The Nebula’s Civilization

The Lizardman merchant seemed a little flustered because the pouch was so small.

“Can I take a look inside?”

“Of course.”

As the Elf merchant confidently replied, the Lizardman merchant hoped he would see where the confidence stemmed from inside the pouch. However, there was only a lone piece of iron.

“...Hm. I’m sorry, but I don’t think I’ll be able to accept the trade if this is your offer.”

“...Really? How much iron do you want?”

“At least eight times more than what you have here.”

“What?”

The Elf merchant asked as if they thought that was ridiculous, “Are you saying silk that’s just used to make clothes is worth that much?”

The Lizardman merchant didn’t think silk was worth so little. Clothes made of good silk were very comfortable and lasted a long time. And overall, the silk with its smooth texture was beautiful. Clothes a good tailor made with silk could make the wearer look very regal. Those with a high status thus dressed in good quality silk so that they wouldn’t have to repeatedly prove their status.

However, the Lizardman merchant didn’t explain all that to the Elf merchant. Some Lizardmen weren’t very personable. And when they met foolish individuals, they would just leave the fools be.

The Lizardman calmly said to the Elf merchant, “It is worth that much around here.”

“This isn’t just any old piece of iron. It’s good-quality iron that is only found in our region.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t have the ability to recognize that.”

“Well, I saw a scale over there. What do you think of comparing this with the best quality iron you have?”

The Lizardman merchant shook their head.

“No matter how good the iron is, I have no intention to trade with only that amount.”

“I’ll give you twice this amount.”

“Why don’t you turn to other places if you want to buy silk?”

Hwee-Kyung, who was watching this happen, nodded.

‘No matter how gullible you are, I see you won’t be fooled by vulgar people.’

The Lizardman merchant left with the bundle of silk, and the Elf merchant quietly swore.

‘Apart from this, I should keep an eye on the Elves to see what they’re up to.’

Hwee-Kyung didn’t interact with the Elves and instead observed them from time to time, or sent someone to find out what kind of trades they were making. After a whole day, Hwee-Kyung managed to find out what kind of merchants they were. The Elves made many attempts in trades, but only succeeded a few times. However, the few times they did succeed, they greatly benefited from them.

‘They’re only tricking the easiest targets.’

There was a network between the merchants, so the notoriety of the Elves soon spread among them, but there were some who weren’t able to join the network. The Elves targeted those who just started as a merchant, or those who came from far away and weren’t so familiar with the products and prices in this region, so the trades unfairly benefited the Elves that it may as well have been fraudulent ones.

‘This is not good.’

Hwee-Kyung could understand the Elves though. They wore attires that weren’t seen around this region, and they were a rare species; that meant they came from far away and had a limited supply of products, so they had to aim for great profit with the few trades they succeeded in making. However, in this region, it was more common to make profits through regional products.

‘Who are they to screw the beginners over?’

In fact, Hwee-Kyung could also be considered a beginner merchant, but the lord of Automation received a cut of the earnings from issuing passes to outsiders entering the city, from the fees for setting up a stand in the market, as well as from the citizens of the castle. In addition, the former lord of Automation, Hwee-Seo, had saved up commodities in case there was a crisis. Hwee-Kyung was richer than all the merchants who had stands in the market combined, so whether she was an actual beginner wasn’t all that important. Beginner or not, Hwee-Kyung had one unique product—the market of Automation itself.

Hwee-Kyung was responsible for maintaining the market’s stability, and if those Elves succeeded in their fraudulent trades and went back home, more merchants would trade like the Elves, which would make it more difficult for beginner merchants to get into Automation. And then the number of merchants entering the market would decrease…

‘Then my profits would go down.’

Therefore, to Hwee-Kyung, this was a serious matter.

***

Sung-Woon was also closely watching the Elves.

[Clash of Civilizations!]

[Two different tribes have come into contact. Experience points (XP) are rising for both tribes.]

[Warning: The opposing species have Faith.]

‘That means there’s a player behind those Elves too.’

A couple vagrants crossing paths wasn’t enough for a Clash of Civilizations event to occur; more than a certain number of individuals had to come into contact.

‘Elves are from the north coast. But I couldn’t properly scout the region.’

Places Sung-Woon commonly scouted were the peninsula and the inner continent. The reason was simple: the insects and bugs that Sung-Woon controlled were weak against the cold. Luckily, Lizardmen weren’t exactly resistant to the cold, either, and even if they were nomadic tribes, they wouldn’t cross through the wilderness to go up to the northern coast of the continent.

‘But it’s also difficult to cross the wilderness to get here from the northern coast, so I thought I wouldn’t have to pay much attention to the region until now.’

Sung-Woon clicked on the Local Community tab.

[Player List (1)]

[Eldar]

As soon as he checked the player’s ID, the next system message popped up.

[Player, Eldar, has requested a Whisper Conversation.]

Unlike with Hegemonia, Sung-Woon wondered whether to agree to it.

‘Is there a need to have a conversation?’

What compelled him to have a conversation with Hegemonia was the fact that they were in a situation where the two of them had to fight each other to obtain something valuable. Even if Sung-Woon hadn’t talked with Hegemonia at all, the probability of having an all-out war was low, but they would have had to go through quite a large battle.

‘On the other hand, this player, Eldar, has come from across the wilderness. Worst comes to worst, they won’t have enough soldiers nearby to be threatening.’

But Sung-Woon eventually agreed to the Whisper Conversation.

‘It is troubling that I haven’t been able to investigate the northern coast. It’s fine as long as I’ll benefit from this trifling conversation.’

This time, even though Sung-Woon hadn’t requested it first, an additional request came for a video chat. Sung-Woon accepted it.

“Nice to meet you, human,” said Eldar.

“.....”

Sung-Woon looked at Eldar. Eldar looked like a beautiful Elf. It was hard to determine their gender due to their Elf-like androgynous appearance, but gender wasn’t all that important when creating an avatar. Sung-Woon was thus unconcerned about that. Considering there were players who intentionally made their avatars look gruesome, Eldar’s appearance was rather attractive. But the problem was their way of speaking.

‘...No way.’

Sung-Woon didn’t think the player was a…real Elf, or someone not from Earth for that matter. That would have been an interesting story, but Sung-Woon was worried about something else.

Then Eldar said, “Ha, have you become speechless due to my beauty?”

“Are you crazy?” replied Sung-Woon.

“.....”

“Oh, sorry. I have a habit of unintentionally saying things that are on my mind.”

That wasn’t exactly a lie, but a habit Sung-Woon just came up with.

“...I, Eldar, God of the Elves, humbly forgive you.”

Sung-Woon was able to recognize the sort of player Eldar was through the short exchanges they just had.

‘They’re a RP player.’

RP players, namely players who roleplayed, identified themselves with a specific role in the game and immersed themselves into the role. In other words, they were Concept Bugs[1]. The act wasn’t going to benefit them in any way; it was damaging, actually, as it made conversing with them uncomfortable, and they were prone to getting attacked by other players who didn’t like RP. The only reason players RP was that they found it fun.

Eldar seemed to be immersed in playing the god of the Elves. Sung-Woon didn’t have harsh feelings against RP, but his personality wasn’t flexible enough for him to play along.

“I’m asking because you just requested a conversation with me. Do the Elves in Automation make absurd deals because they are like you?”

“...I can’t keep an eye on everyone at the same time even though I am a god.”

“So it wasn’t intentional.”

“That is so.”

In Sung-Woon’s opinion, that was most likely a lie. The abilities of the Elf merchants were fairly high, and it was a level that couldn’t be reached without the help of a player. However, there were times where it was beneficial to pretend to be deceived if there was nothing to be lost in doing so.

Sung-Woon asked another question.

“Then I can take my mind off that… Do you happen to know the player, Hegemonia?”

“Are you talking about that…rude…ignorant…God?”

Eldar seemed to be calling Hegemonia an ill-mannered fool.

“I kicked out that god and their barbaric Gnoll tribe from the sacred northern coast. Fortunately, you don’t seem as rude as Hegemonia. Yet.”

“Hmm.”

Sung-Woon wasn’t sure if that was true or not. Hegemonia mentioned they fled from the north, but hadn’t elaborated too much on it.

‘Hegemonia must have gotten messed up due to their defeat in our recent Contradicting Prophecy.’

However, this conversation was about more than simple emotions. There was no reason to share that kind of information when there was no benefit to be gained.

‘But if that is true, does that mean this RP player is as strong as Hegemonia? That doesn’t seem likely. But why would Hegemonia come down to the south otherwise?’

Then Eldar said, “Are you done with your questions?”

“For now. What’s it to you?”

“Then I, the best god, shall explain why I requested to have a conversation with you and accepted your rude questions.”

“Sure. What is it about?”

“My Elves are preparing to dominate the continent, but they are still insufficient in something. While my Elves are competent, the northern coast is cold and desolate. Therefore, it is necessary to obtain scarce resources from other species.”

“So?”

A golden bright light rose from behind Eldar.

“Give me a tribute.”

Sung-Woon then replied out of habit, “You drive me crazy.”

***

The next day, Hwee-Kyung dressed up like a lord and went to meet up with the Elves. Fortunately, the Elves had keen judgment, so they recognized Hwee-Kyung.

The Elf wearing the fanciest accessories said, “You are Hwee-Kyung, lord of Automation, are you not?”

“Yes. What about you?”

“I am Leonar, the one leading our group of merchants.”

Hwee-Kyung looked at Leonar. The corners of Leonar’s mouth were slightly raised as if they were smiling, so it was hard for Hwee-Kyung to read their mind.

“Let’s get right to the point. You must know that I’m not here just to look at the faces of merchants, right?”

“But aren’t our faces worth looking at?”

Leonar’s words got on Hwee-Kyung’s nerves. Elves believed their beauty rivaled Humans and other Human-like species, which allowed them to have an advantage in social exchanges.

Leonar then said, “I’m joking. We’re aware why the lord has come to see us. It’s because of the trades we made yesterday, right?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re dissatisfied with those trades.”

“That’s right.”

“To be honest, we knew you would come find us. So we prepared something.”

“What?”

Leonar called out to one of the Elf merchants, and the Elf merchant brought a small box from the inside of their wagon. The box itself was made out of carved wood with metal hinges, which was rare around here, and as Hwee-Kyung opened the box, she was surprised.

Leonar explained,” It is an ancient gem found in an Ancient Ruin. When it’s hit with light, it splits the light into dozens of rays along the carved surfaces. It’s magnificent, even just looking at it. It is a beauty that suits the leader of a tribe. Above all, there is no such object anywhere now as it is an ancient gem. Would you accept this gift and overlook our trades?”

Hwee-Kyung silently accepted the box with the gem inside. This kind of gem wasn’t easy to trade, so its value couldn’t be determined as a fixed price. However, the rarity and beauty of the gem was real. Hwee-Kyung knew that if she had an item like this, she would be able to sell it at a high price. There wasn’t even a need to sell it. Displaying it alone would prove the nobility of the lord.

Hwee-Kyung took a good look at the gem one more time before closing the box.

Leonar then said, “What do you think?”

“It is a great object. But…”

Hwee-Kyung dropped the box onto the ground.

“I’m rich. Bribery? This much won’t do anything.”

1. 컨셉충. A term used in the Korean language to mock someone who is deeply immersed in playing a specific character. ☜