Chapter 0008

“What’s the verdict?” Erica is still subdued from the previous dress down. The temptation to leave the group and strike out on her own is very high. The white butterfly won’t be a babbling mess.

Despite her anxiety, she chose to stay. She doesn’t know what dangers exist in Arashia.

At least Erica started off better than a few transmigrators. She had two people she can trust. Once the leash called consequences is removed from the beast called desire, the laws of the jungle takes hold and destruction of the current laws starts. Morality deteoritiates for benefits. Humans betraying one another becomes an everyday occurrences.

Erica will not be a victim.

The two people beside her are very loyal. They will not betray her, in spite of the crazy sh*t happening around them.

“We familiarized ourselves in the area, take note of group forming, and get ready for the mass exodus when the doorway opens.” Sylphie gives orders like a monarch commanding her subject.

“You mean scout the area so when Laurie calls for a pick up, we know where we are going.”

“Hey!”

The Tajin Nost and the Ruse Marren ignored the feeble protest of the Perrian Let. “Erica, you are better with the social investigative aspect. Try to get me the demographics of the player, paying close attention country of origin. Even though the beginning area is set up for people from around the world, I want to know how wide spread the transmigration is. I will be focusing on the economical aspect of Arashia. Leviene, you stumble into something good.”

“Why do you need to investigate the economy?” Erica questioned the reason behind the division of labor. It is understandable to investigate the people teleported/kidnapped with them and the groups forming.

Leviene may seem dazed and unreliable most of the time, but her luck is inversely proportional to her sense of direction. Scary good.

Aside from it being Sylphie’s strong point, Arashia’s economy doesn’t mesh with their objective.

It was Leviene who explained Sylphie’s reasoning. “The state of an game economy can tell you how old the game is. In a new game, player will horde their stuff like ores or herbs because they don’t know which profession is necessary or will make money. The auction house will be empty. Stores will only have useless stuff. Once information disseminate about the game, players sells their unnecessary supplies, focusing on materials used to upgrade their characters. In a mature game, high end guild offer escorting services, rushing services or instancing services.”

“Escorting? Rushing? Instancing? Use layman's term please. Your geek speak is confusing me.” Erica sneered at Leviene. Leviene looked at Erica strangely. What kind of confidence the Ruse Marren has to bounce back from a major dress down so fast.

Meek Erica, why can’t you stay a little longer!

Nonetheless, Leviene continue with her explanation.

“Escorting and rushing services are similar. A high level character escort or rushes you through a low level area to get all the good gear or help you level for a fee. Instancing services is when a high level guild/clan/sect complete an instance and has all the gear from the area. They offer to take you through the instance/area/kill the boss for loot. Before you asked why they don’t sell the drop on the auction house, there are items everyone can use, binds on equip or boe or binds on pickup shorten to bop. Game developers want players to actually play the game instead of buying the good gear off the auction house, so they make the good gear bind on pickup.”

“Why do we have to know the age of the game?”

Sylphie took over the explanation this time. “If this is a new world/game, then everyone is on the same footing. We don’t have to worry about high level characters coming to low level areas to kill us. Everyone will be focused on exploring, leveling or feeling their way through the game. Individual or small squirmish are rare. We have to be wary of big groups trying to kill us, but we can escape easily. It’s more of an annoyance rather than a threat. In an older game, the etiquette and laws of the game society are being formed. This the most dangerous time of the game. Big guilds pressure small guilds, elites take whatever they want and boundaries are tested. Consequences are being test. As the game progress, a semblance of law emerges with the major guild providing a check and balance.”

“In a virtual reality game back on Earth, some actions are forbidden by the game itself. Game companies want to make money. If the new player suffer too much at the hands of the veteran players then they won’t pay the subscription fees to play, so the game have built in laws to protect the player to an extent. Although this game has the mechanics as a virtual reality game, it is a world in itself. The protection in a virtual reality game may not be in place here.”

Leviene can see the light bulb going off inside Erica’s head. “If it is a new game, we don’t have to worry about the other players yet. In an older game, it is the other players who are the biggest threat to us. A good way to determine the age of the game is the economics of the game.” Erica summarize the information received.

“Yeah.”

Sylphie explained her orders to Erica. “We are going to split up and explore the area. I believe Arashia is a ‘new’ game since we are unable to leave the city yet. I want us to be among the higher level players here. Until we can start playing, we have to find out as much information as we can. Hence, we are going to split up and search for clues in our area of expertise.”

Leviene marvelled at Sylphie’s ability to compartmentalized. Smug superiority to extreme anger to intelligent leader. Sylphie’s many faucet fascinate the straightforward Perrian Let.

“Leviene is in our group.” Leviene rejoiced. Another Captain Obvious had join their group. They are comrades in arms against the double speak of politically minded tightwads.

The joyful midget missed the point look sent her way by her new comrade.

“Lucky Laurie.” Sylphie’s response puzzle Leviene but Erica understood her point immediately.

“Yeah, I’m very lucky.”

“Okay.” Erica agreed with her dense cousin. It was so obvious that a dense idiot can understand the motive, but Leviene nickname in the family is Captain Obvious for a reason. Not only does she state the obvious, she is immune to it too.

Erica pity the fool. Then she remember how lucky the idiot was, her pity evaporated, allowing her to become a happy bystander to schemes woven right before her eyes.

Sylphie knew how meticulous Kaleseze is. If he said he search every nook and cranny is the his capital city, then he comb the city thrice over. They weren’t going to get new information by searching the city.

Leviene might stumble onto something good.

The short Perrian Let is an airhead most of the time. However there are time when Leviene stumbles into some amazing things. The family calls it Laurie’s Luck. It is a combination of luck and brilliant insights. Leviene stumbles into trouble and startlingly turns trouble into adoring fans.

She hates her fans, but that’s neither here nor there.

“Okay, lets split up and search for clues.”