Ren looked at the amount of coins he had. After everything and the little goblin romp, he had 4 gold, 67 silver, 50 copper.

  That was a lot. If converted it now he would have 467.5 credits,.And that was just his portion not including Kanuka’s!

  Still, Ren had happily paid a copper coin each for everyone to have a Salvatore Ale. Not just because he was a good leader, but because it was a critical part of his second part of the plan.

  As he drank his ale, he said, “Alright, everybody, according to the quest log, in six hours, the Goblin Alpha will show up. And it’s actually weakened and ready to be taken down. Make sure you don’t spread the information out too much, because we all want to get this second Alpha kill, right?”

  “Hell yeah!” yelled one of the warriors.

  Everyone agreed they wouldn’t spread the news… but one of the warriors had a sneaky look on his face when he said it.

  Ren continued drinking and said, “Alright, I’m gonna go get my equipment repaired, and we’ll all meet back here in six hours.”

  “Sounds good, boss,” said the mage, grinning brightly. She was really having a great time. Being a lone female mage in this game was brutal in the early levels, and this group had proven itself trustworthy.

  Mira was genuinely relieved the group she’d ended up with had been supportive of her newbiness. No eye-rolling, no constant corrections, and—thank the devs—no one hitting on her every five minutes.

  Being an attractive redhead in real life, and with her in-game avatar reflecting that almost perfectly, had been a curse more than a blessing. Before she joined this group, it had been the usual cycle: either she was flirted with non-stop or completely ignored once she proved she wasn’t a top-tier player.

  The government had introduced diversity bonuses early on—meant to encourage fairness, equal play, and a safer environment. But VR hadn’t magically erased real-world biases. Not when it came to how male gamers treated female gamers. That part, unfortunately, still bled through the screen.

  Still, here with this crew—Silk, Ren, Torren, even grumpy old Halt—she wasn’t “the hot redhead.” She was Mira. A clumsy mage, sure, but one who mattered. And for the first time since logging in, that actually felt kind of nice.

  After they logged off, Kanuka and Ren went straight to telling everybody in the dorm room about their good luck. They had close to a thousand credits from this third shift.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “This is exactly what I’m talking about,” Ren said, proudly holding up the balance sheets.

  Technically, he hadn’t cashed the coins in yet, so they didn’t have the thousand credits sitting in hand—but he wanted to show everybody they were making serious progress.

  The people left in the dorm all cheered, some even raising half-empty cans of cheap Krud beer in celebration.

  “Can we take some credits out now?” asked Folo hopefully.

  “Yeah, man, I could really use it,” said Pierre, half-joking, half-dead serious.

  Ren shook his head firmly. “Nope. Remember the plan. No cashing out for at least a month. We need seed money. You think we’re rich now? Wait until we can actually buy the good equipment. Start a real guild. Get ahead before everyone else figures out how valuable this game really is.”

  A couple guys groaned, but most nodded, seeing the logic.

  “Just wanted to show you guys that we’re on our way,” Ren said, smiling. “This is just the start.”

  There was a real buzz in the room now—hope, excitement, belief.

  And in a slum dorm where most people were used to disappointment?

  That was more valuable than any amount of credits.

  Ren stretched, letting out a long yawn.

  “Alright,” he said, rubbing his eyes. “I’m exhausted. Time for my break.”

  They passed the two battered VR helmets on to the next two dorm mates scheduled for the shift—Tanner and Choi.

  Tanner was a wiry, sharp-eyed kid who’d grown up pulling jobs most people didn’t talk about. He was the kind of guy who could slip into a shop, lift the register codes, and be three blocks away before anyone noticed. He’d run distraction teams, swapped real goods for fakes, and once talked a security guard into helping him steal from his own building. No surprise he picked Thief as his main class. It wasn’t just a role—it was muscle memory.

  Choi, who worked construction shifts, was the opposite—big, blocky, and slow-talking. He used to work hauling crates at the port docks before automation wiped out his job. Naturally, he’d picked Warrior as his class. Simple, strong, reliable.

  Neither of them had been given any grand master plan for their shift. They were just going to do what every newbie normally did—wander around, maybe knock out a few basic quests, hunt some horned rabbits or goblin sappers, maybe get killed a few times, have fun.

  Nothing special.

  But Ren pulled them aside before they logged in and gave them a very important task.

  “Alright, listen up,” he said. “While you’re playing… make sure you sneakily tell people that there’s gonna be a Goblin Alpha showing up in about six hours—or basically at the end of your shift.”

  Both Choi and Tanner grinned mischievously.

  “You bet,” Tanner said, already imagining how he could weave it into bar talk.

  “We’ll let it slip real casual,” Choi added.

  Kanuka frowned from his bunk. “But nowhere in the quest does it actually say that.”

  Ren shrugged innocently. “Yeah, but people hearing about it don’t know that, do they?”

  He flashed a tired grin.

  “Everyone’s already hyped after seeing us take down that Shadow Wolf Alpha. If they hear there’s a second boss coming, especially a weakened goblin boss? I guarantee you—we’re gonna have a mob of players foaming at the mouth to jump in.”

  Kanuka thought about it, then nodded slowly. “Smart.”

  Ren flopped onto his mattress with a content sigh. “Of course it’s smart,” he muttered, already half-asleep. “Now… time for a nap.”

  And with that, the first three shifts of their slum guild project came to a close—while the wheels for the next stage of Ren’s master plan quietly started spinning into motion.

  https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/107432/luck-the-luckless-hero