Chapter 16 - Chapter sixteen - Talent

The talk of the town VR game finally published the latest statistics it had been teasing about. It was a doozy. A totally PR thing. It was number of different levels of talent among players currently playing the game. All eyes were peeled on top orders. SSS grade, SS grade,S grade, A grade,B grade. If B grade was in hands of an elite, he could be an expert inside the game. Any grade above is complete bonus to the guilds. S grade or above could fast forward the pace of the guilds. When you consider guilds as behemoths of millions of players, that statement takes an entirely different meaning.

B grade- 14,270,817

A grade - 1,808,345

S grade - 1058

SS grade - 26

SSS grade -3.

If similar pattern continued, would B grade talents be in billions sometime later in future? Would A grades become massive earners just by virtue of their talents? Common people just sighed in envy and decided to try. Who knows, maybe they will get such talents and they would be set for life.

Rich thought differently though. They saw such huge numbers and crunched few calculations. Would the present guilds have enough finance to pay these high and very high graders? Probably, but now these guilds might loosen a bit and allow investments. Guilds and clubs behind them made money but they swallowed even more as day to day maintenance which could not be interrupted at all. Quick, quick, consolidate the money. There may come a chance in investing in big guilds. Think one step further. You can build a new guild on par with the old ones if you grab these high talents. The only requirement would be how much you can spend, sorry, invest within the game.

Who cares about profiency of the skill and as such. The set of data revealed is much more delicious and munch worthy.( Forgive the hungry author 🙏). You can dream, you can gossip or you can take action. Too bad for normal people. Most, if not all of VR gears compatible with the game was sold out and pre-order was miles long. These companies and factories were already working overtime, round the clock with maximum capacity to fulfill the orders. So the next set of new players would join sometime later, staying behind the first batch forever. As if to compensate the loss of not being able to create records, they could level up faster, thanks to all the trial and error done by pioneers.

Artha gained from the reveal unexpectedly. He had been planning to sell few potions in bulk to few guilds. Coins he had enough for now. Maybe he could earn in credits this time?

The guilds were under tremendous pressure right now. They had to guard from being unsurped by new investor. They had to guard against assimilation into another workshop or guild or so. And they had to become famous enough that the high graded talents would flock towards their guild. Even while poaching if your guild is weak, the price to be paid would be that much exoberant and period of contract would be that much short. So, the normal race to go to town or city first had become even more inclusive. Become famous and well known. Find opportunities for publicity and advertising. How to do that? Kill! Kill faster! Kill better! Kill difficult boss. Find a dungeon. Complete it. They ruthlessly discarded a part of logistics to turn them into lifestyle players. Good news- those supported by guilds can become lifestyle players faster. Bad news- all had to finish multiple tasks before taking up lifestyle profession. The stock in NPC shops was not enough. What to do now?

Guilds in village 17622 had another option though - a blockhead potion seller. Artha was bombarded with messages. Few middlemen were handling more than 1 guild. Curiously none of the guilds were offering to pay in coins. All sorts of extras were offered including permanent job in one of the guilds and salary equivalent to elite squad members. The joining demands were loosened quite a bit. Artha was tempted by few promises, he was still young and his will was not strong enough to not waver in front of such promises. But...he held back. His plans of future didn't include working for these companies or guilds. Patiently he wrote whatever demands he thought was good enough, saved it as draft. Copied and sent it to all who had asked or demanded or cajoled for potions. No exceptions. He would be magnanimous and forgive them. He might never get another chance to make money like this again.

Few leaders cursed out loud. Few just smiled, amused at the demands set by the potion seller. Apparently he grew a head and was thinking properly now. They could haggle to save some credits or give in to the demands and have steady supply till they had their own team of lifestyle players and leave good impression. Most chose the latter option. Few upstarts and scions in thinking of creating their own guilds, few workshps - well, they were feeling the pinch of lack of credits thus decided to forget about him. There were few more, self aggrandizing, pompous players who felt they had lost the face and decided to teach him a lesson as soon as death penalty was removed.