บท 24: Chapter 24: The Slave Market

Hearing Cristo's words, Stroph thought slightly for even if he wanted to buy a slave he needed a house, so he decided to ask, "The slave market is quite an interesting place, but do you know where you can buy a house? And I still don't know your name" Stroph was calm and thought carefully about the current situation.

Cristo still with the same slight smile said: "Just call me Cristo, the house can be bought over the internet, it's no problem, you'll immediately get the documents digitally and the AI of the house will identify you as the owner, the main thing is to have the money". He sighed slightly and continued: "Young man, by the way, what's your name?"

Stroph was surprised that it was so easy to buy a house here and after a couple of seconds answered, "Stroph". After he said his name, his gaze went to the subway exit and he said: "Would you walk me to the slave market?"

"Oh, of course, of course, please follow me, I assure you won`t be disappointed." Cristo hastily replied, leisurely turned and headed for the exit.

Stroph followed him, asking questions about the city, he had learned a little information from Oliver, but it`s not bad to have more.

Most of all he was interested in the three main organizations, their activities and territories. From Cristo's words, he learned that each of the organizations had almost the same size territory and that their forces were in balance. Although skirmishes sometimes occurred, there had never been any large-scale battles or wars. But there was one important point. "Thunder" and "Anarchy" competed with each other for power and territory, but they had never involved the "Silver Carps" in their squabbles. The latter in turn had never interfered in the affairs of the other two main organizations.

Stroph guessed about this, and he concluded that it was all about the relationship or power of the heads of the three organizations. But when he wanted to ask more about it Cristo cleverly changed the subject, and Stroph didn`t try to ask more about it.

He also learned about the black market here. Figuratively speaking, there's a black market everywhere, but to get things like slaves, rare and powerful weapons, information and other things you need to know the places and they're going to one of them right now.

For a while they came to a low, one-story building. It was very small, dilapidated, cracked, and had an old door. The building was in some godforsaken alley, where it was definitely dark at nights.

Cristo simply opened the door and walked calmly forward toward the long descent down. But it wasn't so simple, Stroph noticed that although at first glance there was no protection and any passerby could enter, in fact it wasn't so. The door was traced by the highest quality scanners hidden in the walls, they instantly identified Cristo's personality, that`s why they were able to get through easily.

Stroph pondered the fact that if he was being escorted into a place like this, it was likely that the man with the cigar in Metro-03 was a very powerful person, because there was no one else to report about him. And judging by the fact, that Cristo could safely enter such places, he was no ordinary man either.

From Stroph's point of view they were walking down for quite a long time.

At the end of the path a large iron door appeared in front of them. Christo simply walked up to it, passed a check and then the door opened, but he didn't go in right away and looked at Stroph saying: "Young man, stand in front of the sensor to be entered into the database, anyone who has ever been to the black market can come here whenever they want."

Stroph wasn`t surprised by such a rule, for given all the precautions in that musty building, a stranger would not be able to reach that door so easily.

After making all the necessary arrangements, they moved on. The moment Stroph stepped through the doorway, an incredible sight appeared before him. He was surprised and shocked by what he saw. Right now he was looking at another Terein city, it only was the other side of the coin.

He was standing in front of another city, an underground city! Just gigantic in scale. A great variety of stores, buildings, benches, people, roads, streetlights, and more. Within some seconds he had already seen stalls with weapons, organs and simple snacks like fried squid. It felt like everything was for sale here, and cotton candy could simply be next to someone's kidney. At the same time, none of the people here had any strange facial expressions or any unusual behavior, it looked as if a huge number of people came for the goods at the fair.

When Stroph saw this, he thought to himself: <The people here absolutely don't care about any rules or morals, it's unbelievable!> Stroph was stunned by the picture in front of him, he immediately wanted to plunge into this world and explore it up and down.

Christo's sudden voice brought him out of his deep contemplation: "Young man, come on, later you can have a good look without me, we`re going there." And he pointed to the eastern part of the underground city, where slaves seemed to be sold.

On the way, Cristo decided to ask what exactly Stroph wanted: "What kind of slaves do you want? Maybe ones to work for you or to clean, do laundry, cook, or maybe you need girls for nighttime entertainment, huh?" Saying the last words, he gave a slight wink to Stroph.

Stroph, in turn, answered him simply and honestly, "I'm just curious to be in a place like this, I don't have any clear goals, though who knows, maybe someone will catch my eye and I'll buy."

They walked leisurely to the slave market, which was a multitude of buildings, they could enter in any of them and look at the goods. As they approached one of such buildings, suddenly Cristo's phone rang, he left his contact information to Stroph and quickly went away, apparently it was something important.

Stroph wasn`t embarrassed by this situation at all, and he simply walked into the building of his choice. It was quite beautiful inside, natural mahogany, lots of red and purple fabrics scattered in various places of the interior and it smelled quite pleasant here. Stroph saw a girl with a bored look in front of him, she didn't even pay attention to the new guest.

Looking around Stroph approached her and quietly asked: "Who should I turn to buy the slaves?"

Hearing his words, the girl's face ceased to be so dejected and with a faint smile on her face she replied, "You can go there and see for yourself, the characteristics and the price of the goods are on the sign in front of it, if you want I can go with you and tell you everything in detail." Having said this, her eyes glowed slightly, it was obvious that she was just insanely bored with doing nothing and just waiting for customers and pointing them the way.

Hearing her words Stroph thought, <She talks about people as if they were mere commodities in some store, apparently people all the time come here for the slaves and no one is bothered by this fact, well, it's none of my business anyway>

Stroph replied with a smile: "Then, who will meet the customers?"

The girl replied without thinking: "Don't worry about that..." Saying this she looked a little embarrassed.

Seeing this, Stroph laughed and said: "Well, then, take me on a tour!"