FISH!

Chapter 55 – FISH!

It was 5 PM, and Tama started mewing, asking Misha to find food or let it eat the yellow jelly.

Thorn allowed her to leave as he had work to do. He and Crystal remained in the hangar to discuss the next deployment.

However, looking at them from a different perspective, Misha thought that Thorn stayed behind to keep Crystal company.

Thorn's eyes when he looked at Misha and Crystal were different. His pupils expanded, and his eyes widened like a kitten seeing his favorite owner whenever he looked at Crystal. Meanwhile, his eyes were indifferent when he gazed at Misha.

'Are they a couple? What do you think, Tama?'

*Mrrr* (I don't know.)

*Nom-Nom?* (Where's our food?)

*Nom-Nom!* *Nom-Nom!* (Food! Food! Food!)

"Alright. Alright. I'll find us some food."

Misha followed the direction that she had asked Crystal, the location of the wet market. To her surprise, this place was cleaner than she had thought it would be.

Food stalls and street food were everywhere in this market. Fruits, vegetables, and fish stalls were abundant. More than a hundred shoppers also walked around in the market, picking things and bargaining for the lower prices.

"Is this really a post-apocalypse world? How come there are so many foods inside the base?"

Misha was astonished by the plentiful food supplies inside the base. At first, she thought that everyone would have been in poverty as the girl she met in the resident area even ate a cockroach.

"Ten oranges for one green gel!"

"One pound of all veggies for one green gel!"

All merchants were yelling the price of their goods to attract customers.

"So cheap!?"

Misha had 10 yellow jellies from Crystal and 3 green jellies leftover from Thorn's gift. In other words, she had 1,003 green gels worth.

*Meh Mew* (I hate veggies and fruits)

*Nom-Nom Mew* (I want meat and blood!)

Listening to Tama, Misha frowned.

"You shouldn't be picky about food. It's cheap, so we can eat a lot of those."

*Meh Mew!* (No veggie!)

*Mew* (Let's eat those nom-nom smelling.)

Tama pointed its tentacle at a fish stall. Misha followed the direction and glanced at the prices. As soon as she saw the pricetags of each fish, she exclaimed in her mind.

'10 Green gels for one freaking small fish! Are you serious!?'

Upon realizing the prices, Misha looked around further to investigate the price trend of the meat and fishes. As she suspected, fishes and other all red meat were expensive while fruits and vegetables were the opposite.

Many types of shoppers walked around in the market. Burly looking men, who carried boxes of yellow gels, bought several fishes and meat at once. Meanwhile, an old man with tattered clothes purchased a bundle of vegetables and fruits.

As Misha had learned a few things, she could tell which person was in the military department by looking at the jellies in their hands and their clothes. Meanwhile, several weaker residents had fewer gels than the army men as they focused on buying cheap food.

*Mew!* (FISH!)

'Come to think of it. This price is reasonable. Everyone shouldn't be able to find clean meat that easily in this era and this environment. Expensive meat should be expected.'

*Mew!* (FISH!)

'Tama and other parasites seem to be the carnivore type. This should explain why the fruits and veggies are so unpopular. Fruit stalls and veggie stalls are mostly ignored, but poorer looking people are still buying them.'

*Mew!* (FISH!)

'Available jobs inside the base is also scarce. Mostly, jobs with high risk have high pay, so all militias can splurge their gels on this luxurious food.'

*MEW MEW!* (FISH FISH!)

'Green gels can fill 50% hunger bar and give me EXP. Spending 10 on a fish isn't worth it. I should buy something else.'

*MEEEEEEW!!* (BUY THE FISH!)

Misha was so engrossed in her thought that she did not pay attention to her surroundings. She did not notice that Tama's voice echoed through the market, and everyone was looking at her.

Fortunately, Misha was still wearing the tattered orange prisoner cloth from the time when she was still in the underground facility, so the onlookers thought that she was a poor girl with a hungry partner. Furthermore, the sound of Tama was that of a little kitten, which they believed that it was still a baby.

"Poor girl. She must have come here to find food for her partner."

"Doesn't she have enough gels? She's carrying a container."

"At best, she probably has a few green gels. Only the military has yellow gels."

Meanwhile, Tama was so annoyed to the point that it was getting impatient. It used a small tentacle to poke Misha's heart to wake her up from her trance.

"Ow! Tama, what's wrong with you!?"

*MEEEW!* (BUY THE FISH!)

"It's expensive! If we buy that, we'll starve for many days."

*MEEEW!* (FISH!)

"I'm sorry, Tama. I just can't."

Tama let out a whimpered as if it was crying. At this moment, the lady in her 40s who was running a fish stall picked two Asian seabass fishes and put it in a banana leaf wrapper. Each of them weighed 8lbs, yet the lady did not have a problem lifting them in one hand.

"Young lady. Take these and let that baby eat it."

"Eh!? But, aren't those expensive? Two of them is at least 20 gels …"

"How about this, young lady. I'm giving you these fishes as samples from my stall. If you like it, come and buy fishes from me when you've become successful."

The lady gave Misha a warm smile, which was rare in this post-apocalypse era.

A group of burly men who had bought many fishes came over. A 6.5ft-tall bald African-American man with scale skins and scars all over his body shoved a large package of a 100lbs tuna onto Misha's arms, which made her staggered backward. Misha still managed to carry it with trembling arms, but Tama immediately helped her with its tentacles.

"When your partner is hungry, you should treat it with the best food. Gels may be hard to earn, but you can buy good memories for yourself and your partner. Treasure it whenever you can!"

"…"

Misha returned her gazed at the bald black man. His scales and his scars were enough to tell a story about his bitter experience of his past.

A friend of the bald man patted Misha's shoulders. Just like the bald man, he also had scale skin.

"Listen to the wisdom of the adults, miss. A simple forgettable experience in everyday life will be so precious after you lost the person you had been sharing with. You cannot buy life, but you can savor the present."

By looking at these kind people and the scales of the two men, Misha's eyes became teary. She bowed to them and walked out of the market with the fishes in her arms.

*Mew!* (Fish! Big fishes!)

While Tama rejoiced, Misha cried as she walked back to her resident.

…

...

...

The bald man looked at Misha's back as she left. He warmly smiled at her before he returned his gaze toward his subordinates.

"I have to buy another tuna for our men. Mind if I borrow your yellow gels?"

"Sure, captain. But are you sure you will have enough gels until the end of the month?"

"In the next few days, our team will be deployed along with Zeris and Balam squad. We can earn back a few red gels from the commission if we can catch a matured queen."

"If you say so."

The stall lady also chuckled as she listened to the men.

The subordinate of the bald man noticed the shopkeeper. He jeered, "Ma'am, are you sure you won't be in the red? That's actually 50 green gels for two mutated seabasses."

The shop lady laughed, "Please. I can tell which customers I should charge less and which customers I must charge more. That young lady is a newcomer. She needs every help she can get."

"Oh really? Then, can we get a discount if we buy fishes from you? You see, we are also poor."

"No. Not a single cent less from the labels!"

"Stinky!"

Everyone laughed, and the men continued shopping. However, the shopkeeper lady rubbed her chin with a grin.

'Only idiots wouldn't recognize those Tupperware. Only those in the expedition forces can carry those around, and that young lady is also from the E.F. A simple 50 gel investment will be worth it once she starts coming back to buy my fishes.'

*Nya-Hah Nyan!*

'You think so too? Nia?'

*Nyan!*

'I wonder what kind of reaction will she have when she eats that tuna. Hehehe!'