Chapter 44: Things in the Supermarket Are So Expensive

Rusty followed Sev for quite a distance. After sneaking a cautious glance around, he finally whispered, "Mom, that bad woman won’t cause trouble for you, will she?"

The moment the words "bad woman" left his mouth, Rusty realized in hindsight that this used to be his exclusive nickname for his vicious adoptive mother. Now that the title had been passed to someone else, he didn’t find it strange at all. Thinking about his adoptive mother’s behavior over the past few days, she really couldn’t be called a bad woman anymore.

"Don’t worry, don’t worry. You can tell at a glance that woman is at the bottom of the barrel in the Gilded Ward. She’s not doing well, so she probably doesn’t have any strong backing," Sev said dismissively.

"How do you know?" Rusty asked. No matter how precocious and sensible he was, he was still just a child under eight years old; his mind wasn’t that complex.

"First of all, she didn’t get her hair cut at a salon in the Gilded Ward, which proves she doesn’t have enough points in her account.

"Secondly, dressing like that, you can tell at a glance she’s no wealthy socialite. She’s most likely in a certain line of work.

"These two points prove she has no powerful backer. And of course, there’s the most important point—

"She’s an ordinary person with extremely low Combat Power. She couldn’t even beat an ordinary person like me!"

While analyzing the situation for her dear son, Sev walked with her head down. Caught off guard, she slammed headfirst into a solid wall of a person.

"Ouch! That hurts! What are your pecs made of? Why are they so hard?" she complained in dissatisfaction, rubbing her forehead.

Before the man she bumped into could speak, a young man with a ponytail standing next to him burst into laughter. "PFFT!"

"Keegan Thorne, do you have a death wish?" the man who was bumped into asked angrily.

"Vaughn, it’s not a crime to laugh. Besides, I wasn’t the one who bumped into you, so why are you taking it out on me?" the ponytailed Keegan Thorne said with an exaggerated expression.

Sev looked up and saw two young men who completely stood out from the crowd. The young man she had bumped into was tall and upright, wearing a supple black leather trench coat. Underneath, he wore Scale Armor that gleamed with a faint blue metallic luster in the sunlight. His gaze was as sharp as an eagle’s, and his entire being exuded an unconcealable, fierce aura.

The ponytailed young man standing shoulder-to-shoulder with him wore canvas clothes paired with a patchwork-style tactical vest, which was covered in various small tools of unknown purpose and ammunition clips. A roguish smile hung on the corner of his mouth, but his eyes revealed a sharp shrewdness.

Judging solely by their demeanor and attire, they were not people she could afford to provoke. Not to mention, she was in the wrong first for accidentally bumping into him.

Sev quickly offered an apologetic smile. "I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, sir. It’s my fault for not watching where I was going and accidentally bumping into you. Could you please be the bigger person and forgive me?"

"Heh! What if he doesn’t forgive you?" Keegan said with a fake smile.

Sev turned her gaze to Vaughn, trying to find an answer in his eyes. The moment their eyes met, she shivered from the sudden chill. She wondered how many lives this man must have taken to possess such a murderous glare.

Vaughn held her gaze for a full three seconds before turning to glance at Keegan next to him. "That’s enough nonsense. Let’s go!"

"See you around, gorgeous!" Keegan laughed, waving at Sev before striding forward to follow Vaughn.

After they left, Sev finally noticed that the entrance to the Gilded Ward was just a short distance ahead. Rusty nervously tugged at her sleeve; he clearly had a massive psychological shadow regarding this place. Sev puffed out her chest, held Rusty’s hand, and walked toward the entrance with steady, even steps.

The wrought-iron electric gates were wide open, and there were no guards stationed there. As Sev walked through the gates, her watch lit up. She instinctively looked to the left and saw something resembling a camera lens flashing with a red light.

According to the original owner’s memories, this device recorded the biometric data of residents coming and going. This meant that if someone committed a crime within the Gilded Ward, there was absolutely no escaping being tracked down unless they left the Ninth Security Zone forever.

Sev gently patted the back of Rusty’s hand and said, "Don’t be afraid. It’s very safe here. At least no Mutant Beast will suddenly jump out and attack you."

Hearing her words, Rusty couldn’t help but blush. Last night in the kitchen, he had seen with his own eyes the corpses of the Mutant Beasts his adoptive mother had brought back. There were so, so many. Compared to terrifying Mutant Beasts, what were the rich people in the security zone? Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but puff out his little chest as well.

Only a few areas of the Gilded Ward were open to the Slums. The actual residential areas had laser security grids at their entrances, making it utterly impossible for slum dwellers to enter. It was said that in the earliest days, the Gilded Ward strictly forbade slum dwellers from setting foot inside. But later on, a slum dweller awakened a powerful Ability and eventually became a high-ranking official in the Sixth Security Zone.

One day, this big shot happened to pass through the Ninth Security Zone. The local top brass eagerly hosted him and gave him a tour of the zone’s developments. However, upon arriving at the entrance to the Gilded Ward, the security system denied him entry. The higher-ups of the Ninth Security Zone immediately changed the settings at the main gate, allowing everyone to enter.

However, they didn’t have time to modify the settings for the residential communities one by one, and the big shot clearly had no interest in touring residential neighborhoods anyway. After he left, the high-ranking officials of the Ninth Security Zone worried about encountering a similar unexpected incident again, so they simply kept the new settings in place. Thus, the slum dwellers gained the right to enter the Gilded Ward.

Of course, most slum dwellers merely sneaked in for a quick look and didn’t dare linger. If they accidentally offended a resident of the Gilded Ward, they would certainly pay a heavy price. The majority of the slum dwellers who entered the Gilded Ward wanted to browse the supermarkets, but their pockets were completely empty, so they usually only looked and never bought anything. Over time, the saleswomen started hurling verbal abuse the moment they saw slum dwellers, driving them out on the spot.

Sev was unaware of the history behind this place. To her mind, a supermarket was simply a place for people to stroll around and buy things. Since they had opened a supermarket, it was only natural for her, as a customer, to walk in and browse.

So when she saw the greeters at the entrance, she didn’t bat an eye. Without pausing her steps, she led Rusty straight inside. The greeters had never seen such an arrogant slum dweller. Instead of bowing and greeting them with fear and trepidation, this woman treated them as if they were invisible. And just like that, she walked right in.

The two greeters wanted to open their mouths and shout at her, but by the time they came to their senses, Sev and Rusty had already walked far away. As greeters, they couldn’t just abandon their posts, so they had to tap their watches and send a message to the saleswomen inside.

"Two lowly commoners slipped in. They’re heading toward Area C right now."

By this time, Sev had already led Rusty into Area C, which was the clothing section. There weren’t many types of clothes here, but the starting price was a staggering ten thousand points.

Sev had expected the items in the Gilded Ward’s supermarket to be expensive, but she never imagined they would be this expensive. A life-sustaining Nutrition Block only cost five points, so why did a single set of clothes here sell for over ten thousand points?

At that moment, a phrase suddenly popped into her mind—where there is oppression, there is resistance! Right now, the thing she wanted to do most was lead all the slum dwellers to charge into the Gilded Ward and loot all their supplies!