Chapter 29: Want Ad

Now that I am secure in my locked room in the castle let’s take a more in depth look at this job hire section of the Great Game store. It looks kind of like a job board. I can either put up my requirements or look at “resumes” of people. The applicants can be from any Great Game world and seem to be bound by magic to their contracts. I need to be careful on who I hire. The contract needs to have severe enough penalties and good enough rewards that I will be able to hire the best. I am not lacking in resources currently and my new plan should make me and my kingdom insanely wealthy.

I remember that the Great Game said that existing currency could be exchanged for Great Game currency at a reduced rate until the Winter Solstice. After that it becomes worthless. Electronic wealth is useless because all electronics are now no longer accessible. However, hard currency is still available through banks, vaults, and store registers. All of the precious metals and gems in the jewelry shops has no current own either. I should be able to hire groups of mercenaries that are high enough level to stomp through everything in this week where everyone is gone and the monsters are still low enough level.

They will be my resource gathering group. I will offer them a flat fee and a percentage of what they recover with severe penalties if they try and steal. The Great Game will enforce the contract so there should be no shenanigans. First though I should start with guards and hired help for my castle and home base. I think that I will create my own postings for everything so I can control the circumstances, penalties and terms of service.

Wanted: Long Term Palace Guards 100 – 250 people Minimum Level 20, Mixed Genders, Races, and Bloodlines Welcome Minimum Length of Contract 5 years with resettlement rights granted at the end of the initial contract. Contract will be extended in five year increments until 20 years or until one party declines renewal. Contracted guards must have rank and support mechanisms in place. Contractor will provide room, board, salary and bonuses dependent on negotiations. Family units and followers are acceptable but shall be taken care of by contractees. Contracted Palace guards must submit to initial oaths of loyalty and secrecy enforceable by the Great Game. Contracted Guards must submit to truth magic semi-annually to test for loyalty. Reasonable outfitting and replacement of equipment will be provided by the contractor. Those with vendettas or attitudes against specific Races or Bloodlines need not apply.

This will be my basic post that I will modify as needed for other positions. I think I will post one for 25 palace maids, 15 groundskeepers, 10 cooks, and 10 general help.

I think that each Resource Ranger Team who will go out and retrieve cash and jewels will be 1 week contracts with a flat rate of 100 gold per person + 10% of the value of the currency brought back after it has been exchanged into Great Game currency. 25 people per team should be able to move quickly yet have enough people to deal with any situation that might occur. 10 teams and hire for speed as well as level.

As my territory grows I will have to designate areas for people to meet and live while providing them basic supplies to start out with. I think that any city over 500,000 in population before the Great Game change over will be designated as a HUB CITY. Any city above 100,000 but below 500,000 will be designated a Satellite City. Finally, any city over 10,000 but less than 100,000 in population will be designated as a Town. Anything smaller than that is just a village.

Each Hub City will start with basic housing for 250,000 people, granaries with enough food for a month, shops, walls, 1,000 to 1,500 guard force to start with, and a castle for the eventual sub ruler of the area. Each of my satellite cities in the kingdom are going to get basic housing for 100,000 people, granaries with enough food for a month, shops, and walls with a guard force of 500-1,000. Every town gets basic housing for 10,000, granaries with food for a month, shops, walls, and a guard force of 100-250 to start with.

With a little math I get a figure of 10 million gold pieces per Hub City, around 4 million gold pieces per satellite city and close to 1 million gold pieces per town. This is just basic services. I saw an option for a teleportation network that started at 25 million gold with 5 destinations with a discounted price of 3 million more gold pieces per destination after the start up that I need. Without communication and transportation my kingdom will collapse in no time flat.

I can purchase academies, upgrades, prebuilt adventure guilds, etc. The only limiting factor is money. I want to have a fully functioning kingdom set up to help ease the transition for as many people as I can by the end of the week when they return. I have a feeling that the numbers returning will not be as high as what the Great Game suggested. Our society has become out of touch with basic survival skills. That is not a bad thing in normal society, but in this situation can turn deadly. I think we will be lucky to have a 50% survival rate of all tutorial people. Many probably overestimated themselves and selected harder levels. Many might not be able to survive a day let alone a week, and I hate to even imagine what will happen to those with medical problems or that are already at an advanced age.

The more I think about how much the Great Game is literally killing a significant portion of the population that our ethics and society have decided to help stay alive the angrier I get. Why is it fair that younger healthier people have a better chance at survival. We need people like Stephen Hawking and others to help us figure things out in the changed world. However, reality dictates that under the limitations that the Great Game set forth the chance of them surviving is almost nil.

I need to stop this negative spiral of thoughts. I can’t dwell on the individuals. I need to do what I can to look at the big picture. If I do not have a good system of support in place when people return I expect another 50% of survivors would die off in another month. We are so dependent on transportation and electricity for food and other basic items we need to survive that even when people return we could have wide spread famine and disease, along with monster attacks.

I have to get things as prepared as I can.