Chapter 1: Chapter 1 – Marketing Rule Number 1 – Strike First and Think later

In a large spacious room with elegant purple walls there was a large beautiful wooden door that when opened would present one with a large golden table with elegant details that had gem, gold and food placed all over that could easily feed a middle, no even upper class family for the rest of their life. Beside the table on each side there were two large wooden thrones with gold lining that had red pillows on for comfort, one could easily mistake this room for that of a king but it was instead that of a merchant. On the two thrones sat an equal two overweight men who looked at each other with malicious grins , one had a emerald green merchant outfit on with a large silver feather adorning his hat, his right hand holding a large glass of beer while his other hand held a crossbow that was already locked. The other man had a elegant blue outfit instead with a large orange almost phoenix like feather on his head, in his hand she held gemstones in his left and a flintlock pistol in his right . The two men looked at each other in silence before the man in green said 

"So my old friend... it has come down to this. After all of my hard work and effort it's almost comical that my final roadblock is my closest friend."

The man in blue silently nodded in agreement as he fiddled with a large ruby in his left and while keeping his right hand on his flintlock before saying

"Both of us were filled with greed and led this destructive path but truthfully if I could go back... I wouldn't change a thing"

The man in green gave a flash of disappointment before saying

"It doesn't have to be this way. We could work together, we could make a difference!"

Suddenly the man in blue shot and hit the merchant in green dead in the head. The man in blue then rang a bell before looking down on the green merchant with a smug look on his face before saying

"Marketing Rule number 1 - Strike first while thinking about later"

Suddenly the large doors of the room open only for a humble maid to almost fall over in fear at the sight of the dead merchant. The merchant in blue gave a calm order

"Clean up the body, I need to go check the revenue of the brothels."

The maid who was clearly nervous gave a quick nod before running off the call for help. The man in blue then magically took out a small roll of paper filled with herbs before lighting it aflame and smoking it. He looked down at the green merchants body as he said

"If I could go back in time I wouldn't change a thing."

---

Jim Stone work up with a killer headache, he had such a weird dream about two merchants. It may have been a bad premonition for most people in his situation but for Jim he thought one thing about the men in the dream admiration. Jim looked around his room, to his right was his dad sleeping on the floor naked with a bottle of wine clutched close to his heart. The room was made of wood that were almost falling apart due to wear and tear. Jim looked at his bed or more accurately where he slept as he was sitting on nothing but a pile of dirty clothes with the comforter he usually used was taken by his dad on the ground. Jim stood up and grabbed pants, a shirt and a jacket from the pile of clothes he just slept on. Jim then walked towards the door (or well what use to be a door before it almost fell off the hinges) and looked far above the door to see a sign that he put up himself that simply said 

"Grow up rich and happy , unlike me - Mom"

He made it after hearing his dad drunkenly yell about it being his loves last words, Jim then shook the thoughts of his dad's drunken ramblings out of his head before going through the door and walking towards a large forest far in the distance. As he walked the houses to his left and right all looked almost the same as his, with broken windows and doors with bending and rotting wood, rarely he would see a house with entire planks missing from the front leaving a clear view to see the people inside. He continued walking only to hear a woman say

"You free young man?"

He looked over to see a woman who looked beautiful for the standards of the area but she was still dirty and had barely any fat letting you see her skin. Truthfully the only redeeming quality she had was her makeup but in these slums it was better than most. Jim looked at the woman before coldly saying

"Nope , tell your boss to move you into an area with actual money"

The woman then sighed before saying

"Like you know shit kid. It's impossible for me to get customers when I have a body like this, I'm lucky they force us to wear make up for free"

Jim decided to walk away and ignore the prostitutes monologue as he finally reached the forest. To his right was a intimidating drawing of angry eyes inside sign saying 

"Warning - Wild Animals Spotted"

Jim ignored the warning, after all that same sign had been there his whole life. Jim walked into the forest carefully watching the ground to find a small but noticeable mound around a tree. Jim got on his knees and dug under the tree to find his trusty ax which he found in the forest broken but with some clever use of tree sap , spit and a vine he was able to repair the ax (although he has to hold it carefully to not break it). Jim then picked up the ax and walked into the forest while making sure to chop any and all branches he seen on the way. Hours went by of chopping and chopping but Jim was barely effected, after all it was his daily routine. Jim then sighed as he cut one more final branch, he picked it up and walked a few feet to his left to find a mountain of branches and sticks he chopped himself. He walked back to his hiding location as he re-dug the hole and buried his ax before taking off his jacket and piling branches inside of it before tying the bag and walking back to town. He confidently strode along ready to sale his branches and sticks to poor families needing fire wood for either cooking or heat. Jim felt triumphant as he walked to town with his jacket bag in hand. He sighed as he prepared for the hardest part of the day

---

Jim yelled out 

"Firewood! Firewood! Haggling is accepted!"

Eventually a small line of five people was formed as he started talking to customers with his first customer coming to the stall (or more accurately mat) on the ground, it was a tall man who looked like a gangster or criminal of somesort. Jim smiled the customer knowing he couldn't get him mad before saying

"What type of wood do you need, we have dry wood we have dampened wood and we even have woods for construction."

The man picked up a log that had a maggot crawling on it. Jim said

"Logs are tough to get so that will be a bit more than usual, my starting price is let's say four shillings!"

The man instantly said 

"Your log isn't worth as much as a horse, eight pence."

Jim then bit back with a quick

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"Alright alright alright, but this log was freshly cut from the forest this morning so I say two shillings and three pence."

The man who was now disgruntled said

"One shilling six pence"

Jim instantly said

"Two shilling!"

The man gave a firm nod before Jim smiled and said

"Alright one shilling is final but ten pence minimum!"

The man bought the item without thinking saying

"Have a good one, bye"

Jim sighed before looking forward at another customer, this time an old middle aged woman that he remembered, she was someone who donated to this slum area at this time and was walking back, she was quite big and was obviously rich as she was gullible, she was named Betty Ruth and he called her Mama Betty but not because he liked her but because she was easy to scam. Jim looked up with a smile similar to a child and asked 

"What do you need today Mama Betty"

The woman looked as if her heart dropped as she seen the young and thin sixteen year old boy look at her with so much love. She took a breath before saying

"I need some firewood to use for two or three day, do you have any love?"

Love was a nickname Betty used for children she liked, Jim smiled as he took out ten branches bundled up in a vine and said

"That will be five shillings."

Betty smiled as she says

"That's quite cheap today, it's not even a quarter of my husband's wage"

Jim gave a clueless look as he said

"I'm sorry Mama Betty , I don't know much about money but this is what the big man who bought that log earlier said"

Betty looked furious as she said

"Well he was trying to get wood cheap. Here is ten shillings, it's half of what I have on me."

Jim laughed inwardly as he bowed to Betty he then thought to himself

"Poor woman just bought twelve pence of wood for five shillings."

Jim then ignored the woman walking away as he looked at his next customer only to see someone he recognizes, his best friend Jake. Jake was thin like Jim but was slightly more muscular due to him working in item transport instead of pedaling goods like Jim does, but today Jake had someone beside him. It was a tall dirty man with a posture so bad he could be mistaken for a "r" the man had a large beard with white specks inside. The man also reeked of alcohol and seemed to have a green beanie on that became so dirty it became brown. The man said

"Smooth scam little man but you need a better product"

The man took off his beanie to reveal a small brown pouch, inside was  a white powder that seemed to be the same powder inside the man's beard. Jim looked at Jack and asked 

"Why are you introducing this man to me?"

The man waved his hand in front of Jim before saying

"Merchant rule number 3 - The first person that starts a race is the first to finish"

Jim suddenly has a flashback about his dream, he looked at the r shaped man as he thought about merchant rule number 1 - strike first while thinking about later. He then said

"What is the name of that product?"

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