chapter 10- A bumper bonus - Multiplier

Saachi had no idea that his lottery gift had blown minds of few support and GM of the game. Even the coders there were wondering about life and it's meaning.

Saachi himself had out of body moment before he snapped back to reality. He did not get extra resource or exceptional weapon. He did not get spells or skill points. No , no, no, he got a bumper prize (atleast it felt like bumper prize to him).

He got bonus multiplier. So when he collected monster drops, one item among them would be multiplied. If he was unlucky, Multiplier would be just 2, so he would get just double the amount of item.

If he was very very lucky, multiplier would be 1000x. So if that bonus somehow picks a really good item like unique or epic item(in later parts of the game), he would potentially have 1000 of that item. He could become multi millionaire on that bonus itself.

But he was not thinking that far ahead. He was wondering if the bonus would apply to quest rewards or lifestyle skills. If it was only former one, he would turn the whole of ASTORIA to get more and more unique quests to get special bonuses, in multiples.

If the latter was also included..... stop him from becoming No.1 lifestyle player.

Saachi could not hold himself together anymore, he started grinning like an idiot and kept on bowing to the super lucky pixie. What teenager's wet dream personified? What thick skinned salesperson? This one was the best of all the pixies out there, his lucky charm.

" Before leaving, traveller, won't you even say your name?" The pixie asked. The countdown to game launch was now few seconds away.

Saachi was still feeling exuberant. He answered, " Oh beauty! I shall leave my name with you. Just watch as it becomes known everywhere in ASTORIA. I am Niyam, Rules personified."

The disasters happened in his previous life was many did not follow rules, especially the people with power. This time.... this time they would feel and suffer just like he did. If possible, he would make sure they suffered even more. They would learn that rules are there for a reason, and it was not a toy used and discarded as wished.

Even as his name was reverberating in the empty space, he was unceremoniously dropped to village 113578, one of the typical novice village inside the game. The game was launched officially.

Thanks to number of villages and limited number of high end VR gear users, Saachi was the only player in village 113578 currently. The situation would change in few minutes and players would outnumber NPCs in village. But now... he had time to rush and meet all NPCs and collect quests.

To add to realism, NPCs in the game had their own lives, their own characteristics. Basically, they were more human than human themselves in the game. So Saachi had to do small talk with NPCs ,which he did, regardless of their jobs and designation. Normal pattern was the players would meet key player NPCs to get quests. It may be village chief, apothecary, a merchant shop, a butcher, a florist, a blacksmith, a tailor, a chef ...Most of the time, NPCs would also clue in which NPC to seek next , when the quest is finished.

Why is that? Because each of the quest may require different skills and learnings and the basic learnings are must and should for every one.

Without 'Identify', how can the level and basic name of monster would be known? Without 'Collect', the monster drops had to be collected manually. There were many more even including cooking, foraging, mining, potion making, tailoring.... Humans had infinite capacity to learn and had brains to multi- task. So there was no capping in learning basic skills or having quests.

Anyway, the quests in novice village were basic thus no penalty would be issued if it was not completed. In later stages, the penalty would be so huge that the players would think twice before accepting any quests.

But the time he came out near the novice killing field to torture and kill mice and other animals, many players had joined the field. Few were solo players, basically minding their own businesses. Few were comrades or couples or friends. They had apparently learnt about 'Party' function. Few had even formed basic iron triangle famous in RPG games- a tank, a DPS(damage dealer) and a healer. He could even see hints of guilds in the field. They had more cohesiveness, thanks to hours of playing together.

As this field was just to learn how to use the weapons, and had little quests related to it, people would leave as soon as their quests finished. Even the beauties, who were more interested in visuals, scenaries did not linger. There would be even better looking places.

He looked some more. This time he focused on guild people or solo players, basically anyone who was concentrating to kill. These people would have chosen semi-automatic assist or manual control.

In previous life, he was menial worker and worked only with automatic assist. Thus he had no idea how different and difficult other options would be. Granted, they would be hard, or else the benefits would not be so good.

The conclusion - it would be hard. Very, very, hard.