Chapter 3: Rat Crossing the Street |
A Lower Hive resident whistled at the woman standing at the mouth of the alley, a malicious smirk spreading across his face.
He sauntered over, intending to hit on her, but the woman subtly shifted her hood to expose her forehead. The smirk froze on the man's face.
A patch of gray, raised patterns resembling fish scales marred her skin.
Under the alley's dim lighting, the scales reflected a greasy sheen that turned the stomach.
"Disgusting. It's a mutant."
The man stopped dead in his tracks. He crossed his arms, spat on the ground, and turned back to watch a nearby brawl.
"Piss off, you gutter rat."
It was a widely held belief in the Lower Hive that getting too close to a mutant would lead to infection and trigger uncontrollable mutations.
As a result, mutants were universally despised, treated like rats crossing the street.
Unfazed by the man's verbal abuse, the woman pulled her hood back over her forehead, her expression indifferent.
Ever since her body first began to mutate, she had endured endless discrimination and disgust.
In the beginning, the physical changes had driven her to despair, leaving her constantly plagued by thoughts of suicide.
But by sheer luck, she discovered that consuming relatively clean water and food kept the mutations in check, preventing them from worsening.
From that day on, she survived by scavenging in the Ruins Zone.
Three days ago, a teenage boy had approached her.
He claimed to be a mushroom farmer who could provide a stable, long-term supply of edible fungus.
The two of them had agreed to make their first trade today.
She had been looking forward to it ever since.
"Lai Ya, I'm here," Lino called out as he walked into the alley.
"Do you have the mushrooms ready?" Lai Ya asked, leading the boy deeper into the alleyway.
Lino pulled a brown glass jar from his pocket. "Try a sample first. Once you confirm it's fine, I'll go bring the rest of the mushrooms over."
"All right." Lai Ya opened the jar. A rich, milky fragrance flooded her nose and rushed straight to her head.
She took a deep, sharp breath.
Drawing in as much air as she could, she let the refreshing aroma fill her lungs. "It smells amazing... so rich. What kind of mushroom is this?"
"Milk Mushrooms. I grew them myself."
"Are Milk Mushrooms supposed to smell this strong?" Lai Ya asked doubtfully. She pulled a mushroom from the jar and examined it closely.
Lino gave a slight shrug. "It's probably because my cultivation techniques and materials are a bit more refined. That's why these mushrooms are more fragrant and taste better."
Lai Ya slipped the mushroom beneath her scarf and popped it into her mouth. As she bit down, a rich aroma and slightly sweet juices burst across her taste buds.
Lai Ya jolted, her body going stiff as memories surfaced in her eyes.
"This... this taste... it's so familiar..."
A memory she had long since buried in the deepest corners of her mind began to play uncontrollably in her head.
Long before the Ruins Zone had become the wasteland it was today, she and her parents had lived there.
Her family had lived in a house with an attic, leading a happy, blissful life together.
Her father had been a foreman on a factory assembly line.
On the day she came of age, her father had asked someone to buy a box of Milk Mushrooms from the upper hive.
It was the first time in her life that Lai Ya had tasted something so delicious. She had scarfed down more than half the box in one sitting before finally remembering to share the rest with her parents.
She never had the chance to eat food from the upper hive again after that. Not long after she came of age, her life had completely derailed.
A mysterious explosion had torn her happy family apart. Both of her parents had been killed in the blast, leaving her as the sole survivor—a stray dog left to wander the ruins alone.
Tasting that exact same flavor again, the weight of those memories crushed Lai Ya's willpower.
Lost in the past, she felt tears well up in her eyes. She stood there, completely dazed for a long time.
...
Lino was utterly speechless.
She had only taken one bite of a mushroom, yet the woman in front of him was already bawling her eyes out.
It wasn't like they were filming a live-action episode of Cooking Master Boy. There was no need for such an exaggerated reaction.
Unspoken complaints aside, Lino pulled out his handkerchief and offered it to her.
"Why don't you dry your tears and take a moment to calm down?"
Lai Ya's eyes slowly focused. Snapping out of her daze, she finally realized she was crying.
She swallowed the mushroom and politely waved off the boy's handkerchief, wiping her eyes with her sleeve instead.
"I'm sorry, I must look ridiculous. The mushrooms you grew are amazing. They just reminded me of the mushrooms my dad brought me from the upper hive a long time ago. The texture is exactly the same... just as delicious, and just as unforgettable."
So the mushroom had triggered her memories. No wonder she'd gotten so emotional.
Lino stuffed the handkerchief back into his pocket and asked thoughtfully, "Are you saying the sample's quality is already on par with the mushrooms from the upper hive?"
"Yes." Lai Ya nodded, pulling a second mushroom from the glass jar. "Can I have another one?"
"Go ahead. You can eat them all if you want. They're just samples for you to try anyway."
Lino waved his hand dismissively, his mind racing as a wave of relief washed over him.
Thank goodness he had arranged a taste test to see how his buyer evaluated the mushrooms. Otherwise, he would have been in deep trouble.
He had assumed the mushrooms produced by the system would, at best, match the quality of food in the Midhive. He never expected them to reach upper hive standards.
The tallest tree in the forest catches the most wind.
There were plenty of ruthless factions in the Underhive who wouldn't hesitate to stab someone in the back, and even the enforcers couldn't do a thing to them.
He couldn't just sell the system's mushrooms as they were.
He had to tamper with them to intentionally lower their quality, lest he attract the attention of people with malicious intentions.
"Lai Ya, I need to tell you something first," Lino said, pointing at the glass jar in her hands.
"Those samples are the absolute best out of the entire batch. The mushrooms I'm actually selling are nowhere near that quality."
Lino reached into his inner jacket pocket, pretending to grab something.
In reality, with a mere thought, he withdrew a batch of the ordinary stall mushrooms from his Fungal Storage.
Lino held them out to Lai Ya.
"Here, try these. They're the exact same quality as the ones I'll be selling."
Lai Ya pinched a mushroom and popped it into her mouth.
The moment it hit her tongue, her expression twisted as if she were eating shit. Still, she forced herself to swallow it down rather than waste food.
"Ugh, that tastes awful..."
Lino had fully expected this reaction.
"It's unavoidable. The water and air quality here in the Underhive are terrible, so any mushrooms grown here will generally taste like that. If you buy mushrooms from any stall on the street, this is exactly what you'll get."
Lai Ya shook the glass jar in her hand. "Then what's the deal with this jar? Why do these taste so good?"
Lino spread his hands.
"You get what you pay for. The mushrooms in that jar were cultivated using purified water and clean air. The overhead is astronomical. I call them 'sample-grade' mushrooms. For just three ration cards, you can buy ordinary mushrooms at the stall. But for that same price, you'd only get a few of these sample-grade mushrooms. That's the difference the costs make."
"I see," Lai Ya murmured, then asked, "So how many of the ordinary mushrooms and sample-grade mushrooms are you selling today?"
Lino thought for a moment before replying, "I'm selling twenty kilograms of the ordinary mushrooms. I'm keeping the sample-grade ones for myself."
Lai Ya gazed down at the mushrooms inside the jar.
Drinking dirty water, breathing in air thick with pathogens, and eating contaminated food—all of it led to bodily mutations.
Consuming relatively clean food could halt the mutation process, but it could never reverse it.
But if she could eat these sample-grade mushrooms over a long period, and pair them with medical treatment, she might actually be able to cure her mutated flesh. She could become a normal human again and finally return to the Underhive proper.
Lai Ya met the boy's clear gaze, a hint of pleading in her eyes.
"I'll take all twenty kilograms of the ordinary mushrooms. I brought plenty of ration cards; we can make the trade right now. But I want the sample-grade mushrooms too. If I take them with my medicine, it might help me get rid of these mutations. Just name your price. I'll find a way to scrounge up enough to pay you."
