With the coming of the dawn, Saraswati realized her "day" was done. Thieving was much easier at night, most people slept and accessing their inventories without their noticing was much simpler. Further, it was far easier to shake pursuit when one could disappear into the shadows. For the first hours after dawn she visited shops, selling her more common spoils and that was where the frustration came. In real life, selling an item typically garnered you one quarter to half its value. Here in this stupid game world, just like in most game worlds, one earned only ten percent. It definitely made thieving Col much more lucrative than candlesticks, snuff boxes and fine china.

Still, another evening and she had enough coin to survive her for a while. Actually, thanks to her savings from back when she was ambushing players and adventuring she had a significant overhead. She'd been slowly eating away at that overhead but it would last a year at this rate. If they hadn't escaped this infernal hell by then she rather imagined they'd all be dead anyways. If only someone could hack their way clear to the internet, find out what was going on outside. Had they been moved to hospitals? Maybe when the Nerve Gear self destructed they were able to resuscitate the victim? Were the police hunting down the game designer?

Then she headed towards the tavern. This early in the day there were few players. Mostly they were NPCs that would file out and disappear when PCs came into the tavern and took their place. That really didn't matter. Taking a seat in one of the rear booths were she could easily see those that entered through the front and possibly bolt for the back door in case of emergency Saraswati took a swig from the ale she ordered and pondered. Leaning back, stroking her long ebony braid, she considered again her situation. The last time she was here and so considered it she tried marrying a wealthy NPC. The idea was simple. She'd have access to his unlimited money, protection from his guards, and a cushy place to stay for free. That, unfortunately, hadn't worked. The game specifically seemed designed to avoid that particular tactic. She even once considered whoring for coin then she remembered how sick and disturbed some players could be and abandoned that idea as fast as it came to her.

No, she was pretty much in this for the long haul.