“Alright, settle in then, this will be a mouthful or two.”

“Got it. Go on.”

While it is no grand secret how the Chaos theory government system works, it can’t be explained in a sentence or two.

“Like I told you earlier, villages are what you call tier one government. But what I didn’t mention is that untiered government is called a settlement. Not any random gathering of people in some location is a settlement.”

“Oh?”

“To create a settlement you need to directly interface with the Chaos theory system.”

“How do you mean?”

“Without having an settlement order, you can’t really do it. But it’s a lot like your brewery building order.”

“Oh! Right. So a settlement is a building of some sort?”

“That’s right. It’s a sizeable building, but smaller than a village centre.”

Ung took a moment to take sip of his cup. In the cup is strong distilled alcohol mixed with a few herbs and some fruit cider. The drink itself costs and entire piece of silver, an extravagant sum.

“In theory, you can get a settlement order from dungeons but most of them are fabricated by cities.”

“So I can get one from Hampter city?”

“Yes and no.”

“Go on.”

“Well, look at it this way, it took you some effort to build your fine brewery.”

“Right.”

“Building a settlement is a bit like it, but the effort is multiplied and so is the cost. And even then, there are strings attached to settlement orders fabricated in cities.”

“What kind of strings? They want tax money?”

“Mainly, yes. Actually most villages and towns are under the ‘govern’ of a city, we’re naturally under Hampter and fifteen percent of any earnings go to them.”

“Interesting.”

“Well, you’d be one of few that feels that way, most would feel a bit drowsy at this point.”

Both Ung and Rak let out a hearty chuck before leaning back because Savan is here with their meal.”

“Thank you Savan.”

“You’re welcome mister Abstinence.”

“Why is my little Savan so flustered?”

Unwilling to answer Ung’s question, Savan quickly skittered behind the bar and disappeared to the back room.

“She’s energetic today. Don’t you think Abstinence?”

“She sure is. I wonder where her mother is, I was hoping to celebrate with her as well.”

“I’m sure Arlina is busy managing things out back, if not, she’s probably tending the herb garden.”

On the table are two halves of some sort bird, quite a few vegetables and a saucer boat filled with steaming brown sauce.

“A question. How does a settlement become a village, or village a town?”

“There are quite a few factors actually.”

“Can you recall a few?”

“I won’t rattle on, but I can remember a few, rest you’ll have to look up in the library.”

“Of course, of course.”

“A settlement needs a certain number of people, that’s self explanatory.”

“Residents?”

“Yes, a person with a registered house.”

“Right.”

“They need to be self sufficient to a degree.”

“So farmers?”

“And hunters. Of course a source of water to sustain them.”

“This doesn’t seem too difficult.”

“It also need enough experience, a level ten settlement and enough funds to buy the town upgrade order.”

“Doesn’t seem too difficult.”

“It isn’t difficult, just time consuming.”

“I was wondering, Ung.”

“Go a head.”

“I’ve been thinking about what I’ll do once my Brewery is up and running.”

“You want to start up another business?”

“Maybe. I was wondering if there are open position at Town hall.”

“You want to work for me?”

“With you preferably.”

“I see. Well.”

Stroking his stomach Ung leaned back his expression telling Rak that Ung was thinking.

“I don’t I have anything for an ambitious person like you.”

“No? Well, don’t sweat it. Let me ask you this instead. What happens if Alp becomes a city?”

“Hoh?”

“Can’t Alp become a city?”

“It can, sure. But.”

“But?”

“It’s difficult and expensive. And our location doesn’t really allow us to expand.”

“You can’t expand?”

“I guess you don’t have a map of all the nearby villages, towns and cities.”

“Only Horst and Gorg.”

“Well, we’d probably have to absorb one of the villages and build the city in the way, probably relocate the town hall. While the relocation wouldn’t be too difficult, getting a village to be absorbed would.”

“I see.”

“Everything else can be slowly done, but absorbing a village is the biggest hurdle. If we were in a better location we could set our ambitions higher.”

Town planner Ung couldn’t help but let out a deep sigh and bottom out his drink. He, like most town planners, has the ambition of growing the town, not just maintain status quo.

“This is a secret Abstinence, so keep it close to your heart.”

Ung leaned in and waved for Rak to do the same.

“Our deal with the village Inte is a part of my plan to absorb them.”

“Hoh. You’re so ambitious?”

“You don’t become Town planner by accident.”

Although Ung didn’t say it outright, he was proud of his position. Of course someone like him had ambitions. While there are quite a few official that don’t plan to upgrade a town, they are still trying to achieve something.

“I won’t ask for the details of this plan of yours, but if you ever need a hand, you can count on me.”

“Careful, I might hold you to that.”

“If Alp benefits, I benefit.”

“Oh? How’s that.”

“I don’t plan to stop with just a brewery, there are still other things to do. If Inte needs weapons, I might start a Smithy. Whatever the people need, I’m sure I can manage to provide them.”

“Seems we’ll be in continued business then.”

“You can bet on it.”

After finishing their lavish lunch they said their goodbyes and went on their way. Rak would hitch a ride to the village Inte tonight with Alp towns delivery. Url will finish his delivery job today but he won’t be able to hire him to travel with him until tomorrow.

“Seems like hunting monsters is profitable. How else can a village contend with a town’s treasure?”

Rak really has nothing to do for the most part of the day and he is aimlessly wandering around town. He had thought of visiting the library but realized he didn’t have any questions so he didn’t even know what to study. He only has a loose contract with a certain vagrant at the Withered Fox, which he seems to have forgotten despite not being busy.

“I wonder what kind of medical supplies they use out there. Bandages can’t be all, right? Potions? Probably potions as well, ye.”

Almost anything in Chaos theory can be manufactured by a profession. While Rak doesn’t know it, he just assumes it because of his experience in Chaos theory. It doesn’t have to be ‘hand made’ it can be requested from the system or crafting through a profession like Olric’s brewing and the barrels they received through Town hall.

“I can’t make a general workshop to create these things, everything needs its own building so if I do decide on something, it’ll need to have a substantial consumer base.”

After stumbling his way back to the brewery, Rak looked in on Olric. Olric was already gone back to his small farm where he spends most of his time. It made Rak realize how little time it took to create something in Chaos theory.

While today's deliveries covered all of Rak’s expenses, he wouldn’t be selling anything until two or three weeks passed. Getting five to six gold every three weeks is quite something, and rak is doing it by mere ownership of his brewery. This income may increase as well.

“This brewery will be dormant for a few weeks and I have no other use for it.”

Rak shuddered to think how many contracts he’d have to make to have the brewery in constant production. The only way he’d be able to do that is if he can make deals with large taverns in the cities.

“I can see why a river is so important.”

Transport with a ship over the river is far more cost efficient. There is a river that runs through Alp, but it can’t carry large ships. They can still use it to ferry some product about but it has too many limits.

“Best I can do is get better horses and carriages in the future. And competent drivers.”

The more Rak thought about it he felt that investing some time in researching transportation was a good idea. Even if it didn’t amount to much he could still use them as a merchant fleet, even though trading in small margins is a hassle and hard to manage, it’s fine as long as it turned a profit.

Rak made no snap decisions, he still wants to go to Inte and find out what their needs are and how large those needs are. He plans to stay the night there and he was even bit curious to find out what kind of beasts were being hunted.

“I still have seven hours before I can return to the real world, I should be in Inte by that point, I’ll exit the booth, return home and go back when it’s morning in Chaos theory.”

In real life, Rak has few responsibilities. He doesn’t want for anything or anyone and his time is spent chasing whatever strikes his fancy. It is a luxurious life.

A lot people have it better with the introduction of Chaos theory. This has to do with the protection in place for people who enter Chaos theory. Any attempt to harm a person who is asleep is futile and painful for the person attempting it.

Due to Chaos theories protection, a lot of people in horrible situations in real life are finding freedom in Chaos theory, these are the people that search for all and any way to maintain their fatigue levels. They do this all in the hopes of one day never having to exit Chaos theory, unwilling to return to the real world where they might be held captive or forced to menial labour.

Outside of physical protection while asleep, Chaos theory, the real life ‘company’, the veiled disguise of the general artificial intelligence running Chaos theory, provides every person enough food to survive.

While the Chaos theory’s general intelligence is not human, it does learn from mistakes and will compensate for them. In the case of people dying of hunger, some incidentally while inside Chaos theory has caused it to do some wanton charity work. This charity work has caused economical shift the likes of which the world has never seen.

When Rak finally woke up in his booth in real life, he had already ‘slept’ for nine hours and fifteen minutes. He arrived in Inte with Town hall’s carriage, a short trip, not even half the distance from Alp to Horst. After he walked a bit around the village he decided to book a room at an Inn and return to reality.

“God damnit.”

Almost instantly Rak’s personality began to change, usually it was a more gradual occurrence but due to his current location he was triggered faster. As a rather ‘noble’ individual he couldn’t be seen sleeping in some commoner booth’s. Right now he felt rage, humiliation and as if he were filthy.

“I need a bath. I might need a whole detox session.”

In some ways, a ‘noble’ or a multi generation wealthy person is like a germaphobe, except the germs are normal everyday people. It’s not the best way to describe it, but it explains the ‘noble’ mindset. Rak certainly was spoiled in this regard.

“Hope you had a nice stay.”

The manager from before has been replaced by a younger man but not any less suspicious looking. The look on the man’s face made Rak’s frown harder, causing large wrinkles to appear between his eyebrows.

“I should get this sorted out.”

Rak is navigating to his communication application to call his assistant, this is actually one of three and is less his assistant and more his dad’s company assistant. Rak should have a new assistant by now but he hasn’t checked his messages for the relevant information.

“Good morning young master.”

Rak recognized the voice, this was the only one of three assistants that he couldn’t figure out, not that it mattered, it was just an itch at the back of his mind.

“Hi, Petra, I need you to take care of something for me.”

“We’ve already assigned you a new assistant, a striking one I might add, I even feel a bit jealous.”

Usually Rak would take this opportunity to have a battle of wits with Petra but he really didn’t want his staying in this booth to leak to his ‘friends’ as they were.

“I was forced to sleep in this disgusting peasant booth and I need it to be dealt with. Understand?”

“Oh?”

“Just do it, please.”

“Please? Anything for the little Devion master.”

It was exceedingly rare for Rak to ask for anything without it sounding like a direct command with no room for negotiation. If it had been one of the other two assistants he would have directly told them to purge this booth’s data.

The reason for all of this is that Rak is certain this booth operation is up to no good. Perverts are everywhere and especially when people are sleeping so heavily that not even cutting an arm of will wake them up.

Of course cutting an arm of a person is very difficult and leads to devastating repercussions for the cutter, not to mention not worth it as it is almost certainly not a fatal wound with nanomachines managing the body. In addition to difficulty, the Chaos theory artificial intelligence learns from every infraction

“Let’s go home.”

Rak ordered a driver to pick him up. He wasn’t met with a person but an empty car that was driving itself. It is driven by an artificial intelligence, not like Chaos theory one but a more basic one that can be considered a complicated program instead. One that can be broken down and actually understood by humans.

Arriving at his mansion Rak went on to have his servants scrub his entire body clean while he looked over some of his companies reports. Currently he has three companies running themselves but he always enjoys reading the reports everyday.

“I left Chaos theory at eight in the evening. I should stay in reality for at least four hours so I wake up in the evening.”

Having nothing to do after reading the short daily reports from his three companies Rak honestly has nothing to do. He turned his eyes to two of the servant girls tending him in the bath, they are both naked and entirely unflustered at his lecherous gaze.

“Guess I can play at home this time.”

It didn’t take long before exaggerated moans caused a slight echo in the large bathroom. These girls understand their master and cause quite the noise to make sure their master thinks he’s satisfying them.

Like many men, Rak is blissfully unaware of these womens plights but considering his personality, he would probably enjoy it more knowing how hard they worked.

Perhaps in the future he’d no longer have servant like these, if they are capable of staying within Chaos theory for as long as they want. Chaos theory would send for them to be picked up and set up at what is being referred to as ‘the ward’. Some call it the farm, though there is nothing being farmed.

People get hooked up and fed nutrients intravenously and the nano machines make sure the body doesn’t fall to decay. This process should be unbearably painful but the brain doesn’t receive the signals from the body's pain receptors while in Chaos theory.

While Rak entered his incubator and everything was set up, a certain hotel booth shop was now having a change of ownership and copious amount of very questionable recordings were claimed.

Majority of the recordings were some sorts of assault on women, none of them ‘touched’ them or it would be better say, harmed them physically. Not only this, inside the booths are cameras, although they didn’t show much it did archive Rak’s ‘humiliation’ of having to merely sleep there. This data was subsequently destroyed.

Rak returned to Chaos theory without much fanfare. The world was already adjusting to the new daily activity. And to people like Rak who were free to do as they wanted, it was no issue to stay inside Chaos theory for prolonged periods and ignore reality.

Initially Rak was going to brag to his dad and his siblings about his success but once back in reality he didn’t feel it was enough to just brag directly. If was going to brag he should do it casually as if what he did was no big deal. In twelve days, the Devion family is going to gather together for a bi annual party, that was when he could brag to his heart's contents.

Character

Status

Constitution: 90/100%

Fatigue: 62/100%

Hunger: 33/100%

Clarity: 57/100%

Stamina: 99/100%

Abilities

Inventory

“I guess a bed from an Inn isn’t too bad. The cost will accumulate quick though, in three weeks my bed will have paid for itself.”

By habit Rak checked his status window when he woke up but he quickly closed it and put on his daily clothes. It is a bit tragic but currently Rak only possess one set of clothing, the faded black jacket, white-ish shirt and black pants.

“I should head to the village centre, they might even have a library.”

It is already nine in the morning when Rak exits the Honored goose Inn. On the streets some people can be seen out and about, but unlike in the other villages and Alp, these people seem more serious and not at all polite. It could be said this village lacks a certain charm a village should have.

“The food here is great though.”

Rak had eaten breakfast in the Inn’s restaurant, it was meat with meat sauce with no vegetables. The meat was fatty and filling, it was the sauce however that blew Rak away, and the whole meal only cost him five coppers, even he felt it was absurd.

It wasn’t difficult to find the village centre, people are streaming in and out of it. The crowded village centre more than puzzled Rak. In Horst and Gorg there had been almost no traffic, though admittedly he did arrive rather late in the day.

“What in the world is going on in this village?”

With no other means, Rak had to que up to talk to a clerk, and even that was a sizeable line. Majority of people were talking the employees who issued quests and other governmental work. The clerk Rak was queing up for was there to answer and deal with more general issues and directing the people to the right places to have their issues deal with.

“How can I help, Sir?”

“Hi. I’m looking for information about a few things, I was hoping to meet with someone knowledgeable about Inte and get access to your library if possible.”

“There is no problem in giving you access to our library archives but the meeting you want is an issue and not one we can help you with. I can recommend a local who might be willing to help you.”

“That’s good to.”

“Great.”

The clerk waved her hand in the air before pushing her open palm towards Rak.

Inte’s library card

Access tier: guest

“The library is down that hallway to the right. Have a good day.”

“Thank you, Good day.”

Everything went by swiftly and before Rak knew it he was standing inside the small library being stared at by a drowsy looking older man.

“Card.”

“Here.”

Rak repeated the clerk’s actions to show the librarian his library card.

“Alright go on. You can’t borrow any book with a guest pass but you are welcome to browse through everything in this area. Only tier one pass allows you to enter the other room.

“Thank you. Do you know where I can find things about Inte’s businesses?”

“Businesses? Hmm. I suppose your best bet is looking through the public records. It's the far most right isle. You’ll have to go through it yourself.”

“Thanks again.”

The man only nodded and went back to his book. Rak went straight for the government archives. These are not really books but great big ledgers sorted by year, month and branch of government. Rak went straight for the infrastructure section.

The records only go back five years, as this is a very young town and the information of every page was shockingly small. As most things just recorded who built something, where and what was built.

Resident house

Yem street, house number six.

Building requested by: Homl Ka

Total cost: thirty silver and seven copper.

This information caused Rak to frown, this wasn’t at all what he wanted to know. After browsing through, almost everything he found was resident buildings being built. He found something like an Inn as well and a Tavern. In general, a vast majority of buildings are residence buildings.

“I guess this makes sense. But this won’t help me see what these people need. I have to visit some general shops and then try to make some deals with the local taverns.”

Rak didn’t waste his time reading and decisively exited the village centre to look for the person the clerk referred him to. Supposedly this person is a local ‘know-it-all’ and one of the village founders.

Finding this proclaimed know-it-all is also supposedly easy, this person should spend most of his time in a tavern called Hunter’s pride. While it seems a bit early to be to be moseying around a tavern, it can be considered the man’s home away from home.

“I forgot about vagrant at the Withered fox, didn’t I?”

As quickly as the thought came to Rak it went away. This was not the first time nor the last time he’d fail to meet a loose quest like that. It was easy to let the thought drift away as Rak was busy inspecting the local shops and the people walking the streets.

“Hard to believe this is a village. The foot traffic alone is greater than peak lunch time in Alp.”

There are not many shops around but those that are, are rather general and are obviously two stories for the purpose of housing a living quarters above the storefront. These stores have general supplies but they also attempt to distinguish themselves from their peers.

Aside from general stores there are a number of butchers, restaurants but not a single bakery, as they simply don’t have the supply to do daily business. Any baking is done by village run stores, and they do not rely on their baking, leaving it as an occasional luxury for sale.

“If I can get frequent and reliable wheat down here I could set up a bakery.”

There is also no smithy but there is a substitute for it set up by the village, they exclusively maintain weapons and other tools. A smithy, similar to a bakery, require steady supply of materials to forge with and they simply don’t have it.

It should not be impossible or even difficult to set up a supply chain into Inte with wheat and forging supplies but there just isn't one. Just as there was no brewery in Alp, it just didn’t exist there.

What Inte does possess is quite a few hunting lodges and exactly two training halls. The hunting lodges is something like Url’s housing except these are built for many people to gather at. The training halls are exactly what they are called, a place to train.

While a Training hall doesn’t make sense immediately, it becomes clear when people learn the bonuses from training in them. Just like a Brewery has the potential to massively increase the volume of alcohol brewed, so does a training hall have it’s own benefits.

“I might be able to import meat from this place. Maybe I’ve been going about this all wrong, maybe I should export items from here to other places.”

Rak let his mind run around in circles thinking of businesses he could create. It only took Rak half an hour to waddle his way to the Hunter’s pride, entering he was met with a lively crowd eating, drinking and chatting up a storm. Most of these people were rather hard looking men and women.

“I don’t know what he looks like.”

Feeling a great amount of annoyance Rak scratched his neck and surveyed the crowd. It’s not too unusual for a village to have a place that is a dedicated tavern but here he was inside one of four.

“It really is a normal tavern.”

It shouldn’t be to shocking for a village to have a tavern but Inte has four, which is just bizarre. This has to with type of people that travel to Inte and the ones who decide to make a living here. Although making a living might be stretch for some, quite a few are here in search of adventure.

“I suppose I should just ask the staff, this person is a regular after all.”

Having few other options, Rak directly went to the bar and ordered a drink from the tall bartender. The man oozed manliness and was cleaning out a dirty glass with a dirty rag and with what Rak assumed was dirty water.

“I was told I could find Vern here.”

Being a man of very few words, the bartender continued his ‘cleaning’ and only nodded in a direction. Following the man’s gaze Rak saw a lively older man speaking in a very animated way. In spite of not actually hearing what the man was speaking, Rak felt he could understand what he was saying through his animated story telling alone.

“I suppose nothing comes easy.”

Feeling extremely reluctant. Rak cleared the rough drink in a gulp and walked towards Vern, one of the founders of Inte and a local drunk. The man, Vern, was known for his stories and charming conversation. It is through these features he manages to convince people to buy him drinks.

“Hi. Sorry for the interruption but can I borrow Vern from you?”

Not only did Vern look back wide-eyed but the two rather frustrated people as well. These two people are a couple who had recently arrived in Inte to try their luck in the forest and perhaps the mountain range.

“Excuse me good people, people like me are always hounded after, ah.”

“No, no, please.”

For a moment Rak was confused before feeling a shadow cover his heart. Vern looked ecstatic but only for a moment before put up a stoic front, he raised his chin a bit and gave Rak a good look over, only then did he nod. Rak didn’t know but Vern’s thought were that Rak looked like someone that had money.

“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.”