Terminal Volume

"Okay, that's it for the food," Rob silently muttered under his nose as he ran his eyes down a list he scribbled on some piece of scrap paper. 

It took Leo two hours to reappear in this world, reunite with his family, catch up a bit with them, conquer a portal with his brothers, deal with a break-in by some bandits, and then have some talk and strategize for the future. 

It took him exactly as much to do all of that, as it took the three of them to complete one round through the shopping mall. 

And with the back of Tina's car now loaded to the brim with all sorts of supplies, the first and more critical part of their excursion came to an end. 

"Are you sure the windows are shaded properly?" Leo asked while already leaning over the glass and taking a close look, trying to look past the inner, screening material that hid the trunk's insides from the peering eyes on the outside. 

"Yeah, it's an automatic system," Rob replied as he smacked the car doors shut and locked it after fiddling with a small remote for a second. "What's next?"

After two hours of grueling crowd warfare, Leo's group managed to collect enough dry and canned foods, water, and basic medicinal and sanitary supplies to last them a week, two weeks if they were stringent with rationing. 

When it came to medicinal half-products, the stock could easily remain for years, unless there would be an outbreak of everyone suddenly slipping and getting a few new bruises every single day. 

Yet, while there was a need for some of those medicines to be nearby just in case… For the most part, rather than looking at the bandages, herbs, or herbal creams as one would at the end-product, Leo saw those as nothing more but resources he could transform into something much greater. 

And for that very reason, after taking just a short breather, he turned back towards the mall, planning the route they would need to take to approach two particular stores inside. 

"Do we really need to go back?" Millie asked, proving that even a fashionable young woman like her couldn't really consider their recent shopping trip enjoyable. 

"Yeah," Leo nodded his head. "The easiest way to make sure no one will mess with us is to make ourselves too indispensable to everyone for anyone to dare to sleight us."

This was the simple secret of power Leo long learned during his adventures. The power of money that he never had the time, know-how, or the free space of mind to consider and aim to obtain. 

But this time, things would be different. 

'I can't count how many times I grieved lacking proper tools for runegraving…' Leo sighed under his breath before shaking his head and then looking up. 

"The things that we got so far are just to survive. The things that we are going back, for, are to prosper."

Not sparing a further word of explanation, Leo pushed ahead, pulling Rob and Millie along as he once again took a dive into the restless crowd. 

By now, four hours have passed since the world of the old came to an end with the emergence of the portals. And by now, even the most desperate and broke of clerks and servicemen around the mall were starting to get the message. 

'Well, worst case scenario, we might always break in and steal all the stuff I need if that place will be closed…' Leo thought, tightly grasping the wrist of his brother and childhood friend of the old, making sure they wouldn't separate in the extremely thick crowd. 

Inside, everyone wanted to go somewhere. People pushed their way ahead, others tried to pull away, swing to the side… The full carts of groceries or full bags of supplies that nearly every other customer carried only made the situation worse, forcing Leo and his group to move at a literal snail's pace. 

Thankfully, the one shopping point Leo was so desperate to reach happened to be relatively out of the way, away from the shops most of the desperate if not outright panicked buyers would visit in a moment like that. 

"Wait, a paper store?" Rob froze the very moment Leo pulled him out from the main flow of the crowd and into a smaller alley with a bunch of small stores. 

One could find all sorts of items and services hidden in this alley, from the old-style clock master through some underground music shop all the way to the small art supply chain Leo targeted or a high-end coffee-bean store. 

'It might be worth paying that place a visit once I'm done here,' Leo thought, giving the coffee-bean shop a glance before marching into the deserted insides of the small franchise of a huge, art-supply chain. 

"Huh? Welcome?" The clerk sitting behind the counter appeared to be as surprised that there were customers as Leo was surprised that anyone would give enough damn to keep working in a situation that was unveiling all over the more popular parts of the mall. 

'Was he sitting on the phone and missed all the messages?' Leo initially thought, well aware of how deep one could fall into a half-awake state of an endless phone-gaze while working a slow, dead-end job. 

"I'm going to need three sets of basic brushes, sculpting tools for soft and hard materials, two… No, three albums of stiff cardboard…" 

The details of Leo's shopping list went far beyond anything either Rob or Millie could imagine. 

"Softening solution for the clay, paint-stand, two cans of black and white paint respectively…"

Leo shot his demands one by one, barely giving the poor clerk the time to type his orders into the computer file. 

"Nail polish, polish thinner, a set of detailing knives…"

"What are all those for?" Millie stepped over to Rob and, while tugging at his sleeve, reached out with her mouth towards the young man's ear. 

Regretfully, Rob wasn't in the know either. 

"I have no idea…" he muttered, watching helplessly as his brother already sparked a generational grudge between himself and the poor clerk. 

"And finally, do you, by chance, have cigarettes?" 

The look on the clerk's face drastically changed, turning from hate induced by the amount of work Leo just dropped on him… To an expression of someone extremely wary. 

"What cigarettes?" The clerk asked, squinting his eyes as if failing to understand the connection between Leo's earlier orders, fitting the purpose of the store he was in, and the request he concluded his list with. 

A request that was as much out of the place in an art-supply store, as it was sudden and out of nowhere. 

"I apologize, but your teeth are so yellow, it's most likely from smoking some cheap or smuggled brands. There's also tobacco stuck underneath your fingernails," Leo quickly recited out just the two out of eleven observations that made him believe this guy, instead of working his job like a good little keg in the system he was supposed to be, actually used this store as a front for selling untaxed smokes!

The clerk didn't seem to take Leo's words with any degree of enthusiasm, though. 

"I have no idea what…"

"I need ten cases now, and will likely be your biggest patron in this uncertain future, as long as you can keep your supply up," Leo ignored the clerk's excuses and pushed the topic. 

For a moment, the clerk stared at Leo's face. Then, he turned his eyes over to the mayhem happening on the mall's main corridor, where people were just inches away from squeezing the life out of each other. 

Just like Leo warned before, the situation could drastically deteriorate at any given moment. And once the terminal volume of people within the mall is breached, the mayhem will inevitably turn into a bloody, messy festival of ugly and unnecessary death. 

"This place is quickly turning into a deathtrap, so I will top my request off with one more thing," Leo continued only to cross his arms over his chest and give the stressed-out clerk a relaxed smile. "Once you gather all of the things I asked for, we will need your help to get the hell out of this place while avoiding the bulk of the crowd."

Before the clerk could reply, Leo reached out to the pocket of his pants, only to pull out one of the very few monster crystals that he didn't turn into proper mana back within the portal. 

"This is just to show my gratitude and pay for the cigarettes. Everything else we will pay with a card," Leo stated before turning his smile even wider. "As for what this small, funny-looking stone is, just grab it and crush it in your hand to see."