Gamers of the Underworld

The appearance of the gamers made the lives of the residents of Venice more interesting. However, the livelihood of the Venice merchants was badly affected.

Why did the gamers become merchants? Most of them did it for money.

But the market was limited. When the gamers made money, the Venice merchants would lose money. It was manageable if there were only a few gamers, but the gamers came in large droves.

Though each gamer earned a little, the cumulative effect was considerable.

Initially, the Venice merchants scoffed at the gamers for not having factories and sources of goods. They even colluded against the gamers by not selling them anything.

Most of the Venice merchants were part of the Merchant Alliance, so it wasn’t difficult to impose sanctions on them.

But they weren’t aware that the gamers had the support of factories that were manned by hundreds of thousands of gamers.

The gamers had a huge source of goods, and they depended on Lord Sherlock to purchase manufactured weapons, daily necessities, and even magical items.

The gamers had a reliable source of goods, and they had advanced marketing knowledge. Hence, they captured an increasing market share in Venice.

For example:

A Goblin who was in an overcoat appeared to be overweight. He stood at the corner of the Beetlemon stop and lifted one side of his coat at the passersby. Then he said in a hushed tone, “Bro, do you want to read some books? I have the latest ‘Huanggang Secret Volume’.”

Then he was chased down the street by the Garrison Guards.

Of course, there were many gamers who were doing honest business.

Like selling goods discreetly in the alleyways and evading taxes, doing door-to-door promotions, and buying in bulk to create a shortage before selling at a high profit…

But these practices waned off.

Those who resorted to malpractice didn’t last long.

The gamers who lasted in business started as street vendors.

The peddling of goods in the west park was a declaration of war between the gamers and the Venice merchants. The gamers didn’t have such an intention, but that was what the Venice merchants interpreted it as.

In Eternal Kingdom Dungeon.

Sherlock, who was wearing his overcoat, sat in his executive chair while he listened to Evelynn’s report.

She informed Sherlock about the economic growth of Eternal Kingdom and the applications of various Guilds for their Guild lands.

The report was very comprehensive.

It wasn’t the NPCs who compiled the report, it was done by the gamers.

The gamers were very good with data and statistics. Sherlock published recruitment notices for temporary statisticians on the official website. Many gamers applied for the positions and immediately started work.

Besides recruiting statisticians, Sherlock did a lot of homework.

It included playing computer games and watching movies and television series.

What? Would anyone insinuate that Sherlock was slacking?

No, he was educating himself.

After a period of learning, he obtained valuable information.

“I’m implementing the paid jar smashing game,” Sherlock explained to Bru.

According to the report, the gamers were accumulating more and more Magic Stones, and a 20% tax was the highest limit that they could accept. The gamers had many different methods to perform transactions that were outside of Eternal Kingdom.

These transactions weren’t taxable by Eternal Kingdom.

To Sherlock, it was… preposterous!

Implementing the jar smashing game was the most effective method.

“Lord Sherlock, have you thought about it carefully? If you implement this policy, you’ll be condemned,” Bru replied quickly.

“Condemnation? That’s a compliment. They will praise me for the great idea.”

Sherlock explained to Bru, “I have a comprehensive idea that is different from others.”

Sherlock accessed a document on his computer. That was the new content that he was going to publish on the official website.

Bru read through the document and praised Sherlock, “Lord Sherlock, you’re a genius!”

…

Peasant was very happy recently.

He was busy fighting monsters and leveling up. However, making money had always been his greatest weakness.

When there weren’t many gamers, he relied on selling equipment to make some money.

Initially, Eternal Kingdom was a closed system with few outside contacts. Hence, the goods were limited.

Since the start of the Second Beta, Eternal Kingdom started to trade with Winterfell.

After that, making money became very interesting. There were many different ways to make money.

The gamers could sell their equipment. With the proliferation of various types of game content, the gamers were able to sell ornaments, construction materials, daily necessities, music instruments, and fashion items.

Moreover, there was a new supermarket in Venice, the west park.

To the merchant gamers, it was a street vendor’s paradise.

Peasant wasn’t a merchant gamer, but he earned a fortune in Venice like all other gamers.

The wealthy Peasant decided to splurge. Besides purchasing items that he liked, he tried very hard to upgrade his equipment.

Then there was an updated announcement on the official website.

There was a new jar smashing system!

Normally, the gamers wouldn’t spend a lot of money to play the jar smashing game, as it was a game of chance. Most of the gamers preferred the free jar smashing game.

Peasant didn’t spend much on the game. He only bought two jars but didn’t win anything. Hence, he wasn’t interested in the game.

The gamers were curious. Since the game company wasn’t interested in earning money, why was the jar smashing game introduced? Even if the gamers bought the jars using Magic Stones, could the company exchange the Magic Stones for Renminbi?

Peasant was puzzled, but he didn’t take it to heart.

Then he noticed a gamer who bought a few hundred jars and transported them to Venice using Darting Birds. The gamer placed a hundred jars at the west park along with a sign that had the words:

“Jar smashing game. One Magic Stone per try! The grand prize is 200 Magic Stones!”

More and more of Venice’s natives surrounded the gamer to take a look…