Ok… So it seems I might’ve just made a LITTLE mistake there, 1 days worth of funds and a three day wait.
“…”
...Don't look at me like that! So what that I forgot shipping time, I can get through this!
Knowing that this was not something easily solved I decided to get Alicia and myself something to eat whilst I think.
Opening the door to a local Diner, I am assaulted by the smell of actual warm food for the first time in days.
“Wah~” I hear Alicia mumble, ears sparkling as she looks at the warm food,
your drool is leaking you know?
Well, I suppose that was to be expected.
Finding us a table I called the waiter over.
“Can you get us some warm soup and fresh bread please?” I asked politely
“Certainly m’lady!” The waiter jotted down my order and disappeared off to somewhere.
Ignore the “lady”... Ignore..
After a short wait, the waiter returned, carrying our meals.
“2 Bowls of salmon-carrot soup and fresh bread from the local bakery, please have an enjoyable meal.” He said as he retreated.
Ignore…. Ignore..
Whilst trying to forget this mistake, Alicia, who seemed to be stifling the beginnings of a giggle began to eat her soup, so I decided to do the same whilst thinking for a solution to our money problems.
As far as I can see it, there are three potential solutions:
1: Sell Alicia, would make a good amount of money on the black market, but I would lose my first potential squad member.
2: Rent Alicia to the black market, I would personally lose nothing in exchange of easy money, but Alicia would probably end up unable to trust me and disloyal squad members are worse than no squad members.
3: Donate Alicia’s blood, since I can’t donate my own due to the chemicals my implants have mixed into it, I can only donate Alicia’s. Would make easy money but the payout is meager and Alicia would most likely be anemic for multiple days, slowing me down.
What? ‘Why are all your solutions about selling Alicia in some form?’ Well I can hardly sell myself can I? I don’t have anything else to my name here, oh!
I think I just came up with a good 4th solution.
4: Get a loan.
What? ‘Why didn’t you think of that before considering to sell Alicia!?’ Shut up!
>.< ...I am not mad that she found the waiter situation funny…
…..
...
After eating and paying for the meal, (10 credits! >:/ )
I began searching for a place to stay the night.
Traversing the metal corridors of the Arcology I eventually made my way to the residential district, where the housing and inns are usually maintained.
It was not that long before we found a decent place to crash for the night in one of the inns located on a smaller, less well maintained, plaza.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Welp, there went 60 credits.
What? ‘Didn't a day’s worth of food and shelter cost 40 credits?’ Oh, I seem to have confused you.
20 credits is an inn standard for a low end inn, basic meals for a day are 5 to 6 credits, if you are not too wasteful, but the extra comes from my other meal,
recharging my power source, remember?
Well, the power source is a high end compact microfusion cell. So it costs a rather long penny, 12 to 14 credits to be more exact.
The reason it costs 60 credits this time is because I had to use a field charger to keep it working for the last few days, a field charger is great when you wish to keep going for a few days, but weakens the charge rate, so now I need to waste almost about double the money to recharge it to full, as to get rid of this damage.
After recharging my power source, I left for the Commission Hub.
Why the Commission Hub? Well, as the Old World crumbled, so did the banks and the ability to communicate at great distances, causing a large scale banking system to simply not exist, as thus the one group that has spread out through essentially all Arcologies, the Commission's Group, is left to pick up the Old World services that are not easily re-established otherwise.
I mentioned it before, remember? The Old Government resorted to the use of dirty weapons during the great revolution and nuclear power plants were sabotaged by the revolutionists.
War is ugly and the world we live in is uglier for it.
That is the other reason for why we enclose ourselves in domes of steel, aside from the Old beasts, the outside world has enough background radiation to disturb communications at distance, the longer the distance, the more disruption, so groups like the Commissions Group, the Mercantile Group and such, that have access to potent enough transmitters, maintain the credit, loan, and merit status for its members. Without being part of one of them, you can never leave your arcology and still have something to your name.
I head to the Hub terminal as soon as I enter the lobby, tabbing to the “loan” area, I loan 130 credits on merit. With 10 days time to pay back 145 credits. That should secure my living for the next few days. After signing the loan, I leave the Commission Hub.
‘Well, since I am unable to do anything for the next 3 days, I suppose I should make use of this chance…’ I thought, might as well teach Alicia some survival basics.
After picking Alicia from the inn, we headed to a public training ground.
Author's Note
I'm gonna post a side chapter after this, and maybe I shall even write another main chapter. no promises on that tho.