Time passed. The strangeness of the world lessened, but he could not help but feel that something was still off. No stronger to sudden onsets of pain and mental anguish, yet he still did not understand what had just happened.

It was starting to get late and the onset of twilight had begun. Scott knew that he needed to get back to the police station if he intended to be of use. First, however, he looked to the money he had acquired. Other than the shotgun and soul gems, all he had earned was American currency. Thankfully, it looked modern.

“A little over eight hundred bucks?” Scott nodded to the wad of cash in his hand. Cheap bastards, indeed.

He brought up the upgrade menu for his land, then sighed. “This has changed too, huh?”

“Seriously, pick a system already!” Scott grumbled to himself and went in search of something to help his current issues.

“I have to repair the place before I can upgrade it… A quarter of a million dollars for all repairs. Really?” It was a good haul, but he lacked the funds to do much with it now.

Admittedly, if he were to have someone fix it up the normal way, it would cost considerably more and possibly take a couple of months. The system did not need supplies and manpower. It just upgraded things.

He fiddled with the system menu a bit and soon discovered that he could repair things in sections. If he repaired the asphalt and concrete around the main building, he could make that one section spawn free. Of course, monsters might still spawn inside of the buildings.

“Five grand for the parking lot… sheesh,” muttered Scott. “Twelve hundred to repair the fence. That’s almost affordable. Once the fence was repaired it would be available for upgrade immediately, just like the parking lot.

The land outside needed only a little bit of cash to fix as only the damage from the fight was required for repairs. “Maybe I could make a little tent city or something?” Of course, he would need tents. This also would cost money.

If he repaired the dirt, or whatever, it would allow him to add a spawn free area on the outskirts of his buildings. Though, the cost of the upgrade was going to be well outside his current finances.

At this point, it would be better to just save his money and use it to build his finances. Scott was glad to have a proper base of operations, but Blackthorne Enterprises would need to up its game considerably if he wished to be able to do anything for anyone.

He checked to see how much the cost to exchange jerin to dollars had changed, but to his surprise a new message appeared. “The hell?”

System Update Log

The cost to transfer items and convert currency has changed. They conversion requirements are now set and will not change further for the remainder of the dream access period.

One Jerin is now equal to one US penny. This is due to the primary transfer market being based out of the United States. At the point in time when the decision had to be made there was only one native born individual on Earth who had acquired world item transfer capacity.

This capacity will appear in a limited manner during the next update, when official Dream Shops will appear across the world. These shops come in several varieties. Please look forward to them.

Our apologies if this is a cause for concern. Your local currency can be exchanged for US Dollars and then transferred into Jerin, or it can be automatically converted for a ten percent fee. There is no longer a processing fee associated with transfer costs and monetary exchange paid in US dollars. This currency exchange capacity will naturally come to an end when the dream access period ends. The world currency will be changed to a new type of coinage known as ‘fayth’.

Item transfer between worlds will now be based on total mass for on-the-spot transfers, and after further deliberation caused by administrative outcry there will be no further cost associated with item value or utility. However, the total transfer cost will increase in order to compensate.

If you own property legally through the system that is deemed to be logistical or commercial in nature, you may purchase a world transfer node. No transfer costs will be accrued if this singular location is used, though you will need to pay a standardized monthly license agreement and maintain the cost of repairs. These nodes will cease to function at the end of the dream access period.

Special Notice

Due to recent version conflicts with a system update patch, we have rolled back the previous update to a prior system restore point. This is a point approximately three days prior to the current date. Time and date were not changed in the dream world. There is no cause for concern in that regard.

Individuals who have forsaken their humanity and have acquired a new race may not fully integrate with that change and may experience physiological and psychological stress. This will pass, eventually.

This was a necessary update for an upcoming major release. We apologize for any inconvenient this may have caused.

Please note that this restoration also necessitates that memories are altered due to the divergent flow of time. Once again, this change may interact strangely with non-human natives of this world.

The system has now been patched properly in preparation for the next major update. There is no need to thank us.

You are welcome, humanity.

At first, he was confused. Next, he was elated that he finally had a set price for transference costs. Inevitably he became annoyed. “These assholes… They fucking outed me!”

They admitted that only one person could transfer items from the dream currently. That meant that should he try to openly set up shop, people would know that he was the guy! He was nowhere near ready to fend off all the trouble such a revelation would cause. Bullets still freaking hurt. Those weren’t even modern supersonic high caliber firearms. Muskets hit damned hard, but had trouble penetrating his scales. A modern high caliber rifle would probably leave a smaller entrance wound, but it would penetrate his flesh. This would be especially true if they swapped lead for steel penetration rounds. At this point, he knew he was tough as hell but any modern soldier that could manage to hit him with a rifle shot would do damage. The lower caliber shots of a standard rifle in the US army might not be immediately lethal but they would tear at him and whittle his life force down quickly.

“Fuck it. I’ll have to keep my head down for a while. Level up a bit and make some gear,” he said in annoyance.

The armor he had in the dream would work amazingly well, but he did not have a transfer node now. The cost to ship it back and forth constantly would be egregious.

“It’s going to be more expensive to transfer, but they gave me serious leverage in the value of the currency,” he said. A grin slowly spread across his face. There was no more exchange fee for him. This meant they would not take ten percent of his money to change money from one currency to the other. What was only eight hundred bucks here in America, or whatever he would call his new country, was eighty thousand jerin in the dream. Bringing money from the dream to earth would be an exercise in frustration, but he could get a shit ton of jerin in exchange for dollars.