Divine-Class Awakening: I Can Steal From Gods!-Chapter 22: First Creds, First Steps

Even in daylight, the city still felt strange to him.

From the front seat, Neo watched the streets pass by outside the window. Cars moved in steady lines, people crossed the roads without hurry, and tall buildings rose over the avenue one after another, and each time he looked at them, the same thought came back. He had only been here a few days, yet the distance between this place and Zone 0 still hit him every time he stepped outside. There, everything felt worn down by survival. Here, people moved as if tomorrow was guaranteed.

Richards drove with one hand on the wheel, relaxed in a way Neo still was not used to.

After a while, Neo asked, "Can I get a phone with hundred and five Creds?"

Richards glanced at him. "Not even close. A good phone costs around four hundred Creds."

Neo looked at him properly then. "Four hundred?"

"Yes. Four hundred."

That genuinely surprised him. With that much, a person could buy food for a long time if they knew how to stretch it. Neo said nothing, and then another thought came to him.

"How much did you pay for my sword?"

"Oh," Richards said, almost casually. "Two thousand Creds."

Neo turned his head at once. "What?"

Richards gave a short laugh. "Why are you so shocked? Soul Relics are expensive. Even common ones can cost a lot. The higher the rank, the worse it gets. Some can reach millions. Legendary ones can go even higher depending on what they do."

Neo fell silent.

Two thousand for that sword.

His mind drifted somewhere else. A high floor in one of those towers outside. A large room. Food already waiting. No need to worry about the next job. No need to think about money every day. Maybe even one of those places with a pool on the roof and servants bringing meals without being asked.

Then he cut the thought off.

That kind of life was far away.

Even so, another question had already formed in his mind. He had done small jobs around Soul Cores for years, always with low-rank material, but had never really stopped to think about what the stronger ones were worth.

Remembering it now, the Duskmane’s Soul Core should have been worth real money.

"And Soul Cores?" Neo asked. "How much can they cost?"

Richards kept his eyes on the road. "That depends on the rank and on how rare they are. Some are cheap. Some cost thousands. You know there are ten ranks. The difference between them is enormous. If someone at your level consumes a much stronger Soul Core, they gain far more souls from it. That alone pushes the price up. The rarest ones can reach values close to Soul Relics."

"Damn."

"Yeah," Richards said. "Damn. Most people only get things like that through luck."

Neo looked back out the window. "Do you really believe that?"

Richards gave him a small look. "Partly. Some people are born with better chances. Better families. Better opportunities."

"Maybe," Neo said. "But hard work matters more."

Richards said nothing, so Neo continued.

"Luck exists. I’m not denying that. But if you wait for luck to carry you, you stay where you are."

That was what he believed, and always had. Luck had never done anything for him. What he trusted was himself, what he could endure, and what he could take with his own hands.

As the car moved through the city, one thought stayed with him.

If he wanted something great, he would get it himself.

The car turned off the main road not long after that and entered a district Neo had not seen yet.

He noticed the place before Richards said anything. The buildings were wider here, with glass fronts and large signs hanging above the entrances. People moved in and out carrying bags, talking, laughing, living the kind of day that had nothing to do with Breaches, Soul Beasts, or surviving until night.

Richards parked and cut the engine.

Neo got out after him, then stopped when he saw the building properly.

A mall.

He had heard of places like this before, of course. Zone 0 had old stories about them, usually told by people who had seen better districts from far away and wanted to sound like they belonged there. But hearing about something and standing in front of it were different things.

Richards locked the car and looked at him. "You said you wanted to sell that relic, right? This is the best place for it. First we’ll get you a phone. After that, I’ll point you toward a reliable shop. Government-linked, so you won’t get cheated easily."

Neo nodded. "Understood."

Inside, the place felt even stranger.

There were bright screens everywhere, store windows filled with things Neo could not even name at a glance, and people dressed well enough that none of them looked worried about tomorrow. The air was cool, music drifted faintly from somewhere overhead, and everything looked ordered and maintained in a way that felt foreign to him. Nothing in it reminded him of Zone 0.

He kept his expression flat and followed Richards.

They entered a phone store, and the whole process moved faster than Neo expected. Richards spoke to the clerk, picked something decent without wasting time, paid for it, then handed the device over once it was ready. He added his own contact before giving it to Neo.

"There," he said. "Now if you need something, call me."

Neo looked down at the phone in his hand. It still felt a little absurd that something this small could matter that much.

Richards gave him the name of the shop next, along with the floor and section where he would find it. "Go there if you want to sell the relic. They’re trustworthy enough. I’ve got work, so I’m leaving you here."

Neo lifted his eyes. "Alright. See you."

"Don’t get lost."

Richards left after that, disappearing into the crowd with the ease of someone who belonged in places like this.

Neo stayed where he was for a moment, the phone still in his hand.

People passed around him without paying attention. Conversations overlapped. Lights reflected off the polished floor. It should not have felt like such a different world. It did anyway.

Then he slipped the phone away, remembered the shop Richards had told him about, and started walking.

The deeper he went into the mall, the clearer the thought became.

Compared to where he came from, this place may as well have belonged to another world.

The shop was on the upper floor, set deeper into a quieter section of the mall where the stores looked less interested in pulling people inside and more interested in making sure the right kind of customer entered in the first place.

Neo noticed that before he even stepped through the door.

The place looked official in a way that was hard to miss. There was security near the entrance. The counters were spaced out with enough room between them that no one had to lean over another customer’s business. The staff wore dark uniforms and spoke in low voices.

A few people were already waiting in line. One had a case in his hands. Another was holding a cloth-wrapped bundle. Someone farther ahead had what looked like part of a weapon laid out on the counter while an employee examined it through a thin lens.

Neo slowed only enough to take it in, then joined the line.

This was the kind of place that would remember faces. That alone made him dislike it a little.

Still, if Richards trusted it, then it was probably the best option for now.

He stayed quiet, scanning the room once more from habit than curiosity.

And then he saw him.

Snot.

He was standing farther ahead in the queue, one hand in his pocket, the other holding a small box while rocking lightly on his heels as if waiting in place was already too much effort for him. Even here, in a store full of careful voices and expensive transactions, he somehow looked like the least fitting thing in the room.

Neo had just enough time to register that before Snot turned his head, spotted him, and lit up like he had found a long-lost brother in the middle of a battlefield.

"Neo!"

The shout cut across the whole store.

Several people looked over at once.

Neo felt the irritation hit immediately. Neo checked the room on instinct, catching the brief attention he never wanted in places like this. One of the employees glanced up from the counter. A woman near the back turned her head. Even the guard at the entrance looked over.

Snot, oblivious to all of it, raised his hand and grinned. "Over here!"

Neo moved toward him right away, more to stop him from saying anything else than because he actually wanted to.

When he reached him, his voice came out low. "Did you really have to yell?"

Snot blinked. "I saw you."

"I noticed."

Snot looked at him, clearly not seeing the problem, then shrugged. "What? It’s not like I told the whole store your life story."

He lowered his voice even further. "Then don’t make it a habit."

Snot held his gaze for a second before letting out a quiet laugh. "You really hate attention that much?"

"Yes."

The answer came so fast that Snot looked even more amused.

The line moved forward a little, and Snot stepped with it, still glancing back at Neo like he had just found something unexpectedly funny.

Neo, on the other hand, was still irritated.

He had come here to sell a relic, get in, and leave.

Instead, the first person he ran into was the loudest one from the entire group.