Emery left the trading location with a disoriented feeling assaulting him all the way.
What? How? Why?
He didn't even notice Citro's wait shifting at his neck or the fur bristling and piercing him from time to time. Why had Chris done what he did? Was it Hemp that wanted to meet him, or was it Chris that wanted him to meet Hemp? What were Chris' intentions if so?
None of it made any sense, and he was getting more stressed with each minute that passed by.
On the bright side, he had three days to sort out his thoughts and make sense of everything that was happening.
He made his way down to the busier area with a lot of stalls and found a nice and quiet little restaurant where he could stay.
It was a little similar to what he was trying to achieve, just slightly smaller.
Very few people were in it, and there was only a single employee behind the counter.
It was well lit with several lights illuminating overhead and a partitioning separating the seating area from the kitchen of the restaurant.
"Hello, what can I do for you. A meal or just something to relax with?" the employee asked.
She was a blonde-haired woman with blue eyes and a waitress uniform.
"A meal is fine, thank you." Emery smiled. "Just give me three plates of something that can fill me up." He, Elyn and Citro had already eaten today, but he doubted the meal would tide any of them up for the rest of the day.
'I've really forgotten what it feels like to eat three times a day so often.'
"Okay, I'll go grab what you need right now!" she said. "Take a seat,"
Emery nodded and grabbed a table with three chairs. Elyn sat across from him without saying anything.
Restaurants were an odd thing that would somehow never go out of place in any era, apocalypse or not. Phones and banks, he expected, restaurants he didn't. The world somehow proved him wrong by retaining that.
Chefs in particular, or cooks of any kind, were appreciated for their ability to cook proper food from Beast flesh. Anyone could roast meat, but only a professional at their craft could bring out the best potential in people.
That was partly what Carlos was looking for, someone who would be able to create dishes with that potency.
He did find that in the form of Emery, but the latter would rather die than work for the man.
Eventually, thoughts consumed more of him than they should have.
"Are you alright?" Elyn's voice asked from across the table.
He snapped out of the brief stupor to look into her sharp purple eyes. Her features had softened from the perpetual frown she'd been holding for the last hour, perhaps.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just didn't expect to meet Hemp so soon, or at all, for that matter! Who knows if he's like Carlos? I might have gotten myself into something I can't deal with on my own."
Her frown returned at Carlos' mention. "I still think you should have killed those men," she said flatly.
"Look, you're right, but I just can't do it." Emery sighed. "I just won't. Seeing lives taken away without being able to fight back is one thing. Taking their lives themselves is another. I won't taint my knife."
"They're going to come back."
"I know."
A short moment of silence passed, and the smell of prepping became evident in the cosy little restaurant.
"Why are you so pressed about this, anyway?" he asked.
And for the first time, her stern expression wavered. "Something from before."
Realizing what he'd done, he quickly took a few steps back. "No need to talk about it if you don't want to."
"No, it's fine." She said, "Just something that led to the death of people I held dear. Mercy is taken for granted most times. Where I came from, it was killed or be killed and survival of the strongest. I don't want to see your kindness taken for granted as well."
"I understand but…"
"Yeah," she said, and finally her features relaxed permanently, "Don't worry about it. I won't kill anyone or try to force you to do that."
Emery was relieved. He thought that was squat for him, losing the one person who allowed him to get his abilities in the first place. Luckily everything was resolved adequately, and he even got to know more about Elyn!
So it all worked out in the end.
He and Elyn talked till their food was ready and brought to their table. At this time, Citro's head popped up, and it assessed the unfamiliar area carefully before setting its eyes on the food.
The mongoose had an evident look of disdain as it poked the dish with its little claws.
"Eep."
"Don't compare when there's food involved. You could have easily been starving on the sidewalk," Emery rolled his eyes.
"Eep Eep!"
"I know you're not dying on the side- it's a hypothetical!"
"Eep."
"I didn't make that word up!!"
Feeling the headache coming on, he turned back to his food and was about to eat when he heard Elyn's cheerful giggles.
"Oh, come on, it's not that funny."
The laughs didn't stop.
He rolled his eyes at the both of them and continued eating. They followed suit a while after and soon enough, they were done with their meals.
"That will be 3000 credits, sir!"
Emery painstakingly got out the strange-looking phone and transferred over the money. He still wasn't clear how this or any new technology worked, for that matter, but he just had to roll with it.
It was dark and a little bulky. The screen was a small touch screen that lit up after a single press of a button on the side.
Credits originally started out as a form of contribution points of sorts, but it was basically universal. Who would have thought they'd make it the official currency?
'What kind of knockoff apocalypse is this? Shouldn't we be trading in beast cores or something like that?'
Well, unfortunately for his imagination, beasts didn't have cores. At least the ones he knew didn't have any cores.
What to do next?
[Ding!]
[Mandatory Mission!]
[Mission Details: As the system's host, create your first restaurant in a week.]
[Rewards: 600 exp. Partial Summon Merge]