Chapter 26: Changing Direction

"You want to open a shop?" Dex asked in confusion. "You never mentioned—"

"No," Hugh interrupted. "Real estate. If I can buy prime property, I can flip it by selling to runners at a premium. There will be at least one or two who will show up late. They'll buy from me to save their own asses. Is that possible?"

"Let me process this for a second," he replied in thought. "You currently have nine hundred Zettabits. That's not enough to buy a premium shop front outright, but you could rent one for nine days. I don't think runners will want to wait you out, because then they'll have to compete with others. If you bluff and make them think you have the money to renew the rental agreement, they'll be doubly motivated to buy you out. It's a long shot, though. You'll be gambling a lot on being one of the first people to reach Nexus and convincing someone to buy from you. This will affect your gameplay here on your planet, too. You'll be entering Nexus with only the Neutral route achievement."

"Can I come back and get the Explorer's achievement?"

"Yes, but—"

"Nope," Hugh said. He quickly dismantled the camp, storing everything into his inventory with several quick waves of his wand. "My mind is made up. We can argue on the way to town."

"Very well, but I hope you don't regret this," he said as he followed Hugh over to their bicycles. "Considering how you initially spent the morning, this seems like a rash decision for you."

Hugh grinned as they mounted and took off north in accordance with Scout's directions. "You've only known me half a day. Trust me, this is nothing. You should have seen the time I decided to take a pick-up group into the Mines of Yorsha. That was rash. It's an all or nothing dungeon. You either make it through or hit the escape button and forfeit everything you're carrying. By the time we came out the other side, my armor was completely busted and I was fighting with my fists. It was worth it, though. I don't think this will be any different. I might be sacrificing in the short-term and I'm going to be crying with muscle aches, but human society runs on money. Having it means we won't have to worry about a lot of things other players will have to deal with."

"I won't complain if it works, but I still think you're relying a lot on luck. What if another gamer has the same idea as you?"

"How likely is that? You said you were surprised I wasn't approached by a corporation. I'm assuming that means most known gamers were. They'll be focused on meeting their sponsor's demands and won't have a whole lot of their own money to work with. I'm assuming Tryton Corp also specified in their contracts they won't be able to buy more than one store, since knowing about the stores ahead of time would be considered insider knowledge."

"You're correct. Corporate-sponsored representatives are limited to buying a single storefront. If another member of their team beats arrives first, they won't be allowed to buy. They can only help in the building process until the terms of their contract end."

"So that just leaves freelance gamers like me as competition. How many of those do you think will race to Nexus and have the funds on hand to buy every single empty storefront?"

"Few, if any. I'm starting to see your point. Even if they try, they'll be limited to three locations."

"What's the city like?" Hugh asked. "I'm imagining one big metropolis, but I can't imagine how it would work with the entire population of Earth moving through it."

"There are multiple instances of Nexus. You'll automatically be directed to the American shard, but there are Gateways so you can visit other country-based shards at will. And remember it's a fabricated city. You should imagine it more like a space station than a planet-based metropolis. The entire city is enclosed in an inverted, terraced pyramid. Each terrace is dedicated for a different use with the Food Court being the lowest tier closest to the Gateway Hub. That's where I suggest you buy a storefront. The rest of the city is a collection of buildings leading to instanced areas. Even the housing areas are instanced."

"I'm guessing there's a lot of instanced shopping malls?" At Dex's nod, Hugh asked, "What's different about the Food Court? No, let me guess. It's the only type of store with a storefront visible from the Gateway. They probably want the area around the Hub to stay inhabited and people always go where the food is."

"Exactly right. They want the most active places closer to the Hub for easy accessibility. The higher the tier you visit, the less active it should become. It goes Food, Shopping, Entertainment, then Arenas, Events, and Public Offices. The last two tiers are Residential and a viewing platform with recreational parks."

"I hope you know I won't remember all that."

"You don't have to. Your map will be labeled as soon as you open it in Nexus."

"I have one more question before I shut up and focus on riding. What about the beta-testers? Won't some of them beat me to Nexus? They've already played the game and know what to expect."

"The game developers were very careful to keep things as fair as possible. Beta-testers won't be allowed to open their Gateways for two weeks. They can develop their worlds, but they can't leave them. In exchange, they were allowed to leave messages behind for their families letting them know they wouldn't be in contact until the two weeks were over."

"Then the corporate runners and professional gamers will be my only real competition," Hugh said in thought. "They'll be ahead of us because they probably skipped through landscaping phase, leaving their worlds flat and featureless. They also probably spawned vehicles with motors. I still think we have a fair chance at beating some of them, though. There will be the guys who are so focused on getting to Nexus they'll set off on foot without thinking twice about it. And there will be the guys who get diverted to the Builder's route because they aren't firm with the NPCs."

"And remember you're only really competing against other Americans," Dex said. "I doubt many foreign corporations will have thought to tell their people to open up shop in another country or realize it's possible. That wasn't part of the information they were given."

"That makes me want to try to do it again on the Japanese or Chinese shard if we manage to flip fast," Hugh replied. "Can you translate if we do? I can't negotiate in Mandarin."

"No need. Thrive will automatically translate for you. You'll only ever hear English or need to speak it. People who speak French will only ever hear French, Japanese will hear Japanese, and so on. The same goes for written text. No matter what language something is written in, you'll comprehend it as English unless it's intentionally written in code."

Since that allayed the last concern he had, Hugh stopped talking and focused his energy in pedaling.