"Escort me to the head of security. I have an important business to discuss." Sergei demanded lazily.
"Who the hell are you and why should I do that?" The policeman asked, agitated.
"Just tell him that the seller of potatoes is here."
"What? Is that a joke?" The officer was about to start arguing but one of his colleagues stopped him, then took his radio and reported to the higher-ups.
"I'll escort you." After receiving the answer, the officer led Sergei and his group to the second floor of the Louvre.
"Yep. I had no doubt that it would be like this." Sergei stated observing the battlefield. Thousands of refugees were killed by zombies or died caught in the crossfire.
Now they were forced to move the corpses of humans and zombies alike and collect cartridges and other useful things.
"Can we help them?" Zoey asked, almost at the verge of tears.
"How? Take them in? And what are they gonna do there? They lived like vegetables here, degrading day after day and dying from hunger. They refused to take their destiny into their own hands and relied on the leaders of the camp. Those who could defend themselves fought zombies, those who couldn't - ventured into the city and collected useful things. People here are mostly useless."
"But… they are people…" The girl sobbed.
"People… do not forget that people were the ones who held you captive and did such terrible things to you, that you will never be able to forget. I'm not gonna bring the worthless trash that can cause harm into my haven."
Soon the group approached the office of the head of security. Upon entering everyone saw a huge and rather luxurious study. The same short, rotund man covered in gold jewelry, sat behind the table with many monitors on it. But if last time he behaved like a king, now he was pale and twitchy.
"Why are you here? We got problems, as you can see." The changes in him were so significant, that it seemed like he was the twin brother of the head of security that Sergei met last time.
"That's why I'm here." The man showed a nasty smirk which made the chubby "king" feel even worse.
"You came to cause trouble?" A vein popped on the pudgy man's face as he flushed from anger.
"No, I have three tons of potatoes on me. The price is the same, 5 coins per kilo and don't even try to bargain. However, I have one condition." The man said it so casually as if those three tons were nothing to him and he was just bestowing charity on some beggar.
"Three… tons?! What condition?" The pudgy head of security mumbled and started sweating profusely when he realized what he just heard.
"I want to take as many zombie corpses as possible. And I'm talking about thousands of them."
"Thousands??? You can take them all!" He was shocked at first but then decided to agree. Moving and utilizing the corpses was a very troublesome and costly task because the workers needed to be fed!
"Deal. Prepare the coins and a place to transfer the potatoes."
"You have the goods on you, you say?"
"A skill."
"Then does it mean that you emptied the blueheaded gang's storage with that skill of yours?!"
"I don't understand what you're talking about." Sergei smirked arrogantly.
"You!…" The pudgy man turned red from anger.
"Prepare the storage room and find me when you're done. Meanwhile we'll be collecting the corpses." Sergei laughed and led his people outside.
The group headed to the center of the refugee camp. It was quiet inside the Louvre - people survived a hard battle and suffered great losses. Some of them were resting, some were drinking. The prostitutes were working till exhaustion these days… Thus the moans were the only sounds that could be heard on all floors of the building.
"You're the best, Boss!" Anne exclaimed happily. "He was so scary, but you talked to him like he was no one!"
"It's true."
"Huh?"
"He is no one, he doesn't rule the Louvre, the elite does, they are the ones who live off the regular people. Alright, let's get to work. You know where the corpses are."
"Yes, Boss!" The four people replied in unison and ran to collect corpses. Meanwhile, their boss stood and watched them.
In twenty minutes an officer approached Sergei.
"We prepared the room. Please, follow me."
"Let's go, people, we're moving out." Sergei spoke into the radio and went after the officer.
The storage happened to be the living quarters, with all the furniture hastily taken out.
"This will do. Now leave us." The officer left and Sergei took a spray paint out of his backpack. "Alright, Annette, can you tell me where the cameras are?"
"Yes, Boss. I've been watching them while they were emptying the room." As a matter of fact, Sergei didn't help others with corpses because he couldn't move too far from the main building. While his group was collecting the corpses, Annette was examining the building.
"This is the last one. Six hidden cameras in total! These guys are good, they did not stint on equipment."
After spraying the last camera, Boss took exactly three tons (give or take a kilo) from the haven and left the room along with others.
"Done." Sergei opened the door and showed its contents to the soldier, shocking him with a mountain of potatoes. He reported through the radio and after half a minute the chubby "king" showed up followed by a few soldiers. One of them was carrying a bag of coins.
"Such a nice skill you have there." The rotund man mumbled, he was covered in sweat.
"But of course, otherwise why would've I been chosen for such an important task?" Sergei shrugged, hinting that he was just a salesman.
"I see… But what do you need the corpses for?"
"It's a trade secret!" Sergei laughed upon seeing how the chubby one paled and clarified. "Don't worry, it has nothing to do with potatoes."
"It's… good…" The "king" suddenly felt sick at the thought of zombies being used as a fertilizer.
Sergei took the coins and passed them to Gai, who sent them to the haven.
"Then we'll go finish collecting the corpses. We'll leave around the evening."
"Okay, but… Can you make another delivery?"
"How much?"
"As much as possible."
"Three tons in two to three days. That's all I can guarantee for now."
"Good, that's enough for now." The head of security smiled happily.
"Deal. Just make sure that there won't be any cameras next time - I wouldn't want to damage a rare and expensive equipment… again."
By 8 p.m. the group ended up collecting almost fifteen thousand corpses! Thanks to her charm (and bribes in the form of food), Anne recruited the refugees, they stacked the corpses in a pile, then the girl sent that whole pile right into the abyss of the haven! It turned out, that the corpses could be utilized immediately without making people carry them to the abyss…
***
"Great job!" The boss congratulated, looking at his group's pale faces. In all fairness, he participated in transferring corpses as well, but because of his higher level and equipment he was much stronger and tougher than regular people. "Let's eat, I asked Alice to cook something filling."
On the table were some hash browns, stewed potatoes with canned meat and dried vegetables and just plain boiled and well salted potatoes. And a can of high quality fish.
"Boss, have you asked around for a brewer?" Alice asked suddenly.
"A brewer! Damn it! I forgot…" Sergei lost his appetite along with good mood because of the girl's question and became really sad.
"Don't be upset, Boss. You are not allowed to drink alcohol anyway."
"But I could sell it for a good price!"
"Boss, why do you need so much money?" This time it was Anne who asked the question. This girl had never needed money and never even worked in her life… She was a daughter of a wealthy businessman after all.
"The haven consumes money, just like you consume food. Expanding, upgrading and everything else costs a lot of money. The higher the level of the upgrade the more expensive it is, much much more expensive! Have you ever played video games before?"
"No."
"Me neither."
"I never played as well…"
"I have."
"But you were a streamer! And you streamed how you played the games - so of course you've played them…" Anne scoffed.
"No fighting. Let me explain for those who never played. Let's say a small house costs 100 coins, a bigger house will cost 400 coins, a house bigger than that will cost 1600, the next one - 6400 coins and so on, moreover there won't be much difference between them. Do you understand now?"
"No…" Melanya shook her head. "I'm sorry, I'm not really smart…"
"Who else didn't understand?" After his question three more people raised their hands.
"It's okay, don't worry about it." Boss smiled and continued explaining until everyone understood.
He didn't flip out and didn't yell calling them stupid (well he did a few times but just to keep them on their toes), he just never expected people to do what they couldn't. His boss used to say back in the days: "Every person needs an individual approach, Sergei. You're a bad boss if you tarnish everyone with the same brush".
After some long explanations everyone understood his obsession with money, or at least pretended to anyway.
After long and filling dinner, everyone went about their business. Sergei, on the other hand, took a hot shower and went to sleep. It's been a hard day, physically and mentally, and the next one promised to be no easier.
The next day the wheat was ripe for harvest. People were very happy about it because everyone missed bread. However, it was the first time harvesting the wheat for all residents… In other words, no one knew how to harvest it in the first place!
"No, that's not gonna work. Collect only the ears, we'll sell them as they are. It will take us minimum a week to separate the wheat from the ears and I'm not even mentioning the other work that needs to be done! We'll sell them as they are." Summed up the man who already cursed the day he made a decision to plant some wheat.
"But I wanted to bake some bread…" said Alice, who was standing beside him.
"We'll leave some for ourselves and try to learn to produce grains and flour, but it would've been even better if we found some books… Or an expert…"
They ended up harvesting a little more than a ton of ears of wheat, part of which was stored for a personal use, but the bigger part was decided to sell.
When the haven reached seventh level, Sergei received an opportunity to buy bigger fields, move empty fields, connect and disconnect them. So, after a little thinking, he bought three more middle-sized fields then connected them to the empty wheat field and got one huge field, which was 640 square meters in size.
"Don't look at me like that." Sergei laughed looking at the girls who gathered near the new big field. "I will find some books and experts and then we'll have fresh bread and other bakery products. You've seen for yourselves how small the harvest was - we need more wheat or else we won't have any left for ourselves after everything is sold."
***
In the afternoon Sergei and Alice arrived to the Hubert's camp. Their journey was as easy as a walk in the park. No zombies, no problems.
"it became more crowded." The girl noticed. The camp's territory doubled in size, while its population - quintupled. The security had been strengthened significantly and there appeared to be even more system users, among other things. There was even some construction equipment.
"It looks like the old man is quite capable - it's a huge fit to organize this many people in such a short time. It's a shame that he has his own camp."
"I agree, Boss. If we keep expanding we could use a man with his abilities." Alice wasn't the smartest, but she was very wise and a good judge of character - especially after receiving the mind reading skill…
"They're taking their time, aren't they?" The girl muttered. They've been waiting near the camp's border for ten minutes now.
"Hehe, I think Hubert is one of the busiest people in Paris now. There he is." Alice followed his gaze and saw the old on-eyed soldier walking quickly towards them with his guards following behind. As Sergei mentioned, Hubert was indeed pretty busy nowadays.
Hubert looked really tired but still tried to smile. It was obvious that the old soldier used to be a part of higher circles and knew how the business worked, so he was aware of the fact that no matter how rough you felt or whether you disliked your partner/companion/client or not - you should always maintain a smile.
"Sergei! So happy that you came." Hubert shook hands with his favorite dealer.
"I see you are running like a hamster in a wheel. Here, drink this. It will help you recuperate and rejuvenate your body a little." The dealer smiled and handed him the bottle of spring water from the haven.
"Is this water?" The old man asked looking at clean water without an ounce of impurities.
"It's healing water. I can sell it to you if you're interested, but I have a limited amount of it so I can't sell you much at once." Sergei smiled broadly upon seeing Hubert's interested look.
"It's refreshing." Hubert stated after taking a few gulps and handed the bottle to his guard (for him to hold it, not to drink).
"I see you're accompanied by the same young woman. Have you brought the goods?" Hubert's eye lit up.
"Here's the wheat, just as promised - only it's unprocessed. Shortage of workers." Sergei handed him a little sack full of ears of wheat.
"I'm ignorant in these matters, to be honest… I'm going to call a specialist."
(fr) "Go get the crook-nose."
(fr) "Yes, Sir!" One of the guards ran to carry out an order and returned in two minutes. A short but stout man followed quickly behind him and his nose was indeed severely crooked, just like a beak of an eagle.
(fr) "Is that the man you've mentioned before, boss?" The crook-nose looked closely at the people in front of him and fastened his eyes on Alice, which made her feel uncomfortable.
(fr)"So beautiful! Ouch!"
(fr) "Behave yourself, you fool!" Hubert growled slapping him upside his head. The crook-nose was staring at Alice so hard that he almost drooled. "Here, examine these." Hubert passed him the sack of wheat ears.
(fr) "Such large grains. The smell is amazing and the quality is top-notch!" The man sniffed, licked and then even chewed on the grain, in order to assess its value.
"He approves. How much can you offer?" Hubert was happy with crook-nose's appraisal, it looked like the beer was going to be magnificent!
"For now I can only offer 1200 kilos of it, the price - 5 coins per kilo. And I also would appreciate it if you sell me some flour for personal uses - and beer, of course, once it's ready."
"No problem! But I hope you'll increase the supply of wheat. Anyway, do you have more potatoes?"
"Of course I do - how about three tons?"
"Of course! The previous storage is waiting for you."
Sergei and Alice were brought to the storage room where they summoned potatoes and wheat, then they received their payment and left after saying goodbye to Hubert.
***
"How's it going, Annette?"
"Everything's clear, Boss… But I noticed a scouting mission near the camp. Well, they looked like one anyway."
"They're watching the camp?"
"Yes, Boss."
"Whatever." After entering one of the buildings, Sergei sent Alice home and headed to one of the smaller camps in the area.
Blaise was the one who told him about it. People there lived on the rooftops of apartment buildings that were connected to each other with improvised bridges and they had a very creative way of hunting zombies.
Sergei mounted his bike and happily drove down the street, the area around the camp was clear of zombies and vehicles. Which wasn't surprising - the vehicles made great barricades and were the source of spare parts! However everything's changed the second he left the camp's territory - some places were hard to pass through even on foot.
Boom! Bang-bang-bang! There was an explosion in the distance, then he heard the machine gun and rifle fire.
(rus) "What's going on there, world war 3?" Upon getting closer, the man saw two groups of people having a violent shootout. And the smaller group was notably suppressing the other group, which was five times bigger. And it wasn't surprising - one of them had handguns while the other group was heavily armed with assault riffles.
"Annette, look who that is," Sergei asked and got off his bike.
"I already did. One group consists of only women, the other of men and women covered in unknown symbols. I'm assuming that one group is from the Brotherhood of a True God and the other - the women from the Élysée Palace."
"Where did those chicks get so many weapons?" Sergei hid behind the abandoned truck and watched the battle, and what battle that was! A lot of system users and people armed with light weapons against twenty or so masculine women armed with heavy machine guns and assault riffles - the ladies even had two grenade launchers!
The battle went on, the warriors of the Brotherhood were at a disadvantage. They couldn't fight from cover because of their weapons: the machine guns could shoot farther and no cover would stop them. That's why the brotherhood attacked. Yes, they had skills and system gear… But they still were defeated. From the chicks' side there were only four dead and three wounded.
(rus) "I feel poor looking at their equipment. Where do you even get that?"
"Boss, behind you!" Annette shouted. It was the last thing Sergei heard before losing consciousness.
***
"You idiot! You lost six of our warriors, one is wounded and you lost the shipment!" A huge, two-meters tall "woman" with a haircut of an ex-con and hands that seemed to be thicker than the legs of an average man, cursed loudly then slapped the woman standing in front of her, resulting in her blood and teeth flying everywhere. The injured woman lost consciousness and was quickly carried away. Whether she was alive or not remained unknown.
"Take her away and get Jess… Oh, look who's awake!" The huge "woman" looked at Sergei who was pretending to be still unconscious.
"Don't pretend to be unconscious - I can feel when someone's looking at me, that's my skill. Why don't you say something? Huh? You want me to break your ribs?" She asked the man who was hung by his arms.
"Commander… I heard, he only speaks English."
"Is that so? Very good!" The commander "lightly" punched the foreigner in the stomach, but he felt like he was hit by a car or at least by a running horse.
"Now we'll talk." The giant woman spoke in English and smiled.