Merchant

"Here is the reward for the relics you bring in yesterday. I'm really surprised that someone like you got your hand's old-world nutrient pack. Do you have a terminal?"

"No, do I have to purchase one?"

"Well, usually carrying this amount of money would be troublesome so most people would buy the terminal"

Velo is here to receive the money. He never thought of this before because he was poor, but people who have over 100,000 usually have a terminal to receive or pay for something.

Velo thinks about using his wristband but stops mid-way. This is a working old-world terminal and it'd cause more problems if some hunter saw it and come after him.

The relics he brought sold for 4800 tels plus one chocolate nutrient pack that goes for around 480000 at market price. He bought a terminal for storing money from the receptionist's advice.

The terminal look like a rectangle display. You can attach an add-on to it to make it stick to your hand or hang it on your chest. Customize how you like to carry it. The terminal also works as an identity card if you're a hunter or inner walls citizen.

Most people in the slum go about their day without an ID. Why would you need one when you could die at any moment? Most people in the slum don't have the money anyways.

The inner wall people have the privilege of free personal ID and other human rights that the slum city doesn't have.

Velo, purchase a hunter terminal and a hunter ID registering as Velo. His hunter rank starts at 1. It'll go up once he does more requests. Velo ends up paying a total of 150,000 tels for both ID and terminal.

Spending 100k doesn't sit right with him. He can survive with this money for months. Buying only cheap nutrient packs. He needs to get used to this feeling of spending a lot of money at once.

The receptionist explains that having a way to identify yourself in a wasteland is a must. If a hunter finds someone wielding a weapon without identification or SOS signal, they would be hostile. Velo got a ride only because the hunters seem empathetic toward him.

His next objective is to raise his hunter rank and gather the information the A.I. needs. So far he's only been in a slum city. The recording he had is just a surrounding slum and some information about the hunter guild.

For him to get access to the middle district, he will need to rise his hunter rank or get more information elsewhere. He's not sure how much merit he would get, but he would have to make the most point before he returns.

He decides to buy a gun. Theirs a gun shop right next to a hunter guild. It's a golden location and the owner must have paid a lot to get to this place.

The shop is decorated with heads of some mutant animals and robots. There are 2 rows of gun lining in a glass case. The security is rather poor for a shop that sells guns, but most if not all gun merchants have insurance that automatically puts a bounty on someone that tries to steal from shop owners.

The owner can also shoot the thief themself since this slum city.

"Hello, there young chap. Here for some guns?"

"y...Yes"

The owner behind the counter greets him with a big smile. He's a big man with a big beard. By the look of it, he's a retired hunter who's been working here.

"By any chance ya in Frenzy gang?"

"What!? NO!!"

Velo panics because the last time he got involved with a gang, he almost died in Dumo's ruin. The owner sees his reaction and just laughs.

"Hahaha... You don't need to be so panic about it. Yong chap these days got a competitive spirit. I like it. So what kinda gun are ya looking for?"

"Ahaha... I would like a cheap gun if possible"

"Oh? A broke one, are ya? This shop also welcomes broke ones too!... come come let me show you your option!"

He said with a big smile while gesturing for Velo to come closer. The shopkeeper went and get him two guns for Velo to choose from. The shopkeeper stares at him and asks.

"Ya wanna be a hunter?"

"Yes, I'm gonna be a great one"

"Oi, I can't hear ya with that weak spirit!! Speak up!!"

"I'm gonna be a great hunter!!"

"That what's I'm talking about. Now for dat spirit, I'll give ya 20% discount"

The smile doesn't seem to leave the shopkeeper's face when he speaks. Most shop owner would just sell their guns in a bad mood but this guy seem to radiate happiness like a nuclear power plant gone wrong.

"This one is a CA49R of people call it CAR for short. It is a cheaply manufactured gun by the Tagimatsu company. Its effective range is about 300 meters, which is a bit short for a standard gun and only has 30 ammo in a magazine, but when talking about the value, this gun takes the cake at only 172,000 tels. It also has a large community of weird people making custom attachments for it. Ya cannot go wrong with this if you want a gun that can blow some head hahaha"

The shop owner lay hands out a paper that has all the information about the CA49R. This gun is really cheap compared to what it can do. Most beginning hunters use this gun.

But compared to an old world gun that Velo is used to, this thing is lackluster at best with a 900 Rounds per minute without reloading. Compared to the old world rifle, which can dump out 1800 RPM while having little to no kickback for the user.

This era of technology has regressed too far.

"And this fella is a new flagship design from A.M.A. Don't let da flagship word fool ya. The A.M.A. has been eyeing this market for a while now and has been in a gun-making game for a long time. This baby is their amalgamation. The F422A or the Fassa. This fella is a hot sale for a moment."

The shop owner hand over a spreadsheet of this gun spec

"This fella has an effective range of 400 m with up to 40 standard rounds per magazine. It's more powerful than a CAR and comes with a bunch of official attachments. All this is for only 200k flats. This for other people it's a good deal. But I personally don't recommend it over a CAR. The heating management on this gun is worst, and it sacrifices too much for more firepower. It's still up to ya whatever ya want to live with."