Lin Ye may have made a bit of a miscalculation here.
He originally thought that the distance between Chernoborg to Sokk was about the same as the distance from Rhodes Island to Chernoborg, so he thought it would take them about half a day.
Looked like he was wrong.
It will take them a day to arrive there. Lin Ye thought he could just drive them there but with how little gas that they had, that was out of the question.
Why didn't he refill at Chernobog, you may ask?
With how that place was completely abandoned by their government, the gas station there had little to nothing left. Finding a bus for them to take to get there was also out of the question. Transportation no longer passed by Chernobog. Even if they were a bus for them to use, Lin Ye found out by looking at the schedule at the abandoned station that there were no stops at Sokk.
At that moment, Lin Ye realized how remote the town of Sokk was.
Lin Ye needed to find some other way to get there. Luckily he was no stranger in the people's eyes of Chernobog. He went around the town and asked some people for some help. It did not take long for him to meet a kind old man that was willing to help them. He was more than happy to take them to Sokk using his truck.
So now they were all sitting at the back of this old truck on their way to Sokk.
He told Skadi and Exusiai to sit in the passenger seat. Surprisingly they wanted to sit at the back with him. Exusiai's reason why she did this was that she wanted to feel the air around her. Skadi on the other hand told she did not want to leave him alone.
Her answer made him chuckle.
Lin Ye could easily just take the seat for himself but…
As he felt the wind brush his air and as he looked up to the sky, he thought that he liked being here more. With how cloudy the sky was looking, he enjoyed how comfortable the cold air felt on his skin.
He really liked being outside.
Maybe the reason why he was like this was that in the past he needed to stay indoors for most of his life and did not experience all of this before.
A small smile appeared on his face as he thought about this. He leaned back on the truck and let out a small hum, enjoying all of this.
From what he got talking with the kind old man, he was quite used to sending people to Sokk. When he asked why that was, he told Lin Ye that not everyone could afford to run away.
That sounded reasonable enough.
However, Lin Ye knew better. If not, he wouldn't be so open to getting this man's help. His smile grew bigger at this thought.
He knew this old man, the man thought he would forget about him.
Old man Max. He did all of this to repay Lin Ye for helping him take care of his cat, Chips.
Why didn't he tell Lin Ye that he knew him? He had a hunch that Old man Max did not want to do it because he was afraid that Lin Ye would not accept his help. He was not wrong. He was doing his job at the time, there was no need to repay him. However, he just went along, playing ignorant.
He chuckled at this. Old man Max must have noticed this too but he did not say anything.
With how they were travelling now, it took them longer than it should for them to get to Sokk.
After sitting in the back compartment for a whole day, he was told by the driver that it was almost noon.
It was also at this time that Skadi's cell phone rang and told Lin Ye lightly that she was asked if she wanted to get some extra money.
It might be nothing, but Lin Ye, knowing who Skadi was, was curious. It must be related to her being a bounty hunter.
When Skadi said this to him, Lin Ye thought that she was about to go on an adventure to fight another Lovercraftion being for some money again.
The image of a huge zombie octopus played in his head.
With how much he knew about the bounty hunter of this world, the reason why she was called must be because she was near to her target.
"Those types of monsters can appear here too?" Lin Ye couldn't help asking, "Strange. I thought they would only appear near a body of water. Seeing that there is nothing like that miles from here, looks like I am wrong."
"Monster?" Skadi was a little confused, "What monster?"
"You know," Lin Ye said vaguely, "Like the one that you saved me from."
Exusiai, sitting on the side, listened to them chatting curiously.
Skadi looked like she finally understood what he was trying to say to her. She shook her head and explained to him, "No, you have misunderstood. This is just some small errand that I need to do."
"Is that so?" Lin Ye hummed to her answer. Originally he wanted to ask what it was but he did not want to pry. He felt that even if Skadi told him, he would be no help to her. She was Skadi after all. With that, he just changed the subject, "Mind me asking, how much were they going to pay you?"
"200000 Lungmen dollars," She answered him blandly.
Lin Ye almost bit his tongue hearing this.
"... How much was it again? I might have misheard you," He glared at Skadi, thinking that he had heard it wrong. "200000 Lungmen dollars?"
Skadi nodded at his question.
"... So, I did hear it right." Lin Ye twitched slightly. "So, 200, 000 L.M.D. is just extra money for you?"
"... Yes," Skadi looked at him confusingly, "Is there a problem?"
Lin Ye suddenly didn't know how to reply, he subconsciously looked at Exusiai to see if she could help him in this predicament.
Seeing Lin Ye looking at her, holding her hands, she said in a very innocent tone, "Two hundred thousand L.M.D. is really nothing. That is the bare minimum that our boss would use when he went drinking."
Lin Ye sighed inwardly again.
What was up with the economic conditions of this world?
Why were there so many rich girls in this world?
Why was he still just a poor man up to now?
It would be great if these great ladies could divide the money for him.
Wait, there seemed to be something wrong with what he just thought.
…. Nah.
Then he realized something that Exusiai just told him.
He immediately turned his head and looked at her suspiciously, "Is your boss' money yours?"
"Of course not." She shook her head.
"Is that so?" He hummed, "Then what was your salary when you worked with Penguin Logistics?"
"I can't remember. The boss would usually cut off some of my paychecks if I broke something," She then noticed the way Lin Ye was looking at her, "... Hey, why are you looking at me like that?"
"Nothing." Lin Ye retracted his gaze and felt much better.
With how much this girl was causing problems with him in only a few days, he could not imagine how much was cut from her pay when she worked with that penguin.
Looked like there was another person who was poorer than him.
People are always sad when they have shortcomings, and happy when they have it better than others.
Lin Ye was no different.
He still pitied her though. Maybe he should buy some apple pie for her? She did like them after all.
As the three of them were chatting with each other at the back, their driver, Old man Max could hear them. When he heard them talking about the money that they had, a smile slowly appeared on his face. He was happy. Happy that Lin Ye was having a good life now. That young man deserved it. Even if he tried to deny it, he was the pride of Chernobog. He was always a kind soul. Adults felt at ease when they were around him and kids loved him. Even animals would always yearn for his presence.
Old Man Max hummed as he felt glad that he could help Lin Ye.
At the back, Skadi pulled out her phone again and looked at what was on it. A frown slowly appeared on her face. Noticing this, Lin Ye was a bit worried for her.
"Skadi?" He asked, "What's the matter?"
"Sokk town?" Skadi murmured, "What a coincidence."
{Rhodes Island's Psychologist}
BronzeHammer was a little unhappy now.
What Chris said to him just now made him want to take out his hammer and smash his head to mush.
He always had a tendency of killing people when he felt annoyed.
Fortunately, this impulse was held back by himself well enough.
He knew that if he killed Chris, he would lose the only person that would help him put out the commission.
So in the end, he just had to cut some of that man's fingers. That was decent enough for him. At least he did not kill him.
As for whether Chris will retaliate, he really was not that worried. No one in that small town could come close to killing him. Even the bounty hunters in this area were small fries.
He already knew the general strength of them here, they were not that strong.
He truly believed that the only people who could truly threaten his life were probably his comrades who were also the emperor's personal guards. Like, GoldenGhosts or even SilverBlade. They were both on the same team as him before. Their strength was almost the same as that of his.
If they would team upon him, the best thing he could do was to flee the scene. They were that strong.
Other than them… were there any others in this world that were stronger than the personal guard of the Emperor? If you asked him, his answer would be no.
In his eyes. No one could ever beat the elites of Ursus and the might of their emperor.
With that in mind, he was confident that no one could ever beat him, not in this town at least.
Chris was lucky that he was merciful enough to only cut off some of his fingers.
Now, alone in the bar, he was getting a bit bored. The conversation that they had ended too fast, disrupting his original plan, so he waved to the bar owner and motioned for the little boy he has just seen to accompany him.
The bar owner naturally dared not refuse him. After all, even the head of the bounty hunter here could not stand a chance against him, what could he do?
When he was about to go to Aesop, he suddenly felt a chill, and he subconsciously raised his head. He glazed that the front door and his eyes widened.
He saw that the door of the bar had been covered with frost.
{Rhodes Island's Psychologist}
Draft: Jaq
Proofread: Jaq
Edit: Jaq