Hello everyone.
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/At the same time in one of the tutorial servers…/
[DING]
[You have completed the Tutorial Tower!]
[You have received...]
[You h...]
A group of people could be seen at the very top of the broken and old Tutorial tower.
They all wore rather terrible pieces of clothing, a mix of rags with the unusual person wearing something decent.
In front of them laid the collapsed body of the Ignition Bovine, the same one Dale defeated a few hours ago.
They were all visibly tired, with some just outright logging off to cool their head.
And while the majority rested, one of the players raised their head and approached a girl.
He had short dark hair, and the clothing he wore was similar to the Lost Wanderer set Dale used previously, though some parts seemed to be missing...
"Guild head, would you like to receive the reports?" The player spoke as he looked at a lady clad in cloth armor
The girl was very pretty, she had long black hair and green eyes, and even a few Asian features that made her seem very cute.
"How long have we been fighting it?" She asked as she wiped the sweat from her forehead
"3 Hours, the tutorial started precisely 4h and 15 minutes ago, that was how long it took us to complete the tower."
"In comparison, Winged Alliance is still trying to finish the tower, with a prediction of at least 20 or so more minutes, while Impetus has already finished their run around 10 or so minutes ago."
"..."
'Impetus... As expected, they're good.'
"That is not all... The Russian team, Voyennaya Mashina, or War Machine as they're known completed their own run about an hour faster than Impetus... Or around 3 hours and 5 minutes after the tutorial started."
"..."
'Over an hour ago...'
She did not reply and instead just nodded to him.
To this, the man continued:
"Okay, first, Team 2 has successfully forced the player from the Winged Alliance Gaming Club out of the server, we confirmed him to be James Cameron, one of their executives. Without a tutorial, he will have a hard time at the start."
"..."
The girl didn't reply once again, she seemed to be the quiet type, or this information wasn't that important to her...
She could also be thinking deeply.
"There isn't much apart from this sort of information, so you can take a look whenever you have time, I will update the papers every hour or so."
His expression changed as he tried to think of what to say next...
"However, this… Requires your attention."
"It's regarding the Trade Center… It's better shown rather than explained." He said as he swiped the air with his finger and sent her a file
"... !"
At first, she wasn't interested, more focused on her bottle of icy water.
But when she saw the files, she quickly got up, saying:
"I'll go check it out right now. Gulliver, you stay behind and clean this up." She ordered as she turned around to run
With the tutorial tower complete, her main force were ready to explore the rest of it and collect their spoils scattered throughout the region... But only after their deserved rest.
However, as the leader of this group, she had to have an iron will and move forward before anyone else.
"Yes sir!" He said as he saluted
/FWOOSH!/
Like a queen, she left the tower with elegance as she descended for the first time into the tutorial.
…
/Later.../
When she arrived at the Village, she was guided by another girl who had been waiting nearby.
This one was just as serious as her, but she had that secretary look, especially because of her pair of dark glasses.
"Could you explain to me what is happening to me, Hina?" She asked as she followed her
The secretary fixed her glasses and said:
"This is mostly based on assumption, but everything points to it being true."
"Do you remember the player that made that ridiculous record? Well, it seems he left something even more ridiculous for us."
"?"
The Guild leader was confused.
"You'll see… Just get inside and take a look at the market… Right now, there is only one player willing to sell anything anyway due to the high taxes the Trade Market enforces on the players…"
'They're so high that unless you sell in bulk, you won't make a profit, so solo players to medium sized groups will find it difficult to say anything for a while...'
'This should've been done in order to prevent Clans like ours to overuse trading as a method of moving materials around, but it can still be done if we are willing to take the massive cost.'
'Though the number should increase pretty soon really fast.'
"Alright."
Instead of talking and wasting more time, the girl just got inside the Trade Center and opened the Market…
"My God…"
And she immediately understood why they had been acting like that.
'I see why they didn't tell me about it, I wouldn't have believed it.'
All sorts of weapons, items, armor, and more, were being sold and auctioned off at the same time… Hundreads of items if not a thousand.
There was even information being sold and
There was no need to question their veracity, this was being sold by the player that made the first record, and who was also the face of the first big promotional video of Azimuth while also having been verified by the trade market.
No wonder their values were getting so high already.
'There is so much… That we need to get… Especially this set…'
'But... There is barely enough for everybody...'
'Multiple Guilds around the globe will compete to get their hands on these items early on, its 100 top Guilds fighting for the chance to get one item set...'
'Perhaps not as much as many Guilds often tend to stick to themselves, the Russian Guild for example wouldn't take interest in these items due to their own pride.'
'Though that is nothing but propaganda, they could very well buy the items and hide them until the right time to reveal them came and claim they were acquired by their own efforts.'
'It already happened before with others.''
'There is also the question of the time... To some countries, it was in the dead of the night, so many top clans should still be sleeping, albeit some are definitely awaken by now.'
'There is also the fact many Clans are lying in wait, they'll stay put and wait for the game to grow and for guides to form first so they can have a better idea for how they should plan for the future.'
'Each has their own ways of growing...'
"Hina, we need…"
But before she could even complete her sentence Hina said:
"I already checked, we have a bit over 93 Zulls of Iron gathered over multiple servers, this includes the value deducted if they were to be transferred to us, though not necessary."
"It's barely enough to buy what we want, especially some of those sets at auction, their prices are quickly increasing as we speak…"
"I predicted they will reach their peak value in around 3-4 real time hours, at that time only big clubs and clans will be able to bid on them... And that should also be the time when they start to find out where they are from."
"However, I have separated a few options that may be easier to get… Here, check this out."
Hina sent her several trade requests, making the Guild-head open her eyes wide.
"I see it now, he is using his fame to gather large amounts of funds and also gather items he thinks are valuable right?"
Hina nodded.
"That is what many think, but there isn't much we can do, if we don't buy these, someone else will, and they will get a massive advantage, probably being able to pass the Tutorial faster and monopolize low-level areas at the start of the game."
"And currently, we can't allow this to happen… Besides, we don't really know the worth of most of these items apart from our own suspicions and speculations. Like this Broken Inscribed blade, it seems like a trash item, but since it's here, it must have a deeper meaning and value…"
"A few were already sold, and to be honest, I have no idea for how long this offer will last..."
"However, what you should pay attention to is this closed trade request…"
She showed the Guild head a trade page with an armor set…
[ [HIDDEN] (Unique)
Rating: 3.5-Stars
+15 all Stats while in a ruin, otherwise, +5 to all Stats.
Set Bonus -> Commander, if there are 5 or more people with the Vault Guardian Set near you, all Stats + 2, and for each 5 additional people, to a maximum of [HIDDEN].
If the number of people goes to 25, unlocks the temporary Skill, [HIDDEN]
If the number of people goes to 60, unlocks the temporary Skill, [HIDDEN]
If the number of people goes to 100, unlocks the temporary Skill, Wrath of the Machine 4-Star
Requirements: [HIDDEN]
Description: [HIDDEN]
]
It was just that, there was no price and no image, just that.
"It isn't being sold... Is he trying to increase the value for the other sets being sold?" She asked Hina and the latter shook her head
"It may or may not be that, I think he may be hyping for the fact he will sell that one soon enough..."
But it was clear what it meant, and this was reflected by the constant increase in price for each Vault Guardian Set piece currently in auction…
"Sign… There is no way for us to ignore this now…" She said as she face palmed
(Don't misunderstand, the Mc got only one extra set of the Commander of the Vault Guardians Set, for this weaker variant set, he got way over 50 sets, not to say the amount of set pieces he got)
'There are around 50 Vault Guardian sets being sold, I don't know how he got so many in such a short time, but it's clear that the more we buy, the better our early game will be… It's staggering how much easier it will become.'
'These sets have reusable value...'
'We need to at least guarantee enough Sets so that we have enough for the first Skill.'
Hina opened her mouth to say:
"His intentions are clear, from everything he sold, these sets are the most valuable, although there are a few items that are also worth it, I would say that as a whole, these items are the most valuable to Gaming Clubs like ours."
"And he made sure to put those items in separate Trade request pages in order to make them more available and increase the competition, even if he will end up losing some money…"
"He is trying to scatter the chances of a single Clan hauling everything while also attracting the most attention to some of his other items…"
"At the same time, he can gather the materials he needs and even fame for the future... It's a perfect plan."
The Guild Head said:
"It is only perfect since there is no one else to compete with him right now, and I am sure it will take a while for one to appear as well… I am sure everything he is selling will be sold by the time anything of value appears and he is certainly going to get everything he desires…"
'It will take a while until other Guilds and Clans are comfortable with selling their own gear... When that time comes it will mean they have something better... No one wants to buy used goods.'
She lifted her finger and approved to buy an item.
"What did you buy sister Julia?"
"I exchanged the broken Glyph blade I just got in the Tutorial tower for money. We can now buy at least two more sets."
Hina frowned.
"Are you sure this was a good option? We don't even know what it does?..."
"And lose the opportunity to buy these items? Between a broken blade of unknown origins and two good armor sets, make the choice Hina."
Hina did not say anything anymore, she understood this from the start but was unwilling to accept it.
The two stayed there for a few more minutes discussing their future plans as they refreshed the market constantly...
The hype for Dale's items was getting higher and higher the more time passed the faster his items disappeared from the market...
His consumable items were sold in just a few hours despite their staggering value and numbers, and the ones in the auctions were being constantly bid at, their values already monstrous.
People constantly sold their "Trash" items and delivered their coins to Dale in exchange for money and information, this was done automatically by the system, a cycle that fed itself while giving him a lot in return…
After all, no matter how much money he made by raiding the secrets of his own Server, it was impossible for him to have made enough money to sustain this trades for long.
This was only the first stage of his money-making plan, once people started to get their hands deep in the Tutorial, that was when his plan would come to fruition...
It would be at that time people would start doing raids and getting their hands on valuable gear and items... And what if they can't complete a Set? What will they do?
They can either sell the parts to him or buy what they need from him... But he isn't doing the latter.
The total time Dale set for his auctions was 14 in-game hours, and barely even a third of that had passed so far.
Why 14? Because that was the total time he thought it would take before the players started to raid special dungeons and explore hidden areas.
The only problem was… How was he going to collect these items if there is no Trade Center in the village?
Without a trade center, he wouldn't be able to access the market and manage his resources... And as such, everything would come crashing down...
He needed to find a way to access it and it had to be done before the auctions came to end.
What a problematic situation…
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Notes
Just a bit of a look into other players' actions, behaviours, and thoughts.
This chapter was to prove that yes, they exist and they will affect the story in some way, perhaps not now, but hey, by buying the things they are helping Dale so...
Also, don't think too much about this exchange system Dale set up.
I am aware that its not practical unless Dale had gotten an unholy amount of resources to feed his own little automatic trading hub.
I think its solid enough for what it was supposed to be though, so I hope you enjoyed the chapter too.
I'll take a slight break and post chap 17 soon, peace!