94 The Market

They followed the stout man to retrieve simple name tags with the information typed on there along with a hand drawn map of the base on an old brochure.

There were roughly 1,000 people at this base, it's population was significantly larger than that of the base that Lucifer had run in City A. Despite the larger size, it still seemed relatively small. Aida frowned. "Only so many people?"

A small sized city like City C had roughly 200,000 people, which means that only 0.5% of the population managed to survive. Of course, this didn't account for the various people who may not have found the base as well as the ones who were still in an Enraged state and hadn't "evolved" yet. Based on these calculations, Aida estimated that only 1% of the population managed to survive this outbreak.

They followed the map to find the apartment they would stay at for the night. Due to their strong demonstration of skills, the stout man had assigned them an apartment. Along the way, they saw rows of tents lined up with people sleeping on the ground. These people were covered in dust and sweat, and looked as though they had been through hell. Many of them had bowls out, begging for food.

Aida watched on apathetically as she already knew the rules. While she did feel some pity towards these people, it was survival of the fittest. Even if she were to help one of them, there was no way she could save them all. Who was she to decide who got to live a better life than others? Her only goal was to make sure that her group was able to live a happy life in this changed climate, not to save the world.

They soon reached the building they would be staying at. Climbing the stairs, they walked up to the 5th floor and found the apartment suite. After checking the conditions of the place, they split up the tasks. Ace would stay back and hack the network to investigate if there was anything of interest on this base, while everyone else would go down to the market. The objective was to acquire as much intel and gems as possible.

Returning to the RV, they retrieved some items that could be used for bartering at the market. The soil on the ground was intact, so seeds were a hot commodity. Aida, being an expert at preparation for an apocalypse, made a conscious effort to collect as many seeds as while passing stores. Thus they had accumulated a large number of seeds that they could trade. She also reminded everyone to carry some high calorie foods for trading.

Everyone exited the RV with Aida being the last one to leave. With Xiao Ai's help, she left some charge onto the RV again so that no one could touch it without being painfully shocked. Her powers were on the mend and she ordinarily would not be able to discharge so much electricity, but Xiao Ai was able to supply her with a lot of the energy which made it possible.

With that done, they felt comfortable with leaving the RV and walked towards the market. Outside the market, there was another large fence with two guards standing in front of it. As they approached, the guards called out, "Halt. IDs please."

Each of them showed their IDs to the guards who inspected them carefully before returning them and letting them in. Before they entered, one of the guards kindly reminded them after seeing the children, "Make sure you hold onto your belongings tightly. There are a lot of people with sticky fingers in there."

Lucifer nodded in thanks before they proceeded in. The market was packed with people, all the stalls were calling out, advertising their items. Rin and Yukio looked around excitedly, they wanted to be a part of the fun as well. In contrast, Little White who was still invisible seemed to have been frightened by the large number of people and hugged Aida's leg very tightly, making her look like she had a stiff leg when she walked.

Nodding towards the rest of the group, Aida went into her nothingness state, completely blending and disappearing into the crowd. Lucifer also went off in a different direction, leaving Light and the twins at the entrance.

Smiling wryly at the two that left, he brought the twins along as they walked towards the stalls. As a good businessman, he was in charge of acquiring the goods for the group. They were very fortunate in that they didn't have a lack of anything, so their only real need was gems.

Entering the first stall, there were many jackets on the ground. It was winter, so the market for these items were particularly hot. Light went up to the owner and asked, "Boss, how do I trade for these jackets?"

The owner casually looked up lazily from his recliner seat before suddenly hopping up with a huge smile on his face. He saw the well dressed Light and twins, and knew that they could potentially be a big sale. "Hello sir, you can purchase one jacket for two packs of seeds or 3 bars of chocolate. It's winter time now, and these jackets are a must have!"

Seeing how eager the owner was, Light casually took out 10 bars of chocolate and set them on the table. He never imagined that a great businessman like himself would end up trading with others using chocolate bars. Life was truly full of twists and turns.

The owner eyed the bars greedily. Before he could reach for the bars, Light opened his mouth, "I can give you these 10 bars, but I need you to tell me more about the area and the trade."

The owner fidgeted a little, seeming to think, "Well…."

Seeing the hesitation, Light resolutely picked the bars back up and prepared to walk to the next stall. The owner chased after Light and stopped him, "Wait wait wait! I can tell you!"

Light smiled politely and looked towards him, "5 bars."

"7," countered the owner.

"6."

"....fine," the owner mourned the loss of 4 bars.

Light knew from the start that the owner would try to extort more from them after seeing the way they dressed. They could actually afford to give 10 bars, but the businessman side of him refused to allow the owner to take advantage of him.

Walking back into the store, the real conversation began.

***