Chapter 21 - Alchemist Union (3)

Devil and Sin, though great tacticians and best friends, had different starting point. Which actually helped them because they could understand what other party wanted regardless of he is poor, rich, brilliant, average, simple.

Following Saachi's avowal of non submission, they had a small meeting. Very small meeting. Even Happy who was next to them did not understand a thing.

Because it went like this :

" We did not think."

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" Atleast far ahead."

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" Losing oneself..."

" Very bad.... Good thing to know now."

" Help...."

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" Small one?"

" Favour?"

"Bingo!!!"

Yeah, unless the thinking mindset is in sync, understanding their dialogues would be impossible. Happy did not even try this time. He had learnt the lesson long back. " So, what's the decision?"

Saachi escaped from there with a favour hanging over his head. These giants needed some intelligence, for now, and in return, they gave ideas and even more important, money support. He would get interest free loans if he required urgently but it would mean he owed them another favour.

---*----

As soon as Saachi reached home, he made sure he would not be disturbed for next few hours and dived into game. The networking among his college mates would have to wait. When 'MINDERS', started mobilizing, they would be prioritised. Thankfully he had not started any work. If not, it would just like raising cabbage for pig to eat.

A lot of changes had happened inside the game while he was away. Death was very common now. Whether due to monsters or monster like human players, the death rate had brought down the level of players. Small skirmishes were common in grinding and foraging spots. Some leaders were money minded, they would not fight, kill and die if risks did not outweigh the gains. Few others had brought their mindsets of having prestige and face at all times, regardless of the cause and effect.

Weapons broke down often and consumables cost turned sky high. And independent players got struck in between. They could not sell ingredients because another party would mark them and kill them in fields. They could not buy consumables because the cost was too much. This should have been the moment when independent alchemist or weaponsmith showed their power.

Unfortunate for them, few resources went into stronghold of these guild like people and it was not circulating in market. The NPCs had also turned greedy. The prices in the shop kept on increasing arbitrarily.

The promise made to those alchemist pulled Saachi in to the pit too. He kept on getting calls and messages requesting either raw materials or selling potions.

Saachi had to wonder. From what he had learnt while in real life, the situation was not so bad elsewhere. The independent players were not thinking of resetting and start somewhere else. So why did it happen here?

-----*------

The problem was already flagged by support staff in the game. If the players wanted to start somewhere else, they would given a bit extra just because they had played for a day and had nothing to show.

"It will soon turn into anarchy. " One of the support felt bad.

His colleague was veteran, this he was more callous. Game or life, nothing would follow prescribed pattern. You adjust, you learn and you go forward. If you can't do it, get out of the stage.

" If they seek help, we can provide it. If they don't ask for it, are we supposed to spoon feed them?"

How many battles and wars he had not seen. This level of fighting was not even worth a spit. In midst of terror is opportunity to rise. Why is that today's youngsters no longer beleive that axiom? How much money can these bunch of fools dump into ever sucking pit? They would either compromise or go find new pastures, earlier the better. They had people to remind that factor too. Suffer for few days and you might just find the opportunity to shine brighter than a star. The veteran shook his head. He would monitor this village for this week. If players did not alter their behaviour by then or status quo had not changed, he would choose another village to monitor. Just because he was paid, he was not ready to see bunch of stupid kids day in and day out, doing same set of things.

-----*------

The help of game support staff actually turned situation worse. First few cowards or care-free players who left, all found that they got nice bonuses like better gear or extra money or potions or ..., so they informed their friends, maybe friends, etc urging them to jump the ship. Those who had nothing to lose, like purely monster hunting ones happily jumped. The buffs given would help them to reach higher levels faster. They were in brink of turning level 4 but now they were in brink of falling to level 1. This sort of menace...not their cup of tea.

The problem was the lifestyle players. It had taken lots of effort to increase complete rate and increase the level of life style skill. Still....it was better to start anew now than to wait .

It was at this time, Niyam (Saachi's avatar) slowly started 'Alchemist union' right under the nose of those battle hungry leaders