Chapter Forty - Inventory bags, anyone?

Artha's head would have smoking based on how fast his brain was calculating things. This was a million credits deal. The Dragon Slayers and Bloody Rose were ready to pay half of the credits as advance. 3000 potions in three days. It meant this deal costed over 5 million credits and he would recieve nearly 2-3 millions within minutes. But no! He had to be a smartass and had to grab hold of this golden thigh right now. No finesse. No technique. So he spouted some nonsense in a believable manner and embroidered them in detail. Now he was stuck.

All the talk till now, if it had to bear fruition, then he had offer a great thing as exclusive previlage. What to do?

Voilá. His brain 🧠 finally worked in good direction.

"Inventory bags, anyone?" He asked like a waiter in a posh restaurant offering wine.

" Not the usual 8 or 16 slotted ones. I know you got them plenty. I am selling 1 hundred slot inventory bag and another two hundred slot one. The item will be sold in credits as exclusive bonus this time. You can decide the price. A person can buy both items too. I will be selling this item in future but that time it could be purchased only using coins. I need not explain the importance of having a big inventory bag to either of you. Kindly discuss and if you are happy with the deal, let's sign the contract. I need to log off in 10 minutes and it takes 1 minute to reach my room. So it means you have less than 5 minutes to discuss and create a contract."

All the members in the meeting were frozen.

Inventory bags! Of such huge capacity! To be sold for credits! Heck, sign the contract now!!!!

In the time when there were no warehouses or banks to store items, they had to choose few players to stay in safe areas ( within village limits) and to hold on to items procured. This simple yet lazy job had to be held by most devoted employee in the guild as the player could be carrying more than half of guild resources anytime of the day. Their leveling speed would be at tortoise speed but they could not even try for lifestyle jobs while they spent time within the village. Accounting and transparency were at issue. If there were big inventory bags, the walking talking warehouse players could be reduced and the players could be used as as normal, elite or reserve member. This was just second day and their guilds already had to spare three to four of them as walking warehouses. This team would have even more players when they start having apprentices. The guilds would purchase all related materials in bulk.

Come to think of it, they can also make these raw materials as items needed in the wishlist and this profiteer would send items as and when required. So the current players may be enough to sustain them before leaving the village.

Just like that, the millions of credit contract was signed and sealed. Sometimes it was just like that. They were not moved by all the freebies he had thrown before but this last thing clicked. After making a mental note on need to read up about the things needed by the guilds, he said goodbye to both and left.

The cloak was great. After hiding in the crowd for a while,he escaped into his room. He wanted to do test about the value of the things thrown as garbage. No time though.

Light out, Artha!

Atharva materialised in the VR lobby and browsed for few minutes. With an eye towards the countdown timer, he logged off completely.

What a successful day! Now all he had to do was to fulfill the contract and he would be a millionaire.

In spite of knowing that they would be in a hurry getting ready for work, he called his family, one by one.

It was a loving family. He was the youngest. So when he said he wanted to study in Saint Augustine, no one said no, you can't, we are poor. Everyone in the family pitched in and helped him. That's why whenever he had nightmares, he would see his family getting devastated, becoming even poorer and suffering all sorts of mishaps and humiliations. That's why he had done his best to complete the course in this place.

He had a love- hate relationship with the college. He was thankful for it to give him the opportunity to learn, learn better. He hated because every single day in the last four years had been a hell to him. Even when he became complete shut-in, he was still mocked, harassed and bullied. Just because he was poor. Just because the rich felt he showed an attitude. Just because he had done a bit better than them in tests. It was only when he did not give exams along with them that this sort of harrasment decreased a bit. He really didn't want to try that path but an incident had changed his mind. He got his finger broken. The response from the college side was a apology from the bully and the bully would pay for expenses in the medbay and further treatment, with a bit thrown in as compensation for troubles faced in next few days. If he had not thought of his family, he would have given up at that time and stopped his studies.

As a poor student he had been bullied before but not to this extent. The bullies here were also brilliant minds and had even richer backgrounds. As he was getting healed in the cold medbay, he mapped another path for himself which would have least number of interaction with these students. There was no use in seeking redressal or support from the college.

Sama, the eldest was working as a gofer to a big star. Always bowing and bending. But she painted a pretty picture of the job at home, so the parents didn't stop her. As the star had to move around a lot, she moved along with her, so she didn't stay at home. She rarely had holidays. But there were lots of video chatting, messages. Everytime she came home, every one's purse would have a thick packet of credits.

Reg and Yajoo were twins. Yeah, no idea how his parents named them. No rhyme or reason while naming twins. Reggie was a mechanic. No idea where. He would come once a year in holiday break. Atharva always doubted his claim though. Who would employ a human as a mechanic when there were better robots to do repairs?

Yajoo had a weak body. So he decided to work in a hospital, so that he can get treated freely if he fell ill. Initially, he was staying at home. It was just that he moved out, saying that staying in dormitory was easier as he didn't have to travel to and from day after day.