Chapter Twenty four - count

The guild players from the village 17622 were asked the same question in the meetings. Why do you people earn more coins as task rewards? Where is the problem? Unlike other players who play for fun, they play as job. They have their own system for calculating things within the game and decide the maximum limit that can be spent. The senses of these human faced calculators were tingling. There was something odd going on. Paying extra to players now meant that NPCs were expecting the cost of other items to increase beyond the acceptable level in near future. The game would try it's d*mnable best to ensure that even the basic noob player could have some resource atleast enough to keep on playing. It would not want players to give up playing because they could not afford to pay the potions or bandages or even weapons. But was this price rise was isolated phenomenon? Would it occur in other villages too? Why was this happening? Another matter to keep an eye on and report to the central command ASAP.

Patrick Channing and his 'friends' had opened a workshop. To be precise, they purchased a premium workshop and renamed it as 'Tyrants Rule'. That would be their guild's name in future. His requirement from the workshop was to have a base to flex and show his power. To this end, the workshop had sent few of its elite members as assistants, to ensure that the Prince Charming would be the highest level player in the game. If that was not possible, then the minimum was to be within top five. Prince Charming 's luck was good. To say it differently, the workshop's luck was heavenly. They didn't have any guilds trying to hog the attention from the Prince or his friends. All of them had poured money into workshop and in game to roam around lawlessly. After a day in game, they felt jubilant. They had found a new place to enjoy the life in its fullest.

Atharva woke up after logging off from the game. The first thing he did was to confirm that the credits were in bank account. Though it was said that binding account would be foolproof and credit transfer was instantaneous, he wanted to confirm again. He had sold more than 1000 potions in total for credits . Thus he should have nearly a million added to his account. Sun Lord was in a hurry, thus had paid highest price but other guilds were stockpiling for emergencies, so they had paid less. But he had sold to many. Unfortunately, not many had paid for transaction fee, so it would be cut from his end. Still, to a person who's account had just minimum credits unless there was deposit from scholarship which would again go out as college fee, this amount of money was a miracle. And it was only first day inside the game. Could he earn a million or two before end of free trial?

He got ready and went to wait in scholarship department. As it was catering to the poor, the academy had not gone high end. It was manned by volunteers and teachers with old fashioned ideologies.

Today it was manned by Mrs Briggs. He had a soft spot for her. He always felt her razor sharp tongue, soul cutting replies hid a soft core which wanted to help poor kids like him. He felt easier to deal with her than Ms Rosa or Mr Aleno, one had cold gloomy face and other looked in a condescending way but put on a bright smile while doing so.

"I had taken this week's duty to have long nap but you are disturbing me," Mrs Briggs said. Her eyes were still closed. She continued without allowing him to speak, " We can't discuss scholarship options before results come in. Wait till then."

Atharva didn't mind this in the face dismissal. He replied quietly," I have come to pay back part of student loan."

You see, the scholarship department ahad a tie up with the leading banks and based on this department's recommendations, they would issue education loan. The scholarship department, education loan department of bank and student expenses office in the admission department formed tripod of life for the poor yet brilliant student. The money would roam between these three and never actually reached the student unless of course it was receipt for the money to be paid to the college. Out of these three, scholarship department was the only student friendly department which handled all queries and miscellaneous work related to scholarship, fees and education loans.

Mrs Briggs was shocked. In her long career, she had not heard this statement many times and each time it had been a harbinger of epic moments. Her legs slipped from the footstool under the table and she sat straight. She looked at the student. She had seen this kid before. He was poorer than the poorest student. She had been against accepting him into the college as she had felt that the burden of education loan would be too much for him and his family. Yet, he was still here. And now, he claimed he wanted to pay back part of the humungous education loan.

She waved her hands asking him to take the seat. " Come, tell me. What illegal thing did you do to get that money. If it's not too bad, I will try to get you less punishment." Clearly, a student who had not passed the exams, with no mentor or a Godfather, can make that much money only by illegal means or toeing in grey areas. See, this was one of the reasons he liked her. She was ready to help a poor sap even when he was pushed down by the society and his lack of good conscience.

Atharva laughed. " No, ma'am, no need to worry. I got it legitimately. I was lucky and sold some important thing in a game. It was pure luck that I earned this money. So I want to pay it towards my debt."

"You do realise that education loans actually cost cheapest of interests, right? Why don't you use this money for some thing else and even deposit it in the bank to earn some interest? Or is the amount you have is not enough as fixed deposit?"

" I want to pay back seven hundred thousand credits. I have left some extra for emergencies. No, I don't want to use that money for anything else." Atharva answered all questions patiently.

As the fees and miscellaneous amount spent in Saint Augustine went into millions of credits and there was record of students giving up in the middle, the system was entirely different for rich and poor. The rich paid all the fees for the semester together - tens of millions of accomodation, still more for food and nearly thrice as much of both as college fee. Exam fee would be paid separately.

The poor....The admission section, this department and a member from education loan department from bank, they would form a committee and decide how much fees had to be paid in the beginning, how much could be under the loan and the parameters for scholarship. The loan mostly paid for accomodation, food. These were fixed expenses. The loan amount would enter the student account and zoop, it would flow out equally fast into college account. The main expenses from college, exam fee would be partly filled by scholarship department and at the end of the college, the student had to take a massive education loan to pay the remaining fees.