Azimuth: The Elden Throne (New Version)

Chapter 319 Into the Future! Day 2?

Pretty big chapter, enjoy?

Hopefully, the price didn't come as too large, there is a reason why I don't like doing them big... At least not anymore.

Although it helps with the flow.

Enjoy!

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[DING]

[Skill Boost Token's effect has worn out]

[Skill, Manifestation of the Perfect Self 2-??? has devolved into, Self Reflection ???-Star]

[Due to your sublime accomplishments during the Event, you've received the item, Memory Stone (Skill)]

[Memory Stone (Skill)

Category: Consumable

A single-use item that allows one to bring forth the power engraved in the stone.

The Memory Stone is currently engraved with the Skill, Manifestation of the Perfect Self 1-???

]

[Ding]

Following that, several more notifications played by Dale's ears, mostly a summary of his accomplishments and encouraging words from the developer company of Azimuth.

[DING]

[Sever-Wide Announcement!]

At the same time, all players around the globe received a notification, the congratulatory words of Elden Throne for all that participated in the Event and also for the new players that were still joining the game.

After all, only ten days had passed in the real world since the game dropped, and that, to many, was like the blink of an eye.

People focusing on their studies or working hard to sustain themselves were still deep in their own ventures, perhaps the players who played during the launch were now busy with their real lives by now…

That was how things went, the reason why there were over 100 million registered accounts but less than a third of that were playing the game at once.

Some played in the morning and others at night, that was just how things went.

In any case, Dale merely smiled a little at their words, feeling somewhat accomplished that another page of his story was over.

This event had shown him that out there, capable players strong enough to rival him indeed existed and that if not for his overbearing strength, he may have lost.

He wasn't unbeatable, and considering most of those people he met so far were young, then those who taught them were likely even stronger, older, like Roger.

If he wished to protect himself both in-game and in real life, then he needed to grab some weights and start lifting them.

To train like never before, and to follow the trail of clues to the truth.

His identity wasn't safe now, perhaps it never was…

In a world so interconnected as this one, he wondered just how much his enemies knew about him… If he had any.

Even now, Dale was still unsure why he had been attacked, or better put, why those people tried to kidnap him... Partially because no one answered him when he asked...

There was no certain thing in the world, but if they tried once, then it meant there was some value in him, whatever that may be, so who knew if they were going to try again… 

If not them, then someone else willing to take the risk.

He couldn't really see what was so valuable about himself, the Green Box? But how would anyone know of it? Much less infer he had it.

If there were so many youths who trained in real life to become strong, how come they hadn't assumed him to be one as well?

In any case, that was just his assumptions, and they would remain as such until his trip to South America.

Sometimes, Dale looked upon himself, how had he gone from a normal young adult taking his first steps into society to a bloodstained warrior fighting for his life amidst enemies that hid in the dark.

Albeit… If one were to ask his true feelings, the ones he kept away even from himself due to his fear of going stray… Then he would say that…

He found this all quite fun, as there was nothing better than the clashing of weapons… And the rest… Was better not said.

Dale was slowly finding it harder and harder to keep his composure, was it an effect of his Prime Source training?

Hopefully not…

…

"This item..." Dale mumbled to himself as he checked the Memory Stone

'I thought the rewards from the shop were the last things I would be getting, but it seems I got a little bonus.''

'This is like a free "Get out of jail" card, but at the same time, it foretells my end.'

'The day I'm in a situation where I'm forced to use it, then it'll mean that I've lost control of things long before.'

'And not only that, I would be unable to deal with anything dangerous following it.'

'Being honest with myself, the way I act and think shouldn't have changed at all, but now that this is with me, I'm unconsciously getting worried about something I previously ignored as inevitable.'

'There would always be a time when something I can't defeat would appear, in fact, it already happened more than once.'

'But now that I have a chance of defending myself, the way I see the world changes... This is pure arrogance.'

'Yet I cannot shake it off...'

"This is... An opportunity, a chance to change my fate."

'Speaking of that... My reward still isn't here... Was I scammed?'

Frustrated, Dale threw those thoughts to the side as he moved away from the busy plaza.

...

/Later…/

With the event done and the player's excitement at an all-time high, Dale immediately moved to accomplish the first of his priorities: The Modification of Resko's Quest System and the Creation of an 'Artificial' Leaderboard.

In simpler terms, it was a reform... Of pretty much everything surrounding a player.

Right now, the players of Resko are suffering because of three main things:

1st -> Quests are few and far between, competition for each one is harsh, and when one comes into their hands, their rewards are either too insignificantly low, or the Quest itself is too hard to be completed.

There are close to 50 thousand players in Resko right now, and they usually all log in at the same time due to the strict night Rules of Resko.

Players are almost forced to hunt solely at night since all NPCs sleep around that time and any work done at night needs to be done considerably far away from their homes else problems arise.

Hunting at night is an impossibility, so from 24 hours in a day, they're left with around 14 to 16 to work and play, which for many is impossible.

2nd -> Reputation is hard to farm exactly because of the conditions above, and as long as Reputation is low, then they cannot access better content from other NPCs, being stuck in their menial jobs, the ones with the worst Time/Effort to Money/Experience ratios.

This is a process that feeds itself, albeit slowly, one can unshackle themselves from it.

But as more players join and the competition for low-grade Quests increases, the frequency of advancement will slow down to a crawl, which was technically something Dale wanted to… At first.

That is not the case anymore. Because now, Dale knew he was almost unstoppable.

With the position of Lord being already on the lips of the Villagers and Elders, there was no reason for Dale to fear the influence of players growing, as soon enough, he'll dictate the laws of the land without needing to wait for special Events to pop up.

Instead, he needs them to be ready for when he does occupy the position, since as of now, they are of no use. Weak and mostly unmotivated. They aren't going to get any job done properly.

Ov average, players on Resko are around Level 9 to 15, those that play more frequently are around Levels 16 to 21, extremely far from some of the players he met at Babylon.

It didn't matter if it was unfair to compare both, only that they were far.

Things may be much better than they were at the start when he first created the rules of how the Villagers should interact with the Players, but this isn't enough for him.

3rd -> Finally, the last reason: Resource Acquisition, of any kind, from Items to Experience, Skills to Classes.

The reasons for that were already discussed before, there is nothing new about it.

So how does he plan on solving that?

Well… He will create a Contribution Score system!

Every Quest and little thing they do will award them Contribution Points towards Resko's development, which will tie with Resko's Main Quest, the one only he had so far.

Everything the players do also works towards the Quest, albeit he's unsure of how much, it doesn't matter, as even ants can make nests several Km long, one millimeter at a time.

Moving on to his idea, these points can then be used to exchange for a variety of products, which Dale plans to be mostly domestic products created within Resko, the excess made by all workers.

These items will and can be literally anything, but with an emphasis on items the players need.

Dale even planned to have some items be exchangeable with Zulls as well, alloying Resko to recover part of their losses… Albeit they wouldn't be getting any to begin with.

Because it was calculated in a way where Resko would be making a profit, even if little.

Like that, at first, players will spend all of their points in exchange for items they would usually be unable to get due to low Reputation scores....

... But over time, as their Reputation rises and they unlock more options in the shop, the players would realize that was a mistake since he planned on adding some 'limited' high-class products to the list every month, forcing the players to compete with one another to get them.

This would force the players to engage more in all kinds of activities that award Contribution points, favoring the city in the long term, albeit it may be hard to sustain in the early to mid-term due to their lack of personnel.

Nonetheless, Dale had solutions for that, and his stock of items was enough to last them a while anyway, it should be just enough to last them a few months until the city's commerce starts to kick in.

But that is not all, he had yet to talk about the 'Leaderboard'.

Every month, the players that 'contributed' the most would be rewarded with items of his choice.

Not to say the competitiveness between them, players loved to show off, and being at the top could be a show of power as well.

Players would give more value to the Leaderboard then its actual worth...

And what were those items?

From the top 100 to 51, Dale planned on giving them only Gold, Zulls, from Iron to Copper since it was an easy reward to give.

This reward may need to be updated over time as the city grows wealthy to stay relevant, but that's a problem for future Dale to solve.

From the top 50 to 21, Dale planned on giving them Reputation, a 'free' resource that is neither too little nor too high.

Also, the rewards aren't cumulative, which means that some players may choose to get in the top 50 to 21 instead of the next tier… Because Reputation is a Premium resource as of now.

Like this, Dale closed in 80 positions which would rake in a lot of effort from players for essentially free.

There was no doubt the players would fight for these, because if they don't, Dale still had cards left... 

After all, how crazy would they all be if he were to hand out personal Quests? 

The Questline of the Main Character? Now that is worth a bit...

In any case, for the Top 20, Dale planned on giving out items of all kinds, he had many after all.

As long as the item was of decent quality and around their Level range, it would suffice for the players, even Unique Items would cause a commotion, not to say Relics and above.

For the top 5 or 3, maybe just top 1, he could give out the best of the best to make the competition as fierce as possible, items that would be hard for the players to get through farming even if they raided a Dungeon Boss dozens of times.

Items he could quite easily get by fighting a high-end Boss, even if the item doesn't drop, their materials can be used to confection items.

Dale's only worry was the item Level though... But he'll figure something out.

In any case, this way, the players would feel rewarded even if they spent the entire month grinding Contribution, which was the time schedule of the renewal of the Leaderboard.

And because all Quests from now on would have those Contribution Points as rewards, maybe they wouldn't even need to change their habits… They would feel they were gaining something... 

For free! Without knowing that they were selling their freedom.

It was just enough to not make it sound like a scam, an extra reward or so to speak.

To balance the distribution of points, Dale thought about two things: Supply and Demand.

Things the Village would need more would in consequence award more Contribution points, regardless of the task.

So even if the task was a menial one like cleaning the streets, it may end up surpassing even harder tasks in its Contribution rewards, Quests like hunting and gathering trophies, the classic one present in every RPG.

Or if there were too many players picking and completing the Quests given, then the Contribution reward would decrease, forcing them to go somewhere else, controlling their movements somewhat as it makes them go and try something else, which can enforce a sense of exploration and diversity.

Players will complain about doing one thing every day because it's the most efficient, but if Contribution points are added onto the Quest, even though it didn't change at all, the players will feel as if it's better because, at its core, it is.

All thanks to the Exchange Shop, that is why he needed to nail it down.

To make it obvious to all players about this mechanic, Dale was planning on using the 'motivation' tactics present in many gacha games and putting value on all missions.

For example, a mission that was in high demand from the Village's perspective would get a modifier like: "+150% Value!" written in very glaring colors to make the players understand what they were on about.

Of course, that was mostly something still in a draft, Dale had yet to try anything and he was afraid of coming out too strong at first.

Another one of his ideas was to make an Official Forum all about Resko, posting updates and Events there, but for that, he may need approval and cooperation from the Developer Company to avoid suspicion from players, and he wasn't sure if that was going to work.

Nonetheless, this System would allow for better control of players, and possibly even allow Gold to flow uninterrupted between the player and the 'NPC'.

It would be hard to sustain as mentioned before, but this was essentially just an overcomplication of an employer and contracted relationship.

Resko would employ players and pay them in 'Gold' and a 'Virtual' currency for their work which the city desperately needed, which in turn would then be exchanged for items so they may grow stronger, rinse and repeat.

In another perspective, Resko was exchanging simple items and materials they didn't need or couldn't quite use for the player's hard work, since all Zulls, in the end, would return to them.

The items and materials would likely be lost in the process, but that is an expected outcome, swords are worn out, and potions are eventually shat out.

But a sword can be reforged and melted… Let's forget about the potion.

Those swords and potions are in truth, all byproducts of the training of the Villagers.

Dale could even add things like Illia's and the other cooks' rations in there, since buffs from food are essential to all players, and because it tastes good as well.

To help set this all up, there are already several cards Dale can employ, such as the Merchants and the Black Market that had recently fallen under his control after he kicked Fimbroy out…

It was just a matter of connecting it all together in a string of relationships.

Of course, there is a big problem in all of this… The Church.

Not the Church itself, but the services the System provides through it.

If a player wants, they can send money out of the city to another far away if they pay a certain fee, and it's obvious how damaging that is to the economy.

No country wants to lose '$$$', at least not much of it as it can collapse their economy.

It was no different here, as such, Dale had to find a way to keep it all within their walls.

There was only one way to recover if that did happen, and that was from the players farming Zulls and Items by killing monsters in the fields, which was hard right now since they were weak.

He didn't know where those items and money came from, but it was a source of resources he couldn't quite ignore.

Dale just needed to buy time for the Players to grow and enrich the economy on their own.

It was also possible to carve the coins themselves, but Resko did not have a Mint facility, if it had one, it was buried in a dozen meters of sand.

Getting the minerals and personnel for that was something else as well, not to say repairing the facilities after they were dug up, albeit that shouldn't be hard with the scientists and engineers they recently saved from the forest.

To prevent Resko's fragile economy from crashing before it even began, Dale had to prevent as much of that Gold from leaving, while also keeping it circulating within.

That is why he was thinking of ways to integrate Gold into his Contribution 'scheme'.

Because if the players feel that they can gain more by retaining their Gold and spending it here, then it is very likely that Gold will flow inward and not outward.

If players can send money away… They can receive it also.

And slowly... Resko's coffers would increase.

If all of that didn't work, then Dale could resort to pillaging ancient ruins for resources.

It was dangerous, but he was the only one strong enough for that here.

Nonetheless, it was still a work in progress… However, one question was left in the open…

How? How come Dale had so much power to manipulate the game's System? After all, isn't that the basis of his plan?

Well… The truth is that… He always could.

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Notes

We'll continue next chapter and begin day 2, things should get faster from there.

Peace! I hope today's chapter entertained you, it was fun writing about it :)