Chapter 28: A Homeless Man
Shiro's eyes were cold as he left the area. Wordlessly he continued to walk at his own pace, before entering another street.
This street was a bit tidier, as this was the place where most of the merchants and traders lived.
Quietly he spent another 5 minutes trying to find a comfortable area, where he could sleep for the night. The mission was still in his mind.
Lying on one of the corners he continued thinking deeply.
He was so immersed in his thought, that the coldness didn't affect him one bit, nor did the rough surface.
"I was a bit impulsive back there wasn't I?"
[Answer: Affirmative]
[This system has no complaints as it is normal for your age.]
Shiro kept staring at the system after that, pondering in his thoughts for a moment.
Ding!
[Generating a better scenario]
[You could have knocked out the man without actually causing harm – the purpose of previous techniques learned by the host.
A better choice would've been to completely ignore them and focus on completing the system mission]
Time passed by as he kept thinking. It was almost nighttime by the time he realized it.
Sighing, he decided to go to sleep instead.
He was too tired to think of anything else that night.
But before he could enter the sweet world of dreams, he felt a heavy stomp beside him.
"This is no place for the homeless to stay! Get out of here!"
With a sigh Shiro stood up, looking at the man more specifically his uniform.
That night Shiro struggled somewhat but managed to gain a few hours of sleep.
The next day, Shiro woke up earlier than usual. The sky was slowly turning bright as sunlight crept into his room.
Shiro stretched his arms up into the air and rubbed his eyes.
Grabbing his bag he took out food.
He still had some buns left, so he took them out and munched on them slowly while seated on the street.
The city was already bustling so early in the morning. Plenty of people were buying and selling items, haggling the prices too.
Shiro continued to munch on his buns as he witnessed the exuberance of the streets quietly.
Out of the blue, Shiro saw two familiar figures walking on the street. He blinked his eyes a few times to look at the figures properly.
It was the two girls from yesterday. They were walking side by side while one of them was holding onto a basket.
Since Shiro was looking from a high place, he couldn't see the expressions of those girls.
"What's in the basket?", Shiro asked himself although he knew the answer.
However, it was the system's job to butt in.
A screen appeared in front of him as the system started looking into the basket, scanning it immediately despite being quite far.
After a few seconds, a system notification popped up in front of him.
[Host, there are about 40 grams of sleeping powder inside the basket.]
[System's Theory: The girls are going to sell that sleeping powder.]
"No Sh*t genius."
This was the reason he had come here. These girls would most probably enter this region to sell their powder whether in a day or in two days. It looked like his guesses were true.
Shiro immediately gobbled down the remaining buns he had and stealthily followed them.
He was going to complete the mission in style. Live the lifestyle of these people, that's what he was gonna do.
They walked into the market, which was packed with people. The smell of fried food, fresh vegetables, and rotten fruits, instantly assaulted his nose. Not caring one bit Shiro continued to follow.
Although this area was bustling with people Shiro was easily able to track the girls. Squinting his eyes, he saw them entering a shop right before they disappeared from his sight.
Quitely he continued munching on the buns as he stood outside.
Sigh, a bowl of soup would go well with these dry hard breads. Well, it is what it is...
Shiro exhaled another 3 sighs.
After a few minutes, both girls walked out of the shop, accompanied by the shopkeeper.
A silly smirk appeared on his face as a moment later he disappeared from where he was standing.
Within the shop, Shiro had placed himself in such a manner that no one would be able to notice him.
While staying hidden, Shiro heard the waves of laughter of the scumbag shopkeeper.
Eventually, the shopkeeper walked back into his shop. Walking straight he placed his palm on the handle of another door, it seemed to be the extra storage room.
Soon, the loud sound from the back of the shop caused Shiro to be curious. Slowly prowling lessened the distance between him and the door which led to the back of the shop and listened to whatever was happening instead.
"So, did those girls come again?"
"Yes, this time, they sold 40 grams of sleeping powder." The man said in an excited voice.
"No way, that's a lot of sleeping powder!" The other person exclaimed.
"Haha, their brain is rotten. The fact that they accepted all my words and lowered the price of those powdered gold is even more funny."
"Some people even sold their valuable herbs and extraordinary powders for almost nothing."
"Haha, I see, good work!"
As the man in a black robe and the shopkeeper continued with their conversation, Shiro continued with Evesdrippimv. Listening to their words didn't affect him much.
"Actually, I wished to lower the price even further... If not for their so-called sad story about their father, I would have definitely not offered them so much! I'm already being too generous, giving such money to those naive Fools."
'Generous my ass!' Shiro cursed.
"Tsk, those girls are too naive."
"Ah, like father like daughter. Those girls clearly did not have a good upbringing."
The two men had a great chuckle before they continued their conversation shifting the subject of the topic from time to time.
"..."