Chapter 25: Dupe

The bug-out bag turned out to be a better choice than he expected. Not only did the nondescript black backpack have the soup, thermos, and towel he remembered, but it had a change of clothes, a selection of emergency tools, and a complete dopp kit. Inside the dopp kit was the soap he'd wanted, along with a tube of muscle cream and everything else he'd need to feel clean.

"Here," he said, holding out the clothes and battered sneakers for Dex. After a moment of thought, he added the bar of soap and the beach towel to the top of the pile. "It's just jeans and a shirt, but it'll probably be better than the crap you're wearing. I know the shoes will be an improvement, so hopefully they'll fit you. And I know you're worried about contaminating the pond with the soap, but maybe you can use the bucket and clean up on the shore before you swim? The soap is all natural so it shouldn't hurt to rinse it off in the grass."

"Are you going to join me?" Dex asked as he accepted the stack.

"Maybe in a while," he replied a little too quickly. "I want to scan everything first and put up the pavilion."

Dex shot him a look that said he didn't believe him—for good reason. Hugh had already realized the pond didn't offer any privacy and his bug-out bag didn't have any swimsuits inside. While skinny dipping might sound fun, he knew it was going to be embarrassing as hell doing it alongside a male specimen like Dex. Every insecurity he had would be on full display. He'd rather put the moment off for as long as possible.

Thankfully, Dex didn't argue, leaving Hugh to pointedly focus on scanning everything in his bag down to the last cotton ball. He was surprised to find a paracord bracelet with a Tech bonus listed on its tool-tip, giving him a two percent reduction in falling damage. He equipped it in his empty arms slot and grinned when a version appeared stretched around his bicep. Curious, he moved it to the legs slot to see what would happen. It disappeared from his arm and reappeared as an anklet.

Leaving it there, he turned his attention to the rest of the bag's contents, going through everything before storing it piece by piece inside his inventory. Once he had the bag completely empty, he went back into his inventory and tried to decide the best way to organize some of the mess he'd made. The sight of a half-dozen icons for various gemstones—leftovers from disassembling the treasure chest—caught his eye. He summoned them one at a time into the bag, marveling at the size of some of the cut rocks, then stored the bag.

He felt a niggle of unease when he saw the bug-out bag had a new label in his inventory, 'Bag of Gems'. It didn't take him long to figure out why it bothered him. If he scanned the bag, it'd be a single-item scan and he could potentially have Dex duplicate it.

The same thing could be potentially done with any raw resources. If he crafted a big enough container, he could work his way up a scan at a time until he could duplicate an entire mountain worth of goods. There would still be the issue of transporting it, but that could be solved by crafting better Levitation Tech for his Book.

Why hadn't the beta-testers noticed the infinite multiplication exploit and reported it? Or had they? Had Dex ever told him the limitations of the daily spawns? Hugh didn't think so.

"Hey, Dex," he called out, careful not to look over at the pond where the Navigator had set up to bathe. "What's keeping players from using their daily spawns to dupe resources?"

"Navigators," he replied, pitching his voice to carry. "We're the gatekeepers of the daily spawn uses. If we think a player is using it as a game exploit, we simply won't put the item in your inventory. There's nothing a player can do to make us, either. The only thing we'll duplicate infinitely is toilet paper, your Book, your starter bread, and water wells. Everything else is limited to three to keep you from finding a good gear set and infinitely replacing it with copies instead of repairing it."

"Or flooding the market with dupes," Hugh added. "Okay, that makes a lot more sense than the developers letting players duplicate infinitely."

"Oh, you could duplicate infinitely but not from item spawns," Dex said. "You could set half your NPCs to obtaining renewable resources and set your other half to using those resources to craft the same item over and over. In doing so, you'll have a potentially infinite supply. It's how many of the businesses in Nexus will work. The owners' worlds will be supply factories, although I expect most won't be operational within the next week unless they're very motivated and very careful in how they use their Genesis Spear."

Although Hugh intended to think about the idea of setting up shop while he set up camp, his mind wandered back to the bag of gems in his inventory. Dex's explanation made it clear he wouldn't be able to multiply them, but he was fascinated the whole idea of putting multiple items into one bundle. He wondered if he could create a portable base that way. He'd still need to invest some time into creating better Levitation Tech for his Book, but it'd make adventuring so much easier if he could pop out a ready-made home anytime he wanted.

How long would it take his NPCs to learn the necessary technology to build such a thing? Hugh winced when he realized it'd be months and months at the very least, since he'd have to equip the base with some kind of Tech so it could adapt to new terrain. Perhaps some kind of shock-absorbing strut and a self-leveling mechanism?

"What has you staring off into space?" Dex asked, coming up behind him. Startled, Hugh spun around to find the Navigator drying his wet hair with his towel. There was something strangely satisfying seeing him dressed in Hugh's spare clothes from the bug-out bag. He didn't understand why they were hugging Dex's body like they were made for him when they should have hung loosely, but Dex looked good in them. Of course, he'd already looked good, but the modern clothing made him seem a little more real than he had before.

"What?" Hugh asked. It took a second for him to recall what Dex had asked. "Oh. Nothing really. Just trying to think of the best way to bring my NPCs out of the medieval era and toward something more current. What you said about businesses in Nexus got me thinking, but they're not going to be very useful at anything in the beginning. Are they? I'm guessing NPCs will know basic blacksmithing, but they won't know the first thing about computers. Or am I making assumptions again? How much of their old civilization will they have kept?"

"That's an interesting question," Dex said as he hung the towel up over the edge of the canopy to dry. "You're right in saying they won't have anything beyond the basics in the beginning, but comprehension? Once you introduce a concept, there won't be any fumbling in implementing it. For example, medicine. If you add the field to your Science Appendices and give them basic medical items to study, they can potentially progress from medieval age to modern age within a few days.

The main factor is whether you'll be able to keep up with their demands. Progression will be limited in a large way by the resources on hand and your own attention span. If you don't push them forward, their progress will slow and eventually stagnate. At the same time, you can't push too far too fast. If you hand them a computer, they'll be able to use it. But build it? No. It's far too complicated and integrates a dozen different trades. It would take them a year of study to build one, even if you started them on it today. My advice is to work your way up in stages. Have them progress from the Medieval Era into the Victorian Era and then move them into the Industrial Era. The Digital Era and the Quantum Era would be an end-goals."

"There has to be a shortcut if you think businesses in Nexus can be running in a week," Hugh argued.

Dex shook his head, slinging a few drops of water onto his shoulders. "Not in the way you're thinking. The first player-run businesses in Nexus will be eateries, book stores, and simple goods like textiles. Corporate businesses will have electronics and technology, but only because they contracted with Tryton Corp before launch. Major corporations who accepted Tryton Corp's terms were given a month of unlimited item duplication, limited to one hundred scans each, to give them time to build up factories and supply lines. Right now, the corporate owners or their hired teams are all racing to get to Nexus first so they can get their businesses in place before players start arriving.

And before you yell at me about unfair advantages, you should know they paid billions of dollars for this small privilege and it's the primary reason the Cryosis suits weren't sold to the public for tens of thousands of dollars a piece. You should also know they were only given the offer a month ago when Handiscanner kits were mailed out to preorder players, so it's not like they were given years to plan a strategy. They don't have any insider knowledge on how the game works, either. They picked up their suits yesterday with everyone else and weren't allowed to log in until midnight like everyone else. They even need representatives make it through the tutorial phase and into Nexus to purchase a storefront like everyone else. Actually, I'm a little surprised none of them approached you about being hired as a corporate runner. If it was you, you could have reached Nexus within—"

"How much does it cost," Hugh asked, licking his lips with sudden avarice. "If we went straight to Nexus right now, how much will it cost to buy out a storefront? Do I have enough?"