Ren frowned. “Silk, I thought you weren’t coming to this meeting.”
Silk waved a dismissive hand. “I had things to do. Unlike you nerds, who apparently have time to sit around dissecting mana flow and spellcraft.”
Ren straightened slightly. “We actually figured out a whole—”
“Cool, cool, cool,” Silk said, brushing it off. “Love the academic energy. But I’ve got something really important to tell everyone.”
Ren stopped mid-sentence.
He had been building to it. The clean summary. The dramatic pause. The part where everyone leaned back and went quiet. The oohs. The ahs. The impressed nods. The “Wow, Ren, that’s brilliant.”
He had practically rehearsed it in his head.
And now Silk was about to bulldoze straight through it.
There would be no stunned silence. No slow clap. No “You cracked it.”
Just Silk barging in like he’d solved gravity.
Ren forced a neutral expression onto his face.
‘Unbelievable,’ he thought.
He folded his arms. “Fine,” he said evenly. “Go ahead. What’s so important?”
Silk spread his arms. “Somebody has to keep this place running. And I’ve done it. Well—with a little help from Marco— we’ve officially set up loot stores across every district.”
Kanuka frowned. “What kind of stores? I didn’t notice any new stores.”
“Store stores,” Silk said. “Like in Towerbound.”
Kanuka blinked. “What?”
Silk sighed. “Okay, I’m moving too fast for you. Remember how in Towerbound you could walk up to any vendor and dump your loot?”
“Yeah,” Kanuka said slowly.
“We’ve done that. All the PopCrate locations now have drop stations. Monster carcasses you don’t want to butcher. Mana fragments. Herbs. Reagents. You bring it in, we buy it, we credit you.”
Lorena and Ren both smiled at the same time.
Ren’s irritation over being upstaged had evaporated. ‘Yes! Loot, reagents, herbs?”
Lorena’s wide smile echoed his thoughts.
‘I wonder if he has a lot of living plants. I need so many more reagents to create higher-level potions,’ Ren thought.
“Really?” WickerBasque asked. “I thought we already had enough coming in from our own teams. Why do we need stores? And how are you paying for this?”
Silk grinned. “Remember when we talked about it Kanuka? Maybe selling off loot?”
Kanuka nodded. “Yes. And we decided CraftNest needed the supply more than anyone.”
Reed crossed his arms. “We definitely need it. The more the better.”
“Exactly,” Silk said. “Now I figured out how to do it. And the best thing we’re barely spending credits. And we’re about to be drowning in loot.”
“Loot?” WickerBasque asked. “How are you getting more loot without paying for it?”
“Part of it is Leslie’s new quest.”
Ren looked over. “What quest?”
He hadn’t heard about this. He’d been buried in brewing.
Leslie shrugged. “I put out a mission to collect Deadlands sand. I need it to experiment. Better mana-resistant formulas. Hardier shielded electronics so we don’t slide into a dark age.”
Silk snapped his fingers. “And the runners spread the word. People from other districts who didn’t want to go deep into the Deadlands formed adventurer teams. They started hauling sand.”
Leslie’s eyes widened. “That’s where the spike in volume came from.”
“Yep,” Silk said. “But once they were out there, they didn’t just bring back sand. They brought back monster parts. Fragments. Herbs.”
Kanuka nodded slowly. “Ah. I see where this is going.”
Silk pointed at him. “Wait. Don’t spoil it. I’ll say it.”
Ren leaned back in his chair, jaw tight.
He knew exactly where this was going too.
And this was the second time Silk was about to steal the dramatic pause.
‘Unbelievable,’ Ren thought.
He opened his mouth anyway. “You’re….”
Silk cut him off with a hand,and a triumphant grin. “We’re turning every district into a supplier. They drop loot. We give them equipment. We process, refine, and sell it.”
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He thumped his chest lightly. “We just built the first cross-district resource economy.”
Ren closed his mouth. His moment to look brilliant was again stolen.
Third time.
Absolutely third time.
Everyone clapped.
“Nicely done,” Kanuka said. “But where are you getting the equipment?”
“Again, thanks to Leslie. And partly thanks to WickerBasque.”
“Me?” WickerBasque said.
“You remember how you put out that quest for scavengers to turn in intel? And we traded them gear?”
“Yeah,” WickerBasque said slowly.
“Well, Leslie’s been selling off all the used and repaired Mark I stuff.”
Leslie shrugged. “Yeah. My apprentices work on it. Gives them hands on practice.”
“Your forge mice?” Ren asked.
“Yep. They need something to work on, and I don’t want them touching advanced builds until they’re ready.”
“Huh,” WickerBasque said.
Silk continued, “Also, some of the overflow from CraftNest is being sold.”
Reed frowned. “I thought that was all going to newbies and trainees.”
Kanuka shook his head. “We don’t have that many trainees. Back when people were playing Towerbound, there were billions of players. Even with pain and immersion set to one hundred percent, a lot of people didn’t mind fighting. Now that this is real—where you can actually die—we have fewer volunteers.”
“Exactly,” Silk said. “Meanwhile, you’re constantly upgrading. What are you at now, Leslie? Mark 2?”
“Most of our gear is Mark 3,” Leslie corrected. “Except for newer lines, like the DPS armor set for the Black Masks. That’s still in development, but it’s close.”
“See?” Silk said. “Every time someone turns in broken gear, you repair it. And new gear goes to our teams in the field.”
“Oh,” Kanuka said.
“We can’t be the only ones buying loot,” Ren added.
“We aren’t,” Silk said. “Corporations are buying it too. But adventurers have to go through paperwork at corporate stores. Where did you get it? Who did you kill? What are you using it for?”
He waved a hand.
“Our PopCrate stores are different. You drop it off. No questions asked. It gets processed. You get paid. You then can buy new gear.”
“And now?” Kanuka prompted.
“Now they’ve formed little rotating teams,” Silk said. “Some stay out almost full-time. Others run supply. Runners bring loot and trade for gear in cycles.”
Kanuka let out a breath. “That’s… really well done.”
Silk lifted his chin. “I just do my part.”
The false modesty made everyone laugh.
“And you know what the best part is, everybody?” Silk said, throwing both hands up like he was claiming a crown. “Go on. Ask me.”
Kanuka didn’t even pretend to be cool about it. “Tell us.”
WickerBasque leaned forward too.
Silk grinned. “It’s mostly done in GCPs, baby.”
A low ripple moved through the room.
“Ooh,” Lorena said.
“Yeah,” Silk continued. “You turn in monster parts? You get GCPs. You want to buy gear? You use GCPs.”
Ren narrowed his eyes slightly. “Wait. You’ve completely locked out credits?”
Silk shook his head. “No, no. You can still buy gear with credits. But there’s a twenty percent markup.”
“Why twenty percent?” Ren asked.
Silk spread his hands. “Because everything we do still gets taxed, right? And GCP transactions sit under our internal structure. Lower tax exposure.”
He smiled wider.
“So if they want to pay in credits, that’s fine. But since we pay more tax on that, we pass it right along.”
Mira folded her arms. “Silk, I hate to burst your bubble.”
Silk blinked. “I don’t see how you could. I’m fucking awesome.”
A few people snorted.
Mira didn’t smile. “The big banks didn’t care when you stepped in with Bank of Coin. That stayed mostly inside Towerbound.”
Silk tilted his head.
“But once you start pushing GCPs outside District One—and you have, right? With all the new stores?”
Silk gave her a cautious look. “Yeah…”
“They’re not going to like that,” Mira said. “You’re creating a second currency. One they don’t control. One they don’t get a cut of. That’s not small. That’s economic warfare.”
Silk waved a hand. “Who cares about their cut?”
“The corporations behind them care,” Mira replied calmly. “Money doesn’t just move. It’s managed. It’s steered. When you divert a chunk of it, someone notices.”
Silk’s grin faded a notch. “Um.”
“You’re the right person to build this,” Mira continued. “But you need more education on what you’re actually stepping into. I’m sending you VR courses on monetary systems, currency control, and economic power structures.”
Silk squinted. “Errrr. Ok.”
He had no intention of watching them.
Mira tapped her tablet. “Sent. Oh, and there’s a performance score attached to each module. I’ll be monitoring it.”
Silk’s head snapped up. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. You’re not my boss.”
“You’re right,” Mira said evenly. “I’m not.”
She glanced at Ren. “Ren, is it okay if I monitor Silk’s progress?”
“Absolutely,” Ren said without hesitation.
Silk stared at him. “What? I didn’t sign up for this. I can just walk, you know.”
Ren leaned back in his chair. “If you wanted to walk, Silk, you could’ve walked away with more money than any of us a long time ago. I had to go through Super Ren training. You can survive Silk-becomes-an-economist training.”
Silk looked deeply offended.
“…Fine,” he muttered.
Then he threw his hands up again. “But regardless, I’m still awesome, right?”
The room cheered.
Even Ren and Mira joined in.
Because, despite a bit boastful, he was.
Luke sat back, watching the table of leaders.
He had expected stiff formality. Layers of approval. Corporate tone.
Instead, he found people arguing, laughing, singing drinking songs, building economies, and making decisions in real time.
“Wow, that’s great,” Luke said.
The leaders blinked slightly, as if they had momentarily forgotten he was still sitting there.
“Thank you, Luke, for coming in,” Ren said. “We’ll award you some GCPs for your participation in this meeting. Enjoy your rest and relaxation.”
Kanuka stared at Ren. “Why are you being so serious? And so formal?”
Ren waved him off. “Shut it.”
Luke grinned. “Thanks. Happy to provide info. Hope it helps.”
Then he turned and left.
Once Luke was gone, Ren leaned back in his chair.
“Okay. Thoughts. How do we start turning all of us into full-blown mages or kick-ass swordsmen?”
Lorena excitedly said, “Necromantrix too, I need my Soulbounds back.”
Leslie waved a hand. “Okay, simple. Only people who absolutely need speed use the teleport. Everyone else walks or takes a CatDozer.”
She leaned forward, already thinking ahead. “And I’ll make a ton of wearable pieces. Rings, cuffs, studs, whatever works. We load people with jewelry and body piercings and let people wear the mana instead of just carrying it.”
Her eyes lit up. “If Luke’s body absorbed his fragment, then maybe we can encourage that.”
Lorena crossed her arms. “And proximity to kills. If Reed’s right, whoever lands the final blow and stands closest to the mana release gets the biggest jolt.”
Reed gave a small, satisfied nod.
Ren tapped the table once. “So three variables. Teleport load. Mana fragments. Kill proximity.”
“And Living Core residency,” Kanuka added.
He looked toward the ceiling. “Most of this should already be in our system. Let’s just ask.”
“AI, summarize our meeting. Cross-check our assumptions against the data you hold.”
There was a short pause.
I cannot do that, Kanuka. That request requires authorization from two additional leaders. It involves medical and privacy protections.
Ren didn’t hesitate. “Ren Barrow. I agree to this request.”
Reed straightened. “Reed Hope, speaking for CraftNest. I approve the request.”
The room fell quiet.
After a moment, the AI responded in its flat mechanical tone.
Three-leader verification complete. Access approved.
A low processing hum filled the space.
They waited.
A minute passed. Then another.
Finally—
Based on your hypotheses and the compiled research, there is a ninety-one percent probability that your conclusions are correct.
Ren folded his arms. “What’s the other nine percent?”
Human error. Incomplete data. Inaccurate field reporting. Additionally, mana is not a recognized element within existing scientific classification.
