Chapter 30: The Cliche

"This… is where the two of you wanted to go?"

"A Scualor Settlement, I've only been to one before."

"We… we made it."

There was quite a difference in everyone's expression as they stared at the colorful city in front of them. Colorful, yes — but extremely dry. The city had walls, or at the very least, they attempted to as far as Lucian could see.

Their defensive walls were made with thin sheets of metal, wood, metal wires, metal scraps, wood scraps, rocks, and any other junk and scraps one could think of.

"I have to say… quite impressive," Lucian, who was hiding in Rosa's hood, could not help but just widen his eyes as he stared at this city filled with rust, "An impressive piece of trash, that is. This is where the two of you wanted to go?"

"Yes…" And despite Lucian's harsh words, Rosa's eyes still glistened; as what reflected in her eyes was not the rust or the trash that Lucian sees — what they reflected was the hope and dreams that she and Adelfred shared, "...We made it, Adelfred… We made it."

Rosa then very gently lifted the water jug she was carrying, placing it in front of her face as tears started trailing down her cheeks. Of course, she wasn't really crying to the water jug, but what was inside it — Adelfred's ashes.

"We need to be vigilant once we're inside the settlement," Hawk let out a small grunt as he stepped forward; still half naked, extremely sunburnt, but now completely used to it, "We're also carrying lots of things — I've been to a settlement before, and it's a place where you should always keep one of your eyes open."

"Correction, Baldie," Lucian smirked before just completely hiding himself in Rosa's hood, "You're carrying lots of things. Now, what are we waiting for? Onward to the slums!"

"It's… it's not a slum," Rosa could really only let out a sigh as she carefully held Adelfred's ashes close to her before nodding and heading to the rusty city. And as they got closer and closer, the life of the city soon whispered into their ears—no, it sang to them.

"Welcome! Welcome to Scualor 7!" And almost immediately, they were welcomed by a skinny man covered in dirt and oil, who only had rags for a shirt… and only a shirt. His manhood, completely exposed and just hanging there while he waved and danced in front of Hawk and Rosa,

"I haven't seen the two of you here before? What are you here for, hm? Some clothes, no doubt?"

"Buddy…" Hawk noticed the skinny man looking at him from head to toe since he only had his tanga briefs on, "...I think you should worry about yourself more."

"Ho…? Nonsense, nonsense! I am the city's Welcomer! I dress the best in the entire world!" The Welcomer once again started dancing and waving his hands in the air.

As for Rosa, she could really only subtly cover her nose as she stared at the Welcomer's teeth... or lack thereof. She had been walking across the Wasteland for weeks and weeks on end.

"I… don't smell like that, do I?" Rosa whispered to Lucian.

"No, you just smell like a corpse."

"What was that!?" The Welcomer then suddenly leaned closer to Rosa, "I heard someone else, who was that!?"

"Thank you for welcoming us," Hawk quickly pushed the Welcomer away, "But I think we can handle it from here."

"Hm, are you sure…?" The Welcomer backed away while spinning, "The Welcomer knows all there is to know about Scualor 7! For one… where to sell all that juicy tech you're carrying, fufufu."

"Tch," Hawk just once again pushed the Welcomer as he started wiggling his fingers while looking at the rifles, bags, and all the other stuff he was carrying on him, "We'll find our own way, thank you."

"W—"

"Scram!" Hawk then pretended to lunge at the Welcomer, causing him to finally run away and hide from behind the gate—well, what looked like a gate anyway.

"Did… you really have to be so rude to him?" Rosa's eyebrows lowered as she looked at the Welcomer, who truly seemed frightened.

"That's the way it is here, Ms. Rosa," Hawk shook his head as he just entered the city, "You need to show them that you can't be swindled."

"Wh—" And before Rosa could finish her words, she could not help but just shut her mouth as she was overwhelmed by all the noise and the scenery in front of her.

It was chaos, everywhere.

"Don't think you can run off, Baldie — I will kill you before you can even get away."

"...I won't."

The houses were made from the same material as the walls; scraps and wood. The streets were completely uneven, roads narrow and wide just randomly connected together — there were people sleeping on the street, begging on the street, and some were even selling things on the street.

She could hear people fighting, but couldn't really pinpoint where as the noise was just everywhere all at the same time; the only thing she could really do was hold onto Adelfred as tight as she could.

"Where… do we even go?" Rosa whispered.

"Not the paradise you thought it was?" Lucian slightly peeked out from the hood.

"...Only because Adelfred is not here," Rosa sniffled while shaking her head. But after a few more seconds, she let out a large breath and looked forward, "...Onward."

"...We need to sell our baggage first," Hawk stopped Rosa from walking.

"Don't just touch me, please," Rosa slightly leaned away from Hawk — but of course, she knew why he did that. Several people were already staring at them, or more specifically, staring at Hawk and all the treasures hanging from him.

"Let's walk," Hawk then nodded as he gestured to Rosa to stay close. Fortunately for them, all the lookers did only that, look. And after several minutes of walking around — they were able to find a random store that had its own rusty building. It wasn't that hard to find due to the large sign above it that says 'Buy and Sell Anything'.

"Oh?" And as soon as Hawk and Rosa entered, the storekeeper quickly looked at all the things Hawk was carrying.

"You buying?" Hawk immediately asked as he tried his best to sound as local as possible.

"Depends on what you're selling," the shopkeeper, who seemed to be appraising something, quickly gestured to Hawk and Rosa to approach and place all the treasures on the counter.

"We're selling all of these," Hawk let out a sigh of relief as he was finally rid of the rifles and all the other bags with all sorts of gadgets and random things.

"Plasma rifles and accelerators, hmm…?" The shopkeeper squinted his eyes as he looked at the guns, "The nano-fusion cores are all empty."

"We wouldn't be selling it if it still had gas," Hawk breathed out as he still tried to sound local — of course, the reason why it no longer had any power in them was because Lucian absorbed it, "We looted it from the corpses of some kaiju corps fucks."

"I'm assuming the corpses were… fresh?" The shopkeeper slightly giggled, "There are—what is that?"

"Hm?" Hawk looked to where the shopkeeper was looking, only to see Lucian's golden plate slightly peeking out of Rosa's bag.

"This is nothing," Rosa quickly put the bag behind her, "It's not for sale."

"Everything's for sale," the shopkeeper smiled, "Let me see it."

"The lady says it's not for sale," Hawk blocked Rosa from the shopkeeper's view, "Just give me what I can get from everything that's on the counter and let's go on with our lives."

"You don't seem to know how things work around here, Macho Man," the shopkeeper then took a step back, and as he did so, several men started emerging from the back of the shop, "Seeing as you are not from around here."

"...Shit," Hawk could really only close his eyes and curse.

"You see, once you go inside my shop — I decide what to buy," the shopkeeper then gestured to his men to approach Rosa and Hawk, "And if you don't agree, well…

…you end up dead."

"Ooh, it's happening. The cliche encounter with the greedy shopkeeper…" Lucian very quietly whispered inside Rosa's hood,

"...Very good job, Hawk."