Michael brought Hao inside the local market, and as they're walking towards their destination in mind.
The people around them, the sellers and fellow shoppers couldn't help but take a second or third glance at them.
Mostly because his presence is so conspicuous because of Hao, and for the normal people here, it's actually a rare sight to see a superhuman here of all places.
Well, Michael is obviously here to buy food, and it's not like this is his first time coming here as he even greeted those he was familiar with along the way.
And being a superhuman, Michael also couldn't help but notice the people he passess by, walking carefully around him..
Which made him truly realize how different his status had become in the society.
'This is good though, I also get an allowance of ₱10,000 from the government for the next 12 months. Being a superhuman is really awesome'
Thinking that, Michael's footsteps had become lighter as he arrived at the second floor of the building, where the wet goods are located.
Spotting a familiar figure of a woman in the distance, Michael smiled as he quickly walked over towards the stall with Hao curiously looking around the busy surroundings of people haggling with prices of the goods they wanted to buy.
"Its ₱250 per kilo for the pork"
"Can you give me a ₱20 discount on that, Joan? I'm short on cash today"
Not far off from his destination, Michael could already hear the conversation taking place at the stall between the woman in her mid forties called Joan, and a man of similar age, who's smiling apologetically while scratching the back of his head.
"Ya! Meats are getting expensive these days, and there's not much pork getting circulated around the market because of the lack of people rearing them with the passing years. So why is someone so well off like you asking for a discount?!" said Joan with a smiling, but not smiling face.
The man looked at her expression and let out a sign of resignation, "Alright, alright. I won't ask for a discount anymore. Gosh, you don't even loosen up to your regular customers"
Joan packed up a kilo of the pork and handed it to the man, "Shut up, Greg. Here, take it and go before your wife thinks you're playing around again"
Greg smiled helplessly and handed her exactly ₱250, and took the bag of pork from her, "Say, have you ever been this scary during our college days? Because I can't remember"
"People change, Greg. Now, bugger off~!" said Joan with a laugh.
But before Greg left, he didn't forget to say to her, "And also, stop acting like you're darn poor, you stingy woman!" and quickly ran off while laughing.
"Shut it, you bastard!"
On the other hand, Michael didn't quickly come over and instead hung out in one corner while leaning against the railings as he watched the busy atmosphere down below while unintentionally eavesdropping on the conversation between the two people behind him.
"Hello Auntie!"
Seeing that the man finally left, Michael quickly approached the stall with a bright expression before another customer comes.
"Oh...ohh~! Michael! You...you really became a superhuman, didn't you? And is that your partner? She's a cutie, isn't she?" Joan was startled at first with his sudden appearance, but then she became even more shocked when she saw Michael hugging a cute furry cat with a horn in his arms.
"Yes, she's Hao," replied Michael with a smile and continued, "And can I get one kilo of your chicken?"
"Aunt Joan~!" called out to her when he saw her getting mesmerized by Hao.
Joan couldn't get her eyes off of Hao, and only when Michael called for her a second time did she manage to snap out of it, which made her feel embarrassed.
"Aigoo~ sorry about that son. It's because she's just too cute" said Joan with a laugh before handing Michael one kilo of the chicken with Hao already staring at it with shining eyes from Michael's shoulder.
"Yeah~ I've been hearing that a lot on the way here, and how much for the chicken?" Michael laughed, and at the same time, he wondered inside just who is the superhuman between him and Hao as she's getting even more attention than him.
Joan laughed and playfully gestured to him with her hand like she was hitting something in the air and said, "It's fine. It's my gift to you for finally becoming one. Your mom was bragging about you so much on the phone last night that it lasted all the way until midnight, gosh!"
Hearing what she said, Michael could only chuckle and feel a little proud that his parents finally had something to brag about to their friends.
"By the way, I didn't see what happened earlier because I was busy, but it seems it was you who caused the ruckus down there earlier" Joan said with a gossipy tone.
Michael could only laughed it off and scratched the back of his head and said, "Yeah, it seems the guy was a member of the Antis"
And like she was waiting for this moment to come, she leaned over and softly whispered, "If you ever get into trouble with them. You can ask for my daughter's help"
"Ate Summer?"
That's right, this middle aged woman in front of Michael, is the mother of a local superhuman, and a powerful one at that.
That's the reason why she's able to occupy the largest and best spot on the second floor in this building, and just as the man called Greg had said earlier, their family had now grown from a lesser income household to a really well off family because of her daughter.
But not at the level that they're comparable to those large corporations out there, but just enough that they don't need to worry about anything now even after they retire.
Even with that, this mother still continues their family business of selling beef, pork and chicken almost everyday.
"Yeah! You still have her phone number, right?" said Joan with a bright expression on her face, but even though it looks like she's looking at Michael. Her eyes are actually directed at Hao, who's busy staring at the various meat laid out in the display stand before her eyes, with a look of hunger.
"I do, but I don't think that's appropriate as I don't even know if those Antis would really bring their troubles to me" said Michael, as he doesn't really want to contact Summer or even meet her as it brings bad memories during childhood that he just wants to forget.
Then he noticed one thing which made him unsure if he should laugh or cry instead.
'Even though she's talking to me, she's actually looking at Hao. Those eyes, it's like those of mom's when she looks at Hao, explains why they are still best friends until now'
Hearing what Michael said, Joan raised an eyebrow and finally turned her attention to him and said solemnly, "Ohh~ that's a very naive thought son, you never know"
"It's fine Auntie. We'll get going then and thank you for the chicken, see ya!" said Michael with a smile.
"Tell your mom that I'll be visiting soon!"
Michael quickly left and went back to the ground floor and bought a number of different fruits before making his way back to their house with the truck.
Meanwhile,
Inside an old two story house outside the town and surrounded by trees on one side and paddy fields on the other.
"Boss! Bad news!"
Two men are currently inside and watching a tv show while eating a bowl of cereal when another man suddenly came barging in inside.
Both men turned their heads around towards the newcomer, and the man with a ponytail and a short beard opened his mouth and said, "What happened? What bad news?"
"This.."
The man suddenly smirked and quickly pulled out a handgun and pointed it at the two men and shouted, "You are under arrest for threatening national security, and any- f*ck it! Just put your hands on top of your heads! Don't even try to do anything funny because I can't guarantee that I won't accidentally shoot you dead!"
Seeing his actions, both men boiled with anger as the veins in their faces bulged as they didn't expect that someone they trusted would actually betray them!
"Ronin, you bastard! How dare you do this to us when we trusted you!?" said the man with a ponytail angrily, as he seems to be the leader here.
"Bastard! What happened to Mike!? Where is he?" The other guy in the room angrily said when he realized that their other companion was not present when Ronin came.
"Oh~ that idiot? He got himself into trouble by messing with a superhuman in the local market earlier and got arrested, but don't you two worry, you'll be joining him soon for a vacation behind bars" Ronin laughed joyfully, which made the two more annoyed and angry.
"Did you really think you could arrest the two of us by yourself?" said the ponytail haired guy with disdain as both of them slowly lowered their hands down, ready to take action to get out of their predicament.
Roning just watched them and didn't do anything. Instead, he just smiled at them like watching two monkeys in the zoo and said, "Of course not, Morty. I don't go solo with things like this. That's why I brought back up with me"
Crash!
Then the door of the house flew across behind him and crashed to the other end of the house, followed by multiple footsteps approaching, and the sudden calmness made Morty and his companion gulped down in nervousness as they suddenly had a bad feeling.
"Summer Queen!"
When the two people saw the person in the lead and appeared from the corner, both of them shouted in fear and horror as they couldn't believe what they were seeing!
"Surprise, motherf*ckers!"