Chapter Twenty two - Winding up

The conspiracy among the NPCs meant that few hundred villages among millions would be doomed. The game had taken that to consideration too. The game had various ways to compensate the players and to bring the story forward. As promised before, the players would play a prominent role in story progression and would receive reciprocal rewards for the same. If players could save some of the NPCs from these 'doomed' villages, these NPCs would walk and entirely different pathway than envisioned. It was this open ending with story updating itself based on the response from the game in the real time that it felt wonderful and unique. It was this charm which was made possible only by working of few massive AIs together and setting up the stage at this moment.

The players in Artha's village was enjoying the atmosphere. Not all though. Few guild members , the think tanks, the consolidaters were working, collating the details together and infering. Other than those players who were playing in latest model VR pods, others all had count down timer working near right upper corner of invisible screen. As soon as it hit zero, unless one was in combat mode, they would be logged off. The disclaimer underneath cautioned players to log off in safe area and players could log off sooner too. No need to wait till auto log off. Pshh! Who would give up playing for few minutes extra , that too on first day.

Of course there was another way of extending the stay within the game. There was a '+' symbol next to the count down timer. Obvious! Pay in coins, continue playing some extra time. If first five minutes costed 10 bronze coins, next five costed 25, next five more than triple. Longer the stay more the coins loss.

Auto log off feature was to maintain quality of cheaper lowest grade VR gear, which was what majority of people would have purchased initially. The heating issue and cross connections, the wear and tear of components within the VR gear... better to be safe than sorry. Another reason was uniformity. When majority of people had to log off after nearly eight hours of fun yet intense gaming before starting new working day in real life, it's better to cater to them and tailor make schedule suited for them.

Though the collating of data would continue later in real life, making broad statistics would be useful before logging off. The experts would put in what resources they wanted and which map they would tackle next day. The guilds had to arrange for able followers or assistants to these experts or scions. The weapons, the equipments, even the skill books if found they had to be arranged. Few top tier guilds started making their own library with details they had collected and assumed.

Experts, well, they had capacity to hunt till the log off period. If they were using the latest VR pod version, the log off time would have been extended automatically for few more minutes. So logging off later would be a point to show off. The village had only one bar. Fortunately the upper floor was sparse. It would be as many didn't have enough capital to waste on drinking. But this place turned out to be another way to show superiority. The face of the guilds and workshops started chatting while sipping alcohol or juice. Bragging session on.

The actual workers were sitting next to the stalls. The purchase and selling would be at peak before closing the game for the day. The advantage of having a rich background and able workers was coming to effect now. The rich, the spenders with gang of bootlickers just walked around all the stalls, purchased latest equipments, armours or other stuff for themselves and showed off. The so called experts around them got slightly poorer items. Others, the best bootlickers and the herald of epic proportions, who catered to narsiccism of the rich got treated just like an expert of the team. Other bootlickers could only watch enviously. They had learnt the lesson. Praise and praise the boss. The scraps he dropped would be definitely more than what they could get normally.

Having said that, it should be noted that such rich masters were very few in number. The other important group was made of guild members or workshop members. Workshop members had it easy. They didn't sell anything including odds and ends they found. They would be sold to bigger guilds as bulk order in later date. They purchased only necessary things and they had to purchase within the limits.

The guilds. Technically, there were no guilds in the game. But they had rich history and experience in beginning from novice village level. The experts would have a fixed retinue following them always. They would be incharge of logistics and everything else. They purchased premium items on behalf of experts or asked other teams to purchase. If the expert came to purchase, he would not look at price but on the worth of item and comparability. The elites always worked as team. The reserves in elites though would be left to float around. These and regular workers(yes, workers- paid employees of the guild or the club) would be in charge of selling or buying. The leader of the guild when spawned in a novice village, he would hog all the resources by virtue of numbers. His followers would probably be nearly half or more of the village players. Thus the leaders almost always never have opposition at village level. The guilds wouldn't sell items, not even knick- knacks unless it was to show their prowess. They purchased in bulk and bargained. A penny saved is a penny earned.

So the large part of the group selling items in the stall were also the group who bought them- independent players , be it casual players or dedicated players. They were new to the game, they didn't know how to play it, they had all the knowledge but they could not implement it the best, they just wanted to destress thus not giving it much importance - whatever the reason might be, they were part of the independent players. They sold all sorts items in stalls. If not sold here then just sell it to NPC. Selling items, hawking for them added unique charm to the game experience.