General Store on the second floor of the building. They sell food and miscellaneous stuff."
The receptionist chattered nonstop. It seems like she pitied me for not even reaching Rank 1 Agent on the first day and gave me a bunch of basic information.
Can NPCs do this?
Is this allowed?
I'm not an addicted gamer, but I knew things aren't like this in other VR games!
Since the Agent rank was the problem, I might as well do some missions and additional levels.
I left the building in disappointment and opened the mission panel on the holowatch. It's already quarter to nine and most of the casual players like me should be back in the city, enjoying the night.
The whole city had players wandering around. Some were looking for hidden plots, while others just want to adventure and tour the night scenery.
Numerous plaza became a refugee area. Players who don't want to spend money on inns bought tents and camped out in the brightly lit plazas all over the city.
After venturing out of the eastern gate, I headed out further east and witnessed a group getting annihilated by a horde of zombies.
Panicked shouting echoed as they remained disorganized in the face of trouble. On the group of seven, two people managed to survive by climbing a rusty overturned bus. The bus was on its side and the zombies were climbing from the tire's section of the bus.
With a quick glance, I guessed that there are at least sixty zombies surrounding the bus they were standing.
And no, I'm not interested in helping them.
"Hey, Oddball!"
At least until the woman on top of the bus called me a weirdo for no apparent reason.
At first, I wasn't sure she was talking to me, but then again, there are not many players around.
I squinted my eyes and tried to see as far as I could, but the darkness isn't really helping me. Then, I tried to use an ability even though I don't have a free skill slot available.
Every level gives an additional skill slot. Usually, people could use any skill in the real world as long as you have the foundations laid down. People don't need to use a skill slot if you just manually performed proper energy circulation and activation. But since this is a game, I wonder if it will limit the skills that players could use.
And I become surprised at the result.
I used Night Vision without having to learn the skill. I manually gathered energy to my irises then with proper intent, I was able to see the surrounding a lot better.
With my new discovery, I went wild and quickly used Eagle Eye, a product of Enhanced Vision and Enhanced Sight.
Now that I have tip-top eyesight, I was able to see the face of the woman animatedly waving at me. It was Generous Sister from the plaza. Her friend who was defending the edges of the bus was shouting at her to stop waving and come help her.
"Can you please help us? A Nest overloaded and caused a zombie wave," she said, then started bashing the zombies that managed to climb up with an iron pipe.
A nest is a certain area were zombies respawn continuously as long as there are people nearby. Usually, nest zombies would only come out if there are players nearby. However, they also come out when there are no more available space for zombies to spawn on, causing an overload were zombies were forced to rush out.
So, the people who were killed earlier were unfortunate ones who happened to be in the area. Is that still her friend or just someone she happens to run with? Well, they seem close enough to be acquaintances.
I had no reason to help her, but the situation looks pretty appealing to me. They're on an elevated place, which gives them the high ground and the zombies can only climb up from two places.
After considering things, I decided to join them. I already accepted a hunting mission and a good chance appeared right before me. Zombies already gathered here and I don't need to look for them.
I might as well hunt in a safe place!
Once I made my decision, I finally realized that I don't have the same amount of energy in-game and outside of the game. My meager energy was left with half of its total amount before I deactivated the skills.
Still, being able to use skills manually was a great discovery and would aid me greatly in the coming days. it didn't even bother me that I learned Energy - Sharpen since it had a lot of practical usage in and outside of battle.
I took a spear from my inventory and charged forward. I sneakily ran around to the thinner side and dealt with the zombies who had their backs on me.
After stabbing several heads, I vaulted to the top of the bus with the help of the spear. I'm slowly getting used to the pace of fighting in the game, and yes, I'm not improving.
My stamina still sucks and I'm catching my breath right now.
"Glad you came! For a second, I thought you were going to ignore us." Generous Sister said. "By the way, I'm Tania and this is my friend, Sorna."
I turned to her in a frown. So she had a normal name! I finally accepted that it was probably a unique name, but I guess I was wrong. I even considered that she just found a way to trick the game into allowing her to fully change her name.
"I'm Val. Are you doing a hunting quest?"
Tania smiled at me and replied. "No, we just finished earlier. We were actually unfortunate enough to get caught into this when we're just about to teleport back to the city."
"Then please don't kill them and just shove them away. I still haven't finished my hunting quest, and this would be a good time to do it."
"Wow, the attitude." Sorna sneered, then added. "Just because you're hot doesn't mean that we'll listen to you!"
I turned around in confusion. Tania was calming her friend and brought her to the other side of the bus.
I guess they were right to be angry since my request was unfavorable to them. Who wouldn't want free XP right? To correct my mistake, I offered the two of them something in return.
"I'll give both of you one wooden spear and one chest plate. That should be fair, right?"
I only want to finish the mission since I need to increase my Agent Rank. The spear and the chest plate should be a reasonable amount to make them help me for some time.
"Rich and handsome? Tch." Sorna scowled, then pushed Tania aside and stepped forward. "Give those items first, then we'll consider."