Chapter 33: Thirty-One

Elsa's house was closer than she thought it would be. The streets had become bare, there were sparse people, and she went against the tide of men with weapons. It didn't take long before she pulled next to a crude house—much better than hers, at least this one looked as if it had been constructed with the intent that it would stand for a few years, but crude nonetheless. It was wooden.

She hopped out of the car and knocked on the door.

"Come in, I already opened it."

She entered, passing by a bathroom to her left before exiting into a living room where her friend sat. The girl wore casual, home, clothes. A tank top that showed off way too much, abs for one (did she even have a bra on?), matched a pair of shorts that showed off supple thighs. She was relaxed, sitting upon a couch of green, sipping something through a straw, as a screen blinked in front of her—a fight in play between two men that advanced towards each other with fists and kicks.

By the time she reached her, Elsa smiled, tapped an half-spherical shaped thing on the table to turn the screen off and pointed to a cup.

"Here." She grinned. "Strawberry shake."

It was sweet, pink, and it tasted like its name. A bit too sugary for her, but Rose enjoyed it nonetheless as she sat across her friend and thanked her.

"Thank you for the help."

"It's nothing." Elsa waved her off. "You can stay for as long as you'd like."

Hopefully that wouldn't be for long. The sound of pulses was still strong in the air. Rose nodded.

"By the way, what do you know about Paul Walker?" She asked, curiosity in her mind.

Sure, she could navigate through the Mana Web and see what pops up, but she was already here, and there was someone who had been in the slums for far longer right in front of her. Plus, as she sipped the shake, she thought a chat with a friend was more worthwhile than browsing.

"Paul Walker," Elsa tsked, crossing her legs and arms as she relaxed into her chair with a 'Hmm', "If we were to say there are 5 rims of the slums; he controls about half of the outermost rim, and a quarter of the 4th. His reach isn't far, but it's deep."

Rose imagined 5 circles extending outward from the city of Alos, one inside another until the whole of the slums were covered. If she wasn't wrong, her shack was situated at the 4th circle and was considered within one of the lower areas of even that, much less the slums.

"So," She began, not quite understanding why someone with that stable a grasp would start a war, "Why is he trying to take control of the Red District?"

She wouldn't cross out that he was ambitious, from the moment she met him, she thought 'A leader coming personally to collect debt. . .' was an odd thing. Of course, he said he only stopped on his way to somewhere else, but that wasn't actually needed for a leader. Either he was really frugal or a cheapskate, then again, Lux had been more than a month late in payments, maybe it was simply a tactic to scare him. It was much scarier to face someone who controlled a part of the slums than a lackey, she imagined.

Elsa looked at her. Rose could see her eyes waver.

"Fine, umm. . ."

She sighed, muttered 'Gosh', ruffled her hair, and finally began to speak.

"I guess you're still kinda new here right? Well, new slummers tend to think the closer to the city a 'Slum Lord' controls the more influential or powerful they are. . .which is just being stupid."

"I'm stupid then, I suppose."

"Y'know I'm not poking at ya." She rolled her eyes and gave an awkward smile. ". . .there are several economic zones in the slums, and various sections that have more power than others, the most famous, and arguably the most influential, is the Red District located in the fifth rim—for two reasons."

"One, it's the furthest from Alos and thus the one the city has the least control over, or maybe it's more of a silent—or bribed—agreement to not kick it too badly. And, two, it contains a lot, a whole lot, of. . . 'underground businesses' and the lixels it generates can rival that of half of the rims on its own."

Rose tilted her head. Puzzled.

Elsa shrugged.

"Let's just say, controlling that area is like putting most of the slums, and the Slum Lords, under your thumb. As odd and dark as that place can be, it is the most important part of the slums."

"Interesting," Rose muttered.

If she wasn't wrong, Mare, the info-broker, lived at the edge of that district, did she not?

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"Yeah, here," Elsa said, tapping her pad.

It blinked open and soon, a map revealed itself. It was an aerial view of the slums with the city at its center, Rose looked on interestingly, making out faint circles that conformed with her imagination. There were other things, however. Unlike her simplified maps, various buildings had names attached on top of them, and some zones of the slums were circled—colored and such—with what looked like attached descriptors. She looked, and sure enough, the location of her shack was within the fourth rim, within a green colored part that matched the color of that of half of the fifth rim.

"A map of the slums with all the rims and some important points highlighted. Ya want it, right?"

She nodded. She had no explicit idea what she would do with the information, but the turbulence ramping up outside told her she might need it.

"Yes, please, thank you."

Elsa laughed.

"Aye no problem, you can find most of these stuff online anyway, I bet there might be similar maps out there."

"But you made this one?"

"Nah." Elsa waved her hand. "Do I look like a map-maker to you?"

"Not at all."

"Woah that's cruel." Elsa shook her head. "You're right though. I got it from an info broker, that's why there's some. . .unpleasant, hidden, stuff there."

'Unpleasant and hidden huh?' Rose thought, linking her pad with the girl, and accepting the file.

It had been a month since her encounter with Shana Striker. Her charge was at 70% and she only had one mana orb on her at the moment. She would have to return to her shack soon, one way or the other, to recover the rest of them—the thought of spending money buying them all again did not sit well with her. That also meant going into a skirmish zone.

"Elsa."

"Yes?"

"Interested in following me to my shack? I need to recover my mana orbs."

Her friend looked at her as if she were dumb. "You're crazy—I have some here, I can give them to you. Just wait till the place calms down."

"Did you not tell me you needed 60 to 120k lixels some time ago. . .and now you are suddenly able to give away your orbs like water?" Rose muttered, blinking her eyes.

"Aye—y—eah."

"Then I am not taking your gift."

She was already crashing at her place and did not feel like using a friend, especially not one she valued so closely.

". . ."

"You don't have to come with me if you do not wish to," She said, "I just thought. . .it would be more interesting with us together."

". . .gosh, fine, I'll come."

Of course, before they went, there were some things that needed to be taken care of first. Rose looked over her current possession on hand: A small silver badge pinned to her jacket she had bought for 5k lixels, a low-end pulse pistol—without a function that utilized spirits, she had learned—to her right thigh that had sent her back 25k, a mana orb attached to her back hip, and her dune-buggy. Half of those had taken her a better part of 20 days of continual hunting to acquire, her current lixels on hand was a tame 3k—no wonder 'underground' means of obtaining money were so valued, working with the S.O.S for one day had been enough to gain 20k. She sighed.

"Thank you. Let's go in two days, then," She said.

She felt that she still had to practice a bit more with the pistol. She learned fast, mostly due to her perfect-memory and inhuman eyes, but she did not become an expert from nothing. And, there was also the need to look over the map and watch the situation for at least a bit—they couldn't just run in there.

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