Town Builder - 69 - Spoiled Rich Kids

Chapter 69: Spoiled Rich Kids

“Why do you think I am the architect?” I asked calmly.

The angelic looked perplexed. “What? No, I was talking to the woman.” I turned to Danny, who looked stunned and, instead of playing along, burst into laughter.

Danny stopped laughing just long enough to mock him, “You guessed wrong.” I was getting the impression Danny did not have the best people skills.

The angelic frowned, and his partner walked over from the quest board in obvious support. The angelic held out his hand to Danny anyway, with a smirk on his face. “Sinful Echo, or I should say Adam Granderson. My father is CEO of Happy Trails Food Inc.” He said it like we should be impressed. I was not, but Danny’s face clouded at the name.

Danny paused, eyes widening, and realized I had no idea what that meant. She explained it to me, “Happy Trails processes most of the food across North America. Almost any instant meal you eat on the continent came from one of their factories.” Danny numbly shook his hand, and he beamed a self-satisfied smile.

“Now that we are introduced, where is the architect?” He gave me the slimy feeling of a car salesman, and I immediately didn’t trust him.

“Where is your tutorial companion?” I asked. I surmised that if he was rich, then he must have paid for the starter companion.

“Off doing quests,” he waived his hand dismissively. “My employee here,” he indicated to the player named Conundrum, who was obviously a hard-wired player by his high level, “has identified the buildings in this town. Every single building in this nowhere town has bonuses attached to it. Only building plans obtained in dungeons give bonuses to buildings.” He looked quite proud of himself even though it was the hardwired player who had figured it out.

I had known it would happen, and finding a way to hide the details of my town’s buildings came up again. Maybe I would have to add one of the skills Breda suggested—concealment or obfuscation. Not that it would do me any good at the moment. I tried to relax. “Is that why you are here? To find the architect?” I asked, trying to stall.

“No, I was on an epic chain quest. I just got lucky,” Sinful Echo said, leering. “Really lucky. Not that I need the currency. So if you two are not the architect, tell him to come out, and we can negotiate.”

“I can negotiate on his behalf. What do you want? Him to join your guild?” I asked, ready to turn him down.

“I don’t have a guild. I generally don’t play well with others. I think I want some special buildings drafted for me free of charge, and in exchange, I won’t sell the information about where he is operating.” The angelic smiled toothily. “I am sure this little hamlet would be a diamond in the rough for one of the larger new guilds.”

I could sense Danny getting angry so I pretended to go into my interface and sent her a message. “Remain calm. I will handle this.”

“I am contacting him now. He is off connecting portal stones at the moment. What plans are you looking for? I can pass on your demands to him.” I replied while tapping the air in front of me.

Sinful Echo didn’t look happy. “I prefer to deal with him directly. My current quest chain is taking me across the continent.” The player hardened some. “Actually, I don’t have time to wait. Even though I don’t need the money, tell him I will sell his location in twenty-four hours if he doesn’t agree.”

“Agree to what?” Danny interrupted angrily. “You haven’t said what you wanted!”

I could tell this player was not used to people saying no or not getting things his way. “I need to focus on my quest chain before the players arrive. Tell him I want four buildings: a thieves guild for NPCs, not players, an assassins training hall for NPCs, not players, a player pawn shop, and a poison apothecary building.”

“What are you running a criminal organization,” Danny scoffed at the list of buildings.

“No, I plan to take over one of the NPC criminal organizations. Why do the work of setting something up when you can take over something that already exists,” Sinful Echo said confidently. “I will control the NPCs in the shadows and make players' lives a living hell.” He wore a twisted smile. I had a feeling this player liked power and dominating others. “I need an answer in twelve hours, or I will sell this location to the highest bidder.” He had just shortened his requirement from 24 to 12 hours, and Danny was seething.

Conundrum dropped four tier-two quest sheets from the board in front of Neral, who logged them. Then, the two players left the Adventurers Guild. Neral watched them go, and when the door shut, he spoke, “His chain quest is for a chance to become the leader of the Onyx Blades. It is an NPC guild of assassins and cutthroats. It will take him months to complete, and he will only have one chance to challenge the current leader when he gets to the end.”

I looked at the Guildmaster, surprised. “Are you allowed to tell me about his epic quest?”

Neral shrugged, “He turned in the quest to me, and I gave him the next quest in the chain, so I became aware of it.” He smiled knowingly to me. “And I may run this Adventurers Hall, but I work for you, Lord Tallis.” He wore a big grin. I realized that I was exploiting a loophole in the game mechanics. Eventually, it would probably be closed, but I would exploit it as long as I could.

“Not a word to anyone about this, Danny.” I said, and she nodded. She was not a gamer but understood the implications. If any player came and used my Adventurer’s Guild, I would get insight into their quests.

“What are you going to do?” Danny finally asked.

I replied tiredly, “I have a few options. Come out and announce myself and foil Sinful Echo’s attempt to extort me. Do what he wants and draft his plans—of course, I think he is the type who will want more after and maybe reveal my location anyway. Or I can just stall until the Silver Linings Playbook enters the game. What level was Conundrum?”

“One hundred and twenty-seven.” I winced as that player could do real damage to Malcum. Danny, seeing my angst, said, “I will see what my parents can find on Adam Granderson in the real world.” Danny’s avatar phased out, leaving just a ghost as she went to interface with her pod.

I set up Simba to start completing the next tier-1 quest on his own while I waited for Danny to come back. Sinful Echo had at least given me an idea. Maybe I could draft plans for my own thieves guild—one that I could control. Or maybe a building was a thieves guild antithesis? A police station? A bounty hunter hall? A spy training center?

While I was going down my mental rabbit hole, Danny returned. “It's not great news, Tallis. While Sinful Echo does not have a live stream—or any stream—he is definitely Adam Granderson in the real world. He was arrested in high school for sexual assault, but the charges were dropped. In college, something similar happened, but the college supplied witnesses in his defense, and the case was dismissed for lack of evidence. After the case was dismissed, his father donated 250 million to the college’s endowment.”

Even though inflation had happened while I had been out of contact with the real world, that was still a sizable sum of money. “So his family is filthy rich?”

“Very. Fourth largest fortune in the world. Adam and his sister, Camilla, are both playing this game for entertainment. Their social media posts have them competing against one another to see who can gather the most power between them and thwart the other.” Danny replied worriedly.

“Could she be an ally then?” I asked, but already knowing the answer.

Danny frowned. “She is like her brother—just smarter. At least, that is the impression Mad Dog gave me when we talked. Yes, I talked directly to Mad Dog. My parents are not what I consider savvy when it comes to participants in the VR landscape, but they both got their immersion pods yesterday. So, they will be joining me here when they are not working.” Danny inhaled, “There are hundreds of billionaires playing the game, Tallis. The scales would have tilted in their favor if they had not placed the ten thousand gold conversion limit.”

It made some sense, even though that limitation had affected me as well. “Okay, I am going to go draft plans. Not for Sinful Echo but for me. It will help clear my mind while I decide what to do about him. Can you keep an eye on him while he does quests around Malcum?” Danny nodded and called over her elf companion to shadow the players.

I sat at my drafting table in my manor while Jaesmin played with Joy nearby. What could I draft that would help me the most? Ideas drifted through my head, drawing on past books I had read about thieves, espionage, and spies. When I finished the building, I was extremely happy with my effort.

The building was subterranean in nature, with four levels that all focused on training various aspects of a thief class. One floor was dedicated to obstacles to training agility. Another floor was dedicated to training movement skills and hiding. The third floor was a combat floor, and the fourth floor was set up as classrooms. It was a large structure, with each floor half the size of a football pitch and high ceilings. Being a VR game, I didn’t consider it would be too difficult to build. It would be mostly excavation. I frowned as my efforts had taken me the entire twelve hours. I looked at the plans before heading to the Adventurer’s Hall to give my decision to Sinful Echo.

Very Rare Secret Subterranean Rogues Gallery, Requires Masonry 43, Blacksmithing 23, Woodcraft 43 (Generates one level 20 NPC spy every seven game days) (Bonus: NPC espionage assets can gain 5% level advancement per day training here) Max Capacity: 20 NPCs Profession Effect: Structure Regenerates 1% health every 24 hours (stacks with similar effects) If the enemy discovers this structural, all effects are halved.

The structure would solve many of my fears. The only thing I was unhappy with was the spawn rate of the NPCs. The structure’s magic would also require many magic essences that were no longer readily available in the player auction house.

Buildings with runic workings required a list of materials that included various grades of games numerous essences. The grades I had seen so far were lesser, normal, greater, and apex. I had been fortunate before in that the test players had stocked the auction house with a variety of essences and never needed anything higher than normal essences until now. The Rogues Gallery required eleven greater shadow essences. With the number of crafting players entering the game, enchanters needed the essence for gear, alchemists for potions, and myself for construction.

These rich, early-start players were not interested in being the game gathers. Even when the influx of players hit the game, essences were going to become costly on the market, with guilds trying to buy up everything that hit the player auction. Essences were only generated in the game's dungeon from aspected monsters. I had a dungeon nearby, but I promised to wait for Mad Dog’s return so his Guild could share in the rewards.

I took a moment to send Danny the location of the Crypt of the Phoenix King. If Sinful Echo started sniffing around the location, I would have to take action, as it was one thing I could not afford to lose at this point.

When I arrived in the hall, Sinful Echo and Conundrum were turning in their quests to Neral. The entitled rich boy did not look surprised. “So what has your architect decided?” he asked amusedly.

“He offered to sell you each of the plans for one hundred thousand in game gold. That is as long as this town remains hidden,” I stated without emotion. I figured that with the limit on converting currency to in-game gold, and it would take him days to get the gold. I knew I was making an enemy as his eyes narrowed.

“No, I am not paying.” I knew he could afford to pay, he just didn’t want to. He wanted the control.

“The architect needs to be compensated for his time and effort. New, original plans take days to draft. He said he could have you NPC thieves guild completed in seven days.” I explained patiently and I could tell I caught him. Of course, I could draft those plans in half a day if I focused but he didn’t need to know that. I could see the gear turning in his head.

“Fine. I will collect the first Thieves Guild plans in seven days. If they do not meet my expectations, I will not pay and reveal the location.” Sinful Echo spat. I could tell I was on thin ice but had bought myself seven more days. If I was discovered by another player before then, then my deal with Sinful Echo was voided but he apparently hadn’t thought that far ahead.

I was not happy when Conundrum handed four new quests to Neral. I hadn’t expected the pair to remain in Malcum. Didn’t they have an important chain quest to complete? I didn’t want them hanging around to discover more of my secrets. Danny came and stood next to me, “So, tell me about this dungeon?”

“It is a scaling dungeon. That means after each time it is completed and the dungeon resets, it will get harder the next time, improving the rewards.” I said, still looking at the door and didn’t notice her jaw hanging open.

She slapped my shoulder, “Why are we not delving it!”

“I promised Mag Dog I would wait for him and the rest of his guild so we could get the first clear bonuses together,” I explained. “I have to spend the rest of my time drafting plans. We are going to need as much gold as we can get. I need you to gather some essences for me.” I handed Danny the plans for the Rogues Gallery.

She brought up the details with her identity spell. “What? How? Are you going to build this?”

“Yes, I need the essences to finish it, and if you look at the bonus, the structure takes 20 game days to level an NPC assigned to the building. There is no listed cap for the level. So that means every five days in the real world, NPCs assigned to this building will level.” I explained.

“That is amazing!” Danny said in disbelief.

“Maybe for NPCs over level 50, but I think lower-level NPCs would probably level faster being sent on assignments. My spymaster, Zion, is level 127 so he could make use of the structure.” I started talking to Neral to learn what quests Sinful Echo and Conundrum were doing.

“Your town barber is your spymaster?” Danny interrupted me. “And he is level 127?”

“Yes, you can assign any NPC you want to leadership roles in your interface. If they are not suited for the role, you get penalties, and the NPC relationship with you suffers.” I recalled my own problems when I made Jaesmin the Guild Master. “If they don’t have the skills to do the job and have free slots, they will pick up those skills and grow into the role.”

“Where are you building this?” Danny asked, handing back the plans.

“I think I am going to build it under my Lord’s Manor. Let me check if I can.” I went into the Malcum map overlay and tried to place Rogues Gallery. I had a treasury addition already under the Lord’s Manor so I had to go down a little deeper before the interface accepted it. I was a little relieved as it would add some security to my Manor and hide the special building from players, as they wouldn’t be able to use their analysis skills on it. “It worked. I am going to assign Sanso and Jaesmin to build it. That means I am going to have to pull the builders I have from Goatyah back to Malcum.”

Danny checked her own interface. “All the important structures are complete. I will watch Sinful Echo for you, and when he logs off, I will check on Goatyah. The seven-day protection is going to expire soon, but the archer towers should be able to handle anything. When are you going to establish your kingdom?”

The question caught me a little off guard as things were accelerating faster than I had anticipated. Plainsrider, the orc settlement could be promoted into a town anytime I wanted, which would make me into a kingdom according to the game. “When I have no other choice,” I replied. “I need Mad Dog and the others help in administrating things. I am already overwhelmed with just what I have.” Danny nodded and left to track Sinful Echo.

I checked on the excavation of the crescent lake north of Malcum, briefly talking with Breda to inform her I was using Jaesmin and Sanso, two of our best builders, for the Rogues Gallery project. I then settled into my drafting desk and got to work of plans to sell for gold.

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