*Ka-ching!*
A certain lay-down hummingbirds’ eyes shone with two dollar signs each.
‘New people!’
Jack was currently running from work. As the Islands’ master he was, technically, something like royalty.
Of course, at first no one had realized that. The truth is, since everyone was so used at Another World being just a game, many who had decided to come regardless of the price hadn’t really accepted the fact that they had committed suicide.
Then, as people begun to slowly accept this, Jack and Elicia had already been training and grinding for most of the days, all day long.
Even as the city started to turn into chaos due to peoples’ despair at realizing what had really happened, both of them didn’t do much. They didn’t really care - after all, those people were free-loaders in the first place.
Of course, some people felt wronged since they had to pay tax and all, but Jack was the Dungeon Master, not to mention the Dragon King.
Also, this time his dungeons’ mana was being constantly consumed - mostly to his and his wife’s’ amusement, but also to deal with problems like the eventual storm or high-level monster attack.
An Ancient Red Dragon and the Dragon King. Even if they took the Dungeon Core for themselves, what could a few hundred players do?
Back at the Goblin Kingdom, didn’t Jack kill thousands with a single attack? And then, even after his dungeon was taken, didn’t that trick only worked because he hadn’t levels in classes which could dispel curses?
Even if they successfully took the dungeon for themselves, they wouldn’t be able to hold it for long - so there were no thoughts of rebellion amongst the players.
That said, they needed someone to act as a mediator between themselves. Even if they were only a few hundred and could, technically, decide all kinds of laws as in an ancient greek democracy, someone had to deal with paperwork, housing problems, solve disputes amongst players, these kinds of things.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
So, they formed a government.
The setting was there, and, even though in name they were just guests at Dragon King Island (2), it had become a situation where Jack was a lazy puppet-King and Elicia was his Queen, de facto Ruler and Prime Minister.
So, he was running from work. Looking for fun things to do, like taking a nap at a tree on top of the main square or taking a nap on top of a small cliff near the pier.
He could even take a nap at the mast of one of the unmanned ships.
All people would see was a small hummingbird. Indeed, it was wonderful to be able to nap anytime he wanted! This way, he could dilute his five-month sleep cycle into many two or three-day sleeping naps, just like someone can wake up at night, go at the bathroom and then go back to sleep.
It was at one of these moments that he smelt it.
Gold.
A new batch of players, the scent of a gold purse which wasn’t his.
Jack woke up immediately, and the drowsiness he had been feeling for the last two months was gone like that.
*ding!*
He even got “Sleep Resistance (3)” - Elicia would be glad to know. With this he would be able to reduce his sleeping time needs a little bit more. Something around 15%.
The objective, of course, was to reach “Sleep Resistance (20)”, which would completely deny any need to sleep - even if not in the best of conditions.
Such hard work!
But as long as there was new gold to be taken, he would gladly summon all of his Willpower in order not to sleep.
He had made a decision. As soon as the Player carrying the pouch came to the pier, he would then transform into his human form and take it. His dragon form was a forbidden topic until he reached “Sleep Resistance (20)”, “Drowsiness Resistance (20)”, “Sleep Immunity (20)” and “Drowsiness Immunity(20)”. Taking in consideration that “Sleep Resistance” was a sub-tree which appeared at level 20 of the main Resistance Tree, that meant he would need to get his main Resistance Tree to level 100 before getting that.
Yep. He better get used to be a hummingbird. Better than a goblin.
Still, the man carrying the gold pouch gave it to a Sailor NPC.
*sigh*
Jack sighed while thinking how exactly he would steal that without raising his chances of starting an NPC rebellion.
He didn’t want to have to go back to the dungeon in order to have that sailor give it to him. It was too much work.
*ding*
His “stealth pursuit” skill rose a little bit again. His conscience became a little heavy and he promised himself (for the tenth time already) he wouldn’t keep on using his hummingbird form to peep on peoples’ affairs and eat their food.