Our total expenditure there turned out to be fifty thousand Credits.

It would have been more but the owner gave us a discount for saving his life so that was good. He even threw in a free delivery service as well which included delivering the loot we got from the thugs, so that was pretty neat.

"So what else is missing?" I asked, knowing that she definitely did not find everything we need in that store.

"Mostly just seedlings but I don't need to get them now. I can make the rest with what we've bought today, just need some time to get it started."

I raised an eyebrow, "You said that we'll need to spend another few million though?"

"Ah… That was factoring in the price of buying the seedlings and I don't mean to spend it all at once but over time, Captain. I'll need some time to make the farm first and get stuff ready before we get the seedlings so we can get them at a later time as well."

Well, no complaints from me there.

As we left the store, I noticed someone that was huddled against the wall push away from it to start following us.

I turned to Amber and she seemed to have noticed as well and pointed straight ahead, "Let's take a walk over there. Someone told me there's a nice bar around that corner."

I understood that she wanted to bring that guy to another location to confront him so I nodded at her.

Lea however, did not notice and frowned, "It's barely afternoon though… Are you really drinking that early?"

"Pfft, it's never too early to drink with your lover, Lea."

The Alv scrunched up her eyebrows at that statement but chose not to say anything else and simply followed behind me.

Amber led us towards an alley and turned to walk inside. I glanced to the side without turning my head to see that the guy was indeed still following us before I entered the alley.

The alley continued straight for a few steps before turning, making that the perfect spot for our ambush.

As soon as we turned the corner, both Amber and I pressed ourselves against the wall in the shadows with Amber closer to the corner, which made Lea give us a weird look.

She opened her mouth to say something but I quickly pulled her over to me to lean against the way and shushing her with a finger on my lips.

She nodded quickly and snapped her mouth shut as we waited for the guy to approach the corner.

The soft sounds of footsteps slowly approached the corner and Amber lifted her hands in preparation to grab the person.

The moment he appeared, she reached for him and spun him around to slam him against the wall while pulling out her pistol to press the barrel against his neck.

As for me, I had also pulled out my own pistol but I held it against my side, ready to raise it up should our stalker try anything against us.

I realised the guy was a young man who I suspect was no older than twenty and he looked quite surprised by the situation he found himself in.

"Alright, what do you want?" She asked, pushing the gun against him harder as a silent threat.

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He raised his hands quickly, "Wait! I… I don't mean any harm!"

"Right. Someone waiting outside a store for us to be done just to follow us into an alley means us no harm. You've got to try harder than that."

"No wait! I mean it! I want to hire you guys!!"

Amber raised an eyebrow but she did not move her pistol from where it was, "Alright. Talk."

He gulped, "I… I was outside the store and I saw how you guys took down those thugs despite them outnumbering you by so many."

"No need to praise us. Get to the point."

"I… I have a job that I need someone to help with…"

I frowned, "You can just go through the Mercenary Guild for that, can't you?"

Amber scoffed, "That's because it's most likely a request that the Guild will not accept."

I gave Amber a look, "Huh? What kind of job would the Guild not accept?"

"When the client can't afford to pay the needed fee for the type of request they want, for one."

I turned to look at the young man and… Well… I can see that he's definitely not well off with the way he was dressed.

His pants had several patches sewn over them and his clothes looked one size too big for him which was half hidden by a tattered cloak he had wrapped around his shoulders.

The only good thing about him was that he at least had a decent looking face marred only by some dirt that was smeared across his cheeks.

Well… I don't mean to judge but even those thugs we killed back there were more well dressed than he is and they don't have that much money either.

The young man grimaced, "Yes… I do not have enough money… But I saw how the three of you jumped in to save that store owner right away when you saw him being held up, so I thought you might be willing to help others without needing to be paid!"

Amber tutted at him, "Ah, ah. That's where you're wrong, we were most definitely paid for it. He had sent out an open hustle which we accepted because we were heading to that store anyway. So no, we don't do stuff for free."

Lea came to my side, "Maybe we should listen to what his request is first?"

Amber turned to me, showing that she would let me decide.

I shrugged and nodded at the young man, "Alright. Talk. We'll decide after we hear what you need."

He glanced at the gun Amber was still holding against his neck but my lover showed no signs of wanting to remove it from where it was.

He sucked in a breath, "I… Alright… My sister was taken by a gang… They're planning to force her to sign a slavery contract and sell her off…"

I raised an eyebrow, "The gang wouldn't happen to be the one who took down just now, would it? Because if it is, they're pretty much finished already."

He shook his head, "No… It's another one… They call themselves the Snatchers… Because they snatch up people and force them into slavery contracts to be sold off you see… They're quite a problem here and there's definitely a lot of people who want to see them gone so you'd be doing a lot of people a favour by getting rid of them!"

Amber gave him a look, "You want us to go fighting a gang all by ourselves at the risk of death with no compensation whatsoever? Just so you know, depending on the size of the gang, a request like that could cost you upwards of thirty thousand Credits at the very least for a small gang."

"I… I know… That's why I can't afford it… I don't even have three thousand, let alone thirty thousand… My sister and I are orphans, there's no way we have that much money!"

If this was still the game, I would have just accepted the missions without even thinking much. But right now, this is real and if we die, we die for real. That's why as much as I would like to help him, the risk is too high for the absence of a reward to compensate for such risks.

He seemed to notice that none of us seemed to want to help him.

"Please! My sister is the only family I have left! Both my parents got hooked on drugs and both of them died because of that! We've been living on the streets all this while and they came and snatched her up and beat me up! I wasn't even able to stop her from being grabbed!"

Amber sighed and pulled back from him, "Tough luck boy, but I'll be frank with you, that's none of our business. If you had the Credits, you could make it our business but we're Mercs, not a charity. You want us to risk our lives for you, then you better have something to compensate for it."

The young man bit his lip, "I… Please… I'm begging you… They're planning to use that White Powder or whatever that's been going around to drug her up and make her feel happy to sign that slavery contract… Once she signs it… She won't be able to escape… I'll lose the only family I have…"

Ok… At this point, I sincerely don't think it's because of us that this happened. White Powder was already circulating around here right? We only brought in more of it so this gang could have already gotten them from elsewhere either way.

I was about to reject him again when Amber grinned, "Oh? Why didn't you say that sooner? That means those guys have a cache of White Powder for us to take and sell off~ I suppose that could be our payment~"

… Oh yeah… Good point, Amber.

I guess we can listen to the details then.