Chapter 3: A New Rivalry
While Akira worked to stabilize the realms, whispers of a new threat reached his ears. A being known as the Void Merchant had emerged, a shadowy figure who used underhanded tactics to dominate trade routes and destabilize worlds.
The Void Merchant's methods were brutal: seeding conflicts, flooding markets with cursed items, and enslaving weaker realms. Akira's merchants reported losing entire caravans to this mysterious foe.
Determined to stop the Void Merchant, Akira used the system's Dimensional Tracker to trace his rival's operations. He discovered a network of corrupted guilds and enslaved merchants operating under the Void Merchant's banner.