Even after a night of sleep and being discharged from the hospital, Oliver's mind was in turmoil over the mysterious system screen. Was it real? Or was it a hallucination caused by brain trauma? He shook his head at the thought. The doctor's found nothing wrong with him, and everything around him still seemed normal.

Exiting the hospital, a chorus of cheers broke him from his spiraling thoughts. Oliver looked up to find his three roommates hanging out the windows of Gary's old junker of a car, waving at him. An amused smile crept onto his face. They were a bit of an odd group; despite their very different personalities, they were great friends, often mistaken for siblings because of their closeness. The fact that they were all dark haired and almost six feet tall with similar builds just reinforced the image. Oliver didn't really understand how they all became friends, but knew he wouldn't change it even if he could. Oliver climbed into the car, offering each of them a fist bump. “Thanks for the pickup guys.”

“Like we would leave you hanging.” Gary scoffed as he pulled out of the parking lot. “ But we've got to get you home and settled quick. Some of us still have class today.” Gary struggled to give his friend a look of mock severity with Ed and Marty laughing behind them.

Marty leaned up between the seats, patting Oliver on the shoulder. “Don't worry about anything man. I already picked up the notes you missed from your morning classes. Don't want our honor student falling behind. Your mother and I are so proud of you.” Marty wiped a pretend tear from his eyes before ducking back to avoid Oliver's swipe at his head, the group exploding with laughter. Oliver let himself relax in the seat, his friend's jokes pushed back his worries.

His mind cleared, Oliver knew how to resolve the mystery of the system.

He just needed to test a few things.

With his friends gone off to class, Oliver stood in their apartments and worked through his plan. All it took was a thought and the system screen appeared before his eyes. He waved his hand through it, just as he had done last night, but again felt nothing. With a glance he could see that nothing had changed with this screen, though he had yet to open the tabs it presented.

Multi-Dimensional Merchant System

* Attributes

* Commissions Board

* Currency Exchange

* Locked-(Costs 1,000 credits to unlock)

* Locked-(Costs 10,000 credits to unlock)

* Locked-(Costs 25,000 credits to unlock)

Oliver found navigating the system to be easy and intuitive, being able to open or close the window and its tabs with just a focused thought. In a blink, he had the Attributes page open.

Attributes

Merchant Reputation: 0

* Strength 10

* Agility 13

* Vitality 11

* Intelligence 16

* Willpower 15

* Spirit 12

* Luck 8

Oliver had played enough video and tabletop games to have a decent idea of what most of the attributes meant, though he was a bit stumped at spirit. Not being a religious or spiritual person, he could only assume it referred to some other ethereal quality, perhaps the soul? Or was it something entirely different? He had no way of knowing, as the system didn't offer any explanation.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

He frowned at his luck being 8. He didn't really consider himself unlucky, but it did, at times, feel like things just didn't go his way. Nodding to himself, Oliver spoke his thoughts aloud in an effort to organize them. “If it's like some tabletop RPGs, then 10 is probably average. It makes sense; I'm not really an athlete, but I am pretty quick on my feet. And intelligence is definitely my highest stat. But my luck...”

He shrugged it off with a sigh. Luck wasn't something he could change, only deal with it. Never one to rely on luck, he knew hard work and a sharp mind were far more valuable.

With a thought, he switched back to the main system window and moved on to the next tab, the Commissions Board. Looking it over carefully, he saw a jumbled mess of posts like a message board, but without any semblance of organization and no options for sorting it or even a search bar.

Commissions Board

* Gold! Gold! Gold!- Our technomancers need gold for their circuitry. Offering 200 credits per ounce! Must be at least 24k gold! Minimum of 20 ounces.

* To Arms!- Requesting swords. 24 inch length, 18 inch blade, 2 inch width single or double-edged. 2000 credits for 100 swords.

* The Spice of Life- We desire new spices for our meals. 5 credits per ounce. 20 credit bonus for new and unusual spices.(Repeatable)

* Fertilizer- Our agriculture is suffering in this new land. We desperately need some form of compost or fertilizer to aid us in growing food. We are offering 10 credits per pound. Please, someone help me feed my people.(Repeatable)

* Hauntingly Familiar- I am the great Necromancer Xra'Dravet the Vile. I require a powerful ghost or similar spirit for my apprentice's first familiar binding. You will be rewarded with 666 credits upon completion.(Time Limit: 48 hours)

5 of 1,187,912 shown.

Despite his worry over the possible insanity of the situation, and himself, the commission board made sense to Oliver. People needed things and offered to buy them. He froze in place for a moment, mind racing to connect the dots. It was called the Multi-Dimensional Merchant System. Did that mean that all these posts were from people in other dimensions? We some of them in the same dimension, just on different worlds?

Were some of them in the same universe as Oliver, just on different worlds? And were there any others here on Earth?

Oliver shook off the thought. He hadn't yet decided this system was real, and even if it was, did it really matter where the people were? He knew enough about the multi-verse theory to know that, if this was all real, there were likely an infinite number of universes. It was practically impossible for him to ever meet one of these people, even if he wanted to.

Oliver moved on to the last unlocked tab, wanting as much information as possible to work with before he moved on. Opening the Currency Exchange, he was surprised to see the first explanation for anything that the system had offered.

Currency Exchange

* 1 Credit = $10 USD

* Account Balance - 0 Credits

*Non-Unified world detected. Alternative local currencies provided by request only.

*Credits can be exchange for the users local currency. Funds are deposited directly into the users bank account. All deposits are secure and discreet, listed as pay from an employer(MDMS Inc). All deposits are listed as in compliance with local tax laws. Required documentation will be provided on request.

Oliver dropped onto the couch, stunned. If this was real... Could he just complete that ridiculous spice commission a couple times and make his rent for the month? With five dollars he could get and ounce or two of some spice and trade it for ten times his investment or more?

His mind spun with the impossibility of it. A crazy system was one thing, but multiplying his money so easily just didn't make sense to him. Unless... He thought back to his freshman economics class. Price was dictated by supply and demand. These commissions represented people with a demand that no one was supplying. Everything clicked into place for him. He could make a fortune. The system showed him what they wanted.

He was the merchant that could provide it for them.