"Sir, as you know, times have been a little hard and food is hard to come by. As such, the price-"
"I told you not to worry about it, right? Just give it all to me."
The merchant rubbed his hands together nervously as he realized that his opponent was just a young rich man who did not care about money and spent it in waves.
'Tsk, so he's a typical rich young master who does not know the value of money? What a stroke of luck.'
Since the young master in front of him was rich and also the one who constantly ranked no.1 in the game rankings, the merchant saw this as a business opportunity.
"Of course, sir. Here, this is your total invoice. How would you like to pay-"
A cheque appeared in front of him, fully signed and stamped.
"Here, you can exchange it. I will be taking everything here back home."
Andrew told the merchant before he took out a newly purchased item bag from his inventory. It was a storage item he had spent system points on. But it was necessary in order to keep food and other items fresh and also make transportation faster.
'The storage bag works well. It's just a pity I cannot use it during games. It would be such a useful item to cheat with.'
Andrew looked at the stunned merchant, and the merchant quickly snapped out of his daze and decided to process the cheque.
Once the money was in his account, he handed over the ownership of the whole place to Andrew.
"S-Sir, here you go. I-I was also thinking that we can possibly help each other out in the future as well. As you can tell, I have a profession-"
"Hmm, we can talk about it later. For now, I have a few more places to go to. I will contact you soon."
Andrew cut the merchant off halfway as he stood up to leave. Lilianna followed him without question, but she did turn around to see the merchant's face fall.
"That merchant… should we truly leave like this? Won't it be better to secure a supplier for the future?"
Lilianna asked as she felt a little sorry for the man. But as soon as she came out, she noticed people's anger and agitation, and her sympathy melted away.
"A supplier? I would like to have one. But a greedy merchant like him won't be a good choice because we would be drained dry by him. Besides, I would prefer it if we had our own supplies…"
A loud bang interrupted him, followed by even louder shouts. The people that had been agitated until now finally started to get violent.
"Let's get away. This place is going to become a danger zone soon."
Lilianna looked like she wanted to say something. But Andrew's indifference influenced her as well.
So although she still felt a little conflicted about things, she decided to follow him.
"Alright, this is one thing out of the way. Now the next-"
Andrew stopped mid-sentence as he looked around with a sharp eye. Since he had his system open and running, it automatically scanned people, and it was a little overwhelming for him. So he did not check the system often.
But just for a second, he thought he saw a 'production' tag on someone before it was swept away.
"Y-You-! huff Why did you run off like that? C-Can't you at least huff warn me beforehand?"
Lilianna asked as she ran after him to catch up with him. She did not feel safe being all alone in the city without Andrew, and she constantly looked around to make sure they were safe.
Even though there were not a lot of people around, the ones that had returned were strong and ruthless, doing what they could to survive. She did not want to take any risks.
"Ah, sorry about that. I just thought I saw a profession I needed to recruit. Hmm, I doubt I will be able to find it again in this crowd. We should head to our next destination for now and buy what we can."
Lilianna nodded and followed after him. The whole day was spent shopping for essentials, and when they came back, it was time to install things.
But they ran into a huge issue.
"How… do you install half of this stuff? Do you have any idea how piping works?"
Lilianna asked as she looked at the truck that held all the bought equipment. It had been pretty costly, and seeing Andrew spend money like he did made her heart bleed. But it was his money, and he could do what he wanted with it.
But that still did not make her feel better about him spending money like water.
"Installing, huh… I do have a little knowledge. But we don't need to worry about such things. The fairy worker comes equipped with all the knowledge needed for such things. We just need to focus on planning."
'The fairy worker can do that? What kind of cheat item is that little thing? Can I also get one-?'
"If you want to buy one, then forget about it. It's far too expensive and a waste of money at this point. Also, the only way to get one is through a system reward."
That made… sense. But it still made Lilianna's mood sour.
sigh
"Being poor is no fun."
She complained, and Andrew patted her back.
"Don't worry. You have not seen what actually being poor is like. Just wait until the next round, when the money of this world starts to become irrelevant. You will truly see what 'being poor' is actually like."
Andrew tried to reassure her, but Lilianna felt even worse hearing him speak.
"That's… not really reassuring to hear."
Andrew just shook his head before he went back inside and brought the fairy worker out. The little thing flew around before it got to work.
"Doesn't it ever run out of energy?"
Lilianna asked as she watched the fairy creature pick up pipes and other heavy stuff.
"I have never heard of it happening before. But I would not pay too much attention to it. It's a system item, so it's far more durable compared to human-made machines. Anyway, we should leave it to work for now."
Lilianna nodded and followed Andrew inside. But she had another question for him.
"Hey, if the fairy worker is so advanced, then why can't it farm and produce supplies for us? We don't have to worry about finding someone to do that…"
In her mind, it made sense. But Andrew only shook his head.
"That would not be possible. The fairy worker will not understand that it needs to keep plants and livestock alive… and it's not in its system adjustments either. We will be better off finding a human for it."
Andrew explained, and Lilianna decided to trust him. Besides, there was safety in numbers.