"We didn't deal with slaves directly, but we have a list of clients and their preferences."

The receptionist handed me a list.

A lot of them had peculiar tastes—some were so detailed to the point I began shaking my head. Worse still, they were ones who paid the most gold. If the deal went through, I could buy the house right away.

The easiest way to get them was to make a new alt and design my character accordingly. With the AI controlling them, they should be able to act like slaves.

...but it seemed too easy somehow.

Just in case, I asked the receptionist, that I had someone who agreed to be a slave, and they're a player.

The receptionist shook their head, "I'm sorry, but the deal's null and void if you're selling a player, regardless of consent."

"The reason?"

"Because they are the 'Free People' from another world."

Ah, I remembered.

Under all costs, players could not be put in slavery, any subordination contract, and spell.

They are free to log in and logout as they wished, and the game would not infringe on their daily life.

...but it would also limit us from playing more than eight hours, per 24 hours in real-life time. It's locked according to your life signature—if you played on a single account, you couldn't log in to another account before the cooldown ends.

It's even stricter for those with poor medical conditions.

The restriction also applied to your AI-controlled alts—despite not needing rest.

Since the devs didn't limit the amount we can make, someone's going to go full retard spamming alts and farm the entire world with it.

...only if their capsule was strong enough.

Since I happen to get the finest model from the devs, it happened to accommodate seven at once, including myself. The usual model could only handle one or two at most.

If you're asking me why I knew all of this--they're listed in the help menu. During my free time, I would browse them.

Since selling slaves wouldn't work, I asked the receptionist other ways to earn money.

"The prices were high since it's peaceful, with only weak monsters around. Not to mention, it had excellent public order, great accommodations, and a nice view.

...but if you went to the next city, it should be easy enough to rent or even buy a house. Not many could have a house and sustainable income for it--don't push your luck."

"That won't do." I shrugged, "I want a house in this town, and there's no telling if it's bought already. You mentioned a guarantor—which one is the easiest to deal with?"

I wanted to have a house in each town. Even if it's just a short while, I came to love this place's atmosphere. It's so cozy and chill.

The receptionist sighed, "It would be our guild master, but that depends on your capability.

...but if you rose high enough in the guild ranks, you should be wealthy enough to buy up the house in one go."

It was said in the help menu, that one of the fastest ways to gain money was to become a merchant through the Commerce Guild.

"I'm interested, how do I sign in?"

"Just in case, are you going to sign up with your friends?"

"We're friends but they mostly do adventures and help me out."

"That's fine, you can be members at both the Adventurer and Commerce Guild. For Labor Halls, you don't need a membership to take up jobs."

The basics were as follows.

You start as an F-rank merchant.

As the lowest-tier merchant, you're unable to set up your own stall in the city.

For now, you could only fulfill 'commissions' from the list; the slaves were an example.

There was something I didn't notice while I browsed them—the request with most rewards always asked for a high merchant rank, and the guild would take a small percent of your profits.

That peculiar one with slave asked for a B-rank merchant.

As for now, the commissions I could take consist of several herbs and items that dropped during the chicken hunt.

It's surprisingly a lot and the payout was pretty good; though I didn't see any players.

Probably since most people thought being a merchant is boring; they just want to use magic and fight baddies. It's something we couldn't experience in real life, after all.

I should be able to raise to E-rank by tomorrow. While I could set up stalls by then, I didn't plan to. Managing stores were massive pain, especially dealing with customers.

In the meantime, I sent my alts to search for the materials and level up, while I went to a decent Inn.

It's the one that Commerce Guild recommended. While it's kinda pricey, it was a nice alternative to houses.

The exterior wasn't anything special, but as I went inside...

Air conditioner? Not to mention, the menu was kinda modern. They're all from famous restaurants in real life. Like the McDoubles and Colonel Fried Chicken.

Drinks and snack dispenser; a collection of wines and salad bar—this place's brimming with middle-class aura.

Though, the game didn't have a hunger meter. If players ate, it's mostly for pleasure. Even more, since you couldn't get fat.

I wasn't feeling hungry right now, so I booked the room on the second floor. It started to look like a hotel corridor.

Turning the doorknob, a sight akin to hotel rooms unfold. The spacious double-bed, air-conditioner, and TV. I wasn't sure if I could procure this furniture or craft them.

[Furniture are buyable with furniture parts. They can be acquired from defeating monsters and tradable between players.

Although you can only buy them if you own a house.]

I also browsed through the crafting session.

There's no 'manual labor will increase quality' bullshit, everything can be crafted with few button clicks.

Despite being in the open for long, I love how my body would always be clean.

It's still nice to take a shower and change into comfier clothes. I threw myself into the bed, clutched the pillow, and rolled around.

The air-conditioner quickly made me drift into sleep.

It was my biggest question when I started playing.

If It would accelerate time on our brain, would sleep for eight-hours in-game, equal to eight-hours in reality?

Since the game's opening was near my bedtime, I've been feeling sleepy before I entered the capsule.

While the bed's so comfortable, it's kinda hard to doze off. It's like something's forcing my brain to throttle up.

It's when I felt so exhausted, I eventually lost consciousness.

Despite that, I had no dreams. My bed in real-life was much better.

It's already evening in town.

I stretched my hands and feet—I still feel sleepy.

As such, I logged out right away. There were still four hours before my in-game quota was up.

Man, I had a slight headache. While the capsule's comfortable enough, it's definitely not a place to sleep in.

Since the capsule would accelerate our brainwaves, I guess it would be forced into beta or gamma, while dreams would occur at theta or delta state.

That also explained why my mind got tired faster.

Even if I got four times the time, I'd probably get much more exhausted when I did my usual hobbies in-game.

It's probably not a good idea to play for long. Still, it's worth to log-in every day, just to see what's up.

Still, it was an online game—right?

Why didn't I feel any presence of players for so long?

Exiting my capsule, my apartment felt so deathly quiet, with no sign of traffic.

...and it was already afternoon.