It was unusual for me to act so dramatic, so I quickly gave up and looked around again. The looter-puppet was gone. There were more avatars wandering around by then, looking like lost souls trekking though a post-apocalyptic city. No, well, maybe this is an apocalypse. There wasn't any point in that line of thinking though.
I stood up and walked into the store. I picked up a candy bar close to the door and thought about putting it in my bank. As expected, the screen immediately shifted.
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You do not own this item. Initiate trade with owner? | Yes | No | |
Now, this was interesting. I accepted, mostly just to see what would happen. After a few seconds of a swirly loading sign, the screen shifted again.
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Trade refused. |
Well, how rude. But I simply put it back and left. The situation was weird enough that I could forgive the owner.
Walking down the street, I thought about what I should be doing. Nobody was hurt and in need of help. There was no danger of having my things stolen due to the way the bank worked. My ability to procure food or any other necessities was limited until people calmed down enough to start operating the markets.
I didn't want to get too deep into the interface in case I needed to react to something else. However… It seemed like there wasn't really anything else I needed to worry about.
I arrived in front of my apartment. I hadn't intentionally gone back, but I guess my legs subconsciously brought me. Fortunate for me, I supposed. A clear picture of what I should be doing for the time being was starting to develop in my mind. And the first step was to go back to my apartment.
I unlocked the door and entered without seeing anyone. My room was unchanged from when I left. Having checked out of habit, I took off my coat. However, instead of hanging it up, I stored it in my Bank. I didn't even need to confirm the prompt with the Interface. It simply faded from existence while I was holding it. Kind of a shocking thing to experience, but that feeling was pushed away by the relief that it had worked.
I slowly wandered around, depositing everything that might be useful in my bank. Clothes, food, chairs, my computer. I was a little unsure about the computer and other electronics, since I didn't have an outlet in the dungeon, but I figured I would be able to make something work. The Interface somehow had access to the internet after all.
I looked around my now very empty room and thought a bit. There were actually two things I wanted to try. The first thought had been that I could collect some water from the tap. I'd thought that maybe I could make a container for it using the crafting function. And that led me to think that I might be able to make a battery that could collect some power for my computer. To be honest, the battery idea felt a little stupid, but it should be a nice test.
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Spoiler
The Crafting interface allows you to create or design new items using existing materials, or by converting CP. Items can also be crafted periodically or when CP becomes available through a work order. Blueprints are stored in the Global Database, so if you make an interesting item, other dungeons will gain access to it immediately. [collapse]
Work Orders: 0
| Create | Design | Deconstruct | Back | |
I clicked on the Create button, and it opened up a long list of items, sorted alphabetically, and a search bar just like in the creature menu. I typed in 'generator' instead... After all, making my own power would be more productive than recharging all the time. There was still a long list of different types of generators. It seemed like the two major things to consider were fuel and output. For the output, I just searched for the number in the browser that could run a house and picked the closest number.
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CP to Electric Generator (10,000W) Rate: 1 CP per week.
| Create Single Unit | Create Ten Units | Work Order | Modify Design | |
Well it says it's hyper efficient, so who am I to doubt? I glanced at the other generators, but I always got caught up by the fact that I would be using CP to make the fuel anyways. Maybe later my dungeon would be big enough to create its own wind currents, or I could get a sunroof set up. But for now, this seemed like the best option.
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Spoiler
Your avatar will allow you to interact with the lower world in place of your former mortal form. [collapse]
Durability: 100/100 Location: Home Equipment: CC Interface.
| Return | Maintenance | Back | |
I ta- I winced, mentally at least, before I sat down on the floor, leaning against the wall. Then I tapped the return button...
Hmm, I wonder how ownership is determined; like say a brand name store or fast food chain. Is it the store owner, the CEO, etc?
Edit: Or say you steal something, would the ownership transfer depending on circumstances? Say time in possession, distance from owner, etc. Example: Someone lost some coin, and it's too much of a hassle to bother finding it; someone else finds the coin and picks it up, would it be considered the finder's, or still the original that lost it?
It's a question of consent, really. If a small convenience store buys a box of 'Famous Candy Bar', then they own the box and can sell it.
If you lose a coin and don't care enough to keep it, it loses its property of 'Owned by name'. If you do care to keep it, then the person who finds it can either drop it and forget it or try to return it. They will never gain possession without the owner's permission.
This was part of my attempt to add in laws to the system without actually having anything like crimes and punishment. Instead of punishing wrong doing, it just becomes impossible to commit crimes. You can't kill someone you can't physically interact with, you can't steal stuff without the Bank, and so on. There may be loop holes like stashing it somewhere on Earth, but it won't really come up in the story.
@Cipiteca396 Huh, then shouldn't she have been able to take the candy bar? Most stores would put the shoplifting down as an expense, as long as the lifter isn't caught. Would most likely fall under loss property.... Once she's some distance away from the store with it.
-- Since it'd be more of a hassle to track the lifter.
@Yamemai The owner would need to accept that the item no longer belongs to them consciously. Maybe a store would write it off that way eventually, but the owner of the candy bar had no reason to do so at the time. In the case of shoplifting, there would be a subconscious thing like, "Someone stole my thing" or at least "Someone stole the store's property." If they actively thought the thief was better off having it(and they personally owned it), that would qualify as consent though.
@Cipiteca396 So you can't steal something right away but if you manage to physically keep something long enough for the owner to give up on it then you have it.
@Dradel Hmm, I wonder. Giving up on retrieving it doesn't necessarily mean you give up on owning it. You can just stash it in a house somewhere and admire it if it's a piece of art, but the cops could show up and find it at any moment.
Well, why bother stealing and waiting weeks or even months when you can have whatever it is now by making it with CP? Most of the things that were precious before are just garbage under the circumstances.
@Cipiteca396 New thought: What about if you break/change it? Like say: you steal a clock or two, dissemble it for the gears and such, maybe even reassembling them using each other's parts. Or just trashing it.
-- Would the parts still be considered owned by the person you stole from, or is it yours' now?
Similar, if you stole cloth, thread, and needles, then used them to make something, would the item be considered yours', as you are the maker?
Oh, and I'm wondering: most modern products have wrappings, which is considered trash after the product is taken (though, cost is probably accounted for in the items price); if someone were to keep the wrapping after taking out the product, would that still be considered to have an owner? Say some stole a candy bar, ate the candy, and kept the wrapper. Or someone stole some cartoon/jug of milk and drank it all, but kept the container.
@Yamemai I wonder if it counts as destruction of private property? I don't know what the penalty is yet. Maybe CP compensation. A 'you break it, you buy it' sorta deal.
Now I just have this image of someone digging through the trash and finding a bunch of candy wrappers and bags that all belong to random people, lol. Theoretically it could work that way, but I suspect most people would give up ownership when they threw it in the trash. And the avatars don't eat or drink. You can't transport stolen good with the bank so the best you could do is dump it on the ground or feed it to an animal. Destruction again.
@Cipiteca396 Huh, wonder who decides the compensation, system or the 'owner'? And now I'm wondering if you can scam people with it; like say steal some stuff, and 'gift' it to others. Since it isn't yours to give, ownership won't change, and the receiver might not bother checking before using/etc.
@Yamemai You can tell who the owner is by looking, and the price is what it would take to make it. There's no profit to be made in random destruction, just needless waste.