Beginner (L3) Martti wakes up in his shelter. In addition to the anticipated promotion, he is also 16 years old now! The next promotion round is in the Grand Jubilee (225th anniversary of His Majesty Reign). With luck on his side, he might be promoted Novice (L4) then, and Expert (L5), 2-5 years later. Then the promotion to Master (L6) would happen in the age of 30-35. These are solemn goals, but important for the reason that unless level promotion happens as scheduled, Martti cannot expect to even live much beyond 40! The advanced age health challenge is totally doable for those with unlimited money, but low-level commoners don't belong to this caste.
Martti's latest transactions (which he duly checks from Main Menu -> Changelog -> filter by character:Martti) include receipt of 1*THS1 Silver Ring (upon L3), 1*DIS (likewise), sales of petty amounts of drinks, and a 0.2 mil sale of MEAT at a good price. Nothing special here.
Now Martti feels qualified to go to the taverns of the town and speak to the people (clothes are still brown but at least he is L3 and owns a valuable animal, a pig!) so checks in to IRC freenode channel ##crypto-kingdom, a place where things happen whatever they are. He is happy to see Lord Syksy, the Earl of Petrichor there, and this high Nobleman even conversed with him!! The conversation did not have immediate breakthroughs, so Martti is back to take care of his own business.
Command HEALTH typed in any of the command screens gives the basic health information. Martti exults that his Health is still Excellent (something only the youth can enjoy) and annual Health Challenge is Severe (bad, but anyway easier than Brutal). Something should be eaten, so let's check the markets... only to realize that prices are quite steep for all basic foods :( And - the same for drinks! The winter is harsh so only 30g of CAN can now keep me warm.. and afterwards I feel still Severe (as expected).
When listing all the possessions for sale at updated prices (this is a must for the non-depositor businessman: everything is always for sale, if the price is right), it again happened that immediately some of the things were bought from the market. The game has 200+ accounts, and the 6h_active statistics is usually ~50 accounts.
Martti knows where to look for information and is thinking high - what if, instead of another pig, I would employ a university graduate? SPE-1 are for sale at a cheap recruiting fee (2.0 mil as we speak). The annual salary is 2.1 mil - 3 times Martti's own pay as a mixed worker. The payout formula is 3*CUL, 3*IC, 3*SCI, per year. If sold, these can be realized at 1.3 mil, leaving a net loss of 0.8 mil. But a "triple" NPC promotion round is coming - with a bit of luck, he would be promoted to SPE-2 and still produce a loss but only 0.2 mil. The important thing is that this one is such close to a profitable SPE-3 that even the SPE-2 has a 8.5 mil ask!
Judging that it is late, he dismisses the thought and feels content to list the low bids and high asks, while congratulating "Little Erin", a L3 character who dared to apply to be a Lord of the Manor and actually got accepted due to a miraculous lack of other applicants:
- I could do everything she can, yet I did not, for the life of me, dare to apply - now she has a manor with 30 mil annual income, and I have a pig...
Lord Syksy gladly converses with Martti, it's always refreshing to see a new face ;) maybe it's even good Martti didn't happen to catch a manor - would've been too much of a lottery ticket! Now the toil continues.
VastaaPoistaThe King is a fair guy, but also moody. In another context (if he were less busy), he could have arranged something that would seem like a humiliation-fest: awarded all the manors to the dukes, 1 each, and dismissed the other applications as unworthy.
VastaaPoistaMartti considered that Manor is a L13 job, so L5 would be an absolute minimum for the applicant. Let us see - the war is coming, maybe that will bring job opportunities!