Read all previous installments here.
“Does Krim have any rules about looting dead bodies?” Matilda asked the guard as the two of them dragged the body between the market stalls towards the disposal chute.
“Yeah,” said Joe. “Don’t let their friends see you do it.”
“You know, this is the first game I’ve played where you had to get rid of dead bodies. I mean, there’ve been times I’ve had to hide them, so as to avoid alerting the enemy I was there, but I never had to worry about what happened to them later.”
“Other worlds have magic systems, where the bodies just vanish,” said Joe. “Trash, too. Really, anything that would make the game messy if it stayed around. Or they have NPCs to do the cleaning.”
“So where does all the food and stuff come from? If it doesn’t appear by magic and you don’t have bots growing it…”
“At first, they tried to make the players do it,” said Joe. “But it turns out, nobody wants to roleplay at being a medieval peasant. Well, maybe for a day or two, just to see what its like, or to get a break from real life. But we couldn’t get enough people in to do it to feed all the players.”
“So what did they do?”
“They opened up a second gate. It’s up by the docks.” Joe nodded in a direction back the way they’d come.
Matilda glanced at the sun. One thing that years of role playing had taught her was navigation. She made a mental note that the docks were to the northwest. The knowledge would probably come in handy soon enough.
“Players were allowed to get import-export licenses for commodity goods,” Joe continued. “So, say, if you were to successfully grow a bushel of apples, you could get a license, export them through the gate out to the merchant staging area, then come back with ten or a hundred bushes of apples.”
“So it’s like a spell to multiply things?”
“No, it’s an import-export license. It’s totally different. Anyway, if you want a job, they’re always looking for guards to make sure the incoming shipments get to where they’re supposed to go.”
“I’d be, what? Sitting next to a wagon driver, keeping an eye out for robbers?”
“Something like that. You might also have to do the driving. And the unloading. But hey — it’s a great upper body workout.” Joe dropped the body next to the disposal chute and looked up at her. “It’s also a good way to get some killing in without annoying the merchant guilt. Think about it.”
“I came to Krim so I didn’t have to worry about my reputation scores,” said Matilda.
“It’s a small grid,” said Joe. “Everybody knows everybody else. Unless you want to switch out your avatar every day and be a noob for the rest of your time here.”