(fr) "Who the hell are you?" A man of unpleasant appearance dressed in a camouflage clothes, sat in front of a manhole on a comfortable looking chair and aimed his rifle directly at Sergei.
(eng) "Do you speak English?"
"Yes. I'm asking, who are you?"
"I came to trade."
"I don't see any goods. Or are you selling your own ass? Maybe someone will buy it, but I won't guarantee." The man in a camouflage laughed at his own words but still held the gun on Sergei.
"Why does everybody think that I'm selling myself?! I'm scouting, okay? Scouting! I came to see if you would be interested in my goods and agree on the price!"
"Relax, I was just joking. It becomes really boring just sitting here and checking everyone that comes through this manhole to do business with us. More and more ninja turtles like you started to appear lately because of the horde that's wandering around the area. Go find an old man with a straw hat, he's the one responsible for our supplies. He's usually somewhere near the artificial patches. He's name's Emmanuel."
"Got it. Thanks." Sergei nodded in gratitude and went to look for Emmanuel.
The Basilica was turned into a fortress and covered some of the neighboring area. A small makeshift village was built on a free land. The perimeter was fortified with walls of cars, buses and some construction waste. It looked bad but at the same time pretty sturdy.
There were a lot of people in the camp - at least a couple of thousands, which made it quite difficult to find one particular person… Sergei finally managed to find Emmanuel only with some patrolmen's help - he was digging around in the soil from which grew some sick looking plants.
"Emmanuel?"
"One minute, please." Said the man in his fifties with a neatly groomed mustache, he was measuring the plants and taking notes.
"Do you need something?" After finishing with the patch, the man stood up with a groan - it must've been hard to remain in a half-bent position for so long at his age.
"I came to this camp for trading and I was told to find you." The merchant said after inspecting the patches, the equipment and the man himself.
"That's right, only I have the authority to deal with outsiders. I'm also responsible for provision and equipment." Emmanuel wiped his sweat and gave Sergei a once over. "Russian?"
"How do you know?"
"I used to work as a tour guide, I have an eye for foreigners. You are unlucky to be away from home during such a chaos."
"Probably, but let's not talk about it. Let's cut right to the chase. I have food and I want to know how much you can pay me for it."
"Food is good. What do you want? We can't offer you weapons or bullets we need them ourselves. But we can give you some homemade explosives, medicine and chemicals."
"I'm interested in survivor's coins and two medicines, "Apulin Z-10" and "ZLL-0B1". I ask 5 coins per kilo."
"Those are some rare drugs, but I think we had something like that. Five coins per kilo of food? Are you hoping to find the vending machine?" The old man asked in surprise. There were many legends going around about vending machines, everyone dreamt of finding one.
"Maybe." Sergei shrugged.
"I get it, it's not my business. We don't even hope to find it so we accept your price. I'll search for the medicines and then tell you their price - we need to study them first in order to understand their value." The old man turned out to be quite the cunning person and didn't plan on losing his chance to rip off this stranger. What if that medicine was an extremely rare one? Then he could literally squeeze every last dime out of him… "How much provision do you have?"
"I can't answer that question, but I can reassure you that with my help you'll completely forget about your problems with food." Sergei stated with confidence. Emmanuel even flinched upon hearing this.
"Is that so? You robbed a national grain storage?" The old man asked after a short pause.
"No. You'll see when you receive the goods. Two hundred kilos for a start - what do you think?"
"It will be enough to feed a lot of people. I accept."
"Good. I'll be back in an hour. Find someone to help me get the bags out of the sewage. You should understand that those things are quite heavy. And one more thing - do not follow me. I will know about it and our deal will be broken."
"I understand." Emmanuel nodded.
"Get your coins ready."
Sergei returned to the sewers, walked for a few minutes then found a secluded corner and teleported to his haven. There he organized his people and they quickly prepared several sacks of potatoes. Along with Louis and Gautier, Sergei returned to the real world and reached the Basilica. He left Gautier to guard their position with a gun and moved the bags from the haven to the real world before climbing out of the sewage.
"Are you the merchant?" A large man with a cart met Sergei at the manhole.
"Yes." Sergei said and handed him the sack that Louis passed him from downstairs, then handed the second one and so on.
"One moment." Sergei said after passing the man the last sack, he climbed back down and sent Louis and Gautier back to haven. Then he climbed up once again and went to find Emmanuel.
"Is that potato?" Emmanuel almost jumped out of surprise. "A fresh potato? How? From where? I've been trying for so long to breed new types of vegetables that would grow under current conditions, but I failed time and time again. How did you manage that?"
"Let's say I have an employee who can grow vegetables despite the circumstances, and those vegetables acquire special effects. They are very nutritious and even speed up healing process."
"Is that so… Okay, we are gonna weigh the bags and then I'll pay you. Two hundred and four kilos - I owe you…"
"One thousand will be enough, I like round numbers."
"I see! Thank you for your generosity. When can we expect another shipment?"
"How about this - tomorrow my people will bring one ton to a certain place in the sewers, then your people will carry the sacks here, you'll weigh them and then you'll pay?"
"Aren't you afraid that we'll trick you?" The old man asked surprised, and looked at him closely.
"In that case I will just lose one ton, but you'll lose a source of provision. You are not the only ones that I deal with - I'll just sell to others on condition that they will never sell it to you." Sergei smirked.
"There's a logic behind what you say. Okay, I accept a ton." The men shook their hands and went their separate ways.
After the merchant left, Emmanuel thoroughly examined the potato's chemical composition and was shocked when he didn't find any impurities or any signs of fertilizers! It was almost like it was grown on a deserted island untouched by human hands and where there ware no zombies. He cut it in halves, then planted those halves and watered thoroughly - if his theory was correct he could save all humanity from starvation!
Meanwhile, the successful merchant returned to his haven with a pleased smirk.
"Boss, you just made a lot of money, am I right?" Alice happily ran to his side.
"You are! I'm a wealthy man now!" The "provider" stated proudly.
"Excellent! Here's the list of everything we need at the moment." Alice handed ahim a notebook and instantly ran away.
"Huh?! The storage for foodstuff is needed, the storage for clothes… There are not enough solar panels to charge all of the phones… *sigh* Women… Alright, I promised that I will take care of them…" "A wealthy man" sat behind his computer and went through the list. All of the requests were reasonable and written down in order of importance. After examining the list, Sergei fired up his laptop and opened the Shop app.
"Shop… Buildings… Wow, the list got updated!" The list of assortments grew with each new level of his haven.
"A covered warehouse, price… Four hundred coins! It's a robbery!!!"
A WOODEN COVERED WAREHOUSE 500
CAPACITY: 500 SQUARE METERS
STORES VARIOUS ITEMS, ASIDE FROM LIQUIDS AND CROPS FROM THE FIELDS. DOES NOT STORE ANIMAL OR HUMAN BODIES. DURING THE INSTALL THE WAREHOUSE SHOULD BE DIVIDED INTO SECTIONS.
SPECIAL FEATURE: ALLOWS TO MOVE ITEMS TO AND FROM THE WAREHOUSE WITH A MENTAL COMMAND.
PRICE: 400
"It's pricy but… Moving items… It's almost the same as with the cellar only with items! Nice!"
After the purchase, Sergei went to find a place for the future warehouse. The meadow was packed so he decided to build the warehouse in the woods.
WARNING! INSTALLATION REQUIRES THE CLEARING OF THE AREA. YOU CAN CLEAR IT YOURSELF, OR YOU CAN PAY 50 COINS.
"I fucking hate you so much… You keep sucking the money out of me… Agh, fine, I'll pay…"
The trees literally got sucked into the ground and on their place appeared a huge wooden warehouse!
DIVIDE THE WAREHOUSE INTO SECTIONS. EACH SECTION WILL STORE SPECIFIC TYPE OF ITEMS. WHEN THE ITEMS ARE BEING TELEPORTED INTO THE WAREHOUSE THEY WILL AUTOMATICALLY GET STORED INTO THEIR OWN SECTIONS.
"Got it. Then I'll allocate 100 square meters for provision, another 100 for household and other chemicals, 100 for household appliances and electronics, 50 for mechanical spare parts, 50 for clothes and the rest for other things."
The covered warehouse could store foods as well but only in canned and packaged form.
APPROVED. TO CHANGE THE DIVISION IN THE FUTURE YOU'LL NEED TO PAY 100 COINS.
"I have a feeling that I became a cash cow… Okay. Let's try to move the items…" Sergei closed his eyes and concentrated. His consciousness found all of the items in the haven. Then suddenly all of them disappeared and ended up sorted into the sections of his warehouse! In a matter of seconds, the haven, which was packed with all kinds of junk, became deserted - only the tents, chairs and some other small items remained.
"Boss! Is everything okay?!" He heard Alice's voice. She didn't know where he was so she shouted at the top of her lungs.
"Everything's fine, come here!" The Boss shouted back. Soon all of the residents ended up gathering around him.
"Wow, a warehouse!" Orianne gasped.
"It costed me 450 coins." The "big spender" sighed sadly.
"So expensive!"
"Yeah… I wept tears of blood."
"Don't worry, Boss! Tomorrow's the harvesting day and we are gonna dig up so many potatoes that you won't be able to sell them all anytime soon!" Orianne laughed and reassuringly patted Sergei's shoulder.
"There's even a computer in here!" They heard Annette's voice from inside the warehouse. "But it's, like, ancient! Oh and a printer too!"
They soon all entered the warehouse. Aside from the main sections there was also a staff room. It was equipped with a comfortable looking couch, cabinets, a table with a computer on it and an office chair. Well, and an old printer.
"The mouse is not responding." Annette sighed.
"Of course it's not, only I can use it." The Boss answered and got behind the computer. On the desktop there was an icon labeled "1C accounting"… Boss made a few dozen clicks and… The printer came to life and after five full minutes it finally finished printing and twenty or so A4 sheets came out.
"What's that?" Alice inquired.
"The list of everything stored in this warehouse. Alright, you kids have fun, I need to get back to work." He left the warehouse and headed back to his laptop, he wanted to explore everything new it had to offer.
"Residential buildings… A small wooden house, for one person - 200 coins, for two - 300 coins. A toilet, bath or shower - plus 400 coins to the price! You've got to be kidding me!"
"Electricity… Boiler… Public restrooms… Public bathrooms… Damn it, so much money!"
Even though he promised to visit the camp in the office building later in the evening, his shoulder started aching from all the carrying he did previously, so he just lazed around and rested until it was time for dinner.
"Girls, we'll probably earn a lot of money tomorrow, so I'm investing into developing our camp. I'm going to build a lot of two-person wooden houses so you need to choose the place where you want yours to be built and a roommate. One-person houses are a little expensive, so we can't afford them now. I'll build them later if you still wish so."
"Yeeeesss! I'm so tired of sleeping in the tent!" Anne shouted and almost everyone nodded in agreement.
"I like sleep in the tent in woods. Unity to nature." Zoey said, ignoring the disapproving stares of female audience.
"My old bones are not happy from having to sleep on the ground." Old Mark hinted.
"Boss, who's gonna be your roommate?" Annette inquired.
"No one of course - I will have my personal house."
"That's no fun…"
"What, you wanna be my roommate?"
"Not really."
"Well good, because I'm not really interested in minors." Boss laughed. Annette pouted but didn't say anything.
"Now, let's eat everyone! Tomorrow will be a hard day, so let's put in some calories - tomorrow they will all come in handy." And just like that everyone immediately lost their appetite: tomorrow they were about to harvest the crops from four small and two middle fields… Aside from harvesting they needed to plough the fields and plant new batch of potatoes…
In the morning Sergei returned to the real world. It turned out that he could teleport potatoes from the cellar in sacks, and their weight was as accurate as possible! If he wanted he could make the sack weigh exactly thirty kilos! One drawback though, a sack itself costed one coin…
After teleporting a ton of potatoes with a simple mental command, Sergei climbed out of the sewage only to be met with a rifle pointed at his face… again. Soon Emmanuel arrived with some of his men.
"Sergei, your potatoes are amazing!" The old man exclaimed immediately.
"Told you so."
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"Here are your coins." The old man handed him a heavy bag.
"You trust me that much? You haven't even weighed them yet, more than that - you haven't yet retrieved even half of the sacks."
"Hah, yesterday you made it abundantly clear that you are interested in a long-term partnership. And partnerships depend on trust."
"You are absolutely right." Sergei smiled and started going through the bag of coins.
"A coin in denomination of 100 units?" He asked holding a coin with 100 written on it between his fingers.
"A rare thing! It drops from mutated zombies." Emmanuel explained.
"Hm? Like those giant zombies?"
"Yes, yes. Very dangerous creatures but the reward is equally generous. It used to be even more generous before of course, but now it's enough as well."
"It seems you have a lot of users in your camp?"
"Of course, how else were we supposed to survive without firearms? And, we also have explosives, they saved our lives multiple times as well."
"You've mentioned explosives before, but wouldn't the noise from the explosion attract even more zombies? And as far as I know, you can get the reward only if you kill a zombie with a system weapon."
"You're right. But who said anything about killing zombies with explosives? We can just main them. We have an explosives expert who can make a bomb that can tear off zombie's limbs within hundred meters area."
"O-o-o? A shrapnel?"
"Something like that." The old man did not confirm Sergei's guess and just smiled slyly. "When should we expect the next delivery?"
"Hm, tomorrow, or the day after. I can bring you 3 tons - can you afford that?"
"Of course! However do you consider another method of payment aside from coins? System equipment, for example?"
"Of course I do!" Exclaimed the merchant with a wide smile. In the Louvre he only ever saw an outright rubbish - at least among those items that were put on the shelves.
"Come, I'll escort you to our storehouse."
Emmanuel led the guest into the internal rooms of the Basilica - there mostly lived those who fought and protected the camp and other personnel - then they passed a long hallway, went down to the cellar and reached the guarded door.
"Here we store our system equipment, that's not used by anyone at the moment." The guard opened the door and entered the room along with Sergei and Emmanuel, he was constantly on alert.
"Wow! That's a real treasury!"
"Look around, choose what you like and ask me about its price."
Sergei approached the sword stand.
A SIMPLE ONE-HANDED SWORD, LEVEL 2.
SLIGHTLY BETTER THAN A BEGINNER'S BAT, PERFECTLY SUITED FOR BEHEADING BASIC ZOMBIES. CAREFUL, YOU CAN CUT YOURSELF! DO NOT POKE YOU FAMILY OR FRIENDS WITH IT, IT'S DANGEROUS.
(rus) "Hm, I bought the same one for… hmm if I translate into coins, then for 100 coins." Sergei said upon picking up the sword and reading it's description.
"Did you say something?"
"No, I'm sorry, I have this habit of thinking out loud."
"That's quite a dangerous habit to have - any external sound can lead to your death."
"Don't worry about me - even a god won't be able to kill me if he wants to." Sergei looked at Emmanuel and gave him a wide smile. Emmanuel kept silent.
A BLACK ONE-HANDED SWORD, LEVEL 3
MUCH SHARPER THAN A SIMPLE ONE-HANDED SWORD, PERFECTLY SUITABLE FOR MUTILATION. CAREFUL, ONE WRONG MOVE AND YOU CAN CUT OFF A PART OF YOURSELF, DO NOT POKE YOUR FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES WITH IT.
"The descriptions of these items have always amused me - it's like they are written for retarded people." Sergei said while holding the sword in his hand and reading its description.