Trade Centers

Trade Centers are semi-automated trading centers where characters can trade System loot (e.g. meat, hide, or other parts from monsters) for "credits," use credits to buy gear, and obtain other services such as message transmission or even transportation between different Trade Centers. Trade Centers have Exclusion Zones, which keep the immediate area safe and secure to encourage trading.

The one Trade Center revealed so far, the Pigeon Forge Trade Center, looks like a large blue box, about the size and shape of a semi-trailer, which has several doors on the outside. It is located just outside the city government building. The doors lead to dimensional spaces where trading is done. (It's bigger on the inside!) Most trading is conducted by AI, but sapient beings can be summoned for extremely expensive or otherwise complex transactions. Although none have yet been revealed, some Trade Centers also have Ring Centers, which are presumably satellite locations designed to help spread the load in highly populated areas.

Toward the end of the book Mind Games it is revealed that Trade Centers are run by "Trade Groups," which are in competition with each other, and which use the resources from new System worlds to make money and gain power throughout System Space.