So, a trading system! What does it need…
Obviously, I didn't prescribe anything resembling currency to the mobs players killed so that they would drop it upon death. Let's be honest with myself, I didn't design the mob to drop anything at all. This whole Imp's skins and blood thing had been me just letting the Players 'discover' the usefulness of the Imps and hurryingly implementing it like a patch over a bleeding wound.
At the start of the game, I was much more focused on trying to make my Frankenstein's creation not fall apart and to implement the most basic principles that an MMORPG had to comply with. Give Players an actual body, implementing a character creation system, and give them some means of attack, create a system around the whole thing, and create the mobs that they could wail on for some time as I implemented more necessary things.
Things like gravity, for instance. You never know just how many small things that make life, life, until you have to create it from the ground up.
Literally.
In general, in the first hours of the game, I was focused on creating all the most basic and necessary elements… And yet, I forgot about the air, which I had to add after-the-fact.
In addition, the game did not have any NPCs at all in the beginning, so no traders, and since there were no traders, you also didn't need money, so the mobs didn't drop them either… At least, that's what I thought.
But Capitalism, and the human condition, and the need to have more of what they have, was stronger than even the players' desire to run and cut up demons themselves. Even without me directing things, the Players had managed to create their own trading system. And it was one that was working quite excellently.
Trading experience itself… What a masterstroke.
And I have to admit, I liked this system. Simple and elegant, plus with my hand on the scale as I could change the value of experience as I want, and also have in abundance, a literal infinite amount in fact.
But on the other hand, I did not like its current execution.
The mere fact that players were carrying 'imps', literal monsters, as a kind of currency was, to be honest, ridiculous. Not to mention the fact that such a system has a definite upper limit.
What would happen in the future when the market and economy would expand to the point that items could cost millions of EXP? Do they carry millions of imps in a convoy, or do they keep a dragon around just so that it could be exchanged? Both are equally ludicrous.
It was the same issue when currency was first invented, with gold coins and silver. Carrying literal tons of the precious metal quickly became very dangerous, but at the very least, these gold and silver coins can not fight back and kill you.
Besides, I did introduce some kind of currency, which sadly failed to catch on. The various small coins I had scattered around the ruins failed to become a value of exchange. Now I had to either introduce a normal trading system or find a reason why coins existed in a world where 'experience' was quickly becoming the currency.
Okay, let's solve this from the bottom. Let's define things first… What's the problem?
The problem is that players use the mobs as currency, carrying them around like a bundle of firewood, and that no game system regulates trade.
Then, how should it be ideally?
Ideally, players would use normal currency, trade would be subject to the skills I've issued, but the ability to use 'experience' would still be an available option, as that system has already taken roots.
Hmm, in that case, introducing a Trading system should fix both issues in one fell swoop… Tie it again to Charm for NPC-vendors and as for Players, well, sorry to those silver tongued bastards, Charm doesn't affect other Players. How would I even implement that?
As a condition for executing the Trade system, the Players would put, uh… Well, first to acquire the actual currency for trading. Great, that's the excuse for why Trade was not available, no one had the proper coins for trading!
Let's give these coins some basic skills related to them, maybe Evaluation, like maybe to see if a coin is not a counterfeit…? Uh, perhaps that's too into the nitty-gritty realism that's not necessary. Ahem, I'll have to prescribe the normal value of items now, what currency system to use? Standard trimetallic, copper-silver-gold?
No, we'd better come up with one currency, just peg different metals with different values of this currency. And let's add a normal skill that allows players to evaluate experience! Put a conditional value of 'one point of experience is one currency worth' and give the skill to collect experience from players… But only with their consent, and to ensure that they see exactly how much experience was collected from them!
For a trial, let's give this skill too… Jim. Say that it is a bonus for opening the System. And give him the opportunity to transfer experience normally to other players, to solve the problem that other alchemists cannot level up normally…
Sounds like a plan!
***
Jim watched as another of the alchemists reported to him – a newcomer who had just appeared today – hesitantly raised his club, then brought it down on the still-twitching imp's head, killing it. The man looked away, trying to hide his slightly green face.
Not that Jim could blame the newbie, this game was very realistic, to the point of being disgustingly so. The Players had nothing under their clothes, so propriety laws and certain norms of decency were observed, but there were no restrictions on 'gore' in the game.
"It's amazing how many years have passed since games were first made and people are still the same. Monster brains smeared on the ground with guts hanging out? No problem. But bare breasts? No way, shut it down!" Jim shook his head at the strange dichotomy before looking back at the newbie and nodding back at the Player who had brought the imp, holding out the explosive potion to him.
The Player immediately left on his way after receiving the item. With the barter system now well established, Jim felt like going back to his roots and furthering his experimentation and alchemy studies, delaying it when another prospective buyer approached.
"You've got a good idea here," A friendly looking, short guy with blond hair and a plain face with eyes of an inexpressive brown color said as he approached Jim. "I mean, trading for experience."
"Needs must and all that," Jim shrugged his shoulders, seeing nothing wrong with a little conversation. "Money doesn't drop from the monsters, so I had to find ways."
"I understand," The boy smiled. "I found a couple of coins here and there, though. Interested? I just need a little healing potion and that's it."
Jim thought for a second, then shook his head. "Sorry, but we don't trade for the coins found in the ruins. There's no point."
"Why's that?" The guy frowned, and Jim could understand why. In the modern world, it was very strange to get the answer, "We don't trade for money." "Why not?"
"No reason really," Jim shrugged his shoulders. "We are the only traders around so far, so the question of valuation and exchange of goods has not arisen where we need to use the coins as an intermediary between them. And if there is no need, then the coins are just pieces of metal, which can not be turned into experience, like killed mobs, or used as potions. So we got rid of an extra link."
"Huh, I see…" The guy shook his head, pondering something, before returning his gaze back to Jim. "Well, please? I can give you three silver pieces for one potion. Well, if they're useless, at least you'll have collectibles. There aren't many of them in the game, it's worth that at least, right?"
"That's also true…" Jim thought about it, shook his head, then sighed. It's not like he was running out of healing potions any time soon. "Okay, sure, I suppose I could accept the trade… Hey, who knows, maybe they'll really be worth a lot in the future, right?" Joking a bit with the guy, Jim motioned to one of the other alchemists in the room to fetch the potion. The Player seemed a bit put upon with not getting experience in exchange for the health potion, but a raised eyebrow from Jim changed their demeanor immediately.
Even if the coins turned out to be worthless, another customer that would in the future could be a consistent customer is worth losing out on a simple health potion's worth of experience.
"Thank you," The guy in front of Jim exhaled a sigh of relief, then placed the three silver coins in exchange for the health potion on the table.
"Okay, thanks, good luck to you," The guy smiled, and then, without even looking at the potion vial in his hand.
As Jim reached out his hand to the coins on the table with the intention of putting them someplace safe however, as soon as he touched the coins, a system screen appeared in front of his face.
~Congratulations! You have opened the Trading System…~
***
I watched Jim, instantly animated as he ran his eyes along the lines of the system message that gave him the information I needed, already forgetting about the nondescript guy that had handed the coins to him.
Really, I should have guessed sooner about the reason for the current state of affairs with the exchange, rates, coins, and all that. The problem wasn't that people didn't have any currency, it was just that, right now, they didn't need it.
Indeed, if people needed currency, they could have developed a substitute for it instead of silver coins; anything, even the skin of demon servants or wooden planks, or any such substitute… Just like the experience bartering system currently in use.
But the problem wasn't even that there was no money, it was that there was no society. The Players were, for lack of a better word, wild tribes, with a grouping of squads of five to seven men at most. None of whom had any need for money because they literally lived by gathering and hunting like a textbook about wild societies.
Without meaning to, to accompany the fantasy post-apocalypse here he had made the Players into primitive tribes…
Okay, let's go back to solving the main issue. There is, in fact, no society in his game. No place where 'ordinary people'. NPCs can exist, no full-fledged 'settlement' for the Players to make their home base. And without a center, the Players have scattered all over the place and are more like wandering tribes around the islands, doing whatever they want… The closest thing I have to a 'settlement' at the moment, is the small 'order of alchemists', let's call it that, under the leadership of Jim himself, who is now preparing potions.
And if there is no such settlement, the Players would hardly have any reason to have any contact with each other. And without such a thing, an economy doesn't work, it doesn't exist in the first place.
In general, without some kind of permanent settlements on the Islands, the Players, when they will eventually get tired of endless fights, would just go to sleep in the fields… All people need a place that they could call 'home', even if such a home is virtual in nature.
So then, to fix this issue from the roots, I need to give them something like a city… Okay, that might be too ambitious of a first project, let's start with a village for now. Creating a city would need to take into account all the lore, books, artifacts, and other things that should be stored in abandoned cities, maybe even NPCs… So a village.
I thought about how to go about it for a moment, before a realization clicked in my head, I need to secure a location first! Hopefully a place where none of the Players had seen so that it wouldn't just appear like the village had appeared out of nowhere… Even if technically speaking, it indeed did.
But, well, just like the tree falling in the woods without anyone to hear. If no one sees me creating it, what's to say that the village had not been there from the first place?
I instantly started looking around, but luckily the new Players hadn't had time to explore their islands yet, there were still plenty of places that even the most adventurous Players hadn't set foot in.
Great, now to make sure that the abandoned village can be rebuilt by using the resources found in the floating mines. What a great idea, allowing the Players to use their Crafting system for Construction… Just gonna make another system in a jiffy. And done!
Let the Players build their own city!
Given that the first pseudo-guilds were already built, with the alchemists and the various Players joining the scattered pirate Schooners… I think I can make use of the latter to let the Players 'organically' discover the ruined villages. Entering the scripts… Good, now the various Captains should start issuing quests about the construction of fortified bases which, depending on how the development continues, will slowly grow into full-fledged settlements…
And, most importantly, I won't have to immediately issue any 'Ruling' systems to players, since all of this will be formally handled by NPCs. But sooner or later, most likely, I'll have to do it, to let the Players rule new cities and settlements… But, hmm, it's worth finding a player on which to test such a system. Still, if I just give one of the players such a thing, the others will immediately begin to resent them and look for a reason why they were the only one successful among them…
A brilliant thought flashed through my mind. That's right! Let's try out this system not on 'ordinary' settlements, but on a unique one, under the control of another, very distinguished Player, so that all the others do not ask questions!
Especially since he has already been reborn and reached the place I need, so we'll tweak it a bit to remove a previous idea I had, and…
Jabberwocky, I did tell you I'd give you a bonus for your sudden death.
***
Jabberwocky rushed through the status report, forsaking the level-up messages. He'd read too many of them at this point of time, trying to regain the levels he'd dropped after Double had killed him again and again. But he had no time to gripe about that.
After all, after yet another death, one that had resulted in him logging off in a huff, he had been spending the time on the forum. A forum that was buzzing with activity as a new batch of Players had joined in, and he had read something that made him log in immediately again.
The players had found the angel statue!
Jabberwocky wasn't sure what he was doing when he first decided to perform the ritual, but it had succeeded, and a special quest with some prohibitive requirements to fulfill had popped up. More than just a quest, though, it was a story quest, something that had a connection with the entire plot of the game.
And the requirements for the quest made it plainly obvious that it was not something that a newbie would be able to accomplish. Somehow, due to some random act of his, each step of which would probably only be revealed in the far future of the game, some kind of end-game quest has been revealed. He had done a continuity break in gamer speak.
And for the information about that, many players were grateful to Jabberwocky, and even more wanted to find him and nail him for privatizing an epic quest that all Players wanted to do.
But the situation was that, whether they would sulk or not, it was Jabberwocky who had taken over that epic quest, and it was he who planned to fully complete it… Even if he had to do it using dishonest techniques to monopolize Experience.
One way or another, such methods were necessary to get even a little closer to the seemingly impossible conditions of level three hundredth…
The only problem was that at this point, Jabberwocky would have to kill monsters non-stop for, without exaggeration, years, if not decades in order to get to level three hundred. No, of course, Jabberwocky realized that they were all in the 'beginner's zone' at the moment, and further hunting zones might have better experience drops…
Hell, as far as Jabberwocky himself could know, even level three hundred could just be a beginner's level in this game. He could see the Dev making something like monsters with some millionth level. It is, after all, the 'Infinite' game.
But anyway, so far, he didn't see a normal way to reach level three hundred…
And, what was perhaps even more important, was the fact that in addition to the requirement in levels, Jabberwocky needed information… about everything. Literally everything. About magic, about the angels, about the demons, about the plot of the game, about what happened to the local analog of paradise and so on and so forth.
But, as Jabberwocky would soon find out, it was really hard to get this information. The only NPCs the players could talk to right now were pirates, who were extremely reluctant to communicate with the Players. The only other NPC he had met was the angel that he had summoned in the first place, the one who gave Jabberwocky the quest. Unluckily for him, this font of important information only appeared for a minute or two before disappearing.
That was why Jabberwocky wanted to take this chance, to summon another angel, either the one he had summoned before, or even an unfamiliar one, to get some information. If not about the plot, then at least about his quest.
That was why, right now, he was running across a suspension bridge, stopping only when it began to sway too much that he risked toppling over.
The second statue, as expected, was found in the new newcomer zone, introduced, or rather, opened for the Players only today. Jabberwocky could only hope that each Angel statue could not only be found in every new newcomer island. Otherwise, it would take several years for him to find enough information if he takes the rate of new Players being introduced, and the amount of time the Angel had appeared.
Even if it was called an 'epic quest', Jabberwocky didn't actually want to spend years to complete it. There was a huge world around him, abounding with loot and wealth for him to explore, and Jabberwocky wanted to check out everything it had to offer. Well, or at the very least, check out what he could while working on the epic quest that he had accepted, especially out of ignorance.
Jabberwocky needed information, and so he hurried to the location of the second statue, towards the new island.
According to the picture in the forum, the second statue was similar enough to the first, enough to determine that they were related to each other, and yet different enough to determine that it was a new, unique statue. Jabberwocky could only hope that the summoning ritual that had worked last time, would also work with this statue.
In general, it was strange to Jabberwocky that no one in the game had discovered the magic system yet, he was the first, and it was he who had performed the summoning ritual. Or at least, he had taken credit for that one, while other Players were trying to get some kind of 'mage' class, to no avail.
It could only mean that the Magic system of the game needed something else… Besides lucking into it like him anyway. Such was a question that occupied Jabberwocky as he wanted a mage class too. Nothing like being able to do magic to get the blood pumping in excitement.
Although, of course, his quest was the first priority.
So, having made his way to the cleared ruins, it was a good fortune that several large boulders had fallen on top of each other and split into pieces. Otherwise, the players would still be scratching their heads, not knowing how exactly they had to clear the way to the statue, Jabberwocky stopped. Looking at one of the newbie Players, a girl a little older looking, maybe in her twenties, wringing her hands in worry. She was the Player who had reported finding the statue, the post about which Jabberwocky himself had replied to yesterday.
The Player looked very surprised when Jabberwocky appeared, before soon calming down after verifying each other's identity.
"This it?" Jabberwocky nodded at the low stone statue in the form of a young and rather handsome man with short hair and four wings, before wondering for a moment what the four wings on his form meant.
"Seems like it," The girl smirked, before casting a glance at Jabberwocky himself, "So you're the Jabberwocky?"
"Yeah," Jabberwocky nodded, "And you must be Beze?"
"Yup," The girl grinned, her head tilted to the side, "Okay, let's get on with your angels and quests…"
Before long, as Jabberwocky started the peculiar ritual, a small group of people joined both him and Beze.
Thankfully, he didn't spot his hated assassin in attendance as well.
***
The ritual of summoning an angel – me, that is – was the same as before, with enough theatricality, but quite satisfactory to me. However, unlike last time, when I had to jump in as some maniacs did something entirely out of left field, this time I was already ready and therefore planned to send an AI trained as an actor instead of myself.
Alas, my free time was very limited, and running out, soon enough I would no longer be able to play the role of powerful entities myself. Which meant that I had better have a staff of several trained NPCs, with an AI behind them, capable of playing the role of angels. Better now than later.
In the future, I would likely need a separate AI for each of the angels – especially if I decided to make these angels something powerful in the lore. However, for now, with Roger, I could assign one AI the role of all the angels at once.
With a nervous heart, as if I was sending my apprentice into the field immediately after training, I sent the AI their way. But, with strict orders on what could be said, what could not be said, and how the information was to be communicated, when the ritual came to its logical conclusion, I nodded towards the AI.
It nodded back at me – most likely sending something in the form of 'confirmation' in normal terms, before disappearing from in front of me as the 'ritual' reached its apex, as the statue came to life.
I, in turn, began watching as the stone statue came to life – gradually its features became more distinct, its wings filled with light, and its eyes began to slowly, along with its pupils, come alive.
I smirked at the fact that the AI, named El – from Elohim – was using my previously-created animation, feeling some sort of peculiar pride. What I had created as an emergency plug in an attempt to spare a few more seconds to try to put together an emergency plan in my head to respond to the summons had become part of the game and its world. It was a funny feeling indeed – something between pride and embarrassment.
The angel took a few seconds to awaken before unfolding all four of its golden-flame wings – this time I decided to change the aesthetics of the angel a bit, showing that it was a different entity than the one before. The angel gazed with its piercing blue eyes at the creatures gathered before it, towering over each one by a couple of heads.
Great, the first meeting has taken place, the first impression has been made, let's move on!
The angel instantly found Jabberwocky stepping forward, then shook his head, "You… Gabriel's noted champion…"
Jabberwocky, clearly unsure of exactly how he was supposed to respond to these words, only silently continued to stare at the angel, along with the rest of the people forming a sort of circle around him.
"Speak, for my time here is limited," the angel twitched his eyelids a little, showing this angel's rather bad temper, "Champion."
"Thank you, honored angel,"Jabberwocky bowed. "If it is not too much trouble… I would like to know… How exactly is it possible to awaken the Lord of the Celestial Gardens?"
"Hmm?" That was a question I'd been expecting, so I had worked with El and answered it.
"How do people awaken? All you have to do is say what he wants to hear, where he could hear it."
I lightheartedly added a small clarification to Jabberwocky's quest… Or, actually, it seemed like a clarification to Jabberwocky because it added some information to the previous one, but in the end it was just leading him around by the nose with the same vague wording.
"Don't try to use the horn or drums, it's useless," El, or rather, the angel shook his head. "He is sleeping deeply, and the fact that you woke him – or me – for a moment from this dream can't be called anything other than a miracle… And this miracle won't last long."
All right, implication that we're on the timer delivered. Well done, El, I'm proud of you.
"Ahem, in that case, I'd like to know your name…" Jabberwocky looked at the angel. "And who you are…"
"My name is Michael," El answered without hesitation, "and I am the guardian of Heaven's Gate… Not that my service has any meaning now, there is no Heaven's Gate or even a Heaven left…."
Jabberwocky, having clearly digested this information, which he will probably post on the forum later, and I will read the attempts in the forum lore and choose the ones I like the most before continuing, asked another question. "Okay, in that case… Who is the Enemy?"
"It's the Enemy," El answered simply, as if he was speaking to a particularly dim child. "Who are you? Who am I? Who is the Enemy? The Enemy is the Enemy – the Enemy of all, the great scourge of this world and the cause of the War of the Great Wrath…"
"Great Wrath?" Jabberwocky seized on the seemingly important information, not realizing it was a red herring, wasting time on unimportant lore bits. Enough to cut time out of my conversation with El to keep the players from knowing too much, in case I had to retcon lore post facto later.
"Our knowledge of your language is… imperfect," El grumbled, playing the stern angel perfectly, "or rather, your language itself is imperfect – what you hear is only what we can convey to you, nothing more."
"Okay," Jabberwocky nodded. "In that case, ahem… I would like to know – magic… I mean, using a magic ritual we were able to summon or revive you, but none of the participants of the last call discovered magic powers…."
At that moment, I froze… along with El.
Damn it, I didn't think about it – I gave magic to Yersinia because I didn't want to overpower one player, especially one who had already leveled up quite a bit. But logically, I should have given magic to Jabberwocky or the other Players with him. Technically speaking, they did accomplish the requirement of actually using magic… So, let's think about how we're going to cover this…
El raised his gaze slightly at Jabberwocky, making him shiver a little, but I noticed how he hid the confusion behind his gaze by using mimicked rage instead. While he was actually raising it slightly to look at me….
Ha, probably in the right expression the AI was now sending me panicked requests for me to do something… Some kind of 'an unexpected exception occurred, the angel will now be shut down, please restart the angel.'
Ay, okay, time for me to shine! Random bullshit go!
I jumped and took control of El's figure, easily sliding into the angel's shell, shifting El away from the controls – he was still watching, but no longer in control of the game avatar's movements and words.
"And what makes you think you don't have magic, mortal?" A great question to lead the Player astray! He can't just say 'because I don't have new abilities,' and the rest I can defend by saying that they summoned me – that's El – that's an angel – and therefore have magic… Great, I trapped the Jabberwocky!
"You have already summoned me – isn't that the magic you were looking for?"
The Jabberwocky, apparently realizing this, also lowered his head. "Yes, of course, I apologize…."
"But if you need to know," I took pity on the Player, "One of your kind has a greater understanding of this magic you speak of… Perhaps she'll give you the answer to your question."
After these words, Jabberwocky cheered up – good luck trying to figure out Yersinia… Although news about her using magic would spread quickly enough, I think it won't be that hard, but I'll keep him busy for a while.
"My time is coming to an end – stupor is once again consuming me," I used the cheapest trick available to me, running out of time. "I have to go. But before I disappear – know, Champion of Two, that each of the Seven awaits your actions… But each of the Seven will not awaken fully before you build the City where we walked once, and where we will walk again… Know, Champion, that you are destined for a heaviness that swallows anyone – for this heaviness is the heaviness of the Crown of Heaven," I said, giving out even more bait.
"But you will not become king before your Kingdom in Heaven… Know this, Jabberwocky – for you will have to build both the City, and the Kingdom, and the Temple – and then we will return when the Call is heard again…."
And with these words, the transformation process began, the angel turning back into a statue. I got out of the angel and looked at El, then, as if a little worried about him taking his failure badly, rubbed him on the shoulder.
El didn't react to my actions, but nodded slightly, allowing me to calm down and look at Jabberwocky, who had another quest on his list….
I smirked at Jabberwocky's panic at the new quest and turned and headed away, pondering whether I should have gotten on the forums now or started working on the Celestial Jungle.
So many things to do!