THE MOMENT
“Alright, we covered a lot; that’s probably good for now,” Jubilee was ready to end the team meeting. The six girls of the Neon Court were seated around their lounge for the informal weekly check-in. It was only the second week of school, but a lot happened in those fourteen days. Official rankings began, and they were in the top 50%. It was 3rd rank overall, but there were only six teams. They’d agreed to communicate better and more often, especially since the scoring tended to favor team objectives. “Any questions?”
“I have one,” Rosario waited a moment to see if anyone else had any concerns. But it looked like they were all ready to leave too, so she went ahead and asked. “Last week we voted on spending some of our points for Monday’s shops,” she met Monday’s pink eyes with a smile and hoped she wasn’t overstepping her bounds. Rosario was the newest member of the established group. As welcoming as they tried to be, it was still easy for them to fall into old habits and it led her to feel out of place as often as she felt at home. “It was an easy decision then, because we hadn’t seen what the scoring looked like. But now, we’re in third place specifically because we gave up those points. It’s a weekly upkeep, and…,” she sighed. “I guess my question is, is it worth it? We’re paying Ozone so Monday can have her shops in the dungeons, but most of the students and adventurers go in with their own supplies. Even in the Demon King’s castle, most of the regulars have been mobs and rarely the actual players. The shops aren’t bringing in enough to make up for the point loss. How many weeks are we going to let that be the case?”
“Oh yeah, thanks for bringing that up.” Monday nodded at her and returned the smile. “I’d already decided to give it a little more time, but that was before we met today and made the decisions we made. So, I guess in the spirit of being more communicative, here was my thought process,” she said.
“I worked out a deal with Ozone, and I can close or opt out for a week at a time. If I skip two weeks, I need to pay for a new Shop License. When I realized the upkeep was going to put us in 3rd, I talked to Jubilee about it,” she said as Jubilee nodded. “And we decided it wasn’t ideal, but it’s only the start of the year, so it’s okay. I’ll see how we do next week; then we can talk about whether to take a week off or cancel it altogether. It’s not about having shops right now, so much as getting people used to the shops being available. They don’t need anything yet, but once the run of Holiday events starts, the Shop License means I can sell event items too. It’s kind of a slow start, but the Spider Survivor Halloween event should really be able to pay for itself and maybe even get us ahead.”
“But that’ll be the last time we spend points without taking a vote,” Jubilee said. “And we gotta check in weekly with this.”
“Noted,” Monday nodded.
“Thanks, Rosario.” Jubilee smiled at her, then the whole team. “Any other questions?”
“Wait… I’m just curious now, how does that work? I was so focused on getting it resolved that I didn’t even think about the logistics. The normal clients are the mobs? The NPCs? What are they even buying?”
“Nothing,” Monday shook her head. “The convenience is meant to be for the Adventurers. But, until they use it regularly, it’s still Point of Sale, or for the NPCs, a Point of Buying. Ever notice how clean the dungeons are?” she smiled. The Shops are part of the dungeon maintenance. All that gear those well-prepared adventurers drop when they die has to go somewhere, so the mobs pick it up and bring it in to the nearest store to sell it. The system gets to recycle the nanos, saving a bit for the owner, and the NPC’s don’t really expect anything in return. That’s another detail that’ll put us ahead in October,” she added with a smile. “There’s going to be a lot of abandoned gear from unexpected deaths.”