Power was meaningless if you starved to death in the real world before you could use it.
Sebastian walked out of the slums, leaving Old Man Clay to his Moonshine and his existential crisis. He navigated the crowded streets of Novice Village Number 109.
His mind shifted from combat tactics to economics.
In exactly one year, the Great Merge would occur. When the digital servers collapsed into reality, the global financial system would evaporate overnight. Fiat currency, stocks, digital crypto…all of it would become utterly worthless!
The only currency that would matter in the new world was Sanctuary Credits. These were directly converted from The Ethereal Plane in-game gold at the moment of the Merge.
If you were poor in the game, you'd be destitute in the apocalypse. Sebastian needed a war chest, and he needed it yesterday.
He made his way to the market district of the village. It was a loud mess of shouting players and haggling NPCs.
He stopped at a small, fragrant stall decorated with hanging bundles of dried roots and glowing mushrooms.
The Alchemy Vendor was a stern-looking NPC woman named Elara. She was busy shooing away a player who was trying to eat a raw mana mushroom.
"Don't put that in your mouth, you dumbass! It needs brewing!" Elara scolded, smacking the player's hand with a wooden spoon. THWACK!
Sebastian stepped up to the counter. He had zero copper.
He pulled out the four Singed Wolf Pelts he had looted from his Solar Flare test and dropped them on the counter. They smelled like burnt hair.
Elara wrinkled her nose.
"What the hell happened to these? They're practically ash. I'll give you ten copper for the lot, and I'm being generous."
"Keep the copper," Sebastian said smoothly. "I want to trade them for herbs. Give me the absolute worst, cheapest garbage you have in stock. The stuff you're planning to throw to the pigs."
Elara looked at him like he was insane, but she wasn't programmed to refuse a favorable trade. She reached under the counter, pulled out a burlap sack, and dumped the contents in front of him.
It was a pathetic pile of Wilted Mudroot and Dried Bloodweed. They were Tier 0 ingredients with zero magical potency left.
Usually, players bought these by the hundreds to grind their beginner alchemy levels. They failed nine times out of ten to make a potion that healed a measly 10 HP.
"Knock yourself out, Drifter," Elara scoffed. "You can't brew anything with that without a cauldron anyway."
"Just watch," Sebastian said with a small grin.
CRUNCH. CRUNCH.
He scooped up a handful of the wilted brown leaves. He didn't have an alchemy kit. He didn't have vials, a heat source, or a brewing stand.
What he did have was his Chaos Talent, Forbidden Alchemy.
His body is an endless crucible.
Sebastian closed his eyes. Instead of putting the herbs in a pot, he simply crushed them in his bare hands. He focused his intent and channeled a tiny fraction of his mana into the pulverized organic matter. He demanded that it break down and restructure.
To anyone watching, he looked like a lunatic crushing dead leaves.
But the system recognized the intent!
[System Prompt: Action Registered]
↳ Attempted Alchemy Brew
[Chaos Talent Forbidden Alchemy activated: Brewing Kit requirement bypassed]
[Skill Learned]
↳ Name: Basic Brewing
↳ Tier: 0
↳ Level: 1 / 10
And then, the Nexus Glitch woke up!
[Nexus Glitch Activated: Proficiency x10,000]
[Basic Brewing leveled up to 10/10]
↳ Max Level Reached
[Evolution Requirement Met]
↳ Basic Brewing evolves to Tier 1: Journeyman Alchemy
[Proficiency Overflow Detected]
↳ Journeyman Alchemy leveled up to 10/10
[Evolution Requirement Met]
↳ Journeyman Alchemy evolves to Tier 3: Master Crafter
[Proficiency Overflow Detected]
↳ Master Crafter leveled up to 10/10
[WARNING!]
↳ Concept Threshold Breached
↳ Creation Law Unlocked
[Master Crafter evolves to Conceptual Law: Elixir of Life Creation]
WHOOSH!
A brilliant, blinding flash of emerald light erupted from Sebastian's closed fists!
The sheer magical pressure blew Elara's hair back and knocked several glass vials off her shelves. CRASH!
When the light faded, the crushed, worthless leaves were gone.
Resting in the palm of Sebastian's hand were five perfectly smooth, crystalline vials. They were filled with a liquid that looked like liquid gold mixed with starlight. It pulsed with a heartbeat-like rhythm.
Sebastian opened his inventory to check the item description.
[Item Crafted]
↳ Name: Potion of Knitting
↳ Tier: Divine
↳ Effect: Upon consumption, instantly heals all physical trauma, regrows severed limbs, cures all status ailments, and fully restores HP and Stamina. Bypasses all cooldowns.
Sebastian stared at the vials. He had just turned literal compost into a miracle drug.
"Holy shit. If a Level 100 tank got his arm chewed off by a World Boss... this would fix it instantly," he whispered.
And he had five of them!
He didn't say a word to the stunned Alchemy Vendor. He turned and walked directly to the massive stone building in the center of the market, The Auction House.
The Auction House interface was a global hub. Players from all over the continent could view and bid on items.
Right now, the listings were filled with Rusty Swords and Slightly Better Leather Pants selling for a few silver pieces.
Sebastian walked up to a terminal. He placed all five Potions of Knitting into the deposit slot.
He selected Anonymous Seller.
For the starting bid, he didn't put silver. He didn't put copper.
He set the starting bid at 100 Gold Coins per potion!
In the current economy, 100 Gold was an astronomical sum. Only the absolute top-tier guilds who had pooled the resources of thousands of players would even have that much raw currency.
BEEP. He hit Confirm List Item.
He didn't wait to watch the global chat explode. He didn't need to see the frantic bidding wars that were about to erupt among the whales and guild leaders who recognized the item tier. His work in the game was done for the day.
He opened his system menu. "Disconnect." VZZZT.
The vibrant fantasy world dissolved, replaced instantly by the crushing, claustrophobic darkness of his 2077 apartment.
Sebastian opened his eyes. PSSSH. The VR helmet hissed as he unlatched it and pulled it off his sweaty head.
The air in his room was stale, thick with the smell of cheap ramen and damp concrete. Outside his window, the acidic rain was still falling on the megacity.
He groaned, sitting up. His body felt like lead…painfully weak compared to the digital demigod he had just been. "Ugh, fuck," he rubbed his face, the reality of his situation settling over him like a weighted blanket.
He had god-tier magic, absolute stealth, and unblockable damage. He was about to be the richest player in the game. But right now, his stomach was growling loudly, and his real-world bank account was screaming.
TAP. TAP. He leaned over to his cracked holographic terminal and booted it up. He opened his banking interface.
[Bank Account]
↳ Balance: 4,200 Omega Credits
It was exactly enough to pay his rent and keep the debt collectors at bay for one more month.
Sebastian didn't hesitate. He opened a massive wholesale logistics site.
'In three months, the whole damn system falls apart,' Sebastian thought as his fingers flew across the holographic keyboard. 'In six months, the government tries to ration food. In twelve months, people will kill each other over a can of beans.'
He selected bulk items. Pallets of military-grade Meals Ready to Eat. High-capacity water filtration systems. Medical supplies, bandages, and antibiotics. A heavy-duty, silent gas generator. Fifty gallons of stabilized fuel.
The total came out to 4,180 Credits.
He hit Confirm Purchase.
[System Prompt: Transaction Successful]
↳ Remaining Balance: 20 Omega Credits
He was officially broke. If the world didn't end, he was so screwed.
Sebastian leaned back in his squeaky chair and stared at the flashing confirmation screen. A tired, genuine smile stretched across his face.
He wasn't crazy. He knew what was coming.
The sky was going to tear open, the monsters were going to pour out, and all the debt in the world wouldn't matter.
He closed the terminal. His stomach grumbled again. He had 20 credits left. Enough for a cheap pizza.
"Bring it on, you ugly bastards," Sebastian whispered to the empty room, looking out at the rain. "I'm ready."