"Alright, everyone. Let’s go over today’s earnings," Halon’s voice echoed in everyone’s mind, bringing an expectant silence to the hall. "Today’s hunt was exceptional. The materials you all brought in, taking advantage of the contracts we recently signed with our partners in Thalendor, brought in a gross value of nineteen silver coins and 44 copper coins."
The Silver Lotus members held their breath. They knew gold coins were valuable, having not received a single one since they started playing, sticking only to copper coins, and on top of that they had no idea how this would translate into their own pockets after the guild fee.
"Taking out the ten percent Guild maintenance fee," Lisa continued, her voice coming out with calm authority, "that leaves 17 silver coins and 50 copper. Splitting that amount equally among the members who took part in the operation..." She paused dramatically, looking at each of the seven Silver Lotus members. "Each of you is entitled to 2 silver coins and 50 copper coins."
Vonde’s eyes went wide, his mind racing to calculate how much money that came out to.
In the real world, the value of an Elysium silver coin was $100 credits, but Lisa, wanting to speed up their financial stability, applied a special 2:1 exchange rate to buy these coins from the Players, a rate equal to double the money earned by selling coins to the game’s System, but still a bit lower than the standard rate for veteran members.
This wasn’t a form of discrimination, and no one felt it as such, since it had been agreed from the start that this would be the rate for newcomers during the first 30 days, and that only after that probationary period would their rate rise to 1:3.
To keep anyone from just hoarding the coins, the difference in value would actually be calculated and set aside, redeemable in the future once the member’s character and personality had been proven and approved by the guild, so they’d still be receiving a third of that value, just after 30 days!
"Two silver coins and 50 copper coins in one day..." Devon murmured, his voice cracking. "Halon... is this really right? That’s $500 credits for a single day of grinding! Not even counting the $250 we’ll receive later!"
"Don’t worry, Vonde, that amount is correct." Lohan replied, forming a small gelatin hand and waving playfully. "And since you all hunted as a group and cleared the high level spots our veterans have already marked as the most profitable, your earnings were qualitatively far higher than what you’d have managed on your own in your first weeks or months. Congratulations, you all just earned your first real elite Player paycheck."
The silence that fell over the Silver Lotus group wasn’t one of dread, but of ecstatic disbelief.
For people from the Lower Zone, who lived on survival budgets and often didn’t even have thirty credits left over at the end of the month, earning five hundred credits in a single day was a miracle.
When they disconnected that night, the mood in the Sector 4 hangar in Eden-3 was one of almost religious celebration, with the smell of metal and industrial dust seeming even less suffocating than usual.
Skye stood in the middle of the hangar, staring at her phone screen, where the Atlas Bank notification glowed with a balance she never imagined receiving so easily.
"Five hundred credits..." Jenny whispered, sitting on the concrete floor, staring at her own phone. "If I got this every day, my monthly income would be more than what my dad used to make in a year at the refinery before he got sick."
"Guys, do you all realize this?" Zach exclaimed, standing up and starting to pace back and forth. "There are seven of us. If each of us earns this amount... in two days we’ll have piled up seven thousand credits!"
The shock reached its peak.
Seven thousand credits. For a gang that often had to choose between buying a replacement part for the bikes or a new batch of respiratory filters, that amount was a fortune. The hope Lohan had planted back at the hangar was now blossoming into unshakable determination.
"Alright, family! Listen up!" Skye commanded, her voice regaining the authority of a leader, but now infused with a contagious joy. "We’ve gone hungry and worn patched up clothes for too long. Today, Silver Lotus is going to celebrate our glory. Devon, use your contact in the Upper Zone. Order real meat, fresh fruit, and those natural drinks we only ever see in online ads. I want a feast here right now!"
"And new clothes!" Jenny shouted, laughing. "I can’t stand this oil stained jacket anymore. Let’s buy high quality sets for everyone!"
For the next few hours, the deactivated drone hangar turned into the setting of a dream.
They ordered deliveries that cost almost $1,000 credits, something that at any other time would have seemed like irresponsible madness, but that now felt like a fair reward for their effort.
They ate juicy steaks, tried fruits that came from other planets, and laughed until their stomachs hurt, celebrating the life Elysium and Astralis Requiem had allowed them to have.
After the initial euphoria, Skye gathered the group again. Her expression was serious, reflecting the maturity leadership demanded of her.
"We spent almost two thousand credits today on the party and the clothes," Skye began, showing the remaining balance on the gang’s shared terminal. "We still have $1,500 credits saved. Everyone agrees on what we’re going to do with this money, right?"
Everyone nodded silently. There was no hesitation.
"We’re going to save every cent of this balance," Skye declared. "Halon and Lisa gave us the helmets and the chance to change our lives. They didn’t ask for immediate payment, but in Silver Lotus, we pay our debts with honor. This money is the first installment toward paying off the gear with the President. Our food is going to get a lot better, but we know that spending $1,000 a day would already be too much for us, so we’re going to keep saving until we’ve paid off every cent of the debt, and only then will we finally be able to splurge again. I want everyone with the same mindset. We won’t just be Astralis’s scouts... we’ll be the most loyal and effective arm that guild has ever had."
Devon looked at the hangar’s broken window, watching the distant lights of the Upper Zone.
For the first time in his life, he didn’t feel envy toward those lights. He felt like he had his own shine now, a shine that came from a Slime and a Fox who had decided that a star’s origin didn’t define its brightness.
The next day, when they logged back in, the Silver Lotus group entered Mythlorien with renewed energy, excited to grind as hard as they could to catch up to the veterans and pay off their own debt.