101 The value of money

After the teleportation finished I dropped down like a sack of potatoes. Just now I had been dancing on death's door and all of a sudden I was saved by a mere casualty, by the whim of this idiot.

I saw his shit-eating grin and I wanted nothing more than wiping it out of his face. If my body was not on the verge of breaking down and plastered with countless wounds I certainly would have done so.

Despite my pitiful appearance this asshole in front of me did not show any intention of helping me up. It was the exact opposite, he sure was happy about my misery.

" You will never guess, how I got us out of here. All that had to be done was saying I quit"

Yup, I am going to commit manslaughter.

" You should have seen the look on the face of my companion after asking this question, he looked at me and treated me like a total moron for not knowing something obscure as this."

I am not going to give him the satisfaction of getting angry about this immense level of stupidity. Instead of looking at his stupid face, I looked at the sky and tried my best to ignore everything he was saying.

While he was likely saying something that would make me lose my sanity I was moving my head around to look at my surroundings. I found myself staring at a small market where NPCs were conducting business selling fruits, herbs and meat. No players were in my sight, those were likely hunting monsters instead of buying apples.

It felt weird staring at these NPCs living their everyday lives. The mood was cheerful and a vibrant mix of voices filled this lively place. I could not help but be silent for a second and just take in my first dosage of normality in this world.

This sentimental moment did not last as Tom was still spewing out whatever came on his mind.

" .... and that is how I want to impress the ladies."

What a weird thing to end a sentence on. My daydream was destroyed by his talk about how he wants to score a chick. Against prior expectation, he is capable of thinking, although he uses his best tool for that.

Onwards let us get this fellow a girlfriend so he can go bother her and not me. Due to his charm and likeable personality, I am not going to inquire about his plans at all. It will be better if I just make plans on my own, instead of trying to rely on his natural prospects.

With his red hair and freckles covering his face he would not be considered the most handsome man to ever grace this world. But looks are not everything if you want girls to swoon over you. Money, status, talent, a lot of things can be used to win over others.

His face was looking average despite the unique traits he had. His build was not something, that stood for strength and neither his aura and bearing were something attractive. Seems like I can only work with the status and talent. Being a member of the Church and a tactician can work to create a good reputation.

Although my body had yet to heal and I looked like the victim of a gruesome murder I pushed my body up. I had to find myself some suitable clothes and a way to disguise myself. In my current form, I am drawing way too much attention.

A walking corpse, with skin as white as bones and wounds all over its body, is a bit too unique for my taste. I began to hate the word unique, after that torture I had gone through.

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The worst thing is that I did not even get a single reward from all of that stuff. I did that stuff for nothing. Seriously why did I not get a single thing? Who do I have to beat up to get some recognition for my work?

" Do you think girls would settle for mediocrity?"

This one sentence was enough to stop him in his track and to focus on my words. It is nice for a chance to talk to someone as simpleminded as him.

" We both know, what qualities they look for."

He nodded and mumbled Faintly " Strength and ability"

" Yes, do you think you can contend with the strongest of them, to get their attention?"

" No, I cant. I thought I could impress them by simple showing my abilities." His face has sunken after speaking those words, he knew that he could not hope to fight against the best, he did not possess the necessary ability.

" What if I tell you, that you do not have to fight against them to get a lot of attention from those girls.?"

Full of surprise, he looked at me and awaited my answer to fulfil his desire.

" If you truly want to leave a lasting impression, you have to do something different. You should not participate in the competition."

"But what else should ..."

He could not finish his sentence as I already had prepared to thoroughly stump him and convince him of my absurd idea.

" Everyone participating in this event just wants to prove their strength and bask in the glory they earn through their display of battle tactics. But they have failed to see what's truly important."

" Truly important is not the use of tactics in the battle itself but the management of your army. Every single one of them, just thinks that this competition is all about them and their talent, while they oversee this detail"

I could see his bird brain working, trying to comprehend the meaning of my words. After what felt like an eternity it finally clicked.

" True, I have not thought about that, this competition has a lot more depth to it than I imagined. So what should I do?"

The fish had swallowed the bait now it was time to reel it in.

" Why do you not raise your army and let others use them for gold? If everyone learns about your fierce army, that can be hired, then you will be famous without even have to fight a single battle."

" Why would you demand money, instead of favours? Gold can only do so much," he said, trying to persuade me.

I truly had to spell it out for him. Well, I should stop trying to place any expectations on him

" Give me a bit gold to use" I held my hand open, as I waited for him to give me some money.

He casually threw a bag full of coins towards me, I watched it and began to resume my lecture.

Turning around I approached a small girl holding a basket full of apples. She looked at me full of fear but still forced herself to put a smile on and began to speak.

" Sir, do you want an apple?" Her petite figure was shaking yet she still wanted to sell her goods.

" I will take the entire basket."

The girl could not believe her ears, but still managed to stammer " That will be 70 copper."

I gave her a silver coin and took the basket from her little hands. The girl began to run away from me and was never seen again.

"That is the power of gold. Not only, have I done this girl a huge favour, but also acquired these tasty apples."

A look at his dumbfounded expression was enough to tell me, that he had not understood a single thing.

" Look, an army needs a lot of things to function. It needs weapons, armour and it needs to be well fed. Or do you like to fight on an empty stomach?"

Yup, he finally understood.

I threw an apple to him before I nearly swallowed the one I had picked for me. Its taste reminded me of my former home, if only for a brief second.

" Do you see any player here? Do they know about the significance off things like this?"

While he was pondering on my words I had eradicated the rest of the apples and began to buy even more food to satisfy my craving for food.

Until he voiced his next question I already had bought the next stand and got myself another batch of apples.

" But those people will notice it sooner or later, what can we do?"

Did he think I showed him the importance of food to make him famous? It is called principle, fool. I was just trying to show you, that there are a lot of things nobody has yet considered and by following my advice you could become famous. What is so hard to understand about this?

" Food is only the beginning, there are a lot of things, those people will not consider until it is too late. A soldier is worthless if used in the wrong way."

While he was preoccupied with his thinking yet again I bought another set of fruits from another stall. Although every NPC ran away, after seeing me I was not concerned by their reaction. I was busy shoving food in my mouth over and over again.

" What should I do?"

"Gather as much gold as you can and then buy as much wood and other resources you can get your hands on. Also, bring me the remains of monsters. It would be great if their corpses are not burned too badly."

" Go out of the city, kill many monsters. Return and buy everything you can see."

He seemed to understand this order and began to run away from this place as far as his legs could carry him.

Since I had gotten rid of this pest, for the time being, I could finally eat to my heart's content. I did not hold back anymore and bought everything. Apples, tomatoes other strange fruits and even meat. Everything was bought, everything was consumed and everyone had run away.

The lively market had turned into a desolate place, only the sounds of chewing could be heard.I was lucky, that those players were out somewhere else. Looking at my body, I noticed that most of my wounds began to heal, after my intake of so much food.

But instead of being saturated the healing process made me even hungrier then I had been before. Eating NPCs was not an option though I did not want to leave the safety of the town either. Seems like I will have to gather my food by other means.

I walked to the nearest house and knocked on the door. Of course, no one would open me, but doors were not something that would stop me, a quick kick and the door was broken. I saw an entire family cover, begging for their lives after I had invaded their homes. After I had taken everything eatable from their house, I walked to the next one while eating the loot from the previous house.

I had to admit, that there were a lot more houses than I had previously imagined, which was quite good for me. I barged in gathered food and vanished. Rinse and repeat until my body had finally healed.

Although I likely caused a small scale famine by my never-ending gluttony, I had no qualms about continuing what I was doing. While I was at it, I had stolen the clothes from a father, who wanted to play the hero. Now I only needed to find a cover-up for my burning hair, so that I will not be recognized by every single player.

Since any fabric here was by no means fireproof or fire-resistant I had to find another solution. Ant queen, come here.

Judging by the look on her face, she was not very pleased seeing me, but that's not something new to me. I showed her some spare clothes I had taken from someone and lit them ablaze afterwardsI shook my head several times. She nodded, but still did not return to my body. Seems like it is time to haggle now.

After a long and stressful non-verbal negotiation session, we could finally come to a compromise. I was giving her a lot of my hair on top in exchange for delivering her more samples of monsters.

With the issue of my disguise being solved, I could focus on the task at hand and get more food. My stomach felt like a bottomless pit, which swallowed everything that came in touch with it. But I never felt full, I was getting hungrier and hungrier.

Despite my seemingly insatiable hunger I did not let down my guard and kept looking for players. And only after making sure, that there was no danger did I take action and collected my food.

But my spree came to an end after I had visited every house and I was still hungry. Since I had already exhausted this option I was left with no other choice, then eating their livestock as well. At least I did not have to break those doors again.

This marked the beginning of another search for something eatable. Most of them were scared once again and were grovelling on their knees to spare their lives. They were ignored and I only too care of the pigs and chickens close to their homes.

This time around I felt a lot more nourished by consuming animals compared to if I had just eaten the leftovers. Although the small scale famine had intensified, I was still looking for some things to stuff my body with.

The more I ate, the more cannibalism was turning into a feasible option. But before I would do something drastic like that I would make sure to exhaust every other option, because stuff like that would surely raise a lot of unnecessary attention.

But If I were to do it should I start with the children or with the old or with the adults? The most nutrients can be gained by eating the adults followed by the old and lastly the children. But adults would be the one whose disappearance would likely get the noticed first.

Should I eat the old then, most of them can not be found in the markets or wandering the streets, sadly their numbers are quite limited as people do not grow very old in this world. Eating the children would cause the adults great pain and I can forget about going unnoticed. The stuff I was currently doing was already enough, I should not try to make the situation irredeemable.

Since my arrival in this world, I have learned not to be a picky eater, I did not have a choice in what I got to eat. As much as I wanted to enjoy the current smells and tastes on my taste buds, my hunger was still driving me forward to search for more food.

Looking at my wounds, at least it was paying off and my body was recovering visible to the naked eye. After I returned to the market where I woke up, I saw that a group of peddlers had stopped there.

They brought many goods with them and were just looked quite dumbfounded at the empty market place. I walked straight at them and bought everything that they had. I just pretended to buy everything for the people here, who are afraid of a madman, that is running around threatening everyone.

Although it certainly was not very convincing while my hair was burning brightly and I was acting nonchalantly about it. But as long as I got everything that I wanted they could think whatever they want about me.

I spoke a bit about this village about them before they left the village with the horses and carts. After eating everything, that was normally meant for the entire village the feeling of hunger finally stopped.

This consumption was truly abnormal, how am I supposed to fight this much food all the time?

But with my belly finally being full, I could continue my plan,who knows maybe the famine I have caused will come in handy for me.

Who knows, for the time being, I am just going to take a nap on top of this roof. Although the wounds on my body had healed, there were several inside of my body, that still affected me. Only time could heal them. I am sure, that my little partner can find me if he wants to.

And by the time I will wake up my disguise should be ready. I am looking forward to all the shenanigans I can pull.