A Black Market LitRPG

With the other four captured moonshiners hauled off to a holding cell, Eric was manhandled to another room. “Let go of me! I can walk myself, thank you very much.” He tried to shake off the two guards’ grip.

Kyle nodded his head as a signal, with the two guards letting go of Eric. They walked through the common area, Eric noticing the gang members training hard against dummy figures or sparring with each other. A mountain of Stamina Recovery Potions was stacked in wooden crates along the side, causing Eric’s jaw to drop in astonishment.

“I did not expect the scale of your production to be so huge,” Eric was astonished, estimating close to a thousand potions stacked there alone. “I was under the impression that you were only supplying less than fifty per day or so.”

Kyle didn’t reply, still walking towards an unmarked door. They entered a separate room, and this time Eric’s jaw completely collapsed. Forgetting his predicament as a captured moonshiner, he instead ran forward, ogling at the large pristine distillation stills that were far more advanced than anything he had ever seen, even at the university.

“My god, who made this for you? It can’t be the Alchemist Guild, can it? I don’t even think they would let you have such a device; this is only reserved for the best of the best!” Eric was like an excited fanboy, jumping up and down as he examined the intricate details of the setup.

Kyle had implemented a factory-style distillation process, something he reverse-engineered from his memories. Alcohol in the Galactic Era was produced much more efficiently, but at least the basic principles remained the same.

Eric suddenly let out a loud gasp. “This condenser is extremely unique! What is the jagged surface on the exterior of the condensation arm? This enchantment on the barrel, what does it do? Is it powered by arcia as well to give special effects?” He ran around a series of kegs, noticing they had unique enchantments on them as well that seemed to speed up the fermentation.

Kyle motioned for one of the guards to provide three samples in small cups. Eric was a bit hesitant, knowing there was a chance it could be poison or some sort.

“Professor Dicar, if I wanted you dead, I would have had you killed there and then, making it look like an accident.”

Eric finally relented and tried the first sample. It was a high-proof moonshine whiskey, clear of any impurities and smooth to the throat. “My god, it’s even better than anything I have tasted!”

He quickly drank the next sample, a bubbling sensation with a sweet aromatic taste. “This is wine… but not one made from the usual ingredients… Grain wine? The sparkling sensation is not unique, but the combination is…”

Eric then tried the last one. “Another grain wine, but this time with a burned sensation, highly distilled. The addition of the lemon taste gives it a secondary kick. Amazing! Where are all these recipes coming from?! I’ve spent my life studying alcohol, but I have never come across any of these!”

You’ll probably lose your mind in the Galactic Era, then… “Do you want to know?” Kyle asked with a knowing expression.

Eric’s excitement suddenly plummeted, the circumstances of his current plight coming back to him. “Cut to the chase. What do you want?”

“Work for me, and you’ll have this entire room plus more where those recipes came from.”

“And my crew?”

“They’ll be part of the gang. I’m counting on you to convince them.”

“What if I say no?”

“You already know what happens.” Kyle smiled.

Eric weighed the benefits in his head. For years, he had been a professor researching new methods of alcohol production. He had been expelled for no reason due to the sudden and rapid ban on alcohol, forcing him onto the streets in order to make a living.

Too many gangs have tried to recruit him, even with the threat of force, but a simple bribe and a few drops of moonshine were always enough to get the guards to go against their bosses. That was how he met his current crew, anyway.

However, Kyle had shown him a new path, a chance to regain his old life. The new recipes lured him tantalizingly, and he couldn’t stop thinking about all the types of alcohol he could make with the set up in front of him.

“You have a deal. Let me talk to them.”

Eric was brought to the holding cell, where the other four moonshiners were still restrained. “Eric, you alright? Just agree to whatever they say; we’ll break out of here soon enough.” Adrian was worried.

“Yes, I’ve accepted their deal. We will all be Seven Snakes members for now.”

“Great, I’m starving.” Monica’s stomach rumbled loudly. This wasn’t their first rodeo, having escaped a few gangs before. “We’ll be out of here in no time.”

“Keith, calculation on the current amount of alcohol consumption at our ventures?” Kyle returned to the office, letting Damian be in charge of the induction of the four moonshiners.

“About three barrels per pub each day, maybe two for the Lusty Arcian who just completed their expansion. With one pub and one brothel, that amounts to five barrels a day.” Keith quickly calculated. “It’s going to increase once we get the former businesses, we lost over the years back on board.”

“Good. Once Professor Dicar is settled in, we’ll supply the alcohol for our businesses directly and make our own. Have Monica form a new crew to handle the shipment discretely.”

“Sir, are we planning on selling to other gangs or districts too?”

“No, we’re not going to cut anybody just yet. Not with the Ardent Cretins watching us. We’re simply going to improve our current businesses. That way, we can drive more customers to us.”

“Wouldn’t that eventually draw more attention to us? The local enforcers might start moving in if our footfall traffic increases; I’m not sure if the ice money is enough to keep the heat off.”

Kyle contemplated as he sat back down on his office desk, still eyeing the map of the district. “Everyone is human, and everyone’s got a price. It’s a simple task to figure it out. We won’t be pushing the quality of the alcohol up by too much, only just a little till we’re ready. More importantly, have you set up our public free soup kitchen yet?”

“It should be ready to open in a few hours.”

“Good, get the flyers ready. Plan for a public cleanup event in the next two days as well.”

Keith nodded while Kyle continued to check the finances. The most important part of running a gang is convincing the community that we are a benign part of it rather than a tumour. Simple events such as this would drive support for us in the district, helping us deflect the enforcers through the locals who would be opposed to them over time.

Now that Kyle had overcome the main issue of Wrent and the Red Lions trying to absorb them, there was yet another crisis looming on the horizon: the debt owed to the Crimson Sword.

As much as Kyle wanted to curse Ulon and waive off the debt, that wasn’t how it worked in the industry, and Kyle knew they would come to collect their due.

In an ideal situation, Kyle would have simply gone to war with all nearby gangs, trying to absorb all of them directly through sheer force and improve his revenue by acquisition. However, with him being one of the smallest gangs in the South Sector, it was hard for him to throw his weight around without being immediately crushed. He had to play nice for now.

It was exactly this reason that spurred Kyle to scale up his businesses and offerings in any way possible within his current district. Obtaining the services of Eric Dicar is just a small step – to pay off such a big loan would require him to make close to four hundred thousand rakels a month. With the size of their gang, this was something impossible.

Alcohol brewing in the city was big business, but he couldn’t scale up to his full potential lest the surrounding gangs began to eye him with greed or envy. Kyle had Keith draft up some plans to open a few casinos and gambling dens, but none of this would ever reach the scale that he needed.

The potion business was relatively limited as well – producing more would draw the ire of the Alchemist Guild. It truly felt like he was being cornered from all sides within the city of Raktor.

There are other ways to solve this situation: assassination. Kyle was no stranger to such methods, having personally killed rival gang leaders in his former life to establish territorial monopolies. The only issue was that information on the other gangs was hard to obtain. It was also better if Kyle refrained from lashing out this soon after a war with the Left Paw.

Kyle’s eyes wandered to the map of the city beyond its borders, where the forests and monster regions lay. If I can’t expand in the city, perhaps I can obtain benefits from beyond its walls. Out there, I would be less observed and tracked.

He still had to figure out what benefits he could obtain outside the city. Come to think of it, I have never left the city yet since I came here.

Kyle recalled seeing all the monster parts traded in the food market. He decided to ask Keith and Damian about potential ventures outside of the city. Perhaps he could do a bit of illegal mining or forestry.

However, for today, he would need to make some personal preparations before leaving, such as boosting his knowledge of arcia and its uses.

The technology level of the world he was in was haphazard, thanks to the existence of arcia. The past three days had him setting up the in-house brewery while he studied the tome left behind by Theorin in the night in order to understand arctech better.

The book taught the basic engravings and how to combine them and overlay their effects. Kyle had already done a preliminary implementation in the fermentation of mash in the kegs, allowing him to implement a simple decay engraving, accelerating the fermentation process and subsequently production of alcohol.

If he had his way, he could implement microbrewing fermentation processes from the Galactic Era here. However, such engravings were extremely rare.

Arcia is far too amazing. Such an exotic material would have the entire human quadrant scrambling for it if found. Kyle had yet to find any evidence that he was even in the same universe or timeline as his original one, though he still did not believe in the idea that Arcia was ‘magic’ or fantasy.

It was more like electricity and oil, which might be considered magical by the locals as well. Anti-gravity, plasma weapons, faster than light travel would be considered ‘magic’ by the people here…

The study in enchantments has yet to yield a title or a bonus of sorts from the reading. Kyle surmised that it was a lack of implementation – he had always been rewarded for repetitive action rather than learning.

He returned to his room, where there were more than two dozen ordinary metal pipes on a table, along with Riker’s next to it. A single needle-like etcher hooked up to a portable arcia generator was placed as well, Kyle having bought it to practice.

Repetition is the key to success, after all. Kyle sat down and began etching away at the metal pipes, copying the engravings on Riker’s. Kyle was not counting only on alcohol and potions to prop up his income – weapon smuggling, and dealing was a hot business as well, especially with the number of conflicts going on in every sector.

Many city residents also ventured out into the monster-dominated regions, requiring armour and weapons which could only be bought at licensed stores. With his distribution network, he could easily bypass that and undercut the market slightly.

He was not planning on selling any cheap goods or low-quality products. On the contrary, he was aiming to provide the best quality he could en-masse for alcohol, potions and weapons. It’s a reputation issue – better to be well known for high quality than low.

It would be good if he could customize his own armour set and weapons as well. He dearly missed his exosuit from his former life, which made him wonder if he could replicate it in the future. The overlaying of enchantments and engravings reminded him of how nanocircuit boards were made. An arcia printed circuit board did not seem too far out of the question.

As he reached his twentieth copied metal pipe, a title was finally awarded to him.