Business King Of Two Worlds

Max walked towards the mansion, the bullets still littered the ground, the air smelled just as polluted but he walked in the mansion with a smile on his face.

Alia saw Max come in and asked him if his task was completed successfully.

Max nodded and proceeded towards her.

"Have you completed your task?" said Max

Alia picked up the bag from the ground with one hand and placed it on the table in front of her, after which she opened the bag.

Max saw that the bag Alia had opened was filled with gold bars and other precious jewels.

"How much did you get" asked Max

"Why don't you try lifting it," said Alia

Max tried to lift the bag but it was too heavy for him, so he gave up on it. He then took a pack of instant noodles out of his pocket and said

"Why don't you try telling me how much is it," said, Max

Alia saw the instant noodles and annoyed replied

"It should be around 20 kg"

"Good" replied Max as he slid the packet of instant noodles towards Alia

Alia put the noodles in her bag and started cleaning her gun.

Max saw that Alia had gotten busy so, he started talking to her

"Now, we have to move towards the bigger goal, so where can we buy some technology," said Max

"You have to be specific, what are you looking for, you want, weapons, defense equipment, A.I. powered gadgets because each of them has different markets," said Alia

Max thought a little bit and replied

"How far are these markets from each other"

"About 15 minutes" replied Alia

"Ok, then how about we do this, we can first go and see all the products that are offered and after that, I can see what I like," said Max .

"I have no problem with that, then be ready we leave in 30 minutes," said Alia

"No, problem," said Max

________________

Alia and Max were standing in front of a road connecting to an island. There were many people in front of them, and as the line slowly progressed Max saw that this place was very heavily guarded, there were snipers on towers, men with guns, and even some tanks and armored vehicles, and from time to time he could hear a sound that sounded like a bullet firing from a very high caliber gun.

"What is this place," asked Max

"This is the trading center" replied Alia

"Could you please elaborate on that?" said Max

"Information costs extra," said Alia

Max took a protein bar from his bag and handed it to Alia

Seeing this Alia got a little angry and said

"Are you a fuċkɨnġ idiot, handing me food right out in the open, you are fuċkɨnġ lucky that we are surrounded by security, otherwise we would have shot at by both people in front and behind us"

After which she took the protein bar and put it inside her bag

Hearing Alia, max realized that he had made a mistake.

"Ok, ok now the information, if you would please," said Max

"This island used to be an SEZ therefore only the rich lived here after they all escaped there were very few people left here. Thus, the world went to shit, a group from the army found this place and after they saw that there were just one entrance and exit route, they cleared the island and took control over it, and they noticed that most of the infrastructure was intact, so they decided to turn it into a safe haven for trading" said, Alia

"Now pretty much everybody comes here to sell their products and the fact that a safe trade is guaranteed in there since no is allowed to kill or injure somebody, well except the guards. The place also has a reputation that no one is ever cheated here, well that one might need to be verified but still, it's much better than the outside" said Alia

While she was talking, their turn had come, Alia gave some crystals that she took out of the bag, to the man holding the gun after which they moved ahead and sat inside a pod looking vehicles.

"Well if it is so good in there then why don't people just live in there, since it looks like you have to pay some kind of a fee when entering," said Max

"You know, you confuse me," said Alia

"How," said Max

"You are someone who seems to both possess and not possess a brain at the same time. But nonetheless, yes they charge an entry fee of 10 crystals per person and as for why people don't just live here, that because the price of houses inside the city is high, insanely high. I have heard that a house costs around 1,00,000 crystals and that just a lease and even that for a year, no house is ever sold, all the property belongs to the city council" said Alia

Max did not know how much 1,00,000 were but judging from Alia's reaction it looked like it was a very huge amount.

"However, the city allows 1,000 people to live free of cost in the city for their lives," said Alia

"But why would they do that" asked Max

"Well, do you think the city runs by itself, well actually it does, but still there is always a need for cheap labor, all the shops want people, the parlor needs prȯstɨtutės, houses needs servants. These people are used for that and they live in cage houses where six of them stay in a single room, like pigs in a pen" said Alia

Max was horrified by this, till now he had not encountered something that horrible, just some people and zombies being murdered but it looks like, it wouldn't be like this for long

After some time they arrived in inside the center and got off the pod, after which Alia started showing him all the products he wanted, there were sniper rifles, machine guns, pistols, laser guns, sonic guns, and all of them had A.I. meaning that they aimed, reloaded and shoot all by themselves, all one had to do was point.

Max also noticed that almost everything had elements of A.I. in it, to point that products that contained A.I. didn't mention it but instead products that didn't contain A.I. specifically mentioned it.

Max also saw many defense products like forcefield armor, telekinetic helmet, powered boots, exoskeletons, etc. , but these were all the best ones which according to Alia were too expensive to be worth it, and represented the peak of human technology.

After which, Alia took Max to see all the other products that were for sale, there were not as many products like that as there were weapons but it could be understood, after all, most of the population was extremely poor who couldn't even afford food, it could be said that quality of life-improving products was not exactly their priority.

Alia picked up a watch and showed it to him.

"This is a body watch, it comes with a zombie locator, radiation detector, and food tester, which tells you what you are consuming and if is it safe to consume or not. It also comes with an ȧssistant that can do whatever you want" said Alia

"This is a Radiation remover, it can remove radiation, but that depends on the energy it has left, it can be changed with any regular crystals and you can also inject it in your arm, which would allow you to stop being affected by radiation for 30 minutes," said Alia

"And these are a pair of earphones that you can use to communicate with anything you want, also it's signal cannot be blocked by anything and in time of emergency, it can send a distress signal to anyone you want along with your position, no matter where you are," said Alia

In the end, Max bought the most expensive pistol and machine gun and a sniper rifle, the forcefield armor, the body watch the radiation remover, and the earphones. He put all of them in his backpack.

After buying all this stuff, Alia now had literally zero crystals left.

"Where are we going next," said Max

"To a pawn shop" replied Alia

"Why you need to sell something," said Max

"No, you do," said Alia

"What, I don't need to sell anything," said Max

"Everything you just purchased cost 2,500 crystals, I have zero crystals left, and you have no crystals to pay me back, so believe me when I say you need to sell something," said Alia with a threatening look

"Ok," said Max recognizing the seriousness of her mood, and anyways going to the pawnshop will allow him to get an estimated value of the food he had with him since he had no idea how many crystals he could get for them.

Thus, Max and Alia proceeded to go to the pawnshop