[POV: ]
"What do you think?" Looking at the open area filled with players before the Tower, I whispered to my little bird.
"Vivi~." (It's cool~!)
Reassuring Aunt Su and the others wasn't easy, but I got the permission to move by myself after begging them for a whole day.
Since Ziggy was going to join the Association, he would soon be moving out of the base while with Iz as the center, the entire neighbourhood was going to transform into a new Guild.
While both Ziggy and Iz were going to be busy for a while with their own things, I was now free. And since I am free, I am now standing before the tower, at the entrance area of the tower.
"The Association has done quite the work here as well. Look over there. Isn't that pretty good?" I kept my voice down and the hood hid my expression or else the people around me would think I was some child at a carnival.
"Viv~." (They had put in some good work~.)
The entire area around the tower was reconstructed into a flat zone, and now it almost looked like an open sports field.
Aside from the tower and the barricade around it, the entire area was empty, filled with players who chatted among themselves or player vendors who were already selling stuff to the other players.
'The items they are selling seem to be (F) rank and basic essentials. Did they get these during the tutorial quest?'
In the large areas, all the people that participate in the tutorial would receive basic rewards. Some consumables like healing potions and magic scrolls were things that the players were going to need.
'The prices seem absurd though…'
I just don't understand why the players were selling those things for a few hundred coins. If it were me, I would charge at least a thousand for each one of the things.
'The market price was nowhere near that, but without access to the actual Shop, we can just name our price.'
These dumb ones didn't seem to understand that much. Not that I minded it.
"Hey there…" Approaching each one of these vendors silently, I bought out exactly half of their stocks.
Buying everything might result in an increase in price and I did not want that. As long as they had the goods, having reasonable prices was a big thing.
'They should be selling them Inside the tower instead.'
I wanted to make fun of these dummies, but I shouldn't do that to my suppliers.
"Hello. Is there anything left?" Going around the place and secretly changing clothes and my hoodie, I came back to them and bought out the rest of their stock at the same price.
They didn't feel my presence at first and the second time, they weren't going to remember my face.
'They're angels.'
The merchants inside the tower or someone with experience would have been more careful with their prices– but these thugs were a great deal.
"Hmmm… now that the shopping's done…"
The entire area around us was covered in players right now and since no ordinary person could enter the tower, the plaza was the hub of players forming parties or parties going in and out of the tower.
The enterence of the tower was a giant gate, and even in the Game days, one simply needed to press a button to enter the tower.
The gates were there, but unless one was standing on a certain platform before the gate, they cannot enter the tower itself.
And it was the same this time as well.
"Should we go then, Uni?"
"Viv~." (Yei~.)
The Association people had set a powerful barricade around the plaza. To enter the plaza, one did not need any ID or anything like that, however, there was tight security around inside.
They were all armed player officers that maintained public order inside the plaza. Those who caused any commotions were dragged out and restricted under the rules of the association.
To enter the tower, we needed to go to the checking area at the front in different lines according to our IDs and after a check, we could enter the tower directly.
'The higher the rank, the faster you could move within the lines.'
As I could see, the longest line was of [Rank-2] and [Rank-3] players. The line for [Rank-1] wasn't that big while the line for [Rank-4] and [Rank-5] was even smaller.
Additionally, there was no line for the [Rank-6] players. The number of [Rank-6] players was small anyway so those who had such a high rank were all given direct access.
Those of even higher ranks had their own special perks. They were not only given direct access, they did not even have to come to this side of the plaza.
'But I'm not that high ranked anyway.'
As I walked towards the section for the [Rank-6] players, the people that were checking me out as well as the merchants that were curious about me until just a moment ago turned pale.
"Here you go, officer~." Handing the officer my ID for the check at the security gate, I waited patiently for a few seconds before they were done with the process and I could go inside.
"If you have any gears, we will have to check that as well." The officer asked, his tone polite unlike the cold ones that the others in the other lines were receiving.
"Oh, certainly officer. Just a minute."
Complying with their regulations was necessary for the time being. Once the situation normalizes and a few weeks pass, they surely aren't going to be as strict as they are right now.
Most of the things will be automated by then as well and once we reach the tenth floor and Classes start appearing, things won't look as they do right now.
"Here you go. This is what I'll be using."
They needed to list any of the gears that one had in case they could identify them or their corpses. If the item was found on someone else without justifications, they would also have to face the Association regulations.
Stealing within the tower was going to be a normal thing, just like killings. There were already a lot of deaths and the number of players dying by the hands of the players is still increasing.
'I'm not showing them everything I'll use.'
But still, I register a few things that could identify me in case something unexpected does happen.
The 1st floor is certainly a cruel place so we don't know what might happen when we are in there…