This is a Beta Test?! - A Literally Broken System

209 39.1 Market Economics?

The concept of the market had always been both simple and complicated for me. For one, the concept of supply-and-demand was as easy to grasp. If something was in demand and supply was scarce, then it was understandable that the price of something would go up. Likewise, the same goes for when supply is high and demand is low. In that case, the price would go down.

Why, I still remember when garlic of all things became as expensive as any other spice because of some random circumstances. It made a huge fuss back in the day, seeing as garlic was one of the most common things to use and buy. Of course, reasons for it ranged from simply lack of supply to a weak harvest to outright cartels. In the end, life went on and the price went down after a bit of time.

So I suppose that the thing worked just fine. Then again, the market could also be easily manipulated by those with enough capital to rock the boat.

"So, before I go through my spiel, are there any changes on Shizu's end?" I asked.

At my question, the princess walked up to me, her eyes already black and green as she stared out at our surroundings.

"It's... surprisingly normal?" Shizu frowned, her confusion evident in her tone. "It's like... It's still bright, but I'm not as blinded as when we were back on the [Rig]."

Guidance raised an eyebrow. "Huh... I guess it all just worked out? A temporary glitch, perhaps?"

I let out a small hum as those around us gave us a decently wide birth. Our sizeable group did gather a bit of attention, but the natives paid us no mind regardless of our conversation. This was a port city, after all. I'm sure they were already used to foreigners walking around with obviously foreign fashion senses.

Seriously, everyone here was wearing a basic t-shirt and pants combo. It was like I was back in the old world again.

"So does that mean that Lady Guidance can influence the world again?" Shade quickly asked.

"It should," the dev nodded. "Still, the fact that Shizu can't... wait... Can you look out in the distance?"

Heeding her words, Shizu looked up towards a rather distant building. Almost immediately, the princess closed her eyes, tears escaping the sides of her eyelids as she turned away.

"B-Bright..." she clicked her tongue in pain. "I couldn't even see the shape of it."

Guidance frowned, as did I as I turned to stare at the tower she just looked at. Sure enough, it was rather blurry, more so than the port town we were in already. "Huh... It's blurry again."

"Some kind of draw distance problem?" Guidance pondered in thought. "I guess it makes sense... But why in this specific area?"

"Uhm... Is there really a problem?" Shen confusedly asked. "I don't see a problem."

"I will have to admit that I also don't see where the problem is," Shade chimed in from the front of the group. "It looks like a normal, boring Marquean structure to me."

"Well, I think we've already established that the three of us can see the world differently," I shrugged. "Let's just move on and be done with it. It's weird, true, but there's nothing we can do about it unless Guidance wants to spend time trying to fix it."

Guidance visibly shook her head in annoyed resignation. Clearly, a part of her still wanted to try and fix it, but there was really no reason to even do so in the first place. The most we'll end up doing is appeasing her OCD to fix her world and nothing else.

"Can you just tell us what you wanted to say to us already?" Guidance tersely replied, rolling her eyes as she placed her hands in her pockets.

"Okay then..."

Taking a deep breath, I took one last look at our current path, making sure that I was still following Shade before I began my spiel.

"From what I can remember, I saw two things," I began. "One was here in Marquee, somewhere in Centrax, I think. Some woman was drinking herself into a stupor in a bar, whining about being denied becoming an Academic or something."

"That's... I know who that is," Guidance quickly chimed in. "That's Nicole Alset, a recruitable party member."

"Oh?" I raised an eyebrow. "Do you think we should make contact then?"

"We should, if only to get another damage dealer in our ranks," Guidance nodded. "That, and we need as many members we can get anyway. I still don't know how we're somehow managing to survive with just us as members, but the more, the merrier."

"Hey, don't we have a say in this?" Shade quickly protested. "While I'm sure that this Alset is a lovely woman, she's still Marquean. Is she trustworthy?"

"She should be, seeing as she's only loyal to her own self-interests," Guidance replied. "If we can show her that she has more to gain in joining us, she wouldn't care."

"That... sounds rather dangerous," Shizu frowned. "What's to say that she'll even stay with us from then on?"

"So long as we give her what she wants, she won't ever think of betraying us," Guidance quickly supplied, placating Shizu's worries. "And that's pretty easy, seeing as we're going to be making a name for ourselves pretty soon."

I blinked at her words. I suppose that we already have some kind of reputation forming about us, at least in Vestyge and Kattleyna. As for here, however, we'll have to see where our roads will lead.

Shrugging, I was about to continue when Shade stopped in front of us. It would seem that we've already reached our destination.

"We're here."

Looking up, the building looked rather bland as its glass panes covered its interior design. It was eerily familiar as if I was looking straight at a money exchange stall in a mall back in the old world.

"Yep, looks like it," Guidance casually remarked, echoing Shade's announcement. "We won't know what the exchange rate is until we go inside though."

"Right," I nodded. "Let's get this over."

As if knowing what to do already, Maruki took his place in front of us as he opened the door like a glorified valet. I could only nod at our tank before we walked inside, the familiar smell of sanitized money somehow tingling the back part of my head as Shade allowed me and Guidance to move ahead.

"Welcome to the Exchange," the teller greeted with a smile, her suit surprisingly looking modern- wait, everything in Marquee looked modern. Why was I even questioning it? "How may I help you, sir?"

Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I answered, "I'd like to exchange some money."

"Of course, sir," the teller eagerly smiled. "What would it be?"

"Kattleynan Leafs for Marquean Chips."

Hearing my request, the teller disappeared beneath the counter, seemingly looking at something before quickly reappearing with what looked to be some kind of contraption.

"May I ask how much you would like to exchange?" she cheerfully asked.

I hummed in thought. This was going way faster than expected. "First off, what's the exchange rate?"

The teller didn't flinch as she replied, "Currently, one Marquean Chip will cost around five hundred Leafs."

"Five hundred!?"

The entire exchange almost turned around in unison as Shizu's flabbergasted expression quickly shriveled into one of shame and embarrassment. All of a sudden, the fact that we weren't alone in this place made it all the more apparent, the others visibly eyeing us as if waiting for our next move.

"Apologies for my companion there," I quickly replied. "She's rather new to traveling."

"Oh! No worries, sir!" the teller quickly nodded. "We get such reactions all the time!"

And just like that, the exchange as a whole went back to their respective business. Huh... Somehow, a part of me still felt like something was wrong in this situation. It was going far too smoothly, and the way this teller stared at me almost made me think she was way too eager to transact with me.

"Relax, Moriya. She's just doing her job," Guidance advised beside me. "I made them way too eager, yes, but they won't scam us."

"I see," I shrugged. "Okay, let's do it."

[chime!]

I blinked as the familiar chime of a window popping up echoed all around me. In front of me, a window that I hadn't seen in so long once more made itself known to me.

[EXCHANGE]

[CURRENT RATE]

[507 Kattleynan Leaf = 1 Marqeuan Chips]

[Kattleynan Leaf: 53055]

[CONFIRM EXCHANGE?]

Huh... So it would only display the currency wanted at the moment. Well, I could just ask for the rate for Vestygian currency, but what would that achieve at the moment? Best just stick to what we needed.

"Let me just reduce this for a bit..."

[EXCHANGE]

[CURRENT RATE]

[507 Kattleynan Leaf = 1 Marqeuan Chips]

[Kattleynan Leaf: 20000]

[CONFIRM EXCHANGE?]

"[Confirm]"

[chime!]

"Thank you for your patronage!"

[INV1][INV2][INVENTORY 3]

[Kattleynan Leafs: 33055]

[Marquean Chips: 39.45]