The Sphere

Chapter 11 : The Merchant

Note : Statements enclosed within '#' like '# statement #' are system messages or similar type of messages 

Proodread by Compass96
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Even though it had been more than 4 hours since the system’s message about the game’s aim was received by the users, the line of people in Nahur city waiting for their chance to get into The Fierce Warriors alliance only grew larger. More and more users were joining the line. The rate of interviewing them and seeing their skills was slower than the rate at which new users were joining the guild. The line now had more than 15,000 users in it.

Joining an alliance that was the strongest at the moment would give them glory later. Many users knew this fact and hence they had joined earlier. Those who knew but didn’t think that joining a guild would be beneficial for them, had changed their mind after the message was broadcasted. The game now depended on alliances.

Even though there was freedom of doing anything they wanted, if they wanted to participate in the game’s main story, they would have to join an alliance. That wasn’t all, they were sure that the quest’s reward would change if they were part of an alliance. They would get new quests (alliance quests) and they would also have rewards that focused more on lands and the ways to protect it.

Of course, none of this was broadcasted by the system. It was just the mindset of users who believed in all this. However, one thing was sure, the powerful the alliance, the greater the chance of victory.

Isaiah was frustrated. He handled the recruitment division of The Fierce Warriors alliance. He took pride in being such an important part of the alliance but this was more than he could handle. They had a little more than 600k members by the time the system had broadcasted that message and now, he had received messages from his colleagues who headed the recruitment division in two other towns.

They all had thousands of people applying. Even though Isaiah was the head of the recruitment, the numbers baffled him. What surprised him more was that there were so many users above level 80 without any alliance. In one year, these high levelled players hadn’t even thought of joining an alliance but one broadcast from the system and their very belief of being alone had been shaken.

The headquarters building where Isaiah was checking out the levels and ranks of the applicants had put out a huge banner that was hanging from the second floor balcony of their headquarters. The message was simple, yet some people ignored it.

#
Minimum level to apply - 80.
#

Isaiah gestured to the next person to come in. A man who seemed in his late twenties entered the room, wearing an old full sleeve brown t-shirt that went well with the brownish leather pants. Even though the t-shirt and the pants went well with each other, the overall dressing was still sad.

“My name is Joey. I’m a merchant and I can tell you that I’m the best merchant in this world.”

Isaiah looked at this clothing that contradicted what he had just said.

“Ohh really? You mean to say that you are better than our alliance’s merchant head?”

“Like I said, I’m better than any merchant in The Sphere. I’m a real estate agent in real world, thus,I know the value of knowing people. This helps in the merchant business and believe it or not, I’m sure that I have way more contacts and closeness with high end NPCs than your current merchant head has. It’s just that I spent more time getting to know these NPCs than doing quests. However, I only started working on merchant quests 6 months ago and I have already levelled up this much, even though I was second-last ranked player once.”