Moving forward, the group continued walking through the narrow path until they reached a slightly larger area.
"Wha…"
"Th-this is…"
Stunned by the scene in front of them, Riko and Yuki couldn't finish their words.
"This must be the slums." Kio added, "Riko, Yuki, you two better not have any ideas to save the people here. We don't have the ability to do that."
Tears welled up in their eyes as they felt frustrated at their inability to help the slum inhabitants.
In their old world, news of children starving to death and other examples of extreme poverty were everywhere all over the internet.
However, seeing it in person is a lot more impactful since they could directly witness the conditions of these people.
Some malnourished children were even lying stiff on the ground, unknown to others whether they're dead or alive.
"Girls, how can you help them anyways? We don't have any money in this world, and our own food supply is limited. If you chose to only help a few, the rest of these guys will steal it from that person and continue to beg for more. But if you choose to give food to everyone here, we will be the ones to starve."
Even though his words must sound very cruel right now, he can't just keep quiet after seeing their reaction. Otherwise, if the girls take out the food that was hidden from Jay's group, they will think we're hiding a huge stash of supplies in our inventory.
"But…"
"No buts, just look away from them and keep walking."
Grabbing onto Riko and Yuki's hands, he dragged them away from this area as fast as possible.
"Guys, hurry up, the zombies could still be nearby."
Since the girls stopped for a moment, they fell behind the group, creating a bit of distance between them. After Jay noticed, he urged them to continue walking, lest they allow the zombies to catch up.
Hearing Jay's message, Yuki suddenly thought of something and spoke loudly for all of the slum inhabitants to hear.
"Everyone! There's a group of vicious zombies right behind us, and they're heading this way. Please follow us and leave this area!"
"..."
Silenced filled the surroundings as Yuki was ignored. Not wanting to give up, she tried to warn them again.
"The zombies heading here will eat everybody in sight! They will kill you if you don't leave!!!"
"..."
Yet again, nobody moved nor replied to her, causing her warnings to fall on deaf's ears.
In the midst of all this silence, they heard a quiet whisper, as if the person speaking didn't have the energy to speak any louder.
"...There's no point in fleeing. Even if we believe what you said was true, we would only die a bit later. ...Most of us here have neither money nor food, and we even have all sorts of diseases. Tell me, girl, what hope do we have in living?"
Covering her mouth with her hands, Yuki was shocked at the explanation provided by this person.
This time, tears began to flow down Yuki and Riko's cheeks after they understood the predicament of the inhabitants here.
"Let's go, now!" Not wanting them to hear more about the cruelties of this world, Kio forcibly dragged them out of there.
After they left, Kio let go of their hands and turned around to face Yuki.
"Yuki, you already did the best you could. With your efforts, at least they know what danger is lurking behind them. Their fate is in their hands now. If you want to save people, you must get stronger in this world, otherwise, you would struggle just to save yourself. The same goes for you, Riko. I know you probably had the same thoughts as Yuki."
Processing Kio's words, Riko and Yuki found a goal to strive for; to become stronger, strong enough to help whoever they want.
Seeing the look in their eyes, Kio felt like his words got through to them, but he also hoped that they didn't create a weird goal for themselves.
'I hope they aren't aspiring to become a hero of justice, wanting to save every unfortunate person they meet. If that turns out to be true, I'll have to speak with them again in the future, sigh…'
After they continued walking, they quickly caught up to Jay's group.
The reason they caught up to Jay wasn't because they were walking extremely fast, but it was due to the fact that Jay and everybody else had stopped.
What lay in front of their eyes was a shop filled with countless cages outside, as if they were displaying their goods for sale.
Inside of these cages were all sorts of living beings, such as humans, demi-humans, elves, and animals.
'Fuck! We just left one shithole and now we come across an even shittier place. What the fuck am I supposed to tell the girls now?'
Kio cursed to himself. He knew that slavery is a pretty normal thing to come across in the isekai stories he knew back in his world, but he wasn't sure how the others would react to this scene.
Since slavery was banned and frowned upon in their old world, he knew it would be hard for them to accept after witnessing it.
All of the slaves inside those cages were covered in many injuries all over their bodies.
A single rag covered each of them, yet those rags were ripped in many places and had holes everywhere, causing people to wonder how would it even keep these slaves warm?
The eyes of these slaves were filled with despair.
The slum inhabitants from earlier looked much better in comparison. At least they had freedom and the right to their own lives.
The girls behind him were crying again, but Kio didn't know how to calm them down this time, since they just kept witnessing cruelty after cruelty.
Saotome, the other girl in their group, walked a few steps away from the building and puked.
*Blurrgh*
Nobody went to check up on her though, because the smell in this area was awful, causing everyone else to also have an urge to vomit.
Feces and urine were everywhere around the cages, leading some of them to wonder, 'why would anyone treat other people like this?'
"Fuck, this place is so fucking gross. Can we please get out of here? Like, now?" Saotome asked as soon as she stopped puking.
Unable to stand the sight in front of her, Saotome's original speech came out.
'Was she… a gyaru?' Kio thought to himself after he heard her words.
Previously, nobody would've connected Saotome to a gyaru because her clothes, makeup, and hair were tattered and dirty, similar to everyone else's due to the sudden zombie attack.
However, as a result of the fear she experienced from the zombies and the shock of these cruel scenes, she forgot to hide her tone and language.
Although everyone else didn't really care about her way of talking, they still understood her message of wanting to leave this place.
Unfortunately, based on the direction they were heading before, this building would block their path.
Following the alley, they had been moving southwest this whole time, even though it hadn't been a straight path to this location.
Directly behind the building was a tall wall extending north and east, meaning the slave building was at the southwestern tip of the city.
There were only three paths leading away from this place; northeast, which is the path they travelled through, north, and east.
Jay had seen the three routes leading out of this area, and he was currently deciding on which way they should go.
The rest of the group were waiting on Jay's decision, since they pretty much made him the leader.
As for Kio, ever since he was summoned into the white space, he had been trying to collect as much information as possible, knowing that it could be useful in the future.
He had been using [Inspect] on the slaves ever since they arrived in front of the slave building.
Even though he had no intention of freeing the slaves, he was curious about their classes and whether or not he could discover anything else about them.
Kio didn't want to be a hypocrite after what he had just told the girls earlier at the slums.
Standing behind him, Riko had been tugging on his clothes the entire time after they reached this place, and he knew that she wanted to save the slaves out of the kindness of her heart.
Despite her silent plea, he knew he had to stand firm about this.
Would this make Kio a cold-blooded person? Yes, ignoring everybody that needs help would show how horrible he is.
Yet, Kio thought, 'If that's what it takes to protect the people dear to me, I am willing to make any sacrifice to achieve it. Even if my reputation and name becomes tarnished in the process, it will all be worth it if they are safe.'
Scanning through each and every one of them, he saw a few classless slaves as well as some new classes that he hadn't seen before back at the plaza.
However, as his eyes drifted towards a corner of the cage, he discovered something that deeply astonished him.
Name: Luna
Age: ???
Class: ???