"One draft beer straight from the tap, boy?" a sexily dressed waitress came to Li-Xin's table and placed the glass on top of his table. Her smile was just so sweet that it mesmerized this young man the moment he lay his eyes on her.
"Yes, honey," Li-Xin replied. Although this wasn't his first time coming for a drink, he finds himself feeling shy when beauties like this waitress were staring at him.
"Oh, look at what we got here. Calling me honey straight away from our first meeting. Unfortunately, I'm not providing. I'll think about it if you bought something pricier." the waitress gives Li-Xin fair looking face a pinch. After giving him a diabetic-inducing smile, she left.
Looking at the waitress leaving his table while swinging her bubbly-looking buttock swinging left and right, Li-Xin grabbed the glass and took a sip. The alcohol that entered his system immediately gave him the soothing experience he's looking for.
It was like all his traumatize experiences from battling the Luminescent Warrior were gone from a sip.
Li-Xin paid only a hundred Geass for glass and enjoyed each sip while ogling on the beauties walked past his table. It wasn't like he couldn't afford to get one of the beauty to accompany him, but he prefers something that came naturally.
And feeling tipsy or not was said to be a condition to the state of mind. His face blushed after finishing the beer in a few minutes. Feeling that he could fit another glass into his system, Li-Xin ordered his second glass.
By the time he's leaving the pub, he finds himself lighter as he walked around the recreation sector.
Although it was categorized as a recreation sector, not everything here was for fun. The categorization worked only as a guide, except for the deployment zone, of course.
And it was unavoidable that some people were here for no good. Walking past a few streets packed with people, Li-Xin found himself walking into a narrower road with people standing, minding their own business.
It might not look like one, but this is actually a privately operated black market. In this mothership, a specific enforcement rule was applied to everyone, but illegal trading wasn't included as one.
The mothership's own security forces wouldn't involve themselves in any of these unless they were tipped with the report of dangerous goods. As long both sides gave their consent in the exchange, there won't be any issue between them.
While it doesn't look like one, there's no question that this is one of the multiple black markets operating around this sector.
A black market is not a must to have stalls, goods, booths, and shady-looking people operating the booth. All it takes is a privately owned device using a copy of shopping list software available in this mothership.
It was an outdated version of software similar to the one Li-Xin used almost everywhere he went.
Feeling that he might found something good around here, Li-Xin decided to try his luck. After all, black market or not, there's a demand as long the goods were something he needed. In fact, many soldiers that went for the mission scavenge for goods to be sold here for some pocket change.
Like the bottle of Reactive Mycelium Bot, which Li-Xin bought using the mothership's shopping interface, it can be found here as long he knew how to inspect the goods.
"Hey, bud. Wanna take a look at my list?" the first guy standing on the curbside was waving his device at Li-Xin while talking. This was how the people operating their booth tried to get people to buy their stuff.
Li-Xin took the device from this guy and took a look at the merchandise he had.
'Ten bottles of RMB in stock? Can you even keep them idle for so long? And what's with the price? 100 Geass a bottle?'
'Do you think I'm an idiot? At least erase the rust on the barrel before you're taking the photo of this rifle, mate...'
"Nothing interests me in your shopping list. Thank you for showing." Li-Xin returned the device to this seller and moved on. It was something to be expected from the seller's shabby look. If he wasn't mistaken, this guy likely went for a simple mission for extraction or collection and returned with goods on him.
Since there's no rule stated that you can't "loot" whatever you get on the battlefield, there are plenty of people like him who lived their day-to-day lifestyle by playing it safe.
Unlike the one he went for, the Extraction or Collection mission pays little to none unless you came back with the goods the assignment asked for. Once in a while, it was a good run, but they're often another hellhole to get into.
In a place like Planet Lucent, you won't know when and where the Luminescents will pop out from.
And since everyone had their own lifestyle, it was not his position to comment about what they're doing. In his opinion, they're just trying to live through another day.
Li-Xun continued to inspect a few other seller's lists.
While most of them are likely a dud, one or two people with highly confidential, extremist hardware exist in this bunch of sellers. Their selling price was another troubling matter. Even with a 90% discount, he still couldn't afford them.
It was until he came across a young lady before getting off from this street. Li-Xin thought he'd give her store a chance to see what goods she had in her hand. Without putting great hope in her list, Li-Xin scrolled through them and came across something that made his day better.
He also finds it weird because a list like this would hardly be seen on someone like her. Furthermore, she doesn't look like someone needing mechanical arm and leg parts from her appearance. This list likely belongs to someone else, and she's here to sell them on behalf of the owner.
"Hey!" Li-Xin tried to get her attention as he tapped into one of the goods he's interested in. The image on the device showed a piece of chip that could override the firing sequence of the rifles issued to the ground unit.
"Yes?" the young girl responded.
"Can you give me a discount on this Merciless Override Chip?" Li-Xin asked. That chip alone would cost between 3,000 Geass if he purchased it through the Mothership's Interface.