Chapter 2: The Scamming System

[Scamming System has been activated.]

[To unlock the system's abilities, perform the following task.

Task: Successfully scam one person.

Time limit: 1 hour

Completion Reward: Unlocks the Scamming System

Failure Penalty: Death]

'Scamming System? What kind of a system is this? Am I supposed to become a merchant or trader in a world of cultivation??? Moreover, how am I supposed to scam someone in one hour and why is the penalty for failure death!?' Eric was baffled by what he had just read and was freaking out even more as time passed.

'Successfully scam one person… What even qualifies as a scam? Why is this so goddamn vague?'

He almost found it comical how the system told him to scam someone as his first task while the voice told him to reach the peak of this world. A being whose mere voice was able to make him shudder had bestowed upon him a system: a supreme aid to reaching the peak; which told him to commit third rate crimes!!!

He was shocked by the irony but almost instantly realized that he did not have any time to be surprised.

He looked at the timer on the screen and realized that he had already lost a couple minutes.

'What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?' Eric kept on freaking out for about another minute.

After his initial phase of frustration and anger, Eric decided to think things through. There would surely be a way for him to scam someone this early right? If it wasn't possible, it wouldn't be a task given by the system in the first place.

He stood up and paced around his room rather awkwardly; he still wasn't completely used to his new body.

'A scam is an unfair trade where one party benefits way more than the other, instead of regular trades where both parties benefit equally.' Eric ran through what a scam was in his head before formulating a plan.

'To scam someone, you should be able to make them believe that the trade is equal when it is actually not using means like your intelligence, strength or connections.

Nobody would believe that their knowledge is inferior to an eleven year old so using my brains is a no go. Even if I did manage to say something witty it would be very suspicious hearing it from an eleven year old's mouth.

Strength is equally as bad, if not worse. I haven't even started cultivating yet and I can only beat kids around my own age in a fight. Even the weakest of adults and cultivators could kill me right now.

The only option left is to use my connections. With the name of my dad and his 'Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group', it should be possible to scam someone.' Eric found a ray of hope in this seemingly unsolvable problem he faced and was regaining his composure.

'Guess I will go with abusing my connections then, huh?' as he said this, a sly smile appeared on Eric's face.

In his previous life he had no connections, nor did he ever scam someone. To be able to do such stuff as a kid in this life had awakened some sinister part inside of him he never knew he had.

Now that he knew how to scam; next was to find out who to scam and what to acquire from them.

Eric searched through his body's memories and quickly found a target: The Treasure Pagoda's Ground Floor's shopkeeper, Jacob Hill.

The Treasure Pagoda was a shop which the Merchant's Guild opened all around the nation in major cities. The Merchant Guild was the most prominent financial force in the Aldair Kingdom; the nation Eric was currently residing in.

The Treasure Pagodas were the go to place for every cultivator to acquire basic resources and on higher floors even, as the name suggests: treasures. The branches of the Treasure Pagoda had four floors; while the main one had an additional fifth and sixth floor as well.

There was one of those Treasure Pagodas near Eric's house and the ground floor was open to everyone to Eric could easily scam the shopkeeper there.

He had also been there before with some friends so he was even more sure about easily getting there without being stopped.

He looked at the timer and saw that about 50 minutes were left and he rushed out of his house, quickly making his way towards the Treasure Pagoda. He had already decided what item he wanted. He would aim to get a Basic Soul Cultivation Method for free using his father's name.

The Basic Soul Cultivation Method was the method with the help of which cultivators initially start absorbing qi in their dantians. Since it was a very basic item, it was readily available and easy to reproduce. An item like that with not much value could easily be scammed away instead.

Eric used his body's previous owner's memories to run to the Treasure Pagoda and arrived there after a couple minutes. By this time, he was already used to his body and was able to run around in it.

Eric slowed his pace once he reached his destination and looked at it. In front of him was a large, tall building which looked like an ancient tower. The door to the ground floor was closed, so Eric pushed it open to let himself in.

Inside, there were scrolls hanging all around with a couple of seats for customers to sit on. In front of the gates, there was a marble counter, behind which stood a fat man with a thin mustache; this was Shopkeeper Jacob.

He was not that strong as a cultivator and wasn't very rich either. Someone like him was a prime target for Eric. Fortunately, there weren't any other customers on the ground floor. If there were others watching him, the scamming process would have been way harder.

Jacob's eyes lit up when he saw that a customer had arrived, but he was even more surprised seeing Eric. Most people in the city knew him as he was Blake Tyler's son and had a pretty influential background.

"Young Master Eric, what brings you to this humble shop?" Jacob asked very politely.

Most of what he had was acquired through the legendary skill known as 'ass kissing', which is what he started using on Eric here.

Eric, however, who was an adult mentally, instantly knew what the shopkeeper was trying to do. He smirked confirming Jacob's nature and he gained some more confidence in his plan.

He was about to speak but remembered that he was 11 and made sure to try and sound like a child when speaking.

He cleared his throat and spoke.

"Hey, Uncle Jacob, do you have a Basic Soul Cultivation Method?" he asked informally.

Eric didn't really know how to speak like a kid so he just decided to add uncle while addressing Jacob. Fortunately, Jacob didn't suspect his behavior and found this completely normal.

He continued the conversation.

"Yes, I have plenty of those. Normally one sells for 10 silver coins but I will lower it to 5 for the young master." Jacob replied, continuing the ass kissing that he was so good at.

Eric had a moment of uncertainty hearing that Jacob was already lowering the price for him, but since he had no other options except for death, he had to scam him one way or another.

Eric neared the counter and spoke, "Oh, I forgot to bring any coins with me right now. Say, Uncle Jacob, I bet you have heard this popular phrase as a kid: good deeds you do come back to you in some form or another, right?

Maybe if you lend this scroll to me, I or even my father may pay you back later. Isn't that a good deal?" Eric decided not to sound too mature and was pretty sure he had gotten the hang of speaking like the previous Eric.

Jacob, upon hearing this started fantasizing about how, in the future he would receive help or backing from the 'Roaring Dragon' mercenaries, with the help of whom he could definitely end up getting a promotion. Both his eyes and mind were filled with greed and Eric snapped him back to reality with a question.

"So, is it a deal?"

The fat man immediately took out a scroll and handed it to Eric while nodding his head.

Eric picked up the scroll from Jacob's hands and waited for a reaction from the system. He was anxious and his heart was beating fast. If there were no reaction, he would be sure to die in less than half an hour. As Eric thought about all this, he heard a notification from the Scam System.

Eric was glad that he wouldn't die that day and Jacob was glad as he waited for the great Blake Tyler to pay him back for helping his son.

Doing good deeds does lead do receiving something good in return, but it wasn't always that simple. For the case of the fat merchant Jacob, what he received was screen time: something a background character like him would never get if not for him getting scammed by the protagonist.

The protagonist: Eric, didn't really care about Jacob, however. At that moment, the only thing that mattered to him was that he was alive.

As he walked back to his house, another thing he realized from this encounter was how realistic this game world was. The NPCs reacted like real people; Eric had real memories of and feelings for his parents and friends, even though they were just NPCs in a game.

'Maybe this is what the unknown man meant when he said that even though they are NPCs, they are real people.'

Eric thought about that for a while, but smiled and continued walking back home. He knew this was real; he also knew it was a game. Even though Eric previously wouldn't have believed something like that to be possible, now he did.

He had just scammed someone as an eleven year old to make sure he wasn't killed by the Scamming System he had received. If that was possible, anything was!

He continued on the way to his home, waiting patiently to check what the unlocked Scam System actually had to offer.