The Systemic Lands
Chapter 650: Day 5,238 (3) – The Musician

Fredrick

I watched the elite grinder leave with his team. I was lucky to have attracted such a big spender with my music. While his group scared off other listeners, I was hopeful for a couple thousand points from the crystal he had given me. A level 4 crystal was worth quite a bit and everyone said they were bigger than the normal point crystals.

Making my way back to the small room I shared with my friend Chris, we lived above a spice shop. The smells always made me hungry. “You are late,” Chris said as I got back. He handed me a bowl of stew.

“Just a listener I chatted with a bit afterwards. How were things today?” I asked him.

“Slow on my corner. Things are slow everywhere, with most of the long term grinders being dead,” Chris said with a sigh. Ever since the disaster that had sunk the city, we were struggling to get by. While no one starved, it had been pretty close to happening while the city was sealed off from the outside.

The loss of all the grinding teams and other cities had cut into traffic heavily into the capital and the money we earned from playing on the streets. We had thought about getting into grinding, but I had seen a person kick a slime and die horribly. After that, I just couldn’t handle the thought of that happening to me. Even though there had been warnings, the kid hadn’t listened.

Chris had lost his grinding team while he was taking a break in the capital when the disaster struck. He just didn’t have the motivation to go out there again and wanted to focus on playing a guitar. He wasn’t as good as me, but he was skilled enough.

“Well, hopefully things are picking up. Not often an elite team comes back nowadays. A sign things will be picking up again,” I replied.

“You must have gotten something good how much?” Chris asked. I pulled out the crystal and tossed it to him.

“Seems, a bit big for that,” he hesitantly replied. “Could be a level 5.”

“What?! Really? That is like 25 thousand points,” I blurted out and Chris nodded. He tossed it back to me.

“You are buying us a good dinner if it is,” he joked, and I nodded. I looked at it again and put it away.

“Will trade it in tomorrow morning, first thing,” I said, and Chris shook his head.

“Something like that, you need to redeem it at the store. Getting a proper value on something like that, well you would be lucky not to be scammed. Better just to cash it in and buy some stats and other stuff,” Chris said.

“Really, but I was thinking we should split it. And how will I spend it after cashing it in?” I asked.

“I may not be grinding anymore, but trust me, that stats are useful. Get some Mind to help you play faster if anything. But you are not trading it in,” Chris demanded.

“The line is a nightmare,” I replied.

“Just go really early. And you will be fine. Didn’t think any teams were out there grinding level 5 monsters, but that is good for us. More crystals and points for everyone,” Chris said.

“Also, the sooner to clearing this place and figuring out our way back to Earth,” I added.

“Maybe. Well I got the stew, so you can take the bowls and clean up,” Chris said and I nodded. I took our bowls to the communal kitchen, washed them up, and then returned to our tiny room. Chirs was already in bed passed out. I just shook my head, turned off the light, and copied him.

The next day, I got up early in the morning with my violin in its case, and a pack of crystals to trade in. I got in the line and was soon at the soldier collecting taxes. I handed over three out of every ten crystals in my pack. I made sure not to hand over the large one. It was one of the ways around taxes that people talked about.

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That was why I included some higher value crystals in what I handed over and the soldier checking just nodded when the scale my pack rested on came back showing I had split things correctly. It was a great way for cashing in high level crystals Chris had explained to me a while back.

Not something to do regularly. If you were caught, everything would be confiscated. It wasn’t worth the risk and there were occasional inspections done at random. The scale method was fairly accurate. All of this meant was that I was able to get around the tax and cash in the high value crystal.

“Look, up there, the Crystal Vortex,” someone pointed out. Everyone looked up at the Emperor’s airship, that was leaving the airship tower next to the plaza. I could only imagine what it was like to have such power. It was mind boggling. At least he didn’t seem to be corrupt. Any time any new comer complained, they got a lecture from someone who had been around and explained what the Dragon Empire was like.

I shuddered at the thought and couldn’t help but wonder how much was exaggerated. Screaming thrones, rape houses, slave soldiers, it honestly seemed too over the top and propaganda. But I kept my mouth shut and speculations to myself.

“Read the sign,” the soldier nearby said and pointed at the large sign next to the line.

You have one minute at the store. Please plan out your purchases ahead of time. If you take longer you will be punished. Move immediately after the previous person leaves.

There was a pile of human skulls in front of the sign. While I thought it was barbaric, things needed to be kept moving, since the pillars were the primary source of food in the city. While carts and businesses had their own lines, people needed to keep moving.

The person in front of me went to the store while soldiers were keeping an eye on everyone. The person in front of me finished in under 20 seconds, but I was ready. I rushed forward and set my instrument case at my side and put my crystal pack on the pillar.

I then put both hands on the pillar and cashed them in. After that, my brain went blank for at least ten seconds. I had just over 760,000 points. That was impossible. That was way too much. I purchased 200 points in Mind for 120,000 points, and then took my hands off.

Everything seemed to slow down a bit, as I picked up my instrument case and moved away from the store and the next person replaced me. I was in a daze, but that hadn’t been wrong. How was that even possible?

The rest of the day passed by in a daze. I set up on my corner and played, but I didn’t see that man and his team again, no matter how much I watched. I stopped a bit early and returned to the shared room with Chris.

He showed up and got the stew. He got the food and I paid for the room and cleaned the bowls. That was how we divided our labor up. He gave me my bowl, and I was still in shock from this morning.

“So, how did it go?” he asked.

“I…I don’t know. That crystal…” I didn’t know what to say, since I wasn’t even sure myself.

“Don’t tell me it was a fake?” he asked.

“No nothing like that.” I quickly shook my head. “It was worth a lot,” I muttered.

“Like how much? I didn’t hear what you said, repeat that?” Chris asked.

“755,000,” I said and there was silence.

“That can’t be right. You just said 755,000. Nearest thing is a level 7, which is rumored to be 756,000 based on the point scaling,” Chris said with quite a bit of disbelief in his voice.

“It is real, I purchased 120,000 points wroth of Mind stat. It is real,” I muttered.

“Well, that can mean only one thing,” Chris said while staring at me.

“What?” I asked, not getting what he was trying to tell me. He rolled his eyes at me.

“Only one person can kill level 7 monsters. You have seen statues of him everywhere,” Chris pointed out and it took me a moment to process what he was saying. There was just no way that was possible, was it?

“Emperor Michael liked my music?” I asked hesitantly and Chris gave me a smile and a thumbs up.

“Only place such a point crystal could come from. No one would just casually hand something like that out as a tip. A level 7 crystal has immense value for summoning as well. A shame we couldn’t sell it, but that is asking for trouble. Congratulations, you played for the biggest whale out there,” Chris said.

“I didn’t know. I messed up a few times too while he was listening,” I muttered, and Chris just chuckled.

“Only you Fredrick. What did he say?”

“He complimented my music. And he suggested it would be nice to have music when he fought, as background music,” I muttered.

“Background music, well you best get practicing and learning musical combat,” Chris said.

“What?!” I asked in shock and he chuckled.

“It was probably a joke, but musical combat. Think about it,” Chris said with a smile. I didn’t know what to think anymore. That had been the most powerful person here in the Systemic Lands and I had completely missed that. He had also liked my music. It wasn’t anything special either. Just some tunes I could play from memory.

It wasn’t worth nearly that much. “Relax. You got lucky. But now you can brag about playing music that the Emperor himself appreciated,” Chris said.

“I am more worried about having to pay attention to people’s faces while I play,” I muttered. I didn’t want to embarrass myself again. How could I not recognize the Emperor? I felt so stupid and yet so happy that he had liked my music at the same time.

I had taught music before, and I had never played in front of such an important person. I wasn’t even that good. I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry.