"Oooh I like that a lot!"
Uru expressed great joy from her name, humming along loudly to the song that was playing.
Jing smiled and joined in on singing with Uru, joining in simple harmonies and duets within the song.
As the song faded out, Jing dialed down the music. He had finally reached the downtown.
After he pulled over and parked into a space, Jing immediately hopped out and locked the car, taking a few steps towards the gate he could see in the distance. Uru quickly shrank back down to the size of an RC car and started following Jing.
...
After a couple of steps, he thought that he had left his new companion behind. He turned around and found that once again, his car wasn't in the distance, but was at his feet instead.
"You forgot I could-"
"I forgot you could shrink and drive yourself." he said, embarrassed
"And you were gonna leave me behind?!"
"Please forgive me"
Uru responded by driving into Jing's ankle and driving off into the collection of tents and lights, passing through a gate that said 'New Gold' in glittering Chinese characters. On closer inspection, there were wisps of lights trailing away in many different directions.
Cursing loudly at his new injury, Jing chased after Uru through the gate, hopping on one leg.
By this time, Jing finally had a moment to look at the people milling around him. In Frontline City, Jing was part of the majority as an Asian American. Here, he seemed to be in the minority. The majority of persons here seemed to be from other countries and cultures, of all shapes and sizes. There even appeared to be people of colors and shapes that seemed to be distinctly nonhuman, despite having a humanoid shape.
People really like their costum- that guy's hair has an eyeball on it.
Jing found himself staring off to the right at a person walking past him in the other direction. He had seen the round shape of the person's head and assumed that he was looking at an afro. What he had noticed just now was a full-size eyeball attached to a tentacle about the thickness of his pinky finger. After a moment of looking, the single eye met his, and a half-dozen additional floating eyes pointed in his direction.
Before Jing could even offer an apology for staring, the eyes simply turned away, and Jing noticed the whole swarm of eyes on tentacles made up the 'afro' he was looking at. The number of eyes that had looked at him must have been less than one-tenth of the total eyes.
That's gotta be the most intense passing glance I've ever experienced
Jing gathered himself before running up to and picking Uru up.
"Don't leave me alone I'm kinda freaked out here"
"Oh, you'll be fine. Everyone here seems super friendly!"
Uru and Jing had agreed that they would try to enter the festival area and investigate for a moment before deciding to eat there. If they felt like they were in danger, they'd try to get away and get back to the regular world.
Feeling a little more reassured after his non-hostile interaction with a tentacle eyeball monster, Jing made his way further into the area to look for something to eat.
The streets and stands were bright, and most shopkeepers seemed to be setting up for the evening. Now that he was surrounded by more people, he saw that the person with tentacle eyeballs was not nearly the strangest around. There were a multitude of people milling around. The vast majority of them appeared humanoid, with many distinctive features like claws, feathers, tentacles, extra limbs, and even floating adornments like halos and floating metal segments. While a normal human like him seemed to be the minority, it wasn't like they were a complete rarity. No one gave him a second look. It seemed like Uru was getting more attention than he was, but even then only marginally.
Jing eventually made his way towards the center, where in the real world would have been a large fountain surrounded on all sides by restaurants of all kinds.
In the center, there was a large crowd surrounding a giant shining sphere showing many different images. Getting closer, Jing saw that instead of projecting images onto the surface of the sphere, the sphere itself seemed to be holding holographic images of what was going on. It appeared to be an interview with a stoic Asian man and an angelic blonde woman. She had short hair, presumably to leave room for the wings she had tucked behind her at the moment. The man was incredibly handsome himself. He had sharp eyebrows and chin and looked incredibly muscular in his current wear. He was taking off a leather jacket, showing underneath incredibly damp underclothes. He breathed heavily and appeared exhausted as he conversed with the woman.
His voice, however, betrayed no tiredness as his voice rang through the plaza.
"Max raced brilliantly, but there was never a shadow of a doubt that we would claim victory today, we let him, and our other competitors today that Asia will not be giving any ground on New Gold Island"
"Is there anyone else who you would like to speak about in particular?"
"Absolutely." The man then looked directly at the camera. "In either group race or duel, this emperor will give no ground to any opponent".
The man and the interviewer thanked each other for their time, and the crystal faded before beginning to emit music.
The plaza was immediately filled with noise, as the crowd in the center began dispersing towards the restaurants on the sides of the plaza. The restaurants and stands closest to the sphere were suddenly filled, and Jing realized that he only had a moment to secure a spot before the crowd reached him.
He quickly found a spot in a restaurant that seemed to be serving different types of mixed-cooked vegetables in bowls.
Before he had even sat down, he was assaulted by the multitude of smells from the kitchen. He could tell that many vegetables were being roasted and boiled and some types of glass noodles being served
The chef at the counter appeared to be a man with a multitude of hands. They didn't even seem to be attached to him, floating and moving around while interacting with all of the various dishes. The only reason why Jing thought the man behind the counter was the chef and a member of the wait staff was that his own two hands were also moving, carefully stirring and portioning out different amounts at incredible speeds before a ghostly hand would move the bowl to one of the patrons.
"Just one?"
Jing finally noticed another person off to his right, a tall, orange-haired gentleman wearing a black changshan jacket greeted him. The man's handsome face was smiling politely at Jing. His oriental wear slightly confused Jing with the man's incredibly vibrant hair, but he pushed the thought away as he responded to the query.
"Ah yes it'll just be me"
"AND ME!" protested Uru.
The man in the blazer widened his eyes at Uru, immediately becoming more respectful.
"Of course, we have an excellent spot here on the side with a great view of the plaza"
"Finally someone's treatin me right!"
Jing and Uru made their way to their seats and sat down.
The moment he sat in his seat, the entire day's worth of exhaustion hit him. He hadn't eaten in what felt like days, and now that he didn't have to move any further for the moment, his exhaustion hit him like a train.
"Ah, I can wake you up when the food gets here" Uru said when she noticed Jing's eyes closing while he was sitting up.
"I... yeah I might close my eyes for a moment".
Jing leaned back, shut his eyes, and listened to the murmuring of the patrons around him.
They all seemed to be talking about a person named 'Lord Zhang' who was the person who was talking in the giant sphere a few moments ago.
From what he had gathered, he represented some local authority called the Oligarchs. It seemed that the man he had seen in the sphere had just won a race representing a company. The competitors were all racing to determine who would win some crystal or another. The most confusing part was they were mentioning several trading companies. He even heard the name of his own company: Jade East Trading Company. This greatly confused Jing since as far as he knew, Jade Wind had nothing to do with racing, vehicles, or otherwise.
"It's such a shame that Zhang is too good, it just makes getting fresh blood so difficult"
"Don't say that! He races so that New Gold doesn't become flooded with those sticky-fingered corpos"
"Jade Wind came close though. So long as Zhang doesn't race there should be a good opportunity for Max to win"
It was around this point that Jing was finally able to doze off for a moment.
...
He felt something hard pressing into his hand.
Jing's eyes opened to Uru nudging his hand, and he noticed that a ghostly hand was carrying a bowl towards him.
When it arrived in front of Jing, his nose was directly filled with the scents he had smelled on the way in.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
While not a gourmand, Jing had a fair share of tasty food, all of which seemed to pale against the dish in front of him.
It was a beautiful arrangement of vegetables and glass noodles in a bowl, with mushrooms and tofu, and other vegetables he couldn't quite be sure of on the spot. It appeared to be similar to a dish from China called Hui Cai but appeared to be vegetarian.
Jing took a mouthful, and the strength of the flavor would make you believe that it wasn't vegetarian at all. Every single ingredient was boiled to perfection, and even the noodles held the individual flavors of all of the other vegetables within the bowl.
After savoring the taste for a moment, Jing immediately began devouring the entire bowl. The ingredients meshed together incredibly, and each bite had a slightly different combination of ingredients, varying his experience as he ate.
Uru was doing the same across from him on the table. He was considering for a moment how a car was able to eat, and where all of the food was going, but he was too distracted by his own bowl to think anymore about it.
...
...
...
Jing finished eating, and the moment he finished, he felt greatly energized. His fatigue from the work week and the recent supernatural phenomenon was completely swept away. He wondered for a moment if the chef had put some sort of energy drink into his food when the waiter made his way back to the table.
"Did we enjoy the food?"
"Oh my god yes I think that's the best thing I've ever eaten" Jing replied, patting his stomach
"Well, luckily I won't have to pass along the regards to the chef as he can hear you from here the _thing_ replied with a smile.
The chef in the distance raised his right (attached) hand and gave a thumbs-up without looking over.
"There's no rush, you can hand me the fee on the way out".
"Oh I can pay now" Jing said pulling out his wallet.
The waiter made a face as he saw Jing pulling out the wallet "I'm sorry sir we don't take overworld currency here".
Jing, startled and replied "Uh, I only have this. Do you take card?"
"No. We don't take card". The man sneered, his respectful demeanor quickly disappearing. "Please pay or we will have to report you to the authorities"
At the threat of being arrested, Uru whispered to Jing "Lets just go! There's no way they catch me!"
The man stiffened at the whisper and began to grow sizably, with wisps leaking out underneath his jacket forming tendrils that immediately blocked the way to the exit.
"I'm fully capable of detaining you two by myself. Don't think you can get away so easily!"
By this point, the entire store had noticed the situation. Even though the waiter was turning into some sort of shadow demon, no one else seemed to be incredibly surprised. Some patrons seemed to even make some sort of bet regarding the situation.
"Hey no! I can wash dishes! I'll do whateve-"
A clear and strong voice cut through both Jing's voice and the restaurant
"He has money. Stop scaring the other guests"
The chef hadn't stopped moving any of his hands and wasn't looking at them. However, it was clear that he was the one who had spoken since the waiter immediately looked at him before looking back at Jing
The waiter quickly retracted the entirety of his form back within his uniform, before approaching with an amicable tone.
"Please sir, that was very misleading. Could you now provide the payment?"
Jing, still reeling from this 0 to 100 to 0 situation pulled out the only other thing in his pocket, the shining rock from earlier.
The waiter and chef both paused for a moment that went undetected by both Jing and Uru before the waiter spoke again.
"That will suffice as payment" Said the waiter.
Realizing he could get away with a meal for handing over a simple rock, Jing opened his mouth to offer the stone before another commanding voice stopped him.
"I'll pay for him"
This time, the noise in the store stopped. Even the hands that were previously processing ingredients had stopped moving and the chef was looking directly at the guest standing in the door.
The waiter turned away from Jing, with a seething rage in his eyes until he turned around and saw the guest.
She was an Asian looking woman with long black hair with red highlights. She was dressed in what looked like a leather jacket with padded shoulder and armguards with similar leggings. Her hand was pressed into the door, and when she took it down, Jing saw an imprint.
The waiter bowed his head so fast Jing thought the man's neck would snap.
The chef had also appeared, suddenly appearing directly next to the waiter, giving a light bow to the guest. All of the floating hands had also ceased work, instead floating behind the man in a way that made him look like a peacock.
"I'd never thought I'd see the day when the great you would be conning customers"
The chef maintained his smile while bowing slightly again "I was about to correct his behavior myself."
The woman scoffed while the man maintained his frozen smile.
The chef bowed a little deeper, a ghostly hand also pressing down on the waiter's head into a deeper bow.
"Of course, this meal is free for such an honored patron"
"I'm not going to owe you any favors you fox"
She pinched her fingers together and a bronze coin materialized between them. She expertly flicked the coin towards the chef who caught it with both hands. The woman shot a disapproving look at Jing before walking out the door. Jing hurriedly followed her out.
"Uh hey thanks for paying for me, I didn't have the local currency here" He said, calling her out
"You need to watch what you have more carefully" icily
Jing stopped, a little surprised by her hostility.
"I'm really sorry but I don't know what you mean"
"That karma right there. It's obviously yours and you were willing to part with it for a single meal" She replied coldly, pointing at the stone in Jing's hand.
Jing looked at the rock before looking back at the woman.
The confusion on his face must have been evident because her face immediately changed. She visibly went through several phases of shock before simply stating:
"Eat the rock"
What do you mean by that?
"What the fuck?" he mixed his true thoughts with his words.
"I said eat the damn rock"
"Humans can't eat rocks?" Uru questioned
"..."
"..."
The woman looked at a watch on her wrist, a simple but expensive-looking piece.
"I already took too long to help you out. Just eat the damn thing before someone else cons it from you"
"Wait I still don-"
The woman whistled and a motorbike came racing around the corner driverless. It easily maneuvered between all persons still wandering the area. It weaved through groups unnoticed and came to a surprisingly quiet stop in front of the woman.
"Showoff" muttered Uru.
The woman got on the bike, her imposing aura becoming stronger the moment she became fully seated. She tapped the side of her head and a transparent shell started shining around her face, a small set of glowing numbers and figures appearing around the edges of her face.
"Later kid, I got a report to fill". She said as she positioned herself to drive.
"Wait just one thing!"
She sat up.
"Thanks for helping me there. I didn't know what was going on but it seems like you helped me a lot. I really appreciate it, and I owe you one"
The woman flicked a golden coin in the air and caught it. She looked at it for a short moment before responding.
"Hey, always glad to help!" She responded cheerfully
Jing was a little surprised at her sudden shift in mood, but didn't think more of it. He smiled and waved at her and the woman waved back before revving her motorcycle and quickly pulled around the corner.
Ah, shit I didn't get her name.
"Houston calling loverboy!" Uru called to him while bumping into his ankle again.
"OW WHY THE SAME PLACE?!" Jing hopped up and down on one foot as he cradled his injured ankle.
"You should pay attention Jing" Uru responded with some seriousness.
Jing looked around and noticed that people were looking at him. Or rather, the stone in his hand.
He didn't feel like he was in danger of being mugged, but he was certainly receiving more attention than he was before.
He remembered what the woman told him before she had left.
How the hell am I supposed to eat this thing?
Jing flipped the stone in his hands. It certainly felt too hard to eat, it left clear impressions on his hands and didn't give when he squeezed it.
What the hell, I'm not going to gain anything by just standing here.
Jing touched the stone to his mouth, and the moment it touched his teeth, its texture suddenly changed.
There was no resistance as he pushed it towards his mouth, so he ended up swallowing the entire thing immediately.
It seemingly dissolved as it entered his mouth, entering his mouth as some sort of massively carbonated soda.
The flavor was an incredibly strong apple flavor.
The apple-flavored sensation entered his mouth and down his throat, but didn't seem to arrive in his stomach, instead filling his entire body with the popping sensation of soda.
After enjoying the sensation, he felt even more invigorated than he had after the food he had eaten at the restaurant. He felt as if he could conquer the world with how great he felt. He even thought for a moment that he might have consumed some sort of drug.
I just let someone convince me to eat a rock. he thought as he rode this new sensation.
The invigorating feeling slowly faded until he was simply left with a feeling of comfort in his body.
After one last inspection, he looked down at Uru, who was simply staring at him.
"What"
"You just ate a rock"
"Yes and it was delicious"
At the mention that said stone was delicious, she immediately began complaining that Jing had eaten the whole thing without sharing. Jing and Uru continued to bicker as they made their way out of the downtown, and made their way outside.
At that time in the regular world:
A car pulled up into the parking lot of the leasing office, the lot now completely empty and dark due to the time, save a singular truck named "Joe's Cleaners".
A smartly dressed man stepped out of the car and he sighed as he quickly made his way back towards the office. Nathan Kim loosened his tie as he walked, visibly frustrated at his need to return to the office. He had just received a message from his boss that there was an immediate need to make a safe withdrawal today, and it couldn't wait for the weekend.
"Two more years in America and I can return to Korea..." he grumbled.
He reached out and unlocked the front door, quickly making his way through the lobby and towards the loan office within the building.
He went into the back office and opened the safe. He completed the withdrawal and signed his name on the checkout sheet.
Wasting no more of his precious weekend, he quickly turned back through and re-entered the lobby, where he met the old cleaner, Joe.
"Good evening Joe, just had to pick something up" Nathan greeted the old man.
"Evenin' Nathan, hope you had a good trip" Joe replied with a big smile
"Traffic was terrible, per usual. I'm glad I left early" Nathan smiled in return. Joe was always full of good energy, coming in late wasn't enjoyable but seeing Joe generally improved his mood.
"Speakin' of that, there was a young feller who showed up a bit ago. You and the boss had already left."
"Yeah, I saw him after hours at the bank. It's a shame he showed up too late..." Nathan paused before continuing "Wait you saw him here? What time?"
"Oh, about thirty minutes before ya normally close" Joe replied. "He was awfully upset about y'all not being open"
"There were instructions on how to submit any loans before closing times on the front-" Nathan pointed at the office, at a segment of glass.
He stopped before walking over. "I put on the instructions right before I left!"
He looked closer and found a small corner of tape from when he pasted the notice earlier that day.
...
...
"Joe, what time did the boss leave?" Nathan asked
"Uh, I think he was gone before I got here so probably before 4?"
Nathan's eyes widened "That's not long after I left."
He mused for another moment before heading into the office.
"You okay there?" Joe asked after the young man as he walked away.
"I'm fine Joe, I just found that I have some overtime to do" Nathan Kim said to Joe with a gentle smile before heading into the office. The moment he faced away from Joe, his face darkened and he headed to his desk.