A God's Apocalyptic Entertainment 162 Contrac

Hunter's voice rang out as he looked at me. I reigned in my surprise as I came up with an excuse.

"I was in a small town back where I'm from, not many visited and I never actually talked to one."

My lie seemed to work as he nodded his head in understanding, the pillar in his hand taking my full attention. The pillar was intricately inscribed and I knew where I had seen it before.

It was a miniaturized version of the Pillar that was in the middle of town!

Seeing my look of interest hunter started to talk.

"Well if you've never met a merchant before I may as well tell you a bit about my occupation!"

He flashed me a big smile and spread his arms wide, he sure was a performer.

"As I'm sure you know, this little Pillar in my hands looks almost identical to one found in any normal town!"

I nodded my head.

"Well that's because it is!"

I rolled my eyes at his large grin and motioned for him to continue. My impassive face might have embarrassed him as he coughed once.

*Cough*

"A merchant's main job is to bring goods and supply them to places that are far removed from a normal town. As well as gain a tidy profit if you know what I mean."

He gave me a wink.

"This miniature Pillar can and does contain everything that you would find in one at a city. It's my job to go around and sell goods."

Hearing him talk, I didn't know what to say, I had more questions than answers now. I wanted to know what was special about the Pillar, but it didn't look like it was anything much. More questions came into my head after he started talking.

What he had described was everything that a normal merchant would do. Going around and supplying goods to many places. Slightly different to what he said, but same general gist.

So how did he make a profit?

What were the drawbacks of being a merchant?

It couldn't possibly have no drawbacks, or I would become a merchant right now. I could have a bloody mini store with me at all times, to buy potions, gear and other things.

I left my questions for now and waited for him to continue.

Seeing that I wanted a more in-depth answer Hunter continued from where he left off.

"You see there is a 'Merchant Guild' that will handle every applicant that wants to become a merchant. To become a merchant you have to pay a fee to have the system installed on your EPC. Once the system is installed you will get a Pillar."

"The merchant guild just gives you a pillar?"

How did they get them? Understanding the true meaning of my question he showed an understanding look.

"Well the 'Merchant guild' from what I have learned is present on every planet."

My eyes widened slightly.

"It is theorized that it is an organization that was created by god."

At his words my face turned to stone as I tried not to show any emotion. I didn't know how this person viewed god, it was better to keep my hate under control.

"You see once you become a merchant you are under contract. You have to earn so much each month or you break it. And trust me you don't want that to happen."

His face turned sad as my eyes sharpened. What happens?

"Let me just say that when a contract breaks, you'll instantly become a slave to the merchant guild. Depending on how much you owe them it could be a short stint, or a long one. You instantly lose all the entertainment points that you acquired and have to do 'labor'."

I could hear he's disdain when he mentioned 'labor' and knew that he wasn't talking about what I was thinking. I looked at him for answer and he looked back at me. After a while of silence he sighed and finally told me.

"Lots of people say different things about their stint when doing 'labor'. But from the rumor, the most likely 'labor' you have to do is, dungeon farming. You have to fight nonstop in dungeons for the guild, over and over without break killing monsters."

He took a deep breath.

"You get sent to their personal dungeons where the monsters res-pawn indefinitely. When you kill them, they'll drop gear and equipment that is then taken by the guild and sold."

My heart turned cold as I heard him speak. Why would anyone become a merchant if that was a possibility on the table? The punishment for breaking your contract was too high! I would never be able to look at the gear I bought properly again. It was being supplied by people that used others to make wealth.

It was like any other company in the world that used labor to make items to then sell, but this was on a whole different level. It could easily be compared to sweat shops, loan sharking and other such practices. I started to feel a little pity towards the person in front of me.

Seeing me look at him strangely he just shook his head as a smile finally returned.

"Don't worry friend, it not all that bad. I chose to become a merchant, because we earn a lot of revenue! The entertainment points I gather could let me buy multiple piece of gear that could save my life."

"And when I get older I can retire and leave the game for good. Paying a fee of course."

He gave me another sly wink. I could only see that humor as a way to mask a dreadful outcome.

"Also it's very hard to break contract. You see…"

He pointed down at the pillar in his hand.

"What this little thing does is let me buy gear from a normal town pillar. I pick what I want and how much I want and take them. They will then be in the pillar for me to peddle. Then all I have to do is travel to a town in a remote area and set up shop. I have to sell them for a higher price than what they are actually worth to make a profit, so it's better to find remote places and people wondering about."

He motioned towards my group.

"The contract is always the same. By the end of the month you have to pay back a quarter of what you take out. If I miss that month it will go up to a half, and so on and so forth. It is only when you haven't returned your dues in a few months that you break the contract."

He patted himself on the chest and puffed it out.

"A smart merchant like me won't take on more than I can chew and instead keep a small stock pile of items that I'll sell. I can set the prices for all the items in the pillar and easily make a profit if I'm not greedy."

"Some people I know took too much too fast and paid the price for it."

His face turned sad again as he mentioned his friends, I wonder how many of them he has lost this way.

Hearing him explain it to me though, it now made a lot more sense. Doing things this way there would be lots of merchants that could opt out or retire when they wanted to. Until that point if they were smart and didn't do anything stupid, most importantly knowing how to sell things, it wouldn't be a problem being a merchant.

Finished with his speech and having a proud look on his face, he beckoned for me to get closer and talked in a conspiratory way, in my ear.

"Plus the benefits are great. The merchant system somehow ties in with the drop system and changed what you'll get. It becomes a lot easier to get rare drops and special items when killing monsters. By setting up outside a dungeon and going in yourself. You can sell potions to those that go in as well as get special items to sell to the town pillar. It pays dividends to give back to the town Pillar."

I nodded my head slowly as he pulled back. Special items huh?

It made me think of the serum that I gave to Ella. It was counted as a special item for infected. Is this how you find special items like that?

While I was in my thoughts, they were interrupted by the loud voice of Hunter that had pulled away.

"Now do you want to have a look at my goods?!"

Chapter end