Reborned Top Gamer: Spell-Swordman Rule the World

38 Boycott

They managed to survive the night and arrived in York city the next day. Ailsa was amazed by the city. It looked exactly like what a business hub would look like. Unlike Sardi city which was large but still congested and rough, York city had clear cut areas, the streets were perfectly organized, it had high-rise buildings that served as administrative business buildings. It all seemed out of place for the medieval ages, but it was a fantasy game so she did not read much into it.

“Wow, we should definitely get what we need here,” Jenny said as soon as they stepped in through the city gates.

“Hopefully,” Walt said and glanced around “the city is divided into five parts. The north, south, east, west, and center divisions.”

“Wow, you sure know a lot about places in this game,” Jenny mused.

“He was one of Minan’s top men,” Scott answered and Walt chuckled.

“I used to do a lot of exploring when I was a lone player,” he said with a smile before he continued “The north division deals with clothing items, the south deals with weapons, the east deals with magical items, the west deals with equipment and my favorite, the center. That’s where ordinary players like us can trade whatever we have to other players either for money or a barter trade. We don’t need new weapons anymore and I don’t really think we need new equipment, how about clothes?”

“Uh, we have to get new clothes…I’m tired of this cloak,” Ailsa said, holding it up. Jenny and Miranda hummed their agreement.

“Best city in all of Fantasy if you ask me,” a voice said from behind them. They turned around to see a team of four. The leader was a short elf lady that had a wide smile on her face. The bow she slung over her back seemed to be the same size as her.

“Hi, we are a Free team. I’m Ivy,” she said with a wide grin and extended her hand forward to Walt. Walt smiled back and stretched out his hand to shake hers.

“Hello Ivy, I’m Walt. We are Greenlight team,” he said and in an all too familiar sight, her smile dropped and she snatched her hand back. Then wordlessly, she and the rest of her team walked away. Walt stood there in shock.

“What just happened?” Miranda said.

“Heather just happened,” Walt said and ran his hand through his hair “let’s go get our stuff and get out of this city.”

They all headed towards the north division. On their way, the, news of their presence seemed to have spread through the entire city. They received hostile glances and cold shoulders from everyone around them. They seemed to stand out like a sore thumb even though they did their best to be inconspicuous. The city was very large and it took them a couple of minutes to reach the north division. The area had many more divisions within and they seemed to be divided by price. The entrance had the least expensive vendors pf clothing where clothes of roughspun and light wool materials were mostly sold. They also had cheap bronze accessories that seemed to fascinate Jenny, so they approached one of the vendors.

“I have nothing to sell,” the vendor said before they even said a word to him. They all glanced at each other with shock registered on their faces. A player walked up to the stall in that moment and the vendor turned his attention to him and they started to haggle.

“What the hell!” Miranda exclaimed but Jenny held her back. They left the place and received more or less the same attitude from other vendors in that area.

When they got to the middle district, where soft wool and fur clothes were sold, they had boots and cloaks lined with furs and the accessories were mostly silver and gold. The buildings in this district ranged from small stores to two-story buildings, it was very crisp and clean compared to the lower district. They entered one of the stores cautiously and were met with cool replies and icy stares. The manager of the store allowed them to browse around but when asked the price of even the smallest things, they were told an exorbitant amount.

After a while, it became clear that they would not find anything affordable. Other customers were given reasonable rates withing their earshot and that was Walt’s cue to leave. As they left, the manager did not even call them back or ask if they still wanted to get anything.

“Well, that was rough,” Ailsa said when they left the store.

“Should we just leave?” Scott asked.

“No, the middle district was better than the lower. I think he has more influence on small-time people. Let’s go on,” Walt said and they did as he bid. He was right.

The upper district had high-rise complexes with multiple stores with them. This was where the NPC building was located. Although they were not ignored by the people there, the prices were very high and they ended up buying only two or so items.

They left the north division and went to the east. The same thing happened there and they were forced to visit an NPC store for their magic materials which ended up eating deep into their pockets. The day was depressing. They left the east district and stood for a while, contemplating what to do next.

“Hey, you said we can sell and barter in the center village yeah?” Ailsa asked Walt and he nodded “well, we have very little money left…I’m thinking we could sell our yellow epic equipment for some money and use that to buy more things,”

“Will anyone even buy from us?” Scott muttered.

“Well, it’s worth a shot…” Walt replied and they slowly made their way to the central division of the big city. Walt was actually impressed by how much influence Minan had on a game from their competition. It seemed really unusual, even for a company as big as theirs. He started thinking back to his past life to see if he could remember anything pertaining to that. He knew that Minan wanted complete power over the gaming world and they got it in his past life but he was not interested in them at the time and paid it no mind.

“This is…interesting,” Jenny said when they reached the center division. It was the core of the city and unlike the other parts, it was disorganized and rowdy. The traders here were ordinary players that came and went through the city, exchanging and selling items. Multiple makeshift stalls were set up all over the place where the players can display their goods temporarily and sell or exchange. There was no order and everything seemed to happen really fast.

“Yeah,” Ailsa agreed “well, let’s pick a stall and set up our equipment,” she said and they moved quickly, securing an empty stall and arranging their equipment and the magic materials they could spare as quickly as possible. In a very short time, they were crowded. All sorts of players came to check their wares.

“I’ll pay five hundred silver pieces for everything,” one said

“I’ll pay two hundred silvers for the swords,” another said.

Walt and the others glanced at each other. The players were all calling ridiculous prices and when most of them learned that they were Green Light team, they just left without even offering to buy anything.

“I said no, back off,” Miranda said to one swordsman that offered her thirty bronze pieces for her throwing stars.

“Please, it’s not like you deserve it. You’re a bunch of cheating players who rigged the game to win that team competition. The least you could do is give your equipment to honest hard workers like me,” he said and they all gaped at him.

“Excuse me?” Miranda rasped. She felt light-headed suddenly, trying to wrap her head around what the pesky man had said. He just gave her a dirty look, scoffed, and left. She turned to face the others who had the same shock on their faces as she did.

“So that’s what he did,” Walt said and clenched his jaw. He closed his eyes, ran his hand through his air, and let out a big breath “let’s go. This is pointless,” he announced and they started to pack up their things. Some of the players who were still bidding booed them but they eventually turned and left.

“This is so awful,” Ailsa said. They were now making their way out of the city, feeling terrible and self-conscious about all the looks they received from the people around them. Somehow, Heather had managed to convince most, if not all the players in the game that they cheated their way to victory in the team competition. It was so stupid to think people would believe that because the game was broadcasted live. She wondered how he managed to pull off such a hoax.

“Yeah,” Walt said with his jaw clenched. She watched him and it felt like she could see the wheels in his head-turning. Maybe it was naïve of her, but she believed that Walt would find a solution to the problem. He always did.