After taking an extended walkthrough of the plot, with Fitzgerald stopping here and there to perform some kind of mysterious magic with his runes – followed by Sam carefully observing him through his mana senses, trying to figure out what the older man was doing – they retreated to Lara’s office where the man started to interrogate Lara about the location and the ruins.
He asked about all sorts of things, some that made sense to Sam and some that utterly confused him. The cardinal layout of the plot made sense, as cardinal directions, the sun, and the moon were important to a lot of rituals and played a great part in long-term runic circles.
But why did the local insect fauna matter? Or how long the dew stayed before evaporating?
Sometimes the NPC confused Sam…
Fortunately, after some time, Fitzgerald was satisfied with the answers Lara had provided and declared that he would need to get back to his workshop to prepare for the construction.
“Student of mine!” he exclaimed while turning toward Sam.
“Yes, sir?” he replied with a slight dread.
Fitzgerald gave him an inscrutable look before speaking. “Sir Mipsy must be already missing me! I shall return with a proper construction crew post haste. Your task is making sure that the area is safe!”
And before Sam could retort or ask some clarifying questions, several runes flashed into existence around the man, which was followed by Fitzgerald vanishing between two blinks, leaving them staring at the empty spot where he stood.
“The fucker knew how to teleport?” Sam asked, aghast. “Why didn’t he…” he trailed off with a defeated voice.
Lara looked at the empty spot, then back at Sam with a mix of understanding and schadenfreude on her face. She reached out and began patting his shoulder awkwardly.
“There, there…”
They stayed for a moment, quietly contemplating the behavior of the NPCs before Lara finally spoke up.
“What’s the plan next, boss man?”
Instead of answering, Sam just shared the screen that popped up for him as soon as his mentor left.
[New quest acquired!]
[Peaceful land, peaceful mind]
[Your mentor has tasked you with bringing peace to the area where he plans to build his workshop. Clean up the area before he returns to make sure his mission can begin without any complications.]
[Current progress: 38%]
[Time Limit: Until Fitzgerald’s return]
[Penalty: Depending on the completion rate]
[Reward: Depending on the completion rate]
“I’m going to share this with you,” he declared and did so immediately. “That way we can be more effective…”
“But that would share the rewards!” Lara protested.
“And?” Sam asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Isn’t this some important quest? Don’t you want the reward?”
“Meh…” he waved it away. “What I need is the next quest. Sharing the reward is not a big issue for me. Plus, it’s not like I’m throwing it away. You’re part of my group. Making you stronger makes the whole stronger,” he explained.
She looked back at him with a small smile and nodded. “Thank you… Do you have any idea what the reward would be aside from experience points?”
Sam shook his head. “Nah… bastard is crazy. Could be anything from a cute cupcake to some cataclysmic spell…”
Lara instantly perked up at hearing that. Sam could understand why. Magic Unbound tended towards being mysterious, so at this point most players had gotten used to not knowing exactly what they would get as rewards, but knowing that they could expect something great. At least in most cases… There were actually some NPCs that promised the moon, or at least insinuated it, then threw a few bronze coins at you…
Thankfully, the obsessive need of players to gather and organize information, made it easy to identify such NPCs based on an ever-expanding public list that could be found with the most cursory search on the internet.
“Soooo, what’s the plan?” she finally asked.
Sam took a look around in the office while gathering his thoughts.
“We need some more services and accommodations for the people that will come with him.”
“High-level people?”
“Could be…”
“What do we need?”
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“Area for the workers to rest and maybe drink away their tiredness…”
“An inn-slash-tavern, you mean?”
“Exactly. Then a private warehouse for my mentor. He goes through parts like there is no tomorrow.”
“Private?” she grimaced. “That will be hard to manage with the guild…”
Sam nodded. “Bill it to me personally.” He suddenly chuckled. “Or rather Lucy. She can pay and I can pay her back later.”
“Got it. Anything else?” Lara asked as she made a few notes.
It was Sam’s turn to ask questions.
“Anything I can do to help with the wall?”
“You think we need to accelerate it?”
“Pretty sure, yeah.”
Lara motioned him over to the map on her table. “Well, you came just at the right time. The nearby quarry that we reopened has dug a little deep and opened some kind of monster nest.”
“Fracture?”
“Have no idea. I have some of the guild members investigating, but it’s going slowly.”
“Hmmm. Anything else?”
“Aside from the few monster nests, no.”
“Enemy guilds?”
“They have been sniffing around, but we leaked a few things, or well, Tim leaked a few things and they retreated.”
Sam nodded. “Good. I’ll deal with the quarry and you start on the town. Fair?”
“Alone?” Lara asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Nah. Give me the Scooby Gang and I’ll be fine!”
“Sco-ooby gang? What?” she replied with a confused face.
“That party that ‘caught’ me? Tall, blonde guy with that stupid ascot, redhead, mage dressed in green, and the woman with those two great…”
“…personalities,” she finished it for him with a slightly reproachful look. “I know them… They will meet you there.”
“Thanks. Anything else?”
She spent a few moments thinking before shaking her head. “I think we both have a pretty clear job. You go unga-bunga and I’ll do smart brain stuff…”
----------------------------------------
He stepped out of his pod and shook himself, refocusing on the real world and shedding the sensations of the virtual world. A few stretches and he was ready to start his day in the real world.
First, a quick bio break, followed by a shower and meal, then he went over the information he received from Lucy about the company, answered a few emails, checked his accounts connected to the game, and made sure his money was working instead of laying about.
Then he updated some private plans with the recently acquired knowledge, and sent off a few more emails to the others, detailing his plans. The team would review it and if feasible start working on it, but if not, they would critique it and have him rework it.
Following that, as always, he took a trip to Shadowland to check the drama and gossip, the general idiocy of people, and to see if his ‘alternate’ persona got any jobs.
Some he refused as usual, but the ones that were easy – well, easy for him – got an answer and demand for payment. It was always nice to see what people were interested in. This time, just as the last time he checked, people were still hung up on the Valley of Distortions and were looking for any actionable information about the place.
Next came the news about the wider world.
Magic Unbound and the company behind it and their meteoric rise had immensely upset the delicate balance the market had settled into over the last hundred years. The same companies rose and fell, just like the seas ebbed and flowed. Sometimes one of them was at the top, sometimes some other company. Based on the data, he could find it was very predictable as if it was pre-planned.
Then in came Future Unknown, like a wrecking ball and upset the delicate balance.
And it wasn’t just one company. The increasing popularity of VR games created or enabled incredible growth for entire industries. Deliveries now offered meal plans tailored around Magic Unbound playtimes, cleaning services changed their operating hours so that their workers could play and clean others’ places, and restaurants also changed their operating hours to make use of the hungry players that exited the game.
Those were just the things that were visible to the layperson. Sam knew, mostly thanks to the half-remembered news segments the other Sam watched, that the demand for gaming pods had revitalized the medical industry almost overnight as people began to dust off sometimes decades-old plans now that there was money in developing it.
The gaming pod came out so fast because the company behind it just threw it together, using old tech that was already proven to work to appease the demand, but they were already working on more sophisticated solutions.
A new industrial competition has started about who could create the best and most useful gaming pod.
And these were just the physical industries.
The social ones also flourished. Hundreds, even thousands, of new websites, were born every week, catering to a certain segment of the player base, while millions of streamers tried to gather even a small percentage of watchers, hoping that it would change their life.
An incredible amount of money changed hands as charlatans plied their trade, promising everything from quick level-up guides to the secrets of finding legendary gear in the game. Naturally, to counter them, several groups formed, some from the player base, but several countries took the effort to address the issue. Some by using preexisting governmental organizations, while others set up a new organization whose job was to watch out for these cheaters in their jurisdiction.
Naturally, the ones setting up these organizations as fast as possible were the smaller countries where the income generated by people (and the taxes they could collect from them) was rather important. Bigger countries had a little more room to maneuver.
But as Sam looked over the international news of his new home, he couldn’t help but frown. Tensions were already growing as the income generated by the game also grew. There were all sorts of news about countries setting up governmental guilds to generate actual income for the government.
Which in turn would lead to abuse, as the greed of the people in charge would balloon.
‘The question is: can I do anything to change this?’ he asked himself as he read over another article filled with buzzwords that declared that one more country created a guild to ‘investigate the realities of virtual reality and to safeguard the citizens’ wellbeing and rights’. ‘Was there any information that I could share that would help people and not put me instantly in front of a firing squad?’ he mused.
The answer was no.
He could totally point fingers at countries that were using what was practically slave labor to have people farm gold, items, and other things in the game to enrich the people in charge, or sometimes just to fuel their gaming habits.
These kinds of things didn’t stay secret for so long, thus the other Sam watched the news of these sweatshops being discovered and liberated. Reminded of his own journey…
But he didn’t have any evidence. And while these countries were small on an international level, they still held enough power – or had enough money – to find him and to silence him.
Anonymity didn’t really exist in this new world. As long as you had money, you could find anybody.
‘But…maybe if I approach this from a different direction…’
For a long while he sat in front of his computer his thoughts churning like the sea during the storm. Then the sun shone through the clouds, illuminating a peaceful patch of water, serene like his mind.
He chuckled and opened a writing application.
“Let’s see… How does ‘The new reality of gold farming’ sound?” he spoke out loud as he began typing. “No. Not on the point enough. Maybe ‘How Magic Unbound changed gold farming’? Hmm… Need to workshop it.”
Ultimately, the title didn’t matter much. It was the content that was the important part. Thus, he sat there and began writing his ‘essay’ about how the game system and the game’s unique quest system allowed Future Unknown to target sweatshops, black gold farmers, and basically anyone who was exploited while playing the game.
‘Maybe the company will get my hint… they must be aware of me, right?’ he mused uncertainly. ‘I did a lot of weird things and the quests hinted…’