“Wake up! Breakfast time.” I heard a shout and quickly sat up. I had slept in my clothes so they wouldn’t disappear. I got out of bed and headed towards food. It was simple enough to put on my shoes that I had kept on the side of my bed just in case and make my way outside. Food was being handed out and I took some.

Louis was speaking to the group once more with his abnormally loud voice. “Today, I will be explaining the jobs you can take. The first job is also the most dangerous but most rewarding. That is to hunt monsters. If you want to be a guard, you need at least some basic fighting experience, so this a pathway to that job as well.” Looking around I saw several younger people nodding slightly at this job.

“The next job is to work at the brothel. Your earnings will depend on you, and there is a lot of competition.”

“That is it for available public jobs. City jobs require connections, which none of you have. If business owners requested specialized personnel, I will have mentioned it to you yesterday during the census. People who want to hunt, go over to that side of the Plaza. Captain Gerold will explain how things work and make sure you purchase proper gear from the store.” I noted at an older man wearing red waving people over.

“For people who want to try the pleasure houses, both men and women, you can interview with Lady Rose. She manages the brothels on behalf of the Red Dawn. People I spoke to yesterday can remain here.”

“Excuse me!” One woman spoke up. “What if we can’t hunt or work at a brothel?”

“Then you can die away from the plaza, so we don’t have to clean up the mess. Begging isn’t allowed and bothering businesses asking for work is not allowed. I wanted to remind you all of that. Your best bet is to try hunting blue slimes. Once your ten days are up, you have to hunt in the other starting areas. If you don’t have skill, make friends, if you don’t have friends, find some, if you can’t do anything, well no one is going to hold your hand. Gerold and Lady Rose will both be here tomorrow morning if your first decision didn’t work out. Now get moving, no more questions.”

Everyone began shuffling off. There was an older man waiting with me near Louis. We both got several dirty looks, but I was used to those from school, being the top of my class. Haters were going to hate. The best thing to do with them is excel and then smirk as the less competent got lower grades and terrible job offers. Just like right now. Excellence and hard work would always rise to the top, out of the sea of mediocrity.

Louis made sure everyone was moving away and then looked at both of us. “Alright, come on you two. Time for the interview with the big boss himself.”

“What do you mean?” The older man asked. Idiot, Louis already explained that we were being considered for a higher position, but it was clear the final say didn’t rest with him.

“You will be interviewing with Elected Representative Ken. There are limited resources to support research positions. So, it is imperative that each person selected is extremely capable and can produce immediate results.” There was silence as we led to what appeared to be a bakery and taken up to the second floor.

We sat in silence in a waiting room with a guard giving both of us a glare. The old man was finally called into another room. About ten minutes later he left with a depressed look on his face. He wasn’t going to be getting a position within the city hierarchy apparently. “Next,” Louis came out of the room, and I was called in.

I noted an older and grasping looking man sitting behind a desk with several open books on it. That had to be Elected Representative Ken. Louis gestured to a seat in front of the desk. I noted a third man sitting off to the side and two guards in the corners of the room. I took a seat. There was silence, and I decided to speak up. Carpe diem, seize the day.

“Hello, I am Chase Hasterfield. I am or was, a student at Harvard University working on my Chemistry PhD. Is there a position open?” I asked. Ken held up a hand, finished what he was working on and then looked up.

“What was your thesis on?”

“X-ray crystallography. That involves shooting x-rays at crystals to determine their atomic composition and other information by the diffraction of the x-rays.”

“Any experience with organic products, like fruits and vegetables?”

“Some. I had several classes on organic chemistry. You are looking for food byproducts?”

“To some extent. What I really want are narcotics.” Years of high-pressure public presenting allowed me to keep my composure at that statement. He wanted drugs? I felt dirty just thinking about it.

“Drugs, depends on the fruit and vegetables. Realistically the simplest thing I would know how to make is beer or other forms of alcohol.”

“I already have people working on alcohol. Drugs?” I paused to think over what I knew about organic chemistry and drugs.

“Fennel and opium, if the plants are available?” Ken looked at one of his books.

“No, those aren’t in the store. What other ideas?” I began to feel the pressure a bit. That just made excel even more.

“Bael, otherwise known as aegle marmelos. It is aromatic, astringent, cooling, and a laxative.”

Ken wrote something down. “I will check that, but that is medicinal, and mostly pointless with the restorations. Drugs?”

“The coffee cherry?”

“Already being worked on. That was the first idea I personally had. What else?” Come on Chase! Think!

“Magic mushrooms?”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Fungi aren’t available in the store.”

“Cannabis?”

“Nope.”

“Coca berries?” There was a long pause at that.

“What can they make?”

“Normally the leaves are used, but the berries possess alkaline properties as well. The most commonly known drug made from them is cocaine.” I had no idea how powerful the berries were to the leaves, but I wasn’t going to admit that.

“Excellent. How long until you can produce some cocaine?” Murder and drugs. This place was insane.

“Depends on the equipment and chemicals available. My guess is limited and none?”

“That is correct. Can you, do it?” Of course, I couldn’t do anything without a proper lab. But I wasn’t about to say that to a drug lord who had people killed on a whim.

“I can’t speak to the potency. The best I will be able to figure out is how to increase the impact of the berries themselves. A wine should be possible.”

“A high-end product then,” Ken let out a long sigh. “Well, you clearly have some knowledge and idea of what direction to go in. Louis, what do you think?”

“It will be a point sink. I keep saying we should focus on food and not drugs,” Louis said.

“Drugs are where the crystals are at. Still, a highly addictive wine would be a good direction to go forward. I am going to authorize a budget and a room in our research building. Make sure Chase here understands the security protocols.”

“Got it, how much?”

“Hmmm, let’s set his operational budget for the next ten days at 2,500 points. That means you have ten days to produce something. If you fail, you can go hunt monsters with the rest. Understand?” Hunt monsters, or be fed to them?

“Of course. I will have something ready by then.” It was a crazy deadline, but I would find a way. This chance sounded far better than hunting monsters or working at a brothel. It wasn’t like I had a real choice.

Ken stood up and I did as well. We shook hands and then I followed Louis out of the room. He led me to a room and handed me a pack. I checked inside, there were a lot of small round crystals. “Each of those is a 5-point crystal. Now come on. We are going to the research building.”

I clutched the pack as we made our way through several side streets. It took fifteen minutes of walking until we reached a building with a door. “This is the research building. Guards are in the nearby buildings. If you need to visit the store, you will be escorted. Consider this place top secret. Understand?”

“Yes, got it.” The security was quite lacking for a place that was supposed to be top secret.

“Good.” Louis knocked on the door. “Passcode, epsilon.”

“Challenge.”

“Two, glue.” The door swung open. I followed Louis inside. There was an older man sitting back down at a table. “Chase, this is Jerry. Jerry, Chase.”

“Pleasure.” The old man just gave me a slight nod, and I quickly lowered my hand that I had held out to shake.

“Jerry here is your manager. You need to leave or want something, talk to him. He will arrange it. Questions?” I shook my head.

I was then shown the waste room and my personal room. I had a table, chair, bed, and a light orb on the ceiling. There was a communal shower for everyone else in the building. There was only one other person working at the moment.

I got the impression, that people were vanished if they didn’t perform. Everything was happening quite quickly, and I my life was on the line. Still, I had to adapt. After being shown around, I was escorted back to the plaza.

Once there, I took my time to get used to the mental interface and look through all the options. I cashed in 400 5-point crystals for 2,000 points. I began purchasing copper equipment. The metal wasn’t optimal, but it was cheap. I would have preferred glassware, but that wasn’t an option.

I finally had a chance to purchase the stats Louis had talked about during the question session with other people. I had 2,400 points no one knew about, which gave me a 17 stat point purchases with 20 points left over. I set my budget at 16 stat points, which was 2,200 points. I purchased two stat points each in all 8 available stats. While it may be better to focus on one stat, I didn’t want to miss an advantage any stat point might give me.

My purchases were three copper bowls, three drinking flasks, mortar, pestle, knife, and cloth. I also purchased a large amount of coca berries. I carefully packed everything back into the pack with the remaining crystals. Once that was completed, a guard escorted me back to the research building.

I quickly sat down at my table and laid everything out on it, including the crystals. I carefully cut open one of the coca berries. They were incredibly small and red, and cost only a single point each. I had purchased 1,000 of them.

I looked at what I had and wanted to cry. This was a big difference from the state of the art lab I was used to. A soft bell rang once. That meant dinner. I needed to think some more. I left my room and went to the main room, bringing my chair with me. There were no spare chairs apparently.

An older woman was already eating some bread and vegetables along with Jerry. “Hello, I am Chase.”

“Sam. Hope you make it.” Jerry sent her a glare but didn’t say anything. I sat down.

“Make it?”

“You need to produce results. Good luck.” That just confirmed my fears.

“Thank you. Are you working on alcohol?”

“Yep. It is a nightmare, trust me on that. But I know food, so here I am. You?”

“Chemistry, drugs.”

“Oh, well hope you do better than the last person.”

“No talking about failures,” Jerry cut in. We both gave him a look and Sam rolled her eyes. I was going to be killed in ten days for sure.

“If you say so,” Sam just said and shrugged. “Well good luck. The equipment sucks, the materials are off, and nothing makes sense.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“The beer from the store. It tastes like beer, smells like beer. But guess what? It isn’t beer. I am a beer expert, and it is off. It is the little things, like how you pour some out, it doesn’t leave a sticky mess when it evaporates. Like everything else, it looks correct, but the details are off.”

I considered what she had said. “The crystals are unique, any investigation on them?”

“A lot already. They are unbreakable, even to strong acid. People tried eating them, but they just pass right on through. Not very pleasant either. Trust me, everything that could be thought of has been tried, but their only use is being exchanged in the store for points,” Sam said.

“Really? What has been tried?”

“Dissolving in water, acid, even blood. If you find something, well that would be a result. But it is a waste of time in my opinion. Better to focus on what we can do with what we have. Fruits and vegetables.” Sam let out a long sigh. I didn’t buy into that mindset, but I would take her words under advisement.

“Well, the first batch of alcohol is going to be rough. I need so much more. Decent stills, time to ferment, hops. This place is terrible,” Sam muttered the last part. I agreed with her. Jerry just kept glaring at us but didn’t say anything.

The rest of the meal went by in silence, since none of us were talkative people and we had our own concerns. After the meal I got water from the bathroom into two bowls and dropped a crystal into one. Water was a universal solvent, and I didn’t trust Sam completely. Trust but verify was key in any kind of research. The drug berries could wait. This was a completely new substance, and it piqued my curiosity.

Using the mortar and pestle didn’t do anything to the crystal. Neither did the knife. I even licked one and there was no taste. I looked at the bowl of water with the crystal in it and the pile of coca berries. I let out a long sigh. Maybe luck would shine on me in my hour of need. I wanted to be back in my lab working on x-ray crystallography. Not making drug wine for a very shady government that killed people on a whim, in a city with the sketchy name of Purgatory. Whoever named it had terrible naming sense, using such a depressing name.

Out of frustration and wanting something to happen. I poked the bowl of water and imagined the crystal dissolving. I felt something leave me. The crystal broke apart in the water and dissolved.