On the surface, the small building had four floors.
She didn’t know if there was a basement level.
One of the burly men standing at the main entrance had seen Mandy Donovan yesterday and even helped her deliver goods.
He smiled.
“Looks like you bought a lot again today.”
“It’s all cotton fiber fabric.
I just can’t carry any more, or I would’ve bought even more,” Mandy Donovan said, showing off her purchasing power.
“I also bought two pounds of beast meat.
I’m planning to make a nourishing meal for my family back home.”
“I’ll help you with that,” the man offered, taking the wicker basket from her.
The fabric in the basket was also from the Black Market.
He could tell with one glance that she had bought out the entire displayed stock from that shop.
“If you’re buying a lot next time, you can give me a list first.
Want to add me?”
He held out his wristband.
Getting a Black Market staff member’s contact info meant she had an in.
Mandy Donovan raised her wrist and tapped it against his.
“I have something I want to sell.
Who should I talk to?”
“You can talk to me.
What are you looking to sell?” The man led Mandy Donovan into the building, introducing himself as Gael Shields and telling her to just call him Gael.
“I’ll definitely get you a good price.”
“And what if even you can’t recognize its value?” Mandy Donovan smiled, pulling a sealed can from her coat.
Gael Shields’s eyes narrowed.
This kind of shiny, well-preserved sealed can was usually a relic from the Cataclysm era.
“Is this—”
Mandy Donovan didn’t hide anything, handing it over directly.
“Pre-Cataclysm seeds!”
The sealed can was palm-sized and slightly flat.
‘How could the seeds from her Space not be considered pre-Cataclysm items?’
‘She was the one who decided that.’
Gael Shields’s outstretched hand trembled slightly as he took it.
“Let’s not even talk about whether seeds from hundreds of years ago can still be planted.
We don’t even know if these are actually pre-Cataclysm seeds to begin with.”
“I’ve planted the seeds inside before, in the Old East District.
They can all sprout,” Mandy Donovan said, feigning embarrassment.
“I just didn’t have any experience and killed them.”
As she spoke, she activated her wristband and pulled up a testing record from a few years ago.
“These are the seeds.
Look at the test results.”
[Lettuce, Zero-Pollution, Pre-Cataclysm Vegetable Species]
“See?
If it weren’t for these test results, I wouldn’t have recognized this stuff either.”
These zero-pollution seeds were what Mandy Donovan was using to get her foot in the door of the Black Market.
‘She didn’t know if this was the right move or not!’
“Come with me,” Gael Shields said, carrying Mandy Donovan’s wicker basket and leading her into the building.
In the first-floor hallway, guards armed with live ammunition stood watch every few steps!
At the staircase leading to the second floor, two more guards stood posted!
‘So heavily guarded!’
This only made Mandy Donovan more curious.
None of the rooms in the hallway were marked.
Gael Shields walked straight to the end of the hall.
He pushed open a door that was slightly ajar.
Inside the room sat an old man wearing thick-lensed glasses.
The desk in front of him was piled high with various items, looking utterly chaotic.
The old man was startled.
His hand twitched, and the object in it let out a puff of green smoke.
He glared angrily at Gael Shields.
“You brat, why didn’t you knock again?”
“Uncle Warren, come take a look at these seeds,” Gael Shields said with an awkward laugh.
Ignoring the old man’s face, which was as black as ink, he directly handed over the sealed can.
“Give us a price.”
The word “seeds” made the old man’s expression soften slightly.
He adjusted his glasses without even sparing a glance for Mandy Donovan, the newcomer in the room.
“If the seeds are viable, the price won’t be low.”
Being ignored didn’t bother Mandy Donovan.
In the past, to avoid drawing attention to herself, she had deliberately eaten and lived with the children from the welfare center, even suppressing her mysophobia to go without bathing just like them.
‘It was just a little neglect.’
However, since she had taken out the seeds, she certainly hadn’t done it to be ignored.
‘If the mountain won’t come to her, she’ll go to the mountain.’ “They’re viable.
I’ve planted them before, but they died later on.”
Mandy Donovan once again pulled up the test record on her wristband for the old man to see.
“You can cut one open and verify it on the spot.”
The old man ignored Mandy Donovan.
He gave her wristband a cursory glance, then pried open the sealed can with both hands, pouring out several dozen lettuce seeds.
He picked one up and examined it carefully with a magnifying glass.
Finally, under the magnifying glass, he did as Mandy Donovan suggested and cut a seed open.
The old man’s expression grew excited.
“Do you have any more of these seeds?
If you do, I’ll take them.”
After a moment, he added, “One hundred points per seed.”
A complete change from his earlier indifference, the old man now stared at Mandy Donovan with fervor, as if looking at a treasure trove.
Even Gael Shields couldn’t help but glance at the seeds.
“Are they really pre-Cataclysm seeds?”
“Move aside and be quiet,” the old man said, pushing the tall Gael Shields out of the way.
His old eyes, behind their thick lenses, were shining brightly.
“Young lady, are there more?
One hundred points per seed, that’s a very high price!”
Seeds?
Mandy Donovan had plenty.
But would she dare reveal them?
‘No.’ Naturally, she wouldn’t admit she had more.
“Not for now.
If I find any more, I’ll come back to you.”
Hearing this, the light in the old man’s eyes dimmed, and he shook his head in regret.
“True.
It has been a few hundred years since the Cataclysm, after all.
Finding something zero-pollution and still viable is something you just have to stumble upon.
Gael, give her the points.
Next time she has seeds, bring her directly to me.”
‘When “next time” would be was up to her to decide.’ She nodded at the old man.
“If I find any, I’ll come looking for you.”
The old man didn’t ask to add her on his wristband.
He probably didn’t believe she could find more seeds.
Mandy Donovan scoffed inwardly, but her expression remained neutral, and she said nothing.
“One hundred points per seed, isn’t that too expensive?
This is ten thousand points right here!
The boss would kill me,” Gael Shields muttered as he started counting the seeds one by one.
Forty-nine seeds.
There had been fifty, but the old man had cut one open.
With 4,900 points credited to her account, Mandy Donovan asked Gael Shields, “I have five thousand pounds of medium-pollution charcoal and twenty thousand pounds of low-pollution coal in the Old East District.
Is there any way to transport it here?”
Gael Shields looked at Mandy Donovan in surprise.
“You have all that stuff, why didn’t you stay in the Old East District to guard it?
What are you doing here in the New Sharn District?”
“Didn’t I draw a spot in the New Sharn District?
You think I don’t want to bring my stuff over?
If I could’ve transported it, I wouldn’t have had to buy from you guys,” Mandy Donovan said, rolling her eyes.
“You just said you have a boss.
Go ask your boss if he wants that stuff.”
“How about this, let me discuss it with my boss first.
We’ve added each other, so I’ll message you if there’s any news.
If you can’t wait, you can also come find me directly,” Gael Shields said, hesitating for a moment.
Seeing the expectant look in Mandy Donovan’s eyes, he still felt compelled to add, “But the Black Market in each district, each city…
they’re all run by different factions.”
‘Powerful outsiders trying to muscle in,’ Mandy Donovan understood.
“If you guys are interested, let me know.
I’ll be heading back to the Old East District in a while.
Give me the basket, I’m going home.”
With their jobs not yet assigned, Etta Moore and Gary Moore started making water buckets as soon as they got out of bed.
When Mandy Donovan came through the door, there were already several finished water buckets on the floor.
“I finished the thing you asked me to make,” Gary Moore said, picking up a lidless bucket and showing Mandy Donovan the faucet on it.
“I tested it with water.
It works.”
“Not bad, not bad at all.
I’ll install it a little later,” Mandy Donovan said, carrying the wicker basket into the bedroom.
She placed the new clothes on their bunks, then took out pillows and bedsheets, one set for each of them.
She put a small portion of the fabric into a cabinet along with the scissors and other items, and stored the rest of it in her Space.
“Come get your bedding.
The first thing you do every morning is fold your blankets.
Also, change into the tank tops and shorts.
Don’t go commando.
And next time I tell you to bathe, you’d better be quick about it.
I will rip your clothes.”
Mandy Donovan really would rip their clothes.
Etta Moore didn’t dare to be stubborn with her anymore.
He couldn’t win against her and would have to do as she said in the end.
“We have so many new clothes?
Don’t they cost points?”
Ignoring his question, Mandy Donovan took the leaf-wrapped package into the kitchen and discovered—whoops, no cutting board and no kitchen knife.
“Etta, it’s your time to shine.
Come on, make me a little knife.”
“You bought meat?
Such a big piece!” Etta Moore said, sniffing the air as he condensed a small knife.
“Mandy, you’re the best!”
“Stop sucking up.
Gary, grab a small basin and get some water from the bucket.” Mandy Donovan waited for Gary Moore to come over, then she put the meat in the water to soak, adding the salt from her palm into the water with it.
She stirred the water and turned to wash her hands.
“I’ll think about how we should cook this meat in a bit.”
A huge piece of meat, the likes of which he had never seen before, was right here in their home—it belonged to them.
Even Gary Moore, who wasn’t usually greedy, stared wide-eyed.
He hesitated.
“This must have cost a lot of points, right?”
Mandy Donovan finished washing her hands and patted Gary Moore’s head with her still-wet hand.
“If there’s a big-ticket item that requires your points, I’ll ask you for them.
For now, we’re living cooperatively, and I’m not one to take a loss.
Go wash your hands.
We’ll be eating meat soon.”
“Yeah, you got it!” Etta Moore agreed with uncharacteristic enthusiasm…
Back in the Black Market, Gael Shields relayed what Mandy Donovan had told him to his boss.
“The young lady said she has five thousand pounds of medium-pollution charcoal and twenty thousand pounds of low-pollution coal she wants to sell.
The stuff is in the Old East District.
Boss, should we take it?”
The Black Market boss kicked Gael Shields in the ass.
“For that little bit of stuff, it’s not worth me offending the people in the Old East District…”