GLOBAL AWAKENING: My 10,000x Exp Multiplier-Chapter 60: []Market Volatility, The Slime Jelly Liquidation

Chapter 60: [60]Market Volatility, The Slime Jelly Liquidation

The Slime Fields were the lowest of the low.

To a high level player, this area was a massive joke. It was a damp and muddy marsh filled with translucent blue blobs that offered a single point of experience.

But to Vahn Ryker, these fields were a gold mine of fundamental code!

Vahn stood at the edge of the marsh. His Verdant Chronos Sight mapped out the density of the slime population.

Behind him, the wreckage of the Syndicate economic empire was still echoing through the server. But he was not done. Bankrupting them was just the first phase. He needed to ensure they could never rebuild.

"Are you really going back to farming slimes?" Aria asked, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Vahn, you have millions of EXP. You have the heart of a Mythic T-Rex. Why are we standing in the mud?"

Vahn did not turn around. He was busy manipulating a holographic interface that was far more complex than anything his team had seen before.

"Because, Aria, the economy of this world is built on a lie."

"The Lords control the price of high end potions by hoarding the base ingredients. They think Slime Jelly is a common low tier reagent. They are right. But they do not understand the power of volume."

He swiped his hand across the air, and a massive storage window appeared.

Inside were the ten thousand units of Slime Jelly he had harvested earlier. They were the ones he had sold to Lunara, but then secretly converted into a different data format using his Architect permissions.

"Lunara did not buy those jellies," Vahn explained calmly. "She acted as a clearinghouse. I used her auction house to verify the existence of a massive surplus."

"Now, I am going to release them all at once into the global market at a price of zero credits."

"Zero?" Sia blinked. Her military mind was struggling with the concept.

"Commander, that will destroy the value of every potion in the game! The alchemists will go into a frenzy. The guilds who invested their remaining wealth into medicine will be left with worthless inventory."

"Exactly," Vahn said. "The Syndicate last remaining assets are their stockpiles of health and mana elixirs."

"They are planning to sell them at inflated prices to the refugees to recoup their losses from the auction. By giving the base ingredients away for free, I am making their finished products obsolete."

He tapped a final command on his interface.

[Global Distribution: Public Release]

Across the world of Aetheria, every merchant stall, every guild bank, and every player mail system received a notification.[Announcement: A massive surplus of Slime Jelly has been detected. The System has re-allocated these resources to stabilize the beginner zones. Current Market Price: 0 Credits.]

The reaction was instantaneous.

The world chat, which had been buzzing with the news of the Syndicate bankruptcy, exploded into a new level of panic.

[Global] PotionsMaster 99: WHAT?! I just spent my life savings on 10,000 jellies! They are worth nothing now!

[Global] Crimson Knight: The market is crashing! Sell everything! Sell now!

[Global] Kael The Lord: RYKER! I know this is you! I will kill you for this!

Vahn watched the chat with a faint and amused smile. "He is very loud for a man whose gear is currently being repossessed by the system."

"You are a monster, Vahn," Aria whispered. She could not hide the small and impressed grin on her face.

"You have done more damage with a spreadsheet than most players could do with a legendary sword."

"I told you, Aria," Vahn said, turning to look at her. "I do not play by the rules. I rewrite them."

"The Lords built their power on the suffering of the commoners and the scarcity of resources. I am just removing the scarcity."

Suddenly, a group of players appeared at the edge of the marsh.

There were about fifty of them, wearing the tattered remains of the Silver Fang Guild armor. They were led by Kaelen, the same man Vahn had humiliated in the White City plaza.

"There he is!" Kaelen roared, pointing a rusted broadsword at Vahn.

"The glitch! The hacker who stole our future! Kill him! If we take his head, the Syndicate will reward us with enough credits to buy our way back into the game!"

The desperate players charged immediately. Their faces were twisted with greed and fear.

They had nothing left to lose, which made them dangerous in a messy and disorganized way.

"Sia, Kora," Vahn said, not even looking at the charging mob. "Practice your crowd control. I have more things to do."

"With pleasure, Commander," Sia said. She stepped forward and slammed her shield into the mud.

A wave of thermal energy erupted outward, creating a barrier of steam that blinded the attackers instantly.

Kora did not even wait for a command. She blurred through the mist, her small fists striking with the force of a wrecking ball.

Crack! Squelch! Boom!

Every time she hit a player, their armor shattered, and their experience points were siphoned directly into her mouth.

"Too many snacks!" Kora giggled telepathically. "The salty ones are the best!"

Vahn stood in the center of the chaos, his fingers dancing across his interface. He was not even watching the fight.

He was busy adjusting the Slime Fields themselves.

"System," Vahn commanded softly. "Target: Localized Physics Engine. Parameter: Surface Tension. Set to zero for all entities bearing the Silver Fang crest."

[Ding! Architect Permission Granted. Localized environment modified.]

The effect was funny. The charging players suddenly lost their footing.

It was not that they tripped. It was that the mud and water beneath them stopped being solid! They began to sink into the ground as if it were a bottomless lake of oil.

"What is happening?!" Kaelen screamed as his legs disappeared into the muck. "I cannot get out! The ground is eating me!"

"The ground is not eating you, Kaelen," Vahn said, walking over to the edge of the sinking pit.

"You just do not have the permission to stand on it anymore. You spent your life looking down on the people in the mud. I thought it was only fair that you join them."

One by one, the desperate players were swallowed by the marsh. Their digital avatars were forced into a logout state by the environmental hazard.

It was not a death, but it was a total humiliation. They would respawn in a different zone, with zero credits and zero pride.

Kaelen was the last to go. As his head began to disappear beneath the surface, he looked up at Vahn with pure and deep hatred.

"The Alpha is coming, Ryker! He is a Level 60! He will tear your White City to the ground!"

"Of course," Vahn said. His purple eyes were glowing with the intense light of his Administrator privileges. "I am awaiting his arrival."

With a final gurgle, Kaelen vanished. The marsh returned to its calm and bubbling state.

Aria walked up to Vahn, wiping a bit of mud off her robes.

"You are really preparing for him, are you not? The Alpha. You have bankrupted his followers, destroyed his economy, and humiliated his lieutenants. You are trying to force him to act before he is ready."

"He is already acting, Aria," Vahn said, his expression sobering.

He pointed toward the sky. The massive and shimmering outline of the Chronos Spire was now clearly visible over Sovereign City.

"The Convergence is entering its final phase. The Alpha is not just a player anymore. He is a proxy for the Galactic Market. He is the one holding the door open for the invaders."

"And you are the one trying to slam it shut," Hana said, joining them with Kora. Kora was currently chewing on a piece of Kaelen’s rusted sword.

"I am the one who owns the door," Vahn corrected. "Now, come on. We have one more stop before we head back to the bank."

"I need to harvest the Origin Crystals from the core of this marsh.

As the team moved deeper into the Slime Fields, Vahn felt the weight of the universe pressing down on him.