"Okay, so we’ll meet again in an hour." Lisa said goodbye to Lohan, and her fox body turned into light, disappearing from that place.
Lohan did the same, also leaving Elysium and returning to the real world.
By this time, they had already explored much of Thalendor and said goodbye to Aeliana, who had to return to the tower of her master, Yrneha, to continue her studies.
The two Players no longer had much to do in Thalendor and also left the city.
By then it was lunchtime, and although they didn’t need food as much, especially with Lohan being able to ’breathe nutrients’, Lisa was not yet so advanced, needing to leave Elysium to eat.
Lohan also took the opportunity to leave the game and use his newly earned money to buy some basic necessities for himself, considering that his nutritional solutions had run out today.
-xXx-
Lohan removed his helmet and felt the usual weight of reality again, with the smell of mold invading his nostrils, the dense air and the stifling heat of the small apartment suffocating him slightly. But, as he had done in recent days, he got out of bed with a lightness that the former owner of this body had never felt.
His muscles, now defined by intense training and integration with Halon’s statistics, responded instantly.
He put on a black hoodie, adjusted his protective mask, and adjusted the [Digestive Filter] in his lungs.
At this point, the protective mask was just a formality, a way to blend in with the crowd without standing out.
The toxic air of the Lower Zone stopped burning, becoming just a neutral, purified breeze.
With the five silver coins converted into credits, a small treasure of $500 that guaranteed the month’s interest and still left room for luxuries, Lohan left determined to no longer eat the rancid metal paste that was his standard fare.
Walking to the local market, he noticed how the people around him moved slowly and hunched over, while he glided between them with perfect balance.
At the store, Lohan ignored the gray-based nutrient solutions and sought out the "Grade A" ones, enriched with pure synthetic vitamins.
"I wonder what the difference will be between absorbing this higher-level nutrient solution and [Efficient Digestion Lv 16]..." he thought, curious.
He bought a week’s supply, plus a few bottles of truly filtered water.
The total cost was $98, just for enough food for a week while still buying nutrient solutions instead of real food, which was even more expensive.
As he left the market, a figure passed him like a blur.
A small, thin but agile figure snatched the bag from one of his hands with a quick movement and darted down a narrow alley between ruined buildings.
The little thief didn’t look back, confident that no one in the Lower Zone would have the stamina to chase him. He just didn’t count on Lohan no longer being an ordinary inhabitant.
Activating [Instinctive Perception], Lohan felt the vibrations of the boy’s footsteps against the cracked asphalt. His reflexes, sharpened by battles against dozens of monsters, acted before he even had time to think. With an explosive burst of speed that would have torn his tendons a week ago, Lohan took off.
The distance closed in seconds.
The boy looked back, his eyes widening as he saw the man approaching like a bulldozer!
Before the thief could turn the next corner, Lohan was already on top of him, holding him with a force that made him drop the bag immediately.
"You were fast..." Lohan hissed, his voice still steady despite the run.
"But not fast enough for a Slime."
The little thief trembled, not understanding the reference, but terrified by the aura of power that Lohan now naturally exuded.
In the eyes of this little thief, this man in a black hoodie with a mask covering his face looked like one of those super soldiers from the High Zone army!
’Damn, why did I have to choose this target?!’ He asked himself in frustration.
Honestly, Lohan wasn’t even that angry with this little thief.
Especially when he felt how thin and fragile his arms were, it became clear that this theft was out of necessity, not because he wanted it.
"Sigh... you’re lucky I have a good heart," Lohan said, letting go of the boy’s arm, who cautiously moved away from him like a skittish kitten and bent down to pick up the bag the boy had stolen.
From inside, he took out a bottle of clean, clear water, totally different from the stinky water he had been drinking from the tap for the past few days, and also took two packets of high-quality nutritional supplements.
This was still food for the poor in the Lower Zone, but for them, it was already a luxury that few had the right to enjoy.
Even through his mask, Lohan could see the boy almost drooling, looking at it with desire.
Without saying a word, he threw the bottle and the packets to the boy.
The boy quickly caught them in midair with surprising agility, especially considering how weak that small body must have been, but he still looked at them a little hesitantly.
"I don’t need your charity," the boy said angrily.
Lohan heard the child’s voice and laughed. "This isn’t charity. You did what you could to survive, this isn’t a reward or pity, I just felt like it and gave it to you, do what you want with it."
With that, Lohan turned and walked away without looking back.
Seeing that "super soldier" walking away, the boy hesitated, reaching out his hand as if he wanted to say something, but feeling the weight of the things Lohan had given him, and thinking of his older brother and little sister waiting for him at home, hungry, he swallowed those words and remained silent, using all his concentration to memorize the physical structure of that man before turning and walking away.
Lohan treated it as just a passing event, feeling a little happy because now he no longer had to be so afraid to leave his home in the Lower Zone, although as he looked around, seeing a decaying, gray city with sad, soulless people, he thought.
"I don’t even know if there’s anything worth leaving home to see around here." He thought disappointedly.