Azimuth: The Elden Throne

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"My plan is simple." Dale said as he took a step into the street, quickly adjusting his expression as he returned to his NPC act

'Right now, we're starting to get everything under control regarding the relationship between the current Villagers and the Refuges, but this peace is extremely fragile.'

'And although the chances of the players causing trouble right now are small, it's not completely ridiculous to imagine them doing something like the Churche's Raid again.'

'They may even decide to see who's on top between themselves and host a massive PVP battle royale and the last one standing will have the means to take over Resko as the dominant player force.'

'All of their actions are usually ignored by the others due to some sort of invisible outer force, maybe it is the system itself, but if they do something extreme like that, then it could cause worry and concern.'

'I still don't know what's acceptable and not from that perspective, but I don't want to risk it all on possibilities.'

'So I'll push the player's attention elsewhere to give Resko time to stabilize, and in the meantime, I'll also strengthen my control over them and maybe even filter the players that are worthy of being on top to facilitate my own management of them.'

'The players are already occupied raising their Reputation to unlock new areas to explore in the Village, but that can't be the only thing for them to look after. People won't play a game for the sake of grinding Reputation Scores, there has to be more to it.'

'They'll get access to the NPCs of course, but that alone may not be enough.'

'So far, I've put Rodi and his Guild above everyone else, but I've neglected them in the past week or so with the Expedition, it's time for me to see if they're still relevant.'

'The power of a Guild can vary greatly, and I want to see just how much their Guild actually values Resko as a whole.'

'If there is someone out there that can see the unending potential of this city and decides to invest in it properly, then such person should be rewarded somewhat.'

'There could be many reasons one may decide to invest but… I can determine that later.'

'Firstly, my items, I have many High-Grade Items that I don't need, and neither do the players. However, they all believe that they will need it one day.'

'I'll be making use of that misconception of theirs.' .

'I'll use these items, copies of many Skill books, maybe the chance for Quests and other secret rewards, and put them all on a long list for all players to compete over.'

'I'm planning on making a Scoreboard of points based on contribution to the Village!'

'If I put these items that aren't valuable to me on a long list and give many actions that are beneficial to the Village points, such as helping in the fields, hunting for food, repairing old buildings, and more, then the players won't be able to get their eyes from them anytime soon.'

'Following that, I'll make it so that their rewards are cashed in every month, this will cause their attention to always be on the Scoreboard.'

'Is this a loss to me? It depends, from a certain perspective I am losing, since the value of the items in pure raw Zulls or real-world money is likely way above what I would have to pay those people for them to do the tasks associated with the Score Points.'

'After all, if the top player hunts creatures, cleans the streets, repairs a few old homes, and does a few Quests, is that within the value of an Epic item?'

'But at the same time, I can't use Zulls to bring forth the players' attention and motivation. So I'm pretty much using items to buy what cannot be bought.'

'Meanwhile, this is only on a surface level.'

'If there are 10 groups competing with one another and they're constantly working their hardest to get the Number 1 Item, then the value of their work together might greatly outperform the value of the item because I'm essentially using one item to pay for 10 groups' worth of muscle.'

'And most importantly, the value of said items to the players and to me are completely different.'

'I can easily grind more since even if some of these items are very rare drops, if I kill 10 or 20 Boss monsters over the span of a week, I should be able to replenish them all.'

'A list with 10 to 20 High-Class goods is more than enough, I can add in other things in between and maybe increase those numbers to 30, that way, every player would have a 1 in 500 or so chance of getting said opportunity.'

'Those are some pretty decent odds, even though the scales are tipped against them due to the existence of Guilds and Pro players.'

'Right now, I can use these High-Grade/High-Level items to get their attention, this could even lead to more players joining Resko which will lead to more competition and even more work and progress until the next Village Ratting like the one that happened a few days ago.'

'I still don't know how, when, and why the Rating happens, together with its consequences, but for my Quest, Golden Age, I have to improve Resko's condition as much as possible.'

'This, of course, might lead to more eyes being on me, and even a possible leak of my personal information and the fact I'm a HardCore player…'

'However, even if they find out what I am, they won't be able to stop pursuing their targets, because if they do, they may end up losing way more than they can afford.'

'There isn't really much problem with my identity being revealed now that I'm stronger, but if the players start to undermine me and underestimate what I can do this will only give rise to an issue that didn't need to exist.'

'Not to say the potential real-life risk, not for me but for my family. There are people that are aware Azimuth isn't just a game, and they treat it as such, so how would they view a competitor that has taken control over the highest-level beginner zone in the entire Continent?'

'Resko is now a Level 90 zone with several field areas surrounding it for players to farm and complete Quests in, that's already more than most Northern safe Villages.'

'Together with the boosts it received such as the increase to Field Events, Resko's Value keeps increasing for those that look at the far future.'

'People like them wouldn't be found of a young boy with no backing doing whatever he wants with such a place, they'll try to remove me.'

'Not that they can, but there are many ways to sabotage me outside of direct physical harm.'

'What if they create a group of shadow ninjas whose sole purpose is to cut my internet connection? It's not like I can prevent that.'

'Suposdely Roger would take care of that but...'

'Nevertheless, ideally, no one finds out anything about me as I continue to guide them onto farming Score Points, but either way, my plan seems solid enough.'

'I can add things such as special time events that make more points every day and week to cause more players to look after resources and I can time these events with the needs of the players and their own "Metas" so as to cause their motivation to peak.'

'Imagine you're farming items on a Mine and suddenly there is a Quest to hand in Iron Ores that gives 5 times more points than usual.'

'So even if the Quest is tiring and difficult, you're killing more than one bird with one stone since the effort they believe they're putting into the task is lower as compared if they tried to do anything else even though I'm just artificially making it such.'

'Does that make sense? It does for me…' Dale thought as he scratched his head

'Overall, that and with my authority as an Elder, I should be able to make it a possibility, even if that is going to change soon…'

'I'll have to see what's going to change once Winthrope goes into power, as if I lose my ability to create Quests the player situation will quickly deteriorate into a mess.'

'The players need those Quests more then me…'

/Stop…/

In any case, Dale stopped in front of a large shop, Yumi's home.

'I'll leave those thoughts for later.'

'Right now, it's time for…'

/CREAK!/

/GRAB!/

/PULL!/

Unexpectedly, the door to the shop opened abruptedely and a hand reached out from the darkness, clutching onto Dale's shirt as it pulled him inside.

He did not resist as he vanished under the eyes of dozens of players.

/CLACK!/

""...""

Everyone watched with confused gazes as to what just happened.

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Notes

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