Finding an empty container to place under the pipe to catch water, Mandy Donovan stored all the coal chunks and dust she could see in the cavern into her Space.
She didn’t dare touch the fissure in the rock where the water was coming from.
The three of them were underground in a place created by an earthquake.
She couldn’t risk causing an accident out of greed.
With that in mind, Mandy Donovan casually tested the soil beneath her feet.
[Humus soil, no contamination.
Exchange price: negotiable.
Purchase price: negotiable.]
Since it was uncontaminated humus, what more was there to say?
Time to dig!
Where else could you find something like humus in The Wasteland?
It was Mandy Donovan’s first time seeing it, and she wasn’t about to miss this opportunity.
BEEP BEEP BEEP!
Her wristband was ringing.
Tired from digging, Mandy Donovan sat down to rest and answered it.
“Hello?”
“Mandy, two of the lights went out.
It’s too dark,” Gary Moore’s exasperated voice came through.
The sound of rhythmic tapping, THUMP THUMP THUMP, could be heard in the background.
They were still digging.
“I’m coming over with batteries.
You guys take a break.” The simple dry-cell batteries had a limited life, dying after just over an hour.
‘I have real flashlights and all sorts of lamps, but I can’t take them out,’ Mandy thought.
All she could do was tough it out and bring them more dry-cell batteries.
Etta Moore, panting as he dug for charcoal, asked, “Mandy, if I dig nonstop for a whole day, can I earn a hundred points?”
“If you can dig 250kg, you’ll get a hundred points,” Mandy Donovan said.
Charcoal was lightweight and burned for a long time.
250kg was a huge pile.
She was experienced; over the past ten years, she had sold a lot of charcoal and accumulated a good amount of points.
“We’ll dig for fourteen days.
On the last day, we’ll go to the train station.”
“Then my brother and I can save up two thousand eight hundred points!
I’m going to dig more than 250kg,” Etta Moore said, getting more and more excited as he dug, seemingly tireless.
Helping out in the kitchen only earned twenty points a day, a pitifully small amount.
Mandy Donovan took out the dry-cell batteries, first replacing the ones in the flashlight, then the ones in their headlamps.
“If they die again, find a flat spot and rest.
If you get scared, just call for me.”
There were absolutely no Mutant Beasts or mutated plants here.
“Who’s scared?
I’m plenty brave,” Etta Moore retorted stubbornly, feeling underestimated by Mandy Donovan.
“My brother and I are both very brave.”
‘Right, so brave.
I wonder who it was that cried his eyes out when he heard his brother was leaving,’ Mandy thought.
Mandy Donovan didn’t call the kid out on his bluff.
“Alright, alright, you’re the brave ones.
In a little while, I’ll be the scaredy-cat and come find you.” The flow from the pipe wasn’t heavy; if she switched to a bucket, it could probably collect water all night.
“How do we trade the stuff we dig?” Gary Moore’s headlamp illuminated a large area as he looked at the two piles of charcoal.
“The entrance is too small.
It’ll be a pain to carry it out on our backs.”
“We don’t have to carry it.
We just have to dig.
After we leave, someone will come and get it.
All we have to do now is dig as much as possible.” ‘When it’s time to leave, I’ll have the two little runts walk ahead of me, and I can collect it all with a wave of my hand.
Storing it is no problem at all.
The problem is how to take it out to use in the future.’
Gary Moore adjusted his headlamp.
“Then let’s dig as much as we can.
In twelve days, we should be able to get at least 3000kg.”
3000kg really wasn’t a lot, but for two kids, it was pretty good.
Mandy Donovan neither underestimated nor overestimated their labor.
A child’s stamina was limited.
If she didn’t have her Space, this ultimate cheat, she didn’t know how much more miserable her life would be.
Her life was miserable now, too.
She had her Space, but she didn’t dare reveal it.
Returning to the previous cavern, Mandy Donovan swapped the container under the pipe for a large water vat.
In the short time she’d been gone, she noticed the water flow had increased.
She tested its contamination level.
[Natural water source, no contamination, potable.
Exchange price: negotiable.
Purchase price: negotiable.]
After digging up some more soil, Mandy Donovan began to investigate where the water that had been dripping earlier was going.
Below the fissure between two rocks was a massive stone slab.
Years of dripping water had carved a “tear stain” into it.
The dripping water flowed toward the depths of the cave.
Mandy Donovan carefully used her pickaxe to dig where the stream of water disappeared.
After removing a few rocks, a shallow, flowing stream appeared before her.
‘An underground river?
At best, it’s an underground stream!’
The earth’s crust had shifted so much that the original landscape was completely unrecognizable.
She tested the contamination level of this tiny stream.
She dug a small pit to collect water.
Once it filled to a certain level, she would scoop it into a bucket.
As soon as a bucket was full, she stored it in her Space.
「On the fourteenth day」, as reluctant as Mandy Donovan was to leave this treasure trove, she knew she had to.
Over where the two brothers were, two huge piles of charcoal were stacked.
Seeing her approach, they exclaimed excitedly, “There’s over ten thousand kilograms!”
“The other party hasn’t shown up.
Are they really going to give us the points?”
‘Fools!
The person collecting the charcoal is standing right in front of you,’ Mandy Donovan thought.
Outwardly, she said without batting an eye, “With me here, are you afraid the points will run away?
Let’s call it ten thousand five hundred kilograms.
The points are—”
Etta Moore shouted, “Four thousand two hundred points!
Give my brother and me two thousand one hundred points each.”
He was so excited!
Earning points had never been this easy.
“Come here, I’ll transfer the points,” Mandy Donovan said, handing the bamboo basket to Gary Moore.
The tools from before were already packed inside.
“Don’t tell anyone about this place, understand?
Once you’re settled in New Sharn District and have jobs, I’ll come back and find people to continue digging.”
After transferring the points to the two of them, she told them to walk ahead.
Mandy Donovan went back into the cavern and collected both piles of charcoal.
‘The moderately contaminated charcoal can be sold off at the New Sharn District Black Market.
We’ll keep the good stuff for ourselves.’
“My brother and I definitely won’t tell anyone,” Etta Moore said.
Gary Moore, carrying the bamboo basket on his back, walked ahead through the narrow passage.
“But the people who come to get the stuff, won’t they find out about this secret place?”
Damn!
‘One lie needs a thousand more to cover it up.’
Mandy Donovan’s face was expressionless.
“They’re my people.
I trust them completely.
The people you two know, I don’t.
That’s why you need to keep this a secret.
This is our livelihood for the future.”
Something felt off, but he couldn’t put his finger on what.
Gary Moore followed Etta Moore’s lead and promised, “My brother and I don’t know anyone besides you.
After we get to New Sharn District, it’ll just be the three of us.”
“Over two thousand points, plus what I had before, plus my brother’s, plus Mandy’s…
we should be able to buy a house in New Sharn District!
I don’t want to sleep in a bunk bed ever again,” Etta Moore said, squeezing past his brother to get next to Mandy Donovan.
“I want my own bed.
Can we do that?”
“We still don’t know what the situation is in New Sharn District, but I can promise you won’t have to sleep in a bunk bed.” If New Sharn District overlapped with the Shaanxi of a few hundred years ago, Mandy Donovan already knew what kind of bed she wanted to sleep in.
“I’ve had enough of bunk beds, too.”
She had been assigned to the fourth bunk, and she’d been climbing up to it ever since she was a child.
The only good thing about the fourth bunk was that no one else would casually climb onto her bed.
Climbing like that, day in and day out for over a decade, had made her thoroughly sick of bunk beds.
The bunk beds on the girls’ side were four levels high.
She’d heard the boys’ side had five- and six-level bunks.
She’d never seen it with her own eyes, but she could imagine the scene.
Etta Moore fiddled with his wristband, a wide grin plastered on his face.
“I’ve never had so many points before.
I should set a password to be safe—”