PRIVATE MESSAGE / TO DANIELLE BRAID: PM work?
PRIVATE MESSAGE / FROM DANIELLE BRAID: Yes.
“Two more questions,” I said. “First, what won’t you sell us? Nuclear bombs? Bioweapons?”
“Answers to that question are not complimentary. If you wish to discuss the purchase of items materially detrimental to the ecosystem of your planet of origin, I will need to summon a supervisory sapient being. A deposit will be required.” said the machine.
“Fair enough,” I said with a rueful grin. “Second question. Do you have some sort of instruction manual or guide to the System? Something really basic?”
“We offer a basic guidebook called The System And You which is meant for sapient beings on worlds undergoing a System Start. The price is one credit. Like a spellbook, guidebooks can be used a single time by a single sapient being, who will receive the information inside as if they had carefully studied it for a reasonable length of time. Guidebooks containing additional and more sophisticated information can be purchased at a higher cost.”
“Okay,” I said. “Two light spellbooks, two cleaning spellbooks, please. That leaves us with thirteen Credits. Could you give us fifteen Guidebooks for that? We'll be sure to tell everyone to shop here.” I didn’t think using ‘Indirect Suggestion’ was a good idea, if it even worked on machines. But it was worth a shot to see if the Trade Center would haggle at all. Even that little trading buff from Sheila was not going to go far with prices like these.
“Since you are a new customer, in the interests of building a relationship we will be pleased to include two extra Guidebooks.” Three piles of books appeared on the desk. They were clearly labeled in English. At the bottom of the cover of each it said:
This fine product was purchased from:
Pigeon Forge Trade Center
Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, United States of America, Earth
For all your trading needs!
I smiled at the blatant advertising.
“How do we use these? Can we Inventory them?”
“They can be placed in a standard Inventory slot, and are stackable. To use a book, simply open the book and concentrate on the pages. The information will automatically be transferred in a matter of seconds. Please note that if the transfer is interrupted some information may be lost and the user may experience some discomfort, but will not be harmed.”
“There’s only seven of us,” said Danielle. “Who are the rest for?”
“One for the Noobs, one for Sheila, one for Doctor Melton. I think I’ll hang on to a couple, and the rest as a goodwill gift to the City Manager,” I said. “But I wonder… Can people transfer Credits to each other?”
“Credits may be transferred between sapient beings either directly or through a Trade Center. There is a fee for transferring Credits through a Trade Center,” said the machine, which was apparently intelligent enough to know when it was being spoken to even in the middle of a conversation.
“Good to know.” I stood up and put the books in my Inventory. “Thank you. You’ve been very helpful.” I finished my drink, and Danielle stood up after savoring the last sip of her juice.
“It was my pleasure, and we thank you for your business, gentlebeings,” said the machine. “Please return soon.”
And with that, we headed out the door.
Chapter 23
Information Overload
When we walked out the door, the Sheriff and Deputy Franklin jumped up from some chairs they’d gotten while they waited. They were practically vibrating as they watched us walk up to City Hall.
“How did it go?” said Sheriff Gravelle.
“Short version, it’s safe, it’s about what I thought it would be. Is the City Manager in her office?” I said. “Maybe we could do this all at once.”
“Yes,” he said instantly. “Let’s go.”
We were soon sitting in the office exactly as we had been before, with three very anxious faces staring at us.
“Okay,” I said. “It is a shop. It uses ‘Credits’ as currency, which you get by selling things to the Trade Center. It will answer some questions for free and some answers cost money. But before I say any more, I have something for you.”
I brought out three of the guidebooks and set them on the City Manager’s desk. Her eyes were huge.
“These are guidebooks, very basic guidebooks, to the System itself. I got some for us. These are for you. A gift.”
“Thank you. Without being ungrateful, may I ask why there are only three?” she asked.
“They cost Credits, and we didn’t have that many. Those three books cost ten percent of what we got for trading the Bear loot. Plus I have one for Doctor Melton.”
That got me a glance that was almost approving. Good call, I thought smugly.
“All right,” she said, reaching for one. I put my hand over it before she could pick it up.
“Wait,” I said. “They can only be read once, by one person. Reading them will put all the information directly into your mind.”
She snatched her hand back like she’d been scalded. “That sounds like magic.”
“It is magic,” I said with a grin. “It’s also how things like learning spells and crafts in games works, so I’m not at all surprised.”
“What else did they have?” asked the Sheriff. “Do they have weapons? Equipment?”
“Yes,” I said. We gave them a thorough recounting of (almost) everything that had happened in the Trade Center. They asked questions, we answered if we could. It took a while. At the same time, we were messaging our Party with a somewhat more condensed version. Eventually the Sheriff looked at his watch.
“Less than two hours before ‘immigration opens,’ whatever that means,” he said. “What should we do?”
“It’s your town,” I said. “If you want my advice, be nice to whoever comes through those doors.”
“Should we let other people use the Trade Center?” he asked the City Manager. “What if they buy weapons?”
“Nobody here is going to be able to afford anything all that dangerous for quite some time,” I said. “And if they can start generating Credits, it will give the town the start of a System-based economy. All our old money is worthless now, what little there is that didn’t vanish in some computer at System Start.”
Everybody else, including Danielle, looked poleaxed at this. It seemed fairly obvious to me.
“I wondered why you didn’t even ask about taking our money,” Danielle said after a minute.
With a shrug, I said, “It might buy gold and things like that, I should have asked. But why would it trade paper for resources? I doubt we have anything whoever owns the Trade Center would want to buy with it.”
“What about taxes?” said the City Manager. “You need our money to pay taxes.”
“You can drop an assessment notice in the door if you want,” I said. “Let me know how it works out. I suspect that if they paid any attention at all their response would be ‘Fine, we’ll move the Trade Center. Have fun with the monsters.’ Come to that, you’re lucky they’re not charging you for security.”