CHAPTER TWENTY

Reaching the OverManiacs headquarters was quick and easy, a very sharp contrast to finding most parts stores.

The convenient location was another example of OverManiac's enormous edge over the average store.

Running an Overdrive parts store was usually an extremely difficult job.

Only the most elite shopkeepers could pay the digital rents and fees required to host their shop in the player spawn space station.

Paying rent for an online property seemed ridiculous to most players, but experienced parts vendors understood that the monthly fee to the Overdrive Corporation was just part of doing business.

High-ranked shopkeepers could give prospective customers a shopkeeping code that allowed them to teleport their pilot avatar directly to the store.

However, walk-in traffic was just too important.

A convenient store location was everything when it came to selling parts quickly and efficiently.

Most players wanted to spend their Credits as soon as possible after beating missions, and every finished mission brought players back to the central spawning area.

On top of that, plenty of players, including Jason, wanted to shop as soon as they logged on.

It stood to reason that a location near the spawning platform was highly advantageous.

OverManiacs had the best location of all.

As the Overdrive Corporation's primary partner, the parts retailer's massive digital headquarters was located directly beneath the central player spawning lobby.

In order to secure the location, OverManiacs had offered the Overdrive Corporation more than just monthly rent. They were also paying the game's creators a full ten percent of their profits.

Although the Overdrive Corporation already made millions each year selling parts, the deal also granted them a cut of the lucrative third-party marketplace.

As soon as Jason stepped on the warp panel to the next floor, he was teleported to a brightly lit building that looked exactly like a real-world bank.

Most Overdrive shops were designed to fit the futuristic in-game world.

When standing inside one of the official Overdrive Corporation stores, Jason felt like he was inside a spaceship. They were all sleek white walls and shimmering fluorescent lights.

The OverManiacs store had no frills at all.

Its sheer simplicity and professionalism looked out of place, especially in the futuristic player spawn spaceship.

However, OverManiacs was a well-funded company backed by prominent venture capitalists. They wanted to expand their online marketplace to other games and cryptocurrencies.

Their clients also included investors who wanted to speculate on Overdrive parts without playing the game.

As a result, OverManiacs prioritized the air of professionalism far more than fitting into the Overdrive universe. The company didn't have much interest in engaging with the game's community.

Players simply used them because of efficacy.

They offered the best prices and were in the most convenient location.

The situation was somewhat similar to big banks in real life.

Local banks offered much more personalized service, but the personal touch couldn't always overcome raw money.

From Jason's perspective, the combination of convenience and reputation had guaranteed his patronage.

Like most players, Jason didn't have the time or resources to create his own shop. He just wanted to offload his map winnings as soon as possible.

On top of that, all the Overdrive Finance forums stated that OverManiacs was the absolute gold standard for selling Overdrive parts.

Their massive scale and venture capital funding meant they offered better prices than any other vendor.

Jason called up his Status screen and swiftly double-checked the long list of parts.

After confirming that he'd properly organized everything, Jason walked into the building.

The inside of the building looked just as much like a bank as the outside did. It was neat and orderly, with a cordoned line and a few teller's windows.

A large sign above the teller's area said SALES.

To Jason's surprise, the sales side was almost completely empty.

There was only a single man on the enormous bank's sales side. He wore a bright green pilot suit, and he hunched over as he whispered something in his teller's ear.

Instead, most players were on the other side of the building, which was organized like an upper-class shopping mall.

Row after row of players dressed in colorful pilot suits milled through the available wares.

Jason shrugged.

A lot of Overdrive players were hoarders. Maybe buying was just more popular than selling.

The newly minted mapper got in line.

With nobody ahead of him, a bright blue arrow immediately lit up at the bottom of the floor, pointing Jason up to the teller's window.

He stepped up to the counter, and a dark-skinned man swiftly emerged to greet him.

The man was about three or four inches taller than Jason.

He had an elegant beard and mustache, and he wore his well-groomed hair in a fashionable undercut.

Instead of the standard Overdrive pilot outfit, he wore a suit and tie just like a regular bank worker. OverManiacs's obsession with professionalism clearly extended to their staff.

However, the most interesting thing about the man was his bright and excited eyes.

Most Overdrive players used a body scan system.

The virtual reality headsets continually scanned the player's features, replicating them perfectly onto the server. The man must have looked this excited in real life.

Jason sensed genuine pleasure in the man's expression. His excitement radiated from his face.

Jason smiled.

This man was a pro at making deals, just like how Jason was a pro at Overdrive. He clearly loved selling parts more than anything else.

The broker immediately reached out a hand, and Jason virtually shook it.

Controlling his player avatar was a strange experience.

Even though Jason wasn't inside a Mech, he still inputted the same instructions on his control board. Shaking the broker's hand required a forward movement of the control board's thrusters, just like trying to punch someone with the Red Minerva.

The process was fairly similar to other video games.

A war game like Call of Duty used the same controller inputs for both vehicle control and soldier control.

However, it was an immersion break for a game like Overdrive, which was almost totally realistic during Mech-on-Mech battles.

The Overdrive Corporation was trying to improve the pilot avatar control process, perhaps by creating a VR kit linked directly to the player's movements.

After the two shook hands, a small profile appeared above the broker's head.

Handshakes were the standard information exchange feature on Overdrive.

Shaking another pilot's hand always revealed a small box that displayed the other player's in-game name, favorite Mechs, and most-played game mode.

Jason had to stifle a laugh as he read the broker's data box.

Pilot Name: JoeSmith89

Favorite Mech: N/A

Most Played Game Mode: Tutorial

This man had no Mech at all.

He'd never even bothered picking up the freely offered starter machine that was granted to all new players at the beginning of the game.

His Most Played Game Mode was even funnier.

All players were required to finish the five-minute tutorial once they made an account. However, the other man had never played another second of Overdrive after that.

Joe was only here to sell parts - nothing else.

People like Joe had become increasingly common as Overdrive grew more popular and lucrative.

Although they didn't know how to pilot Mechs, they used skills from real life to build a full-time living in the virtual world.

Based on his professional demeanor and attitude, it seemed like Joe had worked in finance once upon a time.

In addition to brokers like Demented, there were also roles like full-time coaches and sports therapists for professional teams.

Jason would also place Wass in a similar category. The erratic supervisor hadn't known anything about Overdrive.

He'd only been hired because he fit The Mechanical King's ideal of a strict overseer.

It was another reminder that Jason needed to evolve.

Just being good at Overdrive wasn't good enough to make money at the game.

He had to develop his overall skills and knowledge.

The broker suddenly frowned.

"Ah. Devourer22, right?"

Jason hadn't heard his in-game name in quite a while.

He'd made the name when he first started playing the game, but he'd forgotten it a long time ago. For the last two years, he'd simply thought of himself as the Red Minerva's pilot.

Devourer had just sounded cool, and it'd fit Jason's play style.

Even back then, Jason had focused on growing as much as possible. He'd wanted to collect every item, learn every possible maneuver, and study every single Mech frame in the game.

Meanwhile, 22 was just his lucky number - it'd been his assigned locker back in high school.

Jason nodded.

"Yes."

The broker frowned, and his voice quickly took on an apologetic tone.

"Ah, I'm sorry. You're not one of our approved sellers. You'll have to use the general prices."

He waved goodbye and smiled apologetically again.

"Sorry about that."

Before Jason could respond, he turned and walked to the back of the room.

The teller window automatically turned black.

Moments later, a light flickered, and a search box appeared on the screen.

Jason sighed.

OverManiacs consistently purchased parts from a list of preferred mappers.

They purchased parts for a higher sum of money than usual. On the other hand, regular players like Jason had to use the general list of prices.

Jason had hoped to establish a preferred relationship by selling the many powerful parts he'd recovered in the Vault.

Unfortunately, the broker hadn't even bothered listening to him.

Jason hesitated for a moment, then he moved his pilot avatar up to the black teller screen and started typing away at the keyboard.

He'd heard unimpressive things about the general prices, but now that he was here, there was no reason not to try.

The first item Jason entered was the Dragonbane Sword.

He tsked as a pair of prices appeared on the screen, a buy-side and a sell-side.

The buy-side indicated how much money OverManiacs was willing to pay for a part.

The sell-side indicated how much they sold a part for.

There was a significant margin between the buy-side and the sell-side, and that was how OverManiacs made their money.

The Overdrive Corporation was still offering Jason a somewhat reasonable price for his Dragonbane Sword, but they would sell it for over 35% more money. Jason wasn't willing to sell his valuable items for such a large margin.

A quick look at the associates' page that they were only willing to create a special relationship for players who could sell them over $10,000 in parts.

To Jason, his parts were unique and powerful. However, all OverManiacs cared about was raw value.

Unfortunately, Jason was nowhere near their requested amount.

The Smoulderhulk's value was still unknown, but Jason doubted it would push him past ten thousand dollars. He would have to raid all three Vaults before hitting that mark.

Jason smiled wryly.

At the end of the day, the Overdrive economy was just like any other economy.

You needed money - and connections - to make more money.

As a result, Jason decided to return to the upper lobby and try selling parts for himself.

It didn't take long for him to realize why OverManiacs charged such a steep margin on purchased parts.

They could afford to - plenty of players would happily pay a hefty premium in order to sell their parts quickly.

Selling parts independently took exorbitant amounts of time.

To sell his parts, Jason had to wait in the lobby and make countless individual deals.

Considering the sheer number of players inside the lobby, he couldn't get anyone's attention.

Other players hovered around him like vultures.

They would swoop in at the last second to upend his deals, selling a part for a slightly lowered price just as soon as an interested player arrived to trade with Jason.

The worst players were the obvious rip-off artists.

Nobody had the money to buy Jason's Dragonbane Sword, but plenty of players asked him to let them borrow it for a while.

Those players reeked of fraudulence - even a child wouldn't have fallen for their schemes.

By the end, Jason realized that the entire process was just an absurd waste of time.

After two hours, he hadn't sold a single part.

It was an extremely inefficient use of his time. The more time he spent trying to sell parts, the less time he spent earning them.

After getting fired as a Discreet Player Killer, Jason had hoped he could spend his time playing Overdrive.

He thought he'd make a full-time living by winning battles, honing his skills, and developing his abilities.

He didn't want to sit around trying to sell parts!

After three more hours of failure, Jason shrugged and left for the bulletin boards at the back of the Lobby.

His only chance was to go all out and hit that vaunted $10,000 mark as soon as possible. He'd use the boards to teleport to a high-value map and play for the rest of the day.

Jason pulled up the list of options, but before he could look through them, he received a message from JoeSmith89.

Jason's eyes widened as he read through the message.

JoeSmith89: Hey. Sorry again that I had to kick you out. We have very strict rules. We're always looking for more preferred relationships, but we need to make sure they are worth our time.

JoeSmith89: We are looking for items from the Tournament of Assassins map by The Illusionists Guild. If you complete the map, we'll purchase all items for full-price and establish a preferred partnership.