As he drew farther from the top of the tower, a sound grew louder. It was a persistent cawing he'd heard many times in the Ravens' Nests dungeon. More than that, he could make the words—echoes of elusive riddles and obnoxious quips. There were more corvids here. After a few minutes, Roth spotted the very first black bird. She was of a similar size to Count Crow and had the same anthropomorphized shape, and she was wearing dazzling jewelry and sparkling clothes.
"Good afternoon," Roth greeted her.
Her eyes locked on Roth’s earrings. She bowed respectfully. "Good afternoon, Gatekeeper," she replied kindly.
Did she recognize the emperor’s craftsmanship in the earrings? he wondered. And no 'Lightbringer' anymore? Now I’m the ‘Gatekeeper’?
As he continued his downward trip, more and more corvids appeared. They all interrupted their chatter and cawed to acknowledge his presence with a curt nod, quickly returning to their conversations after he had passed.
Finally, Roth reached the bottom of the tower. It made for a surprisingly wide square filled with corvids going to and fro, disappearing into tunnels and chambers. Several disco balls hung from the ceiling, making this a weird crossover between a city plaza and a disco.
Despite all the glistening objects competing for his attention, Roth only saw the several overlapping metal platforms—a teleportation pad like the ones found in human cities. Roth stepped on one of the platforms, and one window appeared.
[Imperial Gatekeeper] access activated.
Teleportation Gate: Crownia (Name can be edited)
Status: Disconnected
Cost to connect the teleportation gate to the grid: 100,000 gold per month.
Cost per teleportation: ???
Bans: [Empty]
Exemptions: [Empty]
Discounts: [Empty]
Roth was smiling from ear to ear. This was a gold mine. Big companies paid fortunes to add their names to the teleportation gate. Millions of players scrolled through the list of teleportation gates every day. It was a valuable marketing opportunity. That wasn’t even the best part. He wasn’t just a gatekeeper! He was the toll collector!
The teleportation gate required an initial investment of 100k, but that could be quickly regained! Considering that this teleportation gate would only be used for inter-regional travel, he could charge 10k per trip. Roth looked over the controls and tried fiddling with the price.
He tried a trip to Hilsford. The lowest he could set it at was 5000 gold. “I see. It's 50/50.” The price per trip was split between the point of departure and arrival. Even so, he had some control, and he would make a fortune out of this.
He could also blacklist his enemies or offer discounts to players or guilds. Satisfied with how everything worked, Roth checked his inventory. He had 142k gold right now.
After his brothers took over the trade routes, his profit margin exploded. Between that and the constant influx of gold every time someone started the game as a lizardman, his purse was bursting at the seams. It was more than enough to make the initial investment.
Before he opened Crownia to the world, Roth decided to explore the tower's bottom floor. Roth looked around, and his eyes landed on an arch with elaborate rock carvings. The carvings featured vines and flying crows, and they were covered with glitter. It looked like the gateway to an ancient carnival fair.
Roth approached it and found a wide, cavernous space with shiny chandeliers, tiled floors, and walls. Wealthy corvids in robes, berets, and heavy, golden jewelry chatted as they walked to and fro.
"Is this what I think it is?" he couldn't help but let out. He approached one of the corvids. “Hello!”
The NPC greeted him respectfully. "Greetings, Gatekeeper. Welcome to Crownia’s Auction House."
Roth shouted in triumph. There was an auction house here. This was the first proper city in the Dark Abyss. It had the teleportation gate and the auction house—the two most significant infrastructures in AstroTerra. Certainly, it also had to have a graveyard where players would respawn. Maybe it even had restaurants, inns, and NPCs issuing quests!
Roth felt compelled to do something he hadn't done in a while. He busted out a few celebratory dance moves. As he twirled and frolicked around the auction house, he realized Mel hadn't seen him dance yet. Perhaps he should take her to a ball in Hilsford for their date tonight.
After venting the energy out, Roth headed back to the teleportation pad. Just before he activated it, he reined himself in. He should ask for some advice first. Thankfully, he had one of the brightest players in the world on his speed dial. He looked at his friends list and called BlueFire.
Stolen novel; please report.
*
BlueFire studied the buzzing, dark cloud that covered the desert sky and empty patch of sand where a massive pile of cereal used to be. “More. This isn’t nearly enough.”
“A-are you sure, sir?”
BlueFire didn’t blame the merchant for double-checking. They had spent a fortune on cereals already—at least 200 gold.
“Don’t worry about the costs. Just make sure you bring 100 more stacks.”
Seeing the resolute look on BlueFire’s face, the merchant took off, riding his donkey toward the nearest city. Nurturing this swarm hadn't been easy. There had been only 30 locusts in this oasis, but the quest had been progressing incredibly well.
Double Agent (Epic)
After wiping out all insects in the woods, the treeants miss protein-rich meals, and the blades of their soldiers are gathering rust. They ask you to gather a locust swarm and direct it toward the colony.
Quest objectives: Find locusts in the Sun Desert oasis, nurture a swarm, and direct it toward the Green Woods.
BlueFire stared blankly at the cloud of happy insects. In time, they would discover he was only fattening them up to turn them over to the treeants. They would hate him, but the treeants would be grateful to him, and that was all that mattered.
Seeing locusts and treeants in the reputation section of his character sheet, BlueFire shook his head. Who would have known there was so much about the game that he hadn't known? Everyone assumed that this game was like most others: all about hunting and running dungeons. However, Roth’s playstyle had shown him a new layer of complexity.
Even though BlueFire had resisted hiring Roth for the longest time, he couldn't be happier they were on the same side now. It wasn’t just because of his influence in the Union or how his playstyle had rocked BlueFire’s knowledge of the game. No. He was a talented gamer.
Godsfried had been on a quest with Roth and had only excellent things to say about the man. He was hardworking, resourceful, and creative. Only one quest together, and somehow, Godsfried was now leading a group of dwarves! Even Galatheel had gone over to Sapphira to help Roth out.
When Roth finally divulged more information about Antioch, BlueFire had brought a team to grind reputation with the colony. Once they completed the [Double Agent] quest, BlueFire would finally find out what the queens’ chambers looked like. He was looking forward to that. He hadn’t found a pet that suited him yet. Maybe, the treeants were it!
Seeing that there was time to kill before the merchant returned with more cereal, BlueFire went through memos, reports, and messages. There had been a squabble between one of the Ogre teams exploring Antioch and a group of unionized players. BlueFire scanned through the incident report, quickly found a contradiction, and sent an admonishment to the local team captain to apologize or else. Roth had been adamant that the Union would also have access to Antioch. ArmlessShark was reasonable enough to overlook these minor incidents, but if many more people went to complain, the Ogres would have some explaining to do. He would rather fire this captain than grovel at ArmlessShark’s feet.
Moving on to the next memos, while the Ogres were still stuck on the 94th floor, the Phoenixes and the Gorgons had reached the Core, and, at this rate, the Krakens would be next. There was little that BlueFire could do about it. Cyclops and the guild leader were taking charge of that front; all he could do was trust them. Who knew what treasures there were down there? It had to be incredible for Jaw-Long and his crew to spend all their days cooped up there. Hopefully, something would still be left after all these other guilds made it down there.
The [Giant Under the Mountain] quest was still on standby. Despite his best efforts, he had found no clues. Pegasus was still growing tremendously, but the Ogres managed to maintain the gap thanks to their exclusive access to Antioch. One of the benefits was the discovery of a promising, new profession: chitinsmithing. The only problem was that it required materials that could only be harvested from giant bugs from the Dark Abyss, and it was hard to get there.
BlueFire decided to reach out to his mole in Pegasus. They were bound to have a surplus of chitin in their guild’s storage without knowing how to use it. If he could find a way to get to those materials and buy them for dirt cheap before news of the chitinsmith profession got out…
OgresPax is calling you.
Just as he was about to contact the mole, his golden-egg-laying goose called. He answered right away. From the confident grin on Roth’s face, BlueFire could feel that he was about to have a fiery round of negotiation with this young, crafty fox.
“Hi, BlueFire. What’s up?”
“Hello, Roth. To what do I owe the pleasure? You look like a man sitting on good news.”
“Please take a look at this.”
Raising his eyebrow, BlueFire studied the screenshots shared by Roth. The moment he saw the interface, he realized what it was. The Ogres had secured management rights for several teleportation pads around AstroTerra. It had grown to become one of the guild’s best sources of income. However, the name of this teleportation gate didn’t ring a bell. “Crownia? Where is this?”
“The tower of the Crow Emperor. Here.”
Roth sent a map with a pin deep within the Dark Abyss. BlueFire’s eyes widened, and his jaw dropped. “I-Is this what I think it is?”
“Yes, sir. I’ve got managing rights to the only teleportation gate in the Dark Abyss.”
BlueFire's mind was working at full throttle. Holding the keys to a teleportation gate in the Dark Abyss was huge news! How many players in AstroTerra wanted to visit the mysterious region but couldn’t? Pegasus kept an army permanently stationed at the entrance and exit of the Centipede Cave.
Guilds sometimes organized excursions to storm the cave and break through the blockade, but Loki ensured it wasn't worth it. They had to pay the price of blood and sweat to plunder the riches of the Dark Abyss and then fight again to make it back. Control over this gate was a dagger very close to Loki’s heart. If BlueFire got hold of this resource…
He quieted his excitement and tried to keep his cool. “Your contract doesn’t require you to share this with the guild, Roth.”
“I know.”
“Why are you bringing this up to me? Do you want to sell the management rights to the Ogres?”
“No,” he answered immediately.
BlueFire wasn’t too disappointed. He had expected this reply. Roth would be a fool to sell this. “Then? Why?”
“As you know, Loki and I have a history. The busier he is with other things, the less time he’ll have to come after me. I thought bringing you in on this would be the best way to use this teleportation gate.”
BlueFire chuckled. “Are you trying to use the Ogres to do your dirty work?”
“No! What are you talking about? Am I not a part of the Ogres, too? I just wanted to ask your opinion. That’s all.”
Hearing Roth's sincerity, BlueFire nodded approvingly. Only wise men asked for advice from wise men. Seeing how earnestly he asked, BlueFire decided to share his honest opinion.