86 Undercover Boss

-7:00 PM, July 4th, 2054-

-Acta Non Verba Base Camp, Kessel, Outer Rim-

Not a word had been spoken between Violet and I since she admitted to flirting with me. Did she like me back? I decided that I'd let her cool down a bit before approaching again. If I play my cards right, I could become the Grand Rizzler of the Jedi Order.

I had pushed that away for the past hour that I had been exploring the camp. After the hour that I had spent with the head engineers and their escort, I was dismissed and was finally able to wander.

The base camp was coming along quite nicely. Several prefab buildings had already been put up while countless more were on the way. Permanent structures would be put up when we found a suitable location. The plans for that said something about next week if everything goes smoothly.

Currently, most of the camp was a bunch of tents and shipping crates that were being ferried to the surface by a small formation of freighters. These tents and the several prefab buildings were crowded by players and locals alike.

There were a lot of engineers, technicians, and escorts shuffling around among the scattered and disorganized guild members. They would probably become a lot more organized when we gave them employment contracts but for now, this was the reality.

The area where we landed was the edge of an extensive grassy plain. When we were landing, I heard that a large herd of bison looking creatures were grazing in this area but ran away when our fleet of shuttles grew close.

A mid-size river with clear and calmly flowing water snaked through the camp. It stretched far to the west before curling into the snowcapped mountains to the North from which it originated. After passing through our camp, it extended all the way East into an endless forest that was a few miles away. The river was about 20 feet across and about 10 feet deep in the middle. Both the river and forest would be a great source of food until we set up some proper agriculture.

Meanwhile, the South and West had flat and grassy plains for as far as the eye could see. This plethora of flat land would be great for our infrastructure. Of course, this relied on the ground being solid and not a swamp. Fortunately, the area that we landed was pretty solid. I wasn't sure if that was by luck or plan.

After another few minutes of wandering, I wound up in a very busy part of the camp. Guild members and employees were everywhere in an extremely chaotic fashion.

Lining the sides of the walking areas, tents, tables, and booths were set up. Each one had a sign and someone in front of it. There were supplies and food for sale, maintenance services being offered, and even a medical clinic.

As I absorbed it all, I found an even busier area. It was almost overcrowded with people, most of them being guild members.

Everyone was gathered around a bunch of protocol droids that were holding datapads. Surrounding that crowd were countless people shouting a variety of things.

"LFG SCOUTING MISSION!"

"LFM, 1 SPOT FOR CONSTRUCTION JOB!"

"LFM, 2 SPOTS FOR COOKING, MUST BE A CHEF!"

Ah, people were doing quests. What better way was there to motivate a bunch of gamers than to offer a reward for menial tasks? It was very efficient.

An idea quickly came to mind as I took out the smartcomm that Violet had given me. With all the data that the guild must deal with just to provide services like this, we should have an AI managed system to take care of it all. I think I'll coin it as the Guild Management System or GMS for short.

I sent Sheema a message to add it to the agenda for the next board meeting. Appointing a guild secretary was probably the best idea I had thus far. I could just come up with ideas and dump them on her!

As I observed the mess that was all of this, I came up with an idea. I needed a way to keep myself busy, right? Well, I had figured it out.

-7:30 PM-

After running back to the command building and "borrowing" some clothes, I found myself standing back by the quest area. I had shed my Jedi robes and donned some more plain clothing. The plain linen shirt and black pants were pretty normal.

I also left behind my combat armor since that would be a sure tell that I was a big shot. Between the Jedi Order insignia and the officer stripes, I would be advertising my identity.

My goal was to just go on a quest and enjoy myself while all the boring stuff is handled by everyone else. What harm could come of it? It's good to be the king.

I listened closely to find something that could entertain me.

"LFG ENGINEER ESCORT!"

"LFM, 2 SPOTS FOR EQUIPMENT TRANSPORT!"

"LFG WALL CONSTRUCTION!"

Damn, you can really get a gamer to do anything if it's for a quest.

"LFM, 1 SPOT FOR SCOUTING AND HUNTING, LEVEL 15 MINIMUM!"

Ah! That's the one. I rushed towards the source of the voice and found the girl that had called it out.

Without caring one bit, I walked up to her. "Hey, can I join?"

She turned towards me and looked me up and down with an expression of contempt on her face. While she examined me, I did the same to her. She was short, about 5'4, and rough looking. Her dark brown hair was frizzled and tied back messily to reveal her plain brown eyes. Her clothes were all black including her boots. The light plate armor that covered her body was scraped and dented, barely having any paint left on it. Strapped to her back was a blaster rifle. The strap went around her body and across her chest through her non-existent breasts.

Her expression then changed as she looked at me curiously. "What level are you, kid?"

I pulled out my comm and check my ID, having no idea what my level was. I hadn't kept track of it for a while since it didn't matter to me much anymore. I wasn't even sure how to react when I saw that it showed 45.

I looked back at her and squinted my eyes slightly. "You first."

She grinned and puffed out her chest a bit. "Hehe, I'm level 22, one of the highest in the guild. Your turn."

I sighed and just came up with a number. "I'm only level 18."

She clearly mistook my sigh for her being better than me, so she became even more proud. "Don't worry kid, you'll be as good as me one day. Anyways, just pick up the quest and we can head out."

I tilted my head in confusion. "Umm, how do I do that?"

She furrowed her brow, clearly a bit irritated. "What, are you new to the guild?"

I shrugged. "I guess you can say that…"

Her tune immediately changed as she nodded and put on a hearty smile. "Well, I'll take the honors of welcoming you to the guild. We never say no to capable people like yourself. You must be with that high level of yours. I'm an elite member so I can show you the ropes. Just stick with me!"

I nodded, not sure how she wanted me to react. "Okay."

She pouted briefly, clearly displeased with my lack of shock and awe. Fortunately, she snapped out of it quickly. "You know, it took a lot of work to become an elite member. I've been working my ass off over the past few weeks. Anyways what's your name?"

Ah, that must be where her ass went since she didn't have one. I put down that thought and smiled. "I'm Soryn, what about you?"

I quickly realized that I might have messed up. I could only hope that she hadn't heard of me.

She clearly thought nothing of it as she responded quickly. "Nice to meet you, Soryn. My name is Paula. Alright, let's get you this quest. What is your guild ID number?"

I furrowed my brow, even more confused. "Guild ID?"

Paula now became a bit suspicious, evident by how she was looking at me. "Do you not have a guild ID card?"

I shook my head, now understanding what she meant. "I didn't even know we had those."

Paula smacked her thigh in anger. "Agghhhh, those guys in recruitment are idiots. Come with me."

I could only nod and follow her through the crowd. I had to maintain a brisk pace to keep up with her. Despite her stature, she was surprisingly quick.

Eventually, we arrived at a quite tent nearby. Over the entrance of the tent was a sign that said "Administration".

She pointed at the tent. "Go in there and they'll help you out. I'll be right here."

I nodded and quickly entered the tent. When I entered, I was slightly impressed by what I saw. There were a bunch of tables with people sitting behind them. On each table was a terminal and behind the tables were rows of cabinets.

While all of the tables were occupied, not all of them were being used as there were only a few guild members standing in front of them. I was curious what they were doing here.

I walked over to an empty table with someone sitting behind it at the terminal. "Hi."

The man sitting at that table looked up and put on a smile. "Hi! My name is Gareth, how can I help you today?"

He was quite a friendly guy from my first look. There wasn't anything notable about him aside from his English accent. He was skinny and tall. His black hair was combed neatly out of the way to display his light brown eyes. His skin was pale to a concerning degree and he appeared to be quite tall.

I nodded, returning the smile. "I need a guild ID card."

Gareth nodded, typing for a couple of seconds on his terminal. "That's an easy one. People lose their's all the time. It will only cost 5 credits for a replacement. Do you know your ID number?"

I could only sigh and shake my head. "I do not. I kinda didn't get one."

Gareth nodded. "Alright. Not a problem at all. I'll just need your full name and age so I can pull it from the database."

I nodded. "Soryn Brenko, 22 years old."

Gareth nodded, quickly typing on the keyboard in front of him. "Just give me one moment. I'll pull your information right…. Huh?"

He looked up at me, then back at the terminal, and then back at me. "Wait wait wait, you're-"

I cut him off before he could say it. "Yes. Yes I am. Let's not make a scene, shall we?"