Out of Space 212 212 - Pyramid Scheme

Ex Warchief Urka grinned as he counted out the number of slaves that were being used to exchange for the dreaded Boom Booms of the Cabal. He placed his meaty arm over the clearly disgruntled Orc who just paid twenty slaves just to buy the weapons.

"You no worry!" Urka gave a salesman like smile. "You bring slaves or gold, you get Boom booms! More slaves or gold, more Boom booms!"

The Orc shrugged off his arm and asked, "So where are my Boom booms?"

"No hurry, no hurry!" Urka raised his hands up in peace before he gestured one of his lackeys over with a wooden crate. "Here are your Boom booms! One every four slaves!"

The Orc opened the wooden case and pulled out the revolver cannon, marveling in its design and pointed at the distance and squeezed the trigger a few times.

"Why no boom boom?" He demanded, "Fake?"

Urka and his lackeys laughed at the angry expression on the Orc's face, which prompted his men to pull out swords and axes. Urka and his lackeys laughed even harder at the menacing display of force before Urka pulled out his own revolver cannon and causally fired at one of the Orc buyer's man.

The heavy weight bullet blew a huge chunk of flesh off the arm of an axe wielding grunt. The surprised Orc roared out in pain and looked at remains of his left arm where a strain of muscle was left connecting his forearm together.

It held its shot off arm together and stared blankly as shock kicked in before it collapsed down from loss of blood. The smoke and the roar of the revolver cannon slowly faded away leaving the buyer and his men in awe and fear at the power of the weapon while the chained up slaves screamed in fear and pissed themselves.

"BOOM BOOM!" Urka laughed. He holstered his weapon and reached out and grabbed the empty revolver off the stunned Orc buyer's hand and broke open the chamber. He took out a shell and slot it into the chamber before snapping it back in place and squeezed the trigger, pointing the weapon in the air.

"BOOOOOW!" The gun roared, jerking the Buyer back to his senses. He looked at his dying man and back to Urka holding the smoking gun and grinned.

"No fake! Good boom boom!" The buyer gave a smile. "But that?" He pointed to the 20mm shell, Urka was holding in his palms.

"40 shells for each slave," Urka replied as he played with the shell in his hands.

"100 for one slave!" The buyer countered his offer.

"50 for one!" Urka counter offered.

"80 for one!"

"60 for one! That's the best I can do!"

"Deal!"

Urka smiled happily, and they spat into their palms and shook hands to seal the deal.

Urka watched as another ten healthy looking slaves were brought in and he had his men check them out. "Say, have interest in joining the Cabal?"

The buyer's eyebrows rosed up high as he heard Urka's offer. "How?"

"Ooo..." Urka smiled and started to give his best salesman speech on how to join the Cabal.

-----

An hour or so later, the buyer once again shook hands with Urka. "So as long as I bring someone to join and he signs the contract, I can earn a commission of one out of ten?"

"Yes! yes!" Urka laughed, "and if that person brings in another, you will also earn one-tenth commission of that contract!"

"So If I got more and more people to join under me, I can take a cut from everyone?" the buyer asked in confirmation.

"Of course! Look at me!" Urka showed off his gold rings and the pair of cannon revolvers. "Look every warrior under me can afford a Boom Boom too!"

The buyer's eyes lit up and he asked, "How do I sign up?"

"Here!" Urka unfurled a magical contract for the interested buyer. "It will cause you 20 slaves or 400 pieces of gold for these 10 magnetic health mattress!"

The buyer looked septical at the mattresses and frowned.

"Don't worry, you will make it all back easily!" Urka assured the buyer. "Its a very worthwhile investment!"

"But I don't have so much gold nor slaves..." The buyer frowned.

"Don't worry!" Urka gave a wink, "You can use other stuff of equal value to pay!"

"And if you still do not have enough," Urka lowered his voice, "I can give you a loan, seeing we are acquaintance!"

"Hmmm... deal!"

-----

Watching the back of his latest customer with his men walking away with ten sets of mattresses which the high ups told him to sell. He wondered if those lumpy mattresses were really that wonderous.

Oh well, as long as he hit his sales target, Urka does not really care. With this customer, he made 40 gold crowns but he needs to pay half of it to his sales team leader.

He carefully removed a notebook and ticked and crossed some sections inside, filling up the sales form. Another three more sales to make and he would make the top sales employee of the month and he will be given a big reward! Urka rubbed his coarse hands together in glee, wondering what reward will he get.

He gestured his men to start preparing the transportation of the slaves and he carefully rolled the magical contract signed by the customer earlier and the other IOU contract into a scroll case and started whistling away as he watched the slaves getting transferred into a wagon pulled by a giant wind wolf.

Once the slaves and the trade goods were loaded up, Urka sat on the wagon with the driver who prods the wolf to start moving. They exited a shed like building and entered the main street of Sin City which the members of the Cabal strangely named it as.

It was a wonder to Urka when he first came to work under the Cabal. He was here when those short eared soft skins declared a city to be built here and in a short time, a small army of slaves labored non stop to build this city of wonders.

Brick buildings no taller than three storeys lined the main streets with the first floor acting as a shop or store front. The City was built circular, with the Stronghold of the Cabal right in the middle of the city. Buildings expanded out from a circular curtain wall that surrounded the Stronghold and each district is further divided by a ring road.

Four straight causeway connected the ring roads together and to the city gates. The outer wall was still in the midst of construction and Urka knows that once the walls are completed, it will become near impregnable by any enemies!

At each ring's entrance was a checkpoint guarded by burly Oerkins dressed in some sort of bulky heavy armor plate that cover them from head to toe. They each held a revolver rifle, that is the same in design as the revolver cannon but with a longer barrel. a hand guard and a buttstock. The wagon stopped next to checkpoint and one of the Oerkins came over swaggering.

"Ooo look! Its the great Urka!" The guard lifted his featureless faceplate up from his helmet and gave a toothless grin at Urka on the wagon. "What do we have here?"

"The usual..." Urka ignored the sarcastic tone of his fellow Oerkin. "Slaves and goods to be delivered."

The guard gave a wave to the rest who came over and started to check the cargo. "So great war chief! How's life?" The guard jeered.

"I am no longer a war chief!" Urka growled. "Better than you all standing in the cold!"

"Oh, I have forgotten you are no longer war chief!" The Oerkin guard dramatically patted his armored head. "Sorry! HAhahaahha!"

Urka's hand reached for his weapon but at the last second, he controlled himself and forced a fanged smile at the guard. "All done here?"

"Aww," The guard looked disappointed that Urka did not rise to the bait and rudely waved him through, "Have nice day, ya?"

Urka nodded to his driver and the wagon creaked forward passing by the checkpoint and into the second ring of the city. The city current consisted of three rings of district. The first ring of district that is closest to the Stronghold, was for trusted warriors and followers of the Cabal.

The second ring which Urka has entered was the industrial ring, where storehouses, workshops and other manufacturing industries were located. The third ring consisted of all commercial and residential buildings. Once the wall for the third ring is completed, Urka had heard rumors from the foremen that they will build another ring for residential.

His wagon pulled into a yard where several other similar wagons were parked and the wolves were huddled together for warmth under a shed. Dozens and dozens of slave workers were unloading goods from the wagons while an Oerkin foreman stood watch with a whip on his belt.

The driver parked at one of the marked lots and Urka hopped down and headed towards the smaller squarish building next to the large storage houses. As he entered the building, the blaze of the fireplace immediately warmed him up.

"Urka!" Someone called him as he was about to go hand in his work contracts for the day. A short eared soft skin dressed in a woolen tunic and long pants waved him over from the door of his office.

Urka entered the room and removed his leather coat before sitting down on the offered chair.

"My man! How are the sales today?" The short eared soft skin asked as he poured a mug of steaming tea out for Urka.

"Thanks Boss!" Urka accepted the hot tea offered by his boss. "Boss Le-ung, I sold off another three contracts of health mattresses and two five sets of Boom Booms!"

"Good! Very good work!" Leung Chun-Kok formerly from Maintainance and Operations of UNS Singapore grinned widely. "You will make top sales for the month soon! Very good!"

Urka smiled back happily and sipped the hot bitter drink. "Boss Le-ung, does those health mattresses or whatever they are works as you said?"

"Ha!" Chun-kok smiled and leaned back on his chair. "What do you personally think?"

"Ermm..." Urka debated on should he tell the truth or not. "No?"

"HAHA!" His boss barked out a loud laugh, "You are right! It's all crap!"

"Huh?" Urka looked confused, "but... why will so many people still willing to buy?"

"My man, the hook here is not on the mattresses but the lure of having other people make money for you!" Chun-kok sipped his tea. "To us, we take a 90% cut of all items sold and they upon finding someone to join under their team, will take a 10% of the recruitment or sale fees and another 5% of all future sales and recruitment by the members of his team."

Chun-kok drew a pyramid like chart on a piece of paper. "Look, we are up here." He points to the tip of the pyramid.

"Everyone below us will make money for us," Chun-kok pointed to the bottom part of the triangle. "We don't have to care what items we sell, as long as those people believe that they can make money by buying from us and selling them to other people!"

"I- I see," Urka furrowed his eyebrows as he tried to grasp the concept.

"Hahaha don't worry about it!" His boss said. "Just work hard on hitting your sales target and I can assure you, you will be rich!"

Urka nodded and stood up, excusing himself as he needed to turn in the invoices and contracts. Chun-kok stood up and patted Urka on his back, constantly praising him for his hard work. As the door closed behind Urka, Chun-kok gave a piece of parting advice to Urka.

"Pyramid schemes always work on greed!"

Chapter end