Chapter 243: Mall Tour From A Nice Blue Alien

According to the knowledge Adrian had gained, the Mall wasn’t located on their residential planetoid. It was a separate, commercial hub, likely in a stable orbit around their shared star.The only way to access it was by using the designated teleportation.

He found the "Sector Transit Hub" at the edge of their assigned territory, the same place he had come from.

Adrian examined the console.

[Depart: 10 GC].

[Arrive: 10 GC].

The price made him smile wryly. A full twenty percent of his personal savings, just for a single trip.

But he didn’t have a choice. There was a slot on the console to swipe a card, but since he didn’t have a physical one yet, he simply held his PAD over the reader. A prompt appeared, and he followed the instructions, authorizing the transfer of 20 credits from his account.

The platform before him glowed with a green light. On stepping onto it, the familiar white light consumed him. When he opened his eyes, he was standing in a grand, cavernous structure.

The floor was made of a polished material that seemed to stretch for miles, and the ceiling was an impossibly high, vaulted dome that glowed brightly.

But the place was almost completely empty. The sheer, echoing silence was more unsettling than the chaos of their home.

He saw that there were five other teleportation platforms arranged in a straight line accross his own, each marked with the insignia of a different alien race.

It was here that he found someone. A boy with pale blue skin and large, black, inquisitive eyes. Although he wasn’t as tall as Cero, he was still up to a full seven feet. He had nothing in his hands and was cautiously approaching the platform Adrian had just arrived on.

The moment the boy saw him, his eyes widened in shock.

"AHH!" He let out a small, terrified squeak and vanished behind a large support pillar, as if he had just seen a ghost.

Adrian waited with a plain expression. After several seconds of the boy peeking out and then hiding again, he finally seemed to gather his courage. He came back into sight and gave Adrian a tentative, nervous wave.

"Hey."

"Hey," Adrian replied in the same universal language, his eyes not leaving the strange boy.

The boy was nervous but kept coming closer. When he got within arm’s reach, he did something completely unexpected.

He reached out a long, slender finger and poked Adrian directly in the chest, then immediately recoiled his hand as if he had touched a hot stove.

"You’re... real?" he whispered in disbelief.

Adrian maintained a poker face, despite his annoyance at being treated like some kind of strange exhibit.

"What is the problem?"

The boy shrieked and jumped back, clutching his smooth, bald head in embarrassment.

"Sorry! Sorry! It’s just... I didn’t expect a new race to be demoted here!" He bowed his head low. "Forgive my rudeness. I’m a Normat, Runner for my people."

"Runner?"

"I’m the guy that buys and delivers groceries. Just finished buying loads of them," he said with some pride.

Adrian nodded, but raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You came back from buying groceries?" He looked at his empty hands. "Where are they?"

The boy laughed nervously. "Ah, right. It seems you’re really new here." He tapped a simple, elegant silver ring on his finger.

"They’re in here," he explained. "This is my spatial ring."

"Intriguing..." Adrian was genuinely surprised. The [Inventory], one of his most powerful and unique System abilities, was apparently a common available piece of technology here. Another humbling, "frog in a well" moment.

"You really don’t know anything, do you?" the boy said, his curiosity now mixed with a hint of pity. "Follow me. Since you made it here, I’ll show you around the place."

They walked through the vast, mostly empty Mall, and they soon walked into a more open room, one of the three major spaces in the complex.

It was still vast and empty, but against one wall stood three large, identical interfaces, with a large screen above each. In the middle of the room was a single, large platform, similar to the teleportation ones.

"This is the Council Commissary," the boy explained. "This space is responsible for council-provided sales, like basic needs."

He pointed to the large screen above one of the interfaces, which was displaying a list of items. "Basic needs like food and clothing. See that?" He indicated a line that read:

<Basic Customizable Clothing Set: 0 credits>

"Clothing is free."

His sentence led Adrian to an observation he had made before. The boy was dressed in an almost identical high-collared, functional uniform as the manager, Cero.

The only differences were the material, which seemed like a simple, tough polymer instead of Cero’s fine fabric, and the color which was grey in this case. Updates are released by N0velFire.ɴet

The interface soon refreshed, showing a new list:

<Nutritional Pack: 20 credits (HOT)>

<Basic Clothing: 0 credits>

<Ice Cola: 10 credits>

<Pizza: 100 credits>

<Basic Meat: 100 credits>

<More...>

’What are those prices...!’ Adrian thought in horror, his mind immediately calculating their dire situation.

"What’s a nutritional pack?" Adrian calmed himself and asked, since it was the most bought item.

The boy’s face lit up. "Nothing beats it! That’s all we Normat take over here. They’re truly delicious, and a single one can fill a person’s hunger for a whole day!"

"Hmm," Adrian pursed his lips. "Does that apply to the other foods as well? The Ice Cola seems cheap."

The boy shook his head with vigor. "No, no! Ice Colas are just flavored water. They’re sweet, but they won’t satiate you. The other foods might help a bit, but they can’t do the wondrous work of a Pack."

His words didn’t make sense to Adrian. If the Nutritional Packs were the best and most efficient, why were they so cheap? It could only mean they were lacking in some other, crucial area... a hidden cost. He asked him about it, but the boy just shrugged.

"I don’t know. I’ve eaten Nutritional Packs all my life, and they’ve always seemed perfect to me," he said honestly.

"Interesting..."

"You can also use the search tool to check if they have anything that interests you," he added. "But these are the cheapest foods here, so that should tell you enough. Come on, I’ll show you the second room."

The second room was even bigger. This time, there were countless interfaces, each arranged in sections marked Accessories, Equipment, Mechanical Tools, and more.

"Here’s the Supermarket," the boy said. "The Council has some stores here, but most are from private individuals. With enough credits, your people can open a store here too. Once you make a purchase, you get a receipt, take it to one of the collection platforms over there, and you receive your item."

He was still talking when a wrist strap he wore began beeping and glowing red. He tapped it to turn it off, his face suddenly filled with panic. "Oh no, I’m late! Sorry, but I gotta go!"

"Okay," Adrian said calmly. "But what about the third space?"

The boy, who was on the verge of running off, stopped in his tracks. "Oh, that place is off-limits for Tier-0 citizens like us. It’s for the VIPs. I’ll tell you about it when we meet again. Byee!"

He was about to rush off again before stopping one last time. "My name is Mex! I never got yours."

"Adrian."

Mex pulled out a small piece of paper his pocket and handed it to Adrian. "Here’s my contact code! Please save it! Byeee!"

He then ran off for real, leaving Adrian alone in the vast silent mall.