19. Slaughterhouse

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." — Thomas Edison

On the third day after the launch of Harbinger's Call, Paul was sitting in a small barn situated on a cliff overlooking the ocean. He had been there since the day before and had no plans to leave soon. In fact, he had decided that he would sit there for the entire rest of the two weeks before the first update. 

His appearance did not change much, as he only climbed to level 21 and traded his metal helmet for a cowboy hat. 

Looking around him, a person would probably be stunned into silence as his surroundings were covered in blood and dead cows.

That was why he was here; he was exploiting one of the most notorious glitches in Harbinger's Call history, known as the slaughterhouse.

After entering the barn, the glitch worked by partially completing a quest related to the barn owner. The cows in the barn would respawn instantly upon death. 

As livestock animals instead of monsters, cows only dropped 1 XP upon death, but that was not what was necessary. Every cow dropped a hide that could be refined into leather and sold. 

This was his master plan for amassing a significant fortune quickly, a strategy that could potentially fund his future gaming endeavors.

Unfortunately for him, since he was low-level and had a small amount of money, he only had the basic inventory, which could hold 40 slots of items. Thankfully, hides could be stacked, but only 50 hides could fit in a stack. 

Sadly, his regular equipment took up around ten slots, so he could hold a total of 1500 before traveling back to Elynduil to refine and store them. 

He spent over two hours of the eight hours he played walking back and forth. Unfortunately, he did not have a horse yet. 

To pass his time, Paul watched streams, listened to music, and did any manner of other things to keep himself busy.

While practicing his Arcane Reaver weaving with duel-wield melee weapons, he suddenly heard the barn door open and turned around abruptly, wholly mortified.

If this glitch spot were leaked, it would ruin many of his plans, not to mention that it would be fixed much faster than if he kept it to himself.

Looking at him blankly was a relatively attractive young woman with brown hair and very pale skin; she was most likely stunned into silence by the gruesome scene of slaughter as dozens of cows were disintegrating away into the hides they dropped on the floor. 

Looking at him quickly, she turned around to leave.

"It seems I have come to the wrong place."

Seeing her leaving, Paul panicked.

"Wait! Stay for a moment, and it will be worth your wild."

Looking at him like he was either a psychopath who liked killing livestock or a pervert, she turned to look at him.

"Holly? Hi, I am Lazarus. Are you a solo player?"

Still looking at him wearily, she nodded.

"Alright, wonderful. How would you like to make a lot of money quickly?"

Hearing his question, her face instantly filled with disgust, and she thought negatively about him.

"No, thank you. I am not that desperate."

He didn't believe for one second that she would keep what she had seen a secret. Even if she didn't know what was happening, she would investigate. The scene she had seen was bizarre, after all.

"No, not that; I mean a money-making method that can make us both rich."

It was not that nobody had come to the barn before now, but it was mostly larger groups that he could hear coming and preparing, so they didn't see what was going on. This girl was alone and silent, completely catching him off guard. The only reason someone would be in this area was for a relatively obscure quest that took a lot of work for the average player, Holly's level 23.

"You don't want to do anything strange to me?"

"No, of course not; this is purely business."

"Ok, then, what are we doing?"

Feeling relieved that this girl was willing to have a dialog with him made him thankful; if it were some guild minion, he would be completely screwed. 

"Essentially, I have glitched out this barn to infinitely spawn cows that then we kill and farm the hides, then we go and refine the hides in the city and amass a large amount of leather to sell when real money trading launches in 11 days."

"Does that work?"

Seeing that she was doubtful, Paul was somewhat stunned. Did he really not know the potential of something like that? He wouldn't have tried to pull her into the operation if he knew that.

"Yes, each day, we should be able to make around 10,000 hides each that, after refinement, turn into around 4,000 leather pieces we can sell. If each leather piece sells for ten thalor and the exchange rate is ten thalor for $1, then that is around $4,000 daily." 

Hearing the concept of $4,000 a day, he saw the girl's eyes light up; Paul instantly realized this girl was interested in making money, which was good for him; that meant she would have an interest in keeping the secret as well.

"$4,000 sounds very nice; I am guessing it is not that simple, though?"

Seeing that she expected a catch, Paul smiled triumphantly.

"It is nothing big; I just want 20% of the hides you get, which is still over $3,500 daily for you. I will take care of how and when we sell it, too, so we can avoid attention and avoid causing the price to drop."

"Why can't I just do this myself anyway? Now I know about it, and we can't attack each other, so what's stopping me?"

"Nothing much, doing that I can dodge you with when I am online, and you can have fun trying to start the glitch alone and enjoy the questions when people from a guild realize you are selling as much leather as their entire guild has earned as a solo player."

"How about 10%? I don't know you, and I need the money."

"How do you think about this? You are two levels above me, so let's have a friendly duel; the winner gets 20% of the loser's share."

Hearing the proposal, Paul could tell the young woman was nervous, most likely having not fought another player yet. It was understandable. 

"Although you seem confident, I am not bad either; sure, let's have a duel."