As he always did when logging in outside of a safe zone, Raine checked his surroundings immediately. The game was 'nice enough' to supply players with a five-second window of invulnerability upon logging in, but there were numerous ways around that.
Upon seeing no threats, he checked his new Ncode to find a name he instantly recognized: Morok the Viper. Not that he had earned the moniker yet, his name was merely Morok. There was no way it could be anyone else though.
In the past, he was a serious nuisance. An assassin who constantly killed Raine's subordinates in their war against Righteous.
Interesting. Never knew Righteous had ties to Anumbric. That explains how they grew so fast. With that kind of funding, we shouldn’t have won at all. Something must have caused them to part ways.
On a whim, Raine set his level to be publicly visible, though he selected voice only on his end. In ZL, all game and player files were protected by triple layers of hashgraph encryption controlled by state of the art quantum computers. Even in the distant future, ZL had never been successfully hacked; there would be no way for them to connect his character name with his real-life identity unless he posted it on the forums.
With that done, he made the call. Morok answered after a few beeps. He looked to be in his late twenties with slicked-back black hair and a perfectly trimmed goatee. He wore a wide smile, like a predator cornering his latest victim, “This may be a record for the quickest completion of a bounty I’ve ever placed. Though, typically the target doesn’t come directly to me. Shall we say you have my attention, Alaric? I do hope that’s you, talking to a black screen is a tad rude but I’ll let it slide this once.”
“Say and do whatever you want. After you tell me what you need.”
“Need is such a strong word. A man like myself has so few of them, that I hardly recognize it,” his laugh was as fake as they came. When Raine failed to respond, Morok sighed dramatically and continued in a sleazy salesman’s tone, “I was merely impressed by your appearance in the first system announcement outside the tutorial. Since you happen to be in the same area as an associate of mine who could use a hand, I thought I’d cast a hook, as they say.”
A job offer? Or a ruse to gather information? Either way, I’m not helping them and I don’t have time for his long-winded crap. We’re going to be enemies anyway, might as well rile him up now. Hopefully, he’ll make some sloppy mistakes coming after me that will slow him down.
Raine walked toward the lake while he talked, “Ten, five up front.” He said with a smirk, knowing Morok would be infuriated.
“That’s one hell of a self-endorsement! What makes you think you’re worth even a tenth of that?”
“I set my level to public, if you weren't so busy slapping your dick, you’d know what I’m worth,” Raine watched his surroundings for an ambush, no longer paying attention to the man’s face. He completely missed the wide-mouthed shock, though he did hear the gasp of astonishment that went with it.
If Morok was insulted by Raine’s flippant attitude, he didn’t show it, “Most impressive, most impressive indeed. This is too perfect, I was going to ask you to reach out to me again at level five but to think you’ve already done it. Very well, the job is simple. My associate in Mirror Lake Town is setting up an ambush for an unknown player who stole several pieces of tutorial gear from him. Meet up with them and make sure things go as planned. Here’s the only picture we have of him. Also, the player has a dagger I want. If you get your hands on it, I’ll add an extra five to your payment. Oh, and as for an upfront sum, not a chance!”
Raine was glad he had the foresight to make the call voice only, not only because they were looking for none other than him, but also so Morok didn’t see the massive smile that was splitting his face. He barely managed to hit the mute option before erupting into laughter. Luckily, Morok took his silence for something else.
“Fine. Two point five up front and five more if you hand me the dagger. Do we have a deal?”
Recovering, Raine responded with gruff dismissal, “No deal. Your ambush is going to fail.”
“What? How would you know that?” Raine could tell by his voice that the wealthy scion was not used to being denied anything.
“Because your target won't ever be coming back to Mirror Lake Town. Your associates are wasting their time.”
“You seem quite sure of yourself,” Morok squinted, his tone turning suspicious.
“There’s simply no need for him to return, though I don’t intend to explain that without actual compensation. Knowing would save tens of hours for each of your guild members. Since Fornis Licensing employs over five hundred thousand, that could save millions of man hours, and we both know what that’s worth.”
“You keep surprising me, Alaric. All right, I’ll bite. I’m forwarding you four hundred thousand, two for the information, and the rest for your bounty. You turned yourself in, it’s only right the payment goes to you. Consider this an extension toward our bright future.”
Raine scoffed, making sure the exaggerated sound came through loud and clear, “The info’s worth two million at least. If you’re not willing to pay, I’ll pass it along to Dorramy Dutront. I know for a fact he’s pulling in thousands of employees by the hour to take advantage of the dilation. You want an extension of trust? Prove it.”
“Woah, woah, woah. Let’s both take a deep breath and come to a reasonable arrangement. I’ve clearly underestimated you. To think you even know about my feud with that shark. Two for the information, but only if you sign a contract that you won’t sell it to Dutront.”
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
“Agreed,” a few mental prods later and a ZionLine contract appeared in their respective interfaces. The terms were simple: Raine wasn’t permitted to knowingly distribute the information he was selling to Morok for a period of five days. Breach would result in him returning the two million. Raine signed, saw the five-day time limit of the contract appear in his debuffs, and nodded.
Contracts in-game were another reason ZionLine became the primary hub for all business transactions in the future. Easy, quick, secure, and enforceable with the destruction of your account and even lifetime removal from the game depending on the terms. Nobody who wanted to triple their lifespan would dare breach a ZionLine-enforced contract.
Jackpot! What a sucker. This will be public knowledge before his guild needs to know it anyway. I can’t believe how many creds this dumbass has to throw around. Must be nice being the whale of a multi-billion-cred company.
When the payment went through, Raine’s balance jumped from twenty thousand to two point one million credits and he was quick to spill so he could get on with his massacre of the crogs, “After level two, there is no reason to ever return to the origin towns. They offer no quests that are useful beyond the first level, nor any equipment that’s worth buying. A few vendors have items that could help with specific monsters but are ultimately only useful for solo players. Your target is long gone, either grinding before moving on to Rook’s Rest, or he’s already there.”
“Dammit! That was hours ago. With the skills he supposedly displayed, he could be level three by now. Those imbeciles!” Morok’s dignified mask slipped, revealing the enraged psychopath Raine remembered all too well, “Your information will certainly save us millions of man-hours trying to use the origin towns as leveling hubs. I’ll instruct my men to move on immediately. Thank you, Alaric. I look forward to speaking with you again.”
Not so fast! I’m not going to let an opportunity to milk you dry pass right through my fingers.
“I’ll give you something extra, just this once. Rook’s Rest has an office facility. Anyone can rent a room there and set it up as a personalized, instanced, virtual workspace.”
Morok paused, his lips parted slightly as the gears behind his eyes whirled. While he was distracted, Raine struck, “And I never said I wouldn’t do the job, I said I wouldn’t be doing it with your flunkies. I’ll find this player, and when I do, I’ll make sure they learn a valuable lesson they’ll never forget. It’s important to know the proper respect due to someone like yourself. I’ll make sure he knows exactly what that respect should look like. Two point five now, and five more when you have the dagger.”
“Deal! The information you already provided is worth far more,” another contract was signed by both parties, Morok wearing a sly, satisfied smile, “I’ll be awaiting news of your success. Oh, and I expect results within three days.”
Raine could only shake his head while chuckling as the call ended. He checked his cred balance again, finding the additional two point five million already there.
I didn’t expect to make so much before Vile Peak Town.
Raine knew exactly how to make the most of his unexpected windfall. He opened his interface and navigated to the in-game help menu. There, he followed a link to use credits attached to his ZionLine account to buy publicly traded stock. He whistled in appreciation upon seeing the ZionLine’s parent company—ZLO—already up two hundred percent since the market opened a few hours ago. This was just the beginning. News of the time dilation would be spreading like wildfire and soon, ZLO would be one of the largest market-cap companies in the world.
He sent one million to his parents, then dumped all but a hundred thousand into the stock and closed out of the interface.
Once that investment matures, I’ll have some starting funds to get my guild off the ground. At the very least, I should be able to rope in a few future powerhouses with some long-term contracts. I don’t need a massive guild, just enough dedicated people with the potential to clear raids so we can stay ahead of the curve. Quality over quantity. Even the largest, most influential corp-backed guilds feared the truly elite small guilds.
Enough distractions, I’ve got a quest to finish. But first, let’s spend that skill point, shall we?
image [https://i.imgur.com/7AF18SZ.png]
With the wandering scouts cleared out, Raine pushed deeper into their territory. The inner reaches were packed, and pulling individual groups required significantly more guile. Additionally, their parties now contained a warrior and hunter, along with two scouts. The warriors were larger, front-line beasts with much more HP and Potency, as well as a wider variety of weapons. The hunters used spears like the scouts, though they were higher quality and had a small chance to drop on kill.
Both variants used new skills that significantly added to the complexity of fighting them. Raine had no issues adapting due to completing additional novice affinities. With each bump in Finesse and Potency, he became more adept at controlling his movements and was soon comfortable fighting the tougher crogs two at a time.
[Congratulations!]
[Mace mastery has reached Novice 100%]
[Potency +2]
[Physique +4]
[Connection +4]
[See a trainer to advance Mace weapons to Beginner]
[Knives mastery has reached Novice 100%]
[Finesse +5]
[Acuity +4]
[See a trainer to advance Knife weapons to Beginner]
After clearing the second group of warriors and scouts, he also received his first weapon drop from the thieving amphibians.
[Hard Iron Spear: Common Gray - LVL 5 (Attack Power +12) (DEF +6) (PTC +2) (ACU +2) (PHY +2) (Durability 40/40)]
Raine immediately replaced his old spear in his curse roulette and stored it in his inventory to sell later.
There we go! Seven more and I’ll have replaced all my novice gear. Anything I don’t get as a drop before I’m done here, I can buy from Torell after I finish his quest.
Ten thousand SP already, another six groups and both the dagger and I will be level six.
[Quest: Torell’s Grudge - Kill 39/100 Croglock adolescents and bring their marks of maturity to Torell]
Raine ran his eyes over the small marsh leading to the crog village resting atop the lake’s shallowest waters. There were easily another thirty groups between him and the village. Within, he would find the higher-level variants which were over level ten. The difference between level nine and ten enemies was much greater than a mere doubling of attributes. In terms of tactics, intelligence, skills, and move sets, there was no comparing the two.
He still wasn’t ready to face them solo. He needed the rest of his attunements, then his attributes would double as well. Eyes shining with anticipation, Raine advanced on the next group, an axe flashing into his hands.