“Thanks,” Mandy Donovan said, walking quickly toward the one-story building the big man had pointed to.
Inside, she found it was like a small hardware store.
They had almost everything: switches, doorknobs, screws, wooden strips, and more.
Another big man stood inside.
Unlike the one outside holding a short club, this one’s clothes looked much better, though they were made of the same dusty gray fabric.
His jacket had pockets, and a short dagger of some unknown metal hung from his waist.
The man jutted his chin toward the floor.
“If you don’t find what you’re looking for here, you can check downstairs.”
Where he gestured, there was a staircase leading down.
“Wooden planks, cabinets,” Mandy Donovan said, scanning the room.
She didn’t see what she was looking for.
“We have those downstairs,” the big man said, casually pointing to the stairs again.
‘It’s obviously a basement, so why does he keep calling it ‘downstairs’?’ Mandy Donovan thought as she headed down.
More big men with short daggers patrolled the lower level.
A few customers were quietly browsing.
When they found something they wanted, they paid with points and left just as quietly.
Mandy Donovan was there to buy bed planks.
As she stepped off the final stair, she got a clear view of the basement.
The basement was over one hundred square meters, filled with stacks of wooden planks in different sizes.
Mandy Donovan found a plank of a suitable thickness and scanned it with her wristband.
[Fir Plank, Medium Contamination, Material]
“Do you have any low-contamination planks in this size?
I need eight square meters’ worth.” Fir was sturdy, rot-resistant, and durable—an excellent material for furniture and perfect for bed planks.
Unfortunately, Mandy Donovan didn’t know any carpentry.
She had all the theory down, but her hands hadn’t learned the skills yet.
A big man standing in the corner grunted in acknowledgment.
“Got ’em.
They’re not cheap.”
Low-contamination items were never cheap, and Mandy Donovan was prepared for the cost.
“I’ll take eight square meters’ worth.”
The big man brought out several planks.
“You can test them.
These all fit your requirements.” He then scanned them with his own wristband.
DING!
[Fir Plank, Low Contamination, Material]
“Are you sure you want these?
The low-contamination ones are pricey.”
“I’m sure.
Eight square meters,” Mandy Donovan confirmed, her mood lifted by finding the right planks so quickly.
With these, they wouldn’t have to sleep on the floor anymore.
Besides the stacks of planks, the basement also had various pieces of finished furniture arranged along the walls.
She took a liking to a large wardrobe and a low cabinet that was about 1.2 meters tall.
One of the low cabinets could go in the kitchen and serve as a cupboard.
The other could be set on the heated brick bed as a bedside cabinet.
One large wardrobe would be enough.
She would only store her truly important things in her Space, anyway.
“Do you have low-contamination versions of these two cabinets?
I’ll take one large one and two of the smaller ones!” Mandy Donovan added, “I need them delivered.”
The big man gave a fawning smile.
“No problem.
See what else you need, and we’ll deliver it all at once.”
“Three sets of winter clothes, three sets of bedding, five hundred pounds of coal briquettes, one hundred pounds of charcoal, a cast-iron pot, a set of cast-iron stove rings, and five meters of sheet-metal chimney pipe.
Oh, and a small dining table.
That’s all for now.
I’ll be back if I think of anything else,” Mandy Donovan rattled off in one breath.
The big man waved over two other guys, found a wooden handcart, and had them load up all of Mandy’s items.
“That’ll be forty-one hundred points.
I’ll knock off the hundred, make it an even four thousand.
These two will deliver it and carry it right into your home.”
“Thanks!” Mandy Donovan paid the points without hesitation.
One cart wasn’t enough, so the big man had someone else bring over a second one.
May Grant had already finished her own shopping and was waiting at the main gate.
But when she saw Mandy, she wasn’t alone.
Following her were three big men pushing two handcarts piled high with goods.
“Those cabinets are ridiculously expensive!
You should have told me sooner, I would’ve taken you to get some secondhand ones,” May Grant whispered in Mandy’s ear.
“Points are hard to earn, you should be more frugal.”
The woman clearly meant well, so Mandy Donovan just smiled and nodded.
‘I’d never use secondhand things,’ she thought.
‘If I can afford low-contamination items, I’m certainly not going to settle for medium.
I had to endure more than a decade of that misery at the welfare center—afraid to wash, afraid to change my clothes, even afraid to use my Space.’ Aloud, she said, “These were all urgent necessities for the house.
We couldn’t wait around to find them secondhand.”
If she were living by herself, she wouldn’t even be willing to use low-contamination items.
When May Grant got home, the first thing she did was speak to her daughter.
“That Mandy next door?
She’s a very generous spender.
Definitely not the type who would need to borrow things.
You, honestly, you just think too much.”
Hearing her mom say that Mandy Donovan had bought a huge pile of things, Holly Grant breathed a small sigh of relief.
“Well, Mom, if you want to be friendly with her, I certainly won’t stop you.
It’s been so many years, and you’ve finally found someone you can get along with.
Still, she seems terrible at managing a household.
What if she blows all her points at once and ends up just like all those other people?”
“Oh, you…” May Grant sighed, then turned to tell her husband about their new neighbor.
Her husband, Henry Grant, warned her, “You and Holly shouldn’t mention this when you’re outside.
We don’t want our neighbors to become a target because you’ve been gossiping.”
May Grant shot an irritated glare at her husband and daughter.
“Right, so you two are the good guys and I’m the bad guy!”
Following Mandy’s directions, the delivery men carried the large wardrobe directly into the bedroom.
The rest of the items were piled up in an open area, quickly covering the floor.
The twins hadn’t returned from gathering yet, so Mandy Donovan sent a message to Gary Moore, telling them to come back early.
The twins were still fixated on the mutated potatoes, but she wasn’t holding out much hope.
A little over an hour later, Gary Moore and Etta Moore returned.
They were stunned by the sight of all the piled-up goods.
“Why did you buy so much?”
“You two each give me thirteen hundred points.
Pay up,” Mandy Donovan said, holding out her arm.
“It’s all necessary stuff.
As long as we don’t deliberately break it, this could last us a lifetime.
It’s not a lot.”
“I just wasn’t able to buy any Mutated Beast Meat.”
After the points were transferred, Mandy Donovan watched the twins’ expressions.
They had only been spending and not earning for days.
Even with her substantial point balance, she was starting to feel anxious.
She refused to believe these two little tykes wouldn’t show the slightest concern.
She had thought too much.
When the two of them heard her say everything was useful, they didn’t question it at all.
Gary Moore asked, “Where does all this stuff go?”
Etta Moore, however, licked her lips in disappointment.
“Aww, I was looking forward to it for so long!
I was all ready to chip in with my points!
We dug up a bunch of mutated potatoes today, and I was planning to cook them with some Mutated Beast Meat.”
“There will be plenty of other chances for you to spend your points.
The place I went today really didn’t have any Mutated Beast Meat.
Why don’t you go check the official exchange point?” Mandy Donovan asked, pressing on Etta Moore’s head to turn her face towards her.
“Or…
you could just drool over the thought for a few more days.”
“I’ll choose to drool for a few more days.
I need to help you guys tidy up the house.” The goods were piled right up to the doorway; if they didn’t move them, none of them could get in or out.
Plus, leaving everything at the entrance was too eye-catching.
Etta Moore lifted a bag of charcoal.
“Where does the charcoal go?”
Mandy Donovan pointed.
“In the storage area.
Put the coal there, too.
Anything we aren’t using for now, or things we won’t use up quickly, goes there.
We can just grab what we need from there.
The coal is heavy and there’s a lot of it, so stick it in the very back.
We’ll be using the charcoal often, so keep it out front.”
“Put one cabinet in the kitchen.
It’s one of the half-height ones, so we can still put a cutting board on top.
You can go ahead and move it,” she said.
Meanwhile, Mandy started carrying the planks into the bedroom, moving them onto the heated brick bed one by one.
The planks were assembled quickly, fitting together seamlessly.
Mandy Donovan was very satisfied.
She picked up the three sets of bedding and put them on the heated brick bed.
After placing the cabinet in the kitchen, Gary Moore lifted the other one.
“Where does this one go?”
“Put it on the heated brick bed, against the wall.
We’ll set the small table on top of it and just take it down when we need to use it.” Mandy Donovan had built the heated brick bed by hand; it was sturdy enough to hold seven or eight people without collapsing.
She looked at the bedding, then spread out the three sets.
“It’s really starting to feel like a home now.”
Now, all that was missing were some green plants for the “balcony” and the lively aroma of cooking in the kitchen.
The house had no balcony, just the planting area she had designated, which currently held some mutated potatoes.
“We’re done putting away the things you pointed out, but there are still some smaller items—” Etta Moore said, poking her head into the bedroom.
“Where should they go?”
“Just put them against the wall for now, somewhere they won’t be in the way.
I’ll sort them out later,” Mandy Donovan said, clapping the dust from her hands.
The climate in New Sharn District was incredibly dry, so the heated brick bed and stove had already cured completely.
They would be able to sleep on their brand-new heated brick bed tonight.
However—Mandy Donovan looked down at her own grimy hands, then over at the two filthy siblings, and decided that everyone was taking a bath today.