Chapter 14: Money

Caizher stood on one side of the ring with a burly man as his opponent. It was different from the one that the desperate man from before fought with

Only the strong or those who have high enough connection can live in the inner parts of the base where the doors are protecting them. To make sure that only the worthy would enter the inner area, the testers will only fight once to prevent any 'lucky' participant from winning against an exhausted opponent

The burly man looked arrogantly at Caizher. For him, Caizher just has a big connection making it so that he can take the test today. Others will need to wait weeks or months as the testers can only fight one battle each day

The man was holding a heavy club in his hand, comparing his body to the slim Caizher made it looked like he was bullying the latter

"Start!" As soon as the announcer declared the start of the battle, the burly man with the help of his strong physique jumped and reached Caizher

The heavy club on his hand descended but Caizher acted as if he wasn't able to react properly and just stood there. However, with minimal movement, he managed to evade easily and the heavy club landed on the ground causing a loud sound

The impact from hitting such solid ground with full power numb the man's hand and he looked at Caizher on his side as he felt something cold on his neck

Caizher can be seen pointing his dagger at his opponent's neck, and just like that, he won easily

The burly man was scared to death. He thought that Caizher is a weakling but he was proven wrong in such a scary manner. It was clear to see that he's not Caizher's opponent at all

It wasn't surprising though as the testers only have average strength. The base's management cannot assign someone too powerful or weak as testers

Caizher retracted his daggers much to the burly man's relief

The battle was so fast that the people who were watching them got bored. The burly man was defeated just like that and they didn't manage to see an exciting fight

"His body is so muscular but he's this weak"

"Didn't even last for two rounds!"

"Just how weak he is? To be defeated just like that in one move"

"Is he even deserving to live in the inner area?"

The people in the outer areas hated the testers. They weren't able to enter the inner area because they cannot defeat these testers. Thus, they are happy to watch one of the testers being defeated in such a humiliating manner

The organizers gave Caizher something like an identification badge similar to what Sheena has. He was also given a key with the number for the room assigned to him

Caizher calmly accepted the badge and key, him entering the inner area is not something to be proud of. It would be a shame to his Divine Darkness Body if he cannot even enter the inner area of one of humanity's bases

"Not bad!" Sheena praised half-heartedly. This outcome was just natural. Even she can defeat the testers in one or two moves much less Caizher who is more powerful than her

Caizher nodded his head "Thanks for your help. I'll stroll around the base first!" Caizher said and left the woman

Sheena glared at Caizher's back for being left like that

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Caizher entered the inner area and was shocked at its state. The place wasn't that much different from how things look before the apocalypse

There are no visible marks that were left because of constant fighting, unlike other places. The area was also quite clean and maintained a sense of order a bit

The number of people is lower here but there are still a huge number of them and the place was bustling

Unlike the outer areas, the people here are quite 'rich' and as Caizher stroll around he saw many small stalls for people selling their wares

There are various things that they sell ranging from weapons to food and other luxury things like cigarette and jewelry who experienced a drastic dropped in price since the apocalypse as people needed food first

There are also some treasures that are formed thanks to mana. Caizher saw some special stones. Those stones contained mana and might help mana users to replenish their mana or aid in cultivation. But of course, not everyone has the ability to use it. It's like you are given the materials to build something but it's still up to you if you can build it

Those stones are formed naturally by nature. Since it was only almost a year since the apocalypse, stones like those though still rare but some lucky fellow would still find one randomly

It is a rare treasure but not that rare anymore. Caizher was interested in those mana stones but sadly he doesn't have any money. He doesn't even know what people here used as money

Caizher can only stare at the mana stones with longing but was unable to buy anything. Caizher got bored and he doesn't want to continue hurting himself by looking at things he wants to have but can't buy

"Who would have thought that a day would come that I will worry about money?" Caizher muttered while sighing

As his parents are filthy rich, he never worried about money all his life. This is the first time for him

Fortunately, the streets have numbers on them and it was easy to find his new home. However, since he's just new to the base, he was assigned to one of the lower quality places

It was in a rather secluded part of the inner area. The condition is better than the outer area but still worse than other parts of the inner area

Caizher saw a group of men walking in his direction but he just ignored them. One of the men was about to bump into him but Caizher moved his body to the side

His sudden movement caught one of the men off guard and he loses balance, almost falling on the ground

Caizher's eyes flashed with a dark light. If the man only walks naturally, he won't be out of balance like this when Caizher dodged. It seems like these men want to give him some trouble

Sure enough, the group of five men glared at Caizher especially the one that almost fell on the ground

"Bastard, how dare you trip me?!" The man accused even though Caizher just dodged

"Brat, you can't bully our brother like this!"

"Right, how do you plan to compensate us?!"

Their ulterior motive easily came out just like that. As Caizher doesn't like nonsense, he stared at them with that dark eyes of his

"If you want to fight, come to me! Stop the bullshit act, it's annoying!" Caizher said coldly while picking his daggers from his side and he pointed it at the five men

The five were shocked as they never encountered someone this straightforward. The cowardly people will immediately be caved in and apologize to them as they are afraid of any trouble

Those who have some courage will defend themselves by saying how they didn't do anything wrong

However, Caizher is the first one who acted so domineering like this.

"Asshole, you must be new here and still don't know the rules. The strong here can prey on the weak. We can kill you as long as no one will see it and it won't cause a big commotion!" One of the men raged and the others nodded their heads

But to their surprise, Caizher actually smirked. "So, you mean, I can kill you all as long as there are no witnesses?" Caizher said while playing with his daggers

Caizher's disposition made the men to be scared a bit but their arrogance and confidence in their numbers won't let them back down easily

"You sure got some guts!" Since things already escalated to this, the five men won't back out. Fortunately, there is enough area for them to move

The first one to attack was the one that 'acted' before and his mana covered his fist before his mana was converted into fire

"Let me burn your face!" The man said while throwing a punch at Caizher

Caizher had a wicked look on his face and waited until the man's fist was close enough on him. When he judged that it was enough, Caizher uses his body's ability and half of him sinks on the ground

The men only saw Caizher's body passing through the hard ground and was startled by it. Caizher's upper body is still above ground and he used his lower position to pierced the man's stomach using his daggers

The man's eyes widened in shock and an arrow of blood flew out from his mouth. A pained expression flashed on his face before he closed his eyes and died

Caizher's lower body emerged from the ground without him removing his daggers that are now dyed by his enemy's blood. Only when his body fully emerged from the ground did he kicked the man to remove his daggers from its body

The other four were scared and didn't know what to do. Should they continue this fight or run to get some help?

"H-how was that possible? I-is he an earth type?" Although this is the apocalypse but the human's usage of mana was still very crude

Without anyone teaching them, they are grasping in the dark with this new marvelous thing. Their attacks were still quite simple without much technique

That's why being able to use 'earth' like that scared the hell out of these men

"Earth type? No, I'm the darkness itself!" Caizher said before charging at the man closest to him

The man panicked and was only able to put his arms in front of him before he used his ability. The man's skins gained a metallic luster and Caizher didn't manage to make even just a small wound

"Oh? Interesting!" An ability like these would surely become powerful if mastered. Imagine if you have a body as durable as metal. Not only will you have a great defense but you can also use your body as a powerful weapon

Too bad that he will die today!

Caizher's arms grew in length and moved like a snake. His arms elongated upwards before he controlled his arm to descend along with the dagger on his hands

The dagger hits the man on the head and killed him. Caizher then returned his arm to the size of a normal human's arm

"Y-you! Don't come closer to us!"

"W-we are part of the fierce tiger gang!"

"Our brothers won't let you off!"

Being part of a family of mobsters, how can Caizher not be familiar with things like this?

"Give me all your money!" Caizher said and the three men blinked their eyes as if not believing they would be let off today

"Now!" Caizher shouted and the men immediately obeyed and handed Caizher what it looks like a food stamp with different numbers on it

"T-take all of it!" The three said in fear and Caizher calmly accepted the food stamps

"Alright, go clean this mess!" Caizher said while pointing at the dead bodies on the ground

Caizher then continued on his way to reach his room while whistling on the way. Caizher is not merciful on his enemies and decided to let them off… for now

With his 360° vision, he can see them glaring hatefully at him while carrying the bodies. Caizher is sure that the 'brothers' of these men will come knocking at his doorsteps

Today was the first time in his life that he wished he had money and as if the gods heard his prayer, they delivered to him those men for him to exploit

Caizher of course planned on killing those three but not now. He is waiting for their other members to come to him themselves. In this way, he won't need to put much effort

He only needs to defeat them and more money will come to his pocket. Isn't this a perfect plan?

Caizher smiled wickedly at his vicious plan and entered his room. It was just one of the rooms in an apartment building. As a young master like him, the room is too small for his liking

Originally, he wants to head back to the 'market place' and buy things that interest him. But for a more dramatic exit, he just continued walking to his new room instead of heading back on the market