BXBX NOVEL Chapter 397: Communal World
Cedric stood inside the V-hub just looking at his surroundings. He was familiarizing himself with it like he usually does whenever he arrives at a foreign place.
The interior design of the V-hub he\'s in was humble and plain. The walls were made with cocrete and white marble tiles; it\'s clean, and the air inside smells like citrus. There were a bunch of paintings on the wall and matte velvet silks draped across the beams, giving it some semblance of a sophisticated look.
There were a lot of people going to and from inside. This was his first time seeing this many non-human creatures at once, and it felt a bit refreshing. It\'s this sight that made him realize that he truly was inside a completely different world, one that is greater than any other VR games he had tried back home.
He wasn\'t the only one standing there gawking at the surroundings. There were at least fifteen more people beside him who\'re doing the same. Some of them looked panicked and overwhelmed by this new world; others were the same but were trying their best to keep their cool.
Cedric easily guessed that this must be their first time arriving here as well. It\'s not that hard to notice with how they reacted after all. He could also see some creatures watching them with amusement as they stood there gawking at their surroundings.
All of this observation occurred to Cedric in an instant. Afterwards, he recovered from his initial shock and opened the system interface to look at the map provided in there. He pinned his destination and began walking out of the hub since there was nothing much to see here anymore.
He\'d only ever come here if he needed to be transported somewhere else; other than that, this place is just another infrastructure to him.
The communal world, referring to worlds or planets transformed into living spaces for common citizens of the alliance members on the virtual universe, he chose greatly resembled Prime Earth.
Aside from having three moons for some reason, it looked relatively the same; it has clear blue skies, vast fields of vegetation and forests, tall mountains, white clouds, and had its own sun as well.
The air was crisp, clean, and cool. He could also sense the abundance of natural energies and spirituality in his surroundings, making this place a prime location for life evolvers to train.
As he walked towards his designated abode here, he passed through several places of interest; he saw malls, inns, hotels, food stalls, small shops, etc. From his observations so far, they use something called \'Alliance Cash/Coins/Credits (ACs)\' as currency here, but there were also a few shops that deal with bartering/trading as well.
It didn\'t take long before he arrived at his home. He could\'ve gone faster if he flew, which was allowed by the way but only at a certain altitude, but he decided to take some time and walked instead.
His house was humble; it reminded him of the first house he bought when he was released from the RMC, the same one where he became neighbors with Erica.
It had enough space for his personal use; there is also a designated dojo that has a pocket dimension where he could train in earnest without disturbing his neighbors. The territory was fenced and secured by a runic formation that remains invisible unless someone trespasses his territory.
All in all, it\'s only the alien creatures here that made things different. The rest felt rather familiar to him, so he didn\'t have a hard time adjusting.
Now that he\'s settled here, Cedric decided to think about his next goals.
As a new member of the alliance and a new resident of the Virtual Universe, he will be given an allowance of 3000 ACs per month, which will last for 10 years; after that, he\'s on his own.
But he\'s entitled to more due to his other status, such as being a prodigy of the tower, giving him an additional 2000 ACs per month, and being the governor of Solaris Prime, an additional 10,000 ACs per month.
The allowance given by his Prodigy title will last for a lifetime. While the large amount of ACs provided by his governor title requires him to submit a yearly report stating that he would use at least 30% of the total amount of his yearly allowance, contributing to the prosperity of his territory.
If he fails to do this, he will receive penalties that range from suspension to termination or even straight-up execution.
In total, he will receive a monthly allowance of 15,000 ACs, which was definitely more than he\'d ever need for the time being, especially since he\'s not required to pay rent or have any bills to pay either. Everything provided to him in this communal world was free of charge. He only ACs to buy food supplies, clothes, and other things he might fancy—for now, at least.
Other citizens aren\'t as lucky as him. With only 3000 ACs, they need to immediately look for a job because that amount is simply not enough to support their daily needs. This applies even more to members that have been here for more than 10 years already since the monthly allowance ends by then.
Of course, money is important here as well. Not just for daily needs but for cultivation as well. A lot of materials that life evolvers need to improve their cultivation quickly, like cultivation techniques, weapons arts, medicine and pills, unique artifacts, etc., can be bought with ACs.
Cedric passed through a lot of stalls, shops, and even some auction houses along his way here. And to a common citizen, some of their offers were simply too good to pass by.
Luckily for Cedric, he doesn\'t need much of that for now. Personally, his cultivation techniques and sword arts were enough, especially since all of them came from the tower. His people also don\'t need more for now, so he has no real need to buy more.
He could look for jobs too, not just for the sake of earning more ACs but to familiarize himself with the life of a citizen in the alliance. His advantages could only take him so far, after all. And just like the rest, Cedric also wants to upgrade his citizenship as soon as possible.
Right, speaking of citizenship, the rank goes like this: Common Citizen, Valued Citizen, High Citizen, Treasured Citizen, and finally, Cosmic Citizen.
The higher you climb this social ladder, the more difficult it is to upgrade it. Of course, the higher your social status, the more privilege you can get. It could be as common as an upgrade to your monthly AC allowance or as wild as diplomatic immunity.
Of course, there are other ways to gain more privileges and many more social titles available out there, but this was the most direct and commonly known way to do it.
More importantly, these titles aren\'t just limited to the virtual universe. Their effect also applies to the real world under the assumption that they were within the alliance.
Cedric postponed looking for a job right now. It\'s his first day anyway, and there were too many job postings to look at. This isn\'t the way he wanted to spend his first day here.
So instead, he explored the system functions that January told him about. The one that got his attention the most was the Combat Arena.
It\'s inevitable that there will be some friction between people. After all, nobody can expect everybody to get along.
Fighting in public is prohibited in any communal world, yet conflicts couldn\'t be avoided completely or solved through diplomacy all the time, so to remedy that, they\'ve built a combat arena where people can release their aggressiveness in a controlled manner and prevent chaos from erupting.
The Combat Arena isn\'t just a place of people or creatures with too much pent-up aggression. It is also a place where they can see the difference between this race and the next. It\'s a place where new people can broaden their horizons and hone their combat capabilities. Plus, it\'s in the nature of a life evolver to seek heated battles.
It\'d be a damn shame if the alliance couldn\'t provide something as simple as that.
Cedric himself was greatly interested; after all, this was his first time seeing many people from different races at once. He\'s curious about their skills, abilities, and advantages compared to a human like him. And if possible, he wants to face them in combat as well, since Lord knows that he\'s tired of the one-sided beating that he usually gets during his trials at the tower.
The best part is that he doesn\'t need to go to the physical location of the Combat Arena in the Virtual Universe unless he\'s participating or wants to watch the battles in person. He could just open the livestream from anywhere and watch how the battles go.
And that\'s how Cedric saw a fight between two unknown creatures to him for the first time.