Richard Mackenzie… A name that evoked anger and frustration whenever it was mentioned. It was said that at the time humanity entered the tower, he was being investigated by several financial organisations for fraud. But before he was caught, the tower appeared and the trade rules of Earth held no more meaning.

However, Richard Mackenzie did not change after entering the tower. While many focused on developing their mana pool and becoming stronger, Richard stuck to what he already knew. I was not clear on his beginnings but I knew that by the time I stepped on the first floor, he had already come up with an agreement with the Union and was considered as an external partner protected by the rules of the Union. He started his own company and became extremely successful.

Nevertheless, his journey was not very peaceful. As the other races realised how many points he was earning, they became greedy. Using underhanded methods, they forced Richard to sell them his company. The latter complied and disappeared on the upper floors outside of the territory of the Union.

However, these races could have never expected that Richard had sold them an empty shell. His company’s finances were empty and he owed his customers a massive amount of points. To everyone’s surprise, this had all been part of Richard’s plan. By selling the company, he had successfully washed his hands and left all the troubles onto the races of the Union. He could not be held accountable for his actions and even as he was dragged into the divine tribunal by a Right to be Judged, he managed to win his case and became the first human in history to win a judgement.

His shrewed business model allowed him to get away unscathed. His company sold no goods or services. Instead, it simply traded points. By purchasing certain packages, the customer would receive a weekly amount of points and could at any time choose to close his package and be refunded the cost of the package. It sounded too good to be true. For any hundred points given to the company, the customer could receive an additional point at the end of each week. And this was just the minimum amount; if higher amounts of points were invested, the weekly income became even better. It was a crazy return rate compared to the monthly 1% interest rate of the Spatial Bank.

The earthlings were familiar with this kind of businesses. Any company promising such a high return rate was bound to be either extremely risky or simply be a money making scheme. Most humans stayed away from it or like me, only invested a portion of their savings to try their luck. I lost hundreds of points but at the very least, I still had the majority of my savings in my account at the Spatial Bank. However, the other races had never encountered this type of businesses before and they simply believed that the human race might have some miraculous ways to generate so many points. The humans did not bother to reveal the truth either as they were being persecuted by the Union at that time.

…

‘The man behind the greatest pyramid scheme of the tower… I did not recognise him immediately because of his swollen face…’

I bit my lips and focused on the healing process. ‘Although I want to beat him up for stealing from me in the past, there is no valid reason for me to do so.’

‘With the Spatial Bank’s staff keeping a close eye on him, let’s forget about it for now.’

I completed the healing process and nodded at the attendant waiting behind. Richard got up without further ado and returned to the Spatial Bank’s staff members. He briefly glanced at me, looking stunned and anxious by my previous change in expression. Nevertheless, he wordlessly left the Healing Hall as the shift came to an end. I had healed the first human customer of the Healing Hall.

“Do you know him? Your eyes were quite intense when you were healing him.” Mirail quickly flew to my side.

“I’ve never met him. But I believe he is someone I am going to see again in the near future…”

“What do you mean? Stop being so vague.” Mirail inquired.

I ignored the buzzing fairy and headed to the dining area. My brief encounter with Richard Mackenzie brought back useful memories. I would be a fool if I did not take advantage of them. I was aware that Richard was going to start his pyramid scheme in the next two months. Pyramid schemes would inevitably collapse and many people would suffer but there was always a small group of people involved that will benefit from the scheme. This group consisted of the people who jumped on the scheme early; the people who stood at the top of the pyramid as it grew taller and wider.

Richard Mackenzie was said to be a cautious man. He would wait for the trade agreement to be established between the humans and the Union before starting his scheme. In my past life, the trade agreement was set up before I entered the first floor. Although they looked down on humans, the races of the Union wanted to trade with them since only the humans were allowed to climb the tower and could gather the precious resources available on the higher floor.

The Union’s territory was limited to the first ten floors. Thanks to a special agreement, any races belonging to the Union could travelled between these floors but they were not allowed to travel to higher floors. This resulted in many common materials available on higher floors becoming rare commodities in the Union despite the earlier special farms built by the founders of the Union.

With the appearance of the humans, the Union jumped on the opportunity to fill their warehouses with these valuable materials and build more sustainable farms. The humans also welcomed the trade agreement as although they could collect many materials, they were unable to process them into useful tools. Furthermore, they also actively needed food, weapons, clothes and shelters. Richard Mackenzie took advantage of the trade agreement to start his pyramid scheme.

I was in the right place at the right time. A pyramid scheme took some time to get rolling and in most cases, the founder would start by getting his friends and family involved. However, in this situation, Richard Mackenzie was completely alone and the closest he had to a familiar friendly figure was a fellow human.

As long as I entered the pyramid scheme early enough, I would receive a decent return, especially since I knew the pyramid scheme would only fail in about two years when the Civil war would take place. But as long as I pulled out before the crash happened, I would come out unscathed.

Joining a pyramid scheme was naturally risky but I believed that adding a few thousand points in the equation would not alter the future. And if everything went as I planned, I could come out with enough points to live without work for the rest of my life. I could rest easy even if I was expelled from the Healing Temple as after the Civil war, the humans would be recognised as a race of the Union and would no longer be so defenceless.

The only problem with my plan was my limited funds. My bank account was empty and without any points, how could I enter this pyramid scheme? I only had a few weeks to gather some points if I wanted to be one of the first to join in. Most humans would come out of the zeroth floor with about a thousand points, the maximum amount allowed there. I would need to at least match this amount so that I would not risk everything.

My dinner came to an end and I quietly returned to my room to study the manual I borrowed from Eliss.

…

Over the next few days, I continued to work at Eliss’s laboratory while thinking of a way to earn some points. I found out that when brewing potions, my success rate was about 30% while the purity of my potions remained at about 70%. According to Eliss, this was an excellent performance already but if I wanted to pass the potioneer’s examination, both the success rate and the purity needed to be above 90% for the basic healing potion.

I had a long way to go before becoming a potioneer. My skills were not going to improve overnight. Potion-making took years to learn; at the minimum, I would need a whole year. Still, I was satisfied with my current improvements. I got used to preparing the raw materials and became more comfortable when handling the different flasks and measuring instruments.

“Try to brew a healing potion. You already know what to do. I’ll watch and point out your mistakes.” Eliss said with her usual cold expression.

“Got it.” I quickly got to work as usual, grabbing a few equipment and materials. The healing potion was the only recipe I’ve learned so far and I was very familiar with it already. I started by grinding a few plants in a mortar and pestle. The process was similar to grinding a spice mix.

I added some Anisa leaves, Silica bulbs and White clovers followed by a splash of oil and water. The mixture slowly turned into a paste as I continuously bashed the raw materials together, extracting their essence.

The next step was to measure some Salamander Blood and Troll Blood using an old balance. I put a pre-measured stone and an empty flask on the left side. On the right side, I placed a matching flask and poured the creatures’ blood until the balance was no longer tilted.

I grabbed a knife and moved to a different workstation to cut some roots before rummaging through the nearby storage shelves. I pinched my nose and grabbed a fermented spider eye out of a jar. A few other jars containing various powders and hairs were also transferred to the workstation.

Soon, all the preparations were done. I felt relieved that Eliss had yet to make any remarks. She never minced her words and the fact that she remained silent meant that I made no mistakes so far.

I smiled to myself and started a fire under the cauldron. I poured some water inside and manipulated the runes to allow some heat to flow inside the cauldron. I waited for the water to boil and added the Salamander Blood first. The rest of the materials followed one after another under the watchful eyes of the dark elf.

I constantly stirred the brewing potion while focusing my mana on the runes to extract the right amount of mana and essence out of the raw materials. However, a few minutes after I added all the raw materials, the potion took an unusual red taint.

I frowned lightly and glanced at the dark elf. She shook her head, looking disappointed. “It failed. You can stop and throw away the mixture. You were too hasty. First, you did not wait long enough before adding the Salamander Blood. Remember that the blood is at room temperature and would cause a temperature drop in the mixture when added. You should have added more heat to balance it.”

“Second, the pressure was also too high and you waited a bit too long between each material. It caused the materials already inside to degrade a bit. You extracted the essence and mana too quickly too which caused the structure of the materials to collapse. Although we are mostly trying to concentrate the essence, the structure of the resulting potion is also important.”

“There are a few smaller details but in the end, the blood degraded too much and the red pigment was released. A single mistake would have been alright but the combined effect led to this result.”

“…”
I lowered my head, feeling dejected by my failure. I quickly got rid of the red mixture and cleaned up the workstation.

“Your mind seems to be elsewhere. Are you even in the correct state of mind to practice properly?” Eliss’s sharp remark sounded to my ears.

“Do I look absentminded?”

“Certainly. So, what is bothering you this time?” The dark elf asked.

“Nothing much… I was just wondering about when I will be asked to go out in the city to act as bait again…”

“Were you not happy just a few days ago that you no longer had to go out and risk your life after the two other humans joined the Healing Temple?” She asked curiously. “Now you want to go out when you already know some conflicts are taking place outside the city as more and more humans are climbing up from the zeroth floor.”

I nodded quietly. “Yeah… I know what is happening outside. But… There is still something I need to do while I am still under the active protection of the Healing Temple. Afterward, when things will calm down, I won’t have such bodyguards following my tracks every time I leave the Healing Temple. I will need someone to punish those who try to harm or trick me.”

nikostar

I was quite surprised by the results of the earlier poll and the comments. But I guess I don't need to rewrite things after all. I'll avoid things like this in the future and do my best to write a nice story. Thanks for the support!