Agesander
*crickets chirping*
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Buy smart. Buy S-Mart!
They seem to all be around the same age as the MC, which is to say 11 to 13 yrs old.
Only in low social trust cultures. Of course the type of societies they form tend to be pretty dysfunctional and brittle, with strongman rule, out-of-control corruption, coups and civil wars the rule rather than the exception.
Status is relative. Being part of the upper class seems to be the norm for that particular traveling group, so it wouldn't give you as much 'armour' against blowback for transgressions as it would in a more demographically representative social environment. Or as the eminent philosopher Syndrome put it: "If everybody is super then nobody is."
Absolutely nothing?
Not with _wench_! Oh the horror!
Xia Ji: "Nerrrd!
It's never too early to suck up to the new boss.
Hu? https://youtu.be/jM8dCGIm6yc
Seconded. It does indeed suck, a lot. The writing is just an unimaginative, barely coherent, self-contradicting mess, and while I have seen worse translation efforts (there is always worse) I certainly does the novel no favors.
His scalp exploded?
Quite. Just visit a watch store, or a higher end mechanical watch manufacturer's website (because, you know, COVID) and you'll see. There are some models that do go barebones with just hours/minutes/seconds displayed for a minimalist look as an aesthetic design choice, but day-of-the-month and day of the week are _very_ common features (called 'complications') in mid-range and better mechanical timepieces to the point where they are pretty much default.
It's a (Chinese) cultural thing. The best way to think of it is as a form of conspicuous consumption, which is to say socially acceptable bragging. In western eyes such in your face brand name dropping is, especially in elite circles, considered boorish, and a mark of the uncultured nouveau riche who managed to elbow their way into money but not the class to go along with it. However one needs to keep two things in mind here: 1) the low key "money is something you have, not something you talk about" attitude is not a universal custom. Different cultures do things differently, and in Asia hyper-consumerism and aggressive displays of wealth are not considered (as) gauche or lacking in manners as they are in the West. 2.) Until quite recently mainland China was not a wealthy country. There was no 'old money' upper class to set the tone so when people suddenly went from dirt poor peasant or factory laborer to billionaires in one generation or less their blue collar and rural ideas of what constitutes 'class' had a founders effect of creating the local norms by default.
Actually most wristwatches have a date display as one of their complications. Any decent watch much less a luxury brand model will _definitely_ have one.
...and none of his fancy new clothes will now fit him anymore either.
Drugs?
'Coincidence', sure, let's go with that.
Well duh, Bro! Have you tried opening the world map and looking for your Main Quest Icon? It's the yellow blinking '!'.
No, i'm pretty sure the word you're actually looking for is 'stalking'.