3 Entering Tingen and Looking for Opportunities

Nodding to himself, Max got out of the tree, and immediately a wave of hunger overcame him. As it turned out, not only had he stayed hungry all night, but he had been living on a very meagre diet of old bread and water while he was being transported.

Looking at his hands and legs, Max could only sigh at the current state of his body. As it turned out, the 'full heal' received from reincarnating only applied to recent wounds and injuries, and not something that had happened to him a long time ago. This would also mean that the scar on his right eye was likely still there, despite his vision not being affected. 

Based on the little he knew about the Lord of Mysteries World, Max could recall that Tingen City was near a river or water body of some sort at the very least, and so he took to his aching feet and went towards the city, trying his best to go around the scene of the crime since he did not know how many Nighthawks or other Beyonders were present.

Upon nearing the city, he could faintly make out the flow of water and ignored the city in front of him and followed the sound of water, before finally reaching it. Unfortunately, it was a sewer outlet, letting out disgusting brown and green water into the ground just outside the city. How the horrendous smell had not invaded the entire city was a mystery, much like most of this world to common people.

Max followed the flow of the water and soon found what he was looking for, a river down a slight hill, moving at considerable speed, but not enough to sweep someone off their feet. Sighing in relief, Max quickly made his way down and dove in, ensuring he was near the bank to get out at any moment, also making sure to stay clear of the sewage entering.

As quickly as he could, Max washed all the blood of his body, and clothes, while tearing away the bottom part of his rag of a shirt since it had a fist-sized hole in it as well as too much dried blood to be cleaned with just water.

Once he was done with that, he quickly got out of the water and waited for his body to dry a bit before looking back into a calmer part of the river.

'Yup, I look exactly like I recall, except for the sunken cheeks and eyes as well as the dirt and blood in my originally silver hair.'

Dunking his head into the water again, Max rubbed vigorously to get rid of all dirt, and more importantly, all blood from his hair for a good few minutes before pulling it back out and wiping away the water from his eyes so he could open them.

Before opening his eyes, he hoped in his mind that nobody was right in front of him, staring him down and waiting for him to open his eyes. Thankfully, he was right and truly nobody was there. It was just his paranoia getting the better of him.

Sighing, Max looked at his reflection once more and confirmed that he looked almost normal other than the malnutrition. Getting up, Max made his decision very quickly. 

'If I am going to have to go under the radar of Adam and the crazy psychopathic pen when Klein is dying, might as well enter the city as a normal human and not a Beyonder. Once inside, I can earn enough money and purchase the materials for the Bender potion and consume it, I will have around a year to fully digest it and be prepared to consume the Fool's End potion.'

With that out of the way, Max did not directly enter the city and instead followed one of the considerably better-paved paths away from the city until the path was surrounded by a considerable amount of green and yellow vegetation.

Hiding behind one of these bushes, Max waited until he finally heard the rumbling of wood on stone and the cluttering of metal hooves on the same stone. Peering through the grass, Max noticed a black carriage pulled by two fairly well-fed horses. The driver was wearing brown clothes with a Chauffer's hat, a whip in one hand and the reigns to the horses in the other.

Thankfully, they were going considerably slowly, and Max waited for the windows inside the carriage to pass him before he sprinted out of the bushes, making as little noise as possible. Of course, to be extra cautious, he immediately jumped behind the carriage but did not touch it, only jogging right behind it.

However, he knew his stamina would not allow him to keep this up for too long, so after waiting for a few seconds, he softly grabbed onto the metal poles that were holding the carriage together and put his feet onto what he assumed was the rear bumper of the carriage made of metal.

'Made it!' Max celebrated slightly as he was finally on the carriage and he would no longer be straining his body until they reached the gates of the Tingen City.

Thankfully, the one inside the carriage had some sort of reputation and the guards quickly allowed it to enter. One of the guards looked back at the moving carriage and noticed nothing wrong, so he just shrugged it off, completely missing the extra lump of shadow at the bottom of the carriage, holding on for dear life and hoping nobody saw him like this.

The carriage passed through the city, and the path gradually turned from a nearly paved path to a completely paved and well-maintained road made of stone. Noticing this, Max understood that the carriage was heading to the more affluent areas of Tingen City, and a place that Max would absolutely love to avoid at the moment due to his current clothing.

Taking in a breath for courage, Max lowered his head slightly to try and see if there were any people nearby, and to his horror, he was absolutely surrounded by people on all sides.

'Since when was the rich part of Tingen City so crowded? Since when was any part of Tingen City so crowded?' Max exclaimed to himself as the carriage continued to rattle along the path.

A few seconds later, Max took in a deep breath and steeled himself, before pulling himself to the right with all his might, throwing himself in between the two wheels, and directly into an alley that the carriage had just passed by. Thankfully, being in the 'rich neighbourhood,' there was nothing much in this dark alley for Max to crash into to produce much noise, so he just landed on the paved ground.

"Ugh!" Max exclaimed, trying to keep it as silent as possible as his weakened body impacted the ground, skidding a bit before coming to a stop due to the momentum of the carriage and his own throw so that he would not get caught by people, or under the rear wheel.

A few seconds of cursing in his mind later, Max pushed his body upright. There were small scrapes on his elbows and knees, with faint amounts of blood pooling inside them, waiting to ooze out. Thankfully, it did not, and Max got back to walking.

He recalled all the beggars from Max's original memories back in the Intis empire who always found something to eat in the garbage cans of high-class restaurants. However, Max also knew that there were bound to be gangs who were in charge of these beggars and locations, and if he wanted food, he would need to fight against the stronger children, and then keep fighting up the ranks until he would end up having to kill the adults, and finally be noticed by the authorities, ultimately to end up as a criminal on the run.

On the other hand, he could just go to a few of the cosy yet affluent shops that were not run for a profit, but for the passion of the shop owner and somehow ended up working out just the right balance.

Of course, it would be difficult to find such a shop, but after a few shops, Max thought he found what he was looking for.

*Knock**Knock*

Max waited for the sun to go down and all customers to leave as he noticed the owner, who was an elderly man, begin to clean up, before knocking to get the attention of the old man.

The man looked at the door and saw a 15 year old child with cuts and scrapes all over him, and clothes that could only be called rags. The child struggled for a moment before pushing the door open, causing the bell above it to jungle once. Only now did the old man get a good look at the child, and he was left with a bad taste in his mouth.

The child had silver hair and red eyes, but more importantly, he muscles and fat had basically completely vanished, leaving what could only be described as a bag of bones with some skin holding it together. Of course, that was a slight exaggeration on the old man's part, but he was not used to seeing others in such dire situations, considering he had never been to the East Borough.

On the other hand, Max sighed in relief as he noticed that the old man reacted exactly the way he wanted him to. He was confused, shocked, and most importantly, he felt pity, which was exactly what he needed at the moment. 

"Mister, do you have a job opening?" Max asked with his head hung low. He had used this method countless times on the elderly of his and other companies in senior positions, grasping on the pity they threw at him to stabilise his position and then use flattery and schemes to rise up steadily. Well, not Max, but rather Samuel; though the two were now one and the same.

"Uhh…" The old man was tuned for words at the sorry sight of the teenager whose body had been reduced to nothing but bare bones.