Wealth

I waved goodbye to Tim and Josh, then the two of us walked up the steps and entered the space bullet back to Mors.

[It's too bad even until now, we don't know where the safe area is. I was hoping after we got close enough to Josh, he would tell us.]

Sulking, Sazzy laid out on the empty seats.

"Well he technically did tell us on the first day we arrived. It's really obvious after all."

Sitting up in surprise, Sazzy demanded that I explain.

"On such a planet that is full of predators, there's really only one place that is safe. Not only that, shops exist in the AT center to earn money so they can afford to maintain the safe space. The planet also forbids visitors, even though tourists would definitely increase the revenue."

[The AT center!]

Nodding my head at Sazzy's guess, I continued to push her towards the full answer.

"And there is a part of the AT center that we have never visited."

Sazzy pulled a confused face and went into a thinking pose.

"The front part of the AT center is where the stores are, and the small rooms to stay at are at the left."

[The back! The safe area is at the back of the AT center!]

Finally being enlightened, Sazzy jumped up from her seat and tried to catch a look of the back of the AT center. And of course saw nothing.

Sazzy puffed her cheeks in frustration and sat back down with folded arms.

"After we go back to Mors, we need to choose another planet to go to."

Changing the topic, the both of us pulled up our personal terminals.

"To be fair, for once, I would like to try visiting one of the more popular planets and checking it out."

Glancing at me as I spoke, Sazzy then typed a planet name into chick.kek.

[The planet of Opes is ranked as one of the wealthiest and most popular planets to visit. After we go back to Mors, we can just place our belongings then take the space bullet to Opes. We won't stay there long, because everything there is quite expensive. One night can easily cost about a thousand UC.]

Arriving at Mors, I agreed with Sazzy and we threw all our bags into the car at the warehouse. We then reboarded the space bullet again, this time squeezing into the sizable crowd heading towards Opes.

Compressing myself to as small as possible, I leaned against the walls of the cabin so hard I felt that I would leave a permanent imprint of my shoulder on the wall.

In the time it took to have Sazzy give me a brief discussion of Opes and the sites we should probably visit, the space bullet had arrived. Following the crowd off the space bullet, we filled onto an escalator that descended onto a bright and sparkly mall.

Going along with the crowd, I tried my best to not stare too much as I observed the flashy stores along both sides, abundant with all sorts of items from trinkets to food.

[Following the crowd should lead us to the main square, which splits into twelve different sections. I suggest we take the road third from the right. It's where most restaurants are located, so we can look at the type of food served. Opes only serves international food dishes, and the majority of the planet is a highly interconnected shopping mall with several high speed transport devices placed throughout the mall to help people travel to where they want faster.]

Arriving at the main square that Sazzy was talking about, I awkwardly moved towards the road she pointed out. At both sides of the road were restaurants packed with customers eating food on the inside, and to-be customers lining up outside. There was also a separate line for the takeaway counter.

People bustled here and there inside the restaurants, so busy that you could see the sweat rolling down their faces.

Moving down the road, we randomly chose which road to take during forks. And we bought some snacks from stores that were a little less busy.

When I was feeling a little suffocated by the large crowds of people everywhere, Sazzy pulled up the map of Ores and guided me to a more isolated spot.

[There's an inside garden at the end of this road. The garden is quite a maze, but according to this map I found online, if you take this route you can reach a very nice isolated corner of the garden where no one will disturb you.]

Showing me the article clearly catered towards couples, I followed her instructions while keeping an eye out to avoid any of the ...darker corners of the garden.

We did not follow the guide fully though. Instead, after halfway in, we consulted the map on that article and headed towards the center of the maze where there was supposed to be a water works show that was on every time of the day. There were also benches near the water works, shown in the picture on the article.

Sitting down on one of the benches, Sazzy sat beside me, and the two of us enjoyed the scenery in silence. For 3 minutes. Before we were interrupted by obvious stares in our direction from all around us.

Sighing, I stood up and we started to head back to the crowded mall. At least there, nobody would pay attention to me. However before we went too far, we were stopped by a woman with very expensive looking clothes and a permanent frown on her face.

"Good morning Chef. Could I have a little chat with you?"

From her looks, she was obviously someone that was expected to be high profile. Not that I could talk. So we quickly searched for a more private area.

Gesturing to a more secluded corner of the garden, she bowed her head politely as she asked.

Sazzy had pulled up her personal terminal and was on two pages. One was the immediate call for the nearest police. The other was the record button.

Cautiously, I followed her to the corner but made sure to position myself in a way that made it easy to run at any moment. The woman opened her personal terminal and pulled out a digital name card with her full name, Liz, and her position as the head of the Vastum branch.

If I wasn't wrong, didn't Sazzy mention the planet Vastum before.

"Vastum is one of the most productive factory planets, and is majorly responsible for the generation of resources for Opes. In fact, the trees planted in this garden have all been grown at Vastum. As the head of the Vastum branch for my company, I would have a request for Chef."

Accepting her business card, she then pulled out several photos of a planet with skies the color of dust and land devoid of any sign of moisture.

"This is Vastum right now. As it stands, it is a waste planet where nothing can live. However, inside specially built factories, me and my team work to grow a wide variety of international ingredients that are shipped all over the nearby galaxies. Especially to Opes."

She swiped to clearer pictures of the inside of the factories, and her people wearing special suits, tending to plants and machinery that I have never seen before.

"However, if I would be so bold as to ask you, I would like to invite Chef over to the factory to help us with a certain issue. Due to the amount of pollution in the atmosphere of the planet, any plants that manage to survive have always been covered in a thick layer of dust and debris. Until recently, we have managed this problem by washing off the plants thoroughly using imported water. However, this has caused the cost of our products to increase. I would like to ask a favor of Chef, to come over to our factory and help solve this issue."

With hopeful eyes hidden behind long black eyelashes, Liz read her request to me with a monotonous voice.

Analyzing her words carefully, I slowly mulled over them as she waited in silence.

[Don't go to her factory! All the planets we have visited up until now, Mors, Aquarius and Ferus, have all been part of the Alliance against Colonizers. And are all victims of the Colonizer's actions. But the company which owns Vastum is a pro-Colonizer family, and has always supported the Colonizers even in the war. Being seen on that planet helping them at this point would be considered a betrayal to every single person we have met!]

Warning me loudly in my mind, Sazzy was shaking with nervousness about my decision, obviously waiting for me to reject Liz.

Peeking at Sazzy's reaction from the corner of my eye, and then looking at Liz' facial expression, I felt my confidence in my own conclusion strengthen and nodded my head slowly.

"It seems we both know what my answer would be."

Secretly sending over my personal terminal identification number, I made sure we could both talk in private before staging a refusal. I frowned at her and left the garden.

[Wait! I saw that! What are you planning to do?!]

Turning her head to furrow her brows at Liz, Sazzy then chased after me out of the garden and back into the mall.

"I'll tell you everything later. Once we return back to Mors and move to a more private space. There are too many ears here."

As I said this, I walked back to the space bullet platform and took the space bullet back to Mors. Leaving Sazzy with an obviously confused face.