Baron William of Gadobhra was startled by a glowing blue box. He wondered how long it took until you were used to the damn things.

Your workers have proved themselves against a Hunters Challenge, and constructed a Hallowed Hunters Shrine of the Goddess Artemis.

This shrine acts as a meeting place for Hunters in the Beast Woods and can give quests and training, similar to a Guild Hall, as well as being a Holy Place for Priests, Druids, and Woodland Warriors who venerate or follow Artemis of the Hunt.

Artemis of the Hunt, Goddess of Hunters, Skinners, and Artisans of Hide and Bone, has laid a minor blessing upon your city. Quests will be available to players from this Shrine, as well as training in skills of the hunt and crafting of hides and bone.

ACME Corporation, Northern Division, is awarded 250 Building Points.

Well, this was damned nice. He had plans that took a LOT of Building Points. Building Points could purchase magical shortcuts to lots of improvements in the city. The new gate fortifications and lighting along the road and plaza had used up the 1000 points that he'd earned from taking over the dungeon. The huge chunk earned for opening up the city had gone to the construction of his new headquarters and the plaza.

It seemed that some of his people had started their day off early and gotten in a bit of exploring in the Beast Woods. He suspected he knew exactly who. Ozzy had been putting in overtime in the stockyards, and that area was right next to the woods. Probably had Rolly and Ben with him killing giant rabbits or squirrels or some strange shit, still trying to be adventurers. No rule against spending your off hours in a dark, forboding city filled with monsters.

Billy didn't mind at all, and he was reaping the benefits. He knew that a few of his Contract Workers were improving themselves. Vern would have thrown a fit and all the other managers would try to use it against him, but "Billy got ahead by ignoring policy!" just emphasized the point that he was kicking their asses in accomplishments. ACME cared about what got done and money in the bank. As long as he could keep moving ahead, the losers in their little villages could scream all they wanted. None of them had a village as nice as Sedgewick, let alone a city like Gadobhra.

The trick was going to be controlling them as they got more competent. He had some plans for that. Suzette was pretty well tied down for the next few years. Which, he was pretty sure, meant Ozzy was also going to be sticking around no matter how strong he got. Ben and Rolly were tougher to read, but he had some ideas.

Billy knew that no Contract Worker was going to become a real adventurer by trying to kill things and do quests. The system was literally rigged against them. A large group of gaming experts from various corporations had been put together to write up the restrictions for the Contract Worker class. They got none of the underlying skills that let a player use armor and weapons, and were restricted from using any weapon that the normal fighter classes used. No swords, bows, shields, or plate mail.

They couldn't get to a Mage College so they weren't adding magic, and they didn't have aspects for anything unless a corporation made it part of their job. Delbert, the refrigerator mage was a good example. He got better and better at freezing and chilling food. Try killing a monster with that!

His workers had simply got lucky, and pulled some shenanigans during the war after Momco. attacked them. They'd managed to get some experience and core skills by tagging along with the forces that Fearless Leader put together. (Billy made another note to find out who the hell Fearleass Leader was. He suspected it was either the leader of the local bandit group, or someone from the Legion.

But a bit of experience and some special abilities weren't going to make wizards or warriors out of Butchers and Shepherds. So what if they got a bit more powerful? Fine, it just made them more useful and helped Billy get more done. And he had so much to do.

He just needed to keep working on a million things at once. Planning and dealing with the city took up most of his time and attention, as well it should. But he also needed information on the surrounding wilderness and some good intelligence on the nearby towns, and on who controlled them. For the hundredth time he reminded himself that he needed a crew to inspect his copper mine and get it running. Technically he also controlled parts of that town and could put workers there.

He had Ben handling a lot of the work of coordinating the other Contract Workers. At first, he'd argued a lot with Ben about what he thought was needed. Ben turned out to have a flair for arguing. They went round and round until Billy was trying to convince Ben to do what Ben wanted to do. In exasperation he started to just ask for project outlines and reports. Layla would look at the paperwork, agree with Ben most of the time, and roll her eyes at Billy.

She'd even hit him hard with the words: "The only thing that matters is results and money in the bank, not how the job gets done." Confronted with that rock solid argument, he gave in; after a last look at the job assignments and initial plans for starting the work at the keep, he just signed off on them.

It really was a good idea. It freed him up from micro-managing when he had a city to build. And giving some control to a Contract Worker was a lot better than trusting someone like Sammy. Anyone from ACME he'd have to watch carefully from now on. Too much was at stake; this included Layla. If he took his eye off her too long, she'd have his throne and he'd be wearing a jester's hat. They were getting along well and working together, which made him even more nervous about her.

Yes, putting Ben in charge of the workers was one of his better ideas. Maybe he should delegate all of Sedgewick? Could he do that? He had a lot of options for rebuilding the city, but hadn't looked hard at his controls on Sedgewick since moving into Gadobhra and his new HQ. Pulling up a few of the confusing blue boxes, he found the options he needed. He could assign a mayor, set the taxes, etc. He'd put some further thought into who to pick for mayor. Was there anyone in ACME he could bring in?

Spreading out his maps, he started thinking of ways to spend his 250 Building Points.

Another blue box hit him in the eyes, startling him.

Your workers have rebuilt and consecrated The Butcher's Guild Hall.

Artemis of the Hunt, Goddess of Butchers has laid a minor blessing upon your city. Quests will be available to players from this Guild Hall, as well as training in this craft.

ACME Corporation, Northern Division, is awarded 125 Building Points.

Nice! That gave him 375 to spend on improvements. What to work on? Big corner building for a bank? Or concentrate on ways to fleece the players out of their gold? He needed to wake up Layla and get her opinion on this. She always could smell a dollar at a quarter mile.

=*=

"You aren't getting a bank anytime soon."

Layla had yawned, glared at him, and then grabbed a bottle wine as they walked to his office. Late night was for wine, whether she was working or not. When Billy asked about a bank, she was glad that she was three steps ahead of him, as usual.

Billy scowled, "Why are you always disappointing me? I asked you which corner the Bank should be on, not to tell me I can't have one. A bank will give us the ability to offer the exchange of real-world money for gold pieces and open up a huge number of options. I want interactive shops where people can log in and see cars, dresses, and turnip twirlers and order them for delivery in the real world. So many ways to make money if we can do that."

Layla rolled her eyes, "You need a teleporter, Billy."

"We have one, down at Rowan Keep. What does that have to do with a bank?"

Layla threw up her hands, "Only everything. I've spent a hundred hours going over the incredibly confusing agreements between the Empire and Baron Billy of Gadobhra - which are really the agreements between Wally and ACME. A lot of this 'Game' appears to be similar to the older ones where E-Commerce was common. This one is a lot more complex."

"To do banking between cities, and between the real world and the game world, you need a teleporter. No teleporter, and your bank is just a big vault and an excuse for some bandit and his merry men to come rob you every week."

Billy was unfazed. "Well, shit. How much is a teleporter?" If he needed a teleporter for a Bank, then Billy was just going to get a teleporter.

"Only around a million gold coins. The Legion and the Empire control them. The Ducal cities have them, and each Legion Fortress has one. It is nearly impossible to just buy one from the empire - a long line of people ahead of you, with a hell of a lot of money." Layla crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. She knew Billy was just getting started. The little shit just never gave up once he found a way to make money. It was actually something she liked about him, except when it was her that was getting hammered by him."

"Not all bad. That means no one else is getting one and we'll be the first and can really clean up. How about we just build one? What sort of magic hoodoo does that take?" Billy's knowledge of the magic system used in Genesis was minimal.

"Worse than bad. You need a couple of tons of rare raw materials that we don't have. Tier 2 and 3 stuff just to pack the large area you stand on. Then their is a system of 'runes'. Magical letters or symbols or something. That takes a Runic Mage to create. Every teleporter uses a different set and ties into the system.Then we need ANOTHER mage, one who specializes in carving the runes in the ultra-hard, ultra-rare rock. And then some way to provide the thing with power. It takes alot of power just to set up, and more to keep running."

Do things wrong, and I think they break open dimensions, summon demons, and warp the weather. Bad plan."

Billy was pacing back and forth. "Why does everything seem to be more complicated that it needs to be?"

Layla ticked off reasons on her fingers. "Too many people asked for too much. Remember when the AI asked us what we wanted? No one co-ordinated, just hammered it with criteria. We wanted a massive world with a huge system that would keep people playing for decades. We wanted realizm, but not too much, it had to be fun. Corporations wanted a way to take over the world and make money. Players wanted adventure and entertainment."

"You do realize that to invade the capitol just takes a teleporter and enough troops to swamp the defenders? The system makes it tough for anyone to just make one without the empire knowing about it and taking precautions. And controlling teleporters controls commerce, troop movements, information."

She paused, hoping that was enough to get Billy onto another idea. It was, sort of.

Billy drummed his fingers, "New plan. We need to make a million gold. How's the magic item sales going?"

Layla sighed and looked at her notes, "Slowly, more dungeons have been found so ours aren't being delved every day. We are getting a few things each week, but nothing major."

Billy stopped drumming his fingers and stared into space, then turned to Layla, "Small detail we over-looked in our joy of having our taxes paid. Where did Suzette get a fething Legendary Inflatable Yacht?"

Layla stared at him, "How did we forget about that? I mean, I remember it. It was such a touching scene, our little barmaid giving her heirloom to the Emperor..." Billy was nodding and smiling, Layla's eyes glazed over. Then abruptly she slapped him several times.

"WTF was that for?!"

Layla ignored him and pounded her head on the table twice, "We need to go have a talk with our sweet little yacht dealer, right now."

Billy agreed, "Damn, you're right."

Your workers have vanquished a worthy opponent!

Groph-Maku, Sow of the Black Wallow, has been slain and her body lain as sacrifice to Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt.

The skill: Demon Slayer may now be earned at the shrine by those who prove worthy. Your city will be a pilgrimage for many Paladins and followers of the Light!

ACME Corporation, Northern Division, has earned 250 Building Points.

Billy and Layla looked at each other. Billy looked out the window, and saw some familiar figures walking out of the woods. He thought for a moment, "But not on their day off. Let them have some fun."

Layla nodded slowly, "Right. No need to be rude to valuable employees. Tomorrow maybe." Layla made a note to herself, a reminder that 'the lonely barmaid' was playing her own games. And playing them well.

Billy spread out the map, "So I'm thinking, what if we put in a small inn, a magic item shop, potion shop, pawn shop, a bar and other places adventurers could spend money? We've got 625 Building Points, so let’s see how far that gets us."