Chapter 41: Chapter 41 – Quest for Food
"I might have a way to help you, but it won't be easy," Nick said with a thoughtful expression.
Horua opened his eyes widely in surprise. "You do?" he asked.
Nick nodded. "I mean, I'm the Chief Zephyx Extractor in a company, and we still need to optimize the Zephyx production of one of our Specters."
"Horua, would you be interested in becoming a Zephyx Extractor?" Nick asked.
Horua's eyes opened even more, but this time, with wonder.
"Me? A Zephyx Extractor?"
Nick nodded with a smile. "Why not?"
"But I just turned eleven," Horua said with a bit of nervousness.
Nick just laughed. "So? Why not start early? Even more, it's not even difficult to work with that Specter. You basically just have to fall asleep in its presence! Additionally, since your Zephyx Synchronizer hasn't been attuned yet, you should also get a nice ability from it."
"As long as you don't die, nothing bad can happen."
Horua looked at Nick like he couldn't believe what he had just heard. "Are you sure? Can I really become a Zephyx Extractor?"
"Of course," Nick said with a chuckle. "You will gain an ability, a stable job, and lots of money. You might not earn as much as me, but you will still earn more than everyone in the Dregs."
Horua started to jump up and down in excitement. "Thank you! Thank you so much! You're the best, Nick!"
Nick just laughed some more. He always enjoyed it when Horua was excited.
Due to Horua's bad situation, he was rarely happy.
Whenever Nick wasn't present, Horua was worried and stressed. He even had trouble sleeping due to all the pressure.
"Anyway, I apparently have three days of vacation for now, which means I can't take you there right now, but after my vacation is over, I'll take you to your future workplace."
"You're going to see a real Specter, Horua," Nick said with a laugh.
"Wow, a real Specter," Horua echoed in wonder.
The two of them talked some more, but a couple of minutes later, Nick left the house again.
Earlier, Nick had felt aimless. He hadn't known what he should do with his newfound freedom.
But now, that problem had been solved.
Nick could use his position to help one of his friends out.
'It feels good to do good deeds.'
'Now, since the problem with Horua has been solved, I should take a look at some houses in the Outer City!' Nick thought with excitement.
But before long, Nick stopped.
Grumble.
'You know, I'm actually quite hungry. I think I haven't eaten anything in like a day or so,' Nick thought.
'What do I want to eat today?'
'Rat?'
'Fly?'
'Some veggie cubes from the market? I can now buy a lot of them with my money!'
'I could also go with rust mushroom, but I don't really want to. It tastes a bit too acidic for me.'
'Although, the house does have a ripe colony of rust mushrooms, and if I don't eat it soon, it will turn toxic and start releasing toxic spores.'
Nick scratched the back of his neck.
'I should just check out the market,' he thought with a shrug.
Nick changed direction and walked towards the market of the Dregs.
As soon as he arrived, most people turned to him.
Why was a Zephyx Extractor here?!
Nick tried his best to ignore the stares, but they still pulled his mood down a bit.
In the end, Nick entered one of the shops at the side of the market.
He had only gone into some of them due to a job, but he had never bought anything there.
The things in these shops were just too expensive.
The shop Nick had entered had many different pieces of food lying around.
There was rat, cat, dog, fly, and bird, and they even had several different kinds of veggie cubes!
The selection was amazing.
"H-How can I help you, sir?" the owner of the shop asked Nick as soon as he entered.
"Hey, I'm hungry. Do you have anything good to eat?" he asked.
The owner of the shop looked with confusion and suspicion at Nick. "Ye-yes, but I'm not sure if my wares have the quality your tongue desires, sir," he said with a bitter smile.
Nick just waved his hand to signal that it wasn't a big deal. "Just tell me what tastes good in here."
The owner of the shop became more nervous. "Well, I made a new cauldron of veggie cube soup. I'm not sure if sir is interested in veggie cubes, though. Sir is probably more familiar with real vegetables."
"Real vegetables?" Nick repeated with surprise. "Oh, right! I totally forgot that there are supposed to be real vegetables somewhere! Do you have any?"
The shop owner became more nervous.
This Zephyx Extractor was acting very strangely.
Was this some kind of scheme or technique to get some information out of the shop owner?
The Extractor's conduct made no sense.
Nevertheless, the shop owner had no chance but to go along with it.
"Sadly, no, sir," the shop owner said. "No one in the Dregs would buy them due to the price."
"Oh, okay," Nick said. "Then, give me some of that veggie cube soup."
"Of course, sir," the shop owner said as he quickly walked over to a cauldron.
The owner took the lid off, and Nick could smell the aroma.
It smelled absolutely amazing!
The next moment, the owner took out a bowl made of rusty metal and scooped some of the soup out of the cauldron.
"That will be ten credits, sir," the owner said nervously as he put the bowl down on the counter.
Ten credits were 10% of the monthly tax.
Only rich people in the Dregs could afford to eat something this luxurious.
The majority of the shop's customers probably came from the gangs.
Nick took out the card he had received from Wyntor and placed it on the counter.
When the shop owner saw the card, he smiled bitterly.
"Sir, we can't trade with bank cards in the Dregs."
"I'm not allowed to collect the outstanding balance from the banks since I am living in the Dregs."
Chapter 42: Chapter 42 – Sightseeing
Nick exited the shop with a bowl of veggie cube soup in his hands.
When Nick had canceled the order after realizing that he couldn't pay, the owner said that the bowl was on the house.
As a practical person, Nick saw no problem with that and simply accepted happily.
Nick also told the owner that he could ask Nick for help if there was anything he needed.
After leaving the marketplace quite quickly, Nick looked at the bowl of veggie cube soup in his hands with wonder.
In the Dregs, the people mostly ate meat.
Rat, cat, dog, insects, and so on.
However, it was also necessary to eat some veggie cubes every now and then.
Veggie cubes were green cubes made of different vegetables, which could no longer be sold in the Outer City.
When vegetables started to go bad, the shops sold them to one of the gangs, which then collected them all, threw them into some kind of furnace, and cooked them until there was zero water left in them.
One cube weighed about a hundred grams and cost a credit.
It was expensive!
Because of that, the people in the Dregs only ate them once a week or so.
If they didn't, they would start to show various signs of malnourishment.
The bowl of veggie cube soup was beige in color, and there was some kind of oily layer on top, which seemed to have separated from the soup.
The cubes had turned into slimy and mushy bits that swam in the beige broth.
Nick could also see a couple of mosquito larvae swimming in the broth.
These were not the larvae of normal mosquitos but the larvae of the mosquitos that belonged to the Specter, the Mosquito.
The mosquitos of the Specter continually reproduced, and apparently, the Specter didn't mind if anyone ate the larvae.
In fact, they mostly could be found in the Dregs, and they were very healthy.
But they were also expensive.
The larvae from these mosquitos were much bigger than the ones from normal mosquitos.
Each one was around five centimeters long!
When Nick saw the soup, he knew that he was holding something of extremely high class in his hands.
'No wonder this thing is so expensive!' Nick thought with wonder.
'It has four or five larvae and probably over 300 grams of veggie cubes!'
'That's enough food for two to three days!'
Nick slowly pushed the bowl to his mouth and drank the warm broth.
The fat had separated from the water, and the larvae had a bitter and metallic taste to them.
The distant taste of vegetables could also be slightly discerned.
Nick closed his eyes in bliss.
It was amazing.
He had never eaten anything this good in his entire life.
'Also, what is this strong taste? I can't put my finger on it?'
'Wait, is that rust lick?!'
In Nick's mind appeared the image of a big rock standing near the edge of the city.
That rock was made from a magical mineral that could treat some special conditions that caused dizziness, nausea, and vomiting.
The people just needed to lick the rock for a bit, and they would feel better.
Nick had heard some people refer to it as salt, but it was commonly known as rust lick since people licked it off a dirty stone.
'Putting rust lick into a soup. That's genius!' Nick thought.
'It tastes so amazing!'
Over the next hour, Nick slowly consumed the broth, and after he was done, he felt so incredibly good.
Nick felt like his body was telling him how happy it was.
'This is the life,' Nick thought in satisfaction. 'If I could eat this soup every day, I could die happy.'
A moment later, Nick yawned.
'Man, now I'm getting tired. Guess I should go back home and get some sleep.'
Nick stretched and turned to walk home.
After he arrived, Nick entered his room and fell onto his comfy plate of rust-free metal.
His entire body relaxed as he felt the comfortable embrace of sleep take him.
Several hours later, Nick woke up again, and this time, he felt awake and refreshed.
He slept amazingly!
After he woke up, he slowly scratched the back of his head in relaxation.
'Man, I feel great,' he thought with a yawn.
'So, what do I do today?'
After some time of thinking, Nick decided to look at the Outer City.
For the entire day, Nick went sightseeing in the Outer City, and he learned many things.
For example, he had learned how many different kinds of shops there were.
There were actually shops that sold expensive stones that had no other purpose but to look nice!
It was insanity!
Why would anyone pay money to carry a stone with them?
Nick had also learned that there were places where he could sleep without making them his home.
These places were called hotels.
Hotels didn't exist in the Dregs since there were more houses than people, but the same thing wasn't true for the Outer City.
After finding out about the hotels, Nick decided to rent a room for a couple of days and got Horua to come with him.
Nick didn't want to spend all his time alone, and he also wanted to have someone with him that he was familiar with.
Nick even visited several restaurants, but he didn't eat at any of them.
The prices were ridiculous for only a little bit of food!
Ten credits for 150 grams of meat?!
He could get that for free by just stomping on a couple of bugs!
The soup he had eaten the day before had weighed nearly a kilo, including the broth, and the ingredients had weighed over 400 grams!
Eventually, Nick got some physical credits from a bank, and he ate more of the veggie cube soup with Horua.
The day after that, Nick and Horua looked around the Outer City some more.
And finally, it was time to return to work!
It was time for Horua to work with the Dreamer!
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