Nick exited the shop with a bowl of veggie cube soup in his hands.
When Nick had canceled the order after realizing that he couldn't pay, the owner said that the bowl was on the house.
As a practical person, Nick saw no problem with that and simply accepted happily.
Nick also told the owner that he could ask Nick for help if there was anything he needed.
After leaving the marketplace quite quickly, Nick looked at the bowl of veggie cube soup in his hands with wonder.
In the Dregs, the people mostly ate meat.
Rat, cat, dog, insects, and so on.
However, it was also necessary to eat some veggie cubes every now and then.
Veggie cubes were green cubes made of different vegetables, which could no longer be sold in the Outer City.
When vegetables started to go bad, the shops sold them to one of the gangs, which then collected them all, threw them into some kind of furnace, and cooked them until there was zero water left in them.
One cube weighed about a hundred grams and cost a credit.
It was expensive!
Because of that, the people in the Dregs only ate them once a week or so.
If they didn't, they would start to show various signs of malnourishment.
The bowl of veggie cube soup was beige in color, and there was some kind of oily layer on top, which seemed to have separated from the soup.
The cubes had turned into slimy and mushy bits that swam in the beige broth.
Nick could also see a couple of mosquito larvae swimming in the broth.
These were not the larvae of normal mosquitos but the larvae of the mosquitos that belonged to the Specter, the Mosquito.
The mosquitos of the Specter continually reproduced, and apparently, the Specter didn't mind if anyone ate the larvae.
In fact, they mostly could be found in the Dregs, and they were very healthy.
But they were also expensive.
The larvae from these mosquitos were much bigger than the ones from normal mosquitos.
Each one was around five centimeters long!
When Nick saw the soup, he knew that he was holding something of extremely high class in his hands.
'No wonder this thing is so expensive!' Nick thought with wonder.
'It has four or five larvae and probably over 300 grams of veggie cubes!'
'That's enough food for two to three days!'
Nick slowly pushed the bowl to his mouth and drank the warm broth.
The fat had separated from the water, and the larvae had a bitter and metallic taste to them.
The distant taste of vegetables could also be slightly discerned.
Nick closed his eyes in bliss.
It was amazing.
He had never eaten anything this good in his entire life.
'Also, what is this strong taste? I can't put my finger on it?'
'Wait, is that rust lick?!'
In Nick's mind appeared the image of a big rock standing near the edge of the city.
That rock was made from a magical mineral that could treat some special conditions that caused dizziness, nausea, and vomiting.
The people just needed to lick the rock for a bit, and they would feel better.
Nick had heard some people refer to it as salt, but it was commonly known as rust lick since people licked it off a dirty stone.
'Putting rust lick into a soup. That's genius!' Nick thought.
'It tastes so amazing!'
Over the next hour, Nick slowly consumed the broth, and after he was done, he felt so incredibly good.
Nick felt like his body was telling him how happy it was.
'This is the life,' Nick thought in satisfaction. 'If I could eat this soup every day, I could die happy.'
A moment later, Nick yawned.
'Man, now I'm getting tired. Guess I should go back home and get some sleep.'
Nick stretched and turned to walk home.
After he arrived, Nick entered his room and fell onto his comfy plate of rust-free metal.
His entire body relaxed as he felt the comfortable embrace of sleep take him.
Several hours later, Nick woke up again, and this time, he felt awake and refreshed.
He slept amazingly!
After he woke up, he slowly scratched the back of his head in relaxation.
'Man, I feel great,' he thought with a yawn.
'So, what do I do today?'
After some time of thinking, Nick decided to look at the Outer City.
For the entire day, Nick went sightseeing in the Outer City, and he learned many things.
For example, he had learned how many different kinds of shops there were.
There were actually shops that sold expensive stones that had no other purpose but to look nice!
It was insanity!
Why would anyone pay money to carry a stone with them?
Nick had also learned that there were places where he could sleep without making them his home.
These places were called hotels.
Hotels didn't exist in the Dregs since there were more houses than people, but the same thing wasn't true for the Outer City.
After finding out about the hotels, Nick decided to rent a room for a couple of days and got Horua to come with him.
Nick didn't want to spend all his time alone, and he also wanted to have someone with him that he was familiar with.
Nick even visited several restaurants, but he didn't eat at any of them.
The prices were ridiculous for only a little bit of food!
Ten credits for 150 grams of meat?!
He could get that for free by just stomping on a couple of bugs!
The soup he had eaten the day before had weighed nearly a kilo, including the broth, and the ingredients had weighed over 400 grams!
Eventually, Nick got some physical credits from a bank, and he ate more of the veggie cube soup with Horua.
The day after that, Nick and Horua looked around the Outer City some more.
And finally, it was time to return to work!
It was time for Horua to work with the Dreamer!