Might as Well

“What is going on?” Clarissa asked, worriedly chewing on her lip. Sam knew she always worried about money, making sure that her sister could attend university and not have to worry about the cost, plus taking care of her two parents. “All I’m seeing is the price of gold plummeting!”

The rest of the people participating in the video call all nodded or noted their agreement. Adam was stone-faced, and Lara was casually sitting next to Dan, who looked uncomfortable sitting on a high-quality-looking sofa. Katie was on her stomach, her legs up in the air, wearing a onesie made to look like Puffball (thankfully minus any eldritch effects) munching on something from a box, while Isabella was sitting on a balcony with Claire next to her serving tea and scones. Tim was calling from a dark room, only illuminated by the screen, casting him a pale light. Liz was also in her room but it was well-lit, full of whiteboards filled with plans and enough plants to repopulate a small jungle.

Lucy cleared her throat, calling attention to herself, shuffled a few pieces of papers around – looking rather official – then began speaking.

“Yes. The price of the gold is going down. Apparently, somebody or a group has been injecting gold into the market at regular intervals.”

“So, hyperinflation of gold?” Lara asked, sitting next to her fidgeting boyfriend. “My family has been all up in arms over this. Calling it the death of the game…”

Sam couldn’t help but snort.

Lara nodded. “Exactly…”

“It happens in every game. Some idiot finds a way to cheese something or simply exploits a glitch and floods the market with infinite gold.” Lucy continued.

“So, are we like going to be poor?” Katie asked between bites, looking supremely unconcerned.

Sam had to snort again. However, before he could open his mouth, Lucy beat him to it.

“Hardly. In real life, hyperinflation has several causes, including…” She, however, fell silent seeing the looks on everybody’s faces. Lucy harrumphed a little, then continued. “I suppose we don’t need to talk about what causes hyperinflation in real life. Even if it is fascinating. But… Games behave differently. We’re looking at somebody trying to make bank by slowly flooding the market with gold. The price has already halved.”

“What about our pay?” Dan asked hesitantly.

Lucy nodded as if expecting the answer. “Sam insisted that we have some reserve cash, thus we’ll be able to pay your expected salary and other things for at least six months.”

Instantly, all eyes were on Sam. He just shrugged with a small smile. “What can I say? I’m paranoid…”

“Sure… And I’m Mother Mary…”

“Hell yeah, boss!”

“Shocker…”

Lucy cleared her throat, but this time, Sam beat her to it. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and steepling his fingers in front of him. Like a proper super-villain, or at least a minor anti-hero about to monologue to their loyal minions.

“Look, this is an issue, but not that big of an issue. Yes, the RMT market is crashing, but that happens with every game. If the gold fails, we’ll find some other item to trade, so no worries. But the game is pretty big, so expect the devs to step in and regulate the market at any time. Plus, if you have checked, then you would know that while the RMT market is crashing, the in-game market was barely affected.”

“Prices have gone up…” Lucy added.

“Yes, by…”

“Four percent as of now.”

“See, the in-game markets will take more time to be affected, which shows that the person or people behind this are focusing on making money from the players.”

Isabella elegantly raised her hand.

“Yes, Izzy?”

“Why hasn’t the system patched their exploit? The last time I found one, it was gone within an hour,” she asked with a sour look on her face.

“I haven’t the foggiest,” Sam lied like a champ. Seeing the looks on people’s faces – well, aside from Adam, who hadn't known him for long – they clearly didn’t believe him. But seemingly everybody got the unspoken message and didn’t ask for more.

“So that’s why you wanted the guild not to focus on gold…” Adam spoke up with a thoughtful look. “The members are really appreciative.”

Sam bowed his head a little.

“What about the shops?” Liz asked worriedly. “The crafters won’t be happy with the drop in income…”

Sam looked at Lucy, who returned his look, and then he nodded at her to take over.

“We’re going to continue accepting gold and I’ll make sure to send out a message that we are going to compensate everybody…”

“Oh…” came from Liz.

There was a beat of silence before Lara spoke up, holding a small glass of wine. “Should we sell our gold? My family expects that it will halve at least a few more times.”

“No,” Sam stated, looking directly into her eyes. “I think we should hold…”

She looked back at him with a small smile, sipped her glass, then nodded. “Then I suppose I will recommend my relatives to sell as much as possible…”

It took a second, but soon everybody was sporting all sorts of evil expressions.

It was Tim who raised his hand and asked a very logical question. “Will the system punish us for what is clearly market speculation?”

Sam shrugged. “We’re not using information gained in illegal ways or insider information. We’re also not the cause behind this. That’s not illegal. Right?” he finished by turning to Lucy.

Lucy nodded. “Technically, no, it’s not illegal. But if it works out how we expect it to work out, then we should expect the system to react in some way.”

“So, make sure to wait until the gold prices are at the bottom…”

After dealing with the gold crash and other company, guild, and fortress-related business, the team left the video chat one by one until Sam remained alone with Lucy.

“How is Heavenly Forest?”

“They’re spending like no tomorrow.”

“Good. Make sure we add a few ‘seasonal’ services…”

“What are you thinking about?” she asked, pen ready to take notes.

“Hmm, have we allowed them to redecorate their rooms?”

"Not really, aside from souvenirs and trophies..."

“Well, set up a small selection of premium furniture they can choose from. Maybe a few tasteful color schemes.”

Lucy nodded back at him and he nodded back with a sly smile. “Damn, why didn’t I think about that… What else?”

“Hmmm… “ He looked away, thinking hard about how to separate people from their hardly-earned money. “What about training?”

“What?”

“Our servants are trained, right?”

“Yes. Based on the manuals you gave me…”

“Good. Then have some of the more good-looking gals and guys set up some basic lessons. Yoga, Tai Chi, and everything else. Rich people are suckers for that…”

“They are going to get skills from that…” Lucy reminded him as she made copious notes.

“Basic ones…” Sam waved it away carelessly.

“Or experience points in not basic ones.”

“Not much, but enough to make them go back to the lessons. Also, if we’re so deep into being evil capitalists, make sure that the lessons have a sign-up fee and a cancellation fee.”

Lucy nodded thoughtfully. “Indeed, after all, our elite teachers’ time is very valuable…”

Sam looked around his office, taking in all the coded plans and whatnot. Some of them were created before Magic Unbound was released and they were hilariously out of date. Or were invalidated by his actions.

Sighing quietly, he stood up, stretched, and began removing those plans he knew were impossible to achieve. However, he made sure to read over every one of them and note down a few promising ideas he could make use of in other plans.

It took a few hours, but his office was finally cleaned up, the superfluous documents containing his plans shredded and burned.

He stood in front of his windows, just looking out at the city, but seeing nothing, going over the events that had recently happened.

Future Unknown had made sure that everybody knew what had happened and who was behind it. It wasn’t enough they sued them to the ground, they also made sure that everybody hated them. After all, it was common knowledge that gamers were like dragons. And like dragons, they hated to be separated from their hoards.

The entire thing was a masterclass in legal maneuvering, public opinion manipulation, and PR.

He knew that they could make some profit from the crash; the company wasn’t that cruel, but it was revealed that those who acquired an excess amount of gold would get a visit from company lawyers who would offer a one-time purchase contract for that gold at a highly reduced rate. If they didn’t agree, the gold would be simply deleted.

As the price they offered was somewhat above the purchase price, people wouldn’t suffer a loss, but they still wouldn’t make as much as they expected.

However, nobody dared to complain according to his memories…

The fate of the people who were behind the inflation was still in everybody’s mind.

Sam even suspected they let them do this just to establish that the company indeed had some big sticks.

He was about to head out for an early dinner when his phone rang. He went over to where he left the device and picked it up after he saw it was the doorman calling.

“Yes?”

“Hello, sir. We are calling because you received a rather sizeable package,” came the pleasant voice of a woman.

It took him a second to remember then he grinned.

“Future Unknown?”

“Yes, sir. Should I send them up?”

“Yes, please!”

“No problem. Have a nice day!”

“You too!”

He hung up, walked over to the door, and opened it, excited at the prospect of finally getting his own VR capsule.

Opening his email client on his phone, he saw that he already received a set-up email. Still grinning, he leaned against the door frame and waited for the quiet ding of the elevator.

The delivery people were professional and even though they could clearly see that Sam was practically vibrating with excitement, they stayed calm and made sure the pod was installed properly with every safety feature Sam had ordered.

Two extra batteries connected at different locations, health monitoring connected to his computer, extra ground and insulation, proper connection to the wall outlet with a power meter, and all sorts of odds and ends that would come in handy in the future. It cost a pretty penny, but it wasn’t like he didn’t have the money.

Most people were buying the basic unit, and it was perfectly serviceable for what it was, but Sam had read enough webnovels to know when to double up on safety technology.

After an hour, he saw the nice delivery people off after a quick coffee break and gave them a tip.

He stalked back to his office, where his sofa was replaced by the VR capsule. He walked over and placed his hand at a certain place, which caused a small light to illuminate his hand as it scanned his appendage, and then a ping noise was heard. With a quiet hiss, the glass cover of the pod opened and Sam saw the insides.

It was gray with thin fabric covering sponge-like material made from some specially made gel that conducted bioelectricity and had some kind of special vibration conductivity. Sam wasn’t a scientist, but from what he understood from the manual, the pod used bioelectricity and pinpoint accurate vibration to stimulate the entire body, preventing it from going numb.

Sadly, it wasn’t one of those magical VR pods from the stories that transferred the accumulated training from the game into the real world, but at least it would reduce muscle mass loss and body pain.

He quickly undressed, leaving himself in his boxers, and stepped into the pod, then nestled into the gel interior. Undressing wasn’t exactly necessary, but he knew from his inherited memories that it should be much more comfortable without clothing.

‘This is so fucking comfortable…’ he mused as he pulled down the small headband with the attached visor that replaced the VR helmet and situated the device on his head.

He reappeared in his room at the headquarters and couldn’t help but smile.

Playing the game with the helmet was amazing, as there was a reason why so many people were doing it, but now that he finally had the chance to try it with the pod, the feeling was very different.

It was like before stepping into the pod he had been playing with a weighted vest and now it was removed. He felt so much lighter and freer. Even the feeling of his magic was much clearer. The difference was probably not big enough to provide an advantage for the regular players but to him?

Grinning like a loon, he called out. “Lucky!” The excitable wolf instantly surfaced from a nearby shadow, sat down in front of him on his haunches, and looked up at him. “We’re going testing!”

“WOOOF!”

He swept out of his room, with the eager wolf following him, grin still on his face.