Less than five minutes after arriving in first map of giant coop series of map, Artha had to walk back. He was going to conduct first big deal in his life. He still couldn't believe that it was done inside a game. Just a minute back he had talked and bargained with Sun Lord, one of the honchos of the currently famous Dragon Slayers.
As he ran back, he was marvelling how much information and detailing the game had put under the fingertips of the players. The player or NPC's names were not on top of them, this removing the game like feeling. The data window could be voice activated or by touching that tiny symbol of glowing red diamond at the periphery of the vision. It would expand into a giant transparent screen with multiple components - not just stats, inventory, friends ,parties , messages, video calls, recording, livestream and much more. Of course, you had to pay more for recording videos from different perceptives. Only first person version was free. Livestreaming in other sites meant you have to pay more money. Unless, the livestreaming site had collaboration deals with the game. From what he had seen in the chick monsters map, collaboration with multiple sites hosting livestreaming would be a done deal before the day's end. When the game is shamelessly claiming money so overtly and yet be so famous,....end result could be guessed clearly. Only variable would be how much each hosting site would shell out.
It should be remembered that Atharva had never played VR games of any sort before
Sun Lord was a hard nut to crack. If not for various factors and his need to forge ahead, he might not have accepted the deal Artha had proposed. His team got the first kill very late among ten senior management teams, spread across various villages in the game. As he needed potions rather urgently and in large number, he showered Artha with credits. Buying with coins? Don't be ridiculous. Unless you are purchasing from NPCs, guilds would always pay in credits and sell in coins. They would purchase coins using credits if needed. They would even pay for credit to coin conversion fee.
The deal was for two hundred potions, hundred of each kind. Only through this deal did Artha found that the game had decided 200 credits equalled 1 bronze coin. Sun Lord was so overbearing that he had he had paid two hundred and ten thousand credits directly. Silent Night would pick the first batch of 100 potions, a mix of both types and within half an hour, Artha had to trade 100 potions more. As to why Artha didn't trade 200 potions together, it was to build credibility.
Poor Artha, he is just a trader. He and his friends had decided to develop in different Villages. They had purchased from various independent players, few known and some unknown, to increase the level of trader subclass.
Use brain a bit and you can see clearly that it is a lie. Follow him a bit and you can actually prove his lie. So why would Artha make such rookie mistake? Is it because he doesn't know that he could be followed in the game? Or something else?
Artha is still thinking of saying goodbye to the game on last day of free trial. Why would he care about the future? What can these people do? As the saying goes, you have to be fearful only when you have something to protect or cherish. He had just made a deal worth over two hundred thousand. He has coins worth over 1 rose gold coin. That would be worth more than 2 million credits if he sold them now, probably more if he sold when guilds were in hurry to purchase coins. His objective of playing the game was already achieved. Why should he worry?
So after collecting potions beyond what was needed, Artha left his room, then the village. On the way to the map, he met Silent Night. A trade with said number of potions and done. The thief is free to run and reach his boss as soon as possible. But did it happen?
No! Silent Night handed potions to his lackey and walked worry free with Artha. What! Was he worried that he would not trade remaining potions and was following him till then? Don't the big guilds know that any contract signed in VR world will be valid too. Especially when the game AI is held on monitoring force. Thanks to the setup for the games, the game AI could work as Polygraph by default. So no coercing or put in fear to sign the contracts. In cases of serious breach of contract, the game AI would file a complaint against the person in real world as scamming, cheating and breach of contract. So both civil and criminal cases at the same time. And why would Artha know this? He had taken few classes related to cyber crimes. And the big disclaimers along the introduction in the game brochure touched this matter as in-your-face deal. Others would put such disclaimers in small font and adjust in some bits and corners but not in this game. The zeal towards cyber crimes actually made normal players more secure though and increased the probability of purchasing.