Chapter 5: Gunfire!

Mia nodded her head but then remembered that one of the things most lacking in 'Gray terminal' was food. People lived day by day scavenging through garbage, and malnutrition was so widespread that it was considered normal. There were hardly and completely healthy people in Grey Terminal.

Su Xiao took out some compressed cookies from his bag. This was a snack he had with him by chance. It seemed to have been transferred together with him from Earth.

He saw a forest not far away, and he already had a gun, so he was not worried about food.

Mia took the compressed cookie with fear. She had never seen this kind of food.

Following Su Xiao's instructions, Mia removed the plastic off the compressed cookie and bit it carefully.

"Umai!"

The girl was hungry for a whole day. She ate those cookies quickly.

"You are called Mia, right? show me the way out of here, and those cookies will be yours."

Mia had eaten all the compressed cookies in her hand. She stared at those compressed cookies on Su Xiao's hand and swallowed.

"Ok, but you have to promise not to hurt me."

Su Xiao did not reply to her as he climbed out of the old house. Mia decided to follow him.

"Where are you going? You are not the resident of 'Gray terminal, right?"

Su Xiao stopped walking, and a cold expression appeared on his face, as he threw a compressed cookie in his hand to the ground and stepped on it.

"Lead the way out, don't ask me anything."

As he removed his foot, Mia jumped toward the crushed cookie on the ground and started devouring it like an animal. This startled Su Xiao. The cookie was gone in mere moments. As Su Xiao was looking at the little girl, he felt his heart tighten but didn't let his feelings appear on his face. If Mia did anything abnormal, like attacking him, Su Xiao would have to point the gun at her forehead without hesitation.

"Thank you for the cookie! It was delicious!" -Mia said with a bright smile that fit perfectly on her innocent, childlike face.

Su Xiao stood there in shock for a few seconds. He was amazed that a child that was being raised in this kind of environment could still have such an innocent smile, and deep down, he also felt pity for the little girl, although he suppressed that emotion.

Eventually, he started talking, but he spoke in a somewhat more gentle tone than before. He wasn't really doing it intentionally, but you can't go against your heart- "Bring me to the entrance of the 'Goa Kingdom."

Mia was still a little scared of Su Xiao, so she didn't say anything else and quickly led the way.

Su Xiao checked the surroundings carefully. He could see the homeless people staring at them. Some Bandits, Pirates, slave traffickers, and other unfortunate individuals had nowhere else to go. All kinds of social outcasts could be seen. Small makeshift wooden cottages were used as homes, some also lived by making tunnels inside the trash heaps while others simply slept on the cold hard ground or were dead. Su Xiao didn't know, and neither did he want to find out. The Brazilian favelas on Earth would be considered 5-star hotels when compared to this.

What surprised Su Xiao is that this wasn't shown in the anime or manga, but then he realized that One Piece was a show whose target audience was children and young adults, so it started making sense.

When the people noticed the gun in Su Xiao's hand, they choose not to approach him. Guns in Gray Terminal symbolized authority and power.

Memorizing the information he got from the anime, Su Xiao started thinking about the next steps. The 'Gray terminal' is like a huge garbage dump. This place was created by the 'Goa Kingdom' who threw their trash outside of the town. The people here are former residents of the Kingdom who were kicked out because they committed serious crimes or had angered some nobles.

After some time, the garbage began to produce a kind of toxic green smoke that harmed the health of the residents here. He realized this because of the drop in his hp, which went down from 100% to 98%.

There was no government here, and in turn, this meant there were no Doctors or Marines, so crimes and diseases were rampant. This was a chaotic place. Everything was determined by power. Ethical principles were almost nonexistent here.

With Mia's lead, Su Xiao finally reached the end of the 'Gray terminal' and arrived in front of a high wall.

The high wall was built using black stone bricks. A gate appeared in Su Xiao's sight. It was a dark brown wooden medieval gate, and it seemed to be reinforced with steel. The gate seemed big enough for a car to pass through with some space to spare.

"This is the only way into the Goa Kingdom, it is illegal to enter from any other point, but people from the Terminal aren't allowed to enter the city."

Even though Mia was talking to Su Xiao, she kept staring at the cookies in Su Xiao's hand.

After giving the cookies to Mia, Su Xiao concentrated his attention on the gate. Mia decided to run away and hide some distance away. She was still afraid of Su Xiao, but she also had a child's curiosity, so instead of leaving, she decided to keep looking at Su Xiao from a distance.

The gate opened. A few soldiers were standing on each side of the gate. This appeared to be a gate for garbage disposal.

The soldiers looked bored, but their eyes looked evil. Those were the eyes of killers. They probably kill the homeless people that try to enter the Kingdom.

Su Xiao was hiding near the gate and waiting for an opportunity to sneak into the city. He couldn't win a head-on fight against the soldiers. He could hardly win against the malnourished young man a few moments ago. Even a small girl like Mia had strength similar to adults on Earth.

Su Xiao gauged that the soldiers had at least twice his strength.

A full 3 hours passed without any good opportunities. It was around noon, and the sun was blazing down on the Gray terminal, making it stink even more than usual. The chance which Su Xiao was waiting for finally appeared. A horse carriage, which was full of what appeared to be food waste, was at the gate. A repulsive smell came from it. The soldiers didn't want to approach the carriage.

"Do you want to check it?"

The diver stopped the carriage since he still needed to let the guards check his luggage.

"You can go through."

The soldiers didn't want to smell the rotting food any longer, so they allowed the man to pass through without being inspected.

Su Xiao saw this scene in the distance and quickly followed the carriage.

After the carriage entered deeper into the Garbage Mountains, the man found a nice empty place to dump his trash. This place was already out of sight of the soldiers.

The driver had a dagger on his waist. It wasn't much, but it was still a way to protect himself. The driver lit a cigarette to help him get his mind off the odor. Then he took a shovel and began to unload the trash off the carriage.

While the driver was unloading the garbage, Su Xiao tried to sneak behind him quietly. His movements were like that of a cat. When he was about to jump the driver, he accidentally stepped on some broken glass.

"crack" a crisp sound came, the driver was shocked after he saw Su Xiao behind him. Su Xiao was shocked as well, to think that he would step on a piece of glass at such a crucial moment.

Su Xiao jumped toward the driver. But the driver reacted quickly. He instantly took out the dagger on his waist and tried to stab him.

The man's expression made Su Xiao realize that the driver wanted to kill him.

He decided to kill the man before he could kill him, so he took his gun out and pointed it toward the driver's head. If ordinary people had a gun pointed at their head, they would stop moving or back away, but the driver was different. He surprisingly moved towards Su Xiao.

Su Xiao shot the gun before the man could react. The bullet shot out of the barrel, together with a flash of light. Before the sound from the gunpowder reached Su Xiao's ears, the man had a bullet hole on his head.

"bang!"

Smoke rose, followed by the smell of gunpowder. The bullet went into the driver's forehead, killing him immediately. His body convulsed violently for a few seconds before receiving the eternal rest known as death.

[Notice: You killed a merchant from the black market.]

[Your talent as a 'Soul Eater' is triggered, adding 5 points to Mana, now you have 65 Mana points.]

[You gained a treasure chest (white).]

[This is the first time you killed an enemy, storage space opened (2 Square meters), your storage space can be upgraded by using paradise coins.]

The notification from 'TRP' notified Su Xiao that this person was not a driver but a black market merchant. He probably had some business in the Gray Terminal.

After the merchant died, Su Xiao received a white wooden chest the size of his hand Su Xiao tried to lift the wooden chest, and it was a lot heavier than it appeared.

A notification popped up.

[Treasure chest (white), open: yes/no]

Su Xiao didn't open the chest, and instead, he put the chest and Flintlock pistol into the storage space.

The pistol appeared in Su Xiao's hand when he wished for it to appear in his head. He was satisfied with this new ability. It was a great function. If he can use this ability well, it would be a huge help when he had to do his mission.

Su Xiao decided to open the chest later. The first thing he needed to do is get into the capital of 'Goa Kingdom.'

He took off his shirt and changed into the clothes that the merchant was wearing. Su Xiao decided to jump into the dirty water puddle he found near the carriage. The filthy water made his face hard to recognize, and the stink will probably make the guards stay away from him.

He sat on the carriage and whipped the horse in order to make him move. Although he never rode a carriage before, it seemed pretty simple. The horse moved forward with a neigh.

He took the dagger that belonged to the merchant. The dagger was a bit different from what he imagined.