Might as Well - Chapter 395 (Patreon)

There, the corridor widened out, and Sam’s steps, no matter how silent, were swallowed by a wall of noise. In front of him was a large open space, with a vaulted ceiling and several buildings, all built from stone or carved into the very walls of the cavern.

At the entrance, right where the corridor connected to this space, was a large, spacious square where a bunch of carriages were already waiting. People were rushing to and fro, placing large containers on them and fixing them in place.

Supervisors were yelling; people were grunting and cursing. This was joined by metal hitting stone whenever one of the containers made contact with any part of the cavern, and the general conversation of people that joined together into an unintelligible roar thanks to being underground.

Sam, standing in the shadow of a pile of something covered in tarp, still invisible, looked around and let out a sigh…

“Haaaah…”

Observing how the people were dressed, he quickly located the perfect clothing, changed his face to that of a bland-looking person, and, while still under the effect of invisibility, he began to walk toward the depths of the cavern.

He had a feeling whatever they were doing here would be found deeper inside. And if not, then maybe a clue or two.

He walked by people, hoping to listen in, but most of them were either talking about other in-game events, including the whole economy going topsy-turvy, or discussing investment options. There were some talks about celebrities, including their appearance and news about who they were dating or whom they were cheating with.

Surprisingly, he found his online name mentioned by several of those people, as they speculated about who he was in a relationship with. Apparently, he was currently dating Katie, while cheating on Clarissa and Dan at the same time that they hooked up behind his back.

For a very brief moment, Sam wanted nothing more than to drop his invisibility and go up to those deranged people and correct them, but then he reined himself in and headed deeper, trying to forget what he had heard.

Sadly, he didn’t overhear any interesting or actionable information aside from people complaining that work was picking up and they had to move more and more of the product.

It wasn’t drugs, Sam was sure.

The game was pretty free-form, but even the developers tried to discourage players from setting up a drug empire. The game was addictive enough as it was; there was no need to add synthetic digital drugs.

So that meant it was something different.

Ducking between two buildings, he looked around and tried to spot somewhere important. Unfortunately, most buildings looked uniform. Either they didn’t spend a lot of money on design, or it was a security measure.

Based on what he saw of this place, it was the first one.

‘If there are no signs, then just follow the product…’ he thought as his eyes sought out the line of people pulling or pushing carts with metal containers on them. The containers themselves were the size of barrels but more square. They were sealed tightly, but there were no danger warnings on them (not that it meant much in a place like this). Sam even watched a guy bump into somebody because he was daydreaming, and the container tumbled down the cart and hit the ground.

Nobody flinched or yelled.

The guy just cursed a little, and with the help of a few other people who walked lazily over, hefted the container back onto the cart, dusted off his hands, nodded to the impromptu helpers, and continued to push the cart, looking at nothing.

Following the conga line of people transporting these mysterious containers, he found another large stone building, where people with empty carts, or those with skills that made those carts redundant, entered and left laden with the “product”.

Sam only had to watch the building before he had a choice to make.

Walk in with a cart of his own, or find a way to circumvent the throngs of people going in and out. He stood there for a moment before shrugging.

‘I’m sure they don’t expect me to do the same thing twice…’

He was recording, mostly for information-gathering purposes, and they wouldn’t be making this video public until the war was over, but Sam had a feeling if they published the video of this infiltration, then at least a few people would have an aneurysm.

Chuckling to himself, he went to look for an empty cart, watching as the countdown on his bracer reached past the halfway point.

Pushing the cart lazily toward the building, he pretended to be bored with his life while discreetly observing everything. The moment he arrived before the doors, he saw a giant warehouse leading deep into the cavern that was carved into the stone, filled with industrial-sized containers, the kind one would see in a brewery, made out of bronze and some kind of silvery metal, with a few strange artifacts dripping blood seen occasionally here and there.

He approached the line that led deeper into the cavern, then, as he was next to a door, he just turned right, opened the door, and entered. Closing the door, he listened for anyone calling after him, but he heard no calls or steps approaching.

Nodding to himself, he parked the cart next to the door and began moving through the small corridor.

He glanced into the first door, but it was just a restroom for the NPCs and a logout place for the players. The next one was a storage room with carts, but new and broken. Then came a small metal staircase, which led him to the next floor, where there were more doors.

A bit more careful, he approached the first and opened it a crack.

“Bingo!” he whispered triumphantly.

It was an office.

Looking both ways, he slipped into the room, closing it behind him. Then he instantly began setting up metal plates around the room, just in case someone tried to enter or attack him.

Naturally, the moment he finished putting up the last runic artifact, the alarms began blaring.

“WAH-WAH-WAH!”

It was a harsh sound, but it came from afar.

He let out a sigh. “Because of course…” He glanced at the countdown. “Heh. Took them half an hour to find the guy… amateurs…”

Turning back to the office, he rubbed his hands together, then dove in.

First, a small, careful sweep for traps and other enchantments. Then affixing neutralizing plates to the spots where he found scrying spells, and using one to burn out the small curse on the bottom drawer.

Pulling open the drawer, Sam was disappointed to see it was filled with unhealthy snacks and alcoholic drinks. “You know… Just for that, I’m stealing your stash,” he declared and swiftly began putting everything into his inventory. Naturally, he checked the bottom of the drawer and even for false bottoms, but there was nothing. So he left it empty.

After that, he pulled out several boxes from his inventory, all designed to store paperwork, and began emptying the filing cabinets lining the wall. They looked rather archaic, made out of wood, but they functioned the same as the modern ones. One by one, he filled boxes, labeled them, and listened for anyone coming to the office, all the while the “wah-wah” sound of the alarm was going off in the distance.

Finally finished with the cabinets, he returned to the desk and began to read through the paperwork there.

It didn’t take long for Sam to realize what was happening.

This location, or Facility BG-5, was one of the five final distribution and logistical centers for the operation. The operation’s name and purpose were never mentioned anywhere, but he could read between the lines.

The documents were mostly logistical in nature, with a few of them pertaining to some new security orders or questions about quotas and KPIs.

He shuddered. “Who the hell sets up KPIs in a bloody game? They’re truly the bad guys…”

And the product?

Healing potions.

Nothing more, nothing less.

They were transported here from further up in the chain, stored in those giant containers, separated into smaller ones, which were then transported to other locations to be sold to the masses.

Oh, yeah… There were several warnings for the senior staff not to touch it, sniff it, or even drink it. There was a recommendation to have them discourage the workers from using it, but no full order.

He dug deeper until he found one lone paper, faded and a bit yellow, even having a stain from some kind of cup on it. It was old paperwork. Compared to the new ones, it was probably made around the time this place was set up months ago.

The only interesting thing was that at the end of the memo, there was a personal message. Clearly, this office belonged to an NPC. Most players used chat apps or just talked to each other over the phone.

P.S.: The concoction is truly peculiar. Due to the favor of the good Lord Salani, I managed to gain a seat at the discussion about this liquid. Most of it I dare not write down, lest the gods and these abominations we have allied with strike me down, but I must warn you. NEVER DRINK IT if you value your life. I have seen what it is capable of. Calling it a healing potion? What a jest…

Sam leaned back in his chair, ignoring the alarms, and scratched his cheek thoughtfully. “So, a healing potion that is more than it seems on the surface… Could they be more unoriginal?”

Granted, now that it was spelled out to him like that, it was obvious, but when the news of the healing potions sold by the Blood Army came up, he just shrugged and thought it was a marketing tactic to make sure that the gold their side made didn’t go to merchants employed by Sam or working in other countries.

“Why can’t anything be simple?” he muttered as he gathered up the last remaining pieces of paper, put them in the last box, sealed it, labeled it, and then it, too, vanished into the inventory, leaving him alone in the now-empty office.

He listened a little, and when he heard nothing, he sat down on the ground, placed several mana-chips around him, letting them leak the foul mana in them, while he tapped his bracer and let a bit of the accumulated mana inside escape.

Now that the alarm was raised, he may as well chance it.

With iron will, he caught every wisp of mana and channeled it toward one of the empty metal plates with pre-carved runes, letting it absorb and activate, all the while sitting there tense, his muscles ready to explode into motion at the first sign of someone noticing him.

But the only thing that happened was that the infernal alarm was finally turned off.

Watching the countdown spin backwards, he let the entire bracer empty, making sure that the prototype didn’t develop some kind of error or issue from handling such a large amount of mana in such a short amount of time.

Liz was an incredibly good crafter, but it was still a prototype.

‘Not even a crack…’ he asserted after a thorough examination. ‘She deserves a raise!’

Finished with the task, he made sure to clean up after himself, not wanting to leave anything that could identify him, then cracked open the door (after removing his own traps).

The corridor was empty.

He slipped out, closed the door behind him, and started going back the way he came, constantly listening for any weird noise. But the only thing he could hear was the quiet squeaking of the wheels on the carts, the grunts of people lifting heavy objects, and the supervisors barking orders.

With one more little metal plate, he turned invisible and slipped back into the big hall. He walked around and listened to the conversations between the disgruntled workers.

Apparently, it was a fake alarm…

The workers were told to keep working as if nothing had happened. They didn’t even send more guards to protect the stash.

Holding back a chuckle, he walked deeper into this cavern, hoping to find a quiet spot where he could gather a few samples of this horrific healing potion. He would need some before trying to escape.

Sam was sure that while they told the common workers that nothing happened, which was important for morale, they were still either searching discreetly or setting up a trap for whoever decided to try to infiltrate the location and escape.

Of course, there was also the chance that they were so incompetent that they really thought it was a false alarm, and a guard just decided to get rid of his clothing and go have some private fun in the middle of his shift.

Luckily for him, the cavern was enormous, and there were a lot of giant containers, all waiting to be emptied.

‘If I remember correctly, these things usually have a small spigot where they can take samples for testing… I wonder if it was replicated for the game…’ he mused as he stepped closer to one and began to investigate the underside to see if he could find something.

“Aha!” he let out a quiet exclamation as he found something that resembled a spigot. Pulling out a few bottles, he spent a minute filling them.

He packaged them carefully and put them into his inventory, leaving one out. He raised it up and looked it over.

For all intents and purposes, it looked like an ordinary healing potion. Friendly-looking red color, no particulates, eldritch whispers, or faces appearing and disappearing in the liquid.

[Healing Potion: An ordinary healing potion made through alternative means and processes.]

It was mostly what he had expected. He wasn’t well-versed in alchemy, so he wouldn’t get much information from it. Shrugging, he put that bottle away too, then once again cleaned up after himself and turned toward the next issue.

Leaving.