“Try living on the edge of life and death for a few months and see if it doesn’t make you quick to react.”
“Okay, look, I’m sorry,” Sammi sighed. “I just came to talk to you because we have a problem, and I need resolution. Like, now.”
Putting the hand towel back on the rack, Alvin leaned against the sink. “Okay, talk.”
“There are going to be more players added to the game over the next month. The problem is that some of the features we want to add conflict with two of the current player’s abilities. You’re one of them.”
“What are you taking away from me now?” Alvin asked.
“The Kiosk Vendor power,” Sammi said. “You know that’s broken, right?”
“Figured you guys would get around to nerfing it,” Alvin admitted, “but I paid for it and the upgrades. What am I going to get in return for you taking it from me?”
“The maximized power for discounts from kiosks,” Sammi replied.
“That isn’t going to cover what I’m losing. You do realize how much XP I get from that, right?”
“That’s why it’s broken,” Sammi grumbled. “The whole concept of networks is being retooled. We want the NPCs to make deals, and that doesn’t happen if you have them all connected. The trader job needs to be a thing so they can connect the settlements. The envoy job will be added, which is someone who travels to and stays at a settlement through a Gate. Essentially permanent traders, but they also have a lot of other functions, like discounts for the settlements they connect.”
“I thought you were done with major updates,” Alvin growled.
“We are… were… are,” Sammi sighed. “Fuck. Fine, what do you want?”
“What you were offering, but I want all my XP for the upgrades returned, and at least as much as I would have made by making a deal with the King tomorrow.”
“I can’t. That’s too much,” Sammi whined. “Come on, Al... work with me, please.”
“Traders— they can be killed while traveling?”
“Of course,” Sammi nodded. “It’s a high-risk, high-reward job.”
“What happens to the trade line if they die?”
“It’s broken.”
“So why wouldn’t they send a trader to the settlement they want to trade with and just have them stay there?”
“Oh…” Sammi whispered, “Fuck.”
“Exactly. Trader needs to be the job to make the connections, but also be a mobile kiosk,” Alvin said. “Now the fun part: make them immune to damage.”
“No—”
“Wait, hear me out. Make them immune unless they take aggressive actions. That means they can travel without fear, but they can’t abuse your system. I’d go one further and say if Green River has a trader between them and Ely, and Ely has one from them to Beatty, that means Green River and Beatty are connected, but without any discounts. Make the traders travel and give them a discount for the settlement they are traveling to to make it worthwhile for them to be out.”
“Hang on,” Sammi said, holding up a hand. “So immune traders that give discounts to the settlement they are traveling to from the settlement they came from?”
“Yes, which means traders need to keep moving to give the discounts. You can do away with the multihub idea, so Green River’s trader would need to travel to Beatty for that discount to apply. Maybe they have to state which settlement they’re traveling to when they leave one?”
“Okay… I can see this.”
“The envoy could be required for a settlement to have access to a specific Gate’s kiosk goods, making that Gate a viable trader route. Every settlement would need to send an envoy to each Gate, and each Gate would have to send an envoy to every settlement. Don’t let the envoys be immune— make getting an envoy to their destination a big deal. That will make those settlements send out convoys to protect them and make sure it happens.”
“Oh, that could work.”
“I also want to be paid for making this work,” Alvin added.
Sammi rolled her eyes, “Alvin, come on...”
“Here’s my offer: the max discount, all my XP for the upgrades returned, and two million XP. After all, none of my previous work is going to matter, is it?”
“Actually… what if we could set you up with envoys from all your settlements in both Queen Night and King Mithrilblood’s courts, and envoys from them to your settlements? We could keep your current bonuses in play for a month so they have time to send out traders. We’d teleport the envoys, too.”
“My kiosk in my base... retains all the Gates I’ve already opened up and any new ones?”
Sammi grimaced, “Yeah. That’s been under discussion, but I’ll push it through. You would get five hundred thousand XP, though, not two million XP.”
“Each of the settlements gets to pick their reps,” Alvin said. “What happens if the envoy falls out of favor with a court?”
“Then the envoy will be sent home and a new one would have to be sent. We don’t want diplomatic immunity to be a thing.”
“Fair. You know, this really hampers my ability to make a deal tomorrow, and makes me less likely to do so in the future.”
“Do you think so?” Sammi grinned. “You can still provide them with common items if you want before any other deals are set up. Kind of a preview of what they could get.... plus, you could get items from them in return, to put up for sale in the auction house. I think you could find that quite profitable.”
“Making me an advance merchant?” Alvin laughed. “That’s not something I really want to do.”
“But others will,” Sammi said evenly. “It’s up to you if you want to do it. How much of a boost did you get from selling Elven items before anyone else had access?”
Alvin chuckled, “Fair enough. How’s the quest system working for you guys?”
“You completed the first weekly. How did that feel? Too hard? Not hard enough?”
“If it wasn’t for the fungals we ran into, it would have been too hard,” Alvin replied. “Maybe a hundred instead of three? I’d also suggest other sorts of quests, like visiting X number of settlements. Things other than just kill quests would be good for the mandatory one. All the other quests will have that and gathering. You could add quests to help get envoys from place to place, too.”
“Good points,” Sammi nodded. “Are we good with the compensation?”
“I hope I find another settlement or two going east, preferably ones that don’t shoot first,” Alvin said with a grin, evading Sammi’s question. “Why the sudden push to change things again?”
“Our employer wants to add more players,” Sammi shrugged. “They would be way too handicapped if we left things as they are now. Maybe one of them will take an envoy job.”
“Wait, I can do that?” Alvin asked. “What about the weekly quests?”
“We’d make sure they reflected something you could accomplish,” Sammi replied.
“Huh,” Alvin mused, “that’s a thought, settling down as an envoy. Would trader be open, as well?”
“Every job would be, including crafting, if that’s what you wanted to do,” Sammi said. “The company just wants you to give them data. It doesn’t have to be fighting all the time.”
Alvin was lost in thought when Sammi poked him, “Hey, I still need an answer. I got another person to visit. Yes or no for compensation?”
“A million,” Alvin replied without thinking.
“Split the difference?” Sammi asked.
“Fine, but split it between me, Gothy, and Mousie.”
“Oh… I can do a million, if you want to split it like that,” Sammi replied.
“Then yes,” Alvin replied.
“It’ll be there when you wake up in the morning,” Sammi smiled. “Thanks, Alvin. I need to run.”
“Bye,” Alvin said as Sammi vanished. “Okay, time to worry about earning our XP the hard way. I should check in with the others.”
He passed Jarvis as he was heading out of the b
edroom. Jarvis was cooking, and Alvin did not want to disturb him. Stepping into the training room, Alvin paused and watched Gothy and Desiree hammer each other. Gothy had reach and was punching down at the shorter woman, while Desiree had to get inside. She did not bother to go for the face, instead aiming at Gothy’s gut. Mousie sat off to the side, watching intently.
Desiree dodged a right jab and stepped inside again, this time grabbing Gothy just above the knees and lifting her off the ground. “Down you go.” With tremendous strength, Desiree pivoted and slammed Gothy into the ground before trying to jump on her.
Gothy gasped when her back slammed against the ground, but she kicked out when Desiree came after her. Her bare foot caught Desiree in the solar plexus and drove the air from the Dwarf. “Fucking hell, just tap out already!” Gothy panted as she struggled back to her feet.
“Lingerie fighting… didn’t expect that,” Alvin said, interrupting them.
“What took you so long?” Gothy panted.
“Sammi.”
“Fuck, now what?”
“Another change.”
“I thought they were done with those,” Mousie commented.
“Apparently not as much as they thought they were.”
“What’s changing?” Gothy asked.
“The kiosk network and the player’s involvement in them.”
“They didn’t!”
“Yeah,” Alvin sighed. It took him a few minutes to explain what Sammi had told him, and Gothy let him tell it without interruptions. “That’s the outcome.”
“I don’t understand,” Desiree said, having gotten her breath back during the break. “You can still provide items to my father and the other clans, can’t you?”
“Yes,” Alvin replied. “I just can’t offer everything I was going to before.”
“This… Sammi has power over what you can do?” Desiree asked.
“Over what everyone can do,” Gothy replied. “Remember the myth about your gods?”
“Yes.”
“Sammi and the others that we call devs are basically gods. They’re the ones who connected the worlds together and changed the way everything works.”
“That is frightening,” Desiree said with wide eyes. “This one talks with you personally?”
“Sammi? Yeah, she’s a good person overall. Constrained by her bosses, but good. She cares,” Alvin replied.
“I see,” Desiree murmured. “I don’t see the problem, maybe because I don’t know how your world works, but if you can still supply things to the King, there shouldn’t be an issue.”
“We can find out what they want, buy it, add an increase for our trouble, and then sell the items to them,” Gothy said after a minute. “Not having to play nice at settlements is kind of attractive, as well. If they’re nice, we can tell them about how to set up envoys to the Gates, and if not… well, fuck them.”
“Kind of what I thought, too. If we find more Gates, we can hook in and get items from those worlds and sell them on the auction house before anyone else. That might give us even more than the percentage I’ve been getting.”
“That’s why the devs are going to send envoys to the courts via magic,” Mousie said. “To stop you from doing that with these two Gates.”
“Pretty much, but we’ll find more Gates. The kicker is that every other player is going to be in the same boat, meaning we’ll have to make it a priority to find them.”
“We have a way to make that easier, remember?” Gothy smiled. “One of the powers we unlocked is Gate Sense. It tells you if there is a Gate within ten miles of you, and gives you its general direction.”
“Looks like we have a plan, then,” Alvin chuckled.
“Hero,” Desiree said, “before you all leave… would it be possible for me to stay over for one more night?”
“Yes,” Gothy said instantly. “At the very least, Desiree.”
“Thank you, Gothy. Thank you for showing me some of your fighting abilities.”
“My pleasure. A good sparring session gets the blood flowing, and it’s a bonus that we can’t get injured in this room.”
“Why don’t we go shower since I have to leave soon?” Desiree asked, her bodysuit covering her thick frame.
“I second that,” Gothy purred, her clothing covering her. “Let’s go.”
“Mousie?” Alvin chuckled, motioning her to the door. “Shall we join them?”
“Of course,” Mousie smiled. “Maybe we can form a cleaning chain like last time?”
“I like that idea,” Alvin chuckled.
Chapter Forty-seven
Stepping out of the base into the inn room they had been given, Alvin opened one of the camp chairs he had purchased just a few minutes ago. He sat down with a sigh and pulled the thermos of coffee from his bag, relaxing while he waited for Lord Ironhand.
“Sorry for the delay, Hero,” Gothy said a few minutes later, carrying a camp chair over her shoulder. “Didn’t show yet? I guess he still has a few more minutes.”
“Jarvis will make sure all the prep is ready tomorrow, Gothy,” Mousie said when she came out of the base.
“Prep?” Alvin asked.
“We’re going to make dinner and dessert tomorrow. We’re hoping to have Desiree over, so we wanted to do something special.”
“Really hoping, aren’t you?” Alvin asked.
“Yeah. Didn’t know she was the daughter of the current King, but that just makes it more fun.”
“Nut job,” Alvin chuckled as Mousie got her chair arranged.
A firm knock came right before Mousie could sit. “I’ll get it,” she said, gliding over to answer the door. “Lord Ironhand, please come in.” Mousie stepped aside to allow the Dwarf into the room.
Ironhand strode into the room. “Thank you for seeing me, Hero. I’ve been meaning to ask about your name: did your parents expect great things from you?”
“We do,” Gothy answered before Alvin could. “Is it normal to question names?”
Ironhand’s business smile faded some, “That depends on the people involved. Those are interesting chairs... they lack the body of a normal chair. Is there a reason for that?”
“Mousie, can you show him?” Alvin asked her just as she crossed back to her chair.
“Of course, Hero.” Mousie smiled, taking the chair, folding it up, and placing it back into its carry case.
“Compact and easy to transport. What a novel idea.”
“We’ve got a lot of novel ideas.” Alvin chuckled. “Have a seat so we can discuss what you wanted to talk about.”
Mousie got her chair back out and took a seat while Ironhand dragged one of the heavy chairs in the room closer to where they were. Once they were seated, Alvin handed over a bottle of cheap whiskey.
“Here’s a sample of one of our lesser spirits for you.”
“Thank you,” Ironhand said, taking the bottle and examining the cap. “I don’t see a cork. How do you open it?”
Alvin explained how to open a twist top cap and waited for Ironhand to take a drink. “What do you think?”
“It’s pretty awful, honestly, but it’s got the right kick to it. I didn’t expect a gift.”
“Desiree did tell us that gifts are a good way to start business relationships.”
“I see… I would not have expected her to help smooth our relationship.”
“Hero can be very persuasive when he wants to be,” Gothy smirked.
“Interesting. Well, since pleasantries are out of the way, shall we get down to business?”
“I’d be good with that, since I’m likely to have a long day tomorrow.”
“Quite,” Ironhand nodded. “I have heard that you have flame that keeps burning long after it should stop.”
“It’s called napalm, and what we have is the lesser version of it, though I’m sure that’s going to be getting fixed soon.”
“Fixed?” Ironhand asked.
“I’m fairly certain only alchemists are supposed to be able to make it.
I don’t know when it will be changed, but it will be in time.”
“You can sell me the recipe for how it is made?” Ironhand asked.
“Can’t. I don’t have it, but I’m sure it can be gotten from other people of my world. I can, however, supply a sample of it for the right price. I’m sure your alchemists should be able to reverse engineer it.”
“Reverse engineer?”
Downtime and Death (Apocalypse Gates Author's Cut Book 5) Page 39