Khan remained stuck in front of that big number, but a frown soon appeared on his face. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that he had no idea how valuable that sum was.
"Amber?" Khan eventually called.
Amber had helped Khan browse through the initial menus, but she had diverted her gaze from the screen once the console had started to calculate his merits.
"You should keep your wealth private," Amber responded without turning.
"Can you take a look, please?" Khan asked.
Amber still hesitated, but Khan had sounded lost, and she also felt a bit curious. Her gaze slowly went on the screen, and her eyes trembled at the sight of such a sum.
"I knew it would have been a lot, but that's still surprising," Amber declared.
"What do you mean by a lot?" Khan questioned.
Amber frowned since she didn't understand what there was to explain, but she tried her best anyway. "You can buy a small house in the city with these Credits. Though you wouldn't be able to afford living there afterward."
Khan nodded, but confusion soon reappeared on his face. He turned toward Amber and tried to wear his most serious expression as he voiced another question. "How many cans of spicy chicken can I buy with these Credits?"
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"S-spicy chicken?" Amber stuttered. She thought that Khan was joking for a second, but his firm voice forced her to take the question seriously.
"Well, I think you can buy ten or fifteen cans for one Credit," Amber calculated while placing a hand under her chin. "I'm not sure. I've never bought cans of food."
Amber glanced at Khan to see whether her answer had solved his doubts, but she realized that he had long since stopped listening to her. His eyes had lit up, and his mouth had opened in astonishment.
'Ten cans of spicy chicken for each Credit!' Khan exclaimed in his mind. 'That's, that's, that's a lot of cans!'
Khan almost threw his phone at the console after understanding how wealthy he had become. The machine did everything on its own. He only had to confirm the transfer on his device, and the Credits soon appeared on his profile.
"I'm rich!" Khan exclaimed after retrieving his phone.
"Not really," Amber promptly contradicted. "You have no idea how quickly those Credits can disappear if you are not careful."
Amber had vaguely understood what was happening. That was Khan's first time with Credits, so she could imagine the type of euphoria that had taken control of his mind. Still, that feeling could be dangerous, especially for someone who had no experience with money.
"Let's buy some stuff!" Khan exclaimed while turning and moving toward the crowd in the underground hall.
"Wait," Amber called while grabbing his arm. "You don't need to spend money right now. Focus on purchasing the Tainted animals you need, but don't go overboard. The Global Army won't refund those Credits otherwise."
Khan turned toward Amber to show his frown and voice one of his doubts. "What's the point of money if I don't spend it?"
"That-," Amber began to speak, but she quickly realized that she didn't have a proper answer to the matter. Still, Khan continued to look at her, so she came up with a few responsible lines. "The Global Army won't back you up forever. You'll need a proper home at some point, and you also lack the support of a family. How will you buy better weapons and resources if you spend everything you have now?"
Khan opened his mouth to complain, but he soon closed it to lower his gaze. Amber was right, but he felt disappointed anyway. He finally had Credits, but spending them sounded like a waste.
Amber noticed the disappointment in Khan's face and heaved a deep sigh. She had never seen him like that, but the reason behind those reactions was obvious. Khan was famous for his many achievements, but something about him still belonged to a seventeen-year-old boy.
"Let's rejoin the Captain and the Lieutenant," Amber suggested. "I'll help you browse through the offer. There must be something worth buying."
Khan's eyes lit up again, and he immediately nodded before shooting toward the crowd. Amber was still holding his arm, so she ended up rushing back into the underground hall with him.
Amber felt the need to call Khan or force him to stop since he was going too fast for that crowded area, but those instincts vanished when she noticed that they never bumped into anyone. Khan flowed among the lines and small vehicles without ever stopping to inspect his surroundings.
That performance was so surprising that Amber remained silent until the two reached their destination. A large shop featuring many circular tables and simple seats unfolded in their vision. The area had no waiters, and multiple ads moved on the four walls.
Captain Goldmon and Lieutenant Abaze had taken a table deep into the shop, and Khan didn't hesitate to reach them. Most of the seats in the area were taken, but no one inspected him or Amber. Everyone appeared too busy talking with their companions, dates, or looking at the menus in front of them.
"You don't waste time, do you?" Lieutenant Abaze commented when she noticed that Amber was still holding Khan's arm.
Amber gasped and let go of Khan, but he ignored the comment and Captain Goldmon's laugh to take a seat. Having money had opened countless possibilities, and he couldn't think about anything else right now.
"I wasn't, we weren't-," Amber tried to justify herself.
"I was only teasing you," Lieutenant Abaze interrupted before glancing at Khan. "Besides, he seems busy looking at the offer. I guess the trip to the console went well."
"Thank you, Lieutenant Abaze," Khan exclaimed.
"You can call me Lydia," Lieutenant Abaze replied as an elegant smile appeared on her face. "We have the same rank and position. There is no need to be so formal."
"He is a few decades too young for you," Captain Goldmon mocked.
"As if you knew my real age," Lieutenant Abaze calmly added.
Khan limited himself to nod before moving his eyes back on the interactive surface of the table. The various menus didn't only list the drinks he could purchase inside the shop. Many labels led to the multiple offers depicted on the walls.
"Let's order something to drink before going through the offers," Lieutenant Abaze reminded. "I'll have this tea."
Lieutenant Abaze pressed on a label, and her drink appeared on a list at the center of the table. Even its price was there, and Khan remained stunned when he read it.
'Two hundred Credits for a single drink?!' Khan shouted in his mind before inspecting the shop's menu.
It turned out that Lydia's drink was one of the most expensive items on the list. It even surpassed most of the shop's meals, but the other cheaper labels didn't reassure Khan.
'The life in the city is definitely expensive,' Khan realized as he scrolled through the list.
Many drinks required more than a hundred Credits, all of them involving a single cup. The shop didn't sell entire bottles, even when it came to booze.
Amber sat and picked one of the cheapest drinks, but Lieutenant Abaze immediately took it out from the central list before explaining her reasons. "The Captain will pay. Don't hold back."
"I like that brand," Amber smiled.
"Nonsense," Lieutenant Abaze stated while adding another expensive tea to the central list.
Amber wanted to say something, but Lieutenant Abaze promptly shook her head and forced her to give up on the matter. Meanwhile, Khan was still busy getting over his amazement. Also, he couldn't understand the differences among the various drinks on the list. The shops added descriptions, but they only increased his confusion.
"Khan, I'll pick for you," Captain Goldmon announced while Khan was still in the middle of his confusion and amazement.
The event didn't help Khan too much. Captain Goldmon added two drinks worth more than one hundred Credits each, and Khan inevitably compared them to the number of food cans that he would be able to purchase with the same money.
'I could become the king of the Slums by selling ten of these drinks,' Khan commented in his mind before showing a fake smile to the Captain.
Captain Goldmon confirmed the orders, and part of the menus disappeared from the table since four circular holes opened on its surface. Four drinks came out of them, and Lieutenant Abaze quickly distributed them.
Khan's drink turned out to be strong booze. It was terrific, even if it burnt his throat. He could taste multiple intense flavors with a single sip, and the cozy warmth that spread through his chest brought his mind back to the happy moments on Nitis.
The Captain also seemed to relive happy moments while he drank. Khan noticed that detail, but he didn't know whether the booze was to praise for those effects.
Lieutenant Abaze and Amber's faces gained a slight redness when they drank their tea. Both of them licked their lips after every sip, and their eyes rarely left their cups.
The table went silent, but no one found the situation awkward. The four professors enjoyed their drinks without ruining the moment with useless talks.
"I guess it's time to go," Lieutenant Abaze said when she noticed that everyone had finished drinking.
Captain Goldmon had paid while confirming the order, so he didn't hesitate to stand up. Khan and Amber imitated him, and the four soon returned inside the underground hall.
"Khan, how was it?" Captain Goldmon asked while the group moved among the crowd.
"Really good," Khan honestly admitted.
"It's said that only those who have experienced true hardship can appreciate that brand," Captain Goldmon explained.
"I never thought that the humans could create such things," Khan whispered while focusing on the path ahead.
The group reached a set of staircases and climbed them to arrive on the surface. The scene that unfolded in their vision ended up leaving Khan stunned again. There was so much to inspect that he ended up turning whenever something claimed his attention.
Skyscrapers made of black and grey metal pillars divided by large windows grew at the sides of immense streets. Vast sidewalks filled with people bordered those huge buildings, and vehicles shot left and right in an orderly manner.
Khan immediately noticed the stark absence of wheels. All the cars floated right above the smooth and clean streets tainted only by the azure tubes that created a glowing spiderweb linked to the buildings. The streetlamps and sparse signboards also had connections with those small channels that carried synthetic mana.
Still, the vehicles flying among the tall buildings remained the most surprising aspect of the scene. They weren't fast, but they managed to ignore the crowded environment on the ground by moving in the sky.
Khan remained captivated by the many flying vehicles. He even followed them with his eyes, and a few ended up entering some buildings through windows that opened remotely or proper platforms that came out from the metal pillars.
"They are also extremely expensive," Amber explained when she noticed Khan's interest in the flying vehicles. "You also need a special driving license for them, which isn't cheap."
"What about proper spaceships?" Khan asked.
"They are even more expensive," Amber revealed.
"But the Global Army can provide the training and driving license for them," Lieutenant Abaze added. "Are you interested in becoming a pilot?"
"I just miss flying," Khan admitted. "I guess it's not the same without the wind blowing on your face."
"Nothing beats flying through space with a spaceship," Captain Goldmon declared while tapping his cane on the floor. "The teleports have tried to turn that type of travel obsolete, but many still like the complete freedom found among the blackness above. Also, pilots are necessary to find new valuable planets and intelligent lifeforms."
"So, should I try to get a spaceship?" Khan asked while continuing to inspect the many vehicles flying above his head.
"It depends on the type of ambassador you want to become," Captain Goldmon scoffed. "Do you want to manage the relationships that the Global Army has already established, or do you prefer to look for other species while exploring the immense but dark universe?"
****
Author's notes: I caught a cold on the 23rd, which turned out to be covid. I'm fine, but my holidays are pretty much over since I need to wait to get cleared. I'll go back to the normal schedule since I'm at it.. There will be a second chapter in a few hours (hopefully 3-4).
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