Town Builder - 100- Thieving Bastards

Chapter 100: Thieving Bastards

It didn’t take me long to come to a decision. “I will not resist if you let my companions go.”

The elementalkin's hands were engulfed in blue flames, dancing up his arms. He seemed to be deferring to the human woman. She glanced over at my companions, who were ready to fight. “They can go. You pull something and the next time we kill you, we will not be so generous.” A sinister smile formed on her Asian features. “You understand this is only the first time? Any time you leave your little kingdom we will be waiting for you,” she added as a threat.

“Go,” I ordered Black Beauty. She looked reluctant, but I yelled at her through chat that it was going to be fine. One death was not a big deal, and it would make them feel better. After Jaesmin, Joy, and the others headed back toward the Duchy, I faced my tormentors. “So you are going to spend your days in the game just watching the borders of my Duchy, waiting for me to leave?”

The dark elf spat, “You think it is just us? We were just the lucky ones who were close enough to intercept you.” I nodded slowly, figuring it wouldn’t be hard to hire players to keep an eye on me in the city. A small illicit bounty on my whereabouts was probably what they were doing.

“Understood,” I said acceptingly. I think they were getting agitated because I wasn't more upset. If I showed that this trolling got under my skin, I would be playing into their hands and feeding their need for revenge. Since they were level-locked, it would only be about a year before my guildmates would match their level, and then we would outnumber them. “Can I at least know your names? I mean, I will see them in the combat logs once you attack me, but…” I gestured to them.

Their names appeared above their heads as they turned off their obfuscation skills. The Asian woman was Black Lotus, the fire elementalkin was Thirteen Flames, and the elf was just Edward. I knew I couldn’t buy my way out of this. I was already strained, trying to repay the corporation and pay for a new body. Doing that for three more hard-wired players? Possibly more if they were telling the truth.

“If you ever want to talk it out rather than just killing my avatar, I am open to discourse,” I said as the elementalkin’s arms ignited further. My statement made him angrier, but I saw some consideration on Black Lotus’ face. Maybe she could be reasoned with. A jet of blue-white erupted in a cone and consumed me. My pain settings were at zero, so it did not hurt, but Thirteen Flames had a number of bonus effects from evolving his spell. A series of debuffs appeared as my health bar dropped rapidly to zero.

When I respawned, I didn’t even care about the equipment I lost. All of it was easily replaceable. Mad Dog, Grinder, and most of the inner members of the Silver Linings Playbook guild were there to greet me outside my room in the Lord’s Manor. Joy rushed in and hugged my leg.

“We got you, mate. Who do you want us to bloody up?” Grinder said, cracking his knuckles.

I rubbed Joy’s head reassuringly. “It is fine. I will regear from the guild warehouse, but it looks like I am trapped in the Duchy for the foreseeable future. I don’t blame them, but there is nothing I can do to help them until I have helped myself first.”

Mad Dog looked skeptical. “Are you sure, mate? What if they ally themselves with your enemies? They can do some real damage with their levels if they want to.”

Blood Crisis entered the conversation, “There are seven hundred or so hard-wired players in the lawsuit. A few of the larger firms have backed out their support now that a big settlement is not in play.”

“What is the status?” I asked, not wanting to do the research.

Blood Crisis tone got somber. “There are two offers on the table for the hard-wired players. One is that they can be disconnected from the game immediately and transfer their pods from the facility. In this case, there is no renumeration for the corp, but also they will not incur any debt. The problem stems from the fact that most of the hard-wired players have nowhere to go. Like you their brain-dead bodies were purchased by the corporation.”

“What is the other option?” Someone asked.

Blood Crisis tapped his interface. “I don’t know for sure since most of the negotiation is being done behind closed doors. Chaotic Heart did some digging,” he smirked, as Chaotic Heart was the guild’s real-world hacker. “The second offer mirrors the deal you struck. You can retain your freedom, keep access to the game, and voluntarily return to level one. There is a repayment plan for medical expenses incurred by the corporation at a very low interest rate. The corporation can garnish game transactions to apply to the debt.”

“Slavery,” Black Beauty hissed.

“Bloody Hell. With a hundred game gold equaling only one dollar, they will never repay it if they have to restart at level one,” Mad Dog said sympathetically.

Forgotten Swan sent everyone a link before speaking, “Actually, Open World’s gold is going to become a publicly traded commodity in the real world. The devs will no longer be able to control the exchange rate.”

We all scanned the news article she had indicated. Although it was still probably weeks away from happening, banks wanted in on Open World economics and trading.

“I don’t get it?” Sunflower said. “Can’t the corp just have the devs make millions of gold in the game and cash out?”

“Like the crypto scams from a few decades ago? One of the most brilliant Ponzi schemes ever!” Golde Storm said merrily.

“You are just saying that because your dad made millions,” Black Beauty chastised.

“I never saw a penny of it because I didn’t graduate college,” Golden Storm said, laughing.

“There will have to be transparency in the coding if it does happen, but I am sure the corporation is prepared to take its few points for transactions going both ways,” Mad Dog said.

I reread the article repeatedly, and I was beginning to agree with the groups who believed this game would ruin society. Not only was there exponential growth in the hours played, but they were also creating money out of thin air. Granted, I was not an economist, but the game created nothing tangible besides entertainment.

Chaotic Heart entered the room at the moment, “Took me a while to trace the communications, but I found who ratted you out to the hard-wired players, Talis.” All eyes turned to Chaotic Heart expectantly. “Sinful Echo,” he said flatly.

“That mother-fucker,” I spat.

Mad Dog gripped my shoulder, “Don’t sweat it, mate. It would have come out eventually. Maybe it would have taken them longer to find you, but it was inevitable.” Blood Crisis was nodding in agreement, but everyone else looked sympathetic.

Grinder said supportively, “Don’t get mad, get even. I am sure we came fuck with his game. Whaddya we know people?”

Black Beauty was bringing up her screens as she managed our clandestine operations. Sinful Echo had found me during the early stages of the game. He had recruited a hard-wired player named Conundrum. He was using his family's vast fortune to compete against his sister, Frost Siren, in the game. Both siblings were bloody thorns in my side, and I planned to target Frost Siren’s guild during the Grand War to get even with her for kidnapping my NPCs.

“Found a bit here,” Black Beauty said. “The idiot has a stream and a decent following. He controls an NPC thieves guild in Newfane. A large city in a human kingdom.”

“He must have completed his chain quest and took over the leadership of the NPC thieves guild,” I said bitterly. I didn’t like that a prick like him had success.

“He is live-streaming his playtime,” Black Beauty said conspiratorially.

“Wait! I have a brilliant idea!” I got in touch with Danny to see if she still had the thieves guild plans I gave her. Sinful Echo had blackmailed me to make him an NPC thieves hall and in my first attempt I tried to make it so expensive, he couldn’t afford it.

Danny sheepishly came back, “Sorry. I started building it but it is not finished. I didn’t want to ask you to divert your builders.”

“You are building it in Goatyah?” I asked incredulously. “I checked, and yes, there was a Common Rustic Tavern being built. Since she initiated the construction, I was not aware of the building's true nature, even though I was lord of Goatyah.

“Yeah. I know you told me it was a bad idea but there can be good thieves guilds too,” Danny said defensively.

“No problem. I can draft a new set,” I said, cutting the connection. I looked at my guildmates, “What if we build this in Newfane to fuck with Sinful Echo’s operations.” I sent them the description from my recipe book.

Common Rustic Tavern (Epic Thieves Hall), 150,000 Health, Requires Masonry Structures 43, Masonry Foundations 43, Ritual Enchanting 43 (Bonus: Houses 13 NPC thieves, spawn rate 1 thief per day, Level 75) (Bonus: Eliminate all traces on stolen items, +10% value of fenced stolen loot, Bonus: The House Always Wins: owner of this building has a +20% chance to win games of chance he participates in) Effect: Building Regenerates 1% health every 24 hours

Beauty was the first to approach me, and she started patting me down as if she were searching for weapons. “What are you doing,” I said, slapping her hands away.

“I am seeing what else you are hiding from us,” she said in her best cop voice.

“She is right, man.” Blood Crisis said, still looking at the plans. “It says these plans are epic, but legendary is probably a better term.”

“Running one of these halls inside a big city would be epic fun,” someone else whispered.

“Do you know how much a potion of cleansing costs, Tallis?” Mad Dog said reverently. Seeing my confusion, he explained. “It is the only item that can clear an item’s ownership tag. Ten thousand gold! And your building can do it for free with no cap on uses!”

“So it is good then?” I asked jokingly.

The only negative I can see is that only one player can control the building and order the NPC thieves. But if you can invest your regular quality building material and get a 50% bonus… that would be level 100+ thieves!” Black Beauty said enthusiastically, and I think she was drooling.

“We have enough essences in the warehouse to build two,” Mad Dog said, paging through his screens.

“We should finish the one in Goatyah, too,” I said, which got more excitement from the assembled members.

“We should just build these in every city!” someone barked, which got everyone to laugh. Everyone in the guild wanted to be in charge of the clandestine buildings. They were expensive to build, but if the thieves were active, they should be able to support themselves in foreign cities. It was decided that we would build two of the buildings, one in Newfane to harass Sinful Echo’s thieves guild and one in Eternal Legacy’s city to irritate Frost Siren. If we could make it appear those thieves were doing so at Sinful Echo’s orders, all the better.

I went to my drafting room and started to copy the plans. I hated pulling builders from the legendary library to rush build the thieves’ dens in other cities, but I wanted some revenge. I still needed to come up with a way to deal with the hard-wired players as well. It was not right that the corporation was throwing them out of the game if they wanted their freedom. I couldn’t afford to pay for the freedom of seven hundred people. It was going to take me years to achieve that on my own.

After I finished copying the first set, I paused. Offering Black Lotus, Thirteen Flames, and Edward anything would feel like capitulating to bullying. I understood their frustration as they were level-locked and had to watch all the other players slowly catch up to them. I was guessing the seven hundred hard-wired players in the lawsuit were relying on the lawyers, and had no other support in the real world like Danny and me.

Danny was awaiting the payout from the airline in her plane crash, but her life pod was in her parents’ house, and they were even playing Open World with her. I think they were low-level crafters in Goatyah since they didn’t like grinding monsters.

I started making another copy of the plans, and a notification appeared on my screen.

Please note this recipe is currently flagged and under review for fair gameplay

Fucking developers. It did say recipe, so I raced through making a second copy as fast as I could and went right to a third. Just when I was starting the fourth, I got a notification.

Your recipe has been edited for fair gameplay. Compensation: 100,000 experience. Admin: Sarah003. Case #: 0004911

Further notifications had an appeal process for clarification or to protest my compensation. It didn’t earn me a level, but it moved me tantalizingly closer.

I held my breath as I looked at the three plans I had already copied and didn’t find them changed. I then looked at my recipe.

Common Rustic Tavern (Epic Thieves Hall), 150,000 Health, Requires Masonry Structures 43, Masonry Foundations 43, Ritual Enchanting 43 (Bonus: Houses 13 NPC thieves, spawn rate 1 thief per day, Level 75) (Bonus: Eliminate all traces on stolen item (cooldown 72 hours), +10% value of fenced stolen loot, Bonus: The House Always Wins: owner of this building has a +20% chance to win games of chance he participates in) Effect: Building Regenerates 1% health every 24 hours

The most valuable part of the building had been nerfed significantly. Instead of an endless number of stolen items being purged of their ownership, only one item could be purged every three days. It remained a valuable effect, as Mad Dog noted how expensive it was to purchase the cleansing oil. I felt a bit peeved with the compensation and was about to write a grievance, but I stopped. I had four copies of the plans that included the effect intact, counting the one being built in Goatyah. If I drew attention to this, the admins might nerf the building plans too. 

Mad Dog agreed, but we thought they wouldn’t be able to nerf the buildings once they were completed. We rushed to finish all four thieves’ halls over the next week. I divided my time between drafting plans for sale, working on the thieves' den in Goatyah, and exploring the Crypt of the Phoenix King with Jaesmin. Since our family excursion had been interrupted, I felt I owed her some time. Since I was the highest level in the group, I monopolized the experience, but it was clear Jaesmin was mainly concerned about spending time with me. I was able to reach level 45 during one of our explorations.

The Thieves Hall in Goatyah produced the highest-level NPC at level 108. The Hall in Newfane was spawning level 106 thieves. The Hall in Eternal Legacies primary city, XXX, was spawning level 105 thieves and the fourth Hall in Dragon’s Tooth was spawning level 98 thieves.

We had decided to add the final Hall to the slums of Dragon’s Tooth since it was a World Capital City. Sunflower had volunteered to manage it and move permanently there to serve as the guild’s agent. She was a crafter, and it would be easier for her to hone her skills, as well as purchase items in the player auction house for the guild.

Perfect Fury was managing the thieves’ guild in Newfane, and he turned it into an assassins guild on the first day by killing seven of Sinful Echo’s thieves with his first NPC. He even found the bakery that I had drafted for Sinful Echo and was able to identify it by having his NPC thief break in and survey the building, completely revealing its true nature. Perfect Fury then alerted the locals to its operation.

Common Bakery (Uncommon NPC Cutpurse's Hall), 50,000 Health, (Bonus: Spawns one Level 54 Handler, Bonus: Housing for 13 Cutpurses, Bonus: +50% to all recovery pools while resting in the structure) Effect: Building Regenerates 1% health every 24 hours

Unfortunately, Sinful Echo had a high enough reputation with the corrupt NPC government that no action was taken. Still, I was happy that we were causing the spoiled rich boy a headache. The second part of the operation to get back at him was the Thieves Hall in XXX. Faceless Scholar, a new inner circle member of the Silver Linings Playbook, was running this hall. He was waiting until all thirteen thieves were spawned, but would then be harassing Eternal Legacy while making it look like Sinful Echo was behind it.

After all the thieves’ halls were operational, Mad Dog congratulated me, “Always remember it is just a game, mate. But it is damn good to be the one holding the cards, no?” I just grinned back at him.

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